Mechanical Alchemist

Half a month later.

The basement on Green Street.

Su Lun was tinkering with a new battle puppet. He tried using steel wires to make it move, but its slashing and dodging movements were clumsier than those of a wooden puppet.

This life-sized puppet was not made of wood but was assembled from disassembled parts of the "PX-911 Mechanical Limbs."

Su Lun also knew that it wasn't that the mechanical limbs weren't sensitive enough, but that he wasn't activating them correctly.

Over this period of study, he had figured out many functions of these mechanical limbs.

The outer casing of the limbs was made of a special alloy that no alchemy bullet double shot could dent. Hidden inside were various weapons: knives, guns, energy cannons, retractable metal ropes, ejectors...

Once disassembled, it was simply a concentration of weapons containing top-tier technology.

There was also a mechanical heart with a blood-pumping function and mechanical lungs for oxygen supply...

Moreover, these weren't even the most stunning aspects.

During his experiments, Su Lun discovered that the part of these mechanical limbs he couldn't comprehend was the high-sensitivity mechanical tactile components that could be triggered by bioelectricity.

This was a very cutting-edge, laboratory-grade technology, so advanced that it far surpassed steampunk, making Su Lun even think that the technological tree of this world had reached the Cyber "Neuromechanics" level.

With these high-sensitivity tactile components, it meant that, in theory, they could be directly controlled by connecting to human nerves!

Su Lun also thought that this limb might be what Danny mentioned, another top-secret project—a collaboration between the Black Tower medical research and mechanical divisions—the Super Mechanical Warrior Program.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be such a coincidence to find it on a transport vehicle headed to the laboratory.

After realizing this, Su Lun also restored in his mind the complete structure of this mechanical limb. Those missing parts might still be a complete human nervous system or some other driving tissue of alchemical implants.

In this world, there wasn't any intelligent control system; hence, they could install a human brain directly, creating a semi-mechanical human.

Just cover it with a layer of synthetic skin, and they would look no different from humans!

This was more thorough than the "new school" alchemists of the outer city, who still limited themselves to modifying mechanical limbs, while the top laboratories of the inner city had already developed almost entirely mechanical warriors.

Su Lun guessed that the woman with a bounty on her might be such a mechanical warrior.

....

But the mechanical limbs involved too much cutting-edge, laboratory-level technology, impossible for one person to fully research.

Su Lun had no intention of selling this device, nor did he plan to sever his own head to connect it.

So, in his hands, it could only be disassembled into parts.

He disassembled the indestructible dagger from the mechanical limb's arm and mounted it on his puppet; the spring blade from the mechanical leg was also disassembled and given to another puppet. Then, those high-precision parts of the boiler were useless, so he disassembled the alloy outer plate to make a bulletproof puppet.

As for those mechanical viscera, they gave him many inspirations for his "Iron Man Mark III"...

Su Lun was bustling joyfully as he tinkered with the mechanical puppet.

But suddenly, his ears twitched slightly, and an unusual noise caught his attention.

Su Lun stopped his work and sharply turned his head to look.

He became more certain; on the dissection table in the corner of the basement, cordoned off by a clear curtain, a breathing sound suddenly emerged!

"Eh..."

Listening to the faint noises, he was not shocked but rather delighted, "It worked!"

Su Lun didn't pay attention to the puppet in his hand and hurried over. Discover more content at empire

At that moment, he saw the corpse on the dissection table with its chest slightly heaving, and his eyes brightened.

....

Half a month ago, Su Lun went to the black market and found Mr. Hei to translate those profound ciphers, and then successfully deciphered the formula for the "Mutation Suppression Potion" devised by a crazed magician from a thousand years ago who had concocted a living corpse.

It was also thanks to Danny, whose original job at "Laboratory 7" was to research mutation suppression. Although the ancient formula was very complex, with some incomprehensible steps, since many of the theoretical aspects were interconnected, he combined his own knowledge in concocting and had successfully produced the first batch of "Mutation Suppressant" the day before!

