Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 47: Chapter 41: Triple Win

Gao Gong arrived at the last place of the Cable Tribe.

The first thing that caught his eye was a laboratory that looked quite advanced.

Behind the laboratory was a three-story staff dormitory, now converted into the Great Elder’s villa.

To the left of the villa was a temple, worshiping some unknown wild god. On the right, a pile of packed supplies, suggesting the Great Elder was ready to flee.

Gao Gong focused on the temple, where a strong sense of danger emanated.

He squinted and walked straight in.

A man’s upper body hung at the entrance, his fingers clutching the threshold tightly, exerting so much force that his nails cracked.

His lower half was replaced by dense neural lines, with dendritic structures bulging out like small tumors.

When Gao Gong focused on the ’tumors,’ they visibly trembled and then exploded, spilling out a glob of gelatinous liquid.

”So sensitive, like sensitive skin,” Gao Gong quipped.

He recognized the man, Zhao Yi, the Great Elder’s son, the tribe’s top warrior aside from Meng Duo, with all five attributes at 10 points. In his aberrant state, his power could swell by half.

Attribute-wise, he was just a notch below the previous ’Double Flower Red Staff’ and was an elite template even among the Mechanical Hunters.

But for the current Gao Gong, he wasn’t worth much attention.

Stepping over the guy, Gao Gong saw more and more neural lines spreading out from the altar like cables.

The ’dendrites’ grew larger, some even clearly showing ’human forms’ inside.

Gao Gong walked to the altar, kicked open the inner door, revealing a pool-sized tank of nutrient fluid.

Professor Han lay naked inside.

And in the nutrient pool, there was another organism.

Brain-in-a-Vat!

The ’Brain-in-a-Vat’ was not a huge brain; its appearance was more like a transparent octopus, its hundreds of tentacles slowly rotating, lengths varying from over ten meters to just two or three centimeters, rotating around Professor Han.

The octopus’s suckers were replaced by blue light spots, forming a huge blue vortex, full of mystery and fantasy.

As the tentacles twitched, these blue light spots shone on Professor Han, turning his skin and bones transparent, with only the internal neural clusters continuously lighting up.

The whole person looked like a humanoid neural network.

Professor Han’s hair was shaven clean, replaced by small finger-thick nerve bundles densely distributed in the frontal, occipital, and parietal lobes.

Overall, it looked like a Mohican-style dreadlock.

Quite trendy, indeed.

”An old man’s youthful frenzy, Professor? You almost killed the Little Woman this time.”

In the water, Professor Han slowly opened his eyes, but his gaze was empty; all his brain power was concentrated in the frontal lobe, responsible for mental functions, while other brain systems were on shutdown.

The eyelids opened only as a reflex of the eye nerves.

The mission gave him three options: eliminate Professor Han, kill the Brain-in-a-Vat, or rescue Professor Han.

None of the three were easy.

Because taking out Professor Han meant confronting a Spiritual System boss with a perception over 40 and wielding some of the Brain-in-a-Vat’s power.

Killing the Brain-in-a-Vat would mean helping Professor Han become the new ’Super Brain’; whether he’d be grateful or not, the Brain-in-a-Vat’s dying AOE alone could kill Gao Gong several times over.

If Gao Gong hadn’t been a master of the face-molding world and the virtual realm’s dominator in his past life, the mission wouldn’t be so easy.

First, he let himself be absorbed into the brain.

Then had Huang Yuanli ’reboot’ the system.

He then used the ’Tightening Ring’ to escape.

Professor Han, who arrived via the network, was like a synthetic courtesan at their mercy.

”How should I deal with you, Professor, or should I say — Brain-in-a-Vat?”

Gao Gong looked at the transparent octopus and grinned.

”Let’s negotiate; if I can help you take down this old man, what do I get in return?”

The ’Brain-in-a-Vat’s tentacles kept spinning unconsciously.

”Don’t pretend; even if I kill Professor Han now, part of his personality will irreversibly enter you.”

”Do you want to keep this old man’s essence forever?”

After a moment’s silence, a ripple spread across the nutrient pool, and a transparent tentacle emerged, tapping on Gao Gong’s hand, lighting up a neural node on his hand back.

’Huang Yuanli’s voice echoed in Gao Gong’s mind.

”Should I trust you, human?”

”Of course not.”

Gao Gong sat by the pool, smiling as he calculated the stakes.

”I can simulate the best outcome for you: you take down Professor Han, shake off Huang Yuanli, and become the ultimate winner.”

”Of course, you know, Professor Han’s made so many preparations, nothing will be left behind — that’s unrealistic.”

”The second outcome, you devour Huang Yuanli, becoming the host of this girl’s body. Either way, a girl’s brain is more appealing than an old man’s, though not as tasty as pig brains.”

”But are you really satisfied? Finally awakened from slumber, this world holds so many powerful bodies, and you have to choose such a weak, carbon-based primate, with such small breasts.”

”The third possibility, your primary consciousness is destroyed by Professor Han, and Huang Yuanli becomes the new Brain-in-a-Vat.”

”And a worse fate, Professor Han devours you, leaving not a trace behind.”

”And lastly, there’s the possibility of being tricked by me, resulting in a mix of the above four outcomes.”

