Chapter 469: Chapter 457: Spark of the Soul

Ever since the mad yet magnificent concept of "Consciousness Upload"—a form of Witchcraft—took shape in his mind, Allen’s mood had been better than ever.

It was the joy of having a finished blueprint and a clear path forward.

This mood was even reflected on his status panel. His continually declining Humanity Value had, for once, risen by 2.3%, stabilizing at 64.8%.

Chasing an ultimate, sentimental goal—immortality—seemed to be a peculiar "humanity anchor."

「Three months later.」

「Golden Stone City, the Royal Study.」

"William, this is the progress report for the three months since the Cyber Spirit Realm went online."

Allen pushed a concise virtual report in front of King William.

William’s breath caught as he looked at the steeply rising red curve.

"Twelve thousand, three hundred and forty-seven people..."

He murmured the number at the top of the light screen, his eyes filled with shock. "In just three short months, more than twelve thousand citizens have completed the ’Spirit Core Transformation’?"

This number already surpassed the total number of Transcendents the Aiselan Kingdom had cultivated over the past year through all traditional methods, such as Meditation and combat!

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Allen’s voice was calm and steady. "It proves that simulating life-and-death crises in a safe, virtual environment is the most efficient way to stimulate a mortal’s potential. Your armies and Mechas are gaining a steady stream of high-quality recruits."

William nodded emphatically, his gaze toward Allen filled with respect and gratitude.

This Guardian of Weisren Heavy Industry always managed to bring miracles to the kingdom in ways he couldn’t comprehend.

"However, this is not enough," Allen said, his tone shifting.

"A powerful civilization cannot be built on warriors alone."

He tapped his finger, and the data on the light screen switched to another model. "The combat-focused Spirit Realm only screens for talent with traits related to ’combat aptitude.’ But for the kingdom to function, it also needs top-tier artisans, wise scholars, creative artists, and... far-sighted administrators."

"Lord Allen, what are you suggesting?" William leaned forward, keenly sensing a much grander plan in the works.

"I propose the launch of the ’Comprehensive Citizen Quality Enhancement Program.’"

Allen said, "I plan to expand the Spirit Realm’s ecosystem and create a brand new, all-encompassing virtual world."

"In this world, people can experience any kind of life. A miner could learn the most advanced Alchemy construction techniques. A farmer could try their hand at managing a virtual city of ten thousand people. A disabled soldier could regain a healthy body and become a bard, singing praises of the kingdom’s greatness."

"Through this method, we will unearth the deepest desires and greatest talents hidden within every citizen. In the future, even some real-world jobs could be completed more efficiently within the Spirit Realm."

William’s eyes grew brighter and brighter.

It was as if he could already see the entire Aiselan Kingdom flourishing and launching a counteroffensive against the deep sea, all according to Allen’s plan!

"What... what kind of support would this require?" William’s voice was trembling with excitement.

"To achieve deeper immersion and more complex interactions, we will need a new type of access device."

A model of a sci-fi-esque, silver-white gaming hibernation pod materialized above Allen’s fingertip. "It will be more expensive to build than the helmets, so we’ll need the kingdom’s support to popularize it. But it will provide an unparalleled experience and serve as the hardware foundation for more advanced simulations."

"I approve!"

William barely hesitated. "The kingdom’s treasury will fully support your plan! Lord Allen, you are Aiselan’s... no, this era’s greatest pioneer!"

Allen gave a slight nod and retracted the light screen.

William saw a bright future of evolution for all his people.

’And what he saw was a data mine... one with a wider collection range and a richer variety of data.’

「At the same time, in the deepest part of Cybertron.」

The artificial soul simulation, codenamed "Seed," had been running for 1,700 hours, devouring massive amounts of soul fluctuation data.

At the very moment Allen’s meeting with William concluded, a change quietly occurred deep within the holographic, spherical network in the center of the main control room.

[ALERT.]

[SPECIAL TYPE OF SPIRITUAL POWER OSCILLATION DETECTED WITHIN THE ’SEED’ MODEL.]

