Resignation

After countless battles and countless brushes with death, dying had become less frightening.

But in the end, Silvia had only died twice.

Her first death had been terrifying, and then she had awakened under the Dream System's guidance; her second death had been relatively uneventful, and then...

Silvia opened her eyes, or rather, she thought she opened her eyes.

The familiar Awakener interface was gone. On the illuminated screen in her field of vision was something like the fire-control interface inside powered armor. Then she saw a familiar guy driving. She tried to lift her head, and... she flew up.

"Welcome back. Before you lose your temper, please hear me out. I don't want to stop and repair the car again."

Again? Lose her temper?

Silvia was puzzled. Wang Shui pointed to a small mirror he had just made with alchemy on the car's center console.

Reflected in the mirror was a miniature probe, a mechanical construct aircraft often carried by scouting-type powered armor to survey the surroundings.

"-If a soul is converted into a digital life-form, it's perfectly normal for it to be transferred into a [mechanical construct]. Why would I lose my temper?"

The probe had no speaker or anything of the sort. Silvia's voice sounded directly in Wang Shui's mind.

"This is your thirty-sixth awakening. Or rather, you're copy number thirty-six. Your memories stop at the instant your original body died, and your life history and soul characteristics were backed up here before they dissipated."

Wang Shui tapped his head and continued:

"A soul in digital life-form is more complicated than I imagined. I can't personally relate to what it feels like, either. These are the records of your previous breakdowns. Brace yourself."

As he spoke, Wang Shui sent Silvia an electronic file.

[1. Upon discovering she was not the original soul, but merely a digital life-form with the same memories, she suffered a self-collapse.]

[Solution 1: Memories, experiences, thought patterns, and other information constitute the soul. A digital soul carrying these is the self. After recognizing this, her soul gradually stabilized.]

[2. Having lost her body and Awakener status, she lost most of her supernatural powers, but retained her talent and some combat capability. A self-examination revealed that her soul itself was confined. Believing she had been deceived, she triggered an "energy burst" in her fury, blasting the car away, then suffered a self-collapse.]

[Solution 2: Explain the effects of soul transcription in detail. The "Mind Lock" is excellent protection for digital life with low computing power, and is also the only method available to me. This was not deception.]

A document was also attached here.

Silvia read it carefully. She understood how weak she was now, and understood the fact that she was under complete control. Then she kept reading until she had finished all thirty-five entries.

"Yes, I lied to you."

Wang Shui was very frank. "Transcribing a soul into digital life doesn't come without a price. Complete control is the foundation of this technology. Now, as compensation, as long as I don't die, you can be reborn in my mind an unlimited number of times. I can also enable real-time memory saves, so you won't return to your current state every time you wake up."

Silvia fell silent, no longer anything like the chatterbox she had been when she was dying. Or rather, she normally wasn't very talkative.

"I haven't been toying with your soul." Wang Shui's manner was calm and serious.

He had intended to test the [Mind Lock] in the first place. His previous data had all been based on artificial souls without emotions or memories. As for capturing a fifth-tier big shot on his very first attempt to use it on a person, that had been completely unexpected. He had thought he would fail to maintain control, leaving Silvia a free digital soul.

"I need some quiet."

The probe Silvia controlled shut itself down and landed on the passenger seat.

Wang Shui merely shook his head and said nothing more. For a soul with self-awareness, the [Mind Lock]'s control process wasn't as simple as it was for an artificial soul.

Complete control was no problem, but as soon as Wang Shui implanted commands and preferences into Silvia, her self-awareness would disappear. She would either collapse or become something like an artificial soul.

Yes, before Silvia number thirty-six, Wang Shui had also tested customized slave versions of Silvia. But they had all become ignorant beings like newborn babies. Their memories and experiences couldn't give them an adult's way of thinking.

Wang Shui had no desire to find himself a daughter to raise from scratch, so he could only activate the original Silvia again.

Many new issues had emerged with the [Mind Lock] technology-positive issues that would require Wang Shui to invest time in studying them. But right now... Wang Shui was agonizing over something else.

He was on his way back to Iron Edge City.

Wang Shui had originally thought that, however dangerous a mission was, as long as he could return alive, he could go back to that shabby repair shop without any psychological burden, back to his familiar second-floor bedroom, back to his beloved chair, and continue slowly learning and improving while waiting for his next transmigration in six months.

But now he hesitated.

Although Brother Hei was both a scumbag and a cheapskate, Wang Shui had always been quite grateful to him. After all, Brother Hei had taken him in when he had nowhere left to turn.

He himself had originally thought that even a job that meant risking his life wouldn't affect his relationship with Brother Hei.

Yet it was like something from a long, long time ago, when one of Wang Shui's friends had asked to borrow money. It hadn't been a large sum, and Wang Shui had lent it with the attitude that even if his friend didn't repay him, it wouldn't affect their friendship.

It wasn't as though Wang Shui had never heard the saying "money ruins relationships," but he hadn't believed that such a small amount could do any harm to their friendship.

In the end, Wang Shui hadn't lost any money, but he had lost a friend. A close buddy he had grown up playing with had become a familiar stranger.

Now Wang Shui had the same feeling. Unlike lending money, his relationship with Brother Hei was more complicated. This feeling also made him understand that they belonged to different worlds.

To Brother Hei, Wang Shui could be a friend, an employee who slacked off, someone to joke with, or a pawn.

After this incident of risking his life, an insurmountable barrier had risen between them. Or rather, that barrier had been there all along, but their compatible personalities had made Wang Shui overlook it, and overlook Brother Hei's lofty position above him.

If Wang Shui were a bootlicker, a corporate slave content to take things as they came, he would swallow his frustration and return as though nothing had happened to the comfortable, relatively safe life under Brother Hei, collect a reward, and at most complain a little and demand better treatment. He might even hand over Silvia's soul.

Brother Hei and the others wanted to save Silvia so badly that, if they knew a backup of her soul existed, they would certainly be willing to pay.

But Wang Shui wasn't a bootlicker. He was much like Silvia, who would collapse at the slightest disagreement. He had an arrogant soul, and he knew it himself.

Besides, from the look of things now, working under Brother Hei wasn't all that safe.

Iron Edge City's marker had already appeared on the car's map. After thinking it over the entire way, Wang Shui finally sent out the request to terminate his digital contract.