The Creators: From Night City

Page 496

He finally began to step into this strange sanctuary.

A red carpet was laid out, and the air was filled with the scent of iron and fire.

Apart from that, there was no one else in the huge hall, no papal guards, no honor guards, and of course, no hymns, no incense, no prayers, and no signs of purity.

The place is so clean it looks like it was just visited by the Blood Ravens.

But holiness is never made sacred by external things.

Kaul soon saw what made him lose his voice.

A throne.

A silver throne sits atop a high platform.

It is so magnificent, exuding a dignified and sacred aura.

Countless cables intersect with it, extending deep underground.

A man of utmost purity sat upright on it, with several light screens in front of him, rapidly displaying a massive amount of information.

'This is Ohm Messiah?' A question flashed through Caul's cold mental processor.

"Otherwise what?" the man suddenly said.

'Mind reading? Data intrusion? Personality and psychological pre-analysis? Psionic prophecy?' Within microseconds, several possibilities were retrieved.

"Stop guessing, it's mind reading."

The answer made Caul's heart sink.

“No, this body has undergone a highly 'purification ritual' and does not possess the conditions for psychic mind reading.”

"If you describe the complete abandonment of the physical body and the transformation of consciousness into a data stream as a highly 'purification ritual,' then I won't argue with that."

“But it’s not psychic mind reading,” Jiang Bing said, dispelling all the light barriers with a wave of his hand. “It’s information.”

"I simply read your message in advance."

"No, the relay firewall did not detect any trace of intrusion."

"It's not information from your system, but information from the system of the real universe."

Kaul seemed to freeze for a few seconds, as if his computer had crashed.

"What an amazing method! But I have my doubts about it."

Jiang Bing no longer wanted to get entangled with the other party on this matter and stated his purpose directly.

"I have important business with you, Sage Kaul. It is my honor to inform you that you have been officially conscripted by the Empire."

"Also, don't try to send messages out secretly. All unauthorized communication is prohibited here." Jiang Bing beckoned, and unknown sacred characters immediately began to flow in Kaul's built-in system.

Although the great sage did not know their contents, their function was clear: they temporarily blocked his communication devices for contacting the outside world.

At this moment, to Jiang Bing, who was sitting on the Mithril Throne, Kaur was like a loudspeaker, nagging on and on.

"You can verify the authenticity of the order yourself after it's sent out. But now, Great Sage Caul, you need to tell me, is that thing finished?"

Kaul did not answer, nor did he allow any related information to appear in his own processing thread.

"Stop beating around the bush, I'm talking about the Armor of Destiny."

Kaul suddenly looked up, his scarlet eyeglasses gleaming brightly.

Who exactly are you?

"Om Messiah"

“I once worked with the Emperor, Your Excellency, and the black shell surgery on Astartes was one of my achievements.”

The Great Sage's meaning was clear: they were all old foxes, what were they trying to fool with this ghost story? He was a man who had fought alongside emperors, and the excuse of Ohm Messiah wouldn't fool him.

He knows the truth!

As the longest-living oil enthusiast, Kaul has lived for a full ten thousand years. Aside from immortals and genetic prototypes, very few people can live such a long time.

It's important to understand that the Empire's life-extending surgeries and devices have their limits, just as the resilience of the human soul itself has its limits.

According to imperial records, the oldest mechanical sage, without using techniques such as stasis fields, could only live for a maximum of a thousand years; beyond that time, they usually either went mad or died.

Of course, Kaul is an exception.

This kid has no scruples when it comes to playing with heretical knowledge; he's practically crossed every red line the empire forbids.

Things like prohibiting the digitization of human consciousness, prohibiting the cloning of bodies to overwrite consciousness for a form of immortality, prohibiting the research and use of alien technology, prohibiting research on Astartes modification surgery, and prohibiting contact with aliens...

It can be said that if he is not a heretic, then the empire has no heretics.

Take the body he is now standing in front of Jiang Bing, for example. It is the product of his consciousness being transformed into a data stream after his mechanical ascension. He has completely abandoned his flesh and brain and has become a digital life, namely the Abomination Intelligence that the Empire is guarding against.

He is no longer even the original Belisarius Caul; through tens of thousands of years of continuous iteration, he has become a living Ship of Theseus.

