Chapter 751: Gold Coin

The X-8 "Monstrous" variable wings fighter jet possesses a vertical takeoff and landing function that is unique among the squadron intercepting asteroid fragments. Only Lin Mo can land brazenly near the crash site and unceremoniously dig at the meteorite crater.

He pulls out asteroid remnants that can nearly char a human hand in an instant, blows on them to cool down for a moment, and then tosses them into the back seat of his cockpit, lifting off in his fighter jet.

None of the military, the Aerospace Department, or the astronomy department anticipated this situation.

Nowadays, it is no longer fashionable to hoard spoils of war, yet unexpectedly, one pilot ends up casually making off with the largest chunks of meteorite after the mission.

This left the researchers who rushed over empty-handed, helplessly watching as the variable wings fighter jet soared into the sky. What could they do? They couldn’t catch up, overpower that pilot, or even shout loud enough to stop him!

The military has a habit of protecting their own, which is traditional. Initially, they didn’t think much of it; after all, just a few broken pieces weren’t worth much, so if someone wanted to keep them, let them be. If it hadn’t been for the astronomy bureau forging links at higher levels, it would have been impossible for their pilot to return the spoils.

After much effort, the astronomers finally contacted Lin Mo through a series of connections. The “Night” is not so easily contacted.

Now everyone knows that Major Lin Mo of the Aircrew Group is not just a metal enthusiast, a tech geek, or a cosplay fanatic; he is now also a meteorite collector. Such peculiar items are not rare in military bases.

Lin Mo picked up three asteroid fragments, the largest being about the size of a watermelon, and the smallest about the size of a fist. One of those was a bit larger than a fist, breaking into over twenty pieces of various sizes.

Hearing from higher-ups that the astronomers wanted them, surprisingly, he didn’t keep them all for himself and promised to give them all to the astronomers who came to him.

And it was a gift, not a return; what falls from the sky belongs to whoever picks it up.

If he had only collected those tiny fragments the size of fingers, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but under the strong recommendation of the gold giant dragon, the three largest meteorite fragments all fell into Lin Mo’s hands. If not him, then who?

Transferring the items was nothing like a spy drop-off; they simply found a small noodle shop, each ordered a large bowl of beef noodles, slurped them down, wiped their mouths, exchanged cash for goods, and then went their separate ways, with nothing owed between them.

The cash was for the noodles, and the goods were three bundles wrapped in old newspapers. The astronomy bureau staff verified the three asteroid fragments from Lin Mo’s canvas bag on the spot—they were indeed genuine extraterrestrial visitors—then returned to their vehicle, satisfied to repackage the items.

No one would have expected that the precious asteroid fragments could be exchanged in such a down-to-earth manner. Even those foreign forces or organizations trying to pry into the situation would find it impossible to uncover any clues in such a public handover.

The three fragments were casually given over, with Lin Mo benefiting only from a free bowl of beef noodles topped with extra ingredients.

The actual possessor of the asteroid fragments, the gold giant dragon Gold Coin, had no comments to make; instead, it seemed to support Lin Mo’s disposal of those three fragments like a godsend.

Those were genuine stone meteorites, not even considered iron meteorites.

The gold giant dragon had eagerly taken a bite on that day, only to end up with a mouthful of unpalatable stone debris. It was taken aback; after all, winning the lottery twice is beyond luck, and not every meteorite contains magical alien metals.

The gold giant dragon had struck it lucky twice already; encountering one alien piece would certainly be a delightful surprise.

It was truly unbelievable; the gold giant dragon was only interested in metals and found 99% silicate meteorites utterly unappealing. Only the earth element giant dragon would absorb a bit of earth element power from such material; no creature would willingly chew on rocks. Gold Coin didn’t belong to the foolish category and promptly retreated, resolutely refusing to take a second bite.

Had it not witnessed that unappetizing horror dug up by Lin Mo, the gold giant dragon would have fought tooth and nail against the Dragon Knight. This was an act of murder!

Accustomed to high-purity metals and diverse alloys from modern industry, the gold giant dragon is incredibly picky about food. If a ranking of gluttons existed among the dragon kin, Gold Coin would undoubtedly top the list.

These three pieces of earthy meteorite debris became the gold giant dragon’s shame. Luckily, this was another world; otherwise, its kin would have laughed at it mercilessly.

What a disgrace, losing dignity in such a way!

…

After Lin Mo returned to the base, the irate gold giant dragon expelled all the processor chips, storage chips, capacitors, resistors, semiconductors, and various electronic components that had been inside it. This nearly startled Lin Mo, who thought for a moment that Gold Coin had ingested something unsanitary or that one of those asteroid fragments contained a special poison targeting the gold dragon kin.

