Chapter 17: The pawns begin to move, the calm before the storms
Elysium was in a really bad mood now. But he soon regained his composure and picked up a hammer.
"Let's do a little renovation." Elysium held the hammer and smashed it against the wall in his bedroom.
Bang, bang, bang, bang...
After more than five hours of non-stop wall-breaking, Elysium finally let out a soft sigh and threw away the hammer. A slight sense of relief appeared in his head, and his emotions had calmed down.
He had destroyed almost all the walls blocking his path, leaving only a spacious, box-like room. He placed various spare parts in his bedroom and various other empty rooms in the house.
In the living room, he threw away all the distracting items and would use this space as a workshop to design his first proto-exosuit. He had prepared all the auxiliary components and tools he needed long ago.
He could get many things he needed online, and it wasn't too difficult, in his opinion. He just bought things that didn't cost too much money.
"Well, the good news is, maybe my future development won't be as difficult as I imagined. Probably…"
Growl…
Elysium touched his stomach and sensed he hadn't eaten in over five hours. So, he simply grabbed some easily digestible porridge and devoured it. During his break, Elysium recalled his Temp-pad, which he had thrown out.
He had modified it from a soul guide communicator he had bought and completely transformed it into something less like a soul guide than another creation he frequently used in Elysium fortress.
After finishing his meal, Elysium went outside and found Tang Wulin and Na'er at his door.
"Oh, Wulin, Na'er, you're here?" Elysium, who had been a little depressed, brightened up when he saw Tang Wulin and Na'er holding hands.
This was truly good news in the midst of the torrent of bad news he had been thinking about.
"Yeah, we were worried because you haven't come to school for over a month. Is everything okay? If you're sick, I can ask my dad to take you to the hospital." Tang Wulin's tone was surprisingly gentle.
Their friendship, which had transformed from one of complete strangers to a deep one, continued after dinner. Well, it was mostly Tang Wulin who often talked to him after dinner.
Tang Wulin and Na'er also came to see Elysium frequently after that day. But because he had been so busy, he hadn't paid much attention to them and continued with his work after he was done.
"Well, I happen to need some fresh air today. How about we take a leisurely walk today?" Elysium offered as He dusted off his clothes.
"That's a good idea."
Tang Wulin and Na'er seemed to agree. The three of them immediately started walking around Aolai City, enjoying the beautiful sunset.
Well, even though he had said they were going for a walk together, Elysium took a slower pace as he observed the two of them's seemingly smooth progress. Like an innocent and pure love, they were only 7 or 8 years old this year, and one of them had already developed feelings called love.
This was a good thing; no matter how small, progress was progress.
This development somehow calmed his heart from thinking about the crazy things he must do to improve this world's knowledge and technology.
"They sure became close pretty quickly." Elysium ignored Tang Wulin and Na'er, who seemed to have forgotten about him.
The purpose of taking him on a walk was to help them grow closer. As long as his goal was achieved and he got the results he wanted, then he didn't care about these little things.
"But this place sure has become more lively." Elysium looked around, which seemed orchestrated to enhance the romantic atmosphere and foster closeness between couples.
On every side of the road, there would be several people alone together, exchanging romantic words or rubbing their heads in the middle of the road. Some even kissed each other on both cheeks to show their love.
This atmosphere is too good to be true. Too coincidental, if you ask me.
Elysium slowed his pace and raised his eyebrows as Tang Wulin walked further and further away with Na'er, as if he had never been there in the first place.
He didn't do anything unusual and simply went to buy a fruit crepe from a street vendor. After that, he simply returned to his house and didn't mention the matter or say anything else.
"Eva, are we being watched right now? Isn't that a violation of the game rules?" Elysium asked coldly in the federation's common language.
[No. There's no rule violation when observing and seeing how the pieces move. But direct intervention, such as attempting to kill or destroy pieces directly, is a rule violation.]
"Oh, so my opponent, my real body, has already begun observing the movements of his chess pieces? I'm really curious to see how this chess game progresses."
Elysium smiled, feeling refreshed. Seeing someone facing my real body, even if he could never win this chess game, at least he could still see the grandeur of the falling Icarus.
That will be an iconic moment in the future.
"For now, it's better not to interfere with their relationship and even help them be together. Our goals are strangely the same in this matter."
So, Di Tian's interference absolutely cannot be tolerated. If he snatches Na'er from Tang Wulin, where can I get my interesting experiment subject in this world? I can literally hear sociology +3 right in front of me.
"Then, starting today, let's go to class as usual. The next step is just assembling this exosuit. One year is enough time for everything." Elysium smiled softly. "I can also make some additional weapons from the remaining materials and optimize the soul power I use to suit this exosuit."
Elysium immediately began his task.
The days passed so quickly. Sometimes, a person would forget the passing of time amidst the seemingly busy world, not realizing that days had turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months, and months turned into years.
There wasn't anything worth saying during this time. It was just a boring graduation ceremony where he had to attend and collect his recommendation letter for higher education.
Elysium had already planned everything and decided to go to Eastsea City.
Well, he didn't make this decision because he wanted to join Tang Wulin or anything. But because the company and organization he had created needed a strategic location that could be turned into a fortress to defend against any attack.
As a coastal city and a trading hub, Eastsea City is truly rich in natural resources, both from the sea and land. There are also many suitable locations for recruitment and manufacturing of mecha and exosuits, which I will sell.
Furthermore, Eastsea City lacks large organizations or megacorporations monopolizing resources. This is the best place to become larger and stronger than Shrek City. Several other locations are either under the influence of the Spirit Pagoda or have strong influence from Shrek graduates.
"That Shrek Academy is truly disturbing. But this is also an organization that has existed in this world for a long time. So I can't just destroy it. If I oppose them openly, not only Shrek, but the Federation and some of the Spirit Pagoda will also interfere with me."
Elysium sat enjoying a blueberry smoothie with caramel and cream on top. His hand played with his tem-pad while taking in the captivating scenery.
Tang Wulin, who was merging with the spirit soul he purchased from the Spirit Pagoda. It's a piece of trash artificial soul he bought through gacha for 30,000 federation coins. In short, it's a failed product with a limited future.
But that's the pagoda spirit's assessment. If it were Elysium, he could take all the trash the pagoda spirit possessed and turn them into mutants with a variety of different genes. If he had the soul power generator X-1 at that time, 100,000-year-old soul beasts would be like cabbages found on the market.
"Oh, gene alignment? How interesting. His genes not only affect him but also those he contracts with. I don't know who invented this method, but I can say he likely has a trait spark of genius 1 to think of this."
Elysium saw through the eavesdropping device he installed the moment Tang Wulin formed the contract with the spirit soul. A golden light shone on the snake's head, illuminating one of its bodies, and it appeared to be in pain.
The process of gene alignment that the snake underwent must have been incredibly painful. This process is like cancer cells invading your entire body and replacing every cell in your body with new cancer cells. Gene alignment takes this concept and is an early prototype of gene modification technology.
It has its merits and is often used by barbaric civilizations to pass on what they call their bloodline. They will sometimes use their own blood, which has been implanted, to forcibly alter the genetic structure of their bodies to align with the gene donor.
But the problem is, the mortality rate is very high, and there is a chance that mutations might occur. Their genes will also become disorganized if not handled properly, causing various physical and mental changes.
It's somehow considered gene modification, but it's not.
This is why it's called the prototype for gene modification.