Chapter 25 – Experimentation (Part 3)
The feeling he experienced when he destroyed that star immediately led him to a conclusion.
"I've changed something about the potato's taste. That… I'm certain of," Zane muttered as he inspected the vegetable. "The surge of information had only been about the taste. So, if the star shattered… does that mean the potato is tasteless now?"
There was only one way to find out.
Zane stood up and went to the kitchen, returning moments later with a knife in hand. Sitting down again, he began peeling the potato with practiced ease.
'Never liked the skin. I only want to eat the raw potato itself,' he thought.
Eventually, a cleanly peeled potato sat in his hand, yellowish and hard. He stared at it for a moment, sighing to himself.
"I'm really about to eat a raw potato… The sacrifices I have to make…"
He cut off a small piece and tossed it into his mouth, already bracing himself for the unpleasant taste. But in his head, he was just searching for that signature flavor—a natural, earthy taste only raw potatoes had.
As he chewed slowly, Zane's eyes widened.
"I can't… taste anything," he said, stunned. He chewed a few more times just to be sure, but the result didn't change. The potato was completely tasteless—like chewing on nothing but texture, with zero flavor.
Eventually, he spat it out and stared down at the rest of the potato in disbelief.
"It actually got rid of the taste completely. This is… this is insane!" he exclaimed. This had been his very first attempt at using his new ability, and the result was nothing short of magical.
He sat there, soaking in the moment.
Zane had dreamed about supernatural powers ever since he was a child. Powers that went beyond human limits, that allowed him to bend the rules of the world. Seeing them now—experiencing them firsthand—was like watching those long-lost dreams bloom into reality.
"Okay, let's take some notes. I need to make sure I'm keeping track of everything I'm doing."
Quickly, he grabbed his notebook and began scribbling down his findings.
"The stars are the code of life for each target," he wrote. "If I break one of the stars, an aspect of that target will be destroyed as a result."
He then drew a rough sketch of what he had seen in that strange mental space—the dark void, the bright dots, and the way they were all connected by some invisible, chaotic order. He couldn't fully recreate the mesmerizing image, but he did his best to record it accurately.
Once finished, he set the notebook down and looked at the potato again.
"Okay… now I want to see what else I can change about the potato. Ideally, I'd like to do more than just destroy the stars. Maybe I can alter them instead—change the shape or color."
He closed his eyes again, letting his energy wrap around the vegetable. In the next moment, he was back in the star world.
With clearer intent this time, he floated toward another star and gently reached out toward it. His hope was to touch it without breaking it—maybe even move it.
But the moment his finger brushed against it…
Shatter!
The star burst into nothingness, and Zane's mind was hit with another rush of information. This time, it was about the starch content within the potato.
Zane winced and rubbed his forehead. 'This feeling will take some time to get used to. I definitely don't like it.'
Opening his eyes, he muttered, "I guess I just got rid of the starch… but why are they so fragile?"
Letting out a sigh, he prepared to try again, this time with a gentler approach. He moved to another star and hesitated before making contact.
"If it's that fragile, then I must avoid touching it directly…"
He floated his hand above it, thinking.
'If I can't touch it… Maybe I can still move it another way?'
A strange idea popped into his head.
"How about this?" He leaned in. "Fuuuuh…"
He gently blew a puff of air at the star. To his surprise, it worked. The soft gust of wind moved the star slightly—without shattering it.
'It worked!' he thought excitedly, giving it another gentle blow.
However, unlike before, this time, no rush of information came. Just silence.
'So pushing it doesn't give me any feedback,' he realized. 'Still, maybe it changed something…'
Opening his eyes again, Zane glanced down—and blinked in shock.
The potato was no longer solid.
A slimy, gooey yellow substance was now oozing between his fingers, dripping messily onto the floor.
"…"
He stared at the mess in stunned silence.
"This is… going to be a nightmare to clean."
Still, despite the inconvenience, the change confirmed something important.
"At least I know I altered its structure. But… can I bring it back to its original shape?"
With that thought, he closed his eyes again and returned to the star world. This time, he tried to blow the star back toward what he thought was its original position.
'I don't remember exactly where it was, but it was somewhere around here…'
He gently pushed the star again, adjusting its position slightly. Then he opened his eyes to observe the result.
Now, the potato had changed again—but not quite back to normal. It was still slimy, but now mixed with chunky bits of raw potato.
Zane gagged.
"…This is disgusting," he muttered, fighting the urge to throw it across the room. "I've created something vile. This should be a crime against nature."
Despite the horror in his hands, he recognized the value of the discovery.
'Even moving the DNA just an inch away from its original position causes drastic changes.'
This taught him a few key lessons.
First, if he wanted to restore something to its exact state, he would have to memorize its DNA star positions precisely. Unfortunately, that was almost impossible in such a dark, empty mental space where every part looked the same.
"That's a problem I'll need to solve somehow," he said aloud.
Second, he realized he could control the degree of change. Whether he made something half hard, half slimy—or adjusted the ratio further—he had complete command over it.
"That's actually really useful," he noted, rubbing his chin.
The third and final thing he realized was the downside of his current method: Moving a star didn't grant him information about it.
"So I'm blindly altering things unless I break the stars. But if I break them… I destroy their attributes. That's annoying."
He needed a way to read the stars without destroying them.
Frustrated but determined, Zane picked up his notebook again and jotted down everything he had just learned. Then, he added a new section—a to-do list of things he wanted to investigate next.
By the time he finished, the list had grown quite long.
Staring at the messy scrawl and chaotic notes, Zane let out a deep breath.
"This is going to be a long night… isn't it?"