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Chapter 310: Born for the Synaptic Lathe!
🕑 Added 2025-09-20 11:51:00 +0000 UTCChapter 310: Born for the Synaptic Lathe!
In the star system located between Char and Aiur.
After a full week of effort by ten thousand SCVs, the god-like artifact known as the Synaptic Lathe had been completed. A massive, colossal construct now floated silently in the void.
Lucan, having received news of its completion, had immediately rushed here. He brought Pavian, Kerrigan, and a large contingent of core Tech-priests from the Cult of the Holy Machine to board the miraculous construct.
The visual impact of seeing it in the game was nothing compared to the intense, overwhelming sight of it in person. The Tech-priests immediately began to take control and familiarize themselves with its operation.
The internal space of the Synaptic Lathe was immense. Its interior had even undergone some form of spatial-warping technology, making its internal capacity far larger than its external dimensions suggested.
Lucan looked at the countless transparent life-support pods suspended within the internal structure. A vast network of neural gateways, probes, conduits, and electrodes linked every single pod. These gateways would connect the minds of the biological components within. The imagination of countless individuals would be gathered together, allowing for the rapid simulation of advanced hypotheses, and its complex structure would provide unparalleled accuracy to the output.
It took Pavian and his Tech-priests another two days, working through the Lathe's servo-system, to fully understand the principles and operational methods of the construct. As they delved deeper, Pavian's initial excitement slowly turned to horror.
When he had first seen the Synaptic Lathe, he thought it was beautiful. Such a massive construct, built with such exquisite detail, and everything about it was new knowledge. But now, in Pavian's eyes, it had become a cold, massive, efficient, and desperate biological industrial furnace. Before it, any organic entity was just a tool, a number. Living, sentient beings were placed inside only to be continuously squeezed dry until their deaths.
Pavian couldn't imagine what kind of civilization would build such a technological monstrosity.
The Imperium already made extensive use of wetware and servitors. But in the Mongorte Dynasty, thanks to the SCVs and the quantum network, Lucan had already begun to reduce and replace this cruel practice. Moreover, the wetware and servitors of the Warhammer world had already undergone surgery to remove their self-awareness. It could be said that after their modification, their souls were already dead, and they could no longer feel pain.
"Lord Lucan," Pavian said heavily, "the test subjects are ready. Shall we begin the experiment?"
Pavian had brought a number of test subjects with him. There were humans from the Mongorte Dynasty who had committed capital crimes, some captured hostile xenos, and a small number of Greenskin Orks.
"Let's begin, Pavian. Try the Zerg first. Kerrigan, control some Zerglings and put them in the life-support pods."
Nearly a hundred Zerglings were sealed into the pods, and the Tech-priests activated the equipment. However, the Synaptic Lathe produced no output. The instruments before the Tech-priests showed no fluctuations.
Lucan knew his attempt to "game the system" had failed. Apart from a few specific individual Zerg, the vast majority of the Swarm had no independent thought; they only passively accepted the commands of the higher-level Zerg. The idea of harvesting their "imagination" was therefore impossible. Otherwise, with the limitless numbers of the Zerg, Lucan could have pushed the operating efficiency of the Synaptic Lathe to its maximum.
After removing the Zerg from the pods, the soldiers brought in the next batch: humans and xenos, their hands and feet bound. These xenos were pirates from the Expanse. Pirates captured in the Koronus Sector had only one path: execution. Although the xenos didn't know where they were or what Lucan planned to do with them, they knew the humans would absolutely not let them live. They were well aware of the Imperium's attitude towards xenos. They cursed Lucan in their own languages, but the soldiers behind them used the butts of their rifles to teach them silence.
In stark contrast to the xenos' attitude was one of the human prisoners being escorted in.
"Great Rogue Trader!" he screamed desperately, as if grasping at a final straw. "For Lord Verre's sake, please give me another chance!"
"Verre?"
Hearing the man shout Verre's name, Lucan turned his gaze to him. "Pavian, you selected these test subjects. Is this man related to Verre?"
"My Lord, he is a member of Lord Verre's family. In terms of blood, he would be considered Lord Verre's nephew."
"What crime did he commit?" Lucan continued to ask. Verre was, after all, one of his original followers. If the crime wasn't a capital offense, Lucan was willing to give Verre this face.
"As you know, my Lord, Lord Verre has administrative authority over the Dynasty's military. This man used Lord Verre's status to secretly sell powersuits and other military supplies for his own profit. What's worse, after he was discovered by the Dynasty's internal oversight department, he assassinated the inspector. Lord Verre himself placed this man on the list of experimental consumables. Lord Verre said that his family has no need for such a degenerate. A simple execution would be too merciful for him. Even in death, he must continue to contribute to the Dynasty. My Lord, Lord Verre's loyalty to you and the Dynasty is truly absolute."
After hearing Pavian's words, Lucan said no more. If it had just been corruption, Lucan might have spared his life. But to commit murder after being exposed... there was no room for leniency. Verre had already made the choice for him.
"Hmph. Death is too good for him. He enjoyed the benefits of the Dynasty only to harm its interests. Pavian, put him in first!"
Amidst the man's struggles and pleas for mercy, the Tech-priests shoved him into a life-support pod. He hammered on the pod door, but the next second, a probe pierced into his brain. His eyes immediately went vacant. Bizarrely, a smile appeared on his face.
As one after another, the human and xenos death-row prisoners were thrown into the pods, the Tech-priests saw the instruments before them finally begin to react. This cold machine, like a parasitic vine, began to draw out the essence and thoughts of the creatures.
To test its limits, Pavian began to continuously increase the power. The vital signs of the humans and xenos in the pods began to decline rapidly. The temperature in their brains rose to extreme levels, and the blood vessels within began to rupture. Soon, they reached their limit. The smiles on their faces twisted into expressions of extreme agony.
Even with this unrestrained extraction, the amount of thought and neural energy produced by this small number was too little. It was not enough to sustain a technological breakthrough.
Lucan needed more organic consumables.
After confirming the process was effective, Lucan immediately arranged for the Orks to be forcibly put into the pods. The Greenskins, who had been pounding on the pod doors trying to get out, also fell quiet after the probes pierced their brains. The same simple-minded smile appeared on their faces. Their formidable bodies and unique biology offered them no resistance.
Upon further observation of the data, the resource output from just thirty-something Orks had already exceeded the combined total of the previous hundred humans and xenos. And as the thoughts of these dozens of Orks were gathered, a faint, dark-green WAAAGH! energy began to coat their life-support pods.
Under the influence of the WAAAGH! energy, this supernatural collective consciousness, this ability to make imagination real, actually further increased the output. The WAAAGH! energy was already a product of the Orks' collective consciousness, which perfectly matched the Synaptic Lathe's function of extracting thought.
"The Ork WAAAGH! actually has a supportive effect... These creatures... they were literally born for the Synaptic Lathe!"
Not only was the Orks' output greater, but their ability to resist the drain of the Lathe was also stronger. They lasted a full two times longer than a normal human before being squeezed to death.
Higher output and greater durability. There was no species more suitable than the Orks.