SWOOSH—

The next second, Allen’s figure appeared in front of the main console.

Jarvis immediately projected the monitoring data.

It was an extremely faint curve, almost lost in the background noise.

[OSCILLATION TYPE: SELF-REFERENTIAL SPIRITUAL POWER OSCILLATION.]

[DURATION: 0.3 SECONDS.]

[PEAK INTENSITY: 0.011 HERTZ.]

[COMPARISON MODEL: INTENSITY IS LESS THAN ONE TEN-THOUSANDTH OF THE CONVENTIONAL SOUL FLUCTUATION INTENSITY OF PUPPET ZERO (RHINE).]

The data was so minuscule it could have been dismissed as a system error.

But in that instant, Allen’s pupils contracted sharply.

’That’s it, self-referential!’

’This is the dividing line between life and non-life! It’s the fundamental trait that allows a soul to ’perceive itself’ and ’modify itself’!’

Ever since he first conceived the "Large Rune Model," he had expended countless computational resources and data. He had run hundreds of thousands of failed simulations and been nourished by the natives. And now, at this very moment, his efforts had finally borne their first fruit.

Like the first ray of light born from chaos at the dawn of creation.

Like the first heartbeat echoing through a dead universe.

Faint, but undeniably real.

"The Spark..."

Allen’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

"...has been ignited."

He slowly straightened up, a storm of thoughts churning in his deep, dark eyes.

It was as if a scorching hot stone had been dropped into the pool of his emotions—long frozen solid by his "Mechanical Mind"—sending ripples spreading through him.

’He had succeeded.’

’He had truly glimpsed the path to the domain of gods!’

But the next second, he forcibly suppressed all his emotional fluctuations, returning to a state of absolute rationality.

The spark had appeared. The next step was to fan it into a raging wildfire.

"Jarvis."

[Yes, Commander.]

"Save this waveform data, create a separate file, and analyze it meticulously."

Allen’s voice was low. "Jarvis, we are on the right path."

"The ’Seed’ model needs more diverse, more mundane, and more complex samples of humanity. Raise the priority of the new game project to the highest level."

"First, initiate the new project: ’Deep-Link Hibernation Pods.’"

Allen’s thoughts raced like lightning, a brand-new technical blueprint rapidly forming in his mind.

"’Phase one objective: achieve shallow-layer detachment and connection of consciousness.’"

"’We need to design a completely new Rune protocol capable of temporarily ’copying’ a user’s partial senses and shallow-layer consciousness from their cerebral cortex into the [Allen Network]. The life support system within the hibernation pod will ensure the stability of their physical body’s functions.’"

This was a hundred times more complex than making the Spirit Realm Helmets. It was no longer simple "signal transduction," but was now truly touching upon the realm of "soul migration."

The helmets could only intercept surface-level brainwaves and shallow emotions.

The hibernation pods, however, would need to directly take over all of the user’s sensory nerves and even touch upon the shallow structures of the soul.

’The difficult part is the detachment.’ Allen had already started on the design.

To achieve "Consciousness Upload" in the future, the first step was to learn how to safely "detach" a consciousness from its physical body, convert it into a data stream, and then completely reload it.

The hibernation pods would be the testing ground for this process.

Players would work, create, and think within the Spirit Realm.

Every one of their thoughts, every spark of inspiration, would be recorded and analyzed by Cybertron.

"Jarvis, what’s the progress on the new Spirit Realm’s underlying architecture?" Allen asked while modifying the Magic Conductivity circuits on the blueprint.

[The underlying physics engine is 42% complete. The gravity, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and Magic Power modules are currently being tested.]

[The environment generation algorithm is running.]

[The NPC behavioral logic tree is importing early evolutionary data from ’Seed’ to make them more lifelike.]

The new game would be a world with sunrises and sunsets, changing seasons, bustling cities, and wilderness ruins.

Here, there would be no system-enforced quests, only a single pre-determined main storyline, but it was perfectly fine not to participate.

Players could travel, write poetry, conduct business, or explore the unknown.

’The freer they were, the more precious the data they generated would be.’

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