209 Returning the favor

When Ren Xiaosu battled the two officers, he had observed a fine, silvery glow coming from the blood vessels on the backs of their hands. As the blood vessels of an ordinary human should look bluish on the outside, it was obvious there was some kind of special energy flowing within their bodies during the time their hands glowed from the inside. At that time, Ren Xiaosu was guessing it was caused by the nanomachines. And from the looks of it now, it was just as he had thought.

The silvery radiance emanating from the two officers' bodies right now was like a stream converging into a river as it started building up on the surface of their skins. Ren Xiaosu was hesitating, approaching it warily, not knowing if he should try to acquire this unknown power.

He had always been cautious about the unknown.

'If I end up using it after saying to not believe in superstitions, would that be a little hypocritical?' Ren Xiaosu was in a dilemma.

During the physical examination at the military base, he discovered that the nanomachines were trying to interface with his neurons via an external controller. But now that no one was controlling them, he realized he had natural control over these things.

Nanomachines did not have a mind of their own and were only machines. In the early days, nanomachines could not be put into military use because they were too small to be loaded in with overly complex instructions.

After gaining a breakthrough in neurotech, the human brain ended up becoming a processor, while the nanomachines were just an execution terminal. To put it simply, they were purely tools to be used.

But nanomachines needed to be paired with a specific DNA sequence before they could be used. Each person's DNA was just like a unique password that could only be used to pair with their own nanomachines. The nanomachines would determine whether they were in an operable state via an authorization process. The paired nanomachines were a safe locked with a password. Without the password, they would stop working and refuse any unfamiliar consciousness from trying to access them. Therefore, the two officers were unable to control each other's nanomachines, and neither could anyone else access theirs.

But when Ren Xiaosu's willpower tried to initiate contact with the nanomachines, he detected them to be in an idle state. It was as though there were some sort of a barrier denying him from syncing with those nanomachines.

But after his willpower swept over them, the typewriter in the palace suddenly typed several lines of small words.

"Reloading system…

"Resetting to factory settings…

"Reinstalling applications…

"Pairing successful."

After that, Ren Xiaosu found he had actually taken control of these little machines.

The silvery "river" started flowing towards him across the surface of the snow. They moved up along his legs and finally gathered in his hands. The nanomachines extracted from these two officers combined only amounted to the size of a fist.

It was no wonder they were so weak. So it turned out they had this few nanomachines inside their bodies?

After the nanomachines lost their owners, their ports reopened to wait for a new pairing. Under normal circumstances, they should have been sent back to the factory to be paired again. However, the palace had bypassed all of those steps and helped Ren Xiaosu interface with these nanomachines.

If the ports had not been reopened, the palace could not have proceeded with the pairing process.

The silvery, liquid-metal ball cycled through various strange forms within Ren Xiaosu's palm. Then it turned into a metallic gauntlet that wrapped around Ren Xiaosu's hand. After interfacing with Ren Xiaosu's neurons, they became just like a part of his body and did not make him feel uncomfortable at all.

When he threw a punch at the body of the off-road vehicle, he watched the steel body creak and then collapse. Meanwhile, the nanogauntlet on Ren Xiaosu's hand did not seem damaged at all.

When Luo Lan mentioned the nanomachines, Ren Xiaosu disdained them greatly. But now his opinion had changed a little.

If he could create body armor with the nanomachines, did it mean he wouldn't have to use the shadow clone to shield himself from bullets? After all, that method was still rather painful for him.

Of course, it had only changed his opinion a little for now. As for whether it would really prove to be useful, Ren Xiaosu felt that he would only find out after extracting more nanomachines from the other members of the Li Consortium.

Someone would surely come and investigate after two elite members of the Li Consortium disappeared while they were out on inspection. Ren Xiaosu wondered if those who came to investigate would also have nanomachines in them.

Ren Xiaosu ordered the shadow clone to place the two corpses in the vehicle and carry it to the location of the lake as per his memory. He had to be extremely careful when it came to dumping these corpses since he still needed more people with nanomachines to come out here in the future.

When he killed them, he did not use the saber as he was afraid of leaving behind any traces of blood. Right now, he was being even more careful for fear of leaving behind any evidence.

As Ren Xiaosu led his shadow clone forward, he asked, "Old Xu, do you think the amount of nanomachines in the body varies from person to person?

"Since the synchronization rate goes from low to high, there must be a difference in the amount of nanomachines one can control, right?

"Do you think that the next group of people to arrive will be even stronger? That would be good. Who knows, they might have even more nanomachines in their bodies…

"Aren't you being a little shy? Why aren't you talking?"

People always said that small details make a big difference. So, in order not to expose his own identity, Ren Xiaosu decided to name his shadow clone "Old Xu."

Before Ren Xiaosu threw the vehicle into the lake, he removed the two officers' uniforms and put them away in his storage space. Who knew if they would be of any use later? These were the Li Consortium's colonel uniforms, after all.

After he filled the vehicle with stones and threw it into the lake, he returned to the outpost. When the students saw him coming back, they went up to him and asked, "Monitor, how'd it go?"

"It's been taken care of," Ren Xiaosu answered simply and comprehensively. "Go back to sleep. We still have to get up early tomorrow."

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu noticed the Wolf King standing on the summit of the mountain way in the distance. He thought for a while before heading out into the mountains.

In reality, Ren Xiaosu also did not know why he was so eager to interact with the Wolf King. As he walked on the mountain path, he suddenly felt it was sometimes easier to get along with the wolves than with people.

Before Ren Xiaosu could get far, he saw the Wolf King slowly coming down from the mountain ridge. He had planned on chatting with the Wolf King, but he did not know what to say after he saw it.

As the Wolf King looked calmly at him, Ren Xiaosu thought about how it was still chasing him all over the wilderness just one and a half years ago.

He suddenly remembered the student who mentioned giving the wolves something in return for their favor. Ren Xiaosu opened his mouth and broke the deadlock. He said, "Um… since you gave me a rabbit and a goat, shouldn't I also give you something in return?"

The Wolf King did not say anything, but Ren Xiaosu could feel it relaxing its muscles slowly. This meant the Wolf King was also putting down its guard.

When Ren Xiaosu saw no response, he prodded, "Since you can't speak, why don't I let you choose from a few gifts that I have? Look at you, you're always running around by yourself in the mountains. I can understand that a king is always lonely, so why don't I present you the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun? He can chat with you since both of you are considered 'kings' of the wolves. Who knows, you two might have something in common."

For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt the Wolf King understood him! Because, when he mentioned the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun, the Wolf King immediately gave a look of disdain. Ren Xiaosu wondered how the Wolf King was even able to make such an expression!