Chapter 341: He Yun's Artificial God

The three moles in the Administration Bureau were on par with Xu Dejun, all around level fifty, and possessed no special trump cards.

It didn't take much effort for Wu Chang to deal with the three moles.

For ordinary players like them, most lacked the ability to fight underwater, and their physical attributes were mostly strained, with little resources invested in inspiration and willpower.

As soon as the three entered the Blind Abyss, they instantly panicked.

Coupled with the fact that the three were already guilty, their inner flaws were magnified, allowing the Authority of Chaos and the whispers of the Blind Abyss to take advantage of the situation, turning them into sitting ducks in the water.

The ensuing battle was much easier.

If Spatial Distortion couldn't handle Heracles with his lion-skin armor, could it not handle these small fry?

A single Spatial Distortion pierced the abdomen of the strongest of the three, causing the opponent to lose the ability to act.

Seeing this, the remaining two panicked even more, and under the influence of the Authority of Chaos, they actually turned on each other.

One mole from the Evolution Faction and one mole from the Light Society began to fight underwater.

While Wu Chang used the Authority of Chaos to drain their attributes, he waited for the cooldown of Spatial Distortion.

Once the cooldown was over, he used the same trick to take down the second person.

Facing the last mole, he transformed into the Deep Sea Elbow King; three elbows later, the mole had lost all sensation due to the negative status effects and the effects of the Blind Abyss.

The only fly in the ointment was that he failed to trigger Breakthrough Master, and the stacked strength attribute was not high enough.

Otherwise, he wouldn't need these methods; he could have twisted the mole's limbs off head-on while ignoring the barrier of the Plane of Reason.

He looked at Xu Dejun and said:

"The three of them are only heavily injured and have temporarily lost the ability to act. Take them down; you should have a way to control them."

Facing Wu Chang's commanding posture, no one present had any objections.

The Plane of Reason speaks through strength; one must know that from the time the three were taken away by Wu Chang to their reappearance half-dead, less than two minutes had passed.

One against three—even with the element of a sneak attack, such a record was incredible enough.

If you have the strength, you should speak loudly.

Everyone present was convinced in their hearts; they truly couldn't do this job.

If it were them, let alone comparing to Wu Chang, fighting one against three and taking down three players of the same level in two minutes.

Even if they were allowed to replace any of the three on the ground, they wouldn't have the confidence to last longer than those who fell.

More importantly, Wu Chang was still a Wilderness player, not from the Plane of Reason.

After a brief silence, the impatient person who spoke earlier opened their mouth again and said:

"We certainly believe in the ability of Your Excellency Peace, but since you acted so suddenly, we were inevitably panicked. We hope you can give us an explanation."

The impatient person lowered their posture, and the tone was a request rather than a questioning.

It was only because Wu Chang was currently a solo player and not one of the Administration Bureau's own people; if such a genius had emerged from their own ranks, even if the three on the ground had been beaten wrongly, it would be up to them to reflect on what they had done wrong to cause Wu Chang to have a misunderstanding.

Wu Chang told them the recording of his private conversation with the three, along with the suspicious points discovered by the Omniscient Crystal.

"My ability can only roughly detect that they have abnormalities and harbor ulterior motives. I have stated the direction very clearly; whether to further verify and determine the truth or to interrogate them directly is up to you."

The Abyss Game is not the real world; there is no presumption of innocence, nor does it require a perfectly closed chain of evidence to rule someone guilty.

The flaws pointed out by the Omniscient Crystal, combined with Wu Chang's mysterious "ability," were already convincing enough.

There are no fools who have survived in the Plane of Reason until now; the eyes of everyone present looking at the three moles had already changed.

Without waiting for the Order Faction members to say anything more, Wu Chang handed the relevant materials to Xu Dejun and intended to leave.

He came to the Plane of Reason this time just to save Xu Dejun and to take a look at the living environment of the Order Faction.

Helping out a little was fine, but he wasn't here to be their babysitter.

Now that the person had been saved and he knew about the Light Society's plan, it was time to leave.

Although the Order Faction members intended to keep him, they also knew that Wu Chang's main battlefield was currently in the Wilderness.

It is no exaggeration to say that Wu Chang's existence is a variable for the entire Abyss Game.

Whether he can stop the Light Society's plan determines not only the future of the Wilderness and reality but also the changes in the Plane of Reason.

