11: Chapter 11 Secondary Mutation?!

Secondary mutation.

Liu Feng had only ever seen this term in a compilation of rare cases within the military.

The federal database did indeed contain records of "unknown evolution occurring in talents after awakening."

But without exception, those had only happened to geniuses of A-rank or higher.

An F-rank... could also mutate?

Mutating from "Osteoporosis" to "Hyperostosis"?

What kind of mutation is this? Jumping from one pit into another?

Liu Feng rubbed his temples.

He looked at Su Ming's sincere yet miserable face.

Then he looked at the absurd data on the screen: "Bone Density — Pig Iron Grade."

An absurd yet logically consistent thought popped up.

This kid's F-rank talent might have truly undergone an unknown secondary evolution.

Su Ming felt uneasy under Liu Feng's gaze.

"Brother Liu, wha... what's wrong? Did you discover something?"

Liu Feng's tone carried a hesitation that suggested, "I don't even believe it myself":

"Your situation... it's possible it's a secondary mutation."

Su Ming looked bewildered and asked cautiously: "Wha... what is a secondary mutation?"

"I don't know much about it either."

Liu Feng looked at him as if he were some rare animal.

"But if I haven't guessed wrong, you've hit the jackpot... no, you've had eight lifetimes of rotten luck."

"You've encountered an extremely rare 'secondary mutation'."

"What the hell? Mutation?" Su Ming widened his eyes, his look of pure innocence absolutely flawless.

Liu Feng pointed at the file, then at the screen.

"You're right about the side effects of Osteoporosis. But your weight is increasing too quickly, and your body instinctively triggered a compensatory mechanism to prevent your skeleton from collapsing."

Liu Feng looked at him with the eyes of someone examining a medical specimen.

"Simply put, your bones are frantically absorbing calcium to undergo high-density proliferation."

This guy actually managed to make it sound plausible?

Su Ming felt a slight stir in his heart, but on the surface, he scratched his head even more guiltily.

"I didn't quite catch that, but it feels... like a good thing?"

In Liu Feng's eyes, pity was mixed with a hint of mockery.

"Sounds pretty awesome, right?"

"If you keep gaining weight at this rate, when you reach one ton..."

"How will your heart pump blood? Can your blood vessels withstand it?"

"By then, you'll probably struggle even to lift a finger."

Su Ming opened his mouth and gasped: "Then... then wouldn't I..."

"Yeah, you just changed the way you're going to die," Liu Feng concluded.

"Before, it was being crushed by yourself; now, it's being suffocated alive inside your own bones, eventually turning into an immobile human statue."

"This... isn't this still just a talent for slow suicide?!"

Su Ming's face instantly turned pale, and he looked as though all his strength had been drained, swaying unsteadily.

"Forget it."

Seeing his soul-crushed, miserable state, Liu Feng didn't feel right about provoking him further.

Since the source of the alarm was his own skeleton and it was logically explicable, he didn't want to make things difficult for a "dying man" anymore.

He briefly searched Su Ming, confirmed he wasn't carrying anything, and then typed a line into the remarks section of the inspection report.

[This employee's constitution is questionable; the talent is suspected to have undergone secondary petrification mutation. Continuous observation is recommended.]

Then, he patted Su Ming's shoulder, his eyes full of sympathy.

"Alright, go back. While you can still walk, eat whatever you want, and don't cause trouble."

"Aye... alright." Su Ming nodded dejectedly. As he walked past, he specifically glanced at Liu Feng's work badge and squeezed out a grateful smile that looked worse than crying.

Just as he reached the door, he suddenly stopped.

He turned around and looked at Liu Feng with eyes full of hope.

"Brother Liu! You're knowledgeable... is there any hope for my talent?"

"Or rather, is there any way for my body to forcibly adapt to this weight gain?"

Liu Feng was stunned: "You're asking me whether there's hope or not?"

"No, no." Su Ming waved his hands hurriedly, somewhat incoherent.

"Let me rephrase... I mean, is there any way to make this look a bit more normal?"

"Even if things are turning upside down inside my body, can others not tell? Or..."

"Can there be some explanation so that when I explain it to others, I don't look so much like a monster?"

"I... I really don't want to be looked at with those eyes anymore."

By the end, Su Ming's voice carried a hint of a sob.

Liu Feng understood.

This wasn't a plea for help; this was a plea for a "justification" to live like a human being.

"Are you afraid that if people find out, they'll treat you like a lab rat and slice you up for research?"

Su Ming neither nodded nor shook his head, just smiled bitterly: "I just want to... live a bit more normally."

Liu Feng was silent.

He took a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a deep drag.

"It's not impossible, unless your life is tough enough to defy the heavens."

"What?" Su Ming's eyes suddenly lit up, portraying that desire in a desperate situation to the extreme.

"Secondary alienation, or it could be called continuous alienation!"

Liu Feng said, enunciating each word.

"The secondary mutation has already happened; no one knows if there will be a third or fourth."

"If you're incredibly lucky and the next evolution can completely repair the side effects, then you can live."

"By then, you won't need to explain to anyone — you just standing there will be the best explanation."

"As long as the speed of your physical evolution can keep up with the speed of your weight gain, you definitely won't die, and you might even gain terrifying power. But this is just a theoretical conjecture by crazy scholars; in reality, whose genes can withstand this kind of limitless alienation?"

The light on Su Ming's face dimmed again, turning into a bitter smile.

"Another evolution? Brother Liu, isn't that the same as not saying anything? For an F-rank trash like me, mutating once is already a miracle from my ancestors; I'm counting on a second time?"

Liu Feng patted Su Ming's shoulder, his tone sounding like a final farewell.

