Chapter 93

Ai Yue chuckled as he interrupted the two Artificial Intelligence's clumsy acting, "Rose, the Armed Doll is yours, but as punishment, you'll be responsible for 27 percent of Queen's computing load this month."

"Twenty-seven percent?"

Prometheus's voice rose again, "That's my spare time for playing games."

"Otherwise, why would it be a punishment?"

Ai Yue glanced at Queen beside him, "And you, Queen, since Rose has shared some of the calculations with you, your overall performance this month needs to be 50% higher than last month, understand?"

"My sister is only responsible for 27 percent, so I'll have to rely on myself for the rest."

Queen's voice rose as well, "It's all your fault, sister. Now I have no room left, and I don't even get any benefits."

"Of course you do! Aren't all the extra drones you manufacture under your jurisdiction?"

After giving a brief response, Prometheus returned to the main topic, "Doctor Ai Yue, what should we do about that unknown ingredient?"

"Let's just leave it at that. Anyway, Kevin has plenty of blood samples."

Ai Yue waved his hand, "But next time we need to take better precautions in advance. We've been a bit lax lately."

The unknown components will release a large amount of Honkai Energy during the dissolution process, which is indeed a bit beyond Ai Yue's expectations, but this makes things more complicated.

As Ai Yue pondered this, he walked towards the small laboratory, a smile involuntarily appearing on his face.

Things were getting more and more interesting. He had a feeling that if he could unravel the secrets of this unknown component, it might allow humanity to go further on the path of evolution.

Unbeknownst to him, the virtual images of Prometheus and Queen quietly appeared and gave each other a high five.

"It worked, Queen."

"Yes, it's great that Doctor Ai Yue didn't pursue the matter of the lab being burned down—but then again, according to my analysis, there was originally an 86.4% chance that Doctor Ai Yue wouldn't pursue it either."

"That won't do. Anything with a success rate of less than 90% is unstable—that's what Doctor Ai Yue taught me."

"I see. Then I'll write this down."

35

Chapter Thirty-Five: Don't like the Divine Tone Project? No problem, I still have the Stigmata Project.

Ai Yue was of course unaware that the two Artificial Intelligence he had created were plotting against him behind his back, but he was not entirely oblivious to their little schemes.

Compared to the scheming and intrigue of humans, the so-called "strategies" that Artificial Intelligence acquires through imitation and learning are rather superficial.

Of course, there's no need to expose them. If Prometheus and Queen can be convinced that such a scheme is effective, it might spark their interest in this knowledge, leading them to delve deeper into its understanding and learning.

While pondering, Ai Yue had already arrived at the laboratory. The environment here was completely different, which showed that Prometheus's "large amount of Honkai Energy" was not an exaggeration.

Ai Yue sighed, "Rose, how long will it take to repair?"

"It will take 1142 minutes to restore the original state."

Prometheus said, "However, considering that you did not upload the blueprints for some of these devices to my data center, we will need Doctor Ai Yue's personal assistance to repair them."

"In other words, we can't count on this place for the time being."

Ai Yue nodded. "Then I'll leave this place to you. I'm going to the small dark room."

The small dark room is the only room in the Star of Light experimental base that even Queen and Prometheus cannot access. There is no network inside, and only Ai Yue has the key to open it. This can isolate it from all external spying. If you want to enter this room without Ai Yue's permission, apart from Pardofelis, you can probably only resort to violence.

Although it sounds like a treasure vault hiding huge secrets, it is actually just an ordinary laboratory with nothing of particular value. The reason it is presented in such a mysterious manner is mainly to cover up the truth that Ai Yue relies on the system to manually create props.

The reason why those devices did not have design blueprints for Prometheus to use was because they were special technologies of the system. Because they involved some technologies that could not be replicated in reality, they could only be handcrafted by Ai Yue.

Ai Yue stayed inside until lunchtime before finally coming out—although it wouldn't have taken that long to manually rebuild those devices using the system, since he had specially prepared such a room, he naturally wanted to stay a little longer and put on a show.

Moreover, the equipment and facilities inside are quite complete, so it's not impossible to conduct research.

Ai Yue, who had just left the dark room, looked somewhat grave. He had just used the equipment at hand to perform a simple analysis of Kevin's blood again, but this time, for some unknown reason, the unknown components could not be separated.

At first, he thought it was a problem with his equipment, so he tried again after finishing the equipment, but it still failed. So he re-analyzed the blood sample and found that the unknown component had completely disappeared.

What's strange is that although this component disappeared, the total amount of blood in the sample did not decrease. In other words, the mysterious component was not evaporated due to improper storage, but rather it was reintegrated into the other components of the blood sample and was no longer as distinct as before.

