dim light

Silco wasn't dead, but it was hard to say he was truly alive.

He had used pre-prepared alchemical fuel to set the underground warehouse ablaze.

Why hadn't he planned to use alchemical fuel traps to deal with Vander?

Firstly, the scent of alchemical fuel was far too pungent; while it could be masked somewhat in a basement, it would be easily detected in a factory.

Secondly, there wasn't much alchemical fuel in stock to begin with.

Vander had already closed most of the alchemy factories, leaving no production lines capable of manufacturing alchemical fuel.

What Silco had stored now was merely what the Chemists had accumulated a long time ago.

Trapped in the warehouse, Silco was the first to experience the sensation of being consumed by flames.

Under normal circumstances, given the high temperatures produced by alchemical fuel, his body would have carbonized in less than three minutes.

However, the 'shimmer' elixir, evaporated by the heat, also infused into Silco's body in massive quantities, forcibly sustaining his life.

'shimmer' was a miraculous alchemical elixir.

The 'enhancement' and 'self-healing' effects it provided were based on a principle of 'liberation.'

Various 'Genetic Shackles' exist within the human body; these shackles ensure that during growth, humans do not become bizarre 'Aberrants' for various reasons.

The essence of the 'shimmer' elixir was to break these shackles.

This was why Enforcers all exhibited localized physical mutations, such as irregular and rapid muscle growth.

That was because the first thing 'liberated' by the 'shimmer' elixir was the shackle on muscle growth.

Normally, human muscle growth has physiological limits; once this limit is reached, no matter how much one exercises or eats, the muscles will not grow further.

Unless external means are used to break this limit.

The Animals of Night City were very skilled at concocting such animalistic serums; these things were originally developed to increase muscle mass in Animals.

Clearly, when creating the original 'shimmer' elixir, the Alchemist had deliberately guided the formulation toward muscle growth.

Otherwise, not all Enforcers would manifest this specific trait of muscle growth.

This was likely Silco's requirement, as muscle is the most intuitive manifestation of power.

Because the soul and body are closely integrated, while the body 'liberates' muscle growth, it also severely affects the mind; this is why most Enforcers lack sufficient rationality.

It was unclear whether the Alchemist still harbored a sense of awe toward 'liberating' the body, or if his abilities were simply limited.

The current 'shimmer' elixir could only achieve the liberation of muscle growth; as for other human shackles, they remained firmly fastened upon the Enforcers, preventing them from becoming further non-human.

Otherwise, tonight's battle might not have ended so easily.

However, Silco's current physical changes had clearly moved beyond the scope of 'liberating' muscle growth.

Under the combined effect of alchemical fuel and a massive amount of 'shimmer' elixir, his body—which had been nearly cooked through—was constantly mutating, attempting to adapt to this lethal, high-temperature environment.

When Vander and his group found Silco in the ruins, his body was curled into a ball, shrunk to less than half its original size. The surface skin had carbonized, forming a shell that encased him.

"He's still alive?!"

Sevika shouted in disbelief.

Vander carried Silco out; he indeed felt the rhythm of a heart within this scorched husk and was likewise stunned into silence.

"Make way, make way, the professional is here."

Chen Nuo pushed through the crowd and walked in. As he examined Silco's current condition, his eyes gradually brightened.

There was an unexpected harvest?

As expected, the Alchemist's development of the 'shimmer' elixir hadn't even reached one percent.

He hadn't expected it could grant the enhanced an adaptability far beyond the mundane.

With such a rare and precious experimental subject falling into Chen Nuo's hands, he would surely have to slice him into thin pieces and study him thoroughly.

"Better to just give him a quick end."

Vander noticed the fanaticism rising in Chen Nuo's eyes. No matter how much hatred or resentment he felt for Silco, thinking of their past, he still wanted to give the man a merciful death.

"If he gets a quick end, the nearby citizens won't have it so easy. Did you think this matter ends here?"

Chen Nuo's words caused a wave of unease to rise in Vander. Before he could ask for details, Chen Nuo continued.

