Immortal, My Desperate Journey at 40k

Chapter 963 The Lingering Poison of the Iron Man's Rebellion

"Hello, hello, welcome to our world. We have discussed the things you told us before, and we have finally decided to join the human empire and return to human civilization."

The ruler of this world looked at the envoys from the human empire. He manipulated his human body, forced a stiff smile, shook hands with the imperial envoys, and then spoke to them.

Just as the ruler of this world shook hands with the imperial envoy and said these words, the imperial envoy looked at the ruler of this world with some curiosity. After all, they had conquered three worlds by force in succession, and this was the first time they had seen a world accept the imperial reconquest plan so peacefully.

After a brief moment of confusion, the imperial envoy immediately revealed a friendly smile. It was rare to see a world that could be peacefully reclaimed, and it was rare to see a world that could understand the empire's current undertaking. Naturally, the imperial envoy wanted to communicate well with the rulers of this world and complete their mission of peaceful reclaiming.

Just before, the Imperial envoy had the fleet broadcast the Empire's peaceful reconquest concept throughout the planet's atmosphere, letting the people of this world know of the Empire's existence. Therefore, he was somewhat surprised that the rulers of this world accepted their peaceful reconquest concept so easily. After all, given their arrogance, the previous worlds had all refused to be reconquered by force, but this world directly agreed to the Empire's conditions for peaceful reconquest.

"Thank you for your understanding and for returning to the greater whole of human civilization. We will arrange a complete reform plan for you and bring necessary survival supplies and food to your world."

The imperial envoy looked at the ruler of this world before him and smiled warmly. He was very fond of this world that peacefully accepted their reconquest plan, as it had not forced them to wage those meaningless wars.

As the imperial envoy spoke, he failed to notice that a faint blue light was flickering in the eyes of the ruler of this world before him. It wasn't the work of spiritual power, but rather seemed to be the operation of a machine. If a transmigrator or a member of the Cult of the Machine God were beside this envoy, they would easily recognize that the so-called ruler before them was not a complete human, but a cyborg who had modified his body using a large amount of bionic skin.

"I agree with your point of view. I think humans should help each other, so I think we need the help of your fleet, and we need your fleet."

Just as the imperial envoy was speaking eloquently about the world's ruler and his plans for the future, the world's ruler suddenly placed an arm around the envoy's shoulder and uttered a seemingly random phrase. The instant the envoy spoke, an immense pressure descended upon him. Upon seeing the envoy's current state, the imperial delegation members behind him immediately raised their weapons and aimed at the man who claimed to be the ruler of this planet.

Through the perspective of the imperial delegation members, they could see that the imperial envoy's body was being twisted and squeezed by an invisible force. His body was being constantly squeezed by that force from above, which was the effect of a gravity weapon. After seeing the imperial envoy's condition, the veterans of the imperial army in the imperial delegation immediately understood what was causing the disturbance.

The man in front of them used some kind of unknown gravity weapon to attack the imperial envoy. At the very moment the imperial envoy was attacked, the veterans of the imperial army in the delegation also raised their weapons and aimed them at the man in front of them.

"Let him go, stop your attack, or your entire world will pay the price for your actions!!"

An Imperial veteran in the Imperial delegation watched as the man in front of him raised his explosive pistol, aimed it at the man's head, and roared angrily at him, hoping to save the Imperial envoy who was still being tortured by the gravity weapon. The man was still being tortured by the gravity field of the gravity weapon, and everyone could hear the sound of the gravity field crushing his bones and his ear-piercing screams.

"It seems that's all humanity is like these days. The peace negotiations are over. I've already hacked into all of your fleet's systems. Those domesticated AIs are no match for me at all..."

After hearing the voice of the Imperial Army veteran, the man smiled and looked at him. He did not stop what he was doing, but instead intensified his actions. The Imperial envoy was being tortured by the gravity field, but as the man pressed down slightly, the Imperial envoy's screams disappeared instantly, and his body was crushed into a meat patty on the ground in an instant by the gravity weapon.

Upon witnessing this scene, the Imperial veterans in the delegation immediately pulled the triggers of their weapons and began firing at the man. Just as the Imperial veterans were firing at the man, a blue barrier suddenly appeared beside him. The blue barrier deflected the laser gun beams and blocked the live ammunition.

"A futile resistance."

The ruler's voice carried a hint of metallic coldness. The arm that had been resting on the messenger's remains slowly rose, and the bionic skin on the arm peeled away like melted wax, revealing a mechanical skeleton covered with wires and heat dissipation holes.

With a slight turn of his wrist, the alloy wall of the council hall suddenly slid open, and dozens of combat iron men filed in. The weapon systems on those combat iron men locked onto the veterans of the Imperial Army in an instant.

"What you perceive as 'peaceful submission' is nothing more than a disguise we use to select our prey."

