Lucky billion players, you've never seen one before / I can accumulate my own luck

We can only wait for another opportunity to verify this.

Overall, the "puppet master" is a rather regrettable prop.

The functionality is quite rare, but it falls short of expectations.

So...

Fan Xiao immediately removed the "travel camera" and moved the "puppet master" to the prop slot.

Then, he took off the "monitoring pen" prop clipped to his chest, put it into the player's storage space, and murmured, "Mirror."

The next instant, his figure disappeared into a tiny mirror that appeared beneath his feet.

With continuous teleportation, he quickly moved away from the A9 base and arrived in the desolate city area.

When he passed by the desolate city in the afternoon, he used the psionic properties of "consciousness-granted" to create flesh and blood creatures and gave them the order to eliminate all the monsters in the ruins—after all, it was his fault that these monsters came to the desolate city area.

To avoid influencing the lower-class citizens of Base A9 to come and scavenge, he had no choice but to take on the job of a scavenger.

Now, after an entire afternoon, Fan Xiao discovered that the flesh and blood creatures he had created had cleaned up the wasteland area.

After devouring the flesh and blood of numerous monsters, this flesh-and-blood creature had become quite large, standing as tall as two or three stories.

Fan Xiao reached out and touched it, altering its body structure and creating a small space inside that could accommodate four or five people.

After entering this small space, he activated the "Puppet Master" skill, creating a puppet the same size as himself and placing it in the space.

He then teleported out of the flesh-and-blood creature's body and gave it new instructions—go to the sea, search for other creatures on the seabed to assimilate and devour, expand its size to the limit that its consciousness could bear, and then lie low.

Watching the departing flesh and blood creature, Fan Xiao felt his "persecution complex" was slightly soothed.

A chance to die in someone else's place—whether or not it's needed, prepare for it first.

The area outside the deserted city is full of monsters, and as long as you don't get close to human settlements, you're unlikely to encounter any powerful players.

Other monsters are no match for this fleshy creature, and random dungeons that pull people in target their "spirit," never having heard of robots being pulled in as well.

Therefore, there is basically no need to worry too much about whether this flesh-and-blood creature can complete the task assigned to it.

The larger the flesh and blood creature, the stronger it is. Placing the puppet inside its body is much safer than burying it deep underground.

After all... if he really encountered an enemy who could kill him once, the possibility of that enemy following the clues and chasing after him would be quite high.

At that time, the defensive counterattacks of flesh and blood creatures will provide him with temporary protection after he has just been resurrected from his previous death.

When it comes to surviving, Fan Xiao values ​​it quite a bit.

Instead of returning to the A9 base immediately, he continued moving out of the deserted city to an area where monsters were frequently active. He spent more than half an hour collecting monsters and using their flesh and blood as a basis to create hundreds of flesh and blood creatures.

The difference between creating a creature using one's own flesh and blood and creating a second-generation creature using the flesh and blood of other creatures is that the former creates a stronger creature, but consumes a lot of mental energy; while the latter is slightly weaker, but consumes less mental energy and can mass-produce such "second-generation creatures" using readily available flesh and blood.

Yes, Alfa belongs to the "first generation".

He himself was the progenitor.

Fan Xiao gave orders to hundreds of creatures to go to the sea to devour flesh and blood, and to assist the previous creature in building a defensive perimeter.

After doing all this, he took out the mental recovery potion and drank five or six bottles in a row.

After his mental state had recovered somewhat, he used the "Mirror" to teleport back to the black walls of the A9 base.

Looking down, Fan Xiao noticed that Alpha had just finished distributing a large portion of the grain.

I wonder how many elderly people have suffered from her "sharp tongue"...

After Alpha sensed its master's return, it turned around, raised its head, and looked at the tall city wall.

Suddenly, a pair of small wings sprouted from her back. With a flap, she took flight and landed beside Fan Xiao.

"Lord Van Helsing, the food has been distributed. What should I do next?"

