You've become the warden, and you're telling me I'm an undercover agent?

Chapter 233 The Cardinal and the Former Chief Engineer

Mechanicus, Star City branch.

Rich people never treat themselves badly. Even if it is a secret base, the inside cannot really be like a mountain valley.

Those in power know how to enjoy themselves.

Therefore, the Star City headquarters of the Mechanical Church is located in the villa area on the outskirts of Star City, in Guanlan Courtyard of Diancui Lake.

The developer was wealthy and well-connected, and he acquired all the land around Diancui Lake and developed this villa area.

According to the salary of an ordinary person, the loan would have to be repaid from the beginning of this era, the first year of the new calendar, until the current year 716 of the new calendar, to be almost paid off.

The Star City branch was located in several of the villas, and of course, the laboratories were in other, more secluded locations.

The Cardinal sat on a spacious leather sofa, almost sinking in. He looked young, about forty years old, with graying hair and a mature demeanor.

His figure, temperament, skin color, appearance, and even the color of his pupils are all relatively perfect and 100% in line with his own aesthetic.

Of his entire body, only his brain remained original, while the rest of his body parts were replaced with mechanical and bionic organs.

Not only is it expensive, but it also has good combat effectiveness.

But perfection in appearance alone was not enough, the cardinal began to pursue connotation.

and so--

He was writing a diary, which would be polished by a dedicated person and compiled into a two-million-word masterpiece: "Biography of Chu Zhiyuan."

Chu Zhiyuan is the name of the cardinal.

"I vaguely remember my mother telling me that when she was pregnant with me, a giant mechanical dragon climbed onto her belly—"

Having written this, Chu Zhiyuan paused typing on the keyboard.

No, no, the mechanical dragon is too big, the mother can't bear it, and the plagiarism feeling is too strong.

He deleted the mechanical dragon and changed it to:
"When she was pregnant with me, a red sun of nuclear fusion fell into her belly—"

After finishing writing, he admired himself for a long time, nodded, and said to himself:
"This makes a lot more sense and logic, everyone will definitely believe it!"

His habit of writing three or five sentences and then admiring himself for a long time is very similar to that of some writers of failed novels.

The more distinct the characteristics, the more it proves that you are still a "human being".

So, this is the anchor of his human will.

At noon, the indicator light on the workbench came on, and a very respectful voice came from inside:

"Bishop, the former chief of Bocas is here."

"Let him in."

Chu Zhiyuan even pursues perfection in his voice, which is majestic yet magnetic, making his voice irresistible.

Bocas is the chief engineer of the radical wing of the Mechanicus Church. Strictly speaking, the rank of the church's chief engineer is higher than that of the regional bishop.

However, the radicals lost the struggle with the conservatives, so Bocas became the former chief, and his status was only comparable to Chu Zhiyuan.

As we mentioned before, conservatives argue that machines are just tools and that mechanical bodies should not give birth to or have mechanical consciousness; radicals believe that mechanical consciousness has its superiority, and therefore advocate the coexistence of human consciousness and mechanical consciousness.

Bocas, born in the United Kingdom, is considered a elder of the Mechanicus Church.

Ordinary people would be shocked when they saw him for the first time.

Except for his head, his entire body has been transformed into a machine, and he has no bionic tissue installed.

In other words, from the outside, it looks like a mechanical skeleton with a human head on top.

Sometimes he would find his humanoid body inconvenient and would even switch to another form of machine. That would be even more terrifying.

"Sit down." Chu Zhiyuan saw him come in and pointed to the seat opposite.

"My body doesn't get tired," Bocas said. "If Mr. Bishop just doesn't like people looking down on you, I can sit down."

The words were a bit harsh, but they were indeed what Bocas really thought.

Chu Zhiyuan's face darkened visibly, but he waved his hand indifferently: "Whatever you want."

But in Bocas's eyes, the movement of every muscle on Chu Zhiyuan's face, the stretching and contraction, were reproduced in his mind frame by frame like a slow motion.

He quickly determined that Chu Zhiyuan was lying.

"From your micro-expressions, it seems like you don't like me standing, so I'd better sit down."

Bocas said, and then he saw the corner of Chu Zhiyuan's mouth twitch slightly again.

Then, the former said: "You don't seem to like what I said, even if what I said is the truth -"

Chu Zhiyuan quickly interrupted him: "Let's talk about the final model."

There are two development ideas for the Mechanicus's final machine. The radical approach is to study mechanical creations like Pulao and continuously improve their strength.

