Mystery: A Spark

Benson glanced at his sister but said nothing.

After learning that Klein was going to leave home for sea, he inquired about the messenger from Mr. Heller and was told that contracted messengers were not a simple matter.

If the messenger is not given by an elder, but is sought out by oneself through the spirit world, then not only is a certain amount of luck required, but there is also considerable danger.

However, Benson did not bring this up because he believed that Klein had his own sense of propriety in doing things.

“Go on, Klein. We’ll always be waiting for you to come back in Backlund.” Benson patted Klein on the shoulder.

"Hmm," Klein responded in a muffled voice.

He glanced at his brother and sister one last time, then put on his sunglasses, transformed into his new image, and strode away.

Chapter 242 Machines and Necromancers

Wednesday, 7 Downsend Street.

"Speaking of Arthur, how long will this strike last?"

Arthas asked curiously as he ate the ribs in his bowl.

"These things can't be rushed. It depends on how long those people can wait. It could take seven or eight days, or even more than ten days."

Arthur picked up a mouthful of beef noodles he had made himself, blew on it, and then slurped it into his mouth.

"What, are you in a hurry?"

"Not really, it's just that we feel that if we keep dragging this out, we'll suffer significant losses. It would be great if we could resolve this quickly."

“But if we resolve this quickly, we’ll have to leave Backlund. It’s a tough decision.” Arthas sighed deeply.

"Oh, what? Don't you want to leave Backlund? I thought you'd be looking forward to our adventures." Arthur picked up a thick slice of fatty beef from his bowl, put it in his mouth with relish, and said as he chewed it slowly.

For foods like beef noodles, it's more economical to cook them yourself; otherwise, you can't really expect much beef in them.

The beef noodles you buy outside are so thin that even describing them as "as thin as a cicada's wing" is an understatement; they're practically nothing more than mosquito legs, gone in no time.

“Adventures are certainly fun, but it’s also quite tough to live outdoors in the open.” Arthas paused for a moment while gnawing on a rib, then said with a normal expression.

“Hey, I think you’ve gotten too used to the comfortable life here. You’ve even gained quite a bit of weight recently. You should come with me to lose some weight later.” Arthur pointed at Arthas with his chopsticks and said with a smile.

"Nonsense! I haven't gotten fat at all. This is just normal growth and development," Arthas retorted loudly. "Besides, there's always the possibility of something going wrong when you go out on adventures. What if you die out there?"

"You brat, what nonsense are you spouting?" Arthur picked up a piece of beef and threw it at Arthas. "How could your master, who is so cautious, possibly afford to make a fool of himself?"

Arthas caught the flying beef in his mouth with a "whoosh," swallowed it in a few bites, and muttered a complaint:

"They said they wouldn't crash and burn, but the flag has already been raised."

"How can this be called setting up a flag? Am I being careless? Besides, I can't stay in the Harvester stage forever without advancing, can I? I always have to take the risks that need to be taken."

Arthur slurped up two more mouthfuls of noodles, then said with a smile:

"Alright, stop worrying and eat quickly. After we finish eating, we'll go to St. Hillan Cathedral."

I'm afraid the risk is beyond our ability to withstand... Arthas sighed inwardly, said nothing more, and just started seriously gnawing on the ribs in his bowl.

……

Inside the underground laboratory of St. Hillan Cathedral.

"Oh, you've arrived?" Upon noticing Arthur's arrival, Bonova, who had been lost in thought in his chair, stood up.

"Mr. Bonova, have you had any results from the experiments related to the properties of psionic energy?" Arthur asked curiously.

"I have the results, and I've also used psionic energy to do some other experiments, but I'll talk about that later."

At that moment, Bonova began to tell Arthur about the properties of psionic energy obtained from their previous experiments.

"Energy craving?" Arthur frowned.

“Well, but I don’t think it really matters. After all, you know our world will end in a dozen years,” Bonova said nonchalantly.

"Hmm...that's true, but I think this problem isn't actually that difficult to solve," Arthur said after stroking his chin and thinking for a while.

“Oh? What are your thoughts?” Bonova raised an eyebrow.

Although he felt the problem wasn't too significant, he thought it would be a good thing if it could be solved without incurring a large cost.

"It's actually quite simple. We just need to convert psionic energy into a secondary energy source that is less harmful," Arthur explained his solution.

"Converted into secondary energy? You mean... electricity?" Bonova said thoughtfully.

"That's right. We separate military energy from civilian energy. We only control the source of psionic energy and convert it into electricity for the public to use."

“In this way, people will only know that they are using electricity, but will not know what the source of the energy is, and will no longer have close contact with psionic energy,” Arthur said confidently.

This idea had been vaguely formed in his mind when he first came into contact with psionic energy.

