Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Gravity... Silk Gland?!

"So this weird feeling... is it really gravity?"

Looking at the description in the freshly added "Evolution Log" on the panel, Wen Jing was totally amazed and curious.

Humans can only perceive gravity indirectly, through its effects. But her new sense lets her feel gravity directly, the way we sense electromagnetic waves.

It was an amazing feeling—she could feel the tiny warping of space-time caused by her own presence.

The first thing she noticed was that her "danger radar" got a major upgrade in range and precision.

At the same time, her tail-abdomen had changed big time, from a spindle shape that could curl up to an oval shape, kind of like a spider's butt.

She could feel all her body's nutrients being funneled to her abdomen first, and that organ was also her gravity sensor.

With a thought, a translucent thread shot out of her tail.

Wen Jing first thought about moving around and spinning something, like a spider building a web.

But she quickly scrapped that idea.

The ability she'd evolved for 346 skill points was no joke. The thread—more like Gravity Silk—wasn't like spider silk. Once it left her body, she could still control it.

It wasn't totally intuitive, but she could definitely control it.

And the way she controlled it was pretty wild: it could sense gravity fields and waves, using them as paths to travel.

The bit of silk she'd just spat out writhed and twisted in midair, like an invisible hand was tugging it, speeding up and slowing down.

Basically, anything with mass could be an anchor point for the Gravity Silk.

Even though the ground's gravity kept Wen Jing on the surface and not floating,

the Gravity Silk didn't give a damn. No matter how strong the gravity, to the silk it was just one wide path among many.

She could make it take the highway or a back road—only the speed changed.

Right then, she made the Gravity Silk silently stick to a decent-sized rock nearby.

Then she instinctively pulled her abdomen in, reeling the silk, and WHOOSH—her whole body shot straight toward the rock.

It all happened super fast. She realized she wasn't affected by any other gravity—only pulled toward whatever the silk was stuck to.

Plus, if she slowed the reeling before she arrived, she wouldn't slam into the rock from inertia.

Woo-hoo!

Wen Jing was so stoked she did a little tap dance in the air with all six legs.

This was way faster than that springtail escape move that only worked when she was about to die. And she could go way farther too!

She checked her status panel again—

Life: 0.01

Strength: 0.01

Speed: 0.01

Spirit: 0.01

Traits: Gravity Silk, Gravity Silk Cocoon

Species Level (Insectoid): 0.01/∞

"..."

Wen Jing's hype quickly turned into pain over those skill points.

So she'd dumped all her points into this one trait and put zero into her base stats!

Plus she noticed even after all those points, the Gravity Silk Gland was still level 'I'—meaning it could go even higher.

...She didn't want to think how many points an upgrade would cost.

She forced herself to chill, telling herself this trait had serious potential and safety came first. Then she used the Gravity Silk to relocate to the safest spot nearby and started spinning again.

This time she spun way more silk, and the anchor point was herself.

After getting a feel for Gravity Silk, she instinctively knew how to use her second trait, "Gravity Silk Cocoon".

Wrapping herself in the Gravity Silk Cocoon would help her lock onto spacetime anchors when going back to the material universe.

Compared to the wild gravity in the Primordial, the material universe's gravity was "nice and neat."

Plus, since she was using algorithms, she could lock onto the biggest ship in the area and never accidentally land in space.

Halfway through spinning, she suddenly thought of something and stopped.

Then she scooted over to a rock about twice her size.

After a quick calculation, she started spinning again.

This time her silk wrapped around both her and the rock.

"Life's tough..." Wen Jing sighed inwardly.

Back when the evolution options showed up, the first two were about staying alive, and only the third was about making dough.

But what could she do? The Primordial was packed with treasure, and Awakeners could bring stuff back to the Federation—but only as much mass as their own Wild Body.

Small Wild Bodies had it rough, and Wen Jing was one of the tiniest—apparently the only freshman with an insect Wild Body.

After evolving, how much she could carry depended on how big a chunk her Gravity Silk could wrap around.

Now her silk glands were flat, and she'd finally fully wrapped herself and her loot.

This rock she'd grabbed off the ground was definitely no treasure, but every little bit counts—better than nothing.