Only if he wins and the Plane of Reason remains under the responsibility of the Order Faction can they fight for space to survive.

If the Wilderness and the Plane of Reason were to merge into one, they would be completely unable to compete with the Light Society.

After a brief farewell, Wu Chang took a flying vehicle back to the stone forest where he arrived and returned to reality through the Pillar of the Present World.

At the same time, Wu Chang's physical body in the bedroom woke up from his dream. When he opened his eyes again, the space beside him was empty; He Yun had already woken up early.

After a simple wash and finishing the breakfast He Yun had prepared on the living room table, he went to the laboratory and saw that He Yun was indeed sitting in front of the computer.

He stepped forward to give He Yun a hug and a coffee-flavored morning kiss, saying:

"Up so early? I thought you would wake up later than me."

He Yun's physical body was strong, but far less monstrous than He Yi's. Without wearing a mecha, she was still within the category of a mortal body.

She was much stronger than ordinary people in reality, but her body was not as good as an ordinary player.

When the two were communicating deeply last night, Wu Chang, relying on his 82 points of health, 70 points of agility, and 70 points of endurance, had defeated He Yun until she lost her armor and helmet.

He didn't expect her to recover her energy after sleeping for only half the night and wake up so early.

He Yun teased: "I was afraid that someone would regret it afterward and sneak away while I wasn't awake."

Wu Chang increased the strength of his hug as if to show his attitude, saying:

"How could that be? My biggest characteristics are, first, I never regret, and second, I am greedy enough. As long as something becomes mine, asking me to give it up is comparable to taking my life."

He Yun laughed: "I don't actually dislike your greed."

As the two were talking, a faint vibration came from the ground; it seemed that something had landed outside.

In less than a minute, heavy footsteps were heard outside the corridor, and immediately after, he saw He Yi open the laboratory door and say:

"Satisfying! Xiao Yun, the new mecha you improved has a simply amazing driving feel! Operating it in battle is even more exhilarating than fighting with my own body!"

After He Yi finished speaking, he noticed another person in the laboratory and immediately dragged Wu Chang out.

"You came just in time. Those scumbags outside are too weak; it's not satisfying to fight them. Only you can accompany me for some practice."

Wu Chang said awkwardly: "Is this appropriate? He Yun and I still have important matters to discuss."

He Yun looked down at the computer screen and said: "If you are not in a hurry to leave, you can play with him for a while."

"The improvement of the mecha uses the technology from your cousin's research, but I don't know how much of the effect it has exerted."

He Yi said: "Look, Xiao Yun said so too, come on."

"Alright then." Wu Chang followed He Yi away, half-pushed and half-willing.

His face was awkward, but in reality, the smile at the corner of his mouth could no longer be suppressed.

The current him was no longer the same as before; he was no longer the rookie who was easily rubbed by He Yi.

Not only had his physical attributes increased significantly, but his combat skills had also reached the master level. He didn't believe he would be treated as a punching bag unilaterally when facing He Yi again.

Following He Yi outside, when he saw He Yi wearing the mecha and completing the startup, he threw all thoughts of sparring or revenge to the back of his mind.

Because the improved mecha in front of him was improved to an exaggerated degree.

The mechas in the Underground Shelter plane were not large pilotable robots like in the Gundam or Eva worldviews, but more like a wearable powered exoskeleton.

The control of the mecha only made the operator stronger, faster, and more powerful in firepower.

Compared to the machine itself, it valued the operator's technique more.

Now, after He Yun's improvements, the mechas of the Underground Shelter had evolved from simple exoskeletons into the prototype of a small robot.

Local mechas were generally about 2.5 meters tall after the pilot wore them; He Yi's mecha specifications were larger, but only three meters tall.

But the current mecha of He Yi reached a height of 4.5 meters, and the mode of the mecha changed from being worn in parts to an integrated cockpit.

The driving mode also changed from being human-body-oriented with the mecha as an auxiliary to the pilot purely driving the mecha.

If it were just the change in mecha size and driving mode, it would not have caused Wu Chang's surprise.

This kind of change in a purely technological direction would not provide much improvement to the machine, but would instead lose the original characteristics of the pilot.

Combined with the original worldview, it was not necessarily a positive improvement.

