The scorpion stared in horror at the aliens who had just saved it. Only a few seconds ago, it had been trapped in the unbreakable glass chamber, losing its precious blood; while now, it was free.

"Thank you for coming to my rescue." The scorpion was grateful, "But would you please tell me..."

"Let's get out of here first! It's terrible here." William said, signaling the scorpion to follow. The party turned back and came out of the cave.

"Oh! It's all right now. Sorry to interrupt, but what do you want us to tell you?" Said William, sitting on the grassland, gasping hard.

"Er, I wonder how you got through those tunnels... And how you broke the glass."

Photon simply told it what had happened to them. "Oh! It seems that the power of technology is really inexhaustible." The scorpion said, "Well then, I will take you to the treasures now."

With that, the scorpion crept forward. "Treasures? What could it be?" Rebecca asked curiously.

"I put it in a place that absolutely no one else knows about. You'll find out soon enough." Replied the scorpion.

They entered a thick, gloomy forest. The trees still looked at the walking guests with evil smiles. A gentle breeze blew, and the sound of the branches sounded like the language of the trees. For some reason, William thought they were sneering and talking about them.

"Relax, William." Ranran whispered in his ear, "We'll be all right." She kissed his sweaty forehead lightly. He felt better and stepped up his pace.

"Look, here we are." The scorpion held up the pincers and pointed to a closed door, "The treasures are inside."

"Wow, it's so dark in here," Natalie said, a little scared.

"Never mind, I can use..."

"No, you don't have to. I think I'm used to light with fluorescent protein." William wanted to use the light of the compass, but before he could finish, the scorpion offered to help. Immediately, its body glowed bright green. Then it opened the door amid the exclamations of the party, going in.

There was a "glug, glug" from behind the door. "Oh? What's that?" Aria asked curiously. She heard the blender too. "What's that?" She wanted to know the answer in the next second.

The scorpion stopped in front of a huge instrument. "This is one of my treasures." It said proudly.

"One of them?" Asked all the others in one voice.

"Yes, one of them. I have other treasures to give you, but you may look at this first." The scorpion used its light to find a button and pressed it with pincers. Then some lights came on and a huge machine came into view.

"This is a synthesizer." Said the scorpion, pointing to the machine, "It can synthesize many complex materials, including a chiral catalyst that it is currently synthesizing. You may be curious about what function this material has, so let me give you a brief introduction.

"This molecule has a chiral isomer, but even though the difference seems to be only in the three-dimensional structure, their properties are worlds apart. The molecule being synthesized can act as an efficient catalyst to speed up the reaction that my another treasure needs; yet its chiral isomer is just mediocre, without any sparkles."

"Wow!" Natalie exclaimed, "I even want to see that treasure right now."

"Don't worry, I'll show you. But first I'll see if the synthesizer has done its job." It pressed another button, and a green light turned on. "Good! The molecule has been made, and you'll be able to get it in a minute. Let me show you another treasure." With that, the scorpion went to a cupboard and pulled out two white objects.

"Huh? What's that?" Photon looked at them.

"Sprint monocycle!" Cried the scorpion excitedly.

"Sprint monocycle??" William was even more puzzled, "What are we going to do with it?"

The scorpion cleared its throat and said, "Well, it's easy. It consists of four composite tires and two controllers. The tires fit over your hands and feet and are powered by electricity. Inside each tire is a tiny graphene battery, enough to drive it at 100km/h for 10 minutes. Of course, the sprint monocycle can also charge as it runs, since your body temperature can be used to charge it. But everyone's constitution is different, so the range the sprint monocycle can go until you feel tired can be different too.

"To use it, you have to put on four tires and lie down. It's easy to tell the difference between hand and foot tires because hand tires have detachable controllers that you can use to control speed and direction."

The others were full of praise. "Although this is not as good as my performance, yet it does not prevent Master from experiencing at any time." Natalie joked.

"It's not the end yet!" The scorpion smiled mysteriously, "I have just said that the catalyst has something to do with another treasure, so I shall soon reveal the mystery of the relation. At the back of each tire there is a small opening, which is the gas outlet. There is a certain amount of nitrous oxide stored in the tires. When the sprint mode is turned on, the catalyst comes into contact with it, and it quickly breaks down to produce two gases. These two gases will come out of those openings, so you can gain an extra 30 km/h! However, due to the size of the tires, the storage of nitrous oxide is not much. If you enable full sprint mode, you can only sprint for 1 minute. So I suggest you use them separately. Although this slows down the speed, yet it lengthens the time, so this will not be detrimental."

"Ah, so that's the connection." Ranran smiled.

William said, "I have to say your idea is really fantastic." The others laughed.

A moment later, William said to the scorpion, "I was going to ask you a question, but as you were walking, I was ashamed to interrupt you. However, it's not clear why you were trapped in that glass room. Can you tell us?"

"Well, it wasn't that long ago, actually. I've built the sprint monocycle, and I'm synthesizing this catalyst. But suddenly a cloud of black gas appeared above my head. It gradually converged into a horrible, fiendish smile, and my consciousness faded. Soon, I blacked out. When I woke up, I was trapped inside the glass room. Some tubes were stuck in my body and sucking my blood."

"Oh, I see. What about the tubes? Why don't they transport blood when the glass breaks?" Photon asked.

"There are wires in the glass." Replied the scorpion.

"How amazing!" Said Rebecca, "No one on my planet has ever buried a wire in glass."

William did not find this technique difficult.

"But there is one thing that surprises me." The scorpion continued, "I didn't write down the words for help, but you guys came anyway."

"Oh? You didn't really write those words?" Ranran asked in surprise.

"I swear I didn't and couldn't have! I'm being imprisoned with no chance of getting out. I didn't expect anyone to save me, yet here you are."

"Eek? It's strange." William thought, "Who put the scorpion into prison? If it didn't ask for help, then who wrote those words?"

Finally, remembering how many unsigned words he had seen, he dropped the question. But that didn't mean he wouldn't think about it anymore, nor did it mean it didn't matter.

"So, take these two treasures as my gift to you." Said the scorpion, still frightened, "I may actually have been unconscious for only a few hours. But I know for sure I saw your figures three hours after I woke up."

"Wow, that's really in time." Aria said.

William pondered these questions over and over. He was particularly puzzled by a remark made by the scorpion: it said it had seen a cloud of black gas before blacking out. "Why do I find this scene so familiar?" He asked himself, puzzled, searching the scene carefully.

He found it. They also saw this gas in Capsule Laboratory on the first planet, when they were helping gene-edited animals escape.

"So it gets even stranger. Why does it show up on different planets? And what does it really stand for? Is there something controlling it?" The series of questions exploded in his mind like fireworks.

"Forget it." He said, giving up thinking, "I need to go home, instead of being here pondering questions that I may never have the answers to but that are exhausting my brain."

The scorpion was grateful. "I cannot express my gratitude, so I have to give you two treasures as gifts." It said excitedly.

"Never mind, this is what we should do!" Rebecca replied firmly, "We need to go on, so we can't stay any longer. Sorry!"

"Bon voyage, then!" The scorpion shouted to the party who was going farther and farther away.