Chapter 90 The Meaning of Existence
Inside the puppet factory, shrill alarm sounds continued to ring out.
Everyone fled in panic. The puppet factory, which was once as secure as the central building, was now under attack.
The enemies outside have broken through the outermost line of defense and are advancing deeper at an extremely strong speed.
Han Shangyan was communicating with the person in charge of the puppet factory through the screen at this moment. His usually proud and conceited face showed a rare look of embarrassment:
"Are those puppets crazy? How dare they attack the puppet factory? Who gave them the guts?!"
The person in charge wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Our people are almost unable to resist. Bionic Man No. 1 has launched an attack. The number of people is far greater than we imagined."
"And I saw Arnold among the enemies. He's also defected. We can't stop him at all!"
Han Shangyan was completely overwhelmed by this series of news.
Almost all his plans were disrupted. The train carrying the residents was not damaged. A new mysterious force emerged and organized the actions of the believers.
Meanwhile, the Bionic Man No. 1 in the city is also gaining momentum. Uriel, who was imprisoned in the central building, was rescued by his group of puppets.
Now even Arnold, the last trump card in his hand, has betrayed him!
Who is targeting him? !
The person in charge was about to say something when suddenly the screen started to snow and Han Shangyan's face disappeared.
The signal within the factory was also affected.
Rong Le walked into the puppet factory under the protection of the puppets.
This was his first time here. Baiyue had described this place to him, saying that it was like a huge mechanical furnace, and the puppets were like products on an assembly line, being continuously produced by machines.
They will first gain consciousness, and then clearly see the process of limbs gradually growing from their bones in the furnace.
From the moment of birth, each doll clearly realizes that it is an object produced by humans.
Rong Le walked into the factory workshop outside. This was where the puppet limbs were produced. There was no trace of humans at this time. Only the machines that had not been shut down and the neatly arranged bionic puppets were left.
Most of the puppets are just skeletons at this point, but some have already started to have bodies.
Rong Le saw a female doll trapped in a steel cage. Its entire body was made of bones, with only its head covered in skin. Its almost inhuman beauty looked extremely terrifying against such a body.
She stared at him blankly, as if he were just an empty shell.
Arnold said: "These puppets don't have the ability to think yet. We will gradually awaken them and after their bodies are assembled, they will be tested to see if they are qualified. The qualified ones will be sent out, and the failed ones will be thrown into the furnace to recover energy."
"Of course, the better puppets are worth training and researching, and those will be placed in there," he added.
Rong Le walked inside, but the tightly locked door was vulnerable to Arnold's firepower.
Just as he said, there were numerous culture medium tanks stored inside, and the nutrient tanks were filled with light green nutrient solution and were full of experimental subjects.
These things are not within the scope of Baiyue's visits. Perhaps apart from Femon and Greg, Rong Le is the first person to enter here.
Rong Le saw that the signs below these nutrient tanks had the project names on them, and that all of this belonged to one project.
New and improved Type I bionic doll.
These dolls are sleeping in nutrient tanks and have not been awakened yet, but they are already able to think. This is a breakthrough in new technology. Rong Le can even see the production time and number of days to survive after their project numbers.
Arnold was always by his side. Other enemies were suppressed by other puppets. His duty was to protect Rong Le's safety.
Rong Le touched one of the nutrient tanks, covering the doll's pale cheek: "I heard that the doll factory is conducting research on a new project, it seems to be this."
"With so many experimental subjects, how many of them can survive in the end?"
"If they leave the nutrient tank, they can only survive for a few days."
Arnold stated sensibly: "Aside from the technical difficulties, creating an I-type puppet also requires a process of trial and error."
Rong Le didn't say anything.
He passed through countless nutrient tanks and found a door deep in the room. He knocked on it and asked, "Can you open this?"
The protection level of this door was not higher than that of the big door outside, and Arnold successfully destroyed it.
After seeing clearly what was behind the door, even Rong Le, who was mentally prepared, couldn't help but widen her eyes slightly.
"This is……"
The same light green nutrient tank.
The difference is that it is filled with countless Han Shangyan's bodies waiting to be awakened.
…
Rong Le finally arrived at the place where Gregor said the Book of the Dead was kept.
It was indeed as Greg said, as the core part of the Puppet Factory, the Book of the Dead was moved from the central building to the deepest part of the Puppet Factory after it was destroyed.
After breaking through the outer perimeter, he had a smooth journey and saw almost no one. Only here, in the middle of the empty room, there was a protective shield, and inside it was one-third of the books.
"Interesting, very interesting, there are actually people who come here."
