Murphy's anti-guest stance left Master Minks a little at a loss.

Ay.

You weird vampire!

You stole my things and used them for almost a year, and I haven't seen you write to me, and now I'm accusing me of not only not repenting but also making such a frank move, which makes the old halfling person not confident, and makes him seem to be the unscrupulous merchant who doesn't pay attention to after-sales.

But if you think about it, Murphy is really not to blame for the stolen goods.

After all, this fourth-generation core computing orb was originally stolen by the spies of the Plantagenet Kingdom, and it was supposed to be sent to Loren's short marshal, but it was intercepted by Murphy and the eldest lady halfway.

If I have to say, this wave is actually Robin Hood's behavior.

Of course, both of them are people with status, and they just laughed at this issue that had happened in the past and would only be embarrassing to discuss now, as for some details of this matter itself, it didn't need to be too strict, at Murphy's request or request, Master Minks grinned and took the core orb, and took out a set of quite sophisticated engineering items similar to a microscope from the drawer, and began to carefully examine the arrangement of psionic factors inside this core orb.

Murphy waited patiently, taking a few peeks at the drawings that Master Minks had just been revising.

He found out that it was a set of blueprints for a walking machine, which Mincks had modified to resemble a weapon of war like a walking tank, with a barrel that could actually be used for shooting and a more efficient power system.

Best of all, this thing also doesn't have a crew compartment!

This made Murphy raise an eyebrow, he suspected that this was the inspiration that Master Minks got from the dragoons that would be used for defensive warfare, after all, this thing seemed to follow the dragoon routine no matter how you look at it, but Minks's blueprints placed a special kind of arithmetic orb in the core of this walking tank.

It seems that he does not intend to take the wet core of the dragoon, but is ready to go the path of unmanned automated weapons.

With the engineering level of the halflings, it was difficult but not impossible to make such a thing, which was not possible only because the traditional ideas constrained them from developing weapons of war, but now that civilization has reached the point of life and death, those traditional concepts have been abandoned, and at least the upper echelons of the halflings have begun to break away from the unrealistic illusions of peace and begin to march towards the rearmament of pragmatism.

It seems that only the pressure of survival can make a race truly sober up.

"It's a no-no for engineers to peek at other people's drawings without permission, but given you're not a machinist, I can't use industry rules to bind you."

Master Minks fine-tuned the observation device in his hand, and asked in the sharp, but not intrusive, and slow-hearted tone of an old man:

"You were one of the first commanders on the continent to use an active-piloted model of a walker for real warfare, and although I don't agree with the cruelty of the wetpiece core, I think you are a true pioneer in this field.

So in your opinion, what is missing from this drawing of mine? ”

"The firepower is not strong enough!

One cannon isn't enough for the scenarios it faces, and in our experience, the main focus of the Walker is on attack and fire projection when it steps onto the battlefield, so you'll need to add more destructive mods to your weapons.

Examples include flamethrowers, rapid-fire gun sets, high-voltage power grids, mechanical harvesting sickles, and missile systems that can fire barrages from a distance, or minelayers. ”

Murphy rubbed his chin and said:

"In addition, since it is unmanned, then the concept of protection must also be upgraded accordingly, I don't know if you understand the concept of 'explosive reactive armor', but in my opinion, it is a boring and stupid idea to still use heavy steel to try to upgrade the defense power, since it is a weapon used for destruction, it must be used to the fullest.

It's better to set up a self-destruct mode for this thing, and when it is completely inoperable and incapacitated, you can stage a big firework for the enemy, and by the way, prevent the enemy from learning new war concepts from its wreckage.

I have a lot of strangers who are very good at this, and if you are interested, I would be happy to invite you to visit our arsenal in Transncia and talk to the master weapons craftsmen face to face.

Of course, although I also find the wet core of the old flywheel to be a bit cruel, in the eyes of us Transnsians, this posture of fighting after death is very much in line with our philosophy of death, and the barbarians of Icebay have sent Berserker Priests to Transcia to learn such techniques.

Their gods wanted to see the berserkers wield such pure wrath even after they died.

Therefore, I must be pessimistic to tell you that although the outrageous pragmatism of the Church of Mechanic is cruel for the most part, in the foreseeable future, the technology and ideas of the Church of Mechanica will inevitably spark on an increasingly unpeaceful continent.

