Doomsday: I Build an Infinite Train.

Chapter 412 Dark Energy Lattice
Late at night, in a carriage of the Infinite train.

The lights were off, and several blue cold lights were placed in carriage number 2. The members of the Infinite were gathered together, some standing and some sitting, like a midnight storytelling session.

"14,000?"

Gedi's words immediately stunned everyone on the Infinite. No one had realized that this girl, who looked to be under 20, had not only broken through to the Angel level but had also reached a peak Spirit Value of 14,000. This sounded somewhat unbelievable.

"How could they be so high?" Ning Jing frowned. "I mean, were those monsters really that difficult to deal with?"

Her words were self-evident: with this level of strength, dealing with a few monsters shouldn't be so difficult, even if those monsters had evolved bio-force fields.

Vanessa, with one hand on her hip, looked at Ning Jing's team of formidable individuals, her gaze lingering on Huo Ge, and began to speak.

"The Phoenix Society is still keeping its crystallization process under wraps and hasn't announced it to the public. I thought you would know, after all, you are the Swordholders. I didn't expect..."

Gaddy walked over to Vanessa and said, "We all know that lattice formation does have drawbacks and can cause powers to go out of control. Currently, only an Adventist organization like the Holy City dares to plunder openly, including the Vegetable Juice Balance for the same reason."

“Crystallization is the most effective way for superhumans to increase energy density to deal with supernatural entities. Can any drawback be greater than death? I don’t see it that way,” Vanessa said.

Lin Xian watched the two discuss and overheard some key information, so he said...

"Crystallization? Is that why your Spirit Transformation value reaches 14,000?"

“Yes.” Gaddy was about to answer when Vanessa stopped her, stepping forward and looking at Lin Xian meaningfully: “Swordholder, cooperate with us. I will give you all the information, and…”

She looked around and said with great interest, "We can help you all complete the crystallization process. You know, this can at least double your peak ability!"

Upon hearing this, Monica, Ning Jing, Chen Sixuan, KIKI, and others all frowned, and Qian Dele, Huo Ge, Luo Yang, and Long Zhijie also had a slight change in expression. Clearly, everyone was starting to take an interest in what Vanessa had said.

"Double it?" Shu Qin said at this moment, "Bio-modification?"

Lin Xian glanced at the deathly darkness surrounding the Infinite Number on the information center interface, then turned back and said...
"Tell me first, by the way..."

Lin Xian pressed the earpiece and called over Ding Junyi, Xiao Yuan, and Sun Yuzhen. The two of them were in carriage number 3 protecting Director Ding, but Lin Xian felt that in this situation, it would be better for them all to discuss it together.

Soon, Ding Junyi and the other two walked in from the dark carriage. Upon seeing this, Lin Xian said, "My team members are all here. Director Ding is an expert in dark energy research and is also very interested in this."

Vanessa exchanged glances with Gedi upon hearing this, then said to Lin Xian, "First of all, let me clarify that we did not release the power of the lattice just now, because the energy source for this power comes from dark energy, which is the invasion of darkness. Secondly, using this power after dark is extremely dangerous, especially since we do not have the Dark Mark. Releasing this power is equivalent to lighting the Dark Mark ourselves. Unless we are confident that we can eliminate all the strange entities in the area, we will not use it unless absolutely necessary."

"This kind of crystal you're talking about doesn't sound like it's mine," KIKI said, arms crossed. "It can be turned on and off?"

Vanessa shrugged. "Sorry, if it were daytime, I wouldn't mind showing you, but now..."

As she spoke, she glanced at Gedi, who nodded and pressed a mechanical unit near her ear. Instantly, her mechanical prosthetic eye flashed blue, and a miniature holographic projection appeared in front of everyone.

A seemingly complex spherical crystal structure appeared on the screen, slowly rotating. Ding Junyi's gaze sharpened slightly, as if she had noticed something, but she didn't speak. Instead, she listened to Vanessa's explanation.

"This is called Dark Energy Lattice. It's used to replace the blood essence of the strange entity with a crystal seed inside the human body through spiritual energy exchange. We call this crystal seed a lattice. If the blood essence of the strange entity is the energy source of those strange entities, then this lattice is equivalent to a 'battery' that humans can cultivate within their bodies. This thing has many benefits. As far as I know, only a small number of ability users are cultivating it now, because you need at least a peak Spiritual Energy Value of 5000. And the 5000 I'm talking about doesn't take into account the Phoenix's Limit Coefficient; it's the most basic level."

