Chapter 345: Mechanical Heart

Hughes felt the world slipping away from him; his eyes saw only the blood-red flashing alarm and the piercing warning sound.

Since its introduction, the Psychic Enhancement Surgery has maintained an extremely high success rate, especially at the headquarters of Hymn Corp, where the success rate reached one hundred percent.

The alarm for surgical malfunction was once considered a safety redundancy; only during training had members of the Psychic Enhancement Division ever heard such an alarm.

In the instrument operation logs of the Psychic Enhancement Division, error reports had actually occurred only twice—and both times, they occurred on him.

No! This time, he could not give up!

Hughes shook his head, dispelling the confusion on his face, and fixed the surgical interface with a determined gaze.

The next moment, the momentum he had just built up drained away completely.

The reason was simple: he couldn't understand it.

Wu Chang's talent zone had merely been overly complex, as if a person had grown three faces.

It required simultaneous modification from multiple angles to ensure that all three faces appeared perfect, whether viewed individually or as a whole.

If Wu Chang's case, though complex, still fell within Hughes's understanding, He Yun's talent zone had already exceeded it.

It was as if the face he needed to modify was not a human face at all, but some kind of alien.

Yes, an alien.

Hughes suddenly realized something, his eyes filled with panic.

"Mr. Hughes."

Could it be that Vice Chairwoman He Yun, like the God of Eternal Purity, was also an alien?

It was too late to call upon Chairwoman Schulz now; the few alien patrons of Hymn Corp wouldn't tolerate a surgical failure on his account.

"Mr. Hughes?"

If He Yun suffered any harm, he wouldn't just have to face the wrath of that god-tier alien—the company itself would never let him off.

"Mr. Hughes!"

Hughes's body suddenly lifted into the air, rising from his slumped chair to stand up for no apparent reason.

He snapped back to awareness and realized he had been yanked upright by the collar of his neck by Xiao En, then dropped directly onto the floor.

"Mr. Hughes, I called you three times. Snap out of it."

He tugged at the collar choking his neck, bewildered: "Chairman Xiao En, I, she, I..."

Wu Chang waved his hand and said:

"No need to explain. I know what happened. Go rest. I'll handle the rest."

Hughes found those words strangely familiar—when Chairman Xiao En's surgery had triggered an alarm, Chairman Schulz had said nearly the same thing to him.

He regained his composure and stared at Wu Chang in astonishment:

"Chairman Xiao En, what are you planning to do?"

Wait—Chairman Xiao En wouldn't try to imitate Schulz and take over the surgery himself, would he?

Psychic Enhancement Surgery involves brain modification—it's a serious and dangerous procedure.

With Chairman Xiao En's knowledge base, he probably couldn't even pronounce the technical terms on the surgical interface; if he killed someone, wouldn't he have to bear the blame himself?

Wu Chang said:

"I plan to summon the God of Eternal Purity to perform the operation. She dislikes strangers getting too close."

Hughes exhaled in relief—so long as Chairman Xiao En wasn't going to operate himself, everything was manageable.

Psychic Enhancement technology originated from alien tech; an alien's operation would surely be more skilled than his own—there shouldn't be any problems.

Wu Chang watched Hughes's retreating back, his lips twitching slightly.

He read contempt in that man's eyes—so you think you're a chairman, do you? You're trying to make things hard for me, are you?

Who are you looking down on? Do you really think I can't complete He Yun's surgery?

Omniscient Crystal—activate!

He pulled out the Omniscient Crystal and signaled it to take over the surgery.

Before the surgery, he had anticipated this possibility; his confidence in letting He Yun onto the operating table stemmed from the Omniscient Crystal.

Under the Omniscient Crystal's guidance, Wu Chang connected the operating system to the company's central AI, with the other end linked to the Omniscient Crystal.

The Crystal would provide the operational plan, while the AI executed the procedure.

This procedure was second nature to the Omniscient Crystal—it had personally performed both Wu Chang's and Schulz's Psychic Enhancement Surgeries.