As soon as I entered the door, the sound of an old man laughing strangely was heard.
Arnold was highly alert and immediately protected Rong Le behind him, but the person who appeared here was not an enemy, but a skinny old man.
Although the old man was thin, he was in good spirits. His eyes were particularly fierce under his thick, fluffy white hair and beard.
His eyes passed over the old man's arms and legs, all of which were mechanical limbs.
Without the bionic skin covering it, the internal structure is basically the same as a machine. If this old man appeared in the outside world, it would definitely cause an uproar.
Because there has never been a precedent of anyone transplanting mechanical limbs in the Mechanical City.
It was as if the body was roughly combined with the cold machine, giving off a grotesque and terrifying feeling.
As soon as Rong Le arrived in this city, she discovered that people were extremely resistant to installing mechanical limbs, which was a very strange phenomenon for a mechanical city where bionic puppet technology was extremely advanced.
Installing mechanical limbs on the body is generally considered by society to be a morbid aesthetic, which makes them feel that they are deviating from their human identity and becoming a semi-bionic puppet.
In terms of self-cognition and social positioning, the identity boundary between humans and bionic dolls seems to have gradually blurred due to this behavior, or perhaps everyone has subconsciously realized how mysterious the source of the bionic doll's power is.
Such an abnormally developed technology tree has created the current developed yet absurd social structure of the Mechanical City.
For people who have lost their limbs, detachable prosthetic limbs are the best choice to assist in daily life.
Rong Le thought thoughtfully: "Are you the caretaker here? You shouldn't come out."
"No, why didn't you run away?"
He asked calmly, his hands in his pockets.
"Run away? Why would I run away?"
The old man said nervously, "I want to stay here. This is the most meaningful place. Children, look at my body. Isn't it beautiful?"
"From a scientific point of view, it is indeed beautiful."
Rong Le said objectively.
The old man danced with joy. "I knew it! I knew someone would understand me. You want the Necronomicon too. What do you want to do with it? Master chip energy? Or something even greater?!"
Rong Le was not affected by him and said calmly: "I don't want to master energy technology, nor do I plan to do anything great with it."
"It's just a book, so it should do its job, like putting it on a shelf and reading it in your spare time."
The old man froze, a little bit unconvinced by what he said: "What did you say? You don't plan to use it for anything?"
Rong Le: "I don't plan to."
"This is simply, simply a waste!"
His beard trembled. "I thought those who came here would have higher ideals. Shouldn't you have more ambitious goals, such as creating mechanical limbs suitable for humans and personally creating a greater evolution for mankind?!"
Rong Le: "That's a good idea, but it has nothing to do with the Necronomicon."
"The Book of the Dead is a note written by God, and this power should not be widely disseminated among ordinary people. If they are exposed to it for a long time, they will become neither human nor ghost."
He was obviously talking about the old man himself.
The old man laughed in a dry voice: "The human body is so fragile. Do you know how wasteful I feel when I look at those dolls?"
"We could have used this power for ourselves, but instead we created a new species. The beauty of the machine is simply unparalleled, and its power has always been underestimated and even despised."
"Do you know how old I am? I've been living here ever since I voluntarily underwent secret transformation. I've lived for over a hundred and twenty years, and I'm still able to move freely. Why can't they abandon their fragile bodies and embrace machines?"
If this is really the development, this module will probably be a different story.
Rong Le complained silently.
The guard turned out to be an old man who was a fanatical worshiper of machinery. He turned his head and found that Arnold was also staring at the old man.
"I know him." He said in a daze, "Before I left the factory, he was a researcher here."
"I remember that the Doll Factory seemed to have set up a project at that time, and he was one of them. Later I heard that they failed and everyone disappeared."
He said with some difficulty, "But, at that time, he was also against the installation of mechanical limbs on the human body, right?"
“…”
The magic of the Necronomicon always reminded him of its danger.
"Doctor, are we, born from the Necronomicon, monsters?"
Arnold looked at the old man with some despair. He looked completely different from what he remembered. If it weren't for the detailed facial comparison through the eye camera, he would not be able to connect the two people together.
He used to be clean, slightly plump, and spoke calmly and rationally.
For the first time, Arnold realized why the Necronomicon was so sought after.
The unimaginable magic power it possesses can not only create everything, but also destroy everything.
So what is the difference between them, who were born from the Book of the Dead, and monsters?
"There's no doubt about this one thing, Arnold. You're far more human than the man before you."
Rong Le said calmly, "In this crazy world, what difference does it make whether you are human or not?"
People look like monsters, and monsters look like people.
…This is the Mechanical City.
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