The sudden odd behavior of the gold giant dragon was not directly related to those three asteroid fragments but was instead linked to the discoveries made in the wilds of Iran.

It finally erupted into pure dragon form and completed its analysis.

That large piece of purple unknown metal, which encased numerous garnets, didn’t grant the gold giant dragon any magical replication abilities like the Splitting Metal did, but its properties still intrigued the gold giant dragon immensely.

Not conductive!

Or rather, it has insulating properties.

The gold giant dragon can only digest metals; even if it were given a magical elixir, it would be of no use. If it weren’t for the fact that Gold Coin completely digested these purple substances, one could be certain that this had a gold property; otherwise, just the fact that it is not conductive might lead Gold Coin to believe it is some other type of material.

Conductivity is a fundamental characteristic of metals. Even manganese, with its high resistance, can still conduct electricity. At least all the metals on Earth possess conductive properties.

Gold Coin used the special rights and honors awarded to the Gold Element Dragon Kin for discovering unknown metals: naming rights, giving this non-conductive unknown metal a simple and memorable name: Coin Gold.

Gold Coin! Coin Gold!

"Can’t you choose a better-sounding name?" Even Lin Mo couldn’t help but frown, feeling that as Gold Coin’s knight, his own intelligence had been lowered significantly.

This glutton was simply too lazy, just switching its name slightly and calling it a day.

Did it think that this would make it famous for centuries?

At the very least, a name like Liquid Magic Gold, Moore-Yin Gold Dust, Sligint, or Damascus Steel would have been more fitting and sounded more impressive.

The name Coin Gold is just too shabby; it really is surprising that this glutton could think of that.

"This is my right! I can name it whatever I want, even ‘Doghead Gold’ if I choose! Haha, this name will definitely make people think of me, Gold Coin! How simple and memorable!"

The gold giant dragon was obviously very excited and refused to change it, insisting on calling this purple metal Coin Gold.

Well, Lin Mo really couldn’t continue to argue with the giant dragon over such a tasteless name. He was more interested in understanding what benefits this insulating metal named Coin Gold brought to the gold giant dragon.

As for Lin Mo’s questions, the gold giant dragon didn’t hold back. As partners or employer and employee, the gold giant dragon needed to let its own master know what new abilities it had gained.

Coin Gold did not provide the gold giant dragon with any strength or extreme physical properties like high temperature resistance; it only brought the unique characteristic of insulation.

If it were still in the original world, this property would be as useless as a chicken rib.

However, in this world, one cannot underestimate such insulating properties.

It was as if the insulation was tailor-made for the gold giant dragon; when combined with conductivity, it was like the basic structure of computer code with 0s and 1s. The collision of these two properties produced an extremely wide range of applications.

The electronic components materials the gold giant dragon had used were mostly mixtures of metals and non-metals, utilizing semiconductor characteristics to create components with varying functions and parameters. Depending on requirements, they would arrange to form circuits, achieving functional modules through hardware programming and software controls.

It was like when something lacking appears just when one needs it most; Coin Gold’s properties delighted the gold giant dragon.

Since obtaining this non-conductive metal, it expanded the gold giant dragon’s options, and it evolved more directly. It could create semiconductors with varying conductivity by mixing different concentrations, freely design circuit boards, and assemble the most basic electronic components. Just like gathering sand to build a tower, it could construct any electronic components the gold giant dragon needed without relying on prefabricated artificial electronic products.

In this way, the large and small "spark" element cube modules composed of nearly ten different electronic components sitting on Lin Mo’s desk had completely turned into mere decorations.

With a fully metallic structure, the gold giant dragon no longer needed to carry other electronic components. It could effortlessly transform into various electronic products, and common scanning equipment would find it difficult to detect the mysteries inside its current form.

Just a single special property allowed the gold giant dragon’s abilities to merge with the technological electronics of this world, creating infinite possibilities.

Or rather, the Gold Element Dragon Kin should start from now on to include a new dragon kin branch because of the gold giant dragon Gold Coin, and Lin Mo even thought of a name for it: the Digital Dragon Kin.

A flashy and cool name that keeps up with the times, surely the big shots within the dragon kin would not refuse it.

This was a product of the repeated collisions between Magic Civilization and Technological Civilization. The gold giant dragon also relied on various kinds of magical metals to achieve its own growth and evolution.

With the special evolutionary skills granted by some special metals, the anticipation for future evolutions only grew stronger for Gold Coin.