Four Split Personalities

"I’m not jinxed!"

Cordova roared to the sky.

"You... got issues?"

Transformed into a dragon shape and lying in the center of the workshop, Femigel lifted his eyelids slightly, those vertical pupils almost as tall as Cordova blinked uncertainly twice: "If you’re sick, get treatment."

After helping Motan cheat, Cordova, who immediately returned to his rampaging mode, bit his teeth fiercely: "You’re the one who’s sick!"

"Yes, I have shoulder periarthritis."

Femigel hummed lazily, gently lifted his wings: "Didn’t you see that big plaster?"

"You call that thing a plaster? I damn thought you installed shoulder guards!"

"Put on too much..."

"Put on too much how much?"

"Two and a half boxes."

"You win."

...

At the same time

Inside the Dragon King’s Tomb

"Everything else is... super weak?"

Motan stared at Ji Xiaoge, looking very surprised: "Isn’t Cordova’s current body the latest from Master Lu..."

"Yes, yes, he is using the latest version of the Rune Body V1.5 deluxe upgrade version recently fabricated by the teacher."

Ji Xiaoge stuck out her tongue, her lips curling up with a mischievous, narrow, and tempting arc that made Motan shift his gaze subconsciously, smiling: "The latest version is not the strongest version. If Cordova were to fight with this First Generation Rune Body V9.78 in front of us, well, although he won’t be instant-killed, he’d definitely get hammered."

Motan turned his head and scratched his hair, somewhat puzzled: "So why is that? Logically speaking, even if a new model of something falls short in certain situations compared to the old model, it should definitely have some superiority in overall performance, otherwise the new version would become a joke."

Since they both were keeping a distance from the Combat Puppet or First Generation Rune Body in front of them, Motan was not maintaining 100% high alert anymore. According to the past trials, this thing would not actively attack the test-takers beyond a certain distance from that door, although it might be another matter for intruders.

Another reason was that being alert was useless, as the First Generation Rune Body in front of them completely overwhelmed both in realms. If they really went all out in a fight, having guards up or not made no difference; it would be instant.

"The latest model of Rune Body does have its superiority."

Ji Xiaoge relaxed as well, talking while looking interestedly at the Rune Body in front of her: "Although it can’t fight, withstand hits, move fast, and has lesser endurance and burst compared to this first-generation model, it does have its advantages, otherwise the teacher wouldn’t have taken so much effort to research it."

Motan, who had been fiddling with various software and hardware over the years, grew curious: "So, what are the advantages?"

"Intelligence."

"Ah?"

"Intelligence."

Ji Xiaoge shrugged, pointing at the imposing first-generation model and explained, "These first-generation Rune Bodies aren’t very smart, although the teacher tried many methods, even specifically using Sky Pillar Mountain’s black technology to create a thought simulation module, but the intelligence level is really terrible. The combat style can input some fixed templates, but other than combat, they are useless, at most they can only guard a door."

Motan looked at the first-generation model in front of them and then at the big door behind, puzzled: "So how smart is the latest version of the Rune Body?"

...

Ji Xiaoge didn’t speak but just glanced at Motan with a look that seemed to say "you’re an idiot."

Resulting in Motan, who had almost never been looked at with such an expression since he was born, failing to respond and just foolishly waiting for her to clear his confusion.

If Yi Dong were here, he would have understood immediately, as he was often looked at with such an expression since he was born.

"Pfft, hahaha..."

Seeing that Motan still hadn’t caught on, Ji Xiaoge couldn’t help bursting into laughter, "You meant to ask how smart the Rune Body that Cordova is using right now is, right?"

Motan nodded vigorously: "Yeah, exactly."

"Haha, of course, it’s as smart as Cordova."

Ji Xiaoge covered her mouth laughing, patting Motan’s shoulders hard, laughing so hard she couldn’t close her mouth: "You’re so silly!"

"Am I really silly?"

Motan was initially startled, then slapped his forehead suddenly realizing.

"I really am silly."

He shook his head with a wry smile, chuckling: "I see what you mean now, in Master Lu Wei’s view, Cordova himself is basically a part of the new version of the Rune Body, virtually acting as a detachable core AI plugin, while this old version of the Rune Body in front of us doesn’t support the ’Cordova’ plugin feature."

"Yeah, or rather, it’s incompatible. You’re smart; you were still beating around the bush just now, and now you’ve made a correct inference."

Ji Xiaoge was somewhat astonished, then nodded and explained: "That’s basically it, the teacher told me his initial purpose was to mass-produce various Rune Bodies like Cordova now, capable of acting as Acting Agents, but the thought module topic had made no progress, which was the biggest problem faced by the first-generation models. He had painstakingly researched for over a hundred years, finally concluding that ’the direction was wrong’, so he gave up on upgrading the first-generation and developing the thought modules, opting instead to start from scratch developing second-generation Rune Bodies and artificial spirits. Although the breakthrough wasn’t nonexistent, before Cordova emerged, the maximum intelligence of an artificial spirit was only equivalent to that of a small dog. Yeah, not intelligence equivalent to a small dog, but the upper limit of intelligence equivalent to a small dog."