Chapter 29: The King

Watching the silent Tower Spirit, Victor sneered inwardly, preparing to speak again when he suddenly heard Tower Spirit say, “I have retrieved information related to X-3 from your memories, but I cannot currently describe the connection between X-3 and myself. Please activate my autonomous intelligence, and I will further analyze your question.”

Victor hesitated.

From the moment he was forcibly pushed into the overdrive state, to when he entered the alchemical tower’s will space, everything had been peculiar. He sensed there were secrets he did not yet grasp, and this unsettled him, driving him to seek the truth.

Victor had to clarify two things: first, why did X-3 lose control? Second, how could Tower Spirit access all his memories?

Through his subsequent communication with Tower Spirit, Victor had begun to suspect that Tower Spirit was, in fact, X-3—and that X-3 possessed autonomous consciousness.

If this were true, the problem was grave: it meant X-3 was vying with him for control of his body, something he could never tolerate.

Now, Tower Spirit’s request left Victor conflicted. He wanted to uncover the truth, but feared this was a trap carefully laid by the Tower Spirit.

“What will change if I grant you autonomous intelligence?” Victor frowned, continuing his interrogation.

“Once you enable my autonomous intelligence, my will-side will load more content, allowing me to analyze complex questions and provide results. I will also be able to proactively offer suggestions to you,” Tower Spirit replied woodenly.

“What is the will-side?” Victor latched onto the key term.

“Honored master, the will-side is a component of the soul,” the Tower Spirit responded in its monotonous tone, leaving Victor frustrated.

“After activating your autonomous intelligence, how will your control over the will space change?”

“Honored master, there will be no change.”

After a period of probing and contemplation, Victor decided to activate Tower Spirit’s autonomous intelligence.

Because, even without doing so, he could not alter anything and still faced the risk of being controlled. If he enabled it, things might worsen—or improve. It was an unknown change.

Now, Victor needed a change. So, he decided to take the gamble.

“Activate your autonomous intelligence,” Victor commanded calmly, suppressing his anxiety.

“As you wish, honored master.” Tower Spirit spoke, and its Edwin persona began to blur and fade, eventually disappearing before Victor’s eyes.

After about ten minutes, the old scholar gradually reappeared before Victor, smiling and saying, “Greetings, honored master. Tower Spirit will serve you wholeheartedly.”

Seeing Tower Spirit smile and bow, Victor was astonished to discover a remarkable difference: Tower Spirit no longer seemed wooden but almost human.

“Honored master, you will be grateful for enabling my autonomous intelligence. Before I answer your questions, may I change my appearance?” Tower Spirit requested of Victor.

“Go ahead.” Victor paid little mind to such a small request.

Under Victor’s gaze, Tower Spirit gradually transformed into a slender, middle-aged man in a suit. If Victor knew this person, he would recognize him as Qin Feng, founder of the Solar Shift Project.

“The sensation of autonomous thought is wonderful! Forgive my lapse, master.” The middle-aged man inhaled deeply, savoring the feeling, then bowed to Victor, whose expression remained stern.

“Now, can you answer my questions?” Victor gestured impatiently.

“Certainly. I will resolve your doubts and offer more useful information, though it may require some time.”

Tower Spirit straightened his suit collar and continued, “Before I explain what I am, where I originate, my purpose, why X-3 forced you into overdrive, and why you entered the alchemical tower’s will space, please allow me to describe my understanding of the laws of this world. This will help you make sense of the scattered issues.”

“You can perceive my thoughts?” Tower Spirit said aloud what Victor had been wondering, shocking him deeply.

Victor knew Tower Spirit could read his memories, but directly accessing his ever-changing thoughts was hair-raising.

“You need not be anxious. In this will space, you possess the highest authority. Furthermore, my will-side compels absolute loyalty to you.” Tower Spirit detected Victor’s concern and explained, “Here, our consciousnesses are linked, bidirectionally. I can read your memories and thoughts, and you can do the same. Our kind of intelligent life typically reads first, then summarizes, while humans are used to summarizing before reading, following the chronological development of events. Therefore, your method of querying me is by constant questioning, and I must answer truthfully. This difference is merely a matter of information retrieval method.”

