It had been nearly a month since Douzai was found at the veterinary hospital, and not once had it defecated.

Ziye was secretly relieved that she didn't have to clean up its droppings, yet a nagging feeling persisted. It wasn't a Pixiu; why wasn't it going to the bathroom? Could it be constipated?

Even so, it shouldn't be this severe! She had meticulously calculated the amount of metallic fluid it had consumed.

From the embryonic stage through its first exit from the incubation chamber, it had absorbed 10,823cc of metallic fluid, and since being an infant, it had consumed three times the amount it did during its embryonic phase. In total, that was enough to build two household robots.

Yet, its weight had only doubled. Where had all that metallic fluid gone? Was this creature incapable of gaining bulk no matter how much it was fed?

Ziye touched her metallic bottle with deep affection. When it was still an embryo, she had fed it high-purity metallic testing fluid, which had unfortunately spoiled its palate. Later, it refused to eat alloys! This presented her with a critically serious dilemma. If a 500cc bottle of high-purity metallic fluid cost one hundred yuan, the creature had already cost her hundreds of thousands! Some bottles cost even more than a hundred. She couldn't afford it, truly couldn't afford it.

Worrying about the expense, Ziye put on gloves and prepared to clean Douzai's droppings. Cleaning was straightforward: take Douzai out, set it aside, discard the old incubation box to buy a new one, carry it to the bathroom, run hot water, and prepare to wash off the mess clinging to its body.

Perhaps because it only consumed pure metal, the droppings weren't particularly foul, just carrying a strong metallic scent. Ziye grabbed one of its legs and dipped it into the water to test the temperature. The moment it touched the water, Douzai thrashed about, splashing Ziye right in the face.

Ziye wiped her face with exasperation. Even if the droppings didn't stink, she certainly didn't want to wash her face with water soiled by them. Maybe she should just toss it into the purification machine. But water shouldn't be wasted.

She called out towards the door, "Doudou, come in for a wash."

Little Sprout fluttered in, pouting. It had bathed once in the evening, and Ziye, being in a bad mood earlier, had scrubbed it again; now it had to wash again? It clung to the doorframe, hugging the door with its wings, looking at Ziye with a "heart trembling in fear" expression. "No, if you wash me again, all my fluff will fall out."

Ziye threatened, "If you don't wash, I'll throw your son into the water."

Little Sprout wasn't intimidated: "Fine, throw him! I'll watch my son wash."

When one tactic failed, Ziye moved to the second: "Never mind, it's not good for small animals to touch water; I'll just put it in the purification machine."

Little Sprout cried out in horror, "No! If Douzai goes in there, it will die! Mother Ziye, you can't be so cruel!!"

Ziye smiled without answering, beckoning with a finger: "Come down."

Although displeased, Little Sprout had no choice but to obediently fly down from the door and hover near the water. Ziye placed Douzai aside, caught it, and used her gloved hand to dip its wing into the water, wetting it, and then began scrubbing the feces.

To her dismay, the droppings had solidified, and no amount of scrubbing would remove them. In fact, the more she rubbed, the more lustrous they became, as if they had been polished metal. Extraordinary! Douzai ate metal; did it excrete metal too? After consuming so many types of metals, what kind of metal would come out?

Ziye, filled with a strange anticipation, took a razor blade, scraped off the feces clinging to Douzai's wing, placed it into a test vial, and took it to the small adjacent workshop for a rudimentary test.

The moment she left, Little Sprout stopped bathing too, hastily drying its wings on the bathroom towel before flying after her to the workshop.

The detection machine was extremely fast, finishing the analysis in thirty seconds. It confirmed it was metal, no doubt. With a dark expression, she sent the sample to a second detector to test the metal's properties. This took slightly longer—a full three minutes before the results appeared.

When Ziye saw the report, her eyes nearly bulged out. Such marvelous properties! She immediately issued a command on her light-brain to activate the large workshop machinery and robots downstairs. She harbored a faint, thrilling expectation; she felt she had discovered something monumental!

In that instant, she couldn't help but be grateful she was in the Sprout Villa, possessing the most advanced and complete equipment.

As she held the metal vial, about to head downstairs, she suddenly remembered the incubation box she had thrown away, her expression darkening slightly. She tossed the vial to W0333, ordered F4321 to carry Douzai to the large workshop as well, shut down the equipment in the garbage recycling center, and ran to the processing area herself to find the incubator.

Every large structure now had a recycling and disposal center at its base; she just needed to toss waste into the center's opening. Because it was so convenient, it was also incredibly troublesome to discard the wrong item. Donning protective gear outside the door, she entered and finally spotted the incubation box near the covered dissolution pool. Luckily, it hadn't dissolved yet.

Ziye let out a sigh of relief, retrieved the incubator, removed her protective suit, went through comprehensive disinfection in the sterilization room, and then entered the workshop.

