Warhammer: I don't want to become a stinky can!

Page 294

After Hades tearfully saw Charon off, the Empire seemed to die, with no communication for five years. However, given the instability of warp travel and the unique nature of the Great Vortex, Hades expressed his understanding.

Without any support from the Empire, Hades, dragging a crippled Forgeworld and a crippled World Eater, managed to build up his army with the help of his "good" neighbors on other planets in the Vortex.

They fight, plunder, and build infrastructure simultaneously; in fact, because they don't need diplomacy, their development is even faster.

Over five years, Hades watched as the barren plains of Phaeus gradually transformed into a sea of ​​scaffolding, with behemoths devouring steel and creating magnificent miracles.

The first building to be completed was the Church of the Second Church, which was once the very center of the Holy War. A single, massive black stone served as the church floor, with a heavy altar in the center, surrounded by sculptures of twenty-one martyrs in various poses.

Mortals clumsily attempted to imitate Om Messiah. The entire cathedral was unlit, with only faintly glowing metal flowing down the walls and chair backs as the sole fixed light source.

Those who enter must take a candle from the entrance; the addition of metallic powder gives the candlelight a cool, eerie green hue.

But the true mystery of this church goes beyond that.

Beneath the massive black rock, deep underground where no instruments or signals can penetrate, the prisoner screams as he powers the entire planet.

When sages pray and meditate upon it, they hear the sighs of the Messiah and the cries of sinners—but this calms their minds and makes it easier for them to reach true wisdom.

Compared to other churches that are merely superstitious, this cathedral truly deserves the name of a sanctuary, and in the foreseeable future, countless crystallizations of human wisdom will be produced here.

As the heart of faith and energy, the Cathedral of the Second Holy See has the highest level of defense, with air defense and explosion protection systems personally designed by Om Messiah.

But the system is not actually fully completed.

After disembarking, Hades did not immediately go to visit Angron in the area where the World Eater was located. After realizing that Hades could not leave for the time being, the Lord of the Red Sands immediately stated that the World Eater would wait for Hades.

With Hades around, Angron naturally didn't have much contact with war during those five years. The duties of the legion commander were shared with Rock and Kahn. Hades was pleased to realize that, compared to Garo and Vox, who were violent or frustrated when they worked, the two leaders of the World Eaters were very hardworking and conscientious.

Perhaps this is the charm of children from poor families learning to be independent early.

Angron has also recovered well; at least he's no longer dizzy. The Primarch and the World Eater are getting along well, and Hades from the Death Guard feels like he's shining like a light bulb.

Although no one except Hades considered him an outsider, Angron had patted Hades on the shoulder many times and vowed that once he recovered, the two of them would have a friendly sparring match.

Hades shook his head, banishing Angron's terrifying suggestion from his mind. He didn't want to wrestle with a muscle-bound Primarch; he had more important things to do today. Just as the ship arrived at Faos, the Sages informed Hades that "it" was about to wake up.

Inside the research workshop, Hades stared blankly at the screen... He was trying out an... extremely blasphemous technology.

He thought of Kirkland, who suddenly revived from the Golden Mind Engine; he thought of Belisarius Caul in the future; he thought of the Necromancer in space... The operation of preserving personality and thought is technically possible and feasible.

However, the cost and expense of the entire technology are enormous, and Hades also needs to consider the future and external implications of this technology.

Hades took a deep breath; perhaps he could… try a different approach.

"Ruibo?"

Hades shouted abruptly.

[I am here, Lord Hades, XS874 awaiting your command.]

The soulless Ribo is another special being, with a firm will and the highest level of vigilance against chaos—while being destined to be repelled by psychic energy.

Hades pressed the button, and he watched as the indicator light slowly lit up.

"You can start calling them now."

【Yes. 】

Pulses travel between cables, one and zero, yes or no, AND gates and NOT gates alternate. Logic, the most beautiful language of the physical world, is operating at breakneck speed, rapidly constructing complex behemoths.

[? ]

This is the first character it emitted upon waking.

Hello, I am Ruibo xs874, the experimental 21-personality chimera. I will now answer your questions.

