Thought Box

The windows disappeared, the sunlight disappeared, the flowerpots disappeared, leaving only a mind box on the table. Behind the table, on a chair, lay a corpse that had been dead for who knows how many years, its flesh rotting and its bones exposed.

On the white lab coat hung a name tag that read "Han Yuan," along with a photo of Professor Han, who was smiling lewdly.

The senior engineer grabbed the mind box and put it in his pocket. This thing, about the size of a thumb, was an urn from the civilized era.

After a person dies, a neural collection center will collect a portion of the deceased's unbroken neural circuits and put them in a box. This way, when you pay respects during festivals, the "dead person" can chat with you for a while and talk about his life in the afterlife, so that you can go down to join him sooner.

The entire "mind box" has also undergone "bionic modification," with more implanted neural circuits and greater intelligence. After the real Professor Han died, he took charge of handling everything here.

"Professor Han is actually a cyborg; this is both unexpected and predictable."

Looking back now, there were indeed some odd things about Professor Han.

For example, he was very secretive about the institute's past.

Furthermore, his perception is so powerful.

Or perhaps, he easily fished the brain out of the vat.

The "brain in a vat," a kind of "pan-conscious life form," is a rare treasure, not only in a Level 2 civilization, but also in a Level 3 or Level 4 civilization.

Recalling what this real-life Professor Han had just said, the senior engineer muttered to himself.

"There's a conspiracy."

"Little Woman Number Two" looked at "Little Woman Number Three" and tilted her head.

"This physical body is just one of my shells. From a psychological perspective, your transformation into this state is a manifestation of a lack of self-awareness."

"Although you acted very restrained, I could sense your hostility from the very first moment you spoke."

"Very sensitive, indeed, it is the consciousness center of my body," 'Number Three' chuckled.

"Let me tell you a story about this research institute. It begins with the Imperial Academy of Sciences selecting key personnel to build a secret research unit in this primeval forest. The research focused on advanced technological knowledge they had obtained from extraterrestrial civilizations. But who could have imagined that, just as the research was about to be completed, this secret unit would be invaded by a group of space pirates..."

"... The plan succeeded. Just as the space pirates were about to slaughter the researchers, the super-life form awoke and, with the help of the research institute's defense system, successfully killed all the alien warriors and destroyed their 'Black Prince'."

Gaia listened quietly until this point, then shook his head. "If what you say is true, then the information center of that super-life form should be me, and I wasn't merged with it back then."

"Yes, the precious brain in a vat, the Empire's most core research secret, is absolutely capable of controlling this newly born super life form," Number Three said sarcastically.

"But who could have imagined that the group secretly pushing forward the rebellion plan in the research institute wasn't one group, but two groups?"

"If we follow the ideas of those space pirates, they want to create a perfect body for the Black Prince and then implant his consciousness. This method of using consciousness carriers in the standard troops of a Level 3 civilization is very common."

"But a small problem arose during this process. As the Black Prince bionic body was completed, this 'bionic Black Prince' also developed its own consciousness. It was unwilling to be replaced by others, and even more unwilling to become someone else's substitute."

"So, it wasn't me who controlled that super-lifeform, but rather the 'Bionic Black Prince' that merged with it," Gaia said. "You are that Black Prince?"

"Yes and no," Number Three gave a strange smile. "After killing all the space pirates, I discovered that a researcher's android had escaped from the research institute. To prevent information from leaking, I used the institute's main computer to remotely erase the other person's memory."

"What happened next?" Gaia asked. "You clearly had enough time to kill Professor Han, and to kill me as well."

"Yes, something unexpected happened. Those space pirates were actually just a group of mercenaries, backed by a star system civilization. After realizing something was wrong, that star system civilization took the initiative to make a deal with me."

"I can't tell you the details of the deal, but I can tell you that I left with them to do something big, but I don't intend to share the institute's legacy with them."

Number Three tapped his forehead, and his green head slowly turned transparent, revealing a "mind box" inside his skull.

"I left this behind to oversee the research institute's defenses until my original self returns and takes away the 'Brain in a Vase' and the remaining bionic technology data."

"But what I didn't expect was that the researcher's android returned and even stole the 'brain in a vat' through internal authority."

"This is troublesome, very troublesome. Fortunately, they're back—him, the brain in a vat, and a human," Number Three laughed. "I took control of him the moment he stepped into the research institute."

"Do you know why I'm telling you so much? It's not because I'm bored, but because I need to wait for him to shut down all control systems. Once all control systems are shut down, a hidden mechanism will activate—that's the entire defense system, merging with me!"

With the last sentence, "Number Three" took a heavy step and returned to a height of over four meters, but her face was still that of a young woman, which looked very incongruous.