The next moment, Wen Jing connected with the "channel" in her consciousness.

Chaos unfolded before her, each region seemingly leading to an unknown endpoint.

Based on energy trajectories, Wen Jing calculated algorithms, weaving through countless solid and illusory energy channels, searching for the landing point to return to reality.

The weird energy of an Awakener pulsed through her silvery-gray insect body, soaking into each strand of Gravity Silk and making the translucent cocoon glow faintly.

For Awakeners with insufficient compatibility, the process of returning from the Wild to the material universe is somewhat similar to channeling a recall in a game, where they have to avoid getting hit.

It's not that the cast can be interrupted like in a game; rather, when an Awakener leaves the Wild, their energy level gradually drops.

If they're attacked, it causes a huge deviation in the final spatial landing point. Even if they're incredibly lucky to survive, both the Wild Body and the human body will have serious lasting effects.

However, the higher an Awakener's compatibility, the faster they return. Some powerful ones can even use entering and exiting the Wild to perform a "blink" in the real universe, evading various fatal attacks.

In the space not far from Zherang Star, the glow of a high-energy electromagnetic cannon left a beautiful, straight fiery trail, visible to the naked eye for people on the eastern hemisphere of Zherang Star.

The moment he was enveloped by the light of the electromagnetic cannon, Tyno's figure vanished from the universe.

The next moment, he appeared directly beside a figure a hundred meters away.

His muscles bulged, and his already-two-meter frame quickly expanded to three meters. His skin was covered with black, horn-like scales, and sharp spines protruded from his back.

"Imperial scum, you've picked the wrong person."

The usually stern chief examiner now grinned from ear to ear, his mouth splitting to his ears, and between his interlocking fangs, drops of lava at terrifying temperatures dripped from his fangs.

The man, wearing a combat suit unlike the Federation's, suddenly faced Tyno. When he saw Tyno's cracked vertical pupils, his face filled with terror, and he immediately opened a spatial passage beneath his feet.

But at that moment, a slender, white woman's hand slashed the space beneath his feet, cracking it like glass.

The cracks blocked the escape passage right in front of him. Before he could see who did it, the towering dark figure from behind struck, and the high temperature vaporized him instantly.

Once this man was dead, the black holes around them vanished completely.

Tyno looked at the white-haired woman not far away, shrank back to his normal human size, looking a bit surprised to see her.

The white-haired woman was exquisite and beautiful, only about 1.6 meters tall, practically petite in the interstellar age, but able to fight directly in space, clearly a powerful Awakener with 100% compatibility.

Since sound doesn't travel in space, they just exchanged a glance and then flew toward the spaceship in tacit agreement.

The cannon shot had pierced the cabin, but the ship's core power area was protected by Tyno's personal Awakener guards using energy shields, and could repair itself.

After entering the first repaired cabin, Tyno took the initiative to greet the white-haired woman:

"Dean Bai, I didn't expect you to come personally."

Dean Bai wasn't in the mood for small talk. Her face was as cold as frost: "Another class-F prisoner."

Tyno said in a low voice: "Ever since the Empire dug up a B-class Awakener with the ability 'Ability Diversion' twenty years ago, these kinds of raids have been happening often. Their losses are too small compared to what they gain."

"So you still arranged for the new students to enter the Wild?"

"Yes."

"Has it been five minutes since they entered?"

"Thirty-two seconds left."

They exchanged a look for a moment. Dean Bai spoke: "Prepare for search and rescue. Tally up the survivors."

Twenty minutes later, Tyno walked over to Dean Bai and transmitted a report to her:

"The search and rescue was timely. Only one died of suffocation in space; the other thirty-eight received emergency treatment in time."

Dean Bai only frowned, looking at the column 'Number Missing in the Wild' on the report.

The number was 195, of which 103 were new students of Zherang Academy this year.

She expanded the detailed entries, where the students were automatically ranked by their unified exam scores. The first name that came into her view was Wen Jing.

……

The Shadow Wolf lowered its head, swayed left and right, its nose twitching continuously, carefully distinguishing the special scent here that attracted it.

Finally, its red eyes lit up, locking onto the direction of the target.

It lowered its head, stopping in front of a white silk cocoon even smaller than its black nose tip.