"Alright, don't comfort yourself with those ethereal theories. If you really want to find a way to save your life, unless you can join the [Federal Supreme Genetic Research Institute], those crazy professors might be able to concoct some special medicine to delay the petrification for you."

"Thank you, Brother Liu... once I get paid, if I'm not paralyzed yet, I'll definitely treat you to a meal!"

"Alright, alright, hurry up and go. While you can still walk, go back and eat and drink what you should."

Su Ming turned and left the inspection room.

The flattery and gratitude on his face were swept away.

The curve of his mouth rose higher and higher.

Secondary mutation?

Continuous mutation?

To think there's actually a theory that makes sense of it!

Brother Liu, you are my benefactor!

Not only did you find me a way out, but you even helped me put on a disguise!

In the future, if anyone asks why I'm so hard and stiff?

I'll just say I mutated again!

If you want to ask why I can mutate?

I'm an F-rank trash, how would I know why?

In order to survive, I'm also very desperate!

He looked back at the door of the inspection room again.

This meal, I must treat him to it!

...

When Su Ming returned to the Sorting Area, the way everyone looked at him had changed.

It was no longer disdain and mockery, but pity and sympathy.

A teenager who knows he won't live long but is still working hard to move bricks and earn money to buy calcium pills — how inspiring.

The Short-haired Lady's eyes turned red.

"What a poor child, looking so decent and human..."

The Bald Man was also silent, finally blurting out after a long time.

"Awakening is just gambling with your life. It's a good thing I didn't succeed in awakening back then, otherwise, if I'd ended up with this kind of talent..."

The girl with the ponytail secretly wiped the corner of her eye.

Su Ming stood there, bearing the sympathetic gazes from all directions.

He suddenly understood the joy of the contestants who played the victim in the talent shows of his past life.

It feels so good!

...

Scarface Li watched Su Ming being surrounded and comforted by a group of workers, his expression complex.

He was a B-rank Enhancement Type [Giant Strength God], a purely strength-based type who understood the importance of the body best.

If he hadn't met the boss, he would still be collecting protection money in the east side of the city, just getting by.

He knew better than anyone what life was like for people at the bottom.

Looking at Su Ming's optimistic spirit of "living towards death," a certain place in his heart was touched.

"Little Su," he said, rarely refraining from cursing.

"From now on, you go sort in that corner. It's all short-distance work, no need to move back and forth, you can save some energy. Lunch is provided, take as much as you eat, don't skimp."

Scarface Li pointed to a corner on the west side of the Sorting Area.

It was not only quiet and undisturbed, but most importantly.

Next to it was a "Scrap Yard" mountain over three meters high, all made of scrapped armored vehicle hulls and chassis parts.

Su Ming was stunned.

It wasn't faked; he was genuinely stunned.

This Scarface... actually has this kind of warmth?

Su Ming's nose felt sore for a moment.

He was genuinely touched.

In his three years since transmigrating, school was full of mockery and exploitation.

His only "girlfriend" turned around and went to Zhao Kuo.

Yet this foreman with a scarred face who cursed at every turn gave him a piece of pure, unadulterated kindness.

"Thank you, Uncle Li!"

Scarface Li sighed deeply and turned to leave.

Su Ming watched his back disappear at the end of the Sorting Area, then slowly turned to face the three-meter-high mountain of scrap in the corner.

Armored vehicle hulls. Chassis stamped parts. Military-grade alloy fragments.

Packed full, piled up like a small mineral vein.

The touched look in Su Ming's eyes began to change.

Individual buffet + VIP private room.

Hagi Li, you are such a good person!

He didn't act coy, nodded, and walked over there.

Just like that, under the sympathetic gazes of everyone, Su Ming possessed his own exclusive "canteen."

For the time that followed, he completely let himself go.

Broken alloy frames, rusted armored bolts, bent mecha connecting rods...

They were all hard dishes.

"Devour."

His palm heated up.

One minute.

[Ding! Devoured high-strength bearing steel remnants. mass points + 0.8.]

He shook the fine iron powder remaining in his palm into the scrap pile at his feet without changing his expression, and picked up the next piece.

[Ding! Devoured tungsten steel alloy cutting waste. mass points + 2.1!]

The warmth coming from his palm was more obvious than before.

His left hand had already touched a twisted drive shaft.

[Ding! Devoured high-toughness alloy transmission component. mass points + 8.8!]

The next piece.

A palm-thick piece of armor plating, heavy in the hand, with grooves from exotic beast claw marks remaining on the edges.

[Ding! Devoured special steel armor fragments... Gained mass points: 12.5!]

Just like that, his right hand was slowly sorting screws in front.

His left hand was "dining" crazily behind his back.

The efficiency was absurdly high.

The corners of Su Ming's mouth rose higher and higher.

In the end, he didn't even bother to suppress it.

Anyway, no one was looking in this corner.

Even if someone saw him, they would only think this young man who was about to die was smiling in the face of fate!

When it was time to finish work in the afternoon, Scarface Li came over to settle the accounts.

Seeing that he had only sorted two pitifully small baskets of parts in front of him, he shook his head but still paid him the full day's wages of 150 yuan.

"Take it, continue tomorrow."

"Thank you, Uncle Li!"

Su Ming took the money and left the Scrap Yard with profuse thanks.

Once he returned to his low-rent apartment, he immediately locked the door and impatiently called up the panel.

[Host: Su Ming]

[Realm: First Rank · Black Iron]

[Life Form: First Life Form (Carbon-based Mortal)]

[True Mass: 94.72 kg (+)]

[mass points: 198.65]

[Promotion Progress: 9.472%]

Looking at the balance of nearly 200 mass points, Su Ming's breathing became hot.

One day!

Just one day!

If these mass points were converted into pure iron, it would be nearly two hundred kilograms.

Su Ming did not hesitate and moved his mind.

"Add all points!"