Weapon System 14: Commencing Solar Decoding

Time passed swiftly; in the blink of an eye, a month had gone by, and Zhang Mingjing returned to school. He intentionally concealed the true extent of his intelligence, keeping his grades at an average level. Half a month earlier, Zhang Yidao and Xiao Nüxia had completed training in two sets of top-tier martial arts. Dealing with so-called monsters had become second nature for them, and their mindset had grown more grounded—no longer adrift, they finally approached work and cultivation with solid determination. This gave Zhang Mingjing peace of mind to focus on his studies, only accompanying them on their missions during weekends.

During this time, the five-dimensional space cognitive model continued its relentless optimization of his body. To provide his lightsaber with ever more energy, each night, when the world was silent, he would slip out alone to hunt for mutant animals.

Through his efforts, the lightsaber now stretched a full meter in length, ten centimeters wide, and three centimeters thick at its bulkiest—a greatsword in appearance, yet with untapped potential. His first goal was to have it reach the size of a surfboard.

He and the five-dimensional cognitive model were becoming more attuned to one another. With its astonishing computational power, his ability to absorb information had grown by leaps and bounds—faster, deeper, and at times, he could even sense the brainwaves of people and animals, glimpsing their fleeting thoughts.

Thanks to these continual optimizations, day and night had become indistinguishable to his perception. In the past week, he had taken to finding deserted places before dawn, soaring a low circuit on his lightsaber, then returning home to sleep.

Sleep itself had transformed. The five-dimensional cognitive model had reconstructed his central nervous system control; now, he could keep half his body awake while the other half rested—a perpetual state between human and god.

Over the month, it felt as though his worldview had been reinstalled six times, as if his three outlooks had become hardware, each time upgraded with new software and data by the five-dimensional model.

After all this, Zhang Mingjing felt he had become—or at least very nearly become—a true super-being.

Yet, the rapid passage of time was not wholly a blessing. The energy beings in the five-dimensional space were preparing to decode the sun—today, at this very moment.

There, they had processed a spacetime monster into two dimensions. The creature, now a membrane without features, still retained its cognitive model, as complete as ever. It, too, could discern all through information reading and maintained its insatiable hunger for energy.

Its area spanned several hundred football fields, its surface coated with high-temperature-resistant information. It was being sent into a wormhole—on the other side, the sun awaited.

It drifted into the wormhole, which instantly closed. Moments later, it emerged above the sealed sun, head first, then body.

The powerful energy of the sealing light's code immediately drew it in. It surged toward it ravenously, and, as soon as it touched the sealing light, it began to devour its energy hungrily.

The seal recognized it as a two-dimensional lifeform; thus, rather than harming it, it actively embedded itself within, selflessly granting its energy.

Thus, the spacetime monster began to evolve into a three-dimensional being, while the sealing light was reduced to three dimensions.

Quickly, the spacetime monster consumed one-seventh of the sun’s sealing light, its body now saturated.

The unsealed portion of the sun abruptly unleashed long-suppressed flames.

At that moment, the high-temperature-resistant layer vanished from the monster’s surface, and it was instantly annihilated.

Yet, just as the Celestial Mechanism System had calculated, though its five-dimensional cognitive model was torn apart by the sun's fierce blaze, its code was embedded within the photons emitted from the sun, journeying deep into the universe—including those bound for Earth.

Eight minutes later, over a hundred and eighty photons carrying the spacetime monster's code arrived on Earth, entering the bodies of food, animals, plants, and humans. Unlike the sealing light code, these were not content to remain where they landed.

They would choose; dissatisfied with their host, they would be expelled, seeking ever stronger bodies.

With their voracious nature and immense computational power, they would eventually find the most robust hosts.

In a certain country’s zoo, a young, powerful lion was about to drink when a coded photon fell into its water bowl. After a hearty drink, the lion lay down for a nap. Fifteen minutes later, it suddenly stood, eyes wide, then slowly lay back down.

The code had invaded its brain, releasing energy and rewriting its genetic code.

Every twenty minutes, the lion’s body changed drastically. The other lions, sensing something amiss, roared in terror.

Almost simultaneously, on the African plains, a wild buffalo was similarly affected by a photon. Soon after, it fell asleep, the code flooding it with energy and altering its genes.

Such events began occurring across Earth. The elders of the five-dimensional space had already located and were tracking each new monster.

In the zoo, the other lions’ panicked roars drew a growing crowd. People had heard of mutant animals, but never of a lion mutating—especially one so large. Yet, seeing is believing.

Onlookers quickly concluded the lion was undergoing a dangerous mutation and fled in terror—fear spreading like a psychic contagion across the city.

The special forces of that nation arrived and surrounded the mutating lion, which still slept as its transformation continued.

Every twenty minutes, its body grew by thirty percent. Its fur receded, replaced by thick scales; at a glance, it resembled a qilin.

Two hours later, it matched the size of an adult elephant. The special forces finally received orders to attack, but neither bullets, lasers, nor microwaves had any effect—the code was releasing energy, forming a protective shield around the lion, its guardian during mutation.

An hour on, the lion had absorbed all the code’s energy, successfully merged, and now rivaled a mammoth in size—its body armored in jet-black plates, a fearsome beast.

The energy shield faded, but Earth’s firepower still could not harm it. Roaring, it attacked the special forces, scattering them in moments, then charged south—toward the small city where Zhang Mingjing lived.

For the elders had placed a fearsome energy sphere deep beneath that southern city, detectable by all monsters on Earth. They knew that absorbing it would allow them to evolve to higher dimensions—a veritable elixir of ascension. Thus, they raced to claim it.

Some monsters would have to cross half the globe, but unless killed en route, they would find a way to get there.

The African buffalo, too, had become a massive creature, sprouting many horns and steel saw-like teeth. Other animals had long since fled. The beast bellowed to the sky, announcing its birth, then charged south.

From this day on, perhaps a new monster would be born each day, until all one hundred and eighty or so appeared and were destroyed. Only then would the elders release a second two-dimensional spacetime monster, and the cycle would repeat. Only after the seventh such release, and the destruction of the seventh wave, would the story end.

Yet, things would hardly go so smoothly. The factors that might trigger new changes were too many—who could say what would happen next?