Hades crossed his arms and silently stared at the screen in front of him. These conversations didn't have to be on the screen; the two simulated personalities could have easily communicated between the current and zero. But the code Hades wrote commanded them to display their own operational process.

From the perspective of simulated personalities alone, this possesses a kind of useless beauty.

The next moment, a large amount of text, characters, numbers, and even code quickly filled a screen the size of an entire wall. The characters flashed, and in an instant, 156 different pieces of information had flooded through the screen.

Hades remained expressionless and motionless, intently observing the communication between the two personalities. The latter iterated at an extremely fast pace, catching up with Reibo in 3.68 seconds.

They share a single machine for computation, which indicates that, under the same hardware conditions, the algorithm of the aggregated personality has surpassed that of Ruibo.

The sage behind Hades, who was trying to keep up with the conversation on the screen, let out a few wails. Then Hades smelled something burning. He didn't speak, but green lightning flashed behind him.

The ever-changing light swept across Hades' face.

In fact, Hades once pondered a question.

Is that the Kirkland we know now, the living Kirkland?

Is the real Kirkland dead, and what survived is merely a clumsy imitation of him by the mind engine?

But later, Hades realized that Kirkland still felt pain in the Dark Realm—Kirkland's soul was still there, which meant that Kirkland did not seem to have "truly died."

But now... Hades breathes calmly, he is creating a being without a soul.

To avoid the subspace, he introduced the soulless Ribo, whose flesh and blood must be present in the hardware structure of the logic—and cannot be removed.

So, is this awakened being still life? Or is it just the inertia of an engine?

Hades watched as [it] went from bewilderment to ecstasy, shouting the name of Om Messiah and praising the god of all machines. Hades even saw trembling and gratitude between the bloodless and tearless characters.

This awakened simulated mind will integrate the will and knowledge of the sacrificed sages. In a sense, Hades is creating a new Belisarius, but unlike the legendary sage of the future, Hades' ambition is far greater than creating a great sage.

Three hours and forty-seven minutes later, the communication entered its final stage.

Hades slowed his breathing, and eerie green lightning crackled and wrapped around the massive, humming computing machine behind the screen.

He watched as the text on the screen trembled, melted, and dissolved. The characters shifted from their original positions, crowding together and merging into a mass, words piled on top of each other.

In a corner of the crowded screen, Hades caught a glimpse of a line of small print.

Lord Hades, may your war be victorious, and may humanity prevail!

Then this line of small text was also swallowed up by the surging garbled text.

"Miss Ruibo, humanity will prevail."

Hades muttered something to himself softly.

He waited patiently, and seven hours later, the frenzied screen returned to a deathly black.

The characters flash when you type.

Finally, words appeared one by one on the screen.

【Greetings, Lord Hades.】

"Hello, the 22-personality chimera, Ruibo, Delis, T5 Ze..."

【:)】

Hades scratched his head.

"What do you want to be called? You have the right to name yourself."

Nirvana. (reborn)

"it is good."

...Rebirth, that's a good name.

They will be the first, but they will never be the last.

3.5, that's it! Great!

I'll write about the World Devourer later, but no rush, let's have some tea first.

Chapter 357 Good things, all good things

A piece of unknown technology, a mass of soulless blood embedded deep within a chip, and some loyal personalities—

You can create an entity that walks on the edge of the rules.

Hades... Hades knew what he was doing, so while creating this creation, Hades also imposed strict restrictions on it.

First, there's the inseparable flesh and blood of the soulless, which limits the unlimited growth of data—after all, even the most efficient data is limited by hardware.

Secondly, Hades set up the update rules for this system. Hades himself designed a data collection box made of black stone, which he named the Black Box.

The black stone material comes from the black stone buried beneath the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer.

The Zalem Forging World will select the most outstanding sages in each of its fields, and after a loyalty test, transplant the Black Box into them.

But the selection process is not over yet.

Only when a sage sacrifices himself for humanity and is simultaneously verified by multiple parties to have a stable and pure personality can he be considered to have been fully chosen.

The black box will be placed inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Ninth Church for a full year, and then its personality stability will be assessed again.

