Chapter 495: Phantom’s Past Life
“Pod’s now the king of all robots!” Warstar announced solemnly.
Pod appeared to be somewhat sheepish. He was still unaccustomed to his new role, so he still saw himself as Xia Fei’s service robot who did his daily ch.o.r.es. Whether he was a king or not did not matter. When the Sentinel G.o.ddess told Pod that accepting this role would be extremely beneficial to Xia Fei, he ultimately agreed to it despite feeling somewhat troubled.
“Of course, this command structure is only against the later non-mech robots, Dimsky and I, as well as the G.o.ddess, won’t fall under this command structure,” Warstar explained.
Xia Fei nodded to show his understanding toward this. To be able to let Pod be the first among all common robots was already the Sentinel G.o.ddess showing great faith toward him. The mechs once had their own civilization, so they ought to be seen as equals with humans.
“Aside from us, other robots were produced with the help of humans, and so they should be co-led by both humans and mechs. The Great G.o.ddess has already held prime authority for many years, and returning this authority back to humanity is appropriate, and even more so, it is a testament of her faith and reciprocation toward you,” Warstar said plainly.
Pod had been given prime authority, which meant Xia Fei had the supreme dominion over the robot legion. After all, Pod recognized Xia Fei as his master and was extremely close to humans, meaning that he would of course listen to Xia Fei’s orders.
In a sense, this was a sort of check and balance; Xia Fei only had such a result because he trusted robots, so as long as he continued to trust in Pod, he would have the power to command the robot legion. If there was ever a day when Xia Fei no longer trusted Pod, then this power would naturally be lost as well.
The reason why the Sentinel G.o.ddess had not handed prime authority to Xia Fei but to Pod most likely stemmed from this, in hopes that Xia Fei would maintain his trust toward robots like before.
Xia Fei looked behind Warstar and curiously wondered aloud, “Where’s Phantom? Why don’t I see him?”
Warstar frowned. “The Great G.o.ddess wishes to speak personally to you regarding what happened to him.”
He handed Xia Fei a communicator, directing him to find somewhere he would be alone to meet the Sentinel G.o.ddess face to face. Xia Fei took the device and made his way to his personal training room.
*s.h.i.+ng!*
Turning on the communicator, the holographic projection of the Sentinel G.o.ddess appeared before Xia Fei.
“Great G.o.ddess,” Xia Fei smiled.
“Just call me Sophie. That’s my name among the mechs, and now that we are cooperating, there’s no need for you to call me G.o.ddess. Besides, you’ll be leaving for the Law Realm. If you encounter my father, he will have no idea of anyone going by the name of Sentinel G.o.ddess.”
“Alright, I’ll call you Sophie from here onward.”
“I need to explain some things to you regarding Phantom’s situation; his existence is presently the greatest mystery in the universe. I tried understanding how I’m able to discern of his existence, and after an extensive and careful search, I discovered that my father had given me a system which specifically works on spirits during my installation process. When I first met Phantom, this system suddenly activated, allowing me to hear every word he said, seeing him clearly in his current form.”
“The reason why you and Phantom can communicate is that your lives are intertwined; every human body has a spirit inhibiting within, but your body is tethering two spirits, and that’s something that defies comprehension.”
Xia Fei shrugged. “Until now, I have yet to understand just what exactly is a spirit, either.”
Sophie said, “According to the information my father left behind, spirit is but a term that humans coined. Across the vast universe, the existence of a spirit is also known as an Immortal Soul. It’s a type of energy produced upon reaching the apex of mental energy, able to gather in some special energy carriers, like that Moore Stone Phantom resides in.
“What I find curious is that Phantom used to be a simple concealment-type ability user when he was alive and was hardly able to reach the stage of achieving an Immortal Soul, so how did he succeed in becoming one? This is a point that I have yet to make sense of, which is why I wish to keep him with me until I’ve uncovered the answer.”
Xia Fei lit a cigarette. Sophie’s explanation had been very reasonable and easy to understand, but Xia Fei could sense something odd in her words.
“Could it be because Phantom killed a very important person when he was alive? But whenever I ask him for details on what he did, he refuses to speak a word of it.”
Sophie answered, “Plenty of variables could have allowed Phantom to exist in his current immortal spirit form. I’m presently working hard on eliminating the irrelevant ones to find the key reason on how he was able to come back to life after dying.”
Xia Fei chuckled. “Sophie, with all due respect, your interest toward Phantom seems a little strange. Take me, for example. I’ve already known Phantom for a very long time, and I don’t understand how he got to take up the form he now exists in, yet I’ve long tacitly accepted him, doing my best to entangle myself with the reasons. You’ve merely seen a glance of Phantom, yet you’re already doing everything you can to delve into this matter. Aren’t you perhaps a little too obsessed with this?”
Sophie was slightly stunned before she said in a soft voice, “It’s because I see the shades of my father in him.”
“Your father? Does Radix have an immortal soul, too?”
Sophie nodded. “It’s very similar, though father’s carrier is a mechanical, while Phantom’s carrier is a piece of Moore Stone.”
Xia Fei nodded meaningfully. This Radix was becoming more and more mysterious; as the founder of the mech civilization, he was an immortal soul who inhabited a mechanical sh.e.l.l. It was no wonder the Sentinel G.o.ddess was so fascinated by Phantom, for it turned out that it was related to her own father.