This means that the orthodox mechanics led by you must step up to catch up, or it will only be a matter of time before they are obsolete. ”

Murphy looked back at Master Minks and said:

"That's why I'm here, two of my important lords have been kidnapped by the forces of the Church of Machines in your city, and I must rescue them before the guys hiding underground make them into secret puppets."

"Secret couple? No, no, no, if it's just an individual with an important identity but a lack of strength, it will not be made into a secret puppet by the mechanical sages of the Mechanical Church, it will only be a waste of resources. ”

Minks shook his head and said:

"I could send my disciples to the sewers with my letters, but I don't think this matter can be solved with a single letter.

The Church of the Machines weren't gangsters out there, and they were smart enough to be aware of the troubles that came with diplomatic turmoil, but they did so to prove that they wanted to use the two girls to get in touch with the Translancians.

Rather, they want to see you, or they want to confirm something about you.

I've had some dealings with the Church of the Mechanics, and I've joined their meetings under a pseudonym, but I'm not as a 'conservative heretic' with them as much face as you might think.

If you want to settle this matter peacefully, you will probably have to find my senior brother.

He still has the name of 'Former Master' on him, and he knows a thing or two about the intimidating sewer system of Port Chardo, which resembles a dragon's lair. ”

"The old flywheel can't come, he's at a critical juncture of learning."

Murphy sighed and said:

"And with the extreme character of the old flywheel, I don't think he will go here for the sake of two girls who don't have much to do with him, after all, the knowledge of creation engineering in the last era is too precious, and he can't get out at this time.

But I guessed what the Church of the Machines wanted from me."

The Vampire Lord glanced at Master Minks, he coughed, and said:

"Eden, blocking the exchange of information, I'm going to discuss some more sensitive topics with Master Minks next."

"Buzz"

The obedience of the incorporeal caused the four hidden mechanisms for observation and recording in Minks's office to stop in an instant, and the office defenses were forcibly activated, steel protective windows fell from the three windows, and the steel defense structure was also supported to temporarily seal off the entire office.

Minks' eyes widened as the red emergency lights flickered, and he looked around in an inquiring manner, as if looking for the intangibles that had bypassed the control center and enabled the devices.

"The Spirit of the Machine. The legend that has been passed down for centuries in Port Chardo is known to some as the 'evil god', but others believe it to be a trusted ally. ”

Murphy said in a frank tone:

"But in reality, Eden is only the core AI used to manage the various mechanical data of the city and the creator system in the last era, and it has been incomplete for a long time.

I don't know why it has been hidden in the port of Chardo for the past hundreds of years, but it is certain that something here has attracted it, and it was not until my appearance that it was reminded of its mission and left the port of Chardo and returned to me.

I've heard that the Church of the Machine worships it as the prototype of the 'God of Machines.'

But they were wrong!

Neither the perception of Eden, nor the way he tried to cultivate a god, was very wrong.

So, may I ask you a question here about the hidden mysteries of the Port of Chardo?

Back then, was part of Eden hidden beneath your Machine City?

Or, I'm asking a little more specifically.

Is Eden's hardware processor unit hidden beneath our feet? And it's already occupied by the Church of the Machines? ”

Faced with Murphy's inquiry, Master Minks did not answer.

He simply sat back in his chair and looked at Murphy with a complicated expression, and after taking off his round-rimmed glasses, he rubbed his brow and said:

"Pretty much right!

It seems that you are indeed the legendary Creator Chosen One, and the greatest secret of the Port of Chardo will be revealed before your eyes.

Well, there is indeed a hidden place of creation beneath the city, and it was only when the halfling sages discovered it that the first bricks were built here.

To be precise, my mentor, Professor Bach Gaslamp Sr., the greatest mechanical pioneer of halfling civilization, discovered all of this.

To this day, I still don't know where my mentor got his word about, but in the second half of his life, he devoted all his energy, wisdom and time to exploring the ruins, even alienating us and his family for it.

Bach's resentment towards her father in her youth came from that stage.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the last period of my mentor's life, he was so frightened that he did not return from the underground even after his wife's death, and stayed in the dark and allowed anxiety and time to turn him into a madman.

I'm guessing you're doubting the origins of the Church of the Machines.

Yes, that extremist group was founded by my mentor's followers in their later years.

But they are not heretics!

They were just the embodiment of another idea of engineering, and my mentor was not the one who really founded it, and this pragmatism and unintelligible thought existed in halfling society long before he was born, and my mentor only summed it up to form the first prototype of the mechanical church.

It wasn't out of ambition or anything else, just out of despair and anguish at the time. ”

"Despair?"