Not to mention that his consciousness data also contains the data imprints of many other people. Jiang Bing glanced at him and saw that this guy's brain was as messy as a choir. In this situation, he could still be so organized. It can only be said that he is worthy of being Doraemon.

Jiang Bing sat on the throne, offering no rebuttal. He lazily beckoned with his finger, and golden flames suddenly ignited in the void before Kaul, forming a scroll of parchment from nothingness.

"Take a look."

The Great Sage hesitated for two seconds, and after scanning the silent, standing Sage of the Ruler with the detector, he still chose to turn it on.

The ancient-looking parchment scroll was not inscribed with High Gothic script, but instead with several runes that were completely unfamiliar to Kaul.

To his astonishment, these runes flowed automatically into his data processor as soon as they came into contact with his scanner.

'This is not scientific!' The Great Sage's logical center was buzzing wildly; he detected not a single trace of psionic energy.

The massive amount of data began to decompress and flooded into Kaur's logic and judgment center.

This data includes the upcoming 13th Black Crusade, as well as the great 'plan' that Caul has been silently carrying out for ten thousand years, the Emperor's awakening, and the parts of the series of future plans that he and Jiang Bing devised in 'Rumi' that Caul needs to know. All of these were stuffed into Caul's storage hard drive by Jiang Bing.

Of course, for the sake of confidentiality, Jiang Bing added a layer of lock to these data using creation runes to prevent Chaos from stealing them by certain means.

"The Emperor is waiting for you in Holy Terra," Jiang Bing added the final straw at the opportune moment.

Without the slightest hesitation, Kaul shouted "Om Messiah," raised his head and bowed, his expression fanatical like that of a zealot, his principles flexible and unlike those of a great sage.

Chapter 1007 The Theory of Machine Souls

Compared to the Emperor's subtle and gradual political reforms in Holy Terra, Jiang Bing's 'religious reforms' on Mars were much more 'radical'.

While his approach may be considered radical, it is still a 'mild reform' relative to the existing structure of the Mechanicus.

The three fundamental flaws of the Mechanicus cult today lie in its monopoly of knowledge, religious ignorance, and political independence.

The entire Mechanicus cult views knowledge as the ultimate way to approach the Om Messiah from top to bottom. Everyone regards the knowledge they acquire as sacred private property, which makes the flow of knowledge extremely rigid and forms a de facto monopoly of knowledge. The high-ranking sages firmly control the vast majority of the 'means of production', while the lower-level apprentices have no way to advance. As a result, this not only greatly hinders the development of the empire's productivity, but also restricts the revival of technology.

The complex and cumbersome religious rituals and the mystified theory of "machine soul" stand in opposition to the spirit of science. The spraying of incense and chanting of prayers required in every production link and every production activity greatly reduced production efficiency and hindered technological development. This mysterious and ignorant theory also fundamentally denies the essence of scientific observation, exploration, practice, and inductive utilization.

The signing of the Mars Treaty granted the Mechanicus autonomy, creating an atmosphere of 'obeying orders but not proclamations' throughout the entire Mechanicus. The production goals of all forging worlds were basically prioritized over serving the Empire in order to serve Mars.

Jiang Bing did not immediately perform any divine intervention or display any 'miracles' before declaring to the entire Mechanicus, "I am the Om Messiah you worship," and then, with the unparalleled authority that came with it, he began radical reforms from top to bottom and from the inside out, thoroughly eliminating the three major drawbacks.

After all, while this approach would be the quickest to achieve results, it would inevitably trigger a second technological and religious war that would sweep across the entire empire.

After all, the 'Om Messiah' is often no match for the 'treasures' in one's own pocket. Even a god has to yield to humanity when it comes to his own interests. Not to mention such a high-profile declaration, which is practically slapping Chaos in the face. The evil forces led by Tzeentch will certainly not let this opportunity pass by and stir up trouble.

At a time when the empire is on the verge of collapse, teetering on the brink of collapse, with war raging across the galaxy and armies fighting on multiple fronts, to undertake such a radical reform that is accompanied by a full-blown civil war is tantamount to Trump's speech—a path to certain death.

