I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

Chapter 182: Chapter 166: Iron Armor Oyster Extract

This kind of body modification was completely different from when he had absorbed the Tier Four Coral Worm Tentacles.

He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he just felt that this modification wasn’t as thorough as the last one.

If upgrading his Pinprick Strike skill before was major surgery, this was, at best, a minimally invasive procedure.

A moment later, the modification was complete. Su Ze closed his eyes to sense the changes and discovered that, surprisingly, his ”Pinprick Strike” skill had been upgraded again!

Or rather, it couldn’t be called an ”upgrade” this time, merely an ”enhancement.”

None of its other aspects had changed—its power, piercing ability, and so on were all the same. The only difference was the addition of a poison effect.

Previously, ”Pinprick Strike” had always had the potential for a poison effect, but it required Su Ze to possess a poison-type skill himself.

But after this enhancement, the ”Pinprick Strike” skill now came with its own innate poison effect!

Pinprick Strike: Focus all your strength into a single point for a piercing attack. The Qi Force will explode after entering the target’s body and infect them with Plague Poison.

Now, ”Pinprick Strike” came with Plague Poison. Even if its potency was weaker than the original Tier Three Plague Poison from the Plague Poison Rat due to Su Ze’s own evolution level, as long as it could affect higher-tier lifeforms, it was a major boost.

With Su Ze’s current strength, he didn’t really need poison-type skills. So even though ”Pinprick Strike” had a poison effect, he had never considered absorbing a poison skill.

For him, mutated beasts and evolvers below his level, or even at the same tier, were basically one-shot kills. Using poison would be completely redundant.

’Why poison an enemy you can kill with one punch?’

And against enemies of a higher level, poison skills were mostly useless anyway.

Using a Tier Two poison against a Tier Three mutated beast or a Butterfly Stage evolver would have almost no effect.

Therefore, poison skills were useless to him.

But since this Plague Poison could work on higher-level lifeforms, it was a different story entirely.

With the current power of his enhanced ”Pinprick Strike,” a single hit on a typical same-tier enemy, with the Qi Force exploding inside them, would usually be enough to finish the job. The Plague Poison’s effect wouldn’t even be needed.

But if one strike wasn’t enough to kill them, they were definitely a formidable opponent—like a Tier Three mutated beast or a Butterfly Stage evolver. That’s when the Plague Poison’s effect would shine, infecting the enemy with the plague and weakening them, creating an opportunity for him to defeat a higher-level foe.

All in all, Su Ze was quite satisfied with this enhancement to ”Pinprick Strike.”

Moreover, although it was only a skill enhancement, it also gave Su Ze’s physique a small boost.

After the ”Pinprick Strike” skill was enhanced, he looked at the Plague Poison Rat’s poison sac again. It had lost its dark green luster and had become a limp, mud-like puddle.

Su Ze’s gaze then fell upon the remaining club-like bone.

’I hope this bone can give my ’Knowledge Is Power’ skill a decent upgrade...’ Su Ze prayed internally as he reached out and gripped the bone.

The familiar pull appeared again, but it still wasn’t intense—not the kind that would make him lose control.

A suspicion formed in Su Ze’s mind. He suspected this large bone, like the Plague Poison Rat’s poison sac just now, could only ”enhance” skills, not ”upgrade” them.

Materials like these were not as attractive to his body as those that could upgrade skills, like the Tier Four Coral Worm Tentacles.

But as the saying goes, even the meat on a mosquito’s leg is still meat. As long as it was an improvement, Su Ze wouldn’t turn it down.

The large bone stuck firmly to Su Ze’s hand. With his recent experience, he calmly channeled his evolutionary power into the bone, allowing it to merge with the energy within.

A moment later, Su Ze withdrew his evolutionary power and began to undergo the physical modification.

Su Ze noticed that this modification seemed to be concentrated in his legs.

He tossed aside the large bone. It had now completely lost its luster and looked like a piece of dead wood.

After another moment, the modification was complete. Su Ze closed his eyes to sense the changes, an expression of both surprise and disappointment appearing on his face.

Unexpectedly, the energy from the large bone hadn’t enhanced his ”Knowledge Is Power” skill, but rather ”Furious Waves”!

Su Ze racked his brain but couldn’t figure out what connection a beast like the Earth-Shaking Demon Ape had with a Mutated Giant Crocodile.

He searched online and found out that the Earth-Shaking Demon Ape had a skill called ”Heaven and Earth Rend,” which involved striking the ground to cause area-of-effect damage. This had some similarities to ”Furious Waves.”

And the part of ”Furious Waves” that had been enhanced was precisely its ground-based damage.

Previously, Furious Waves worked by striking the ground to create an air wave, hitting enemies on the ground, underground, and in the air. After the enhancement, its attack power against ground and underground targets would be stronger, and it would also cause the earth beneath his feet to shatter.

Furious Waves: Viciously strike the ground, causing it to shatter and unleash a violent air wave that attacks the surrounding area (within a certain range on the ground, underground, and in the air). Deals extra damage to ground and underground targets. Lifeforms hit by the Air Wave Attack will enter a brief state of Dizziness. The user can sense the position of all lifeforms within the attack range.

