Forbidden Nightmare

Chapter 138: Resurrection from the Dead
Faced with Geppetto's questioning that did not conceal his murderous intent, Li Nanke did not look at the father of the puppet.

He stared at the puppet behind Geppetto, feeling his hair stand on end, goose bumps all over his body, and a chill spreading from the soles of his feet to his spine.

The puppet's body shape is no different from that of an ordinary person, its skin is as gray as a corpse, its face has no facial features, and its face is as blurry as an unfinished sculpture.

There is a long sword on its back, and many blue threads extend from Geppetto's fingers, connecting to various joints of the puppet's body, seeming to be able to completely control its every move.

Geppetto himself did not give Li Nanke much sense of danger. The strong sense of crisis all came from this unknown puppet with a vague face.

It should be the 'nameless puppet' in the original final node!
At this time, Li Nanke had experienced a life-and-death battle, and his mental strength was completely exhausted. He was drowsy and tired, and only relied on his willpower to avoid fainting.

If we fight the enemy in this state, we will probably die.

If he was in his prime, he wouldn't have to fear the enemy, but now... he couldn't fight the enemy!

"Carlo..."

Romeo looked at the 'nameless puppet' behind Geppetto, his eyes a little dazed, and blurted out subconsciously.

Although the face of the nameless doll is blurry and it has no facial features, its figure and shape are extremely familiar. If you only look at its back, it is exactly the same as Carlo.

It is not the teenage Carlo like Pinocchio, but the young Carlo. The nameless doll has the same appearance as Carlo before his accidental death.

Geppetto shifted his gaze from the rusted power heart to the Puppet King lying on the ground.

"Yes, it's Carlo too."

"Simon was willing to kill Carlo for his ridiculous plan to become a god, so he asked me to study the possibility of combining machinery with flesh and blood for him."

"Romeo, you are my first test subject, the first test subject created with the flesh and blood of a god..."

After Simon Jean Carlo's 'accidental' death, Geppetto had to start researching the God-making plan in order to revive his only son.

The impossible task of resurrecting the dead has already stepped into the realm of gods and is a taboo of life and death that mortals cannot cross.

Even if Geppetto was the greatest alchemist in the world, he was not sure that he could resurrect his son.

Romeo was Carlo's best friend. Suffering from petrification and dying, Romeo made a deal with Carlo and volunteered to be a test subject in exchange for his freedom.

Geppetto implanted a portion of the god's flesh and blood into Romeo's heart, completely transforming him into a puppet.

The experiment was extremely difficult and Romeo nearly died on the operating table several times. It was mostly due to luck that he was successfully transformed into a puppet in the end.

Even if Geppetto were to repeat this transformation operation again, it would most likely fail.

Before becoming a puppet, Romeo was still a living person, not a completely dead corpse, which is fundamentally different from Carlo.

The success of transforming Romeo into a puppet is only equivalent to overcoming the most initial and simplest part of the problem, and it is still a long way from resurrecting the dead.

This experiment made Geppetto realize that it was almost impossible to resurrect the dead simply by fusing machines with flesh and blood.

However, for Simon, Romeo's transformation from a living person to a mechanical puppet has proved that machines and flesh and blood can be integrated.

Although the degree of this fusion was low and could not meet the conditions for the godhood plan, it also greatly increased his confidence.

The key material of the experiment is the flesh and blood of gods. This material is equivalent to the most important medium and can be used to enhance the fusion of machinery and flesh and blood.

Geppetto consumed a large amount of the flesh and blood of the gods. On the surface, he was conducting research on improving the degree of fusion, but privately he was taking a different approach and wanted to find another feasible path.

After consuming a lot of the flesh and blood of gods, this most powerful alchemist in the world actually found two ways to resurrect the dead.

One of them is called the Body Possession Plan.

Gipetto took great pains to create a heart with great potential.

This power heart is a fusion of Carlo's heart and machinery, and contains part of Carlo's consciousness.

In its initial state, the overall fusion degree of the heart is very low, but it can absorb ego elements with each battle and continuously improve the fusion degree, and it may eventually meet Simon's requirements.

