28: Chapter 28 Can Your Face Evolve Too?

When Su Ming stepped into the factory gates again, the entire Sorting Area fell silent for a moment.

Foreman Scarface Li, who was shouting to assign tasks, had the words "Hurry up, all of you" stuck in his throat, his eyes widened like copper bells.

Where was that youth from yesterday, who, though handsome, was full of sickness and pale as a ghost?

Who was this person in front of him?

His height was still 1.85 meters, and his build was still that lean and handsome type, but his entire aura was worlds apart.

His skin was that healthy, glowing color, like fine jade, and his facial features seemed to have been meticulously re-sculpted.

Every part was just right, especially those eyes—deep and bright, carrying a sense of detachment and sharpness that seemed to see through everything.

Before, he was an ornament on a display shelf; now, he was a sharpened blade.

"Holy crap... Little Su?"

A burly man who had spoken to Su Ming yesterday dropped his wrench, which hit the ground with a "clatter."

"Is that really Little Su? He... did he eat a beauty pill or something?"

"Didn't they say his second mutation meant his life was short? How does he look even more energetic than us?"

The Short-haired Lady was even more direct, looking Su Ming up and down and clicking her tongue in wonder:

"Little Su, with looks like yours, if you took a stroll through the Red Light District, those wealthy women would go crazy."

Su Ming still wore that indifferent expression of a cold, aloof honor student, as if he hadn't heard the exclamations around him.

But inside, he was already blooming with joy.

Cocky, he was being incredibly cocky.

It was worth it; that tube of nutrient solution was money well spent.

This upgrade was a double takeoff for both appearance and strength.

The cold face of Liu Ruyan even flashed through his mind.

If she saw him now, he wondered what her expression would be.

Regret? Probably.

But so what?

Even if she came crawling back on her knees one day, he couldn't be bothered to spare her a glance.

His good days were just beginning.

"Ahem." Scarface Li snapped back to reality, his old face feeling a bit embarrassed, and he cleared his throat to cover up his previous loss of composure.

"What are you looking at! Don't you all have work to do? Little Su, you... come with me."

He led Su Ming toward the entrance of the Heavy Object Area.

It was a much thicker metal security gate, with guards nearby armed with live ammunition and solemn expressions.

"The boss gave instructions; you can enter the Heavy Object Area freely today."

Scarface Li pointed to the security gate, "But there is one thing: all spatial equipment must be removed and placed in the lockers over there. This is a strict rule from the Military District to prevent anyone from stealing what they are supposed to be guarding."

Su Ming nodded and readily took off the dark silver spatial bracelet on his wrist, placing it into the specialized lead storage locker.

Anyway, he didn't need to take anything out. His stomach was the best storage space.

Passing through security, the scene before him suddenly opened up.

The Heavy Object Area was more than ten times larger than the Sorting Area, resembling a massive steel canyon.

Mountains of metal, piled up from scrap armor plates, tank treads, and mecha wreckage, shimmered with a cold luster in the morning light.

Dozens-of-meters-high giant tower cranes were moving slowly, lifting a piece of alloy armor weighing several tons from one mountain and transferring it to the other side, emitting a deafening sound of metal grinding.

Many workers in the same uniform were busy. Cutting, dismantling, moving—the entire area was filled with the clamor and sense of power of heavy industry.

"How come there are so many more people today?" Su Ming asked, sounding casual.

Scarface Li lit a cigarette, lowered his voice, and wore a look of resentment: "It's all because of the front lines."

He pursed his lips toward the south, "I heard through the grapevine that things haven't been peaceful near the Source Abyss in the south lately. The friction with those sons-of-bitches, the Source Beasts, has become more and more frequent; it's no longer the small skirmishes of the past."

"Just yesterday, I heard several high-ranking military figures at Tier 5 or 6 were seriously injured, and several truckloads of scrapped equipment were sent down."

Scarface Li took a fierce drag of his cigarette and crushed the butt on the ground with his foot. "Damn it, those animals! If I had that kind of strength, I'd go to the front lines for sure; even taking one down with me would be worth it!"

Su Ming looked at Scarface Li's flushed face, feeling a bit surprised.

He hadn't expected that this foreman, who usually bullied the weak and took advantage of small things, had such a passionate side.

In his past life, he was born in an era of peace, where war and sacrifice only existed in history books and the news.

He thought of Shen Qingci, that SS-rank genius obsessed with the pinnacle of martial arts. By going to the Military University, she would likely end up walking this path as well.

He also thought of the panshi robot he had devoured. In its berserk state, even the S-rank genius Lu Beichen was like paper. Yet, when faced with real battle damage, the military's technological creations also appeared fragile.

Su Ming pulled back his thoughts and asked Scarface Li about some precautions.

