Busi shook his head, then nodded.
"Iron Skull Archmagos could be considered dead, or he could be considered not dead.
In short, the moment Iron Skull Archmagos's head was separated from his body, two Iron Skull Archmagos consciousness systems existed in the world.
The consciousness system in the head voluntarily jumped into the lava lake and committed suicide, so only the consciousness system within the body remained in the world.
According to the ethical views of the Adeptus Mechanicus, when a primary consciousness backs up its secondary consciousnesses out of necessity, only the primary consciousness is considered a person, while all other consciousnesses are considered property.
But once the primary consciousness dies, the secondary consciousness automatically rises to the status of a person and has the right to inherit all the wealth and status held by the primary consciousness!"
Li Qinwu felt as though lightning had flashed through his mind.
"Fuck, I was wondering why you got this enormous Mechanical Worm body so easily. The former Archmagos's mechanical body must be incredibly valuable, yet you actually got your hands on it?
Looks like this involved internal strife within the Adeptus Mechanicus of that Industrial World!"
Busi nodded helplessly.
"That's right. I only discovered recently that Iron Skull Archmagos's brain tissue had actually remained inside this mechanical body.
I suspect Iron Skull Archmagos's successor had long realized that he possessed a consciousness backup.
He didn't dare destroy that consciousness backup for fear of being accused of murder, so he chose a safer method: letting me take the mechanical body away on an interstellar voyage!
Even if the matter was exposed later, the new Archmagos would not have personally killed Iron Skull Archmagos's consciousness backup.
He could claim that he didn't know there was a consciousness backup inside the Mechanical Worm body,