"We've been contaminated." Nan Guohua said it without heaviness, his manner remaining bright and engaged — presenting a viewpoint, not delivering a eulogy.

"Evolution is change that originates from within ourselves. Through competition and selection, what's fit survives and propagates. But this time, the direction has been fixed for us from the outside. We have no choice but to accept being gradually replaced by metal. Metal may strengthen us in the short term — but at the end of that road, we may no longer be human."

"The end of that road?"

"Yes. Imagine the day you discover that your endocrine system has been replaced by metal. Your nervous system. Your blood. Eventually your brain. No more human perception. No more human thought. Would what remained still be a person?"

Shen Cong didn't take a position on this. Becoming a machine — he genuinely didn't have strong feelings about it. What he cared about was the process of getting there.

"Director Nan, you must have conducted substantial research on the Lv1 era. I need that knowledge."

"I'll walk you through everything we have. And I'd like to understand in return how an iron person changes after passing the core-point."

"You know I've passed the core-point?"

The question came out level. Internally, it was not. His heart lurched, and for a fraction of a second something cold and lethal surfaced — before he registered that Nan Guohua was an ordinary person, and closed it back down.

Nan Guohua had no idea how close he'd just come to a door that didn't open back. He continued without pause. "Yes. We have footage of your fight with the Near-Heavyweight ape. Analysis of the video indicates your strength exceeds what normal bone structure can sustain. From that, we concluded your skeleton has begun its metallic transition."

Nan Guohua's explanation didn't lower Shen Cong's guard.

It raised it.

He was becoming acutely aware of how difficult it might be to keep his secrets from the Eastern Theater Command. They had already been quietly collecting information on him — analyzing it, building a picture. And if…