"Huh?" KIKI immediately said upon hearing this, "You mean, this is a human implanting a blood essence into their body?"

“The term ‘implantation’ is somewhat inaccurate,” Gaddy said calmly. “Strictly speaking, humans and blood essence are incompatible. The way they obtain energy is very inefficient, which is a consensus. Although humans can filter and absorb dark energy in the dark to evolve themselves, the efficiency is far lower than that of the supernatural beings. This is why, although humans are evolving very quickly, it is still difficult for supernatural beings to defeat them with the combat power of supernatural beings alone. It is also why Phoenix developed the Cold Dark Agent and advocated balancing the dark energy in the body with sunlight and vegetable juice.”

“Yes, this lattice can be thought of as a new ‘organ’ for concentrating energy that humans evolved in the darkness,” Vanessa explained. “With the lattice, the efficiency of humans absorbing and converting dark energy will be greatly improved. Previously, according to the Phoenix Council’s calculations, the highest purification and filtration rate was 18%, and the human body was about the same. But with the lattice, this efficiency can be increased to 50%, or even 60% or 70%. The most important point is that the lattice can store the power of this dark energy, which can greatly increase the energy density of superpowers. This is also the main reason why my superpower peak can be increased from 7100 to 14,000.”

Upon hearing this, everyone's expression changed drastically. Lu Xingchen and the others couldn't help but widen their eyes. From 7600 to 14,000, that's a direct doubling! That's too outrageous.

"You mean, this thing is like a power bank?" Sasha asked, frowning.

“No.” Ding Junyi looked at Vanessa and said, “If I had to describe it, it would be like a second human…”

"Special Ability Engine".

“Wow, that’s a very apt description.” Vanessa took a deep breath and looked at everyone: “Yes, the crystal lattice is like the second engine for superhumans. There are quite a few battle reports from Dawn City and Reykjavik about S-class beings. They all contain analyses of how S-class beings can absorb similar dark energy to restore their energy or increase their energy density and destructive power. So this was actually learned from the supernatural beings. The increase in superhuman peak power can directly affect the physical body and mental strength, which is very effective.”

"So...we're going to put one of these things inside our bodies?" Qian Dele leaned back on the sofa, looking suspicious. "That doesn't sound good."

Monica stood to one side with her arms crossed, and said leisurely, "The replacement and crystal core seed you're talking about sounds like it must be quite complicated, doesn't it?"

“It’s not only troublesome, but also very risky,” Gaddy said. The holographic image in front of her began to change. The spherical lattice was now placed in the area in the center of the lungs on the chest of a human. It looked only the size of a thumb, but it had an exaggerated energy release. “To replace the blood essence of the monster, it must first be at least level three blood essence. Then, it is said to have a certain compatibility with the original power of the monster. Moreover, the generation of the crystal seed is also dangerous, because the generation of the crystal seed means that the dark energy balance in the body is broken. This process is very painful, a great test of mental strength, and there is also a certain degree of risk of death. According to our experience, the generation of the crystal seed takes at least 72 hours, which varies from person to person. Finally, after the crystal seed is generated, there will be a big difference. We call this difference ‘completion degree’.”

"Completion rate?" Lin Xian frowned. "There are still options that don't meet the requirements?"

“No.” Vanessa shook her head: “Not meeting the standard means death. As long as it survives, it is qualified. You can think of this completion level as the quality or constitution of the crystal core, just like a silicon-based CPU. Even with the most advanced industrial system, there are still physical potential differences. The same is true for human reproductive DNA. It can produce better offspring or it can produce terrible ones.”

"In short, we have divided this 'completion level' into four categories: C, B, A, and S. Category C refers to those with a completion level of 70%-85%, and the dark energy that the crystal lattice can absorb is also in the same range. Therefore, even the worst C-grade crystal core seed can increase a person's peak ability by at least 70%. Category B is 85%-95%, Category A is 95%-98%, and the final S-grade refers to crystal cores with a completion level of over 98%, which is infinitely close to 100%."

"I don't understand," Chen Sixuan said at this moment, "Is there really such a big difference between S-grade and A-grade if there's only a 3% difference?"

"Have!"

At this point, Gaddy said, "Don't simply understand this completion level as just the percentage increase in peak ability. That's not the case. The human body has potential. For example, my lattice is B-grade at 87%, but my peak ability can be overloaded to 98%, while Vanessa's A-grade is 95%, but she can be overloaded to 116%. The more perfect the lattice, the greater the difference in overload."

