Chapter 418 - 407: Caged Soul
Allen led Rhine straight to the laboratory located beneath Deep Blue Residence.
"Lie down," Allen said, pointing to the platform in the center of the lab.
Without a word, Rhine lay down.
He then closed his eyes and voluntarily severed all sensory connections, completely entrusting this priceless "asset" to its owner.
The platform’s surface was as smooth as a mirror. When Rhine lay down, countless fine blue Runes lit up from within, spreading out like a spiderweb.
Allen walked over to him and skillfully opened his cranium.
"Jarvis, begin deep maintenance on Puppet Zero."
[Command confirmed. Accessing ’Zero’ unit... Connection established.]
A slender mechanical arm extended from beneath the platform. Its tip, fitted with faintly glowing probes and interfaces, silently connected to Rhine’s Control Core.
A waterfall of data instantly flooded the light screen in front of Allen.
"First, run a physical-layer wear and tear assessment."
[Generating physical diagnostic report...]
[Outer bionic skin integrity: 94.7%. One deep gash and 3 burn marks detected. Primarily distributed on the right arm and back.]
[Skeletal stress test: Left knee joint connecting bearing wear exceeds limit by 4.3%. Structural metal fatigue detected in right shoulder transmission module.]
[Power system: V1.0 high-density Magic Power storage module, current maximum capacity has decayed to 91.2%. Energy output efficiency has decreased by 4.8%.]
[Weapon system: Crystal at thermal ray emitter aperture shows minor melt deformation. Energy dissipation detected in charging circuit.]
Allen glanced at the report, his expression unchanged.
Over the past year, even a Puppet on par with a First-level Wizard had accumulated significant wear. This was all within his expectations.
"Standard damage. Proceed with replacement and repairs according to protocol."
"The core data is the priority. Pull up the soul interaction logs for the past year."
[Command confirmed. Decompressing encrypted data package...]
The physical model on the light screen instantly switched, replaced by a three-dimensional Star Map so complex it was mind-numbing.
At the center of the Star Map was an orange point of light representing Rhine’s soul.
Countless filaments of light, some bright and some dim, extended from the point, connecting to millions of tiny specks of light around it.
Each speck represented a recorded memory or emotion.
"Filter for high-intensity emotional markers and run a correlation analysis with external events."
[Filter initiated.]
A scene unfolded before Allen.
It was in the midst of the Frost Wind Plane’s ceaseless blizzards. Rhine stood alone on a frozen cliff, the gale whipping ice crystals against his handsome, expressionless face.
At the edge of his vision was the splendid, distant aurora.
[Data tag: Peak loneliness. Duration: 4 hours, 17 minutes. Triggering event: Completion of the final survey of the ’Glacier Academy’ old site.]
The scene switched.
In a crude, temporary office, Rhine was fiercely debating textbook pricing with a pot-bellied merchant from another Plane.
When the merchant slammed the table and threatened to terminate their partnership, Rhine simply pushed a data analysis report in front of him.
The anger on the merchant’s face gradually turned to astonishment, and finally, a cold sweat.
[Data tag: Anxiety, suppression, ultimately shifting to ’covert joy’. Associated information: This order generated a net profit of 170,000 Low-Level Magic Stones for the New Western Educational Aids Division.]
Immediately after, a line of text labeled [Internal Cognitive Activity] popped up.
[Log Number: 734. Internal Cognitive Activity Record]: ’...Success. This bonus is enough for Ella to get into the preparatory class at Green Grass Academy City. The faculty there is much better than at the smaller academies...’
’The boss’s plan is exploitative, but he really pays well... A dead man like me, still earning tuition for my living sister. What a fucking joke. Still, this body doesn’t get tired, which is nice.’
Allen’s gaze lingered on this line of text for a moment.
He knew Rhine had a sister and was paying for her education fund as promised.
But he hadn’t expected that the most direct motivation for this employee, who had already died once, to desperately expand the market was to use his own overtime pay to secure a better future for his sister.
The scene jumped again.
In the dead of night, Rhine suddenly jolted awake from hibernation. The data stream in his vision was a sea of red, and alarms shrieked silently.
[Data tag: Post-traumatic stress response (Trigger: An ambient sound highly similar to the precursor of a Black Wizard’s attack.)]
On the light screen, a flash of red light precisely pierced Rhine’s chest.
The point of light representing his soul trembled violently, its brightness dimming by 0.012%.
This was the memory imprint of the moment of his death. Over the past year, it had replayed a total of 47 times.
Allen recorded all of this with a blank expression.
Rhine’s joys and sorrows, his longing for his sister, his fear of death, his uncertainty about the future... all this proof of his "humanity" was reduced to lines of data in Allen’s experiment reports.
To Allen, this data was the most precious map on the path to creating an "artificial soul"—more valuable than gold.
"Jarvis."
[Here, Commander.]
"Based on the existing damage data, repair Puppet Zero and proceed with the first minor version upgrade as planned." Allen had already begun operating quickly.
"Replace the power core with the V2.0 model. Increase energy density by 35%."
"Reinforce the skeleton with a ’Mithril-Tungsten Steel-Flexible Dragon Tendon’ composite material. Focus on strengthening the joints to enhance extreme maneuverability."
"Fully upgrade the weapon systems. Add micro-missile pods, 24 units in total. Replace the thermal ray with the more focused ’Destroyer’ model."
"And most importantly,"
Allen’s fingertip swiped across the light screen, "reconstruct the underlying logic of the incantation core based on the past year’s interaction data to improve the compatibility between the soul and the mechanical body."
[Plan generated. Estimated upgrade time: 72 hours. Total cost: 270,000 Low-Level Magic Stones.]
"Begin," Allen confirmed.
Rhine’s body was taken apart. Old components were carefully removed, and new modules, shimmering with brighter Rune light, were precisely installed.
It was a different kind of surgery.
Allen leaned back in his chair, quietly watching the mechanical arms at work.
In a way, each of Rhine’s maintenance upgrades represented an iteration of his own technology and a testament to his wealth.
Just then, a piercing alarm suddenly blared.
[Warning! Commander! Unknown reaction detected!] For the first time, a hint of urgency crept into Jarvis’s usually steady tone.
"Source?" Allen shot upright, his gaze sharp as lightning.
[Source: Puppet Zero’s soul!]
Allen immediately switched the screen back to the soul analysis image.
Inside the orange point of light representing Rhine’s soul, he saw an extremely tiny, yet incredibly condensed and brilliant structure.
’That thing... was definitely not there last time!’
It wasn’t any known soul structure, nor was it a data corruption.
It... was like a self-gestating... Will Rune!
Like a seed, it had taken root and sprouted in the deepest part of the soul. Its structural precision and the purity of its will sent a primal shock through Allen.
Allen’s pupils contracted sharply.
The foundation of a Wizard’s path is to inscribe a Will Rune within their Sea of Spirit.
But Rhine no longer had a physical body, let alone a Sea of Spirit! His soul was merely confined to operate within the incantation core!
"Jarvis, analyze this structure! Highest priority!"
[Performing ultra-deep scan and model comparison... Comparison complete. The structure shows a 79.4% similarity to the initial construction model of a Meditation Method Will Rune in the knowledge base!]
Allen shot to his feet, strode to the platform, and stared intently at the soul undergoing its unbelievable transformation.
His usual calm was gone, his voice laced with an astonishment and fervor he himself hadn’t noticed:
"Is this an inevitable phenomenon when a soul inhabits a Puppet?"
"Or is a soul, imprisoned within a steel shell... trying to reignite the flame of a Wizard through its own will?"