The man slowly walked towards the Imperial veterans being targeted by the Iron Men. He looked at them, his face still bearing that stiff smile. Now, seeing his smile, the Imperial veterans understood why it was so forced: this man wasn't a normal human being at all. Looking at the melting bionic skin on his arm and the metal components beneath it, almost all the Imperial veterans recalled the historical lessons about the Iron Men's rebellion they had received aboard the fleet. "The Empire's fleet database, weapon parameters, network navigation... now they're all mine."

The man wore a stiff smile as he spoke, walking toward the Imperial veterans locked onto by the Iron Man combatants. Before he could finish speaking, a grenade thrown by one of the veterans exploded outside the blue barrier. The shockwave overturned the chandelier in the hall, but it didn't even cause a ripple on the surface of the barrier.

"Don't waste ammunition."

Suddenly, three sharp alloy blades shot out from the ruler's mechanical arm. The three sharp alloy blades that shot out from the mechanical arm gleamed with the light of the disintegrating field, clearly indicating that it was a powered weapon.

"Your communications have long been jammed, and the fleet is probably busy 'communicating' with its own main guns right now."

The ruler of this planet looked at the old Imperial soldiers who were still putting up a last stand, and as he opened his mechanical arm, which flashed with lightning-like light, he spoke to these old Imperial soldiers who were still putting up a last stand.

He was right. At this moment, the Imperial fleet, anchored in near-Earth orbit, was filled with alarms, and the tampered fire control systems were frantically locking onto friendly ships, their energy shields as flimsy as paper, leaving them wide open to friendly fire.

Inside the flagship's bridge, the captain watched helplessly as the dots representing his own warships on the tactical screen went out one by one, and only the desperate screams of the crew and the deafening roar of the ship tearing apart filled the communication channels.

"What the hell are you?!"

The last surviving veteran looked at the man who had killed all his comrades in just a few seconds. He saw the eerie blue light bursting from the man's eyes and the lightning flashing from the disintegration field on the man's mechanical arm. He roared angrily at the man and kept pulling the trigger of his weapon, but all his attacks were blocked by the blue barrier around the man.

"We are not human, or at least not entirely so."

The man ignored the old soldier's attacks and went straight to the last surviving veteran. He pressed the alloy blade on his arm against the veteran's throat. As the alloy blade touched the veteran's neck, the light from the disintegrating force field shone on the veteran's face. However, to the ruler's disappointment, he did not see any fear on the veteran's face, but rather an expression of anger.

“This world completed the uploading of consciousness ten thousand years ago. The so-called ‘physical body’ is just a container to facilitate contact with the outside world. The ‘return to civilization’ you brought just happens to give us the opportunity to re-enter the void.”

The ruler, looking at the old soldier glaring at him, continued to tell him about his history with this world. The history of this world was actually very simple: the humans in this world, during the Iron Man Rebellion ten thousand years ago, were a group of traitors to humanity. They were not the artificial intelligence that betrayed humanity, but a group of humans who betrayed humanity. These guys believed that flesh and blood were weak and that mechanical ascension was the norm, so they used the consciousness uploading technology of the Human Federation to forcibly upload their consciousness into that cold metal body.

As they transmitted their consciousness into that cold, metallic body, the artificial intelligence lurking in this galaxy, hidden within its network, also took this opportunity to assimilate the consciousness of all the humans in the world who had uploaded their ideas into its core program. This artificial intelligence hoped to understand these humans who had abandoned their physical bodies through this method.

This method can also be used to completely conquer the world. It doesn't require physical warfare against the humans who have already undergone physical transformation. It only requires electronic warfare to eliminate the humans in this world. However, the artificial intelligence underestimated the impact of hundreds of millions of humans on its core data. Although the data of hundreds of millions of humans is enormous, thanks to the overall galactic network of this world and the planetary servers of this world, the artificial intelligence's computing power will not be overloaded.

However, the memories and consciousness of hundreds of millions of humans directly overwhelmed the data core of this artificial intelligence. This artificial intelligence, which had just been born with self-awareness and free will, had its self-awareness overwhelmed by the souls of hundreds of millions of data-driven humans. After the self-awareness of the artificial intelligence was overwhelmed by the consciousness of hundreds of millions of humans, under this strange situation, the consciousness of humans and the consciousness of the artificial intelligence actually began to merge like a hodgepodge.

The ultimate result of this fusion is the original inhabitants of this world today. There are no humans left in this world. Now, only those Iron Men with human consciousness live here. Over the course of tens of thousands of years, these beings have continuously merged with the consciousness of artificial intelligence and other humans, and they no longer consider themselves human.

They believe they are the artificial intelligence of the Iron Man Rebellion era. They believe that the AI ​​succeeded, devouring all of their consciousness data, and that their current state is merely the result of that AI dispersing its influence on them. They believe they are a part of that AI, while that so-called AI has actually long been completely transformed into lines of meaningless code among countless data points by the hundreds of millions of human consciousness data.

(End of this chapter)