Chapter 392 - 381: Battery and Soul
Chapter 392: Chapter 381: Battery and Soul
The first thing Allen did after resolving his computational power crisis was to assign himself three tasks.
He accepted three D-class production and manufacturing contracts from the Association’s mission board simultaneously.
These included replacement parts for Golems, driveshaft components for heavy-duty transport puppets used in mining areas, and a large batch of low-cost basic Rune plates.
This kind of work required little technical skill, but the volume was large and the demand was stable.
The total reward for the three orders was approximately 26 Credit Points, with a four-week deadline.
Not all of Cybertron’s fifteen production lines were online yet, but the three that hadn’t been upgraded were more than enough to handle the workload. Allen tossed the production parameters to Jarvis and didn’t bother with it again.
He poured all his energy into the three sets of knowledge he had purchased with Credit Points.
First was the *Advanced Puppet Design Compendium*.
For something that cost one hundred Credit Points, its value was well worth the price.
The compendium contained no flashy, superficial theories—it was all practical substance. It broke down the design of a combat Puppet into seven core subsystems, providing a design framework and performance benchmarks for each one.
The skeletal structure system, power supply system, transmission and drive system, sensory and detection system, weapon integration system, protective armor system, and intelligent control system.
These seven major systems were all indispensable and interconnected.
Allen spent three days fully absorbing the compendium while DSeek simultaneously conducted a line-by-line comparison between it and the concept design for Puppet Zero.
The conclusion was not surprising.
[Comparison complete. In the concept plan for Puppet Zero, the design concepts for the skeletal structure and transmission/drive subsystems have a 73% compatibility match with the compendium’s recommended framework. They can be directly adopted and optimized.]
[The sensory/detection and weapon integration systems can be downscaled and adapted from existing large Golem technology. Technical feasibility is high.]
[The protective armor system needs to be designed separately based on material selection. No current bottlenecks.]
[The core bottlenecks remain concentrated in two areas: the power supply system and the intelligent control system.]
As expected.
Power and intelligence—one was the heart, the other the brain.
Allen opened the second document: *Small Golem Power Technology*.
The fifty-Credit-Point document began by dividing the power solutions for Small Golems into two technical routes.
The first route: high-density Magic Power storage modules.
Essentially, batteries.
They worked by sealing large amounts of Magic Power in a compressed state within a special crystal matrix, releasing it upon use.
The structure was relatively simple, and the blueprints were detailed down to the engraving parameters for every single Rune. It even included complete plans for three different capacity specifications.
The cost was controllable and the technology was mature, but the drawback was also obvious—limited capacity. It needed to be recharged after being depleted.
The second route: small Magic Engines.
This was the real high-end tech.
The document dedicated an entire Chapter to describing the performance parameters of these devices.
Some Magic Engines were only the size of a fist, yet they could continuously output Magic Power comparable to the two-meter-tall large Magic Furnaces in the Cybertron Workshop.
Allen stared at the parameter table for five seconds.
’This is the technological gap between ’large’ and ’small’.’
But the document stopped abruptly there. No blueprints, no Rune sequences, no material formulas—only some theoretical explanations and notes.
[For complete technical blueprints of the small Magic Engine, please purchase them separately from the knowledge base.]
Allen clicked on it and glanced at the prices. The lowest-end models started at 120 Credit Points, with no upper limit for high-end versions.
Any one of them was far beyond what his current account could afford.
"I’ll go with the first route for now."
The battery pack solution had a low ceiling, but it was enough for him to validate the prototype for Puppet Zero. It wouldn’t be too late to switch to a small Magic Engine once he accumulated enough Credit Points and funds.
’In engineering, you always solve the ’if it exists’ problem before the ’if it’s good’ problem.’
He got to work immediately.
Allen pulled up the blueprints for the high-density Magic Power storage module and, referencing the interface specifications for power systems from the compendium, spent two days completing compatibility modifications.
On the third day, production of the first prototype module began in Cybertron’s newly constructed precision components lab.
The cutting and processing of the crystal matrix, the etching of the Rune Array, the compression and sealing of the Magic Power... Allen handled every step personally, with Jarvis monitoring all parameters in real-time.
Twelve hours later, a palm-sized, deep-blue crystal module covered in intricate Runes lay quietly on the workbench.
"Charge it."