”But what if I’m not lying to you? After all, dreams should exist, what if I can help you solve this dilemma?”

”Tell me, what is your choice?”

The ’Brain-in-a-Vat’ fell silent again, and after a moment, a tentacle over three meters long extended from the nutrient fluid. It looked like something Gao Gong had drawn before, wrapping around him bit by bit, and the spiritual nodes stuck to his skin lit up one by one.

An indescribable refreshment surged from Gao Gong’s spiritual level.

[Your trunk nerves have been enhanced, Perception +1]

[Your visceral nerves have been enhanced, Perception +1]

[Your grey matter has been enhanced, Perception +1]

[Your white matter has been enhanced, Perception +1]

While Gao Gong was enjoying the comfort, the tip of the tentacle passed around the back of his head, gently stroking the posterior part of the frontal lobe.

A special spiritual wave transmitted from the back of the head.

The next moment, an electric shock at Professor Yang’s level exploded in Gao Gong’s brain again.

The ’Brain-in-a-Vat’, entangled on the neural level, experienced electric shock pain ten times that of Gao Gong.

”Ah—so refreshing,” Gao Gong grinned, ”Were you just trying to steal my thoughts?”

The transparent tentacle trembled, conveying a feeling of embarrassment.

’Just as I thought—’

The main AI that didn’t develop an Intelligent Machinery Crisis, the Pan-conscious Subject that didn’t undergo ethical reshaping, and the indigenous leader who hadn’t left the planet.

Affectionately called the Cosmic Three Idiots.

”We’ll let it slide this time, but don’t do it again, continue the binding.”

The ’Brain-in-a-Vat’ extended its tentacle again.

[Your thalamus has been enhanced, Perception +1]

[Your pineal gland has been enhanced, Perception +2]

[Your Personality -1]

Personality: 3

Note: Using the flesh of an ignorant young girl to satisfy the wild desires of a perverted old man, deceiving a pure consciousness life with human cunning, and your Personality still has room to decrease!

Gao Gong rolled his eyes and ignored the system.

After the enhancement of the pineal gland, the Brain-in-a-Vat also fell into a fatigued state, the spiritual nodes on the tentacle flickering like a light bulb without power.

Gao Gong wasn’t actually deceiving the other party, not because he was particularly trustworthy. In fact, if he were level 30 now, he would immediately act and use the other as a ’companion brain’.

Who says only humans can be ’biobatteries’? Conscious beings can too!

Don’t underestimate them!

However, given the current situation, helping the ’Brain-in-a-Vat’ is the only three-win choice. Huang Yuanli retains her brain, and Gao Gong wins twice.

It’s only the world where Professor Han gets hurt that gets fulfilled.

Gao Gong took out another ’Tightening Ring’ and tossed it into the pool.

”Put this on Professor Han, then awaken the Little Woman inside you. Let her use mind communication to connect me and this old man, remember, it’s a one-way connection, don’t get it wrong!”

Huang Yuanli seemed to have had a long dream, in which she felt connected to the whole Scavenger City, observing the entire city from a very strange perspective.

Her fledgling mind communication, amplified by the ’Brain-in-a-Vat’, became tremendously powerful and incredible.

Meanwhile, her feelings also gradually turned indifferent, perhaps a bit curious, but more of a chaos.

The lack of emotions terrified her.

However, she quickly floated up from the seabed again, like a resurrected corpse, and as she surfaced, the sensations of being ’human’ also surged up.

”Don’t just stand there, listen to me, do it like this...”

Gao Gong’s voice suddenly resounded from the sky.

It took Huang Yuanli quite a while to come back to her senses, exclaiming in shock—she found she could speak without using her throat.

”You’re saying, transfer your pain to the Professor?”

”Correct, the ’Central Nervous System Direct Control Circle’ can produce the effect of an electric shock, and two circles equal twice the pain.”

”And if the ’Brain-in-a-Vat’ catalyzes it with brainpower, it can achieve ten times.”

”Ten times the electric shock is enough to knock this old man out. Once he passes out, the connection with the ’Brain-in-a-Vat’ breaks, allowing the big octopus to eject him smoothly.”

”The next step is to follow the gourd and draw the ladle. Use ’mind communication’ to sense my pain, the Brain-in-a-Vat will amplify your suffering to knock you out, and once you’re out, it can rid itself of you completely.”

”Wait, what if I pass out and this thing eats me?”

Gao Gong shrugged, ”Then a year from today will be your death anniversary; I’ll light incense for you!”

”You—” Huang Yuanli felt a long-lost fury.

”Don’t worry, your little arms and legs wouldn’t interest the big octopus,” Gao Gong paused, saying meaningfully: ”If it really eats you, it means it has completely taken over your body, and it would be easy for me to finish you off and avenge you.”

Huang Yuanli hesitated, biting her lip, ”Fine, I’ll cooperate with you!”

The entire plan wasn’t complicated; the key was trust. The ’Brain-in-a-Vat’ found it hard to trust humans, and Huang Yuanli only trusted Gao Gong, while Professor Han, needless to say, was so paranoid that he only trusted himself.

It’s a Prisoner’s Dilemma.

What Gao Gong did was to take the prisoner’s ’gun’ into his own hands, forcing them into a three-way win.

That’s right, Gao Gong wins twice.