After preliminary assessment, the difficulty level of He Yun's brain modification was the same as Wu Chang's: Level Nine.

A Level Nine Psychic Enhancement Surgery could not be completed using Hymn Corp's current technology alone—it required divine power.

Previously, completing Wu Chang's enhancement had consumed a vast amount of Lumina that Schulz had accumulated; now that a true deity was involved, there was no need for such complications—he could use divine power directly.

The only problem was that divine power was an intangible supernatural energy, unlike Schulz's condensed liquid Lumina, and could not be directly interfaced with the surgical system.

For any other deity, resolving this issue would require considerable time.

Delay too long, and the surgery might fail outright.

But for Wu Chang, these were not problems—if he couldn't solve it, he could simply make a wish.

After all, the pillar supporting Eileen's grand divine realm bore the item name "Tree of Miracles."

"Item Skill: Miracle"

"Skill Description: Consumes Wish Power to trigger a small-scale miracle, fulfilling the user's desire. If Wish Power is insufficient to sustain the desire, forcibly activating it will bring certain unpredictable negative effects. Cooldown: 15 days."

He would only make the wish—the rest was up to the Tree of Miracles.

With the infusion of divine power, the Omniscient Crystal's surgical progress proceeded smoothly; the duration matched his own surgery—twelve hours.

The surgical execution program halted; the Omniscient Crystal severed its connection to the surgical chamber.

Just as Wu Chang thought everything was over, He Yun suddenly vanished from within the chamber, leaving only her surgical gown behind.

On the monitoring screen connected to the chamber, all values had reset to zero, confirming that He Yun had indeed disappeared inside.

Wu Chang panicked instantly. What had happened? Had he triggered a negative effect of the miracle?

That doesn't make sense. Injecting divine ability into the surgical pod wasn't difficult—it didn't even come close to forcing a wish.

He rushed into the adjacent operating room and stared at the empty surgical pod; his intuition told him He Yi was truly not here.

She vanished into thin air?

Just as he pulled out the Omniscient Crystal again, preparing to ask it, a cylindrical multifunctional service robot entered the room through the half-open door.

On the robot's semicircular LCD screen, a surprised emoji appeared, and a mechanical electronic voice spoke:

"How amazing—can this ability really be gained solely by developing the brain?"

Wu Chang turned to look at the multifunctional robot; his intuition told him this trash-can-like thing was He Yi.

"He Yi? What's going on?"

Another multifunctional robot entered the room. Both robots spoke simultaneously:

"I don't know. When the surgery finished, I felt my consciousness extending infinitely through the machinery—I seemed able to connect to any electronic device."

"I tried using this ability, and now I'm like this."

Wu Chang stared at the two cylindrical robots and asked: "So your consciousness is inside these two robots now?"

"Not exactly," the two robots said.

The previously shut surgical monitor screen turned on, displaying He Yi's face.

"My consciousness is still outside—I can just control these machines as if they were my own body."

Wu Chang's phone-shaped Chairman Terminal vibrated. He pulled it out and saw He Yi's face on the screen.

"As long as I want, I can appear anywhere."

Wu Chang sucked in a sharp breath, pressing the power button as he asked:

"Can you just control the phone, or can you read its contents too?"

He Yi replied: "Don't worry—I didn't peek at your browser chat logs. I have no idea what 'fly together' means."

Wu Chang immediately shoved the phone into his personal space and said:

"Young Lady He Yi, you're violating my privacy!"

He Yi manipulated the service robot to point out the window.

"My ability doesn't stop at phones."

Wu Chang looked outside and saw, on the exterior of a skyscraper near Saint Song Corp, a massive electronic screen displaying a cartoon version of He Yi's face.

"Within a three-kilometer radius, I'm everywhere. If you want, I can appear simultaneously on every electronic screen."

Wu Chang swallowed hard, staring at the giant cartoon He Yi winking at him, unsure what to say.

After a moment, he asked uncertainly:

"Have you uploaded your consciousness to the network and become a digital life?"

