Chapter 840 - 825: New Technology

Chapter 840: Chapter 825: New Technology

In the image displayed by the Memory Crystal, Link carefully placed the document into his chest and walked towards the Empire.

Just as Lin Jun was eagerly anticipating seeing the intense battle between the former Hero and the Demon King, the image suddenly stuttered and then turned blank.

The Memory Crystal was still operating, but there was no more footage.

Apparently, the cracks on the crystal had caused some of the images to be lost.

Helplessly, Marshal Puki stepped forward to shut down the Memory Crystal, and by this time, the projection room was already in chaos.

"Twenty-two! Twenty-two... wailing..."

No. 5 cried heartbreakingly within the Fungal Network, mushroom juice flowing all over the place, and it seemed like he was about to cry himself into a dried mushroom.

No. 4 and No. 9 were reprimanding the Hand of Death for using despicable means, lacking any honor.

No. 7 seemed to have taken on the identity of a crushed Demon Race member and was now curled up on the ground, twitching.

No. 10 was rubbing his mushroom hat, pondering something unknown.

In the corner, No. 13 stood up and clapped with his tentacles, expressing respect for the Death God.

As for Lin Jun, to be honest, the content in the Memory Crystal didn’t provide him with any new information.

The Death God needed souls filled with complex emotions to keep the Ark running, so it made sense for him to do some tricks.

Of course, it was somewhat underhanded.

No wonder the Hand of Death, despite having the true god behind them, was always developing so sluggishly.

Even though the content behind the crystal was gone, considering the confirmed facts of the Death God being trapped in the Pilot’s Seat conference room, Link’s death, and the Demon King being sealed, it was likely a lose-lose situation for all.

As for Bai Nian Village, the little girl Twenty-two... to Lin Jun, he easily accomplished what Link couldn’t—treating them as NPCs.

Lin Jun’s true interest was, rather, in the Memory Crystal itself.

Or rather, its peculiar first-person perspective.

All the Memory Crystals in Lin Jun’s collection were shot from a third-person perspective, and achieving a first-person perspective seemed to require tying the crystal to one’s head to film.

But Link wasn’t a patrolling officer, so how could he possibly tie a camera to his head all day?

Not to mention that the image also incorporated the Demon King’s perspective, which was also first-person.

It’s hard to imagine how the Vampire Duke Norris managed not to laugh every time he looked up to see the Demon King’s Memory Crystal on his head.

So, this image might have another layer of mystery.

Lin Jun instructed the other mushrooms to drag away the dehydrated No. 5, leaving No. 10 to seriously study the crystal.

With a pull of his tentacle, a large amount of data from the crystal spread out.

He initially thought it would take quite a bit of time to reverse engineer, but unexpectedly, he quickly found a clue.

Indeed, this image’s data didn’t seem to be captured using a Memory Crystal, but rather...

...

Wind Ridge Fortress is a fortress located at a strategic pass in the heart of the Empire, boasting strong defenses.

However, such a sturdy fortress now had its gates wide open; atop the fortress towers, the Empire’s flag had been replaced with a mushroom flag from the Fungus Castle.

There were no signs of battle inside or outside the fortress, and in the fortress center, the Snake-man noble responsible for guarding the fortress coiled his snake tail and respectfully presented a Yellow-covered Book to Norris who was leading the troops into the city.

The fall of the Empire’s capital, the near destruction of its main force, and the Demon King’s disappearance.

Each of these three events alone could spell doom for a nation, and now they happened all at once.

This situation left the Demon Race forces still occupying various cities and fortresses of the Empire with almost no hope of victory. Especially since the Fungus Castle spared prisoners who surrendered of their own volition, dwindling resistance was naturally not very resolute.

In this context, the Yellow-covered Book only needed a bit of guidance to easily wear down the garrison’s last bit of resistance, inducing them to open the city gates and surrender without bloodshed, capturing one city after another.

