Chapter 127: The Most Complex Structure—You Have to Ask…

Xie Jianxun didn’t react for a moment. Once he realized what was happening, he followed Yiwen upstairs to the Nutrient Liquid Tank where the egg was soaking.

Yiwen said, “It suddenly started moving and wouldn’t stop…”

He didn’t need to hear the rest. Xie Jianxun could see it himself—the massive egg-shaped bionic person was shaking its eggshell nonstop, using its pointed end to ram against the glass wall of the Nutrient Liquid Tank again and again.

It seemed to have been stimulated somehow, waking it from its dormant state. It even appeared slightly irritable.

The mechanical female voice shrieked, “If it keeps hitting, it’s going to crack!”

If the eggshell cracked before it reached the proper hatching date, the creature inside would definitely suffer from malnutrition.

Even if it was a bionic person, it would still be affected.

“What happened?”

Xie Jianxun hurried forward and pressed his palm against the surface of the glass tank. He squatted down to eye level with the patterns on the eggshell.

As if it knew he was there, it suddenly stopped and floated in the center of the liquid.

Yiwen twisted into a tangled braid shape behind Xie Jianxun. Her mechanical female voice buzzed in confusion. “The nutrient liquid is from a big brand, same as before. No changes in temperature or lighting. So why is it ramming the wall? It couldn’t possibly not want to live, right?”

Xie Jianxun pondered for a moment before offering a bewildered layman’s suggestion. “Maybe it’s tired of the single type of nutrient liquid? The flavor’s too monotonous?”

“—Nutrient liquid is just like direct intravenous injection. What flavor?”

Yiwen said in shock as she used her mechanical arm to lift the lid off the glass tank.

Immediately, the egg floated up from the liquid, drifting slowly toward Xie Jianxun.

Xie Jianxun cupped his hands, and it obediently nestled into his palms, soaking his hands with nutrient liquid.

The eggshell was warm, its surface trembling slightly.

“Do you want to hang out with me for a bit?”

Xie Jianxun asked softly, scratching the eggshell’s surface with his fingertip. The eggshell clung to him like it had suction cups. “You need to drink more and grow up so you can chat with me.”

Yiwen interjected, “The egg won’t have a mouth even when it grows up.”

Before the egg could ram the wall on her side again, Yiwen wisely left. Before going, she loudly declared, “Who told you to be just an egg right now?”

Once Yiwen was gone, the egg perked up like it was listening.

With no other sounds, it happily shook itself, creating ripples on the water’s surface like it was dancing.

But it still wasn’t satisfied and started bumping the wall again with thuds.

Xie Jianxun was at a loss and had to press down on its pointed end to stop it. He quickly asked, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”

It couldn’t speak, but it desperately wanted to jump up and bite Xie Jianxun’s finger so the Little Adventurer could fish it out of the Nutrient Liquid Tank and take it away.

Xie Jianxun saw through it and smiled helplessly. “You don’t want to stay in there anymore?”

It actually nodded.

Xie Jianxun had asked Yiwen earlier—the nutrient liquid was just for maintaining its physiological functions, like three meals a day for a human. So it was fine not to soak in it constantly.

With a gentle pinch, the egg—which felt as light as nothing—jumped out of the Nutrient Liquid Tank following his finger.

Xie Jianxun: “…”

He stared helplessly at the egg, sucking in a breath. “You can jailbreak yourself!”

No wonder the Nutrient Liquid Tank hadn’t had a lid before!

It must have escaped who knew how many times before Yiwen added a cover to prevent it from bumping its shell somewhere.

The egg didn’t see any problem with it. It dripped water everywhere, leaning left and right, determined to jump onto Xie Jianxun.

That wouldn’t do—if it really jumped on him, his clothes would be soaked.

Xie Jianxun had to hold down the top of its shell, grabbed a towel, and wiped it thoroughly from top to bottom before carrying the egg downstairs.

Yiwen was making dinner. When she saw him come down, she let out a surprised “Ah.”

“This egg listens to you so well,” the mechanical arm muttered. “It wouldn’t even let me apply nutrient paste the past couple days.”

Xie Jianxun smiled and thanked her. “Thanks for taking care of it.”

“Mm-hmm.” Yiwen sounded smug for a moment, then paused. A red light flashed in her electronic eyes. Moments later, she said in confusion, “Huh, we’re about to go into area lockdown.”

Xie Jianxun had just heard this news from You Liang, but he hadn’t realized the lockdown included this area too. “…I thought it was only the Wild Zone?”

“Probably to prevent accidents.”

Yiwen thought for a moment. “Then I need to buy more groceries before they lock it down, or else our Xunxun will starve. Oh, and you too. I need to have the department store send up more nutrient liquid.”

Xie Jianxun placed the egg on the sofa, where it stood steadily with no risk of tipping over.

“Because the bugs are coming,” the Little Adventurer said seriously. “Will locking down the area effectively prevent the Insect Clan from invading residential districts?”

“No idea.” Yiwen shook her head. “Yiwen doesn’t have an anti-bug module installed.”

Soon, every street and community received notifications that the authorities would lock down citizens’ movement areas while staff performed insect extermination and disinfection.

Only then did everyone realize that the “Insect Clan resurgence” trending topic they’d seen on Star Net a few days ago was right next door.

Soon, another wave of voices arose.

[Silver Watchtower has never been invaded before. How could there be bugs?]

[The City Lord’s Mansion is doing pest control? Does that mean the Insect Clan is already here? Otherwise, why go to all this trouble to block roads?]

[I checked the notice. Starting the day after tomorrow, no one can leave home for five days. Not bad, right? Stock up on food at home, and five days will fly by.]

