From Abyssal Invasion to Bursting Stars with a Single Sword-Chapter 214 - 176: The Pioneer of Mechanical Life

The Spiritual Power Enhancement Module within mechanical transformations is useless to the Sikes because a fully transformed Sikes individual does not possess "Spirit" as an attribute.

That means, under normal circumstances, the Sikes Civilization would not research spiritual power enhancement technology.

A technology deemed valueless would not be developed.

Even if it was a passing technological advance, it would only reach the laboratory stage.

Unless there were other reasons motivating the research of this technology.

The development of a new technology to the stage of producing products usually takes a considerable amount of time.

In other words, if the Sikes Civilization had a Spiritual Power Enhancement Module a year later, then they should already be researching it now, or perhaps laboratory products might even exist.

However, since this technology has not been made public, Yeliana Sikes was unaware of its existence.

After Hasegawa Tom had a Spiritual Power Enhancement Module fitted to him, the fragments were collected upon his death.

This means that some organization or force is secretly conducting research in this technology and does not want it to be known.

Then, a new question arose.

Was the "thing" that collected the fragments of the Spiritual Power Enhancement Module the same "thing" that was eating the corpses?

Lu Heng spoke with certainty, "Miss Sikes, you might need to consider the Spiritual Power Enhancement Module seriously because I found such a module on Hasegawa Tom's body, it's just that you were not aware."

Yeliana Sikes's gaze sharpened, displaying a look of confusion, she asked, "Are you sure?"

Lu Heng nodded affirmatively, "I am very sure, and moreover, at least a third of the parts were missing from the scattered fragments on the ground. In other words, someone took away pieces of the Spiritual Power Enhancement Module."

Yeliana Sikes raised an eyebrow and revisited the inspection report.

In the report, she noticed it did mention a small amount of fragments from an unknown module.

However, these mechanical transformation modules were smashed, producing some indecipherable fragments, which were generally not further investigated.

Now, hearing the doubts raised by Lu Heng and combining them with the contents of the inspection report, Yeliana Sikes realized that indeed fragments from an unknown module had been taken.

Leaving other fragments behind but taking this particular module was in itself quite telling.

Given his low clearance level, it was challenging for Lu Heng to obtain valuable information within the Sikes Civilization network data; therefore, he had no choice but to inquire with Yeliana Sikes.

"There must be some organization or laboratory researching the Spiritual Power Enhancement Module. I believe that the 'entity' which took the module fragments and the 'entity' eating the corpses might be the same, or even if they are not, following this lead could provide more information. So, Miss Sikes, I think you should look over additional material and provide some clues," Lu Heng suggested.

When a computer is weighing whether to do something, there are only two possible outcomes: "yes" and "no."

There was no need for extensive persuasion; as long as the request was reasonable and beneficial to her, Yeliana Sikes would not refuse.

After making her calculations, she reached a decision, then quickly perused the information and provided a clue,

"In the last year, there was a wanted scientist researching mechanical life, believing that robots can also possess characteristics of life. Perhaps following this lead may unravel some clues.

"The scientist's name is Xavier Matrix, because his research project breached the Sikes Third Edition Technology Union Act, he's currently wanted. I find this Xavier Matrix very suspicious."

"Xavier Matrix?"

On hearing the name, Lu Heng raised an eyebrow.

Because in future generations, this name was quite famous—an infamous mad scientist of the Sikes Civilization and a pioneer of mechanical life research.

This content is taken from freёnovelkiss.com.

The reason he violated the Sikes Technology Union Act was that his ideals conflicted with the laws of the Sikes Civilization.

The Sikes Civilization did not forbid the research of mechanical life.

In fact, it was an important research direction for the Mechanical Civilization.

However, Sikes laws stipulated that only Sikes citizens could become mechanical life forms, and it was not permissible to grant life to ordinary mechanical life forms.

This means that robots manufactured in factories within the Sikes Civilization are not to possess life.

Only individuals who were originally Sikes citizens could be granted life.

The purpose of this act is to ensure the "human rights" of Sikes citizens.

A peculiar set of laws, but also quite reasonable.

Do Sikes individuals who have undergone mechanical transformations still retain "human rights"?

That question seemed to relate to morality; then, do Sikes individuals who have been transformed into robots still have morality?

The answer is yes.

"Morality" is an abstract concept, and "human rights" are more concrete but equally invisible and intangible.

However, if a civilization lacks both of these, whether the civilization itself still exists is questionable.

Hence, the Sikes Civilization indeed had a set of laws that prohibited research organizations from granting life to assembly line robots.

Nonetheless, the technology of mechanical life is still in the research phase.

Actually, similar issues also exist within human society.

For instance, should the "citizen" status be acknowledged for cloned humans if human cloning becomes a reality.

This is a sensitive topic.

If the "citizen" status of cloned humans is recognized, then they would be entitled to "human rights" and protected by law.