Any large-scale civil war resulting from reforms would be a wound that the current empire cannot bear. After all, the great rebellion ten thousand years ago directly destroyed most of the power of the once-powerful human empire. Even without a second great rebellion, a second 'Mars War' would be an unacceptable consequence for the current empire.

Although they were reluctant to admit it, both the Emperor and Jiang Bing understood that it would be a long journey for humanity to return to the path of rationality, science, and progress, break free from the shackles of superstition, and restore the glory of the Golden Age.

Therefore, reforms to the Mechanism cult should be carried out subtly and gradually, adapted to local conditions, and ideally, proactively.

Therefore, there were no grand declarations. Several weeks after Jiang Bing arrived on Mars, the news of the Om Messiah's descent was not even known to a third party. Similarly, the establishment of the temple of the 'God of Machines' was also quiet and inconspicuous.

There was no so-called destruction followed by construction, no new doctrines or methods challenging the fundamental tenets of the Mechanicus were introduced, and Jiang Bing did not even use the influence of the Great Sage Usaka C. Far to promulgate any laws or promote any legislation.

However, his achievements during this period can be described as fundamentally undermining the foundation of the Mechanicus.

Aside from meeting with Kaul, who was the Emperor's secret agent, the 'craftsman' did nothing else. He devoted several weeks to accumulating a large number of 'machine soul' samples through theft, robbery, copying, (asking Usaka) for them, and 'adjusting' them.

Through diligent research, he fundamentally deconstructed the essence of the existence of "machine souls" and, adapting to local conditions, created a complete and effective system for communicating, controlling, cultivating, utilizing, and even destroying "machine souls" from scratch.

'Machine Soul' is a phenomenon unique to the Terran race in Warhammer. Its essence is a self-fulfilling prophecy, a 'result' created by a confluence of circumstances.

In the dark ages of technology, the loss of a great deal of knowledge has led to numerous questions about the complex operating principles of the remaining technologies. The long-term application and research of 'black box' technological creations has given rise to a trend of anthropomorphizing and mythologizing these 'black technologies'.

The existence of the warp determines that strong faith and emotion can create entities and even rules. The collective faith of billions of followers of the Cult of Machines in machines dramatically shaped the concept that machines can possess "souls" in the warp.

Once these 'machine souls' truly existed, the Mechanicus discovered that through 'correct' rituals, prayers, incense, holy oil application, and binary hymns, the machine souls could be effectively appeased and pleased, enabling them to work stably and even perform beyond their normal limits. This fact, in turn, proved the correctness of the 'machine soul' theory, further solidifying the collective faith of the Mechanicus's millions of followers in the truth of the 'machine soul,' gradually transforming it into the Mechanicus's only and unquestionable truth.

Thus, in the distant forty-one thousand years, the fact that human machines possess 'souls' is an unchangeable fact, a unique case of proof of the 'power of thought'.

Jiang Bing, as the 'Om Messiah', did not choose to deny this fact, but instead went against the grain and actively embraced it.

After all, the existence of the 'machine soul' is not without its benefits. Although rough handling, unclean maintenance, and unauthorized modifications can anger the machine soul, causing it to become "unhappy" and malfunction, jam, or even explode, when the 'machine soul is overjoyed', it can also produce outrageous buffs such as 'infinite ammo', 'assisted headshot lock', 'substitute attack in the subspace', 'forcibly staying indestructible', and 'loyal plasma that never overheats'.

The reason why the 'Machine Soul' system restricts the development of technology is entirely due to its uncertainty.

The Empire's existing technology is unable to determine whether a machine truly possesses a 'machine spirit,' nor can it communicate with it directly, let alone ascertain the 'machine spirit's' condition. It cannot predict when the 'machine spirit' will be overjoyed or displeased. Therefore, it can only treat it uniformly according to a set of established empirical methods, daring not to easily change the production methods, daring not to take the initiative to innovate, sticking to the old ways, and leaving everything else to the 'Emperor'.

What Jiang Bing will do next is to make this 'power system' measurable, clear, and controllable, and completely bring 'machine soul worship' down from its pedestal.

Chapter 1008 Cyber ​​Preaching

For a craftsman, establishing an effective and scientifically sound "theory of machine spirit" is not a difficult task at all.