The outer city wasn't short of corpses, and Su Lun also found a fresh corpse to experiment with straight away. After injecting it with the prescribed dose of the "Second Generation X Serum," the corpse began to slowly display signs of life. However, the effect of the second generation serum was much less potent than the original, and it was already the third injection.

If there were still no effects, he might plan on administering a fourth.

Unexpectedly, the corpse suddenly began to breathe!

It looked just like a sleeping living being, but according to the diary, this was merely a soulless husk. Even the living traits were not the corpse's own, but entirely a result of the active agents in the "X Serum" altering the body, forcibly reviving the tissues. In some sense, this corpse was no longer a human body.

Just moments after it began breathing, Su Lun noticed dark red spots starting to appear on the corpse, and the overall skin color was also gradually turning blue; he thought to himself, "The skin is turning blue, spots are emerging, the mutation is indeed beginning..."

The journal had detailed records of this mutation process, and Su Lun was not at all surprised.

He didn't delay, and he took out a Mutation Suppressant injection and administered it to the corpse.

A moment later, the spread of the mutation marks slowed down.

Su Lun didn't idle and took out a rune pen, then began drawing basic runes on the now-breathing corpse.

"Corpse Vitality Rune," "Level I Dark Attribute Mana Gathering Rune," "Wind Element Circulation Condensation Rune," "Level I Life Rune"...

The materials had been prepared in advance, and he had practiced the runes very proficiently in the previous days.

There was no need for him to research them himself, he simply painted them sequentially as recorded in the diary.

These were all low-level runes, so the difficulty of drawing them was not great.

The diary described that Chekhov used this set of low-level runes to create what he considered a "useless" active corpse.

Su Lun knew he definitely couldn't create those terrifying blue-skinned monsters from the cursed space with these low-level runes, and didn't intend to try.

What he needed was not the ultimate research of "resurrecting a corpse," but merely a "living corpse" that could maintain normal life characteristics!

....

Three hours later.

Suri had finished painting various yellow, black, white, and red alternating runes on the corpse.

The runes on the entire body collected the four basic elements of "Earth Wind Water Fire," and then interconnected in a cycle, endlessly.

"The ancient magician who created this rune combination truly had great talent..."

Su Lun set down the rune pen and looked at his work, sighing.

He could proficiently master these low-level runes, yet he didn't understand the principles behind them. Only a small amount of materials was needed to keep these runes continuously operating, involving a very profound mastery of rune crafting.

Adding more runes later on would also be convenient.

Having completed the rune drawing, Su Lun also let out a breath of relief.

Everything that needed to be done was done, he began to inspect the mutated state of the corpse.

"The X serum has altered the tissue structure of the corpse, significantly enhancing muscle strength. However, while the mutation suppression potion is effective, it also inhibits some of the effects of the serum..."

Su Lun was already very satisfied with this result.

All signs indicated that his first creation of a living corpse was about to succeed!

He wasn't aiming to create some kind of "abominable warrior"; the strength of the corpse was irrelevant, as long as it could withstand the backlash from the dark scythe.

Soon, the corpse's skin turned completely blue.

"Success!"

Su Lun felt a surge of joy.

This also meant that the serum transformed corpse had stabilized. Although there were some enhancements still to be made to the living corpse, it already completely qualified as a successful "rune living corpse".

...

The creation of the living corpse was only the first step; importantly, Su Lun intended to use it to verify his conjecture.

He used steel wires to pull and get the corpse to stand upright.

The living corpse stood there like a sleepwalker, eyes closed, expression dull, standing where it was. Neither alive nor dead, it appeared slightly eerie in the dark basement.

"Muscle strength is sufficient to support the body and the joints are also normal; it completely meets the requirements..."

Su Lun checked the state of the living corpse.

He had already determined that using that dark scythe required at least two conditions to be met: life signs and dark spiritual power infusion!

Moreover, the curse's backlash was likely directly related to these two conditions.

The "living corpse" just so happened to meet both!