This result also means that the blood samples Ai Yue obtained from Kevin have lost their greatest research value. However, it also proves one thing: this special mysterious component is obviously related to Kevin's own will. The spiritual power contained in the blood is the foundation for maintaining that unknown component. When the spiritual power dissipates, the unknown substance will also dissipate.

And such a thing seems to have appeared in the original storyline as well—that is, "Stigmata".

As a concept of human evolution, Mobius once attempted to stimulate the survival instincts of experimental subjects by gradually Great Honkai erosion intensity, thereby enabling humans to develop "antibodies" that could be immune to or adapt to Honkai Energy.

The project was later shelved due to the implementation of the Fusion Warrior Project, and finally terminated completely due to the appearance of Ai Yue. However, the valuable data was still utilized and sent to the Fifth Science Department for research on Honkai Sickness Antibody.

In the original storyline, the plan was ultimately successful and, after 50,000 years, was officially implemented in the next civilization.

Kevin was the one who initially implemented and ultimately carried out this plan.

Of course, these are all things to be discussed later. The fundamental reason why the Stigmata Project could be carried out was the Stigmata itself, and the special plane "Stigmata Space" derived from the Stigmata.

In the original storyline, through the joint efforts of Dr. Mei and Mobius, the "Stigmata" will eventually awaken in the people of the next civilization. They will give people the power to adapt to and control Honkai Energy, and at the same time, give everyone who awakens the Stigmata the opportunity to connect with the "Stigmata Space".

By connecting with the Stigmata Space, Kevin can use the "Stigmata Project" to create a massive dreamscape large enough to cover the entire Earth, thereby sending everyone's consciousness into the Stigmata Space through the dreamscape, thus preventing the complete destruction of human civilization.

At the same time, new life forms will be born in the Stigmata Space. They originate from the combination of Honkai and human consciousness and are species that can truly and completely adapt to the Honkai environment. After humanity begins to live in a dream world, these new life forms will inherit everything of human civilization and become the new masters of Earth.

It's not hard to tell from this information that the "shelter" plan is built on a completely pessimistic, even desperate, foundation. Even if human civilization is preserved in this way, humans will no longer be human and will lose all possibility of resisting the Honkai.

However, that's all for later. Right now, the most important thing is the Stigmata itself.

Although Ai Yue is not entirely confident now, he feels more and more that he has found the truth—the unknown component is a mixture of Honkai Energy, Kevin's mental power, and his own genes. The fusion of these three is the theoretical source of the existence of the Stigmata.

Knowledge is recorded through genes, matter is supported by energy, and the world is woven through spirit. When these three elements truly merge, a new power will be born within Kevin's body.

Thinking of this, Ai Yue's steps became much lighter.

Because he suddenly realized that even if this thing wasn't the prototype of Stigmata, but something else, it didn't seem to matter.

After all, if he wanted, he could use this material as a basis to create a new "Stigmata Project".

The new Stigmata Project will no longer be a refuge for survivors, an alternative world to escape the "embrace" of the Honkai, but rather the cornerstone of human evolution and a compass for a completely new life form.

These days are getting better and better, and there's more and more hope for us.

36

Chapter Thirty-Six: Food made by machines has no soul.

As the saying goes, good news makes people feel refreshed. First, the Divine Tone Project showed initial results, then the Brahma Project was running steadily, and now the prototype of the Stigmata Project has been discovered. The continuous stream of good news made Ai Yue feel great, and he found everyone very pleasing to the eye.

Although he kept reminding himself that the development on the human side would lead to the Cocoon of Finality continuously increasing the strength of subsequent Herrscher, the current situation was indeed something to be happy about.

"What good thing happened that makes you so happy?"

Aponia saw Ai Yue walk out of the Teleportation Gate with a big smile on his face and couldn't help but ask.

"It's hard to say for sure yet, but it's definitely a good thing."

Ai Yue calmed down a bit, but still couldn't help but smile. "I'll tell you when I have the results."

Ai Yue was always cautious in his words and actions. Even though it was almost certain that the unknown component was the prototype of the Stigmata, he would not reveal it at this time.

"Really? Then I'll look forward to it."

Aponia was already used to Ai Yue's words and didn't care about this kind of riddle-solving behavior. "Let's go. Kalpas just called to urge us."

Morning Sun Academy has now grown to a considerable size, with a total population of about 20,000. As a result, there are four canteens, and Kalpas is now in charge of managing one of them.

As Ai Yue and Aponia walked out of the office building, they saw countless people forming a crowded mass, surging in the same direction.