The establishment of this power system signifies the complete collapse of the mystical 'machine soul' in terms of religious ignorance. A 'machine soul' that can be measured, cultivated, communicated with, controlled, and even destroyed by humans undoubtedly returns to the essence of 'science'.

Furthermore, one can imagine that once 'Machine Soul Joy' becomes human-controlled, it would represent a tremendous boost to the strength of the entire human empire.

The best part is that apart from Jiang Bing, the 'craftsman,' working overtime, this plan requires absolutely no other effort.

And this 'doctrine' on which Jiang Bing had placed high hopes did not disappoint. Its first appearance directly made the conservative casting sage Usaka C. Far acknowledge Jiang Bing's legitimate status as the 'Om Messiah' from the bottom of his heart!

As long as he continues to be taught the knowledge of the 'Machine Soul Theory', Jiang Bing will be the 'Om Messiah'!

He, the great sage who commands and the forging general, said that no one can do anything about it!

Thus, the 'lever' of the Unified Mechanicus was perfectly born.

The great cause of unifying the Mechanicus began from this point.

Jiang Bing's approach to doing things has always been to persuade people with emotion, reason, and incentives, and this group of motor enthusiasts are the ones who are most susceptible to the temptation of knowledge.

What's more, he now possesses 'Special Forces Knowledge' specifically designed for motor enthusiasts.

In contrast to the reform methods employed by the Emperor in Holy Terra, which involved the High Lords of the Empire, the Unification of the Mechanicus required a grassroots approach.

After all, officials follow the example set by their superiors, and the emperor controls the natural legal and orthodox system, so it is naturally most efficient to take action from top to bottom.

To establish a loose 'technological federation' like the Cult of Machines, a bottom-up reform is necessary, along with rebuilding the authority of the 'Om Messiah' directly at the grassroots level, thus undermining its foundation.

One of the most important reasons is that the system of the Mechanicus is inherently suited to the strategy of encircling the cities from the countryside.

On Mars, or even in the entire human empire, becoming a qualified motorist is an extremely difficult task.

The difficulty is comparable to that of an ordinary person becoming an Astartes; to succeed, one needs not only talent but also a certain amount of luck.

The Tech Priest Titan-Rotus 232 is one such unlucky but fortunate one.

He comes from a traditional foundry family on Mars, and has been managing a small foundry in place of a sage.

During his childhood, he displayed an extraordinary talent and intuition for mechanics, which led to his family offering him to the Cult of Mechanics, transforming him from a "factory heir" into a junior apprentice.

He was sent to a theological order, where he was indoctrinated daily with the idea that "the flesh is weak and the machine is eternal." He learned how to regard emotions, desires, and all human weaknesses as flaws that needed to be eliminated, and underwent the first step of "gift" transformation before graduation.

A mechanical prosthetic eye replaced his physical eye, a mechanical hand replaced his original arm, and a data interface was implanted in his brain to facilitate efficient communication with the 'God of Machines'.

The whole process was extremely painful and lengthy, after all, the purpose of the entire 'gift' ritual was to make him bid farewell to his human identity both psychologically and physiologically, so as to become a loyal believer of the great god of all machines.

He also questioned whether this was wrong, but this question was quickly regarded as a human flaw that had to be eliminated.

Ultimately, he graduated from the theological order with excellent grades, stepping out of the order's gates with the dream of exploring the ocean of knowledge and becoming the most loyal sage of the Om Messiah. However, he was ruthlessly assigned to a conservative sage under the Foundry Order, beginning a long and arduous life.

Now, it has been 17 years since he graduated, but he is still just a junior technical priest. His daily work consists of meticulously maintaining the plasma reactor, praying, comforting the machine spirits whose existence is unknown, and trying to acquire new knowledge from various channels.

All the 'employees' of the Cult of Mechanism are mysteriously stingy with knowledge. Apart from a small amount of public knowledge, any other slightly advanced knowledge requires 'payment', and at an exorbitant price.

The answer may lie in the database of some sage, but many people may still need to conduct arduous independent research and retrace the path that has been trodden countless times in order to arrive at the answer that has already been proven.

After all, in the Cult of the Machine God, knowledge equals status, power, and authority, and even the kindest mentor would not hand over his life and fortune to someone else.