Chapter 2938 - 978: Old Bach’s Regret · The Secret of the Mechanical Church and Eden_3

Chapter 2938: Chapter 978: Old Bach’s Regret · The Secret of the Mechanical Church and Eden_3

"Despair?"

Murphy asked in confusion:

"Professor Old Bach’s story is told in other parts of the Continent too. Honestly, I can’t understand why he fell into despair after discovering the Relic of Creation."

"Because he couldn’t read it, couldn’t learn it, couldn’t analyze it, couldn’t even comprehend it."

Master Minks sighed and said:

"For people who have steeped themselves in mechanical engineering their whole lives and achieved a certain level of success, they all have their own pride and dignity. No matter how difficult the problem is, for us it’s just something that needs time and ingenuity to slowly work through.

So we never fear hard problems. But Creation Engineering is a whole different concept, Your Excellency.

When you’ve already become outstanding in your own field, standing at the very top, and suddenly discover that the knowledge you spent a lifetime accumulating is as petty as rotting grass under the sun when placed before the relics of a long-extinct civilization, you will break down and despair too.

My mentor spent decades in the latter half of his life studying that relic.

Back when this city was still nothing but wilderness, he had already begun trying to unravel those puzzles, and when Charldo Harbor grew prosperous, his research was still just circling around the outermost problems.

The gap and the blow from that was enough to shatter an old Half-body Man’s sanity, so he took an extreme path—no longer seeking to crack the creator’s wisdom, but instead turning to mastering those fully-formed tools, trying to cut a new path.

For that, in the last ten years of his life he would frequently make secret trips to the Sanghai Empire. Unfortunately, time is not generous to us Half-body Men.

Three hundred-some years of life still weren’t enough for my mentor to find the answer to that final question.

He eventually died beneath this city, breathing his last amid the mourning of the Mechanical Church members. Up to his final moment, he was still clutching an unfinished record in his hand.

They once wanted to turn the mentor into a secret puppet, to grant him endless time to solve that problem, but we could not allow the mentor to end up like that.

What Old Flywheel didn’t tell you is that the reason he was forced to leave Charldo Harbor was precisely because, during that operation to snatch back the mentor’s remains, we used some rather radical measures that directly caused the ground of the outer district to collapse, killing hundreds.

That was a decision the three of us made together, but in the end Senior Brother Feilun bore that sin alone and was exiled from his homeland forever.

We owe him a lot, a whole lot."

Master Minks brought up the old affair from back then, his face full of helplessness and sorrow. Then, after a few seconds, he rubbed his face and turned the topic back to the Mechanical Church. He said:

"To this day, those pragmatic mechanics still occupy the underground ruins, continuing the mentor’s research from those years. But they still haven’t managed to open that door... No one knows what’s inside the door. Maybe, as you said, it’s the primary hardware of that Golden Era data consciousness.

But I need to correct your wording."

Master Minks said sternly:

"The ’Mechanical Spirit’ spoken of by the Mechanical Church has never left Charldo Harbor. Even while the data consciousness named ’Eden’ is following you, Charldo Harbor still sees supernatural incidents related to machinery.

In other words, the Mechanical Spirit may not be just one."

"Impossible!"

Murphy immediately refuted:

"Eden’s main program is with me. Ellen being noticed by it already proved that. So what’s left here might just be a backup... Wait! I get it!"

The Vampire Lord suddenly narrowed his eyes. He raised his head, looking at the invisible data program lingering beside him, and said:

"You were contaminated. So, just like Avalon, you separated and quarantined your own contaminated data? In the underground relic, besides your physical substrate, there’s also that portion of contaminated data you split off and sealed away?

The Mechanical Church has been trying to open the door under its guidance. So the second Mechanical Spirit is actually a data memetic program formed from subspace contamination data, isn’t it?"

Eden did not answer.

But that silence amounted to a kind of confirmation.

This was probably why this low-key core AI had always wanted to keep certain things hidden from Murphy. Just like every other artifact left over from the Golden Era has its own problems, over the past thousand years it too had left behind troubles of its own.

"You really did bottle up a huge mess for me without saying a word!"

Murphy snapped.

He didn’t keep berating his portable AI.

What happened back then wasn’t its fault. The fact that it rushed across thousands of miles to pledge itself the moment it confirmed Murphy’s existence already proved where it stood.

By now Master Minks had also sensed something ominous from Murphy’s words. He immediately stood and said:

"So, we need to go underground and drive out that evil Mechanical Spirit?"

"Right now we can’t say for sure it’s evil. But one thing’s certain: we can’t let the Mechanical Church keep trying to open that door. That damned thing is a seal!"

Murphy smelled the scent of a major problem. He flexed his fingers and said in a grave tone:

"Gather the mechanics in the city at once and go with my Foreign Warriors down into the sewers to stop the Mechanical Church’s operation. I need to make some preparations in advance."

"You foresee something big is about to happen?"

Master Minks asked:

"Need to call in reinforcements?"

"Yeah, call in some help."

Murphy explained:

"Given the situation, we have to ask that Sentinel His Excellency to take the field. After all, what we’re facing now is not an enemy you can hurt with swords and knives. It’s time to show a bit of technological muscle."