Master of the Stars

Luo Nan arrived at this conclusion and was more or less dumbfounded.

He lacked a comprehensive understanding of the object that was the Dynamo Core. At most, he had inferred a few things from the conversation between Jack and Yan Yongbo.

This sort of thing was likely a top of the line item from the Apocalypse Laboratory. It possessed an overwhelming control over digital devices. It was a key technology to the fourth generation of Burners and could be used on Altered Humans. Furthermore, it could completely break the boundary between an Altered Human and a Burner by way of a special application.

Such fine technology had suddenly appeared in a large public virtual amusement project that was Frost River Reality and it had appeared in such a special link. Even if this was just a small section—even if the government, the military, the ability user society, and various tech companies were all involved—Luo Nan still found it hard to believe that this was just a coincidence of great minds thinking alike.

Was this a repeated experiment hidden within this project? Or did the Apocalypse Laboratory have their hands in this project? Did the Society know of these circumstances?

A series of questions knocked at Luo Nan and left him dumbfounded. It looked like he had one foot in dirty water.

Of course, as long as he was able to face reality, he would be able to get all that he desired.

Luo Nan muttered in thought as he weighed the chipped helmet in his hands a few times. His eyes gradually lit up.

Obviously, he would not be able to take this helmet with him and he certainly would not be able to remove the chipset inside but he had the perfect alternative!

His own Dynamo Core, the external neuron!

Luo Nan had never used his own Dynamo Core to establish a Tower of Babel. He was worried that his current body would not be able to sustain it and that he would die just like Jack. However, Luo Nan had the peripherals of Frost River Reality now. By utilizing the Dynamo Core’s ruling power over digital devices to combine the two, he would be able to re-materialize the immersive virtual experience meant for ability users. It should not be too big of a problem.

The virtual experience was a small matter. If he could dig out some information on a deeper level, then that would be some great gains!

Luo Nan could not hold back any longer. It was fine if he could not use Frost River No.3. He could just switch to a different location.

He immediately abandoned the chipped helmet and carried his original equipment out the door with large strides. Frost River No.3 immediately closed behind him, it was impossible for him to reopen it. Luo Nan did not care. He walked hastily back to Hu Huaying’s VIP room. The installations here were still active with not a soul in sight.

Luo Nan took a deep breath as he walked to the high-back starship chair. He put on the helmet that lacked the key chipset and connected to the system.

From the perspective of an ability user, this helmet was just a clumsy tool without the mental guide function of the chipset. It could not control the penetration of one’s mental senses and made the resulting virtual scene quite laughable.

But this time, Luo Nan was not impatient nor urgent. His intent subtly moved within the messy array of light and darkness. The external neuron, which had always been concealed in the center of his brain between the left and right thalamus regions, soundlessly extended and stabbed into the chip area of the helmet. It probed around a bit and automatically forked out structurally to connect with the empty interfaces.

Energy and information converged and operated. The entire process was manifested clearly. There wasn’t a big difference in the structure but the emulated copy was more exquisite than the chipset by a hundred fold or even a thousand fold! The amount of energy and information it could process was also over a hundred fold or even a thousand fold!

Luo Nan felt the helmet grow hot. Compared to the supreme processing power of the Dynamo Core, the helmet was somewhat unable to endure the energy. However, this was not a big problem.

At this time, Luo Nan’s mental senses no longer spread out. Instead, there was a direction to place his soul strength. It was like the sensation he had when he had entrusted his soul strength into the Dynamo Core after days of being extremely taxed.

The previous Dynamo Core was completely empty inside, like a deep and silent hollow. However, there was now color and structure. Layers and layers were piled atop each other, growing all the more splendid as it gradually formed a world.

Luo Nan’s consciousness lingered within, quietly sensing the fine details.

This kind of ‘guide’ was much more intense than differentiating the dots of light, yet the guide was not like that of the chip, which was separated by a layer. Instead, his emotions were completely and thoroughly accessed and cast inside.

What was going to happen?

The instant this thought flashed by, his mind was completely immersed within.

As if time was flowing backwards, when Luo Nan came to, he had returned to the jump pod and was facing the ring-shaped windows of the control console.

The tightness of his combat clothes bound to him, the weight of his helmet, and the support of the high-back chair all passed through various sensors all over his body. They were fed back to his central nerves and an indistinguishable scene that was between virtual and reality was interweaved together in front of his eyes. Luo Nan was brought completely into this fantastic world.

There was not a system boot this time. Only two graphical options were there in the ring-shaped window before his eyes.

Luo Nan’s scalp went a bit numb the instant he saw the graphics.

The right graphic was a simple sphere.

The left graphic was something that he could not be more familiar with... The visualization diagram, the Format Pyramid!

Perhaps his moment of daze was far too long, for the system eventually let out a sound. It was still Nina’s crisp female voice. "Do you need the newbie guide?"

"Yes."

"Please select the active mode: 1. Archetype Mode; 2. Free Mode."

On the ring-shaped window, the visualization diagram and the sphere lit up one after another after Nina’s notification, indicating which one was Archetype Mode and which one was Free Mode.

"Archetype..."

Luo Nan felt somewhat uncomfortable but the feeling of excitement that came from peeking into a giant secret bombarded heavily against his chest. He could feel threads of cold air pass through the fine gaps between his teeth. He could not help but lock his gaze right onto the diagram he knew all too well.

"I choose Archetype Mode!"

The visualization diagram lit up and shifted into the center of his vision. Meanwhile, the sphere gradually faded away. At the same time, the deep and low voice of a certain man rang in his ears:

"In a certain sense, every human is a mass of molecules assembled together. The living process of every human is the oxidation of this assembled mass of molecules. The human body is precisely in a burning state."

Just hearing these words alone caused Luo Nan to feel an electric current run through and shake his spine. It was enough to cause his entire body to be covered in goosebumps. There was an instant where he almost jumped out of his chair but a different force made him motionless.

The deep and low male voice continued, "The ’Burning’ of ordinary people is inefficient be it generated, accumulated, or exploited. The Burning is restricted to the structure of our bodies, affecting our lifespan, and through inheritance, it affects the existing form of our generations."

"But following the deep exploration of the secrets of life, humanity is no longer satisfied with such an inefficient mode. Humanity has endlessly tried to improve their muscles, bones, organs, genes, and consciousnesses... Traces of alteration technology has been left behind in each field but it was all scattered and fragmented. This was until humanity selected a whole new structural system, taking these scattered and fragmented results and truly integrating them together."

The visualization diagram enlarged in the center of Luo Nan’s vision. Countless lines interweaved together to draw the outlines of bones, organs, nerves, and muscles. They joined together to form a complete human body that settled in the center of the visualization diagram. It sat majestically in the lotus position.

"This transcends human convention. This is the embodiment of a certain direction of evolution. This is the Burner."