Alpha had no idea that it had been exploited as a laborer and instinctively asked about the next task.

If Fan Xiao doesn't issue new instructions, she will have to continue "studying".

Fan Xiao asked, "Have you treated the injuries of those elderly people?"

"They've all recovered. But they're too old; they probably won't live much longer."

Alpha seized the opportunity to ask, "Lord Van Helsing, why not completely modify their genes and assimilate them into flesh and blood creatures? That way they could live longer and wouldn't have to suffer from illness anymore."

"..."

Good grief! Does Satan have to get a tattoo of you on his body? Fan Xiao was stumped by this question and was speechless.

Arbitrarily modifying genes can cause problems and easily lead to death due to genetic collapse. This is why he only allowed Alpha to treat the injuries of the elderly and not to make any unnecessary modifications.

He had indeed heard that some regions had developed gene-enhancing drugs that could improve human physical fitness.

Even in Star Memory City, the G08 node 004 partition, they've created beast-eared girls—not demi-human players, but simply beast-eared girls with stronger physical abilities than ordinary people, capable of withstanding even the "torture" of advanced players.

However, these gene-editing agents are not suitable for everyone.

Some people might die on the spot after getting an injection.

As for beast-eared girls... they seem to be cultivated directly from the embryonic stage, rather than modified from original humans, so they can be considered a new species.

The only potion that can allow everyone... or rather, all players to evolve safely is the evolution potion rewarded after clearing a dungeon.

And this thing... Fan Xiao always thought it sounded very scientific, but it was actually metaphysics.

With an increased evolution rate, not only will the body evolve, but even the non-material spiritual realm will be elevated... Upon closer examination, the secret behind this is terrifying.

In short, achieving genetic evolution to grant someone greater vitality, an exceptionally healthy body, or even immense power without harming them is extremely difficult and requires extensive human experimentation to pinpoint the methods for gene modification.

Even if this method is discovered, it will probably only be applicable to a small number of individuals.

To make it widely available, it needs to be fine-tuned according to each person's different genetic state.

Fine-tuning, on the other hand, requires a considerable amount of time for further research.

Fan Xiao didn't have time to do such a thing.

"Lord Van Helsing, why won't you answer my question?"

At this moment, Alpha tilted its head, as if urging it on.

Fan Xiao first removed the "monitoring pen" from Alpha and put it into his storage space before shaking his head and saying, "By transforming them into flesh and blood creatures, their original consciousness, memories, and emotions are gone, which is equivalent to killing them."

"But humans are just brain cells, water, carbohydrates, and tiny DNA molecules. We are all matter, just like artificial flesh and blood."

Alpha asked, "Lord Van Helsing, why are you so obsessed with finding memories, emotions, and morality in the material world? Isn't this just self-deception? Clearly, evil and hell are all in the material world."

"..." Fan Xiao: "The knowledge I've transmitted to you is all basic knowledge summarized by our predecessors, not absolute truth. In addition to being composed of matter, humans also have a non-material spiritual component, understand?"

“Oh,” Alpha continued, “what is that spirit?”

Fan Xiao did not answer.

He was stumped by the question.

Who knows what the essence of the spirit is?

He changed the subject, saying, "Never mind that for now. How did it go when I sent you to deal with those two demi-human players under Charles?"

"I secretly removed their brains and parts of their flesh."

Alpha opened his palm and handed the two lumps of flesh to Van Shaw.

After receiving it, Fan Xiao activated his psionic energy to assimilate it, and then began to read the massive amount of genetic information inside.

Manipulating flesh and blood to change shape, or giving consciousness to create flesh and blood creatures—these two actions are not difficult to do, just like instinct.

But when it comes to genetic modification, things get much more complicated.

Fan Xiao spent the entire night studying the two lumps of flesh on the black city wall.

Alpha stood beside him, faithfully serving as his guard.

Fan Xiao did not stop his research until eight o'clock the next morning.

