Chapter 123 Xing Tian

"Lost."

Chen Weiguo watched the last few blue dots on the holographic simulation sandbox extinguish in real-time, his voice sounding somewhat dry.

This was a wargame simulation of the highest caliber. The Red side consisted of Daxia's most elite special-class mech pilots, operating the newly rolled-off 'Guardian-III' heavy mechs; the Blue side was the regular army of the Mechanical Papacy, reconstructed from the memories of that 'Brain' captive—the 'Zealot' Legion.

Combat loss ratio, 108:1.

It was a number that was suffocatingly desperate.

"It's not an equipment issue." Academician Wang pointed at the data analysis screen, his fingers trembling. "Through parsing the 'Heavenly Court' database, our material science has already caught up to theirs. The 'Guardian' mech's shield strength is even 5% higher than the opponent's."

"Then why?" Li Na asked, confused.

"It's the human element."

Lin Yuan sat in the shadows of the corner, fiddling with the [Primary Mechanical Godhead Fragment] that emitted a faint, eerie silver glow, his tone as calm as if he were discussing something trivial.

"Human neural reaction speed has its limits. Even for a special forces soldier baptized by 'Genetic Enhancement Fluid', it takes at least 0.15 seconds from the brain receiving a visual signal to the fingers pushing the joystick."

"And those scum of the Mechanical Papacy..." Lin Yuan paused, his eyes turning cold. "They have no cockpits, no flesh; they are the computing cores themselves. Their reaction speed is 0.001 seconds."

On the interstellar battlefield, this 0.14-second gap is the chasm between life and death.

The Command Center fell into a dead silence.

The cruel reality lay before them: the flesh-and-blood body that humanity took such pride in had become the biggest weakness of this war machine.

"It's not that there's no way..." Academician Wang suddenly gritted his teeth, his gaze locked on the silver fragment in Lin Yuan's hand. "What if we were to bypass the 'human' carrier?"

"You mean..." Chen Weiguo's pupils constricted. "Drone swarms?"

"No, drones are easily cut off by strong electronic interference. I'm talking about..." Academician Wang took a deep breath, as if using every ounce of his strength to utter the word: "Creation."

"Using this Godhead fragment, combined with the 'Allspark' energy field, we can mass-produce mechanical life with self-awareness. Let the mechs fight for themselves."

"Boom!" This statement was like a depth charge, instantly causing an uproar among the expert group.

"No! Absolutely not!" An old professor with gray hair slammed the table and stood up.

"A Machine Intelligence Crisis! This is creating a second enemy!"

"What if they lose control? What if they turn around and slaughter humanity? Their computing power far exceeds ours; once they rebel, humanity will be completely defenseless!"

The voices of opposition swelled like the tide. After all, in the movie titled 'The Terminator', the psychological trauma that Skynet left on humanity was too deep.

Ethics, morality, risks... countless labels were slapped onto the idea.

Academician Wang's face turned pale. He opened his mouth but found himself unable to refute. Because from the perspective of scientific ethics, this was indeed playing with fire.

"Have you argued enough?"

An indifferent voice rang out. It wasn't loud, but it instantly suppressed all the clamor.

Lin Yuan stood up, his military boots clicking crisply against the metal floor. He walked step by step toward the most agitated professor.

"If humanity is exterminated," Lin Yuan stared directly into the man's eyes, "do you think the Mechanical Papacy will care if the word 'ethics' is written on our corpses?"

The old professor faltered. "But... but..."

"No 'buts'."

Lin Yuan turned around and held the Godhead fragment high, its silver radiance illuminating his cold, iron-like face.

"If we die at the hands of the machines we created, at least it means we died on the path of pursuing power. That's better than being like a herd of livestock waiting to be slaughtered, canned by aliens."

"Besides," Lin Yuan's lips curled into a cruel arc, "who said we would lose control?"

He looked at Academician Wang. "In their underlying logic code, carve a 'Thought Seal' for me."

"First Directive: Absolute loyalty to humanity."

"Second Directive: Protect Earth at all costs."

"This seal must be carved into their 'souls'. Even if their bodies are pulverized, even if their cores melt, it must remain unalterable."

"This..." Academician Wang was stunned for a moment, then a fanatical light erupted in his eyes. "A variant similar to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics? Using the power of the 'Godhead' for rule-level suppression... Theoretically feasible!"

"Then do it." Lin Yuan delivered the final word, not giving anyone else a chance to speak.

Half an hour later, in the deepest part of the 'Heavenly Court' fortress: the core energy matrix.

This was the heart of the entire fortress, strictly off-limits to everyone. At this moment, standing before the massive spherical reactor, Lin Yuan was all alone.

Before him was the holographic projection of gaia.

The little girl's expression was nervous. Her small hands, usually clutching snacks, were now tightly gripping the hem of her skirt. "Commander, I'm starting now... it might hurt a little."

"Go ahead."

Lin Yuan took a deep breath, his SSS-rank talent [Void Affinity] operating at full power.

This was not just a skill; it was a key.

He slowly pressed the [Mechanical Godhead Fragment] into his chest—not a physical implantation, of course, but an energy circuit constructed with mental energy.