Conservatives, on the other hand, advocate exploration and research on people with strong abilities.

After the radicals lost power more than ten years ago, research like that of Pulao was stopped, and exploration could only continue in branch cities dominated by radicals.

Pulao was brought here by Bocas and placed in Star City. Currently, he is studying the conservative plan to transform powerful people with special abilities.

After more than a decade of experimentation, they finally found a method. However, to be on the safe side, they didn't use their own personnel for the experiment. Instead, they searched the world for smaller, less-involved, and special threats to avoid getting into trouble.

So, is there any special threat more suitable than Hong Tianbo, who has been imprisoned for thirty years?

He has no affiliation with any forces and has no connection with other forces, making him the best experimental subject.

Therefore, they managed to capture him after being surrounded by multiple Type 4 robots.

The Mechanical Church removed the upper part of Hong Tianbo's cervical vertebrae and replaced them with a remote-controlled liquid alloy. It usually lurks inside Hong Tianbo's body, and when it receives a command, Hong Tianbo will fall into a state of confusion.

The liquid alloy will gradually take control of the body, and the person who issues commands remotely will become the actual controller.

Therefore, Hong Tianbo's capsizing of the cruise ship and his escape from prison were all experiments conducted by remote control personnel. Similarly, when his abilities were restricted by the super-powered suppressor, it was the liquid alloy in his body that helped to cut through the suppressor.

But even so, conservatives gradually discovered that it was very difficult to match the S-level.

Hong Tianbo, who was under control, moved a little sluggishly.

So, there is the current solution.

That is to use the radical's mechanical creation, that is, Pulao's mechanical body, as an exoskeleton, with the modified special danger as the core, and let the two combine.

The two are one, and both sides have reached the strength of special harm, which will surely produce an effect that is greater than the sum of one and the other.

This will allow the true final model to be released.

But during the experiment, a small accident happened.

That is--

Pulao's body was separated, his head was kept as a pet, and his body was collected;
Hong Tianbo escaped from prison and surrendered himself.

In the blink of an eye, all factors were out of control.

What a hell.

The most important thing is Pulao’s head, that square box.

Its main function is to learn human emotions and suppress the birth of mechanical will after fusion.

It can be said that the research in this area was very successful, but its excessive success led Pulao to have some ideas of his own.

It's a bit embarrassing that it can't be recalled.

But there is an alternative solution, and that is Yuanyuan.

After Yuanyuan was transformed, although she had a mechanical body, she herself was unaware of it and had rich emotions.

After its memories are imported into the final machine, they should be able to serve as an anchor for human will.

"So, what do you want to ask?"

Bocas's words were still as stiff as ever, which made Chu Zhiyuan feel a little uncomfortable.

"Of course it's the progress of the final model." said the latter.

Bocas stared at Chu Zhiyuan for a long while, as if he was thinking or considering, but he didn't say anything.

"What's wrong?" Chu Zhiyuan asked.

"I'm thinking," Bocas said slowly. "After all, you're not a researcher. How should I phrase it so you understand?"

Chu Zhiyuan frowned slightly, and his first reaction was: This guy looks down on me again!
He was about to speak when Bocas added, "You seem a little angry. It seems my truth has made you unhappy."

You know it and you still say it?!

Chu Zhiyuan felt a little gnashed his teeth.

It took him a while to calm down: "Then tell me what you can understand."

"You can simply understand it as: we have done the preliminary work, now we just need to put all the important components together and it should be able to run," said Bocas.

Chu Zhiyuan spread his hands: "How is the effect?"

Bocas: "I guess the effect you're talking about is mainly referring to combat capabilities."

Chu Zhiyuan: "Yes, yes!"

Bocas: "This attempt is a comprehensive consideration of the two plans. There will definitely be a series of problems. I'm afraid it will be difficult to achieve S-level combat power. But it will definitely be higher than either of them before the fusion."

Chu Zhiyuan sighed in disappointment: "That won't work either."

Bocas nodded. "I've said before that devoting such a large amount of manpower and resources to researching S-class combat capabilities is a waste of time. We can actually do many other things."

Chu Zhiyuan looked at him: "For example?"

Bocas: "You don't understand."

The veins on Chu Zhiyuan's forehead twitched, but just as he was about to suppress it, he heard Bocas say again:
"Judging from your micro-expressions, you seem quite unconvinced."

Chu Zhiyuan felt like hitting someone.

(End of this chapter)