The next moment, the mechanical spheres on his body transformed into energy guns once again. These guns were equipped with a levitation system and were autonomously controlled by his nervous system. At this moment, they were shooting out lasers as thick as a thumb, which were aimed at Gaia.

Gaia didn't move, but her eyes became even whiter and more hazy. The laser beams that caused over 10,000 damage were refracted in mid-air, burning scorch marks into the surrounding ground and walls.

It seemed that "Number Three" had known about this situation all along, as countless biological pores appeared on the surface of its green skin, from which thick smoke billowed out.

Humans, or rather the intelligent species of the planet Jili, are L-amino acid life forms, while the Mikael aliens are D-amino acid life forms. They have stronger senses and more vigorous vitality, and can survive even in low temperatures and magma. More importantly, they are born with a biological toxin that is deadly to L-amino acid life forms.

Gaia finally frowned, pulled with both hands, and floor after floor collapsed, dozens of tons of reinforced concrete were buried, and at the same time his figure flew out, flew into the underground laboratory, and appeared in mid-air.

However, a large amount of electric current was generated out of thin air in mid-air. This current was colorless and transparent and belonged to bioelectricity.

One of the characteristics of bioelectric currents is that they ignore defenses and cause true damage.

Gaia has a high HP and is not afraid of being electrocuted, but Huang Yuanli's body would probably be sent to its death if she took a hit.

Her mouth opened, and thick white mist spewed out from her body. The mist was crystal clear, with countless points of light twinkling like stars in the night sky. Upon closer inspection, each point of light was a tiny tentacle.

When the bioelectric current struck it, more than twenty small tentacles and hundreds of light spots disappeared instantly.

Gaia took the hit with its own physical form.

However, the next moment, a whooshing sound rang out, and a rain of "arm arrows" shot out from a laboratory. Gaia opened one palm and remotely blocked them, but these "flying arrows" continued to split in mid-air, each knuckle turning into a fierce marble, densely covering the area above, below, left, and right.

Left with no other choice, Gaia could only extend its other hand, and more than a dozen tentacles rapidly enlarged, transforming from illusory to real, into a giant sphere of tentacles that blocked all sorts of joints.

However, a dozen laser beams suddenly shot from the ground, struck the tentacles, and burned off half of them.

Suddenly, the "brain in a vat" let out a desperate scream, and the surrounding glass shattered as the sound waves swept through it.

Number Three, who had just emerged from the underground research institute, was stimulated by the sonic waves, and cracks appeared on his skin. Unlike the bleeding of ordinary humans, countless sticky threads grew on the cracks, intertwining and sticking together.

Fluids make up more than 50% of the human body, but this "Mikel alien" seems to have evolved away from "body fluids".

This gives it powerful healing abilities.

The shuttle-shaped energy weapons fired alternately without stopping for a moment.

Gaia clasped his hands together, and in the next moment, terrifying tentacles surged out, their ends transforming into radiant beasts that pounced on Number Three.

A third eye, unique to the Michaelians, grew on Number Three's forehead. With a flash of light, a mental barrier rose up, and the raging mental radiation beast rushed to the barrier, only to be blocked.

At the same time, the enormous tentacles, which moved like dragons and snakes, began to twist and turn, like slugs sprinkled with salt, and their size began to shrink drastically.

Gaia looked up at the sky and saw that, at some point, the roof of the research institute was covered with a network of electronic circuits that looked like a spider web, with electronic signals flashing constantly.

Gaia reached out, and the next moment, more than a dozen tentacles as thick as water tanks rose into the sky like a flock of dragons, crashing into this 'spider web'.

While pan-conscious beings are powerful, they are not without their weaknesses, such as cyber networks, planetary mainframes, and biological mainframes.

All three have the means to process massive amounts of information.

Meanwhile, the research institute has developed neural circuits resembling those of a biological brain.

Number Three smirked and beckoned gently. In the next moment, all the shuttle-shaped laser guns began to combine into an energy cannon with a muzzle as thick as a large combat robot's hand cannon. Compared to the hand cannon, when it focused its energy, the particle stream scattered randomly, while when this energy cannon focused its energy, not only did the energy light stream disappear, but the sound was also almost nonexistent. It was a blue ball of light.

With the same caliber, this shot is ten times more powerful than the shot fired by the large robot.

However, heavy footsteps approached.

As soon as Number Three turned his head, a fist slammed into his face, denting the 'little woman's' entire face.

"Roar!!!"

'Red Liquid' squeezed out countless sharp spikes from its body and let out a triumphant roar.

It had wanted to do this for a long time.