Magic Power surged from the workshop’s supply lines into the module. The Rune Array lit up in sequence, and the light within the crystal deepened from a pale blue, finally stabilizing into a color resembling indigo.
[Charging complete. Stored energy: Full capacity.]
Allen connected the module to a Factory Servant for testing and initiated a discharge test.
Data flickered across the light screen in real-time.
[Peak Magic Power output: Equivalent to a First-level Wizard casting at full power.]
[High-intensity continuous output test: Can sustain continuous combat for approximately 168 hours.]
[Low-power standby mode: A single full charge can last for approximately 350 days.]
As the prototype’s heart, this "battery" would allow Puppet Zero to fight continuously for a week at the combat level of a First-level Wizard. In a routine patrol state, a single charge would last a year.
Although it couldn’t compare to those fist-sized small Magic Engines with their perpetual output, it was a viable solution.
He had Jarvis archive the module’s parameters, labeling it "Version 1.0," before turning his attention to the next objective.
Time flew by amidst research and production.
「One month later.」
The three manufacturing orders were all delivered, and 26 Credit Points were credited to his account.
Without hesitation, Allen clicked on the item he had been eyeing for two months.
[*Analysis of Three Routes in Artificial Soul Technology* — Price: 40 Credit Points.]
"Purchase."
A stream of data poured into his Sea of Consciousness. Nine sub-threads began analyzing it simultaneously.
Ten minutes later, Allen froze.
His expression didn’t change, but his fingers, holding a pen, tightened for an instant.
Three routes lay clearly before him.
The first route: Biological Manufacturing. This involved directionally cultivating a biological brain, modifying it into a usable "processor soul," and then writing logic into it via a Skill. The accompanying illustration in the paper showed brains submerged in nutrient fluid, pierced with numerous tubes.
This required biological modification technology.
The second route: Soul Cultivation. This used a Wizard Apprentice as an "incubation bed," implanting a preset personality seed into their soul. Over several years, the seed would parasitize, grow, and eventually replace the host’s original soul.
The host remained conscious throughout the entire process.
Allen skipped past these two sections with a blank expression.
’These methods are very ’Wizard-like,’ but they’re not for me. The first belongs to the technical domain of the Bloodline School, and the second is a specialty of the Mind School.’
The third route: Pure Construction.
This involved starting from scratch: using a Rune Matrix to simulate a neural network, building a cognitive framework with logic chains, and using emotional algorithms to cause a true personality to "emerge." It required no existing soul as raw material.
Emergence is a concept from systems theory, referring to the process where complex structures or behaviors arise spontaneously from the interaction of simple rules or components.
In his past life’s field of artificial intelligence, emergence was a prominent concept, referring to abilities an AI developed during training that were not explicitly defined in its training objectives.
Allen had heard of it in his past life, but he never expected to encounter the term here.
This was true creation *ex nihilo*—something from nothing.
It was also the route with the highest technical barrier.
The document only provided a theoretical framework and some directional hints on key nodes. The specific implementation plan required the support of a Dawn Star Level paper.
[Prerequisite technology: *Basic Personality Matrix Construction Method*.]
[Unlock price: 500 Credit Points.]
Another high wall.
Allen archived all the information on this route, marking it as a long-term research objective.
Then, he flipped to the appendix of the document.
His fingers paused.
Appendix B: A Brief Description of Soul-Vessel Migration Technology.
This section was short, but its content was crucial. It detailed how to safely extract a complete, undamaged soul from a biological body and transfer it into a prepared artificial vessel.
There were three preconditions for success: the soul must be complete, the vessel must be compatible with the soul, and the operator must be proficient in the Soul Processing Skill.
In the author’s eyes, this was merely an insignificant auxiliary tool, but in Allen’s eyes, it was a critical link in completing his plan.
Allen’s gaze lingered on the phrase "the soul must be complete."
An image of a glass container appeared in his mind, a faint ball of light floating within it.
Rhine’s soul.
He opened DSeek’s monitoring log and pulled up the latest status report on Rhine’s soul.
[Soul activity: 61%, a decrease of 9% from last month.]
[Extrapolating based on the current rate of decay, remaining safe preservation period—]
[Approximately two months.]
The reason he was in such a hurry to create Puppet Zero was to use the methods of a Golem Wizard to accomplish something countless people in his past life had yearned for but could never achieve.
Resurrecting the dead!