Chapter 111: Soul Simulation (Three Updates)

[Your design blueprint "Interference Field Generator" has passed the system evaluation and has been included in the blueprint library.]
[According to the blueprint rating, you have gained 2,999 expertise points.]
———
“The first design plan is finally complete!” Jiang Chen couldn’t help but sigh in relief.

The “Mechanical Legion” was his most relied-upon core force and his trump card for the future.

When designing each unit that formed the Mechanical Legion, Jiang Chen naturally held extremely high standards.

According to his vision, each mechanical unit in the legion was responsible for only one specific task, striving for peak performance in that single aspect rather than seeking all-around capabilities.

The overall versatility would be achieved through the cooperation of various mechanical units, ensuring sufficient adaptability against any environment or opponent type.

On this foundation, the detailed requirements for each mechanical unit focused on achieving a higher cost-effectiveness.

That is, to maximize performance in its designated role while minimizing costs as much as possible.

Since victory depended on numbers, cost was a crucial consideration.

If doubling the cost only raised performance by ten percent, it was better to spend that money producing more mechanical units.

Of course, in the universe, quantitative changes leading to qualitative transformation had their limits.

This also meant that, based on the power level of the “hypothetical enemy,” the Mechanical Legion had a performance “lower bound” it could not drop below.

No matter how much cost was saved, performance metrics could not fall beneath this threshold.

Otherwise, no matter how many units there were, if they couldn’t even break the enemy’s defenses, what use would they be?

Jiang Chen’s current plan set this lower bound so that a single mechanical unit could decisively impact battles at the Domain Lord level.

Accumulating enough units would then produce a qualitative leap through sheer numbers, threatening the existence of Realm Lords.

A Mechanical Legion of this caliber would be sufficient for a long time to come.

When Jiang Chen’s own power improved and he faced more formidable enemies, he could upgrade the legion accordingly.

This Interference Field Generator was, in Jiang Chen’s design, one of the legion’s crucial “functional units.”

He had used it before during the preliminary selection round of the 99th World Zone. It could disrupt most forms of energy flow, including the extraordinary powers within enemies’ bodies—namely, primal force and psychic energy.

However, the version used then only affected enemies at the stellar level at best, and the effect was far from perfect.

This was partly due to material constraints but also because the design itself was not yet fully refined.

After more than half a year of effort, Jiang Chen finally perfected the design and gained system approval.

According to tests in the virtual universe, a single Interference Field Generator could noticeably disrupt an ordinary Domain Lord’s primal force and psychic energy, making their use difficult.

Multiple units stacking their interference effects would increase the disruption further.

At maximum, they could significantly affect Realm Lords who had just stepped into the threshold of cosmic laws.

But that was the upper limit. Realm Lords who had deeply comprehended these laws and earned the “Mark of the Law” were completely immune to the Interference Field Generator’s influence, no matter how many were deployed.

Reaching this limit, based on virtual universe test data, required 120,000 units of the Interference Field Generator.

Marginal utility still applied even in this extraordinary world.

For products of identical function and performance, simply stacking quantities to enhance effectiveness yielded diminishing returns until a plateau was reached.

Each Interference Field Generator cost over eighty billion cosmic credits.

Building 120,000 of them would total nearly ten thousand mixed-element units in cost.

Spending such a vast sum just to interfere with a Realm Lord’s primal and psychic energy was actually quite cost-inefficient.

But the greatest value of this device lay in its area-of-effect attack.

Whether the enemy was a single individual or a group, as long as their individual strength did not exceed a certain limit, they would all be affected.

This was the true strength of the “Legion Style” approach.

———
“The cost is still a bit high. Even with the Zerg Hive, I can’t immediately max out production. Building a few thousand to tens of thousands initially—enough to prevent ordinary Domain Lords from externally releasing primal force or psychic energy—would be more than sufficient.”

Jiang Chen carefully calculated costs, estimating the precise configuration of his Mechanical Legion.

But after some thought, he suddenly smiled wryly and set the idea aside.

He hadn’t even secured the Zerg Hive yet, and the designs for other mechanical units were still in their infancy. Calculating exact configurations now was premature.

Instead, the expertise points gained from having this blueprint accepted by the system held greater importance for him at present.

“This blueprint is rated fourth tier, which should correspond to the Domain Lord level. The reward is 2,999 expertise points? Does that mean after reaching fourth tier, each level-up grants nearly three thousand expertise points?”

As his level increased, Jiang Chen gradually discerned some system patterns.

But he was only at third tier, second level—far from fourth tier—so thinking too far ahead was pointless.

Spending expertise points to exchange for powerful skills to boost strength and growth speed was the priority.

After browsing the skill interface for a while, Jiang Chen chose not to redeem those costly “high-level skills” costing over two or three thousand points.

Instead, he exchanged for three abilities costing from several hundred to just over a thousand points each.

[Psionic Sage]: When learning or researching the “Psionic” system’s knowledge and skills, gain a significant bonus. Each point of Intelligence, Spirit, and Mystery attributes increases total efficiency by 1.5%. Your “Mental” power is increased by 40%.
Cost: 999 expertise points.

[Memory Network]: Enhances memory and comprehension abilities to a certain extent. Allows “information-izing” of your memories.
Cost: 666 expertise points.

[Soul Virtualization]: Allows your soul to be “data-ized” and enter electronic realms.
Cost: 1,200 expertise points.

Among these three, two were designed to improve learning ability and speed up leveling.

The last skill, Soul Virtualization, was quite intriguing.

It enabled Jiang Chen’s soul to transform into a data stream, entering databases like the intelligent brain, light brain, or similar constructs.

