Chapter 57 Superpower Evolution
With 170 seconds left on the timer, Iris closed her eyes and hit purchase without another thought. Even though this would leave her with only 45 points afterwards, she
didn’t care.
The moment she bought the machine, that spot on the page turned into a cooldown window. Apparently, items here weren’t available for unlimited purchase and refreshed randomly instead.
Besides the Evolution Fluid Extraction Machine, there weren’t any other gold–tier items available. The rest were just materials like steel plates, reinforcement panels, floor tiles, rebar, cement, and gates for base construction.
These materials were dirt cheap, basically one point each. They had time limits but no purchase limits. Thinking about how crappy the materials were in Logan’s little house by the entrance, Iris grabbed a batch of steel plates, floor tiles, and gates while she was at it.
After buying them, she discovered these materials actually came with attribute bonuses. Every single one added between 1 and 10 points to base durability. 13:22
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Iris‘ eyes lit up when she saw that. If she reinforced her entire base with these materials, it would become a genuine steel fortress. A whole new project just opened up in her mind.
She burned through all 45 of her remaining points in rapid succession, then stared longingly at all the other treasures she wanted to buy but couldn’t afford anymore.
“Don’t worry,” she told herself. “I will be back for you soon enough.”
Iris exited the system and went straight to examine her Evolution Fluid Extraction Machine. A flash of golden light appeared as she pulled the device out of her inventory space.
It was a compact desktop–sized piece of equipment with a lid–style opening on top where crystal cores could be inserted. At the bottom was a liquid dispenser outlet.
Iris grabbed the level–2 superpower crystal core she’d been saving and placed it inside the machine. She set a clean cup under the liquid outlet and plugged the device into a power source.
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She’d spent a long time trying to figure out how to boost her powers, but discovered that practicing and using them repeatedly didn’t actually raise her upper limits at
all.
What did work was eating more meat or having sudden breakthrough moments under extreme pressure, like what happened with Logan today.
But now, after taking the evolution liquid, Iris could make that entire rose bush mature with just a casual gesture. All the vines moved at her mental command and had offensive capabilities, and her body felt completely normal with no side effects whatsoever.
She turned toward the bathroom and activated her water control. She had both Water and Wood powers now.
A torrential downpour of water slammed into the bathroom walls with tremendous force. Her water output was more than double what Logan had managed today, and the impact was so powerful it punched a massive hole straight through the wall.
Good thing the bunker was built inside a mountain. If
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this had been a regular building above ground, the water pressure probably would’ve blown right through it. The explosive power amazed even Iris herself.
She stared at her hands in delight. Based on her memories, her current strength was roughly equivalent to what metahumans had five or six years into the apocalypse, and she’d achieved this with just half a dose of Level 3 zombie evolution liquid.
Now she understood. She was absolutely certain. Crystal cores were essential items for metahuman evolution.
That explained why metahuman development had been so slow in the early days of her previous life. Progress only accelerated once the major bases matured and crystal cores began circulating widely.
The big bases had gradually discovered the secret of the cores, formulated evolution liquids, and sold them to metahumans to speed up their advancement.
powers
But Iris remembered that the metahumans she’d known all suffered serious side effects. The faster their grew and the quicker they leveled up, the worse their
problems became.
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Some developed violent tempers or mental instability. Others had their powers suddenly go berserk, losing control and killing people around them in zombie–like frenzies of biting and tearing.
Iris suspected now that the evolution liquids produced by the major bases weren’t pure enough. They boosted metahuman powers while simultaneously accumulating toxins in their bodies that eventually caused backlash effects.
She was starting to figure out the rules governing these
powers.
Walking out of the bathroom, she looked at her
purification machine with deep satisfaction and stored it in her spatial inventory.
This thing was an absolute treasure. It could extract and convert 100% of a crystal core’s energy with zero side effects. If the big bases outside found out about this, the whole world would lose its mind.
She drank half of the remaining evolution liquid and saved just a bit, tucking it away to bring outside with her.
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
