Chapter 931 - 395: Differential Machine (2)
The Steam Councilors were transformed from ordinary people into half-human, half-machine Transcendents through the use of this machine tool.
Acquiring the extraordinary machine tool did not bring about any abnormality.
A prompt, "Obtained the Industrial Crown Pearl," appeared before everyone, and the previously clear sky outside did not cloud over again.
It seems that with Xavier’s death and the destruction of the Steam Council, all dangers have been lifted.
Next, players only need to wait thirty full days, witness the World Industrial Exposition, complete Main Quest One, and they will be able to leave the dungeon.
When True Self led the players to the Steam Council outpost, Wu Chang’s true form acted alone, arriving at Xavier’s secret mechanical workshop.
Here, all of Xavier’s research manuscripts are stored. As a Plane Son born with a mechanical talent, Xavier’s research on the extraordinary steam engine far surpassed that of the official Stilan.
What is recorded here is the essence of the Steam Phantom Plane.
Wu Chang divided the knowledge inside into two parts. The knowledge related to mysticism, he studied carefully later to improve his Power of Root, while he gave the purely mechanical knowledge to He Yun to use as a reference.
While sorting through the manuscripts, he saw dozens of design sketches posted on the wall in Xavier’s office.
The sketches depict a massive and complex extraordinary steam engine. According to the proportions marked on the sketches, its size is close to that of a palace, not only massive but also extraordinarily complex.
Each separate region, isolated on its own, is densely annotated, with the construction difficulty of each region rivaling that of a complete extraordinary steam engine.
In Xavier’s resentment, these sketches appeared more than once, documenting the pinnacle of the extraordinary steam engine as envisioned by him and Prime Minister Ron.
A universal machine connected to the world rules, requiring only sufficient energy to arrive at perfect solutions to any problem through massive calculations—the Differential Machine.
In the original conception of Xavier and Prime Minister Ron, once the Differential Machine was constructed, it could identify the most perfect solutions to all problems, and all difficulties would resolve themselves.
However, the Differential Machine was too complex. They had just conceived the most basic sketches when Prime Minister Ron was suddenly assassinated, and the plan was abruptly halted.
In desperation, Xavier considered connecting to the world rules, condensing divinity, and attempting to transform himself into the Ultimate Extraordinary Steam Engine to replace the Differential Machine.
After all, in the scriptures of the Saint Bishop, God is an omniscient and omnipotent being. As long as he acquired the power of omniscience and combined it with the steam rules, he might be able to replace the Differential Machine.
Even if he could not replace the Differential Machine, creating it as a mechanical deity would be much faster than as a mortal.
Wu Chang looked at the sketches on the wall. Each sketch recorded a vast amount of information, and just a glance left him bewildered.
Unexpectedly, the pinnacle of the extraordinary steam engine that Xavier wished to witness in his blood-colored will is none other than the Differential Machine sketched here.
The sketches of the Differential Machine left him confused; asking him to construct it seemed excessively daunting.
Not to mention the Steam Phantom Plane, even if He Yun were here, it would take them ten days to half a month to understand it.
He took out the All-Knowing Crystal and asked whether the Differential Machine was merely a fantasy of Xavier and Ron or if it had the potential to be realized.
The good news was that the All-Knowing Crystal acknowledged the feasibility of the sketches, stating that given enough time and cost, the Differential Machine in the sketches could be built even on the Steam Phantom Plane.
The bad news was that this thing was practically useless and might even have side effects.
As the All-Knowing Crystal, crowned with omniscience, while it could not achieve true omniscience, it could deduce the clues Wu Chang wanted with just a bit of information.
Facing the Differential Machine, which claimed to find the most perfect solutions to all problems and possessed the power of omniscience, the All-Knowing Crystal was dismissive.
According to the All-Knowing Crystal, once the Differential Machine is built, it can indeed have nearly infinite computing power, but the problem lies with the Differential Machine using the plane rules to find answers to problems; it has extremely low intelligence or even no intelligence at all.
After all, the Steam Phantom Plane is still in the steam engine era, and integrating steam engines and extraordinary elements is already the limit of the plane. Expecting steam engines to fabricate chips and develop advanced artificial intelligence is way too demanding.
The solutions provided by the plane rules are very rigid and inflexible. While it may not go as far as cutting off a hand when experiencing pain or cutting off a head when having a headache, the simple and crude nature is similarly extreme.
Moreover, the rules of the Steam Phantom Plane are not the natural rules of the plane. They are rules that have been "polluted" and assimilated by the Plane Son.
The solutions obtained in this manner will be heavily influenced by the subjective intentions of the Plane Son.
For instance, if the Plane Son is an idealistic philanthropist committed to creating a utopia, the solutions he gets would be very humane.
But if the Plane Son is a capitalist, or like Xavier, whose mind has been severely corrupted by the flesh and blood extraordinary steam engine, the solutions obtained would be utterly hellish.
Thankfully, Xavier’s plan didn’t succeed. Had he created the Differential Machine and handled the issues with its solutions, the inhabitants of the Steam Phantom Dungeon would have suffered severely.
The turning point for Xavier, the epiphany of the Plane Son’s mission, was a fabric worker who died of overwork in front of him.