"Holy crap, overload, it really does sound like CPU overclocking." KIKI looked surprised: "I understand now, the cultivation of this crystal seed also depends on luck and individual physical condition, right?"

"Correct."

"What is the approximate failure rate, or mortality rate?" Chen Sixuan asked.

“It varies from person to person.” Gaddy looked at Lin Xian and the others: “You don’t need to worry too much about this. The stronger the ability user, the higher the success rate of cultivation. And... I don’t think anyone would give up crystal cultivation because of this risk.”

"Why?" Lin Xian asked.

“For survival,” Gaddy said. “The benefits of the crystal grid are numerous: enhanced abilities, dark adaptation, accelerated absorption and evolution of dark energy. Most importantly, with the crystal grid, human ability users can now fight against existing extraterrestrial entities. For example, we believe that reaching 15,000 is enough to fight against an A-level entity, and reaching 20,000 is enough to contend with a special-level entity. Although there are differences between individual entities and the assessment of entity levels is relatively rough, it can still serve as a reference.”

She looked at Huo Ge and said, "You must be an angel-level being."

Huo Ge crossed his arms and said with an arrogant expression, "I am 12500."

After the battle of Dawn City, Huo Ge's combat power skyrocketed. Combined with the Infinite Ring, his peak ability has reached the highest level among all members of the Infinite, second only to Lin Xian.

“What if it doubles?” Gaddy still looked at him and said in a descriptive tone, “With 25000 fire-type ability, you might be able to deal with even a super-large special-level monster head-on.”

Upon hearing this, Brother Huo's expression froze slightly, and it was clear that he was quite tempted.

"That sounds just what I'm looking forward to, but I'd like to know, what are the drawbacks?" Lu Xingchen wasn't stupid; there must be a reason why Phoenix didn't release the content globally simultaneously.

Lin Xian also looked at Vanessa and Gaddy. He had similar thoughts to Lu Xingchen: everything comes at a price, and he also wanted to know what that price was.

"There are many drawbacks."

Vanessa stated directly, "First is the danger; second is that using it at night will produce more powerful side effects than the decoy, at least equivalent to a level three Dark Mark; third is that it requires high-level blood essence. Having said all that, for the Phoenix Council, the two biggest uncertainties are the most fatal. Firstly, those with lattice-like abilities essentially possess power originating from darkness, leading to many unpredictable developments in research, such as irreversibility and even more terrifying mutations. Humanity currently cannot determine the consequences of developing lattice-like abilities. Secondly, human crystal cores are similar to the blood essence of the supernatural beings..."

"It can be taken!"

The air in the carriage fell silent for a moment, and everyone's expressions were complicated. They all understood what Vanessa and Gedi had said.

"Is this why the Adventist organization is hunting down superhumans, hunting down crystal lattices?" Lin Xian asked in a chilling voice.

Vanessa nodded, and Gedi responded in silence.

"interesting."

After listening, Lin Xian said with great interest, "I understand the Phoenix Society's approach, but I guess the Phoenix Society's Nightwalker organization is also conducting experiments on lattice evolution. This is indeed good news. If the current peak of superpowers can double or even reach a higher level in a short period of time, it means that it will not be long before superpowered individuals can fight against special-level beings one-on-one. They might even be able to hunt down S-level beings. This would be a major advancement."

Back in Dawn City, Lin Xian had seen the Human Evolution Light Ranking. Only the top few Angel-level beings with over 10,000 points had ever fought against Special-level beings, and at a great cost. Now, with the continuous evolution of the Strange Beings, if the Infinite Team members could double their abilities, these 20-plus people might be able to face an S-level being head-on.

For a moment, Lin Xian felt a surge of excitement. Compared to the experiences of the past few days, the unknown information from the South Heavenly Gate, the metal die that plunged civilization into despair, the evolution of the bio-force field of the strange entity, and these suffocating clues, this was indeed good news. Now that humanity could shield itself from the toxins of the darkness's invasion, it could rebuild its civilization system in terms of water sources, ecology, and aquaculture. The birth of the crystal lattice could accelerate the evolution of the abilities of a large number of superhumans. If superhumans could truly fight against S-class beings with their bare hands, then humanity would have the power to venture deep into the Star Abyss to fight against them.

Of course, Lin Xian figured all of this out himself. He thought for a moment, then looked at Vanessa and said...

"I'm very curious now, what kind of process is this crystal nucleus seed replacement you mentioned?"

(End of this chapter)