153: Chapter 153: SS-level Tyrant Totem activated! 300 EXP bonus!

Yi Chang was brought over from the temporary rest area.

She was still wearing Chen Chen's oversized white shirt.

Standing before the fusion pod, the light of the pale gold nutrient solution reflected in her ice-blue vertical pupils.

Her snake tail swayed slowly behind her, the tip curling tightly and then relaxing instinctively.

"After going in..." her voice was very soft, "I'll be able to transform when I come out?"

"The blueprint says it activates latent genetic sequences."

Chen Chen leaned against the pod wall, "Your Snake Scale Tribe originally had the ability to transform; it's just that your bloodline degenerated. Go in and sleep, and you'll have legs when you come out."

Yi Chang gripped the hem of the shirt, her knuckles turning white.

She turned to glance at Chen Chen.

"...Then what I owe you, I'll pay back when I come out."

"You won't be able to run."

Yi Chang undid two buttons of the shirt, and the fabric slid off her shoulders.

A large expanse of snow-white skin and silver-gray scale patterns flashed under the cold light.

She slid her entire body into the nutrient solution.

The pale gold liquid submerged her shoulders, neck, and chin.

Her eyes closed.

The pod cover closed, and the energy conduction channels all lit up.

Six dying members of the Snake Scale Tribe were also sent into the auxiliary units one by one.

Life support data jumped on the panel, all entering the normal range.

"The process will finish in ten hours; no manual intervention is needed during this period." Shen Wanbing turned off the control console.

Chen Chen glanced at the observation window of the main pod.

In the nutrient solution, Yi Chang's snake tail had already begun to undergo changes.

Scales began to fall off starting from the tip of the tail, revealing the pinkish-white tender flesh beneath.

The outline of the tail was slowly splitting and reshaping.

He withdrew his gaze and turned to head downstairs.

Chen Chen's schedule for the following time was extremely tight.

Jiang Jiuyou was at the secondary command console, processing the endless stream of requests to join and trade applications.

Six hours after the territory declaration was sent out, more than four hundred people had gathered on the outskirts of the Floating City.

They were independents from different war zones, small convoys, and even two alien trade caravans.

The population soared from 198 to nearly 600.

The number of vehicles increased from 45 to 89.

The ranking for the comprehensive faction value was firmly nailed in first place, and the gap continued to widen.

Shen Wanbing was responsible for auditing the background and abilities of every person entering the city.

Jiang Jiuyou was responsible for assigning posts and residential areas.

Iron Wall led the remnants of the military to set up three cordons around the outskirts of the Floating City, taking charge of city defense patrols.

The Proprietress's business exploded.

The newly arrived survivors were so hungry their eyes were turning green, queuing up to use their last cores for a bowl of bone marrow soup.

The Pig-Faced Butcher's chopping block didn't stop from morning till night.

...

Chen Chen retrieved that dark gold crystal from the deepest layer of his silver-grade storage ring.

SS-rank Unclaimed Divine Seed.

A heaven-defying product that had been forced out from the shattered remains of the Bishop of Ashes by Shen Wanxing's hundredfold critical strike.

Eerie pulsating light patterns flowed across the surface of the crystal; when held in the palm, one could feel a certain primitive, almost biological heartbeat.

A line of scarlet prompts popped up on the system panel:

[SS-rank Unclaimed Divine Seed detected! This item can be implanted into the territory energy hub to activate the Lord Totem! Confirm?]

Chen Chen did not hesitate.

He stepped up the stairs to the fortress dome and walked to the energy hub interface next to the faith deprivation tower.

He slammed the dark gold crystal into the slot of the hub core with one palm.

Click.

The entire Sky Fortress shook once.

The ghostly blue light in the energy conduction channels was instantly replaced by dark gold, spreading outward from the center of the dome, creeping along every pipeline and every armor plate.

Then—

The sky directly above the fortress cracked.

A fifteen-meter-tall dark gold totem condensed into form from the void.

The design of the totem was extremely oppressive; it was an abstract humanoid figure wearing a Crown of Thorns, arms spread wide, palms facing down.

A dark gold halo poured down from the base of the totem, enveloping the entire fortress and all vehicles within a three-kilometer radius.

System notification sounds exploded continuously:

[SS-grade Tyrant Totem has been activated!]

[Territory Effect 1: When all members within the territory kill hostile targets, the experience gain rate is forced +300%!]

[Territory Effect 2: Lord Experience Cut—10% of the experience points gained by all members within the territory will be automatically extracted to feed back to the Lord!]

[Territory Effect 3: Totem Pressure—All attributes of hostile units within the territory are suppressed by 15%!]

