Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

”Supreme Emperor, the old emperor’s father?”

Gao Gong blinked and took two steps back, looking up and down at this nutrient pod, Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin, oh no, Nine Dragons Carving Pod, ’Dragon’, or rather, this planet’s snake-like mythical creatures, surrounded by various luxurious patterns. Beside the patterns were some ancient characters, resembling seal script.

It really is a superior coffin.

”The Supreme Emperor’s brain is here, so where is he?”

”When the Supreme Emperor became the third-generation Intelligent Brain Emperor, he no longer had a body.”

In an imperial system, the emperor undoubtedly holds the highest authority, with a rather wide power boundary.

But as everyone knows, the creature called ’emperor’ has both striking potential and limitations. They might, by lottery, become a formidable leader of an era, or turn out to be a bronze-level player who spectacularly causes the downfall of a nation.

The former, though outstanding, often ends up with an unfortunate late life.

So within a Level 1 Civilization, the ’emperor’ often transforms into a mascot, with their authority divided among political families, full-level civil servants, and super orators.

However, in a Level 2 Civilization, as interstellar migration becomes more common, planetary territories grow larger, and the population increases exponentially, the emergence of super political strongmen is a common phenomenon to maintain the cohesion of civilization.

However, these super political strongmen are mostly not ’human’, because humans have selfish motives and form cliques to benefit their descendants.

’Emperor’ should not possess such human traits.

The Mechanical Emperor is a prime example. The empire selects suitable heirs from among the Electors, then semi-mechanizes them, imprinting administrative goals onto their brain like a Thought Steel Seal, while removing a portion of their ’personal feelings’ to forge them into a super leader through advanced technology.

Working non-stop is nothing; I lead by example—let me show you a 24/7 work ethic.

And when the phase’s ’ruling mission’ ends, the ’emperor’ will abdicate, liberating their brain from the ’Emperor Engine’, and will switch to a new bionic body, retiring appropriately.

Such is the Supreme Emperor.

According to Professor Han, during the Supreme Emperor’s time, the Asteroid Belt, Extraterrestrial Bases, and Surrounding Island Countries either experienced large-scale rebellions or showed signs of separation. Thus, the Supreme Emperor’s martial virtues were exceptionally abundant; his ’Emperor Model’ was the Conquerer III type, the highest level of war prosthetic body.

But because of the aggressive campaigns and extensive exhaustion during his reign, after stepping down, he went straight into brain failure, remaining at this research institute ’recuperating’ until his departure.

”Interesting, does this mean the title of a Mechanical Emperor is actually a model type? The Supreme Emperor named Conquering Emperor, the old emperor named Giant Battleship Emperor, what about the Crown Prince?”

”The Crown Prince is called Black Prince.”

”Uh, why is he called Black Prince? That sounds quite ominous.”

”I’m just a researcher; you ask me, who do I ask,” Professor Han finally finished his work, pulling a plug from a data interface, the other end of which connected to an old model single-seat Network Access Chamber resembling Magneto’s helmet, functioning like a USB drive with LAN, but instead downloading to the human brain instead of a computer.

”An old thing, the electrode has a slight leakage, but still usable.”

Gao Gong put the ’helmet’ on his head.

The next moment, a sea of experimental data and information flowed into his mind.

Such an overwhelming amount of information made Gao Gong feel dizzy, nauseous, almost causing a downtime.

Damn, can’t this thing adjust the transmission speed?

Gao Gong immediately switched to ’Information Transmission’ mode, and a formless tentacle appeared at his temple, instantly reducing the dizzy, bloated feeling.

Upon seeing this, Professor Han’s lips curled up into a slight smile.

Gao Gong flipped a middle finger at him—this guy did it on purpose!

Information Transmission (Biological Transformation): The Brain-in-a-Vat grants you powerful information reading capabilities, allowing you to digest information at a hundred times the speed of a normal person.

With a digestion speed a hundredfold, Gao Gong finally began to process these confidential materials.

[You read the ’Brain Science Project’ secret materials, ’Invasive Neural Modification Technology’ increased to lv6]

[You read the ’Brain Science Project’ secret materials, ’Invasive Neural Modification Technology’ increased to lv7]

[You read the ’Brain Science Project’ secret materials, ’Invasive Neural Modification Technology’ increased to lv8]

...

[You read the ’Brain Science Project’ secret materials, ’Invasive Neural Modification Technology’ increased to lv10 max]

It took a whole hour for Gao Gong to finally digest this massive amount of information.

Knowledge obtained externally, rather than through experience, is akin to rote learning and can’t illuminate ’Professional Traits’.

But the advantage is that it’s unaffected by Professional Level.

”Let’s go, I’ll take you to see a few other labs, but other labs aren’t as secure as mine; some of their secret experimental projects even I don’t know about.”

