An hour later, a metal case appeared on the Teleportation Array in the courtyard of Deep Blue Residence E-071.

Allen didn’t go downstairs. With a mere thought, a Factory Servant from the storage and logistics area of the Cybertron demiplane, far away in the sea of Magic Power, passed through a temporarily opened Space Gate, grabbed the metal case, and dragged it into the workshop.

Almost simultaneously, Jarvis’s voice rang out in Allen’s mind.

[Materials required for Mission PR-2291 have been received. Quantity confirmed. Technical blueprints downloaded. Compatibility with workshop’s existing technical systems: 98.3%.]

[Production plan generated. Estimated time to complete the entire order: 68 hours and 45 minutes. Estimated yield rate: 99.8%. Initiate production immediately?]

"Initiate."

After giving the command, Allen paid the matter no more attention.

Inside the Cybertron Workshop, five production lines had already started up simultaneously. Standardized V-type joint modules and Type-III power cores were rapidly taking shape on the assembly lines.

The blueprints provided by the Association weren’t complex—they didn’t even have a shred of novelty. This disappointed Allen; he had hoped to snag some new designs for free.

The V-type joint module was a universal component for standard patrol Golems. Its structure was simple, and the tolerance requirements were loose, making it more than manageable for Cybertron’s manufacturing capabilities.

To the current Allen, this D-class production mission was no different from his previous life, where he would set up a program and let a computer run software automatically.

His real battlefield was in the second-floor study—or rather, in the sea of his consciousness.

Allen’s mind was highly active, with nine sub-thought threads working in tandem to madly absorb information from the Association’s vast knowledge base.

He started with the most basic, fundamental free literature.

Fundamentals of Mechanical Body Kinematics, Introduction to Rune Miniaturization, A Study on Golem Power Transmission Loss...

This was all knowledge that hadn’t been collected in his academy’s library. The technical content was low, and some theories were even outdated or repetitive. Most people would only treat them as reference materials, giving them a glance before shelving them permanently.

But Allen’s method of reading was completely different.

While he "learned," he was also simultaneously "analyzing."

’DSeek, initiate reverse-engineering deduction.’

[Command confirmed. Target: Fundamentals of Mechanical Body Kinematics. Commencing deconstruction...]

With DSeek’s assistance, every piece of literature was broken down into its most fundamental theories, formulas, and technical hypotheses.

Allen cross-referenced these fragments with the knowledge he had learned from Master Mercer and the practical experience he had accumulated during twenty years of war.

He searched for discrepancies, verified hypotheses, and deduced optimization plans.

In just a few days, he had already achieved some results.

[Report: Cross-comparative analysis of 47 basic literary works completed.]

[Six ’immediately applicable’ micro-technical improvements have been extracted.]

[1. Optimized joint transmission structure can reduce the energy consumption of the ’Spider Slayer’ series by 1.3%.]

[2. Improved Rune etching fluid formula can increase the stability of low-tier Runes by 0.8%.]

[3. ...]

Each improvement was minuscule, but when hundreds or thousands of such enhancements accumulated, they would eventually trigger a qualitative change.

Just as he was about to continue this "rebuilding the foundation" type of work, a review paper marked "Level 2 Clearance · Free" caught his attention.

On the Three Tiers of Golem Intelligence

Author: Turing von Neumann.

It was a name Allen had never heard before, but it was followed by the title [Morning Star Alchemy Wizard].

The paper’s language was stark and rigorous. It clearly divided the intelligence levels of all Golems, Mechanical Bodies, and puppets in the Wizarding World into three tiers.

The first tier: [Command Execution].

This is the starting point of intelligence and the tier at which the vast majority of mass-produced Golems on the market operate.

They possess a fixed command library and trigger corresponding pre-set programs in response to external stimuli. They cannot think or adapt and require manual intervention to function.

The second tier: [Multi-Contextual Adaptation].

Intelligence cores at this tier begin to possess rudimentary learning abilities and a certain capacity for emotional expression. They can extract effective data from experiences like combat and work to optimize their own behavioral strategies.

They can make certain autonomous judgments based on battlefield conditions, such as choosing the optimal attack angle or prioritizing the protection of their core after taking damage.

Allen’s "Peacekeeper" series, as well as the Soul Cores he created using the [Soul Processing Technique], were essentially at this tier.

The third tier: [Personality Simulation].

The paper described that "intelligence" reaching this tier could no longer be called a simple program or core.

Through continuous interaction with the outside world, it could form a stable and unique "personality and self-awareness." It possessed a complete emotional feedback loop, capable of expressing joy, anger, sorrow, and even... love and hate. It had fluid, natural social skills, allowing it to deceive, soothe, and inspire—making its behavior indistinguishable from that of a true sentient being.

The author wrote at the end of the paper: "The only difference between third-tier intelligence and a ’living being’ is a single, metaphysical point of contention—whether or not it possesses a ’soul.’ And the answer to that question depends on how you define a soul."

Based on his studies during this period, Allen discovered that the Morning Star Level 4 Golems all seemed to possess [Personality Simulation] level intelligence.

After finishing the paper, Allen thought of his Core Witchcraft, the [Soul Processing Technique].

Stripping, cleansing, and reshaping the complete souls of living beings, then encapsulating them into standardized Control Cores—turning "life" into "parts." At the time, he had thought it was incredibly powerful.

Now, it seemed those Soul Cores retained some combat instincts and emotional residue, displaying extraordinary learning and judgment on the battlefield. But ultimately, they were just castrated soul fragments executing a more sophisticated set of pre-set logic.

’DSeek, can the Soul Processing Technique allow my Golems to achieve the highest level of intelligence?’

A stream of data surged and calculated in the depths of Allen’s consciousness.

[Assessment complete.]

[Conclusion: The current ’Soul Core’ technical route has a fundamental bottleneck.]

[1. Limited Soul Source. ’Willing’ souls from intelligent lifeforms are an extremely rare resource. The soul strength and logical capacity of non-humanoid creatures are generally too low to serve as the base material for advanced cores.]

[2. Uncontrollable Factors in Modification. The soul-cleansing process causes permanent damage to a large number of memories and logical chains, with immense individual variation.]

[3. Lack of Standardization and Scalable Mass Production. Each Soul Core is a unique ’defective product,’ making it impossible to form unified technical standards and iteration paths.]

[To achieve true ’Third Tier: Personality Simulation’ level intelligence, a completely new technical path must be pursued.]

DSeek’s analysis paused for a moment, seemingly performing a deeper level of deduction.

A second later, a conclusion formed from pure data, yet tinged with a hint of "genesis," was branded into Allen’s mind.

[Deductive Conclusion: The only viable path to the third tier—abandon the modification of souls and, from scratch, create logic, memory, and emotion. The general term for this technology is: ’Artificial Soul.’]

Artificial Soul!

This was one of the ultimate technological achievements of Alchemy, a qualitative leap from "nothing" to "something." It was the true transgression of an Alchemy Wizard into the domain of "life," a realm belonging to God!

Allen’s fingers were already moving. He typed two words into the knowledge base’s search bar.

[Artificial Soul]

[6 related entries found.]

[The Construction and Possible Speculations of a ’Basic Personality Matrix’]

[Access Requirement: Morning Star Level.]

[Unlock Price: ???? Credit Points.]

...

The string of question marks was like a wailing wall, looming before him.

Of the six entries, five were beyond his clearance. All he knew was that they required a four-digit number of credit points.

The only one he could view was an article that didn’t involve specific techniques: An Analysis of the Three Paths of Artificial Soul Technology.

And even that cost 40 credit points.

He couldn’t afford it.