Chen Chen stared at the numbers on the panel.

The experience gain rate quadrupled.

With over six hundred people killing monsters, he could just lie back and take a cut.

The level panel, which had been stagnant for several days, finally budged.

The communicator rang.

Shen Wanbing's voice carried a rare excitement:

"Just now... what did you stuff into the fortress? A bunch of golden prompts popped up on my panel—experience bonus of three hundred percent?"

"Tyrant Totem."

The channel went quiet for a beat.

"...Where did you get it?"

"It dropped from the Bishop of Ashes."

Shen Wanbing took a deep breath: "Chen Chen, do you know what this means? Six hundred people grinding monsters at the same time, four times the experience, and you take ten percent—"

"I know." Chen Chen switched to the encrypted channel, "Call Jiang Jiuyou."

Three seconds later, Jiang Jiuyou's voice patched in: "Here."

"Take your Dark Division and Iron Wall's First Echelon to sweep all Aberration nests around the Magnetic Storm Canyon. Everyone grind for levels, leave no one alive."

"The range?"

"Everything the Radar can scan."

Jiang Jiuyou didn't ask any more questions.

The sound of her switching to the Dark Division's command channel came through the comms, followed by a series of crisp and decisive dispatch orders.

Ten minutes later, thirty-seven vehicles swarmed out from the outskirts of the fortress, pouncing toward the Aberration gathering points in all directions.

Chen Chen leaned against the railing of the dome and opened his experience panel.

The numbers began to jump.

Every few seconds, they would leap up a notch.

With over six hundred people grinding at once, the kill efficiency under the fourfold experience boost was absurdly high, and his experience bar was advancing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Level twelve... thirty-seven percent..."

He closed the panel and turned to go downstairs.

There was one more important thing.

The third-floor expansion bay.

The energy conduction channels of the S-grade biological fusion pod had all gone dark.

The holographic projection above the manufacturing table showed: Modification complete, ready to open.

Chen Chen walked to the main pod and tapped the open button.

The hydraulic door made a low sound of releasing air pressure and slowly rose.

Pale gold nutrient solution gushed out from the pod, flooding over the metal floor.

White mist rolled out from the opening, filling half of the expansion bay.

Within the mist, a figure slowly stood up.

Chen Chen's gaze swept from top to bottom.

Long silver-white hair clung wetly to her shoulders and back, water droplets sliding down her collarbones.

Her ice-blue vertical pupils shone startlingly in the mist.

Her face was cold and elegant, with the sharp bone structure unique to her race.

Further down.

Her waist.

An extremely slender waist.

Further down—

Two legs.

Long, straight, and so pale they were almost transparent, her legs extended from her hips.

Very faint silver scale patterns remained on the outside of her thighs, appearing and disappearing under the light, which instead added a certain eerie beauty.

The lines of her calves were smooth, and her ankles were slender.

Ten toes stepped on the wet metal floor, curling slightly—likely out of lack of habit.

Yi Chang looked down at her own legs.

Her vertical pupils dilated to their maximum.

She tried to take a step. Her knees buckled, and she fell forward.

Chen Chen reached out and caught her by the waist.

The sensation in his hands was completely different from before.

There were no more scales.

From her waist to her hip bones to her thighs, it was all warm, soft skin.

Only when pressing firmly with his fingertips could he feel the extremely thin layer of invisible defensive scales beneath the skin.

Yi Chang steadied herself by holding onto his forearm. She looked up.

The distance between their faces was less than ten centimeters.

"...It worked." Her voice trembled.

"It worked."

Yi Chang looked down at her legs again.

Then she suddenly realized a problem—

She wasn't wearing anything.

Her vertical pupils constricted.

She jumped back two steps, covering her chest with both hands, her legs squeezed tightly together.

Her newly transformed legs were still not quite listening to her; this retreat caused her to bump directly into the wall of the fusion pod and slide down into a sitting position.

"You—get out!"

Chen Chen pulled a set of clothes from his silver-grade storage ring and threw them over her head.

A black hip-hugging OL uniform.

A size that had been tailored down.

A white shirt, a knee-length narrow skirt, and black stilettos.

"Put them on. I have something to tell you."

He turned and walked out of the expansion bay.

The moment the door closed, Yi Chang gripped the uniform, her vertical pupils churning with too many emotions.

She looked down at her legs—pale, long, and complete.

It had been a thousand years.

Since the Snake Scale Tribe began their thousand-year exile, not a single tribesperson had been able to complete a full transformation.

She took a deep breath and began to get dressed.

By the time she reached the third button, her hands were still shaking.