However, what truly surprised Wu Chang was that after He Yi entered the cockpit and started the mecha, in his perception, He Yi and the mecha became a whole, or rather, the mecha became a living thing.

If he closed his eyes and perceived through inspiration, standing in front of him was a giant 4.5 meters tall.

The source of this human-machine integration effect came from divinity.

Wu Chang was very familiar with the aura of divinity in the mecha; that aura was extremely similar to the Primordial Armament, but also different.

Regardless of the differences between the two, the divinity within was indeed genuine, and even more concentrated than the divinity in the Primordial Armament.

In terms of divinity concentration, He Yi's mecha was not inferior to the Fly King incarnated by Farrell, approaching the demigod level.

"How is it? Is there a big gap between my modification and the original version?" He Yun's voice came from behind Wu Chang.

Wu Chang swallowed, turned his head to look at He Yun, and shook his head.

He Yun smiled and didn't take it to heart, saying:

"Because it applies technology from more than four different systems, I am just trying to explore it. The coordination between them is not in place, and there is still a lot of room for improvement, so it's normal that it's unqualified."

"It's just a semi-finished product now. After I go to the plane where your cousin is and completely integrate the four technologies, there will be a qualitative change."

Wu Chang's cheek twitched, and his voice was a bit hoarse:

"What I meant by shaking my head was not that it is unqualified, but that there is no longer a gap compared to the Primordial Armament designed by my cousin, and it even exceeds it."

Are you kidding? It was just a semi-finished product in the exploration stage, and it already had this level of strength. Listening to He Yun, there could be a qualitative change in the later stage.

According to this momentum, the completed mecha in He Yun's mind probably wasn't targeting the Primordial Armament, but the Artificial God in the Hymn Project.

At this moment, he once again experienced the disparity between people.

Previously in his eyes, Schultz was synonymous with genius since childhood, and with the help of the Omniscient Crystal, the knowledge reserve in his mind was comparable to a library.

Whether it was physics, chemistry, biology, electronics, etc., he had mastered them all, and even developed the Primordial Armament and Disqualified Monsters that condense divinity through human forms.

No matter which plane he went to, relying on the all-system knowledge in his mind, he could easily rebuild the entire technology tree.

In Wu Chang's view, Schultz was already the pinnacle of intelligence in the Desolate Realm.

Conversely, his impression of He Yun was that of a "small-town inventor" from the underground shelter.

She followed an unconventional path, knew how to tinker with mechs, was bold, had whimsical ideas, and could conceive of ways to fuse technology with mysticism.

She belonged to the category of those who had a bit of talent but were limited by too small a stage to fully display it.

Handing Schultz's research to He Yun, he hadn't expected her to actually research anything; it was more about putting that research to use as waste.

Learning a little was a gain; if she learned nothing, it was no loss to treat it as a gift.

But he hadn't expected that the extraction of divinity, which Schultz had spent a lifetime researching, would be conquered by He Yun in less than a month.

He Yun's "little bit of talent" seemed to be "a billion bits of talent."

Compared to her, Schultz, who had developed his talent zones through psionic stimulation surgery, had instead become the hardworking type.

Wu Chang couldn't help but sigh; the abyss was full of hidden talents, and there was no most genius, only more genius.

Many people only needed to be given a chance and access to the right path to leap over the dragon gate.

Without his help, He Yun would just be an inventor in an underground shelter, easily manipulated by Mercury and the Mother of Desire.

But now, with He Yun having mastered the method of condensing divinity, if she could really make a Hymn-level mech, it wouldn't be long before she could pin Mercury to the ground and hammer him.

"How did you do it?"

He Yun said in an extremely calm, report-like tone:

"Actually, from a purely technical perspective, I am still a bit behind your cousin; I have only mastered eighty percent of his research."

"But your cousin was too obsessed with extracting so-called divinity from human nature. I don't know why."

Wu Chang replied:

"Because my cousin was a staunch atheist; he wanted to prove that humanity could master the power of gods on its own."

"The world he was in seemed to be facing some kind of massive disaster, and only the power of divinity could possibly resist it."

"He wanted to use human nature as a common point to connect everyone in the world, letting everyone combine into one, all possessing the power of gods, to survive the crisis."

He Yun frowned slightly, thought carefully for a moment, and said:

"If you look at it from that perspective, his path is difficult, but once successful, it would be a permanent solution."

