Chapter 1155: Chapter 1155 The Research Race
1155 The Research Race
The Chimaeric Demons got their brain crystals when Erik modified the Astral Wolf and merged it with the brain crystal power.
Instead of creating the giant mana wolf, Erik asked the biological supercomputer to make a mana brain crystal.
It wasn’t anything physical; it was something that couldn’t be found in their brains. It was just a lump of mana that worked exactly like the real deal, but with some differences.
The problem was that to maintain and use all that mana was not as straightforward as for humans. Mana was not a simple substance. It was intangible, impossible to see.
It behaved like a gas, like a liquid, even like a solid. The first time it appeared, people had no idea what it was, and they only learned of their presence after the first brain-crystal-equipped human appeared, and that only by feelings.
It took a while for people to understand, more or less, what they were dealing with.
The Astral brain crystal wasn’t optimized to make the same substance composing it flow because the thing itself wasn’t exactly a brain crystal.
The neural links themselves were not as stable as those inside a person’s brain. It was like building an unstable bridge over unstable land. All of this made making new ones extremely hard and slow for the Chimaeric Demons.
That was why Erik needed a new technique. The one they got from Erik was fast and powerful, but it was still too slow for the clones, especially considering how strong the enemy was growing. Since the clones had to work, had to fight, had to explore, and had to spy, the time needed for them to train was too little.
Erik sighed.
If there was no way for him to get the technique, if one could even be made, a fast one was still going to be better than nothing.
There was a brief pause.
The biological supercomputer’s imaginary face got a blank look. Then it turned embarrassed.
The system paused again. It was almost as if it was trying to avoid answering Erik.
The system mentally sighed. In truth, it wasn’t trying to avoid answering, but it was for sure hard.
“Fuck…”
A Chimaeric Demon halted mid-step, his head tilting as he turned to watch Erik. Confusion radiated from the face behind the mask. Erik’s movement was odd—meandering, uncharacteristic. He wasn’t striding with the earlier purpose but was instead wandering without direction.
Erik walked, his head bowed, the edges of his cloak trailing along the uneven terrain. His thoughts were elsewhere, buried deep in some labyrinth that none of his clones could penetrate. He was silent.
Yet none of the clones dared break the silence or approach him despite them having things to discuss and countless issues to resolve: orders to clarify, strategies to execute.
Erik’s shoulders slumped, his face etched with a blend of dismay and vexation. A flicker of fatigue crossed his eyes as he mulled over the obstacles he had to face.
In truth, the biological supercomputer wasn’t sure how to proceed. For all its capabilities, there were too many variables and too many unknowns affecting its calculations.
The AI wasn’t omnipotent. Despite those not having to deal with it, Erik might believe. It couldn’t peer into the future; it couldn’t divine the outcomes of every choice.
It wasn’t even particularly “intelligent,” at least not in the way most would imagine. The supercomputer was basically a person. Sure, not a dumb one, but instead a brilliant mind. But that wasn’t enough.
What it had, instead, was raw computational power—a capacity to process data at speeds and depths that could turn centuries of problem-solving into mere moments of work.
The biological supercomputer was something with a lot of computational power that allowed it to do the things that others would have made in years, centuries, or millennia, which required energy.
The DNA points gave the system the energy, the capacity, to analyze different data at a fast time. Fractions of seconds.
But that, too, had its limits. It could analyze countless scenarios, but it couldn’t do so forever. There were constraints and bottlenecks. And what use was boundless power when the data itself was incomplete? No amount of processing could fill in the blanks where variables were missing or riddled with uncertainty. Unless it focused on finding those data.
When that energy wasn’t supplied, its mightiness was severely lowered. However, it got an opinion on the things to do, like everyone.
The system paused.
Erik said.
There was a short pause.
Erik was already thinking about the conversation he planned to have with Noah. There were many brain crystal powers he could gain from the Thaids in Frant—abilities that he knew were powerful, despite having a low rank, and that he knew he could merge to get something even more powerful.
But Frant wasn’t the only source from which he could do that. Hin had its own collection of rare and powerful abilities.
The other countries were more problematic. Erik wasn’t sure if he could safely get anything from them. Even Etrium had brain crystal powers that caught his interest.
Besides, unlike Frant or Hin, Etrium’s treasures were straightforward to get. Erik could always ask the Chimaeric Demons to get those things, but if he wanted to, he could hire mercenaries to retrieve the brain crystals he needed.
They were expendable, efficient, and unlikely to ask too many questions—a perfect solution for someone who valued discretion as much as he did.
If mercenaries weren’t the right choice, there were always the black markets to consider. It wouldn’t take much effort to track down a seller and make the exchange.
Last, Erik valued Noah’s input. His firstborn’s ideas and unique perspective often provided fresh angles, especially in rather complex situations such as this. He showed it when planning Erik’s father’s rescue operation. The biological supercomputer mentally nodded.
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