After transformation by the X serum, dark spiritual power surged within the corpse, even higher than that of ordinary professionals, slightly spilling out.

This was also perfect, as it saved Su Lun the trouble of finding another way to activate the corpse to release dark spiritual power.

Su Lun fixed the dark scythe in the hands of the living corpse.

In that moment, the black fire emanating from the scythe seemed to be stimulated by the dark spiritual power, and immediately began to blaze intensely.

Seeing this, Su Lun vaguely felt that his hypothesis could indeed be correct.

Taking a deep breath, he tried pulling the corpse's arm gently with the steel wire, and it seemed he heard a tearing sound. Not far from the blade's tip, a small spatial rift eerily appeared.

"As expected, a spatial rift appeared!"

Seeing this, anticipation overflowed on Su Lun's face.

This time, his body had not used any dark spiritual power infusion, yet it had succeeded.

He could roughly confirm that his conjecture was correct!

After this one cut, he did not continue the motion.

He lowered the puppet and began the long wait for the backlash process.

....

An hour later.

Su Lun did not feel anything unusual about his body, but at that moment, he saw a wound suddenly appear without warning on the right arm of the living corpse in front of him.

"Success!"

Su Lun knew this was a sign of the scythe's curse backlash.

"My conjecture was indeed correct. As long as the conditions of a living body and dark spiritual power are met, a spatial rift can be created!"

Now, Su Lun's face was radiant, as if he saw a glimmer of light piercing through the fog-enshrouded future.

The scythe cut through everything!

The [Xiupunos's Night Scythe], which had previously only been used to gamble with enemies' lives, now became a controllable lethal weapon.

The curse's backlash not affecting his own body meant he could control the living corpse to swing the scythe without any reservations.

There was also a surprising bonus: because of the "X serum's" modification, the living corpse possessed strong self-healing abilities. The wound that had appeared was slowly healing.

This also meant that as long as the living corpse was not killed in one go, it could be reused over and over!

People using the scythe would be careful to avoid crippling themselves, affecting their combat effectiveness, but the living corpse was different.

Su Lun wanted a puppet; as long as the living corpse could create spatial rifts, it didn't matter to him even if it was severely maimed.

He estimated that before the corpse succumbed to lethal backlash, it could probably make five or six swings!

A single swing could kill a leader-level Spider Queen; what did five or six swings mean?

This meant that Su Lun now had the capability to kill high-ranking professionals!

However, Su Lun wasn't too excited; this was a result he had anticipated from the start.

Next, he had more problems to face.

The experiment was successful, but there were still many issues to address before it reached combat readiness.

Looking at the living corpse on the autopsy table, he stroked his chin, contemplating, "The living corpse's control isn't flexible enough; real combat would require significant improvements. The corpse's muscle strength is sufficient for it to stand and support its body, but it can't walk. What if I installed a mechanical skeleton and added a steam power boiler? Hmm...

the technology isn't mature yet, and it's less convenient."

As he thought, his thoughts began to wander.

"The phenomenon of the living corpse's dark spiritual power spillover also needs to be controlled, so we can control the intensity of the spatial rifts created..."

"The swinging amplitude and the infused amount of dark spiritual power determine the size of the spatial rifts, but it still needs more experimentation to get precise control data..."

Now that he had the living corpse, these dangerous experiments no longer required Su Lun to risk himself.

With ninety-seven vials of [Second Generation X Serum], he had enough to create more living corpses, obtaining the precise data he desired.

But looking at that two-meter-long big black scythe, Su Lun mused, "Furthermore, the biggest problem is that neither the living corpse nor the scythe can be placed in the storage ring, which makes it inconvenient to carry them around."

"Eh... Mr. Hei mentioned before that the second-tier professional advancement for a Puppet Master could choose 'Spatial Ability'. Some high-quality spatial curse materials can grant the ability to create real foldable spaces. Getting a foldable space that could contain the living corpse and the scythe would be perfect. However, such cursed materials are not so easy to find..."