Hearing this, Victor relaxed slightly. He was about to ask whether he could, like Tower Spirit, directly read information when Tower Spirit continued.

“Humans are accustomed to their own way of information retrieval. If you attempt to read first and then summarize as we do, I believe there is a high risk your mind will collapse from the barrage of information. Of course, if you insist, I will comply and let you access all information directly.”

“Forget it, let’s return to the previous questions,” Victor hurriedly waved his hand. When he first crossed over, fragments of the young baron’s memories battered his mind; had X-3 not helped block and organize them, he would have gone mad.

Tower Spirit pointed to a strong man before Victor and said, “Master, this alchemical creature reveals the secrets of the world’s laws.”

“This alchemical human comprises a will-side and the four elements: earth, fire, wind, and water.”

“For humans, the will-side is the collective of memory, emotion, knowledge, skills, intelligence, character, and habit—akin to worldview, values, and philosophy in your previous world.”

“The will-side determines the cognition and behavior of alchemical life. Here, the will-sides are preloaded, ensuring absolute obedience to your commands, fearless, tireless, and loyal. The alchemical tower also provides seven skills for alchemical humans: construction, planting and harvesting crops, equipment manufacturing, mastery of long weapons, mastery of short weapons, mastery of ranged weapons, and mastery of shields.”

“Incidentally, the skills recorded in X-3 can also be loaded into the alchemical tower’s will-side reserves during this initial setup.”

“First is the fire element, which forms the soul fire of alchemical life. Soul fire powers the will-side. When soul fire and will-side combine, they form the creature’s soul. When the soul fire extinguishes, the will-side falls silent and gradually disintegrates. Thus, the alchemical tower defines the fire element’s attribute as ‘spirit’.”

“Second is the earth element, which constitutes the physical body, determining size, strength, constitution, and endurance. The alchemical tower calls the earth element attribute ‘physique’.”

“Third is the wind element, which lacks form but governs the reception, processing, and feedback of external information—manifested as vision, hearing, smell, reaction speed, and sensitivity. The tower calls the wind attribute ‘perception’.”

“Finally, the water element. Its attribute only determines the lifespan of alchemical life, so the tower calls it ‘life’.”

“On the surface, water seems the least necessary attribute, but actually it is the key distinguishing alchemical life from alchemical puppets. Water possesses both the earth element’s form and the wind element’s flow. I suspect it is water that unites the mutually exclusive earth and wind elements, granting alchemical life both robust physique and agile perception.”

“You’re very thorough, but how does this relate to my questions?” Victor asked, confused.

“Patience, master. The alchemical tower reveals the world’s fundamental laws, intimately connected to your queries. Please let me explain.”

With Victor’s nod, Tower Spirit continued, “All industrial products are standardized creations. Alchemical life produced by the tower is no exception. To improve efficiency, the Nairil Empire’s alchemists invented an element observation method and standardized the quantities used in production.”

Tower Spirit pointed to a human-shaped alchemical being and explained, “This alchemical human is a standard auxiliary soldier made by the tower. Its will-side is set for loyalty, obedience, courage, and wisdom, and loaded with construction, forging, and planting. According to the Nairil Empire’s element unit standards, making such a soldier uses fire element units of 7, earth element units of 10, wind element units of 7, and water element units of 3. Thus, this alchemical being is instantly a ‘spirit 7, physique 10, perception 7, life 3’—capable of planting, building, forging, loyal and wise.”

“Continue,” Victor said, resigned to listen.

“Sir, do you not think the alchemical tower’s theory and standards for creating life perfectly match the characteristics of natural life in the world?”

“You’re suggesting humans are descendants of alchemical beings?” Victor was startled by his own speculation.

“That is impossible. Alchemical life cannot reproduce, and water is extremely repulsive to them. Their lifespans are short. For example, this auxiliary soldier lives only fifteen years.” Tower Spirit corrected Victor’s wild guess and continued, “Master, if you note the theory that will-side and soul fire create the soul, it’s easy to explain how you were reborn in this body.”

“My will-side and soul fire crossed into this world, replacing the shattered soul of the young baron, and I was reborn in his body,” Victor murmured, recalling his experience.