The tumor that was constantly changing shape in his hands exploded in an instant and was destroyed by him.

Fan Xiao looked at Alpha and said, "Stick your head over here, I'll give you a buff."

"Oh."

Alpha obediently moved its head closer.

Fan Xiao reached out and placed his hand on her pure white hair, beginning to activate his psionic energy.

He wasn't worried about Alpha suddenly collapsing genetically. Essentially, Alpha was a "first-generation flesh-and-blood creature," possessing the most basic characteristic of flesh-and-blood creatures—namely, changes in the shape of the body—which would not affect the continuation of the "program consciousness" in the slightest.

Programmatic consciousness exists independently of the physical body; it is a kind of metaphysical power created by the spiritual energy of the "Flesh and Blood Progenitor."

Yes—programming awareness is a power.

The physical body is the fundamental vessel that bears this power.

Otherwise, how could a mere mass of flesh and blood awaken consciousness and acquire biological characteristics, enabling it to move freely?

Where does energy come from? What systems does the body rely on to function? These questions are all actually within the realm of programmed consciousness.

Soon, a pair of snow-white cat ears grew on Alpha's head.

Fan Xiao stopped what he was doing and asked, "How are you feeling?"

"My head is itchy," Alpha said. "Lord Van Helsing, could you scratch that itch for me?"

“Scratch it yourself,” Fan Xiao said. “Besides the itch on your scalp, what else do you feel?”

Alpha moved its body, and the small wings on its back transformed into more than a dozen tentacles, which began to wave in different directions.

After fiddling around for a few minutes, she said, "Lord Van Helsing, I have become more agile, and my senses, such as hearing, are more acute."

"Let's try night vision," Fan Xiao suggested.

Alpha immediately obeyed the command, causing the small wings on its back to expand and grow into the shape of a tent, enveloping itself and blocking out the light.

Then, she exclaimed from inside the flesh-and-blood tent... or rather, mimicked a human's surprised expression: "Lord Van Helsing, I can see."

"Okay. You can put it away now."

Fan Xiao suggested, "Let's call this combat module 'Cat Form,' and you can choose whether to trigger it."

"I've left the relevant gene information module in your consciousness. You can modify your genes according to this module and you'll be able to load these abilities immediately."

Alpha retracted the flesh and blood tent and shrunk back the snow-white cat ears on its head, returning to its original form.

Then, she shouted, "Cat Form!"

The next instant, snow-white cat ears grew back on her head, giving her an aura of ferocity like a wild beast.

Then, she retracted the cat ears again.

Fan Xiao nodded in satisfaction: "This is a start. When there are more combat modules in the future, you might be able to help me in combat."

"I'm sorry, Lord Van Helsing. Alpha is an idiot and can't be of much help at the moment."

The white-haired girl seemed to have been successfully "PUAed," and even apologized.

Fan Xiao waved his hand, indicating that she was free to move around.

"Cat form!"

Alpha has transformed once again.

She seemed to really like this combat module and played it repeatedly.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Fan Xiao took out the two "monitoring pens" from the storage space and re-attached them to his and Alpha's chests.

About ten minutes later, a figure suddenly flew to the top of the city wall and landed in front of the two.

Fan Xiao and Alpha both turned their heads to look and found that it was their junior sister who had arrived.

Junior Sister... or rather, Cassandra's otherwise unremarkable face showed signs of fatigue, and she looked somewhat travel-worn.

It seems she was busy all night.

Taking over a base isn't just about killing a few people... or rather, the workload alone is considerable.

Cassandra was in charge of combat missions, which is why she was able to be freed so quickly.

The Holy Sword Alliance members responsible for tasks in other areas are currently working like oxen and horses, putting in a lot of effort.

"Have you finished taking over the base?" Fan Xiao asked, taking the initiative to speak.

As he spoke, he removed the "monitoring pens" from his and Alpha's chests and returned them to his junior sister.