If everything goes well, after Simon has the power heart implanted and undergoes the 'deification' ritual, regardless of whether he can become a god or not, Simon, who has been infused with a large amount of ego-element, will be reborn in the essence of life.

Carlo's long-dormant consciousness will also be awakened. With the help of Geppetto, he will most likely become the new owner of the divine body and achieve the goal of resurrection from the dead.

However, Geppetto felt that this plan was not safe as there were too many uncontrollable factors and there was a high probability of failure.

Therefore, while preparing the 'body possession' plan, he was also secretly carrying out the 'mechanical ascension' plan.

It is a great road that no one has ever discovered or dared to imagine.

If the mechanical ascension plan can succeed, then resurrecting Carlo will be a piece of cake.

"You interrupted Simon's godhood ritual, causing damage to the power heart, and the part of Carlo's consciousness sealed in it also disappeared..."

Geppetto's eyes were deep, he raised his hand, and the blue energy threads between his fingers swayed.

The controlled nameless puppet drew out the long sword behind him and walked towards Li Nanke step by step.

"Even if I implement the Mechanical Ascension Plan now, that part of Carlo will never come back."

"So, you have to pay for this!"

The power heart for becoming a god comes from Carlo's heart, and the nameless puppet in front of him is transformed from Carlo's body.

Although Geppetto used better materials than those used by Romeo, the King of Puppetry, to transform Carlo's body and create the Nameless Puppet, making the Nameless Puppet extremely powerful... the transformation operation still failed.

After all, Romeo's successful transformation into the King of Dolls was a low-probability event caused by luck.

The nameless puppets in front of him were actually no different from war machines; they were cold, dead objects that could only move under human control.

Therefore, Geppetto needs to use blue energy to pull the strings and control the movements of the nameless puppet.

Looking at the nameless puppet approaching step by step, feeling the other party's cold murderous intent and the strong sense of oppression released, Li Nanke immediately raised his hand and said:
"and many more!"

"Pinocchio is not dead yet. I can bring him back to life."

Hearing this, Geppetto smiled silently, as if he had heard some low-level joke.

As the greatest alchemist in the world, he has studied the taboos of life and death in depth, and no one understands the difficulty better than him.

If just anyone could break the barrier between life and death, then Carlo would have been resurrected long ago.

It can be said that if even Geppetto himself is not sure of doing something, no one in the world can do it. "If you can bring Carlo back to life, I will not only forgive your mistakes, but also give you a chance to join the great mechanical ascension."

Li Nanke has no interest in the so-called mechanical ascension now, but if he doesn't let Pinocchio come back to life at this time, he will be the one to die.

He took a deep breath and took off a metal badge engraved with a bright red rose from his chest.

Li Nanke pinned the rose badge on the boy's chest...

Then, in front of everyone's astonished gaze, he raised his sword and stabbed at the exposed rusty heart!

"stop!"

"What are you going to do!"

As Geppetto and Romeo shouted, the tip of the giant sword had already pierced the power heart.

The already rusty heart was extremely fragile and could not withstand the blow of the giant sword. It immediately shattered and turned into pieces of rusty red fragments.

Gippetto could no longer suppress his anger. This heart came from Carlo, and Li Nanke's behavior was tantamount to desecrating the body of the dead.

He raised his hand and the blue thread swayed, ready to let the nameless puppet kill the other party.

But the next scene made Geppetto freeze in place. He held his monocle in disbelief and stared at the puppet boy's chest with wide eyes.

The giant sword pierced Pinocchio's heart, causing the power heart to disintegrate and shatter. At that moment, the rose emblem on Pinocchio's chest spontaneously combusted without fire and turned into fine ashes.

The broken power heart was quickly pieced together and healed under the influence of an invisible force.

In the blink of an eye, the power heart was completely healed.

No! Not only did it recover, but all the rust and red iron filings disappeared. This heart seemed to be completely new, as if it had never been damaged before!
Under the incredulous gazes of the crowd, the power heart began to vibrate slightly.

As time went on, the heart's vibrations became more and more intense, and soon turned into a rhythmic beat.

Finally, Pinocchio's eyelids trembled and he slowly opened his eyes.