In the fortress, Norris was studying a map, marking off territories already occupied.

On the map, the Empire’s land was less than a third of its original size, and it was a disjointed patchwork of strangely-shaped areas.

Although Norris had not received formal military education, he could see that aside from the missing Demon King, the Empire was beyond rescue.

He calculated in his mind, sighing: "If we continue like this, we probably won’t need more than three months to completely occupy the Empire."

A few sloppy words appeared on the Yellow-covered Book’s pages, responding to Norris: [Probably]

Norris couldn’t help but look over: "Senior, what’s wrong with you? We’re about to win, why do you still seem so sullen?"

[That’s your victory]

[Your boss will conquer the world, make you a ruler of one region, and you’ll have countless fine wines, delicious foods, and beautiful women to enjoy]

[As for me, I’m just a tattered book, what else can I enjoy besides playing with others’ souls?]

[So, winning or not, what does it matter to me? All I want is my own soul!]

"Senior, I don’t understand. Even if you had a soul, you’d still be a book, wouldn’t you be unable to enjoy those things?"

[Of course you don’t understand!]

[That kind of fear that you’re merely a fragile creation, at risk of disappearing at any moment, leaving no trace behind!]

The wind blew by, quickly flipping through the thick pages of the Yellow-covered Book, with each page binding a tormented soul.

[Although they are now trapped by me and suffering]

[I know that one day, they will regain their freedom, reincarnate, and return to the world for another life]

[But I’m different. If my book cover gets torn, I will disappear completely, and that would be true death!]

Norris scratched the back of his head: "Senior, didn’t you say the boss would help you with that soul?"

[Yes, but as everything seems to be coming to an end, there’s still no word on my soul...]

The Yellow-covered Book had no intention of betraying Lin Jun and turning to the Demon King again because of this.

It wasn’t due to any particular loyalty to Lin Jun or affection for Norris, but from the current situation, if Lin Jun, who had almost conquered the entire world, couldn’t do it, then the Demon King, now a lone fugitive without the Empire’s resources, would likely manage it even less.

And with no hope in sight, the Yellow-covered Book’s will inevitably became even more disheartened.

At this moment, a Puki, who was originally moving weaponry and armaments within the fortress, suddenly broke free from the Puki Master’s control, tossed aside the crate on its mushroom cap, and dashed into the room, wrapping up the Yellow-covered Book.

Norris was about to stop it when he heard the boss’s voice in his mind: "I need to borrow it."

Norris withdrew his hand, watching the Puki roll up the bewildered Yellow-covered Book, run outside onto the Fungal Mat, and disappear with a shimmer through teleportation.

...

Meanwhile, the Yellow-covered Book, emerging from the teleportation array, immediately noticed the dazzling Sunstone in the center of the cave.

[What’s going on? Boss, what’s the matter?]

Without wasting words, Lin Jun, guided by the Sunstone, extended a soul tendril and pressed down on the core of the Yellow-covered Book with overwhelming force, scaring it into thinking Lin Jun was planning to betray and dispose of it.

Yet after a while, its core wasn’t smashed.

Lin Jun, on the other hand, compared the information imprinted using the previous method of copying the Yellow-covered Book onto his soul, with the data from the Memory Crystal, and found it indeed very similar.

So...

"Did the Demon King directly extract memories from the soul and place them into the Memory Crystal? Interesting!"

The Yellow-covered Book only had a Pseudo-Soul Core, so the difficulty of imprinting it couldn’t compare with extracting memories from a living soul.

But having the ability to observe everything through a data-driven perspective, Lin Jun, once he learned the method, could research specifically, and it shouldn’t take long before he could crack this technology.

As for how this technology could be used?

Lin Jun suddenly thought of a most suitable test subject.

...

Amidst the war-torn Mist Castle, the elf Sirean, who was discussing how to rebuild the territory with Vera and others, suddenly halted, with some confusion, as he glanced at the slowly regrowing Fungal Mat not far away.