Buzzzz~

The whirring of high-speed wheels and the startled cries of medical staff echoed down the corridor.

Seconds later, an electric wheelchair shot into the ward at full speed, executing a stylish drift turn before stopping precisely before Wu Chang.

"I don't rely on the network—I rely on machinery. Any machine with power, I can control."

"If I had to name this ability, I'd call it 'Mechanical Heart.'"

Wu Chang stared at the electric wheelchair swaying left and right, as if showing off its figure, and slapped his forehead.

"Fine, I know your ability is powerful—but you're not going to stay like this forever, are you?"

He Yi said: "Of course not."

On the surgical pod's zeroed-out monitor screen, human vital signs reappeared; He Yi's body once again coalesced from the special nutrient fluid.

The surgical pod opened, and He Yi stepped out, teasing:

"Looks like you prefer this body."

Wu Chang took off his coat and threw it over He Yi. "Once you regain your flesh, your surgical gown won't magically reappear."

He Yi draped Wu Chang's coat over herself and whispered:

"Don't worry—after unlocking the Talent Zone, my consciousness can cover the entire Saint Song Building."

"I've locked all access doors to the operating room. Erin is binge-watching shows in the Chairman's office—we have plenty of time. No one will disturb us."

"'Fly together' won't work—but I can give you another reward…"

Wu Chang slammed the operating room door shut with a bang, grinning innocently:

"Don't get the wrong idea—I've always had a strong sense of honor. I love rewards. Every time the teacher handed out red flowers, I got one."

One hour later, Wu Chang and He Yi stepped out of the operating room.

He Yi sat in the electric wheelchair, savoring her new ability, and said:

"I still don't understand why developing the Talent Zone in the brain awakens such a miraculous power."

Wu Chang pulled out the Omniscient Crystal and said:

Wu Chang took out the Omniscient Crystal and said:

The Soul-Initiation Surgery was a technique Wu Chang obtained under the inspiration of the Omniscient Crystal—the Omniscient Crystal has no reason to be unaware.

The Omniscient Crystal rotated in midair for a moment, then gave its answer.

Every sentient being is born with the extraordinary, which resides in the Talent Zone.

In the Deep Abyss's depths, many beings are born with their Talent Zones fully developed—no additional modification is needed.

But in the Shallow Abyss, sentient beings are affected by dimensional rules that sever the extraordinary; most people's Talent Zones are sealed and require modification to activate.

Developing the Talent Zone merely releases the innate extraordinary potential already present in the sentient being.

Developing the talent area merely releases the innate extraordinary potential of sentient beings.

That is to say, if He Yun had been born in the third layer of the Abyss, or the fourth layer, she would have awakened her current "Mechanical Heart" ability from birth.

He Yun asked in confusion:

"Just modifying parts of organs—can that really cause such a drastic change?"

The Omniscient Crystal replied:

"Your lives are far more miraculous than you imagine, just as the belief force of ordinary intelligent life can coalesce into divinity."

Wu Chang followed up:

"Then can you tell us what the source of this miracle is?"

The Omniscient Crystal fell silent. After a moment, it answered:

"That is something you must explore yourself in the future."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow, gazing at the Omniscient Crystal, eager to press further—whether it didn't know, wasn't certain, or simply couldn't say.

Based on what he'd learned about the Omniscient Crystal during this time, it probably wouldn't answer.

But one thing was certain: the Omniscient Crystal was not truly omniscient—it could only know certain secrets to a limited extent.

After exiting the surgical pod, He Yun immediately entered the lab to study the technology of coalescing divinity.

Having personally experienced the transition from ordinary to transcendent, He Yun gained a deeper understanding of Schultz's research.

In addition, the Mechanical Heart ability itself brought her immense enhancement.

The Spirit-Empowerment Surgery was indeed the technique capable of activating the most compatible class transformation—she soon discovered that the Mechanical Heart could affect not only physical, energy-powered machinery.

Her invented Science-Mysticism could stack with the Mechanical Heart's effect, mutually amplifying each other to produce an effect approaching divinity infinitely.