The puppet boy sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked blank.

He only remembered Li Nanke's words asking whether he trusted him, and then he used the Black Tiger Heart-Digger to take out his power heart.

"Am I not dead?"

Pinocchio looked down at his chest. The hole in his chest was slowly healing. The extraordinary metal had the property of self-healing. His heart was safely inside his chest, beating very strongly.

"This..." Looking at the scene in front of him, Geppetto was unable to express the shock in his heart.

Carlo's power heart has lost all its life essence and has been completely scrapped. There is no possibility of saving it.

If he had not seen what was happening before his eyes, and someone had told him that he could restore the power heart, Geppetto would definitely have taught the other person some alchemy knowledge, and then turned the person who dared to joke about it into the purest essence.

But the impossible fact happened right before his eyes, completely shattering Geppetto's cognition and overturning his deeply believed alchemy knowledge.

Not only Gippetto, but Romeo was also shocked by the scene before him and was completely speechless.

No wonder when Li Nanke asked Carlo whether he trusted him, Romeo thought he was kidding at first, but it turned out that he was sure he could resurrect Carlo.

"Mr. Gipetto, I did what I said, and I hope you can keep your promise."

Jippetto had a complicated expression and was silent for a long time before he slowly said:

"You have already restored Carlo's heart and killed Simon, who was my enemy... Of course I will keep my promise."

The middle-aged man looked at Pinocchio and saw that the puppet boy's eyes were full of strangeness. He understood that the part of Carlo's consciousness was still asleep.

Geppetto looked away and said:

"What was the alchemical tool you used to repair your heart earlier?"

The metal badge engraved with a rose is of course the 'Bloody Rose Badge'. This special exchange accessory from the 'Sea of ​​Abes' can trigger the 'Rekindle' effect and repair all heart injuries at the cost of damage to the accessory when the heart suffers a fatal blow.

Li Nanke originally exchanged this thing to save his life.

In certain circumstances, wearing the 'Bloody Rose Badge' is equivalent to having an extra life.

However, the conditions for this thing to be effective are rather harsh. It can only be triggered when the heart suffers a fatal blow. Most of the enemies in the Forbidden Dream are monsters, and the enemies will not only aim at the heart to hit him.

Along the way, Li Nanke experienced many life-and-death crises in the forbidden dream. He escaped death several times but failed to trigger the "Bloody Rose Chest Badge", so this thing was abandoned.

In this forbidden dream, when the optional hidden node showed that Simon needed Pinocchio's power heart, Li Nanke realized that this was a great opportunity.

He can use the effect of the 'Bloody Rose Badge' to turn the single-choice question into a multiple-choice question, and take both hidden rewards without losing Pinocchio.

"It's just an ancient alchemical tool I got by chance... Compared to this, I'm more interested in your mechanical ascension plan."

"Didn't Mr. Geppetto promise me that you would let me join the Glorious Mechanical Ascension Program? Can you tell me more about it?"

Li Nanke secretly reached his hand into his pocket and calmly touched Simon's alchemy notes, coming into contact with the main substance called "alchemy".

Hearing this, Geppetto curled up the corners of his mouth, his eyes flashed with fanaticism, and he opened his arms as if to embrace the world.

“This is an incredibly great plan!”

"Human beings themselves, both in body and mind, are extremely fragile and short-lived."

"Disease, killing, war... there are too many ways to cause the extinction of human beings. No one can escape the threat of death."

"Ancient humans feared death and made wishes to the stars, thus evolving into higher-level blue life forms, thus avoiding death and gaining eternal life."

"Ignorant mortals call these blue life forms 'angels and gods', but they fail to understand that they are just higher-level life forms and cannot be called gods at all."

"The stars not only allow a few lucky humans to gain immortality, but also completely respond to the human desire for immortality and transform the entire world from the most fundamental place."

"Ignorant people think that only 'angels and gods' have eternal life, but they don't know... every one of us has the opportunity to live forever."

"This opportunity is the essence of all life - self-essence!"

"Ego-prime is the stars' true response to mankind's desire for immortality!"

(End of this chapter)