Su Ze realized that enhanced skills were usually only strengthened in one specific aspect, unlike skill upgrades which were an all-around improvement.

Enhancing two skills on this trip was a fruitful harvest, and Su Ze was very satisfied.

Next, he just had to hope he could find an evolution material to upgrade ”Knowledge Is Power” at the Oasis Commerce Association’s trade fair.

Su Ze stayed in the hotel for one night. The next morning, he planned to say goodbye to Xu Sheng and head back to Dongli University.

But unexpectedly, Xu Sheng was extremely thoughtful. He had come to wait for him at the hotel entrance early in the morning and personally drove him to the high-speed rail station.

With that kind of service attitude, Su Ze couldn’t help but wonder why his promotion had been so slow before, leaving him as a small shop manager in a little city like Heiyan City for so many years.

...

Su Ze returned to Dongli University and continued to peacefully digest the extracts in his body, while also waiting for the Oasis Commerce Association’s trade fair to begin.

Unexpectedly, a commotion had erupted at Dongli University in the past few days.

Someone on the campus forum revealed that a male student had absorbed an Iron Armor Oyster extract and obtained the ”Gender Transformation” skill from it.

And this male student was none other than Shi Qiang, the one known as the ”Dung Beetle.”

Su Ze learned from Mr. Ya that Shi Qiang had previously gone ”dung collecting” at the bottom of the sea with him, and the two had discovered an extremely rare Tier Two Iron Armor Oyster beast.

Shi Qiang was still only in the Pupa Stage and was very tempted by the Tier Two Iron Armor Oyster’s extract. So he and Mr. Ya joined forces and, after considerable effort, managed to hunt the Iron Armor Oyster.

According to Shi Qiang, he had wanted the ”Iron Armor Guardian” skill from the Iron Armor Oyster, but he had accidentally absorbed the ”Gender Transformation” skill instead.

In reality, however, everyone knew that the Iron Armor Oyster extract contained this rather explosive skill. People usually made a point to avoid it and wouldn’t touch its extract.

If the ”Gender Transformation” skill allowed for controllable gender switching, many people would probably want to give it a try.

After all, even the monk who rings the bell sometimes wants to be the bell.

Driven by curiosity, or some other... desire, plenty of people would surely be willing to try it for a unique experience.

The problem was, the skill had many limitations. First, it was very difficult to absorb, with a very low probability.

According to research by evolutionists, it’s hard to acquire this skill unless you have a soul that doesn’t match your biological sex living inside you.

Second, even if you did acquire the skill, you couldn’t switch genders at will. The transformation would occur based on the evolver’s subconscious.

If your subconscious believed you were a woman, you would become a woman. If it believed you were a man, you would become a man.

So, for most people who absorbed this skill, it was pretty much fucking useless, because nothing would happen.

Coupled with the scarcity of the Iron Armor Oyster beasts, this made the skill extremely rare.

Yet Shi Qiang had not only actively sought to absorb the Iron Armor Oyster extract, but he had also successfully absorbed the ”Gender Transformation” skill, and then a gender transformation had actually occurred...

He had successfully transformed from a senior (or junior) male student into a senior (or junior) female student!

This seemed to say a lot about certain things.

The interesting thing was, the old Shi Qiang had absorbed a giant dung beetle extract and mastered a set of poop-related skills, causing everyone to keep their distance from him. His social standing on campus wasn’t great. But after he became a she, her popularity in class and in the dorms skyrocketed. Her classmates and roommates all started treating her like one of the bros.

Shi Qiang requested to be transferred to the female dorms, but this was met with boycotts and opposition from a large number of female students. The male dorms, on the other hand, all expressed their willingness to take Shi Qiang in.

A few days after this incident, Su Ze was meeting Mr. Ya for skewers at the campus gate when Mr. Ya brought along a tall girl.

Su Ze was taken aback for a moment and asked, ”Mr. Ya, you got a girlfriend?”

Mr. Ya gave a dry laugh and said, ”This is Shi Qiang!”

Shi Qiang gave a very ladylike smile and greeted Su Ze in a soft voice, ”Mr. Su, you don’t recognize me? I’m Shi Qiang. Well, I’ve changed my name to Shi Qiang now.”

Su Ze’s hand, holding a skewer, froze in mid-air. After a long moment, he let out an awkward laugh. ”Haha, well... you’ve really blossomed, haven’t you? I barely recognized you. Come on, sit down and have something to eat.”

Su Ze could barely make out a shadow of the old Shi Qiang in the new Shi Qiang’s features. And he had to admit, for such a big, burly, dark-skinned guy, he looked pretty good after turning into a girl. ’Evolutionary power is truly magical!’

Still, the old Shi Qiang pushing a ball of dung was one thing, but if the now delicate and girly Shi Qiang were to push a ball of dung, the image would be a little strange, wouldn’t it?

’I’d suggest she push a pink ball of dung. That’s more girly.’

However, Su Ze didn’t smell any strange odors on Shi Qiang now, only the scent of women’s perfume.

The three of them sat down, eating skewers and chatting. They soon started talking about the Tier Three Dung-Eater that Mr. Ya was raising.

”It should be able to start its fourth evolution in just a few days!” Mr. Ya seemed very excited. He had been waiting for this day for a long time.