The price Murphy mentioned was already within the demigods' expectations.
Even the most arrogant Mannis wouldn't dare dream of getting his hands on this thing without paying a price. The new gods had been bound in the subspace by the Frontier Pact, and one of them had even died. That alone was enough to make anyone hoping to ascend through an artificial divinity think twice.
Now, although the Frontier Pact had been abolished and probably couldn't be restarted, that didn't mean artificial divinities had become something anyone could use freely.
Standing in the Sentry Legion's armory, Murphy reached out, picked up the No. 001 artificial divinity beside him, and held it in his hand.
This thing had once been the source of Old Ao's power, but its biological information was no longer bound to him. It had returned to its most primitive state, like a precious stone that hadn't yet been carefully carved, reflecting a warm luster under the armory lights.
According to its information entry, it was currently in "shutdown and lockdown" mode. To activate it again, the Sentry Legion's Think Tank would have to unlock it and edit its internal oath information.
The first restriction made sense. The Frontier Pact had originally been an experiment by the Grand Think Tank, Flindis, to seek new allies. And artificial divinities were unfinished creations of the Creator, so it was only natural that his daughters had been entrusted with managing them.
The Think Tank must have had a way to unlock it.
The second restriction, however, had nothing to do with the Sentry Legion.
Murphy had just explained that this so-called "oath" had been forcibly installed in the artificial divinity's system through hardware programming. It was a rule of use imposed by the Creator.
In other words, for its power to