At that time, he sensed that the nature of psionic energy and the fel energy in Gul'dan's skull were extremely similar, and that they were very likely the same thing in essence.

Even if psionic energy is more gentle, it is certainly not a harmless and perfect energy source.

Therefore, Arthur realized at that time that he could not allow the people to have direct contact with psychic energy, otherwise there would likely be bad consequences.

The results of the experiment also verified his conjecture.

Even if the consequences don't occur for a long time, addiction is still addiction.

Since it can be avoided, there's no need to ignore this problem.

Furthermore, converting psionic energy into electrical energy for people's use has another advantage.

That is, it can effectively prevent some people from deliberately courting death.

In Arthur's previous life, the harmful effects of electricity had become common knowledge after continuous public awareness campaigns.

Safety education regarding fire prevention and electrical safety has reached a level that even a three-year-old child knows.

Even so, there are still people who deliberately touch the electric switch to commit suicide.

If even electrical energy, whose harm is visible to the naked eye, is like this, then how can psionic energy, an energy source that does not cause obvious consequences when touched by hand, be easily spread to people for use?

Once you do that, how can you guarantee that no one will touch the psionic lines every day?

Don't underestimate the diversity of human beings. What if someone has a special constitution and a particular fondness for courting death?

So, the "addiction" that theoretically takes hundreds of years to develop may appear in this world much earlier.

At that time, it is very likely to cause public panic.

After all, the horror of "addiction" is several times greater than that of drug addiction.

The withered people of Azeroth must know this all too well.

Compared to something like "addiction," death from electric shock is merely a minor inconvenience.

After all, dying from electrocution is just the end of the matter, but once the "addiction" kicks in, you can truly experience a feeling of being worse than dead.

"Controlling the source of psionic energy in our own hands and only allowing electrical energy to flow out is a good idea, but this would require a group of people to be specifically in charge of this matter."

"Furthermore, the construction of power lines, related applications, and commercialization all require specialized personnel." Bonova understood Arthur's meaning and offered his opinion.

“That’s true.” Arthur nodded in agreement.

This is precisely why he wanted to start the Umbrella Corporation.

Thanks to Roselle, electricity has actually been invented and is already being used in the mysterious world.

Unfortunately, this application was limited to a very small range, such as telegrams, and did not reach every household like it had in Arthur's previous life.

The main reason is that countries around the world do not have enough incentive to build various power generation-related facilities.

Why isn't there enough motivation? Because it's unnecessary.

The lack of oil has left the world's technology stuck in a limbo, even with Russell's efforts.

Without technological advancements, productivity cannot achieve a leapfrog improvement.

As a result, the demand for energy will naturally not be as great as it was in Arthur's previous life.

Another reason is the influence of extraordinary abilities.

A high-energy world can bring certain conveniences to scientific and technological research and development, but at the same time, excessively powerful individual abilities can also hinder the development of science and technology.

Due to a variety of factors, steam power remains the mainstream power source in the world.

Electricity is used only in limited areas and on a small scale.

As for petroleum-powered internal combustion engines, it's basically impossible to expect them to ever be invented.

Arthur's original idea was to launch a psionic revolution in one fell swoop.

However, due to the special nature of psionic energy, he had to settle for second best and start an electrical revolution first.

As the starting point of the electrical revolution, Umbrella Corporation is bound to grow into a behemoth.

It's not impossible for it to grow to the size of the Resident Evil universe.

At that time, it will surely become a powerful weapon in Arthur's hands to control the world situation.

“By the way, Mr. Bonova, you mentioned earlier that you also conducted some other experiments related to psionic energy. What were they?” Arthur asked at this point.

"Heh, don't laugh at me, but the main reason I did those experiments was actually just some interesting stories my father told me back then."

"After gaining psychic powers, I wanted to try to turn my father's ideas into reality."

"I succeeded, but you could also say I failed," Bonova said with a self-deprecating laugh.

"Mr. Bonova, what idea did Emperor Roselle propose back then?" Arthur asked curiously.

“About… mechanical ascension,” Bonova replied.

Arthur:......

He dares to say it, and you actually believe him?

Good heavens, this is a path he never imagined. He never expected that Bonova would start working on mechanical ascension without even a reliable AI.

They haven't even developed a computer, let alone mastered any artificial intelligence technology. What kind of flying machine are they supposed to be?

Genetic ascension or psionic ascension might be more plausible.

"Um, Mr. Bonova, what did you mean by success? And what did you mean by failure?" Although Arthur found it absurd, he was still curious about what Bonova had come up with.

“I…I created a mechanical body, but it has no intelligence whatsoever, so even with ample psionic energy, it is completely unable to perform any actions on its own.” Bonova shrugged helplessly.