"But if he just wanted to get rid of the gods while still possessing the power of gods, there are actually many simple ways. Not wanting to rely on gods doesn't necessarily mean one needs to be different from them."

Wu Chang blinked and said:

"Can you explain that in a more understandable way?"

He Yun pointed to He Yi's mech and explained the method she had adopted to Wu Chang.

In her view, the essence of a god was an existence that had mastered the ability to convert the power of faith into the power of divinity.

Whoever mastered this ability was a god.

The key to the conversion ability lay in the initial seed of divinity; as long as one possessed the first trace of divinity in their body, then upon subsequent contact with the power of faith, the seed of divinity could automatically complete the conversion.

The method gods used to condense the seed of divinity was through observing the rules of the world; it was a request made to the world.

The path Schultz chose was not to look outward, but to look inward at human nature itself.

The root of divinity was the power of faith, and the power of faith came from humans.

He attempted to condense the seed of divinity using human nature; if successful, he would not need the middleman of the power of faith, but would directly use human nature to connect all of humanity, directly extracting the parts of human belief that could transform into divinity.

This way, people would not have to kneel and worship something, contributing the power of faith; they could obtain divine power while standing.

This method involved directly changing the generation chain of: sentient beings—power of faith—gods—power of divinity.

This route was high in difficulty, high in risk, low in yield, and highly uncertain.

But changing the perspective, what Schultz wanted to do was not actually to cut off the power of faith, but to cut off the middleman: the gods.

He Yun's approach was to take action directly against the gods.

The function of a god was to convert the power of faith into the power of divinity.

Then, as long as she used techno-mysticism, combined with the various studies Schultz had done on condensing divinity, she could use the techno-mystical devices she manufactured to directly convert the power of faith.

This method did not change the original generation chain of the power of divinity; while keeping the process stable, it simply eliminated the existence of gods.

Or rather, it turned the gods into He Yun's version of artificial gods, equally capable of not relying on gods and synthesizing the power of divinity while standing.

From a certain perspective, He Yun's plan was more in line with the name "Artificial God" than the Hymn Project.

As for Schultz's other goal—leading all of humanity to survive the end of the world—He Yun was all too familiar with that.

As long as one mastered the industrialized synthesis of divinity and knew in advance that the end was coming, then by gathering the power of the whole world, couldn't one just build a large-scale underground world?

After He Yun's explanation, Wu Chang gained an understanding of her way of condensing the power of divinity.

According to her method, one could indeed avoid many uncertain detours, and it was simpler and more effective.

Then why hadn't Schultz thought of such a simple method?

It was simple: it wasn't that Schultz hadn't thought of it, but that the key to He Yun's entire process lay in the techno-mysticism she had invented.

A technology that used the technology of the underground shelter to directly convert the power of faith into energy.

Looking back now, this ability, from a certain perspective, could already be considered a power that only gods could possess.

This technology, which He Yun did not find difficult, might be even more difficult than Schultz's condensing of divinity from human nature.

Having figured out the crux of the matter, Wu Chang realized:

"You told me before that the power of faith from the Desire Stele wasn't enough and that you wanted to obtain more. The shortage of the power of faith wasn't just for purifying the surface, but also for condensing divine power, right?"

Seen this way, He Yun only wanted to use Yu Ailin as a totem to condense the power of faith of the plane, but she was not prepared to hand that power of faith over to Yu Ailin; instead, she intended to intercept it and directly convert it into divine power.

No wonder she had taken the initiative to invite Yu Ailin into the underground shelter, and mentioning Yu Ailin didn't just lack dissatisfaction, but even carried a sense of guilt for being in the wrong.

So it was by defaulting to Yu Ailin's existence that she was trading for the power of faith of this plane from Yu Ailin's hands.

There was not a hint of embarrassment on He Yun's face as she said:

"I never intended to hide it from you, it's just that there was only one and a half test bodies; I had to wait for you to return before I could explain it to you."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow, keenly noticing something, and asked: "One and a half? What does that half refer to?"

He Yun said: "Didn't I promise to make a custom mech for you? It was almost finished, but now that I've suddenly obtained new technology, I'm modifying it."

Wu Chang gave He Yun a fierce, deep kiss; it was just the faith of a plane, give it! If it wasn't enough, he could transfer it from other planes.

What man could refuse a super mech that possessed divinity?

(End of chapter)