After all that running around, dawn had broken! Her limbs were exhausted, but her spirit was intensely hyperactive. She scraped off all the metal residue from the incubator and loaded it into the first testing machine. The detectors in the workshop were automated now. Once the first test was complete, it would automatically transfer to the second. The light screen on the wall displayed the monitoring process and final results automatically.

Ziye sat on the magnetic levitation chair, holding Little Sprout, staring intently at the data on the screen. Douzai, meanwhile, looked utterly bewildered as it blew bubbles with its bubble tool, filling the entire workshop with glittering spheres. Its fur and hind claws were still smeared with metallic droppings, but she was too preoccupied to deal with it, instructing the robot to handle the cleaning.

Half an hour later, the metal finally reached the last stage. The light screen summarized all the preceding data. It wasn't a pure metal but an alloy, complete with its attributes, density, melting point, boiling point, common forms, electronic configuration—everything. The more Ziye read, the wider her mouth opened; the performance was simply monstrous! It could arbitrarily change its form.

Ziye exclaimed excitedly, "Doudou, is this a new metal?"

Little Sprout tilted its head in thought, "Four-Dimensional Alloy."

"Eh?" Ziye frowned and thought, "Is that a known term?"

Little Sprout gently shook its head: "La la la, I named it myself!"

Ziye poked its head. "Although the name you picked is rather pedestrian, it's still amazing that Douzai could excrete this alloy."

Little Sprout grinned slyly: "You picking up poop is even more high-end and magnificent!"

Ugh, bringing that up again! Ziye annoyed, tossed it upwards, and propelled her mag-lev chair towards the rear end of the workshop, exiting through the last slot of the transmission channel—the metal was still in an irregular shape. She felt quite depressed; how had she ended up as the poop collector? It was truly disheartening.

Ziye glanced sideways at Little Sprout, put the metal away, planning to use it later when there was more. She was truly frustrated, feeling utterly worn out by the situation. With this new metal, she could definitely create her ideal mecha!

However, the quantity seemed a bit small... A normal mecha was at least five or six meters tall; current popular mechas usually exceeded ten meters. The concept mechas she had for the upcoming competition—what she currently possessed wasn't even enough to fill the gaps.

Ziye couldn't help but cast her gaze towards Douzai, who was foolishly blowing bubbles. To get more metal, she had to target it!

Ziye picked up Douzai and ran off to find the 'Dead Pervert.' "Great Biologist, take a look for me. How often can Douzai poop?"

The Dead Pervert, busy crafting a loli face, glanced back at her. Seeing that she didn't look as utterly pathetic as expected, he replied casually, "It will poop when it feels like it."

Ziye couldn't help but roll her eyes. It was pointless asking.

She carried Douzai back to her room and began reviewing the metallic fluids she had fed it before, starting the process again. If it ate enough, it should excrete something, right? To encourage more droppings, Ziye was willing to go all out, ordering metal from the materials market.

The market had many alloys, but pure metals were scarcer. Even the pure metals available were already pre-formed into specific shapes, increasing the cost and making them unviable. Given that the little glutton despised alloys, she had to ask Iron Hand for assistance. Iron Hand was currently the metal supplier for the Sprout Group. He acquired ore from miners, put it through a refining plant, refined it, and produced pure metals or alloys.

Ziye promptly handed him an order form for pure metals. Considering the existence of the Four-Dimensional Alloy, she might as well reluctantly support him. Once it was fully nurtured, she would have the Dead Pervert clone a few hundred Douzais and raise them in the asteroid belt. Then, hehe, making mechas out of Four-Dimensional Alloy wouldn't be a dream! Ziye felt a surge of excitement just thinking about it.

However, she hadn't forgotten the events of the previous night. Before returning to school, she requested two samples of the medication named AK4 from the Fia transport ship from the Dead Pervert. She kept one copy and sealed the other to mail to An Junlie. Fia's experiments on plush beasts and deploying those with residual medication near the Angelic Domain border—what their intentions were could be deduced by anyone. Currently, she lacked the capability to confront Fia, so she could only inform An Junlie first. If he could take action and divert Fia's attention, when Wolf Den's wings grew stronger, dealing with Fia wouldn't be so difficult. In short, this matter required long-term planning.

Ziye sighed softly; she should return to school first. The mecha competition proposal had to be submitted before the end of the term, or it would count as forfeiture. The submission deadline was fast approaching, and besides discussing on Ultra-Com and the light-brain, the team’s gatherings were becoming more frequent. Since acquiring Bo*, Lingyin started visiting more often, and April frequently used visiting Ziye as an excuse to see Li Chunyu in the lab. Most surprisingly, Sha Xinnie occasionally brought things to treat them. Suddenly, five participants felt like ten; the atmosphere was bustling.

With only a week left until submission, the five finally finished. The mecha was named Sword type; its thick armor bore the characteristic texture and mechanical feel of metal, and the design incorporated special, layered treatments. The adjusted tail thrusters looked particularly cool. What Ziye loved most was the nearly perfect color scheme.