"Think about how many people inhaled shimmer tonight. Although we handled it in time and didn't let the impact spread further, the shimmer has already entered their bodies. It's just that because the dose was limited, no overt changes have appeared yet."

Chen Nuo wasn't just being alarmist or trying to scare Vander.

That was simply the reality of the situation.

Once a 'shackle' is 'liberated,' even if it's just a tiny crack, the impact will continue to expand deeply as time passes.

As for whether the final result would be good or bad?

Chen Nuo couldn't say for sure, though he could only say the negative side would certainly be the majority.

These citizens who inhaled 'shimmer,' including Vander and the others, could now be considered Zaun's greatest security risk. If not handled properly, Zaun would fall into unpredictable chaos.

Even without mentioning Piltover, the Zaun citizens who hadn't inhaled 'shimmer' likely wouldn't want to live under the same roof as a group of 'landmines' that could explode at any moment.

This move of Silco's could truly be described as poisonous and sinister.

Even if he was going to die, he was still trying to break the fragile balance between Zaun and Piltover.

Realizing this, Vander's expression darkened slightly. Everything he was previously good at seemed exceptionally powerless in the face of the hidden dangers brought by 'shimmer.'

Vander's relationship with those Chemists was quite poor; it would be good enough if they didn't kick him while he was down, so he couldn't count on them at all. The only person he could rely on now was Chen Nuo.

"Do you have a way to solve this?"

Vander asked in a low voice, keeping the conversation between the two of them.

"Who do you think I am? A genius? You're handing every problem to me?"

"Aren't you?"

"Not bad, not bad. You have a good eye for people. But you have to give me at least some time, and this guy..."

Chen Nuo looked at Silco. This time, Vander didn't say anything more, only nodded.

It seemed Silco would have to pay for the sins he committed himself.

"But while you're at it, you'd better compile a list of the personnel who inhaled shimmer. Don't leave anyone out."

"I understand. I'll arrange people for that immediately."

"Oh, and also the nearby rats, Animals, and such—better clear them all out too. Otherwise, I can't guarantee they won't turn into monsters."

Chen Nuo added one last thing.

This caused Vander's expression, which had just relaxed slightly, to turn grim again.

Wait, 'shimmer' could even affect Animals?

If Silco didn't have only one breath left, Vander really would have wanted to pick him up and give him a brutal beating to see what kind of mess he had created.

"Assemble everyone!"

Vander shouted to Sevika.

"For what?"

Sevika was stunned for a moment. Wasn't the operation already over?

"Lock down this area! Don't let a single rat escape! Kill them all for me!"

"Huh?"

Sevika was a bit confused by this order.

But since the boss said so, her job was to follow it.

In this area of Zaun, besides rats, there weren't really any other native Animals anyway; they simply couldn't survive.

Chen Nuo packed Silco up, taking along some of the remaining 'shimmer' elixirs as well.

Naturally, he wouldn't be responsible for the subsequent matters; he had to save Silco's life first.

The guy was still alive, yes, but he only had one breath left. If he didn't find a way to sustain him quickly, he might be gone in a moment... Time flew by, and several days passed.

Zaun returned to its original daily life, and the chaos brought by Silco gradually subsided under Vander's efforts.

However, for Piltover, they had no idea what had happened in the Undercity recently, nor did they particularly care.

The big shots of Piltover were all focused on Hextech. Even the citizens learned the name from the daily newspapers, looking forward to what changes it would bring to the city.

At this stage, Piltover was in a period of vigorous development, and the ordinary citizens had considerable trust in the Councilors.

In comparison, Zaun was more like an old man who had fallen into a quagmire; forget about moving forward, just breaking free from it was already quite a struggle.

The mechanical workshop promised by Madame Kiramann had already been built.

Chen Nuo did not disappoint her either, and before long, he produced a simple Exoskeleton Mechanical Auxiliary Device.

This exoskeleton device, customized according to Piltover mechanics, was not suitable for combat as it was a bit too clunky, but it was very suitable for use in heavy labor environments like construction sites or ports.

Madame Kiramann was very pleasantly surprised when she saw the results and immediately placed a large order, paid in full.

