super battleship

Chapter 6: Ancient Coin

Half an hour later, all the iron tools aboard the *Sea Wolf*, including every nail and iron hoop on the ship, had undergone the "mechanical worm transformation." Even Nie Yun’s “black-haired companion” was now completely gone.

“Excellent!” Nie Yun stood on the beach, gazing at the *Sea Wolf*, which now shimmered from head to toe in a silvery sheen. He smiled with satisfaction, but in the next moment, he began to worry. It was certainly impressive, but perhaps a bit too ostentatious.

If I sail out like this, I’ll probably be stopped by the coast guard in no time.

“If only it could change color,” Nie Yun mused, furrowing his brow.

Then, as if by magic, the silver sheen of the mechanical worms across the ship swiftly reverted to the original colors of the tools. The *Sea Wolf* before Nie Yun's eyes seemed to have undergone a rapid transformation, as though it had been photoshopped, shifting from a high-tech silver vessel to a dilapidated old fishing boat. The ship’s grand aura plummeted from the clouds back to the mundane world.

“Uh… this…” Nie Yun gaped in disbelief at the sight.

Then, recovering his senses, he burst into laughter. “Haha, well done, my little ones! You’ve even saved me the cost of paint! But it seems we still lack communication. Come, let me explore your full potential!”

With a thought, Nie Yun extended his hand, and amidst the mechanical worms voraciously devouring the shipwreck, a fist-sized silver sphere emerged, bouncing into his palm with the lightness of a rubber ball.

Like a child with a new toy, Nie Yun played with the silver sphere, which sometimes transformed into a frying pan, sometimes into a delicate knife. He even molded it into various shapes as if it were clay.

As Nie Yun commanded, the sphere changed colors—sometimes pure black, sometimes pure white, and at other times, a vibrant array of hues.

“Haha, how amusing! Now, turn into a longsword!” Nie Yun, caught up in the fun, decided to indulge his youthful fantasies.

However, this time, the mechanical worms remained still, and a query echoed in his mind: “What is a longsword?”

Nie Yun gestured for a while, attempting to describe a longsword as a long, handled object, but the mechanical worms remained puzzled, rolling around in his hand.

“Uh, can’t do it? Could it be they can only transform into things they've consumed?” There certainly wasn’t a sword in the *Sea Wolf*’s hold.

After much back-and-forth with the mechanical worms, Nie Yun finally understood.

The mechanical worms were not just a repair fluid but ultra-micro robots, each with a storage unit. Although a single mechanical worm had an extremely low storage capacity, as their numbers grew, their collective storage capacity increased exponentially.

When mechanical worms consumed an object, they stored its virtual model, which allowed them to reconstruct it using their own material, a process similar to 3D modeling.

Currently, the objects modeled by the mechanical worms occupied less than one ten-thousandth of their total storage capacity. It was easy to imagine that as their numbers continued to grow, their storage capacity would reach astronomical levels. As long as they had a physical template to devour, there was theoretically nothing the mechanical worms couldn’t replicate!

“Wow! Amazing! So, if I feed you an aircraft carrier, you can build me an aircraft carrier?!” Nie Yun was astounded. For someone who aspired to be an honorable fisherman, this revelation was more shocking than encountering an alien artifact!

Until now, he had treated the mechanical worms more as tools or toys for repairing the *Sea Wolf*.

Suddenly, he realized that his father’s son might just strike it rich!

This discovery finally made him understand the true nature of the mechanical worms he had obtained.

The wonders of an advanced cosmic civilization, even the remnants of a ship repair fluid, were beyond the imagination of a humble fisherman from a backwater planet like Earth.

Of course, there were factors related to the fusion and mutation between Nie Yun and the mechanical worms, but he was completely unaware of them.

However, despite his excitement, Nie Yun only wanted to live his simple life aboard the *Sea Wolf*. As for using the mechanical worms for something greater? Nie Yun had no such ideas.

After their “father-son conversation” ended, Nie Yun found himself with nothing to do. Watching someone eat could be quite enjoyable, especially when the eater was a beautiful woman. But watching a swarm of mechanical worms eat? Not so much.

He yawned, feeling a bit bored, and lay down on the deck to bask in the warm sunlight, planning to catch up on some sleep.

For some reason, he found himself increasingly drawn to sunbathing, feeling uncomfortable when he was away from the sun.

“Is this what they call becoming more alike the longer you live together?” Nie Yun glanced at the mechanical worms beside him, letting his mind wander.

His eyelids grew heavier, and Nie Yun drifted into a dream where he became a six-legged mechanical worm, frolicking with countless identical brothers and sisters…

It wasn’t until the sunset painted the sky a deep red that Nie Yun woke up, rubbing his bleary eyes. “What an embarrassingly weird dream! At least wear some clothes…”

Mechanical Worms: “…”

He looked around and saw that the mechanical worms had nearly finished devouring the shipwreck. The parts of the ship above the waterline were completely gone.

The number of mechanical worms seemed to have increased again, and at that moment, a small cluster of worms rolled over to him, their surface still wet, indicating they had just been working underwater. As they unfurled, they revealed what they had been carrying—a coin!?

Holy crap, an antique! Nie Yun was instantly wide awake, grabbing the coin and using an appraisal skill on it!

The coin looked quite old, its surface dull and devoid of any luster. He didn’t know what metal it was made of, but it was definitely not iron. If it were, it wouldn’t have made it into his hands! Nie Yun was 100% certain of that.

“Looks like a silver coin.” Nie Yun rubbed the coin, scrutinizing it closely.

The front of the coin bore the inscription “Guangdong Province Mint” at the top, with “One Tael” below it. On either side, there was a bat motif, with “Guangxu Yuanbao” in the center. Turning it over, he saw a double-dragon design on the reverse.

“Guangxu? Sounds like some emperor from a dynasty… Song? Ming?” Nie Yun racked his brain, trying to remember which dynasty Guangxu belonged to, but his limited knowledge of history soon led him to give up.

Knowing it was an antique was enough—surely, it was worth a lot of money. Given that he was now penniless, Nie Yun instantly saw the prospect of a good meal on the horizon.

He happily stashed the coin away, relishing the feeling of waking up to find treasures delivered to him!

He surveyed the area where the shipwreck had been. The bottom was filled with silt, and the mechanical worms must have found the coin there. Otherwise, there’s no way it would have fallen into Nie Yun’s lap.

Nie Yun noticed that as the number of mechanical worms grew, so too did their intelligence. They even knew to turn in their spoils now—an unimaginable concept. Could this be collective wisdom?

What he didn’t realize was that the fusion between the two wasn’t a one-way influence; it was mutual!

Nie Yun felt he was becoming more like the mechanical worms, while the worms, in turn, were becoming more human—more like “Nie Yun”!