Chapter 7 of 100

Chapter 7

14 min read3,586 words

Lu Xin washed his dirty work clothes and then started to take a shower.

After a whole day of climbing up and down the machines, he was not only very tired but also very dirty, with his skin often covered in metal powder. He had to take a long shower every day to wash away the grime on his body.

As he rubbed the dark spots on his skin, he became more determined to climb up from the machine repair class as soon as possible.

After the shower, Lu Xin did not play online games as usual. Instead, he took out some small metal parts he had brought from the factory and began to practice controlling the metal with his mind.

Lu Xin stared at a copper rod and used his mental power to manipulate it.

The slender copper rod moved according to Lu Xin's thoughts, appearing in various places around the room, sometimes landing on the computer desk, sometimes on the bed, and sometimes on the chair.

He then experimented with lead blocks, tin blocks, and aluminum strips.

Through these experiments, Lu Xin discovered that he could now use his mental power to manipulate metal objects weighing less than one kilogram and move them freely within a two-meter range. The closer the object, the more precise the control; the farther away, the less precise.

Lu Xin could also use his mental power to attack with metal objects weighing less than one kilogram within a two-meter range, with the accuracy decreasing as the distance increased.

After two hours of experimentation, Lu Xin confirmed that the mental power required to attack with metal was at least ten times more than simply moving the metal.

It seemed that in the future, he should try to set traps like he did with Li Li, using nails, and avoid using metal to attack as much as possible. After all, human mental power is very limited and can be easily depleted. Once mental power is exhausted, a person will fall into a state of unconsciousness, which is a terrifying state.

Lu Xin felt a bit regretful. He was a poor man, and there were no gold or silver items in his dormitory, so he couldn't verify whether he could control these two metals.

However, Lu Xin remembered that the high-entropy alloy furnace contained gold and silver. Since he could control other metals, he should be able to control gold and silver as well. He would conduct experiments when he had the opportunity.

Lu Xin had a sudden idea: perhaps he could go to a jewelry store and try to transfer a gold ring or a silver necklace into his pocket.

But he soon discovered a flaw in his ability: since he controlled metal through mental power, his mental power could only pass through air and metal, not through other substances.

This meant that transferring a gold ring inside a glass window into his pocket was impossible. However, this was for the best, as he had no intention of becoming a thief.

Lu Xin then thought about how to increase the power of his ability to control heavier metal parts and move them over longer distances, such as how to control a ten-kilogram iron block to fall from a high building and accurately hit the bastard Li Qiming, who had ruined his future.

When Lu Xin held an iron rod, a mysterious energy flowed from the rod into his body. He immediately remembered that when he first came out of the high-entropy alloy furnace and touched the iron railing, copper plate, and aluminum frame, he had felt the same strange sensation.

Lu Xin quickly realized that this mysterious energy might be a unique energy of metal substances. By frequently touching metal parts and absorbing this mysterious energy, he could enhance the power of his ability.

After two hours of experimentation, Lu Xin began to feel dizzy and mentally exhausted, as if he had just taken a college entrance exam, with all his brain cells dead. However, when he held the iron rod and felt the mysterious energy flowing from it, he sensed his mental power gradually recovering.

However, the recovery rate was always slower than the consumption rate. After another hour of experimentation, his mental power was completely depleted, and he was extremely tired. He fell asleep on the bed, still tightly gripping two iron rods.

Lu Xin woke up at six in the morning, feeling naturally refreshed and full of energy, as if he had an inexhaustible supply of spirit. This was a hundred times better than his previous state of constant fatigue and lethargy.

He opened his eyes and was surprised to find that the iron rods in his hands had been twisted into corkscrews, with clear finger marks several millimeters deep on each rod. The metal molecular structure inside the rods was much looser than when he first started holding them, as if something was missing.

Lu Xin began to understand that the missing substance might be the core of the metal energy, which he had absorbed and converted into his own energy, both physically and mentally.

However, the iron rods were clearly damaged. Lu Xin easily broke one of the iron rods into two pieces and, with a little more effort, crushed it into an iron ball.

When he picked up a new iron rod that had not absorbed any internal metal energy, he found that he could only bend it but not break it, and certainly not crush it into an iron ball. This iron rod was the same size and thickness as the previous one, indicating that the metal energy was a key component of the metal's strength and hardness.

He suspected that the metal energy might be the free electrons that form the metal bonds, but he couldn't fully understand the mysteries of the metal structure yet; it was just a guess.

Lu Xin then remembered that he had held the iron rods all night, absorbing the mysterious energy. His metal control ability should have been significantly enhanced. He tried to manipulate heavier metal parts.

He found a two-kilogram weight and could only move it about one and a half meters. With a one-kilogram weight, he could move it about three meters.

After several experiments, Lu Xin discovered that the effect of moving metal with mental power was a combination of mass and distance. Last night, the effect was 2 kilogram-meters. After absorbing the metal energy from the iron rods all night, his mental control power increased to 3 kilogram-meters.

The effect of attacking with metal was the same as moving it, but it consumed at least ten times more mental power than simply moving the metal. This characteristic remained unchanged.

Lu Xin felt a bit disappointed. Could his ability only include skin metalization, changing metal shape, moving metal, controlling metal attacks, and absorbing metal energy? If that was all, his prospects were limited.

He didn't know that his metal control ability was not limited to these. Skin metalization, changing metal shape, moving metal, controlling metal attacks, and absorbing metal energy were just the basic abilities. As he absorbed more metal energy and reached an intermediate level, he could decompose, weaken, strengthen metal, and control the metal elements in the human body. At an advanced level, he could directly control metal molecules and change their molecular arrangement. At the peak level, he could control all substances related to metal, almost achieving control over everything.

Lu Xin quickly adjusted his mindset. Even if his ability was limited to skin metalization, changing metal shape, moving metal, controlling metal attacks, and absorbing metal energy, it was still an extremely suitable "golden finger" for him as an engineer with a mechanical background. As long as he used it well, he could change his current difficult and miserable work situation, take revenge, solve technical problems, and climb the corporate ladder.

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