Deep in the Living
Chapter 271 - 259 Physical Casting

Chapter 271: Chapter 259 Physical Casting

Matured.

Unlike children in the Human World, whose fragile bodies require various protective measures over the span of more than a decade, enduring lengthy feedings and exercise to mature the body, achieve normal organ performance, and push muscles to their limits to become so-called "adults."

Human-like beings born in True Hell do not need this process.

From birth, they possess physical qualities far surpassing those of humans, including, but not limited to:

High temperature resistance, drought tolerance, moldable flesh.

In pursuit of rapid military expansion, fortified national strength, and more efficient talent scouting, nearly every major power has its own method of "Physical Casting."

These methods aid newcomers in maturing their bodies faster and more effectively.

This process often only takes from a few hours to several days to complete.

Among them,

The method adopted by the Spine is "Physical Casting," a maturation technique evolved over tens of millions of years, perfectly suited for the Spine, rapidly assigning them their war roles upon arrival.

Although it has been optimized to the extreme, the process still involves risks and requires the participating bodies to meet the following conditions:

1. Spinal development has not surpassed the first stage (Open Spine or earlier)

2. The body is immature and has not undergone any form of deep transformation.

3. The body is healthy, and the spirit is full.

Spine meeting these criteria will receive a summons from the Spine Base Camp, Chaos Nest City, to participate in the recruiting ceremony, also known as Physical Casting.

Their bodies will completely transform and mature during this process,

Depending on individual tolerance, spinal strength, and personal consciousness, the final physically cast bodies may significantly differ.

The casting results are generally categorized into the following four types:

"Big Spine Block" - The most inferior matured bodies, wherein the Spine loses their self-consciousness completely during the casting process, with the body itself collapsing and the spine shattering.

Shattered remains are integrally cast into bone-flesh blocks used as construction materials for Nest City.

"Weapon Material" - During casting, consciousness shatters, the body collapses, only the bones remain intact. The factory will forge the spine separately, processing it into raw materials for weapons handed over to Nest City’s weapon factory.

"Beastification" - During casting, consciousness disperses, primal beastliness is awakened, and both the spine and body remain intact, ultimately transforming into a pure spine beast*.

These beasts are often given as pets to old soldiers adept at taming.

A minority of these beasts have superb spinal quality and maintain growth potential, eventually evolving into significant war beasts.

"Commoner" - Consciousness preserved, body healthy, spine intact. However, due to the individual’s inability to resonate with the casting process, the desired maturity level was not achieved, and their body remains in a preliminary stage.

Such Spine are labeled as commoners, belonging to the lowest stratum, only suitable as suicide troops and jokingly called "fill-in babies" by other Spine.

"Soldier" - Spine whose body structures have been perfectly cast, earning an official status in Nest City, and may proceed to the most fitting division for service following assessments.

The physical casting process generally consists of several stages:

1. "Heat (blanching)" - Boiling water activates the skin, making it completely translucent and flexible, readying it for the upcoming physical casting.

2. "Smelting (blueprint)" - Individuals post-blanching are conveyed on belts, briefly catching their breath before the conveyor transports them into the **Big Forge**.

** A core facility of the factory, critical to physical casting. Maintained at high heat by Blacksmith Wizards, who can also read the Spine’s thoughts inside.

The extreme heat of the Big Forge completely melts the body in a short time, burning even matured spines to their breaking point. Some with poor spines might melt through.

Once inside the Big Forge, before their bodies completely melt, the Spine visualizes the final blueprint of the formed body in their minds.

Once envisioned, it will be picked up by Blacksmith Wizards outside, who then proceed to forge the body based on this blueprint.

3. "Forging (molding meat)"

The utterly melted bodies are transferred out along with the glowing hot spines, based on their pre-melt mental blueprints, handled by top-tier Biological Blacksmiths for forging.

Ultimately, a matured body nearly identical to the blueprint is forged, escorting the individual into a role as a soldier with living rights in Chaos Nest City.

...

Luo Di, with his skin rendered transparent by the scalding water, was seated on the conveyor belt, not more than a hundred meters away from the center of the entire factory where the high-heat large furnace was located.

As a battle-hardened individual, Luo Di was well aware of what such extreme heat signified,

even as he was now, there was a significant chance he might die in it.

The opening of the furnace was akin to the gates of death, and the fast-moving conveyor belt was carrying him straight into it.

In such a situation, most Spine would feel fear, a fear of death ingrained in the genes of all living beings, indelible.

As long as one lives, they will fear death.

This design was precisely the main intent of the conscription ceremony.

It served to test how much fear a Spine would secrete facing death, and whether they could suppress this fear by themselves. After all, war is directly linked to death, and cowards are a burden in war, unworthy of participation.

Only the Spine who managed to suppress their fear on the conveyor belt could maintain stable consciousness afterward and conceive the blueprint for their body.

If one were to enter the furnace harboring fear, their consciousness would be incinerated alongside their body, even their spine would melt away, transforming into the lowest quality of flesh material.

Strangely though,

Luo Di showed no signs of fear, not even a twitch on his facial skin, nor a change in his blinking rate.

At the end,

Luo Di’s body fell from the end of the conveyor belt into the deepest part of the furnace, into a metal container that just happened to fit him.

The body shell quickly melted under the intense high temperature of over a thousand degrees Celsius, turning into viscous meat water that rolled downwards, collected between containers.

This feeling of death was so familiar, the only difference being it was a bit hotter than before.

Before his body completely melted,

The pituitary gland in his brain lost its color ahead of time, transforming into a movable gray mass collected within the spine.

Perhaps it was the mental touch brought by impending death,

or perhaps it was the so-called ’life flashing before one’s eyes’ effect,

at the moment before his death, Luo Di unexpectedly recalled the massacre in Moon City, the scene where all overseers were slaughtered and piled into a mountain of corpses.

A special blueprint stabilized in his brain, unaffected by the Hell Furnace, undisturbed by the war mindset, steadfast and unmoved.

Although the Blacksmith Wizards outside the furnace were surprised upon receiving the blueprint information, and although they had never seen anything like it, considering Luo Di’s uniqueness, there was not much hesitation; they immediately transferred this blueprint to biological blacksmiths for execution.

Perhaps due to the rarity of the blueprint and its high forging difficulty,

The blacksmiths needed to have a meeting in advance, and eventually, a few senior blacksmiths were tasked with the forging.

The outlet at the bottom of the Big Forge opened, a container loaded with metallic spine and melted flesh was transported out, and placed on the forging slab.

Spine hammering,

Mold pouring,

Muscle twisting,

Organ stabilizing,

Body quenching,

Detail polishing,

Skin acid dipping,

After several masters painstakingly carved and polished the details, the final product was complete.

However, all the blacksmiths who handled it had a hint of puzzlement: though the blueprint was special and relatively complex, their forging process was unusually smooth.

It seemed as if the subject’s body was also adapting during the process, even assisting in the shaping of the body, as if this Spine could survive independently relying on the spine itself.

This was far beyond the normal designation for a Spine.

Moreover, all the blacksmiths saw a color not belonging to the factory during the forging process, a gray hue flowing over the spine and flesh.