Kerry cracked open the automaton’s exterior to discover that its innards weren’t fully chanical. The corpses were part machine, part flesh. This realization intrigued Kerry.
Even an expert chanic like her had no idea how to fuse flesh and machine into one body, but she was confident that she could puzzle it out. It would undoubtedly help her when it ca to making more automatons in the future.
“I need so ti to research this,” Kerry said.
Han Wu nodded, glancing around with boredom.
Strangely enough, automatons donning miner hats would stealthily approach them from ti to ti, as if triggered by the death of the hunters. Han Wu shot them down with his Adaptive Arsenal before they even got close. They dropped Energy Parts and chips when destroyed, the forr of which he tossed into Jun for safekeeping while he checked the data of the chips.
[Level 3 Chip: Anthropomorphization. Equip to an automaton to grant it the ability to act like a human. Also upgrades them with the capacity for minor learning abilities]
Han Wu's eyes lit up. The humanoid aspect had little appeal to him, but the capacity to learn like a human had thoroughly piqued his interest.
If a level 3 chip grants them minor learning ability, then what about the higher levels, like level 10? How would an automaton with a level 10 Anthropomorphization chip act?
Would they be as smart as humans or smarter?
Han Wu grew increasingly excited as he thought of the possibilities.
A new goal ford in his mind: farm more Anthropomorphization chips to rge them into a level 10 chip. Han Wu decided to start hunting the automatons instead of waiting for them to approach.
The corridors in the Weeping Mines were complex and difficult to navigate, but Han Wu managed to find three separate groups of automatons attacking miners within a hundred-ter radius.
One of the automatons could even fire a gun at the miners and hunters. They truly could learn!
“I’m heading out to collect so chips. Be right back,” Han Wu called out to Kerry before riding Jun in its python form.
The chanical python easily bored a hole through the ground. In just three minutes, Han Wu arrived and quickly destroyed the automatons in the area. Ignoring the grateful ramblings of the rescued miners, he headed straight for the next group on the chanical python.
Within half a day, he fard enough chips to rge into level 10.
[Level 10 Chip: Anthropomorphization. Equip to an automaton to grant it the ability to act like a human. Also upgrades them with the capacity for inhuman learning abilities]
Eager to test out these “inhuman learning abilities,” Han Wu decided to equip it to BD-04 Luxun. At the mont, the automaton was equipped with chips from Kerry, with the level 7 Laser Blast chip as its main attack, and complentary chips to amplify its damage. However, the overall levels of the chips weren’t particularly high, so Luxun’s power had remained fairly low.
It was useful against regular mobs, but not against powerful foes. Thus, Han Wu decided to swap its chip out. He replaced all of the chips with the level 10 Anthropomorphization and commanded its activation.
Luxun soon turned from a floating box into a humanoid automaton.
The automaton had androgynous features and didn’t have any reproductive organs. Even its body was unusually balanced. Han Wu tested it out further.
“Can you speak?” he prompted.
Luxun stared at Han Wu’s lips with wide eyes, attempting to mimic him. “Can... Can... You... Speak?”
“Not bad.” Han Wu nodded.
Luxun copied him. “Not... Not bad.”
Han Wu understood that Luxun was copying him. Its inhuman learning capabilities ant it could learn things at an accelerated pace, and Han Wu wasn’t about to waste that on useless things.
He needed to teach real combat skills. After mulling it over, he chose martial arts. Human martial arts were well-suited for humanoid beings and could be used both in defense and offense, especially after gaining mastery.
Even if one wasn’t proficient in using it for combat, it could still be used to strengthen one’s body. Of course, an automaton had no need to use martial arts to strengthen its body, but this didn’t stop Han Wu from teaching it.
At first, Luxun was incapable of grasping the essence of Han Wu’s martial arts. As a machine, it found it difficult to comprehend certain physiological aspects of movent.
Still, with its inhuman learning capabilities, it managed to morize Han Wu’s lesson before using its chanical body to repeat the process. As it went through the motions, it analyzed each move to optimize it. It even questioned Han Wu about things that it didn’t know. Han Wu noted that Luxun’s eyes were gradually gaining a spark of humanity.
Further down the tunnel, Kerry had dismantled most of the automatons and ca to understand that the chanism for turning flesh into a machine had one critical condition: the flesh had to first lose its vitality. In other words, any dead biological life forms in the Weeping Mines would eventually turn into an automaton.
Her gut told her that there had to be so sort of catalyst or material that caused this. However, she had found nothing even after picking apart every inch of the corpses, leaving her unusually frustrated.
Han Wu continued to teach Luxun how to fight.
“The essence of martial arts is in your breathing,” he explained. “Try breathing in and out.”
Luxun answered simply, “I don’t have a nose to breathe with.”
Han Wu realized his mistake. He had treated Luxun as a real human.
Their conversation sparked a thought in Kerry’s mind. What if the underlying condition of turning dead flesh into a machine was in breathing, or rather, in the air they breathed in?
She quickly constructed a device to analyze the air composition in the Weeping Mines, and it didn’t take long for her to have a report in hand. There were the regular components of air, but besides that, there were also tiny solid particles.
After extracting the particles to examine under a microscope, she found that they were actually tiny machines! The air of the Weeping Mines was filled with tiny machines!
This discovery left Kerry in shock.
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