“I’d like to ask you not to share this with anyone else.”
Xia Fei nodded. “Don’t worry. Even if I tell the others that I have an immortal spirit beside me, others will most likely think that I’ve gone insane.”
Sophie nodded. “In any case, I’ll need Phantom to stay with me for awhile. I’ll send him back to you before you set off. Father is a very important figure to me and the mechs, which is why I’d like to learn as much information about this as possible.”
Xia Fei laughed. “Phantom is very sentimental and a real nagger. I’m more than happy to leave him with you.”
Of course, Xia Fei was not being honest with that statement. Xia Fei had long been accustomed to discussing matters with Phantom whenever he encountered things in his life, and though he would still act according to how he wanted after they were done discussing them, he still felt uneasy not having him around during this time.
“As grat.i.tude, Phantom will be able to learn the medicinal ingredients and pharmacological knowledge I have in my system. These are data that my father left for me. Naturally, I have no use for them as I’m a robot, and I have no idea whether such knowledge is useful or otherwise, but Phantom seems to be very taken by the data I have and appears to be fairly interested in them.”
Radix was actually a machine who had a soul inhibiting within, which most likely meant that his cultivation back then was substantial, or else he would not have single-handedly founded the race of mechanoids. Phantom was just an expert in refining medicine, and data that could captivate him so must surely be very profound.
‘Gains and loses come hand in hand.’ Though Xia Fei would have to leave Phantom for a short while and he felt slightly empty inside, he was filled with expectations toward how much he would have learned in pharmacology during this time when he returned to his side two years later.
There was also the mysterious Radix, a mysterious Law Warrior, the mysterious Peac.o.c.k Blue. Xia Fei was really looking forward to everything in the Law Realm, an unknown piece of s.p.a.ce. There was just no telling where the answers to all his questions were hidden.
Xia Fei paused for a moment before asking, “What about the construction of the t.i.tan?”
Sophie flicked over some images, and Xia Fei saw a huge metal s.h.i.+pyard being built at the gulf of s.p.a.ce. It was just the bare bones, yet its length was unimaginably long!
Millions and millions of robots were working tirelessly, regardless of day and night. The return of the Sentinel G.o.ddess had been received with great fanfare by every robot, and they had devoted themselves even more pa.s.sionately to their work, in order to achieve the great dream of building a t.i.tan superwars.h.i.+p.
“In another year and seven months, the first s.h.i.+pyard will be complete. The size of the t.i.tan is simply far too gargantuan, like several planets being added together. A lot of work has to be done, and just the smelting of metals required will take a lot of time.”
Xia Fei nodded. It was all thanks to the aid of the robot force. Nicole had already said that it was impossible for them to build this wars.h.i.+p with just humanity’s strength alone. It should be said that Xia Fei had only shown her the blueprints of the s.h.i.+pyard, so there was no need to even mention the more technically demanding components like the engine or firepower.
“Dimsky is currently doing further research on the other components of the t.i.tan superwars.h.i.+p, considering what sort of technology he will use to produce them. There are 1983 pages of blueprints to go through, and that’s enough to keep him busy for quite some time.”
Xia Fei was shocked. He knew that the stack of blueprints was a lot, but he never did sit down and count them out before. He simply could not believe that there were close to 2000 pages of blueprints there!
“According to my estimates, it will take about four years, starting from now to when the first t.i.tan superwars.h.i.+p can be operational and fly. Of course, according to the speed of our research and development and construction times, there may be changes to this number in the next year. With the experience of building the first t.i.tan, the second and third will become much faster.”
Four years sounded like a very long time, but what they were tasked to build was the largest wars.h.i.+p to grace the universe historically! Nothing was larger!
A t.i.tan-cla.s.s wars.h.i.+p’s volume was as wide as several planets put together! Forget about the level of technology required, the fact that it would take four years for the first to be completed was already many times faster than what Xia Fei had expected.
Xia Fei even fantasized the scene when he would have his own t.i.tan fleet. How majestic it would look as they formed up against the stars! Their firepower would practically make a black hole pale in comparison!
“Then I’ll have to trouble you. Only when you’re strong and powerful can you not be bullied by others, this is a principle that remains unchanged,” Xia Fei said.
“There’s also one more thing,” Sophie said. “I plan to remove the twin towers that Xana built in the Blood Candle Empire. Any thoughts on that?”
Xia Fei gave it some thought. “Removing it is good. The use of nan.o.bots to open the seventh brain region is hardly a long-term solution, and the damage is too great.”
Since the Sentinel G.o.ddess Sophie listened to Xia Fei now, she of course decisively removed the Accursed Towers. It would not be good to Blood Candle in the short-term, but it would be largely beneficial in the long-term. Besides, now that the Empire had a huge buyer like Xia Fei for their metal alloy, the people would no longer have to worry about starvation.
…
After turning off the device, Xia Fei sent Warstar away, while Pod and Xia Fei returned to Terminus Star Region. He did not wish to waste too much time there, for Avril was about to return home, and Xia Fei’s residence by the Southern Four Lakes returned to the lively abode that it once was.