Chapter 328 — Birth of the Mechanical Phantom Beast

Of course, Susu the familiar still hadn't woken up, so Shi Jin paid it no mind — a pile of top-grade resources was waiting for it to absorb, and the skills it would awaken afterward would probably be no small number.

As for Mecha Lin, Shi Jin had found the time to teach it Clone and Magnification.

By now its growth level had long since reached Commander-tier. From birth to Commander in under a month — one could truly call that fast.

At this moment, relying on his status as Master of the Ruins, Shi Jin quickly made his way to the Mechanical Research Institute.

He had barely arrived when he suddenly heard the jubilant cries of Mecha Lin and Ginseng Baby.

"We did it, we did it!!!!"

"Eee!!! (As expected of me!!)" Ginseng Baby was elated.

"Master, we did it!!!"

Shi Jin had just arrived when a mechanical cube in the sky suddenly turned, and the chibi face on it spoke with utter excitement.

"Uh," Shi Jin froze.

He was about to ask when his expression suddenly changed — in the dragon enclosure, a fierce-looking mechanical T-rex baby, barely over a meter tall, was bouncing about full of energy.

"Roar!!!"

Inside the dragon enclosure, the mechanical T-rex let out a roar.

It was hungry!

But it was bound by the surrounding spatial shackles and couldn't get out no matter what, able only to batter helplessly against the spatial barrier.

At this moment, the cube Mecha Lin was watching this familiar from the sky in delight.

Ginseng Baby pushed up its glasses, closed the book at its waist, and wore the lonely expression of a top student.

This time it had made a huge contribution — though admittedly, the plan had been Sister Lin's.

Shi Jin's eyes burned as he stared at the mechanical T-rex with its "giant claws" and "shield."

[Name], [Attribute], [Race Level], [Race Skill] — every one of them was "???".

But for [Growth Level] and [Energy Value], the results were the incredible "Transcendent-tier" and "3187"!

Shi Jin was stunned for a moment, then quickly came to his senses.

"It worked?"

"The research path for the Ancient Species · Mechanical Phantom Beast — it worked?"

Seeing that the codex could detect the mechanical T-rex's life fluctuations, Shi Jin spoke, overjoyed.

He looked at Lin excitedly.

They'd agreed on three months — and it had been less than one!

As expected — when he slacked off, his beasts were the number-one productive force!

Had they done this earlier, gotten a mechanical beast plus an Intelligence level sooner, maybe they'd have even cobbled together a forbidden weapon by now!

Lin: (✿◡‿◡)

"Thanks to Ginseng Baby's help."

"Eee. (No — it's that he's genuinely formidable.)" Ginseng Baby sighed, already sensing the gulf in learning capacity between itself and the mechanical lifeform.

A single book took it ages to chew through, yet the knowledge of an entire library — a mechanical lifeform could download it and have it memorized on the spot. How was it supposed to compete with that?

It almost made it want to find itself a smart chip and remodel itself into an undying mechanical ginseng.

Maybe it could work? Ginseng Baby sank into thought — remodel itself into forbidden machinery, then self-destruct alongside Moonburst; it would revive anyway, so it might as well carry the art of explosion to its logical end.

Shi Jin: "Enough with the mutual flattery..."

"Hurry up and tell me how you did it, and what state it's in now."

Lin nodded, looked at the mechanical Tyrannosaurus, and immediately began explaining to Shi Jin: "Mm — but as things stand, the intelligence can only be called a preliminary success. It isn't perfect."

"The revived mechanical Tyrannosaurus is not the same as it was in ancient times — an Earth Overlord of the mid-tier Overlord species."

"Because its genes are incomplete, the mechanical Tyrannosaurus's species rank cannot be perfectly restored even with skills like Dream Theft and the False-True Phantom serving as mediums."

"Its current species rank is roughly low-tier Monarch species. It has inherited only one super-tier skill, 'Earth Domain'; every other super-tier skill, along with its lower-tier skills, was lost in the course of the resurrection."

"This may be the inevitable price of the Dream Phantom combining with the smart chip and mechanical equipment to 'evolve' — or rather 'mutate' — into a mechanical Tyrannosaurus. Restoring the full grandeur of the ancient overlord may require further optimization."

"However, because it became an entirely new species, it has also gained new skills: Thunderbolt, a high-tier lightning skill; Charged Lightning, a mid-tier lightning skill; and Basic Intelligence, a mid-tier mechanical skill."

"So its attribute assessment now comes out very strange..."

"Mechanical, lightning, earth?" Shi Jin was stunned.

"Thunderbolt, Charged Lightning?"

Its claws and shield were made with Eleven's lightning-drawing hardened metal — so the earth-type Tyrannosaurus learned lightning-type skills after becoming a mechanical Tyrannosaurus?

That works too?

Good grief — a mechanical Tyrannosaurus of three types: mechanical, earth, and lightning?

Then this... does it still count as an ancient species...

"It's already quite good. No matter what, it's at least a mechanical beast of Monarch rank, and it successfully inherited a skill." Shi Jin: "If you'd restored a perfect Overlord-species Tyrannosaurus in one go, that would be unscientific."

Shi Jin thought it over, then let it go.

A stable breeding route for Overlord species would certainly not come easily.

"So — how did you succeed?" Shi Jin asked, looking at the irascible Tyrannosaurus.

"For its modification materials, I carried on with the 'Dream Mechanical Alloy' you chose before, Master, and Eleven's 'lightning-drawing hardened metal,' still using electrical energy as the primary power source."

"Building on the original approach, I combined the skills of Chongchong, Ginseng Baby, Crimson Eye, and Susu, taking Ginseng Baby's 'Mutation Fruit' and 'Time-Essence Fruit' as the core, and using the theoretical knowledge from the Third Bureau's breeding compendium as the foundation, to cultivate a special spirit fruit called the 'Soul-Heart Fruit' — once a mechanical phantom beast eats it, it awakens into a true living being."

"You actually managed to pull it off..." Shi Jin gazed at the sky.

He truly was brilliant and far-sighted. Had he not taught Lin the Third Bureau's breeding knowledge, this so-called Soul-Heart Fruit would never have come out so easily; Lin would likely have had to attack the problem from some other direction, and who knew how long that would have taken.

"The Soul-Heart Fruit holds many powers — mental dreams, soul and spirit, the essence of life and time, purifying force. It has already purified the residual ferocity within the fossil, so the mechanical Tyrannosaurus hatchling before us, once joined with the smart chip, is equivalent to a newly born Tyrannosaurus hatchling. It may look fierce, but that is simply the nature of the species."

"Huh??"

"Then hurry up and feed it."

Shi Jin had the feeling the mechanical Tyrannosaurus hatchling was crying from hunger!

Chongchong's Spatial Shackles isolated the natural power of lightning, leaving it unable to feed naturally.

"Eee..."

Ginseng Baby was startled, then at once condensed a potato-shaped nutrient fruit imbued with earth power and tossed it to the mechanical Tyrannosaurus.

The mechanical Tyrannosaurus might run on electrical energy... but an earth fruit should, in theory, still be edible.

"Roar QAQ!!"

Inside the dragon enclosure, the mechanical Tyrannosaurus baby immediately began bitterly gnawing at the delicious potato.

Seeing this, Shi Jin: "But I get the feeling this little guy is kind of dumb — does it really have a shot at first place in the Mechanical Tournament..."

Mechanical Tyrannosaurus: "Roar!!!"