"Alright, go find a place to stay; just don't get in the way of the tower cranes." Scarface Li waved his hand, "The boss gave the word; even if you sleep lying down today, your wages will still be paid."

After the scene of him going head-to-head with the robot yesterday, the people in the factory had accepted him as a "doomed but respectable" madman, showing him much more tolerance.

Su Ming nodded, said nothing more, and turned to slip behind a relatively secluded mountain of scrap metal.

Like a mouse that had snuck into a granary, he began his sneaky gluttonous feast.

He placed his left palm against a piece of tank side-skirt armor that was half a person tall and silently recited, "Devour."

[Ding! Devoured C-rank high-manganese steel armor. Purification and refining complete. mass points + 32]

A stream of pure energy surged into his body. Su Ming's eyes lit up. Awesome!

This was much more satisfying than the scraps in the Sorting Area.

He reached out to touch a broken mecha leg drive shaft nearby, which was covered in complex gears.

[Ding! Devoured B-rank titanium-tungsten alloy drive shaft. Purification and refining complete. mass points + 45]

Keep it up.

He found a piece of wreckage that looked like the wingtip of some kind of aircraft, still bearing the scorch marks from an energy weapon.

[Ding! Devoured B+ rank memory alloy component. Purification and refining complete. mass points + 110]

"Wuhu!" Su Ming was ecstatic inside. This was what you called "a big meal."

In just over ten minutes, his mass points had increased by over two hundred. At this rate, by the end of the day, even if he couldn't fill the progress bar for Tier 3 Silver, he could at least push it forward by a significant margin.

While maintaining the appearance of "sorting" scrap, he was frantically "eating" with his left hand behind his back.

His mass points balance was rising rapidly. 453.2... 688.2... 974.2...

Just as he was devouring a rusty robot chest plate, his fingers suddenly touched a foreign object.

There was a huge claw mark indentation in the center of the chest plate, and the armor at the edges had been torn open like paper.

In the gear gap at the deepest part of the indentation, something the size of a thumb was stuck.

Su Ming picked it out.

It was a gray, inconspicuous crystal, with a rough surface and dull luster; it didn't look much different from an ordinary stone.

But the moment Su Ming held it in his palm, he felt the difference.

A faint but extremely pure energy fluctuation radiated from inside the crystal, creating a resonance with the mass core inside his body.

This is... A word flashed through his mind. Beast Crystal?

The one Lu Beichen took out yesterday to offer to Shen Hongyuan, although it was dark purple, had a somewhat similar energy texture.

It was just that the one in his hand had energy countless times weaker and was incredibly impure.

Whatever it was, eat it first. "Devour!"

[Ding! Devoured Tier 1 inferior Beast Crystal. mass points + 100]

The gray crystal in his palm instantly vaporized, not even leaving behind any powder.

A surge of energy, a hundred times purer than all the scrap metal he had devoured just now, rushed in through the meridians of his arm!

Su Ming's eyes widened sharply. "Holy crap, one hundred points?!"

He looked down at his hand, then turned to look at the mountain of scrap metal at his feet, which he had worked so hard to gnaw on for half a day to get just a few dozen points.

Those "delicacies" that radiated a charming metallic luster instantly lost their appeal.

"I've been gnawing on rusty iron pipes for half a day, and it doesn't even add up to as much as this single jellybean?"

Su Ming felt he had discovered a new world.

No wonder the Federation spent such a huge price organizing Awakened to hunt Source Beasts; these things were simply mobile energy blocks!

This piece was clearly the lowest level, an "inferior product" whose energy was almost dissipated, yet it could still be exchanged for one hundred points. If it were fresh, high-level ones...

In Su Ming's eyes, a light named "greed" and "desire" began to flicker.

Whether he could live even better in this life than in his last depended on this!

Su Ming forcibly suppressed the restlessness in his heart and continued to rummage through the scrap pile. But his eyes were no longer fixed on scrap iron; they were focused on those scrapped robots with claw marks and scorch marks.

Unfortunately, after searching for half an hour, he didn't find a second one. That made sense; this kind of thing was originally an accidental omission, and finding one was already a stroke of luck.

Just as he was wondering whether to change areas to try his luck, footsteps sounded behind him.

It wasn't the heavy footsteps of workers, but a light, rhythmic gait.

Su Ming turned around. Against the light, a tall figure was walking towards him.

She wasn't wearing that black nano-combat suit, nor was she wearing a training uniform.

A simple white T-shirt tucked into high-waisted jeans, revealing a slender and resilient waistline.

Her long hair wasn't tied up, falling onto her shoulders, making the lines of her collarbone and neck look exceptionally clear.

She was wearing a pair of white canvas shoes, stepping on the rusty iron plates.

Shen Qingci.

Her eyes, which were always calm as an ancient well, landed on Su Ming's face, and she was slightly stunned.

"You... you are Su Ming?!"

"... Can your face evolve too now?"