This was specifically to help Chen Nuo set up the production line as quickly as possible.

It was foreseeable that this kind of civilian exoskeleton mechanical auxiliary equipment would be very popular, especially with Piltover's current rapid construction.

However, Chen Nuo didn't have extra time to spend on this. After producing the results and designing the production line, he handed the remaining work to Store Manager Colin.

Although Store Manager Colin wasn't exactly a business expert, with Madame Kiramann's help, there wouldn't be any issues.

Few people dared to play tricks on projects invested in by the Jiramane Family.

Setting aside technical problems, there basically wouldn't be any other issues.

As for Chen Nuo, he was currently studying the mutated Silco in detail alongside Viktor.

The guy was now like a treasure waiting to be unearthed; every exploration would yield unexpected surprises.

"shimmer is truly incredible."

Viktor couldn't help but sigh, reaching out to touch the glass casing in front of him. Lying in the nutrient solution was the post-mutation Silco.

Because he had undergone high-temperature concentration, his body size had not recovered and had become like that of a child.

The surface skin had gone through several peelings and now presented a snakeskin texture, as if covered in a layer of scales.

Through Chen Nuo's experimental testing, Silco's skin now possessed extremely strong heat-resistant properties.

While his defensive and self-healing powers were slightly lacking, if such pressure were applied, Silco could also exhibit an adaptive evolution.

It was just very slow; without multiple comparisons, it might not even be observable.

The reason was also simple: there wasn't enough 'shimmer' to absorb.

What truly granted Silco adaptive evolution wasn't just his own latent traits, but more importantly, his reliance on 'shimmer.'

If Silco were given sufficient conditions to develop, it was hard to say to what extent he would evolve.

Of course, these 'sufficient conditions' were extremely harsh prerequisites, and even if they were met, a more likely result was that Silco's consciousness and body would collapse on the path of evolution.

Because, just to adapt and survive in the flames of the alchemical fuel, Silco's body had already paid a heavy price.

It wasn't just his exterior that had shriveled; his brain had also suffered severe damage due to high-temperature hypoxia. He was now almost no different from a vegetable, with almost no response to the outside world.

It was clear that in order to sustain Silco's life, the 'shimmer' had already exerted its maximum effort, leaving no room to care for his brain.

However, from Silco's body, Viktor found the possibility of saving himself. This 'self-adaptive' biological evolution could help his body find a way to survive.

He just didn't know what kind of consequences it would produce yet.

After all, to deal with high temperatures, Silco had turned into this state. So, to deal with Viktor's genetic disease, what kind of compromises would the body make?

Viktor wasn't clear on this yet.

Fortunately, he still had enough time to explore and research.

This was always much better than waiting despairingly for death.

"Don't just stand there being sentimental. Come over and help test the Type B elixir. There's a whole group of people in Zaun waiting."

Chen Nuo called out, his expression a bit helpless.

He thought he was already obsessed enough, but he hadn't expected Viktor to be even more so.

He had been sleeping in the lab these past few days, guarding Silco, almost to the point of wanting to hold him.

So much so that Jayce had come to Chen Nuo's door to complain.

His Hexgate was at a critical stage, and without Viktor's help, the progress was severely affected.

His words carried one underlying meaning.

"Can you give Viktor back to me? He's my best friend."

He spoke as if Chen Nuo was the one keeping Viktor here, when clearly it was Viktor himself who was unwilling to leave.

"Coming right now."

Viktor reluctantly withdrew his gaze and came to Chen Nuo's side to help with the research.

The shimmer models Chen Nuo developed were actually weakened versions of the original, aiming to preserve the positive effects while minimizing negative side effects as much as possible.

For example, the Type A's potent healing.

The Type B elixir he was currently developing aimed to improve the user's adaptability to 'shimmer' and avoid extreme outcomes as much as possible.

Given the general inhalation amount of those Zaunites, it shouldn't be difficult to resolve their hidden dangers.

Viktor, being from Zaun, naturally had a high level of empathy for the Zaunites, which was the main reason why he had previously set aside his work with Jayce to come to Chen Nuo's side.