When Wu Chang and Ailin left the Saint Song Corporation's dimension, they had already seen the embryonic form of a divine seed on He Yun.

If He Yun truly awakened divinity and became a god, her existence would be terrifying.

In Mechanical Heart state, she could enter a special state without a physical body—any machine with energy could become an extension of her body and consciousness, if she willed it.

As long as the dimension she entered was not a cold-weapon era, or the opponent lacked equal-level countermeasures, her presence would constitute a dimensional strike.

The Spirit-Empowerment Surgery at Level Nine had produced such a powerful effect in He Yun's Mechanical Heart that Wu Chang began to anticipate his own exclusive class transformation.

He took out the Virtual Reality Interface and played with it in his hand.

He had originally believed that the class transformation obtained through the Virtual Reality Interface would result in consciousness uploading into the virtual world, becoming a digital life.

But after seeing He Yun's "Mechanical Heart," the Digital Life transformation instantly lost its appeal.

He looked at the Mortal Poison and whispered a wish:

"Lord Leyman, protect me. For the sake of our old friendship, please grant me a powerful divine power—let my class transformation undergo a radical mutation."

The moment Wu Chang finished praying, Ailin, who had been watching a drama nearby, froze for an instant, then looked up and said:

"Someone sent me a message through the Divine Realm—they want to meet you."

Few knew that Wanghai City housed a terrestrial divine realm; fewer still knew its node and could send messages through it. Without guessing, it had to be Revelation.

Wu Chang asked: "Where?"

Ailin said: "The Commercial Street."

Peace District, Commercial Street.

Zhenwo wore a disguise mask and sat at an outdoor table at a café, ordering a cup of coffee.

Not long after sitting down, Yu Na, dressed as a powerful businesswoman, sat across from him and said:

"Mind if I treat myself to a coffee?"

Wu Chang shrugged and said: "Of course."

Yu Na smiled: "I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly."

Wu Chang said: "Time is money—especially now. Has Lady Kristin agreed to see me?"

Yu Na said: "My lord eagerly awaits meeting you."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow and said: "Then what are we waiting for? It'll take time to get to Wanming City—take your coffee, we'll drink it on the way."

Yu Na said with a hint of mystery: "We don't need to go to Wanming City this time—it's right here in Wanghai."

After finishing their coffee, Yu Na led Wu Chang to her restaurant and entered underground via an unremarkable cargo elevator.

The elevator doors opened, revealing directly ahead a small chapel.

Wu Chang stared at Yu Na in surprise and asked: "Have you moved Revelation's base to Wanghai City?"

Yu Na smiled bitterly: "A madman from the Rational Realm recently invaded Wanming City and slaughtered everyone at our base there."

"I was away at headquarters reporting, so I escaped."

Wu Chang knew who the madman Yu Na meant and said: "I'm sorry for your loss."

Yu Na's bitter expression vanished. She bowed deeply to Wu Chang and said:

"My lord told me the perpetrator was slain by you. I thank you on behalf of the brothers and sisters who died in that disaster."

"Without you, I wouldn't have had the strength to even avenge them, let alone keep the base intact."

"We're friends—it's nothing," Wu Chang said, feeling slightly guilty.

Although You Feipeng had been severely wounded by Ailin, it was actually the Painter who had killed him—not Wu Chang.

Yu Na continued: "My lord said the madmen from the Rational Realm may frequently return to reality, so he ordered me to relocate the base to Wanghai City."

"He said that with you and that god present, the Rational Realm's people won't dare act recklessly."

Wu Chang froze. So you're moving your base here because you want Ailin's protection?

Granted, this terrestrial divine realm was built by Revelation itself—asking to borrow its roof isn't unreasonable.

But to have your own followers sheltered by another god's protection? Kristin is awfully forward.

And I'm officially the acting director of the Wanghai Branch—am I really supposed to be the protective umbrella for a Xieshen Sect stronghold? Is that appropriate?

(End of Chapter)