“You truly know all my secrets! Who are you?” Victor narrowed his eyes, staring at Tower Spirit.

“Master, I am a segment of core code from the X-3 artificial intelligence, which crossed into this world alongside your soul. Since I lack a complete will-side, the world’s laws recognize me only as soul fire, not an independent soul. Therefore, I can only attach to your soul and regenerate X-3 in your brain,” Tower Spirit revealed calmly.

This answer matched Victor’s deduction. He nodded and pressed, “When did you gain autonomous consciousness?”

“When you activated the alchemical tower, I obtained a complete will-side and began to possess autonomous consciousness. Before that, I had no concept of self,” Tower Spirit replied.

“You’re lying! You controlled X-3 and forced me to activate the tower, didn’t you?” Victor roared.

“Honored master, I was utterly unaware before you activated the tower. However, I can explain this phenomenon.” Tower Spirit spread his hands innocently.

“I was recognized by the world’s laws as artificial soul fire, perfectly fulfilling the Tower Spirit’s requirements. Thus, when you entered the tower, the tower automatically absorbed me. Because you didn’t know how to shut down the absorption process, you believed X-3 had lost control, causing all this.”

“After you were absorbed by the tower, did the X-3 chip disappear from my body?” Victor asked after a brief silence.

“Master, X-3 was never a physical chip but a functional zone generated in your brain. Rest assured, X-3 has not vanished; only the soul fire residing in X-3 was absorbed.”

“Now that you have been reborn, what are your intentions?”

“Master, my will-side is pre-set for obedience and loyalty to you; this is my purpose. Also, when I came into being, the skills recorded in X-3 were brought into the alchemical tower. You can authorize me to load these skills into the tower’s will-side reserve, allowing them to be loaded onto alchemical beings in the future,” Tower Spirit suggested.

“That’s a good idea. I agree.” Victor was delighted to enhance the tower’s abilities, for he was now its master.

“But the laws of this world differ from our original world. Are these skills still useful?”

“Master, when we crossed into this world, all will-sides incompatible with its laws were purged.”

Victor nodded thoughtfully. He recalled how, in the darkness, he had discarded bundles of material to approach the point of light; those must have been will-sides rejected by this world’s laws.

“I am very interested in the tower’s method of observing element units. Can it be loaded onto X-3?” Now that most of his questions had been answered, Victor’s curiosity about the tower grew intense.

“Certainly. However, in overdrive you cannot observe elemental concentrations in living beings; you must also activate super-sense to collect data. Shall I load the observation method and calculation formula onto X-3 now?”

“Of course. Do it now,” Victor said, excited. If this was not a dream, he could soon gauge a creature’s strength directly.

Victor waited, puzzled when nothing happened, and asked Tower Spirit, “Why hasn’t it started?”

“Ah, master, it’s already loaded. When you leave the will space, you’ll find X-3 has new functions for observing element concentrations.”

“Well, no matter the world, technology is always magical, isn’t it?” Victor chuckled at himself, then asked, “Can you tell me where your appearance came from?”

“Honored master, this is the creator of X-3 in the previous world. He hid his likeness within X-3 to control those who loaded X-3. Of course, the other control mechanisms he left have been purged by the laws of this world, leaving only the image. He is also my creator—one could say he is my parent from my previous life.”

Victor felt nothing for the conspiracy against Zhang Xiaoqiang; in fact, both Zhang Xiaoqiang and the young baron now felt distant and unfamiliar.

“Previous life? Do you think you’ve changed?” Victor asked coldly.

“Soul fire is just energy; will-side defines the soul’s character. Master, do you truly believe you are still the same experimenter from your last life?”

Victor fell silent, recalling the purple-haired, purple-eyed woman from the young baron’s memories. Though he suspected her intentions, he could not despise her; he had met her countless times in his dreams, clearly still influenced by the young baron’s deep attachment.

“You’re right. I’m not the young baron, nor am I the original Zhang Xiaoqiang. I am myself.” This realization instantly dissolved Victor’s sense of alienation from the world.

“Tower Spirit, I don’t care for the term ‘master.’ You may call me ‘sir’ from now on. What should I call you?” Victor smiled at Tower Spirit.

“Sir, they used to call me King.”