As a Master of Bionics, if Professor Han had a system panel, all his bionics knowledge would be above lv5, and in his specialized fields, bionics knowledge could even reach lv8, lv9, or even max level.

But that’s not enough.

To illuminate an entire ’Professional Knowledge Chain’, all professional knowledge must be max level.

Before leaving, Gaia spread her hands, and immense Spiritual Power surged forth. The next moment, all the brains shriveled quickly.

These brains’ neural circuits could add bricks and tiles to its ’Virtual Realm’.

...

Soon, Gao Gong arrived at the second large laboratory with Professor Han, giving the impression of a giant beast opening its mouth.

Before entering, Gao Gong suddenly turned his head, only to see a head retract back from the corner.

It was a human face, but it seemed to have no eyes.

This large laboratory was divided into smaller labs, like high-tech versions of corridors. In one core data room, they only found professional knowledge from Level 1 to Level 5.

The rest of the data should be in different laboratories.

According to Professor Han, these different types of laboratories are conducting experiments in different directions of ’Exchange Bionics’.

These experiments will provide more experimental data for ’Life Bionics’.

Soon, Gao Gong understood what ’Life Bionics’ meant.

In one lab, Gao Gong saw countless ’living’ arms, hundreds of them, some crawling, some moving their fingers, some rotating their wrists.

They were not mechanical bodies because each arm was ’normal flesh’.

But they were not entirely prosthetic bodies either, because each arm gave him a feeling of being ’alive’.

Of course, normal arms cannot leave the body and cannot remain in normal condition for decades.

The entire laboratory floor had been transformed into a wireless charging pad; clearly, these arms relied on charging to maintain their ’neural circuits’.

”I was involved in this research,” Professor Han introduced, ”The study here is about self-sustaining models, that is, whether various human organs can self-organize a life system after detaching from the human body system.”

”So this is the Life Bionics,” Gao Gong realized, looking at Gaia.

Gaia extended a palm, and in the next moment, the hundreds of arms simultaneously quieted down.

And Gao Gong also found Level 6 ’Life Bionics data’ in this laboratory.

In laboratories with arms, thighs, chest, heart, fingers, Gao Gong finally gathered all the knowledge data on ’Life Bionics’.

But it’s not always this lucky; the next laboratory was empty, with nothing inside.

”This is the place for researching ’Exchange Bionics.’ The person in charge of the laboratory at that time was the empire’s famous biologist Zhang Hai, and his research was a key project of the Research Institute.”

”What does ’Exchange Bionics’ mean, exchanging hands and feet? Exchanging your head with someone else’s head?”

Professor Han shook his head, ”It’s not that simple. In fact, it’s this research that made me think there’s a possibility of solving the problem inside you.”

”Oh, what is it?” Gao Gong was instantly intrigued.

”The eight major systems of the human body: motor, nervous, endocrine, circulation, respiratory, digestive, urinary, reproductive, these eight systems’ function exchange.”

Gao Gong blinked, a bad thought emerged in his mind.

As perverted as he was, he still felt somewhat disgusted.

”Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

”Yes.”

”You’re saying, eating with the heart, having babies with the fingers, excreting with the neural network, controlling brain functions with bones?”

”Theoretically, it’s possible.”

”According to your theory, your brain can also be stuffed with shit.”’,

”If nerve cells can digest food, then indeed it can.”

Gao Gong was speechless for quite a while before saying, ”So what’s the situation now?”

”All experimental materials have disappeared; this instead does not seem like an outside intrusion,” Professor Han pondered, ”It might be a special integration phenomenon.”

”What’s that mean?”

”The biggest reason for rejection is the incompatibility between life forms, and ’Exchange Bionics’ does the opposite, allowing the roles of systems to exchange, thereby greatly enhancing the ’fusion degree’. This integration not only reduces rejection but also lowers the threshold for creating super lifeforms.”

”Are you saying that all biological materials here have merged into a super lifeform hidden somewhere in this Research Institute?”

Professor Han looked calm, ”There’s another possibility; this super lifeform has already integrated with the entire Research Institute, and we are inside its belly.”

Gao Gong took a deep breath.

”I actually wouldn’t mind if ’it’ dragged me out from the main entrance.”

”I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

Gao Gong looked around, only to see figure after figure emerging from the staircase, the main entrance, and the corners, surrounding the three of them.

These people were exactly like the black-clothed people from ’Death God Elementary School Student,’ hairless and naked, only they had no pupils, and their skin was pale white.

”The appearance of these bionic men was made too poorly.”

Gao Gong mocked.

”We are the Research Institute here, not a bionic man customization shop,” Professor Han replied calmly.

”Is this the Research Institute’s defense system operating spontaneously, or is it the function of the super lifeform?”

”Unclear,” Professor Han stepped back, patting Gao Gong on the shoulder, ”It’s up to you.”

Gao Gong also stepped back, patting ’Little Lady No. 2’ on the shoulder.

”It’s up to you.”