[Damn, aren’t you scared? That’s the Insect Clan!]

[Where did these bugs even come from?]

They couldn’t have drifted in from outer space past the planet’s customs blockade and landed on the surface, right?

Just imagining bugs raining from the sky was horrifying.

In reality, not many people had actually seen live Insect Clan yet, so emotions remained stable. People went to work and school as usual.

Until someone broke the news: Nevi Group mecha had unidentified biological eggs on their inner walls, which were brought into the Black Market and circulated secondhand!

While Xie Jianxun slept, the outside world had flipped upside down.

In the bright midday sun streaming through the curtains, his hair was fluffy and messy. He sat dazed in bed, staring blankly.

He casually scrolled Star Net’s hot searches and gasped when he saw familiar names.

The bionic egg lay quietly on the soft pad beside his bed, its patterned side facing him.

Hearing the movement, Yiwen twisted the door handle and burst in from outside.

The mechanical female voice chattered excitedly. “Xunxun, you’re awake! It was so lively last night!”

“You know how the Brain Domain Mech had some issues and got recalled by Nevi Group? Well, someone exposed that they didn’t destroy the secondhand Brain Domain Mechs at all. Instead, they let them flow into the Black Market and secondhand markets, spreading everywhere!”

“And that batch of mechs was recalled from border planets!”

Xie Jianxun blinked his bewildered golden eyes at her electronic screen.

A tuft of hair stuck up from his forehead, which Yiwen affectionately smoothed down.

He snapped back to attention and pieced together the logic. “Insect Clan resurgence on the border planets, so military personnel probably carried bug eggs on their mechs during combat by accident.”

“But… shouldn’t recalled mechs undergo basic cleaning and disinfection first?”

Yiwen wanted to shrug but had no shoulders.

“See, that’s the problem.”

The mechanical arm explained, “Nevi Group’s young miss in charge had some conflict with her fiancé over trade routes—something about node changes and ownership rights. Yiwen doesn’t get it. Anyway, there was a major personnel shakeup on that line, everything got messed up, and skipping full cleaning procedures is normal.”

She whistled. “After this mess, I bet their engagement is done for. They’ll probably go their separate ways tomorrow and end up with bad blood.”

Upper management fighting, chaotic policies, mid-level reshuffles, high staff turnover at the bottom.

Add in rival suppression, and even a massive group like that would face turmoil.

Xie Jianxun listened raptly. When Yiwen finished, he let out an “Ah” and said softly, “So now Silver Watchtower has bug eggs and casualties all because two companies were fighting each other back then?”

Yiwen grumbled, “Dog-eat-dog. No sympathy there.”

Xie Jianxun said, “The ones to pity are the Hos.” And all those young people who loved mechs.

He opened Star Net and spotted a familiar old friend.

Pengpai Factory, which managed the production lines, issued a statement to the public affirming the purity of their raw materials and assuring stability in factory personnel—everything under control.

Due to their partnership with Nevi Group, Surging Group’s stock fluctuated too, forcing their leader to speak out.

The young man’s face appeared in the video. Xie Jianxun almost didn’t recognize him at first.

He clicked his tongue. “…Seles has changed this much?”

If Tuls was faking a cheap elite vibe, then Seles—the real rich kid—naturally exuded upper-class polish with a little effort.

Now he stared straight into the camera, hair slicked back, expression confident, unfazed by the reporters’ barrage of questions.

Standing next to his brother, the two shared an uncanny similarity in bearing and presence.

Xie Jianxun watched for a bit before sending a text: Saw your statement on Star Net. Looked good. Congrats!

Seles replied almost instantly.

Seles: Waaah, this tie is choking me, I’m gonna puke!

Three seconds later, the message was deleted, as if nothing happened, and he resent:

Seles: Thanks, my brother taught me well.

Xie Jianxun nearly burst out laughing. He saw Seles complain: Xun Jia, look at your ex-online-boyfriend. He’s caused so much trouble for my company, and now I have to step up and show my face.

Xun Jia was probably in class and didn’t reply right away. A moment later, he sent a question mark.

Xun Jia: First off, he has nothing to do with me or my family.

Xun Jia: Second, good news: My mock exam scores are super high!!!

Seles: Yay!!!

Xie Jianxun: Yay!!!

Xun Jia boasted smugly: Wait for me in Silver Watchtower. This year, I’m definitely applying for integrated mechanics.

Seles: Our biotech is pretty good too, scores just a tad lower. Think about it?

Xun Jia: I didn’t take bio, duh… You probably don’t know how bad I am at biology.

Two days passed in a flash. Xie Jianxun only saw Idis emerge from the basement around eight every evening, wordlessly asking Yiwen for a glass of ice water—which he didn’t drink—before carrying it back down.

It looked like he was using the ice water to cool his overheating brain.

Xie Jianxun followed behind his wheelchair, curiously asking about progress, but the mech engineer just shook his head.

He showed a faint pained expression. “His chip tech is too complex. I can’t even think of any top electronic tech company in Silver Watchtower that could achieve this level.”

Xie Jianxun leaned in and massaged his shoulders.

“A company from another planet?”

“If even Silver Watchtower’s companies can’t do it, other places probably can’t either… So how was he made?”

Xie Jianxun couldn’t figure it out and casually said, “For the most complex tech, wouldn’t that be the Main Brain’s arms factory?”

Idis raised an eyebrow and looked at him quietly.

Xie Jianxun spread his hands candidly. “Everyone knows the universe has only one mechanical lifeform: the Main Brain. His mastery of this tech must far surpass humans’, right?”