Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 565 - 518 Jack

Having traversed the straight traverse, Lyle arrived at the central pipeline mentioned by SS, which extended from the top of the tower to its base. Its function wasn’t solely for air circulation, less than five meters beneath Lyle’s feet, some purple-brown cables emerged from invisible holes, falling straight into the intermittently glowing abyss on the inner wall. This was the City of Machinery’s bloodstream, the conduit for transmitting all energy and data information, the great artery of the Mechanical God.

Above Lyle’s head, in the recesses of the pipeline, the spherical bodies dangling in the recesses like blisters were the homes of these snowball robots. Having reached this point, he had entered the pyramid’s public network. Thus, SS’s connection was forcibly severed for a brief moment. After twelve seconds of noisy white noise, Lyle heard that magnetic voice again.

"When descending, don’t damage those cables, Lyle. That would cause unnecessary loss to the City of Machinery, and the surging electric arcs could also injure you."

Lyle looked down, and those dark cables appeared like streams plunging into an abyss—just seeing a fraction of them meant they were roughly the height of a twenty-story building.

"There are no stairs." To be precise, there was nothing to stand or climb on, if one excluded those cables, which seemed very sturdy.

Lyle clapped his hands, and in the faint light, Nia extended her body, her four main tentacles coiling in the air. The pointed ends with hooked claws retracted, and suction cups on the sides of the tentacles expanded, looking like eyes devoid of life.

Pop! The mucous-coated tentacles firmly attached to the wall, although the mucus caused mild corrosion to the metal wall, it shouldn’t affect the lifespan as long as the pipes remained undamaged.

"Oh, we actually have a transport device." SS uttered a slight exclamation of surprise as the snowball’s light ring illuminated Lyle’s head. The snowballs were assembling with one another and quickly formed a coral-shaped vertical arm cable car.

The snowball car’s cameras collectively turned toward Lyle, as if inviting him. Meanwhile, Lyle was suspended in mid-air under Nia’s protection, strong and handy tentacles fixed behind his back; he could look up and see her orange-yellow eyes, staring at him angrily.

"Thanks, SS, but Nia is enough for me."

The descent proceeded methodically, with SS’s surprise matching Lyle’s. He had indeed never infiltrated the Pyramid Temple and, like Lyle, had never seen those techniques that resembled magic.

The central pipeline’s material was completely different from the ventilation pipes. It wasn’t steel but a semi-translucent mechanical membrane. Initially unnoticeable due to dim light, it wasn’t until he descended to a certain extent that Lyle realized he could see the labs outside through the pipeline.

"It’s a composite polymer material, with a silicon-based molecular skeleton," answered the snowball’s material analyzer.

Outside the semi-transparent pipeline, the interior of the pyramid wasn’t as opulent as its exterior but a series of monotonous single labs separated by glass blocks. Numerous mechanical arms hung from the ceiling, a ghastly white experimental table, and a computer that seemed to float embedded in the clear glass, with cables stretching and merging into the data stream of the central pipeline. Each room had an almost identical setup; they looked like they had been copied and pasted.

Most of the experiment tables bore irregular blocks, while mechanical arms above them constantly drilled or added new substances, with experimental data turning into electric light diving into the central pipeline. As Lyle drew near to those ports, he began to see illusions in his vision. Binary data streams appeared outside the cables, jumping continuously in Lyle’s sight. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"SS, do you see that?" Lyle regretted asking the moment the words left his lips; how could cameras see his hallucinations?

"I do, the manifesting data information." Unless those hallucinations weren’t illusions at all.

"Is this the power of the Mechanical Divine Sect?"

"It’s magic."

Eyeing the constantly changing 1s and 0s, Lyle racked his brains but failed to see any relation between them and any rune spells. Not until an overwhelming feeling in his mind became unbearable and he flipped the switch of a Spellcaster.

Magic Power perception.

It was a strange sensation of magic power that felt cold and sluggish to a Spellcaster, mechanized, mass-produced. This rigid magic power flowed to the bottom, forming a lifeless spring of magic power.

"Is this... a magic network node?" A dense pressure from below agitated his skin.

Ominous signs turned into the Shadow Serpent, writhing and coiling.

"No, it’s just piling up vast amounts of magic power, like building with blocks, and it’s violently cobbled together. The Mechanical Divine Sect is researching magic power. They’ve found a way to turn it into a usable resource for mechanical life, the mechanical magic power."

The pulsating characters were proof of the activity of magic power.

SS’s voice rang out again, and Lyle could feel the shock in his heart.

"Research on Model 10001 and the Mechanical God has exceeded my expectations. They’ve already accomplished the practical application of magic power."

"Haven’t you already been able to use magic power, SS?"

"Individual application and widespread application are different, Lyle, this is a great leap forward. It’s funny, I was still complaining about whether the Mechanical God might shut down. They’re already so far ahead."

"Let me put it this way, Lyle. The City of Machinery is currently in the late industrial stage."

"And now, this pyramid, this vast research lab will make time fly for the Mechanical Devine Sect. Perhaps in the next second we could enter the informational stage, or even the intelligent stage. We will completely surpass this era bound by magic power."

SS’s assumption was correct. As Lyle continued to descend, the magic-induced information resonance was evolving constantly.

First it was characters, then continuous codes, later a segment of voice, extensive layers of images, and programs.

Nearing the bottom, in addition to a massive sphere of lightning, Lyle also heard a voice in his ears.

[Who are you?]

Initially, Lyle didn’t pay much attention, taking it for a looping audio segment.

[Why are you here?]

[Do not descend any further.]

"What?"

[Do not descend any further, crawling creature.]

Crawling creature, Lyle looked at the large tentacles behind him, probably being perceived as a whole. SS’s voice came into Lyle’s ears.

"That’s a new mechanical intelligence, Lyle, he’s just like me! An independent thinking consciousness." SS spoke with great excitement, "He has actually created another consciousness. I thought that I would... talk to him, Lyle. Tell him, Lyle, tell him I am his brother, a mechanical life with a body."

So Lyle spoke.

"Hello, unnamed or unchristened new entity, I am Model SS the first, your brother."

[SS? Brother?]

"Yes, do you have a name? Has Executor Model 10001 named you?"

[I have a name, I %#￥%#￥%@%*&*#￥%@%...]

[Jack.]

The mechanical voice was extremely cold.