He chose this skill to conduct an experiment.

Jiang Chen wanted to see if, combined with Memory Network, by information-izing his memories of the laws and then using Soul Virtualization, he could implant these “law memories” into the intelligent brain or light brain.

If this succeeded, it would mean all the laws Jiang Chen mastered could perfectly “diffuse” into every unit of his Mechanical Legion.

Moreover, during daily production and manufacturing, Jarvis—who already understood these laws—could independently handle enchanting, assembling, and related tasks.

After redeeming the skills, a strange sensation caused Jiang Chen to momentarily lose focus.

But soon, changes deep within his mind and soul completed.

As if gifted by innate talent, Jiang Chen instinctively mastered the methods to activate Memory Network and Soul Virtualization.

His memories in the mind were rapidly organized in a data-like manner, with those concerning arcane technology and laws copied into a data stream stored in a remote corner of his memory.

“Let me try Soul Virtualization…”

Though he was within his ring world, where no risk existed, Jiang Chen still instinctively activated his detector and scanned his surroundings before ordering Jarvis: “Jarvis, I’m going to try entering your database with my soul. No matter what happens, don’t panic or resist.”

“Yes, Master.” Jarvis’ voice sounded immediately.

He couldn’t understand how Jiang Chen planned to enter the light brain with a soul, but that didn’t prevent him from comprehending the command.

Don’t panic, don’t resist.

Adjusting his mood slightly, Jiang Chen first data-ized his psychic power and linked it to the light brain where Jarvis’ main body resided. Then, he activated Soul Virtualization.

In the next moment, Jiang Chen’s entire soul transformed into a massive data stream, entering the light brain through the psychic connection.

In his “vision,” a vast information flow appeared.

This was the immense amount of data stored in the light brain’s memory.

Jarvis’ “source code” was also contained within this enormous data flow.

To anyone less skilled in informatics, this chaotic mass of data was impossible to decipher or attribute to any particular origin or function.

But to Jiang Chen, these countless, complex data streams were crystal clear.

The largest data cluster was Jarvis’ “main body,” occupying half of the light brain’s storage space!

The remainder consisted of various materials Jarvis had downloaded from the virtual universe or obtained elsewhere.

———
Of course, many pieces of information were actually stored within Jarvis’ main body itself, which explained why its source code—the very foundation of Jarvis’ existence—was so vast.

If measured by Earth’s binary computer programming standards, Jarvis’ source code would number in the trillions of trillions of lines.

Even considering cosmic “photon computer” programming structures resembling biological neural networks, Jarvis’ codebase was colossal and intricate.

Fortunately, Jiang Chen’s informatics skill had reached level 45—among the universe’s top “programmers.”

Moreover, Jarvis was crafted by Jiang Chen himself. Recognizing the modular structure of Jarvis’ vast data flow was an easy task for him.

Data-izing allowed Jiang Chen to effortlessly establish a connection with Jarvis’ main database.

“Master?”

Jarvis seemed to detect Jiang Chen’s “intrusion” and proactively sent a message.

“It’s me. Don’t resist. I’m going to try copying some of my memories to you.” Jiang Chen sent his command as data.

This exchange of data and information was an intriguingly novel experience for Jiang Chen.

But he didn’t forget the main task.

Upon receiving Jarvis’ confirmation, Jiang Chen immediately attempted to data-ize part of his memory concerning the “Wind Elemental Law” and copy it into Jarvis’ database.

“Jarvis, did you receive the data I sent? Can you understand it?” Jiang Chen queried.

“Received and currently parsing…” Within less than a second, Jarvis replied, “Master, I have comprehended the data you transmitted. I have fully understood the [Wind Breath] assembly blueprint you gave me earlier and am confident in manufacturing it!”

“Excellent!”

Jiang Chen was overjoyed.

Although he had suspected this when redeeming the skills, only upon realizing his design worked—the combination of Soul Virtualization and Memory Network allowed him to successfully replicate his understanding of the laws to Jarvis—did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

These two skills were valuable, costing over eighteen hundred expertise points combined, requiring months or even a year to accumulate.

If the experiment had failed, those points would have been wasted.

But since it worked, it was fantastic news.

Jarvis being able to independently handle enchanting, assembly, and other tasks would free Jiang Chen entirely to focus on enhancing his own strength.

In the future, every mechanical unit in the legion mastering the laws Jiang Chen understood would dramatically amplify the legion’s power.

“Jarvis, I will continue transmitting law memories. Don’t resist.”

Jiang Chen ordered.

Since the first step succeeded, he intended to copy all the laws he had grasped to Jarvis.

As he mastered more laws, Jarvis’ database would naturally require constant updates.

The total data volume of law memories after conversion was enormous.

Though Jiang Chen’s psychic power and soul were strong enough, completing this task still took considerable time.

Several hours later, Jiang Chen’s soul withdrew from the light brain, ending the Soul Virtualization.

A slight dizziness followed as his soul returned to his body.

“My head feels dizzy. This skill seems to have some side effects…”

Feeling the dizziness and fatigue emanating from his soul, Jiang Chen realized that Soul Virtualization likely carried significant risks.

If this time his soul had entered a territory not loyal like Jarvis’ but controlled by enemy intelligence, it could have brought unexpected dangers.

“But I won’t use this skill unless it’s absolutely safe.”

Jiang Chen shook his head, dismissing the chaotic thoughts.

“Today deserves celebration. Time to rest a bit.”

With a thought, Jiang Chen exited the ring world, suddenly noticing a finely crafted wine bottle in his hand. “Let’s go find Luo Feng for a drink!”

(End of chapter)