Chapter 1044

Dr. Hughes had never thought that Marion Wheeler's words would actually come true.

Trapped in this small and inconvenient body, thoughts of going on strike and giving up on himself rose in Dr. Hughes's heart time and time again.

The physiology of this species was just too different from that of humans; he forced himself to forget the fact that he had once been human, only to be crushed again and again by the incompatibility of his tentacles.

Furthermore, each tentacle possessed its own sensory ability, causing him to experience unprecedented sensory overload.

And he still had to use his tentacles to move and interact with the environment.

Dr. Hughes's human thinking clashed with the physiological structure of this alien creature, causing him to frequently suffer from severe nerve pain and sensory distortion.

He was on the verge of collapse several times; the pain of the alien body alone was enough to make him nearly suffocate.

However, he still had the responsibility of saving the world; 3125 had to be defeated.

Thus, Dr. Hughes endured, gradually became accustomed to the physiological activities of this alien, eventually achieved self-reconciliation, and obtained a new life.

—Even if this new life was truly not what he had desired.

Just like that, Dr. Hughes spent a long first year.

During this year, he developed tools, computer peripherals, and writing implements adapted for his tentacles for the germ.

He built chair-like objects and other furniture in this basement.

As his compatibility with this body continued to improve, Dr. Hughes even formulated a fitness plan and took up personal hobbies outside of work.

When night fell, he would sleep in a nutrient mud bath.

"To be fair, I admire Dr. Hughes's psychological endurance," March 7th said resentfully.

"If I turned into that shape and could never change back for the rest of my life, I might have collapsed long ago... A tentacle monster with a young girl's core is still a tentacle monster..."

"Don't worry," Bai Xuan patted March 7th's head, "With me here, that's impossible."

When the first month of working in the bunker ended, Dr. Hughes reached a conclusion:

The anti-memetic used to destroy 3125 existed beyond the limits of human intelligence.

If anyone came into contact with this anti-memetic, their mind would be burned to ashes, and their body would not be spared either.

This profound and unalterable disorder occurred in every aspect of the universe around it, inevitably giving rise to violent reactions.

To create this anti-memetic, he had to start with a human carrier, bring along a suitable, "single-celled" baseline concept, and then use a machine to artificially amplify this concept.

When the research progressed to the second year, after Dr. Hughes had designed and built enough equipment, he reached a conclusion:

He couldn't build that theoretical machine.

It wasn't just that the gap between theory and practice was difficult to bridge, and experiments were repeatedly frustrated, but there were also huge flaws in the fundamental design.

Realizing that these machines could not achieve the goals he had expected, Dr. Hughes threw away all the blueprints and sought another way out.

After completing the preliminary research, Dr. Hughes felt he had unloaded a heavy burden and discarded many negative emotions; compared to when he was first resurrected, his mental state was significantly better.

"It's time to do something else to change my mood."

Dr. Hughes felt calm, his thoughts wandering as he planned his arrangements for the coming period, no longer in pain, no longer so oppressed.

As he thought, he slowly sank to the bottom of the tank, deciding to start with self-modification.

He used his authority to continuously issue instructions to the Site-167 AI, adding various equipment and raw materials to the basement.

Once everything was ready, Dr. Hughes performed precise mapping of his body's gene sequence and then set about designing in the direction of life engineering.

To facilitate free movement in the future, he designed life-support equipment that encompassed the entire basement, which required him to rebuild the entire interior of the basement.

Although this was not part of the original plan, Dr. Hughes believed it was absolutely critical and extremely important.

Anyway, he was now the Foundation personnel with the highest authority in the entire site, and his orders would be faithfully carried out.

As the basement renovation project was completed, Dr. Hughes began the self-modification project.

This project was complex and dangerous.

After several years and several stages of adjustments, Dr. Hughes rebuilt the physiological structure of this body.

He possessed body dimensions far exceeding those of his peers, and matching them was a super-brain with the largest size and the most complex neural connections on Earth.

This brain was not even inferior to the host of the Foundation's artificial intelligence; it was sufficient to carry those profound, radial, and irreducible complex thoughts.

Thus, Dr. Hughes used his own brain as a foundation to carry out exploration of the human conceptual space.

And in one exploration, he saw himself.

It was a human-shaped composite shrouded in dazzling light, with similar people gathered around, whether alive or dead, real or virtual.

"This looks truly beautiful."

Just like a group of angels.

But after being intoxicated by this sight for a moment, Dr. Hughes became alert again.

Looking down at himself from a higher dimension, he actually looked so small.

Perhaps, the entire human mind is nothing more than this in the eyes of 3125... Dr. Hughes raised his hand and waved at the little person in the distance.

And he waved back in return.

Then, Dr. Hughes continued to look down from this height, until in one instant, he realized his identity and mission:

"No, I've been wrong about one point all along."

"I am a mad technical genius, a mad inventor building the ultimate weapon... but that's all."

"I am responsible for building the weapon, and there is someone else to load the ammunition and press the launch button."

That original concept that breeds sparks and awaits amplification does not exist in his mind, nor can it be found in the bunker where he is located.

Mathematically speaking, it has never existed, nor can it manifest in any form.

It must be brought by someone else.

And now, the person carrying the ammunition and about to press the button has already arrived at the bunker and is standing before his eyes.

Accompanied by a terrified cry and a brief pain in his eyes, a struggling figure appeared on the retina of Dr. Hughes's giant eye.

Adam only felt the world spinning, followed by an indescribable taste that filled his sense of taste, blocked his sense of smell, and even wanted to invade his lungs.

Just when he had no strength to exert and felt he was about to drown, he suddenly realized that he could actually breathe in this strange liquid.

Thus, he was able to temporarily regain his reason and thinking.

For Dr. Hughes, this was undoubtedly good news.

The black shadow in his eyes, although having briefly lost its mind in extreme fear and disgust, had more endurance than he had imagined, and quickly adapted to the special environment and structure of his eyes.

Soaking in the warm, slightly fishy vitreous humor, Adam's thoughts strung together clues bit by bit, piecing together an obvious answer he had subconsciously ignored.

"It's you!"

This giant unknown life form was the Dr. Bartholomew Hughes that everyone was desperately searching for but could not find!

Adam laughed in the liquid, the last gas in his lungs surging up: "There is no expander! You are the expander!"

"But why don't you go out?"

"You can open the bunker door at any time and end all this, what are you waiting for?"

Adam floated quietly in the liquid, looking around with effort.

Finally, he discovered another figure appearing at the edge of his retina, an aged and exhausted existence, no longer independent, but fused with it.

This made him feel quite vigilant.

"... By whom?"

【Wait a moment.】

Dr. Hughes transmitted such a message to Adam.

Before Adam could react, he felt his brain explode instantly, unfolding suddenly toward the entire universe in a way that transcended topology. ===== CHAPTER 1046 =====