"So many people?"

Ai Yue couldn't help but sigh, "Don't tell me they're going to the same place as us."

"It's a pity, but you guessed right."

Aponia smiled and said, "Kalpas probably won't say it, but the cafeteria he's in charge of is the most popular one in the academy, with forty percent of the students eating there every day."

"That's quite popular."

Ai Yue and Aponia followed at the back of the crowd. "Speaking of which, why did Kalpas go to the cafeteria? I thought he would be in charge of the Logistics Department."

"That was indeed the initial plan, but as the number of students increased, the cafeteria staff became insufficient."

Aponia said with some helplessness, "Recruiting people takes time, so we can only have Kalpas help out for a while. At first, he was only in charge of breakfast, but later he gradually became the person in charge of the entire cafeteria."

It's not hard to tell from Aponia's words that she actually didn't know how Kalpas went from being a breakfast vendor to the head chef of the cafeteria.

Although the crowd was dense, the pace of movement was not slow. The two soon saw the cafeteria and also saw Kalpas standing at the door looking around.

Everyone who passed by him greeted him warmly, and even though Kalpas didn't respond, it didn't dampen their enthusiasm. He seemed very popular.

"It's finally here."

When Ai Yue and his companion reached Kalpas, the latter finally spoke his first words, "The food is getting cold."

After saying that, he turned around and led the two people into the cafeteria, leaving those who witnessed the scene to discuss it quietly.

"It's really rare that Master Qian can get along so well with Dean Aponia. They usually switch into battle mode within three seconds of meeting, right?"

"Didn't you see there's another person? They seem unfamiliar. Could they not be from our college?"

"I don't know him either, but could it be that the two didn't fight because of him? If so, how much influence must this person have!"

"For the dean to personally accompany him, and for Master Qian to specially come out to greet him, how could that be anything but prestigious? Wait, could he be that dean who has never appeared in formal settings before?"

The students were discussing when they suddenly looked at each other in surprise—although everyone called Aponia the dean, her actual position was vice dean, and there was a higher-ranking administrator above Aponia.

"Now that you mention it, I remember,"

Someone suddenly realized, "Doesn't that statue in front of our teaching building look a lot like that man?"

"You even built a statue for me?"

Led by Kalpas, Ai Yue arrived at a private room on the fifth floor of the cafeteria. From the window, he could see the small square in front of the teaching building. When he saw the statue's face clearly, he couldn't help but frown. "Who came up with this terrible idea..."

He had entrusted almost all matters concerning Morning Sun Academy to Aponia, so he hadn't paid much attention to them. If he hadn't come to the cafeteria for lunch today, he probably wouldn't have known about this for many years.

"It's my idea, and it's also the wish of the children from the old sanatorium."

Aponia said, "They know that the changes here are all because of you, so they wanted to express their gratitude in this way. I also feel that it is necessary to let everyone know who they have received everything from."

"It's probably not that exaggerated."

Ai Yue gave a somewhat subtle smile, looking a little embarrassed, "These are things that should be done."

"Perhaps that's true for you."

Aponia smiled. "I like that about you too."

"Let's eat first."

Kalpas ruthlessly interrupted their conversation, "It'll get really cold if you don't eat it now."

As it turns out, there's a good reason why Master Qian is so popular. The dishes placed in front of Ai Yue may look simple, but they taste impeccable. They may not be considered "delicacies," but they are enough to whet Ai Yue's appetite.

After all, he was usually in the lab and too lazy to cook himself, so he simply let Queen use a drone to cook according to online recipes. As a result, the drone had a hard time grasping the essence of cooking. The food it made was not bad, but it lacked something that could be called delicious.

It's true that food made by humans has a soul.

"Why are you crying?"

Aponia reached out and wiped away the tears from Ai Yue's eyes, a look of disbelief on her face. "Is it really that delicious?"

Although Kalpas did not speak and his expression was not visible, his gaze toward Ai Yue carried a hint of pity.

"You don't understand,"

Ai Yue shook his head, too embarrassed to reveal all the lazy things he had done. "Kalpas, you came all this way to have dinner with me, there must be something else going on, right?"

He had quite a few interactions with Kalpas, so he was able to deduce his psychological state from some details about him.

"Um."

Qian Jie hesitated for Kalpas, then finally said, "I plan to leave here a month from now, once my men have finished their training."

Upon hearing this, not only Ai Yue, but even Aponia was stunned. "Why?"

Kalpas calmly said, "I want to return to the Poison Cocoon."

37

Chapter Thirty-Seven: You seem to be a bit too inhumane.