Once stability and loyalty are both established, this personality will be integrated into the Nirvana system.

In order to update and adapt to the times, the newly integrated personality will account for one-third of the dominance in Nirvana to ensure the stability of the system.

Integrating a personality isn't something that can be done at any time; it requires reaching a time limit set by Hades. Hades designed two hourglasses that are twisted together, and the system can only be updated when the hourglass reaches its bottom.

The unstable timing of this hourglass involves complex calculation equations, which Hades believed would not be deciphered anytime soon.

If it is not updated on time, the Nirvana System will be automatically destroyed.

The update will ensure that the Nirvana system closely follows the faction it serves, but will not suddenly become radicalized.

Meanwhile, the Nirvana System and the Armory are not directly connected. Hades gave the Sages an iterative code table, and the Sages need to manually manufacture the corresponding signal converters according to the era.

Similar to the Nirvana system, which is a two-pronged plug, the weapon system's base is a three-pronged plug. The sages need to create a converter to convert it in the physical world.

If a rampage does occur... the sages can physically disconnect you at any time, or wait for the connection password to automatically iterate to a new generation, rendering the original converter ineffective.

If the Nirvana system begins to attempt to calculate the docking password on its own, the destruction code left by Hades will be activated immediately.

Hades pondered that the current Nirvana capacity was still too small; twenty-two personalities couldn't even handle the planning and calculations for a planet. This was just a preliminary attempt... People had enough time to wait and try and fail, or to destroy it.

Once the Emperor's solution arrives, Hades will again inquire whether it is feasible.

But in reality, Hades' creation of the Nirvana System also stemmed from a pessimistic vision of the future—

If he were truly trapped in the vortex, a high-performance computing system would be essential given the lack of manpower and resources. Although everything seemed to be improving, Hades could clearly see the psykers in the team dying—this was not a good thing, as most of these psykers were navigators.

He had to find another way out.

But the good news is... perhaps one day when Hades truly felt he would be the ruler of the Whirlpool for the rest of his life, Charon, whom he had been longing for, finally returned.

The good news is that Macardo didn't come, and the even better news is—

A huge shadow slowly descended from the sky, and Hades gaped in disbelief.

Slightly more slender and elegant than the Queen of Glory, the ship hovered quietly in the sky, its massive adamantine ram gleaming with a dim, understated light, before disappearing into the darkness.

Several tall, pointed black stone towers arched over the ship, and the exposed steel pipes, which had to be exposed for construction purposes, gleamed with a cold, silvery-gray color. The main hull was entirely covered in black.

Sharp, high-Gothic language flashed at the bow, jarring and frivolous—

My friend, death is not a bad thing.

The following is the name of this ship: [Cocurtes].

Cocurtes, meaning River of Lamentation, is a cold, icy river where sinners shed tears that fall into the River Styx, leaving only tears to flow slowly.

Standing next to Hades, Angron laughed and patted Hades' shoulder armor.

[Bro, this is way too dark. I can tell you prefer something more low-key?]

But after they boarded the ship together for a tour, Anglon chose to retract his earlier assessment.

------------

Hades remained expressionless and decided to weld himself into the floor and never come out again.

Compared to the understated style of the sages of Faos, the sages of Ruster are clearly more boisterous in terms of their decorating style.

Those wise men actually built a river on a ship they named the Styx.

Hades' eyes were devoid of any light. He stared at the quietly flowing river at his feet, certain that the liquid flowing in it was not water, but... blood.

The river runs through the entire hull of the ship. Following the river, they can pass through a long corridor of fine gold keel, and then into the main hall, where Charon and Blackfa await their master.

Hades wanted to cover his face, but he held back.

A wide staircase, occupying one-third of the main hall, ascends in layers, with rivers flowing on both sides. A scarlet velvet carpet is laid out in the center, and at the very top is naturally the throne that belongs exclusively to Hades.

The jet-black throne is composed of cold, geometric shapes with a symmetrical aesthetic. Understated yet luxurious pale green and scarlet diamonds are set into it from the bottom up, becoming sparser towards the top, and finally dominated by pure black.