Chapter 5: The Secret of the Body

By the time they arrived home, it was already two in the morning. Wang Jinjun, that girl, had fallen asleep on Zijin’s shoulder halfway through the taxi ride, a world away from the sorrowful figure she had been earlier, grieving for him.

Zijin carried Wang Jinjun back to her own room, settled her in, and then returned to his own to examine the strange events of the night.

He could only remember, before losing consciousness, being struck and sent flying by a maglev freight truck—and that enormous spider, two or three times the height of a person, what was that about? He combed through his memories, searching for every detail, and suddenly recalled the news story he’d seen on Dongxi Road.

"An animal attack case... but how is it connected to all this?" After pondering for a while, he shifted his focus to his own body.

He felt no trace of injury—no broken bones, no ruptured organs; everything seemed to have been renewed. Some foreign sensation continuously coursed through his body, replenishing his energy at every moment. Feeling an endless well of strength, Zijin experimentally swung his fist, and to his astonishment, a bizarre scene unfolded.

In an instant, his mind was flooded with a torrent of information about tardigrades.

Tardigrades dwell in the sediment of freshwater, in moist soil, in the water films of mosses, and even in the intertidal zones of the sea, surviving by piercing plant and animal cells with their sharp stylets to feed on their juices. Their vitality is extraordinary—these creatures could exist in nearly every corner of the earth.

Tardigrades are the most resilient lifeforms on Earth, possessing formidable life force and survival skills. They can enter cryptobiosis in response to low temperatures, dehydration, or lack of oxygen, and even survive high temperatures. Astonishingly, they can endure the vacuum and radiation of outer space without any protection.

"What... is this?" The sudden surge of information assaulted Zijin’s mind, the searing pain dropping him to the floor.

"Tardigrades...? What do they have to do with me?" The thought struck him—he had mutated! Joy surged within him. Did this mean he was about to become a hero like Spider-Man, fighting for justice and punishing evil? Despite the pain, he forced himself upright, beginning to sift through the knowledge flooding his brain.

In essence, tardigrades possessed a remarkable ability called cryptobiosis—survival through dehydration, making them the most indestructible organisms known to man.

At the same time, his instincts told him something even more astounding: his mutation was exceptionally powerful. By touch, he could analyze the genetic sequence of another lifeform, simulate it, and perhaps even transform into that specific creature!

"This is... this is insane," Zijin muttered to himself. "Doesn’t that mean I can turn into a tardigrade and use its abilities? Damn, that’s incredible! Isn’t this just like those cultivation novels that used to be so popular? Am I a protagonist now? Hahaha!" He couldn’t help but grin foolishly as he indulged in his fantasies.

But a problem soon presented itself: he had no control over triggering this shape-shifting ability. No matter how many times he tried, his body showed no response, nothing like that sudden transformation from before. Frustration gnawed at him.

"Forget it, no point thinking too much." Zijin climbed into bed, mulling over the mysteries: "Animal attack cases... human footprints at the same scene... giant spiders... and me—what inevitable connection ties all these together?" With these thoughts swirling in his mind, sleep claimed him.

Night deepened. Unbeknownst to Zijin, outside both his door and his window, two pairs of eyes watched him intently.