"Boom—!"

In an instant, Lin Yuan felt as if his soul had been gripped by an invisible hand and thrown into a meat grinder.

Pain! A bone-deep, soul-tearing agony!

The Godhead fragment turned into molten silver magma, surging wildly along Lin Yuan's mental tendrils into the 'Heavenly Court' mainframe network.

"Ah!!!"

gaia let out a sharp screech. Her data projection instantly collapsed, dissolving into countless strings of garbled code, only to be reorganized moments later, enveloped in silver light.

Her eyes had changed.

Those blue pupils, originally composed of pixels, now shimmered with a substantive, mercury-like luster. The cold, data-driven feeling was fading, replaced by a warm, vivid... spirituality.

That was the gift of a 'God'.

"As... you wish..."

A vast, synthesized electronic voice echoed throughout the fortress. It was no longer the previous rigid, broadcast-like tone, but carried a solemn, divine quality.

The assembly line in Arsenal 7 of District C suddenly stopped.

It had been assembling the first batch of fully autonomous combat mechs.

As silver energy surged through the pipelines, those cold mechanical arms seemed to be imbued with life. They no longer welded mechanically; instead, as if performing some sacred ritual, they gently fused the armor plates together.

"Injecting... soul..."

Lin Yuan's face was deathly pale, sweat soaking his back, but he continued to desperately maintain the energy output. He could feel his mental energy being drained away frantically, as if he were trying to bail out the ocean with a spoon.

Just one second before he was about to collapse from exhaustion.

In the center of the arsenal, two red lights flickered on inside the massive incubation tank.

They were eyes.

A heavy mech, twelve meters tall and matte black all over, slowly stepped out from the steam.

It had no cockpit.

The space where a pilot should have been was replaced by a massive, pulsing, dark-red high-energy reactor. Its head was a single eye, its shoulders mounted two phase cannons, and its right hand held a plasma great-axe capable of cleaving a warship in two.

Codename: Xingtian-01.

In Daxia mythology, the God of War who, even after being beheaded, used his nipples as eyes and his navel as a mouth, his fighting spirit never extinguished.

"Clack."

Xingtian-01 took a step, its heavy metal foot causing the ground to tremble slightly.

Everyone in the Command Center held their breath. Chen Weiguo's hand was pressed against the self-destruct button; if this machine showed even a hint of aggression, the entire arsenal would be vaporized in an instant.

Xingtian-01's single eye rotated, an infrared scan sweeping across the room before finally locking onto the exhausted Lin Yuan.

It slowly knelt on one knee.

The sound of metal grinding was like thunder.

"Com... man... der..."

Its vocal unit seemed to still be calibrating; the voice carried a heavy metallic resonance, like a subwoofer inside an old radio.

Panting heavily, Lin Yuan managed to stand straight with Li Na's support, staring intensely at this 'monster' he had created with his own hands. "Report status."

Xingtian-01 was silent for two seconds.

Then, its single eye flickered.

"System self-check... complete."

"Power furnace... so hungry."

"Commander, although my diet only consists of high-energy batteries, I just scanned your biological markers and found your gastric acid secretion is excessive... I suggest you eat two extra servings of the braised pork in the canteen tonight."

Dead silence.

Then came the sound of collective gasps.

It could joke?

It knew how to care for people?

Chen Weiguo's hand slowly released the self-destruct button. That wasn't a cold, unfeeling killing machine. That tone, that cheeky attitude—it was exactly like... a soldier-turned-rogue?

"Good! Good! Good!" Lin Yuan was stunned for a moment before bursting into laughter, laughing until tears almost streamed down his face. He pushed Li Na aside and staggered over to Xingtian-01, punching its heavy armor.

"gaia!"

"Here, Commander." gaia's figure reappeared. This time, there were even silver patterns on her skirt, and she looked radiant, as if she had just finished a full-body spa treatment.

"With the current energy, how many 'Xingtian' units can we awaken?" Lin Yuan's eyes flashed with ambition.

A single Xingtian could take on three 'Zealots' in a simulation.

If there were ten thousand...

No, even if there were only five thousand, this war would be winnable!

"Calculating..."

gaia's expression suddenly froze.

"Um... Commander, I have some bad news."

"Speak."

"Just now, to enlighten Xingtian-01 and complete my self-evolution, the Godhead fragment's reserve energy... was exhausted."

Lin Yuan's smile froze on his face. "What do you mean? What about the rest? What about the ten thousand spare units on the production line?"

"They..." gaia poked her fingers together, looking embarrassed. "They are just empty shells now. Without an injection of high-dimensional energy, they're just piles of scrap metal."

[System Prompt: host detected attempting to mass-produce 'Silicon-based lifeforms'.]

[Current authority points: Insufficient.]

[Warning: Conventional electrical energy cannot replace a 'Soul Spark'.]

[Requirement: High-dimensional psionic energy x 100,000 units.]

Lin Yuan looked at the dense, yet deathly silent, rows of mechs filling the entire factory, feeling as if a mouthful of blood were stuck in his throat.

I've already taken off my pants, and this is what you show me?