Murphy asked suspiciously:

"The story of Professor Bach Sr. is also circulated in other parts of the continent, and to be honest, I can't understand why he was desperate after discovering the remains of creation?"

"Because I can't understand it, because I can't learn it, because I can't parse it or even understand it."

Minks sighed and said:

"For those who have immersed themselves in the field of mechanical engineering all their lives and achieved certain achievements, they all have their own pride and dignity, and even difficult problems can only be solved slowly by time and ingenuity.

So we're never afraid of difficult problems, but creation engineering is a different concept, Your Excellency.

When you've excelled at the top of your field, you too will crumble and despair when you suddenly find yourself humbled by the light of rotting grass in front of the ruins of a long-dead civilization.

My mentor spent decades in the second half of his life studying the ruins.

He had already set out to solve the puzzles when the city was still a wilderness, and when the port of Chardo prospered, his research was still only hovering on peripheral problems.

Such a drop and blow would have been enough to destroy the sanity of an old halfling, so he took an extreme path, no longer seeking to crack the wisdom of the Creator, but instead seeking to harness the tools that had been formed, in an attempt to slash the sword.

For this reason, he often secretly traveled to the Songhai Empire in the last decade of his life, but unfortunately, time was not generous for us halflings.

More than 300 years of life is not enough for my mentor to find the answer to that last question.

He eventually died underground in the city, taking his last breath in the mourning of the members of the Church of the Mechanics, and until the very last moments, he still held an unfinished record in his hands.

They had wanted to make the Guru a secret puppet in order to give him endless time to solve the problem, but we could not allow the Guru to end up like this.

What the old flywheel doesn't tell you is that he was forced to leave the port of Chardo because in that operation to recover the remains of the Mentor, we used some rather radical plans, which directly caused the ground in the outer city to collapse, killing hundreds of people.

It was a decision made by the three of us together, but in the end, Brother Flywheel took that sin alone and was banished from his hometown forever.

We owe him much, much. ”

Minks said the old things with a look of helplessness and sadness, and then after a few seconds, he rubbed his face and turned the subject back to the Church of the Machines, saying:

"To this day, the pragmatist mechanics still occupy the underground ruins to continue their mentor's research, but they still haven't been able to open the door. No one knows what's inside the door. Perhaps, as you say, it's the ontological hardware of data consciousness in that golden age.

But I'm going to correct your statement. ”

Minks said solemnly:

"The mechanical spirit of the Church of the Mechanics has never left the port of Chardo, and while the data consciousness called 'Eden' follows you, supernatural events about the machine will still occur in the port of Chardor.

In other words, there may be more than one mechanical spirit. ”

"Impossible!"

Murphy immediately denied it:

"The main program of Eden is with me, and Sharon who noticed it has also proved it, so staying here may just be a backup. Wait a minute! I know! ”

The vampire lord's eyes narrowed suddenly, he looked up at the invisible data program that stayed beside him, and said:

"You're tainted, so, like Avalon, you're separating and isolating your own contaminated data? In addition to your physical carrier, there is also the part of the contamination data that you have separated?

The Church of the Machines has been trying to open doors under its guidance, so the second mechanical spirit is actually a data memetic program formed by subspace polluting data, right? ”

Eden did not answer.

But this silence represents some kind of affirmation.

This may be the reason why this low-key core AI has been hiding itself from Murphy, and like other Golden Age legacies, it has left its own troubles over the past millennium.

"You're really holding me back without making a sound!"

Murphy scolded.

He didn't go on to rebuke his portable AI.

It wasn't its fault back then, and it had proven its position by coming all the way to Toucheng as soon as it confirmed Murphy's existence.

Master Minks would have realized the ominous thing from Murphy's words, and he immediately got up and said:

"So, do you want to go underground to banish that evil mechanical spirit?"

"It's hard to say whether it's evil or not, but one thing is for sure, we can't let the Church of the Machines continue to try to open the door, it's a hell of a seal!"

Murphy smelled a big problem, he moved his fingers, and said in a serious tone:

"Gather the mechanical masters in the city to go to the sewers with my foreign warriors to stop the mechanical church's actions, I need to make some preparations in advance."

"Did you have a hunch that something big was going to happen?"

Minks Says:

"Need a helper?"

"Yes, shake someone to help."

Murphy explains:

"Now that the Sentinel must come to the rescue, after all, we are not dealing with an enemy that can be damaged with a sword, and it is time to show a little skill."

(End of chapter)