"What..."
Gray felt as if there was something wrong with his ears, or perhaps the impact had damaged a specific part of his brain, and for a moment he couldn't understand what the gray-robed old man was saying.
But a voice deep inside him spoke to him in a cold tone:
"Of course you understand, you just don't want to believe it."
"You had a premonition about this from the very beginning, but you were unwilling to give your reason even the slightest bit of trust."
"It's a bit hard to accept, isn't it?"
The old man in gray smiled and said:
"Actually, from the very beginning, I was not the Grand Foundry Master; he was."
"Of course, you can also argue that the identity of the Grand Foundry Master belongs to both Balund and his brother, it doesn't matter, because no one will argue with you."
Seeing that Gray's expression remained blank, the old man turned his gaze to the enormous mechanical mainframe that resembled a metal coffin:
" Aiboke, this is the child everyone has chosen."
The metal coffin seemed to understand something, extending a mechanical arm with complex hinges. After bending it several times, it finally patted Gray's shoulder like the heavy hand of an elder.
Immediately afterwards, a corner of the metal coffin began to hum. Balund stepped forward and skillfully took the long strip of paper covered with regular round holes.
Once the paper strip stopped being ejected, he casually tore it off without even looking at it. He simply held one end with his left hand, quickly ran his right hand over all the holes, and then smiled at Gray, saying:
" Aiboke is also very satisfied with you. He said you're physically strong and clearly exercise regularly, so you'll definitely do this job well."
At this moment, a strange and oppressive atmosphere had enveloped this space.
No one knows what will happen, yet everyone has a guess about what might happen.
The anxiety on [ Do Some Farm Work ]'s face was almost bursting through the shackles. He wanted to confirm his guess with the Grand Foundry Master, but he couldn't even utter a single word.
Although Nuowa and Liya's expressions were calm, one could see that they were putting on a brave face.
Clearly, they had anticipated this, or rather, they knew the inside story from the beginning.
In the dead silence, as the center of everyone's attention, Gray finally spoke, voicing the question that had been lingering in his mind:
"If I choose to succeed the Grand Foundry Master..."
He pointed to the metal coffin in front of him:
Is this how it's supposed to turn out?
The gray-robed old man Balund, looked at Gray with somewhat cloudy eyes, trying to analyze from his actions, expressions, and tone of voice what his mindset was when he asked that question.
After a moment of silence, he answered calmly:
"No, at least... not this one. This one is just Aiboke..."
He clapped his hands lightly, and a large number of Psionic Energy Circuit instantly lit up, filling the originally dark underground space with countless light sources that illuminated everything around them.
What had been hidden in the shadows was now fully revealed. In the work area surrounded by hundreds of robotic arms, there was an even larger, more exquisite, and even spectacular metal coffin.
Until now, that thing had remained hidden in the shadows until it suddenly appeared before everyone.
Let's go take a look.
Balund said:
"Take a close look before you decide, so you don't regret it later."
Gray walked step by step towards the beam of Psionic Energy, heading toward the coffin that seemed to have been made just for him.
At the same time, Balund began to narrate behind him, as if acting as a narrator:
" The Graycast Corridor was built on machinery, and the Grand Foundry Master had the authority over the machinery."
"Many mechanical structures invented in the last hundred years do not operate purely on the machine itself; without the blessing of Psionic Energy and Authority, they would immediately collapse completely."
"With the existence of the Grand Foundry Master, the structure of machinery can become more complex and varied, whether it is as magnificent as a city or as delicate as a hair, it is no longer out of reach."
"Similarly, because the Grand Foundry Master can effectively constrain machinery, the probability of random mutations occurring in people who have replaced a part of their body with a prosthetic limb is greatly reduced. This is the basis for the Graycast Corridor's continued existence."
"My younger brother, Aiboke, is a genius in the field of mechanics. In the twenty years after the two elves left, he invented countless machines and devices, and successfully created the ' Prosthetic Replacement Method ', a way that allows everyone to survive. He became the Grand Foundry Master of the Graycast Corridor."
Everyone was amazed by Aiboke's talent. They said Aiboke was a genius in the field of mechanics, and that as long as he was given paper and pen, he could draw up a continuous stream of design blueprints for creations.
"But I know that his talent is far more outstanding than those people imagine. Many of Aiboke's creations had their basic concepts more than a decade ago. At that time, he was still a child who would be whipped at the slightest disagreement and had never received any education other than being whipped."
"At that time, the title of Grand Foundry Master was not yet used to refer to the highest ruler of the Great Labyrinth City. It was merely the most skilled Grand Artisan, and Aiboke was the only Grand Foundry Master."
"In order to better research and create, Aiboke replaced many parts of his own body. Every prosthetic limb that was promoted to everyone was personally tested on him. Those things are the prototypes of the current Graycast Corridor standard prosthetics."
"But there is a limit to the replacement of machinery. Even after Aiboke replaced all the parts that could be replaced, he still did not advance to High Tier."
"At that time, he had already touched the barrier to the High Tier and had his own ideas on how to advance to the High Tier through a new path, but he did not yet have a specific plan."
That was about sixty years ago.
At this point, Balund let out a long sigh:
"The strongest warrior in the Graycast Corridor at that time was a High Tier before the Demonic Tide. He was the only High Tier expert in the corridor."
"The two elves rescued him from the ruins of the fallen city and made him the protector of us miners."
"But as time went by, he was running out of time—the stronger an individual is, the more severely they are eroded by the Demonic Tide, and a momentary lapse in defense can cause their entire body to collapse completely."
"Everyone knows that if the next High Tier one does not appear, the Graycast Corridor will soon disappear from this land, perhaps because of Calamity in the Wilderness of Chaos, perhaps because of the Corpse Tide in the Demon Realm, or perhaps because of the Eternal Domain that is waiting for an opportunity to move south."
"At the time, I was not as capable as Aiboke, and could only watch him rack his brains over this matter without being able to help him at all, until one day, he asked me a question—how to use a machine to simulate a person's thoughts and soul?"