Hyperdimensional Player

Chapter 178 Mechanical Acolyte
Only after these people left did Tasia walk over with a look of surprise on her face, and asked in confusion, "You've subdued all the gangs in the area?"

The gangs in the area are nothing special; they're just thugs.

A real ruthless person.

They all left their settlements and established their own independent territories in the no-man's-land beneath the hive. In the settlements, the Mechanicus was above them, and even killing someone had to be done secretly; if discovered by the Guardians, they might be put on a wanted list. Killing outside was much easier; the corpses could be easily disposed of, serving as a resource in themselves.

Upon hearing this, Duncan shrugged and said indifferently, "No."

"I just used them to stretch my muscles."

Gang members are not allowed to be openly recognized.

Duncan was just testing how well the third human host was handling combat; the truly ruthless are not like those with their mediocre skills.

To put it bluntly, they couldn't even beat Duncan's soldiers.

But even rotten fish and shrimp have their uses.

With these informants at the bottom of society, Duncan could react immediately should cultists try to cause trouble in secret.

Tasia looked at Duncan and whispered, "Are you planning to join the Steelcasting Cult?"

Duncan has been going to the prayer room frequently these past few days, so she probably had someone secretly investigating him.

Duncan narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "Hmm."

"Having a church affiliation will make things much easier in the future."

Tasia then looked around and lowered her voice, saying, "If you pass the test, don't choose the mechanical mentor directly."

"I can find a way to help you when the time comes."

Duncan looked slightly surprised, as if waiting for Tasia's explanation.

After a moment of contemplation, Tasia said, "The internal workings of the Steelcasting Cult cannot be explained in just a few words."

"All you need to know is that some high-ranking monks in the Steelcasting Cult will imprint their minds on their apprentices. Once you have that mind imprint, you'll be completely at their mercy."

Is there such a thing?

Seeing Duncan's surprised look, Tasia smiled wryly and said, "It's not just the Steelcasting Cult that does this; the Insight Cult will also implant a chip in your brain."

"Especially those apprentices who have been trained by mechanical mentors with a great deal of effort."

"They will treat their apprentices as their private property!"

Generally speaking, the more a mechanical priest rises from the bottom of society, the more likely he is to be controlled by his mechanical mentor. However, the cult of mechanical gods also has its own internal operating rules, which usually involve setting traps for you through loan contracts.

For example, a mechanical engineer might perform some kind of prosthetic limb modification on you, but if you can't afford the expensive costs, you might sign a decades-long contract of servitude.

Those who join the Cult of the Machine God without fully understanding what is happening may find themselves completely controlled by others.

As long as you are willing to put in the effort.

If you're in the Cult of Insight, the Mechanical Sages will modify you to be extremely advanced, replacing your body with machinery. Whether you'll still obey their commands will no longer be up to you.

Seeing Duncan's thoughtful expression, Tasia continued, "There are no problems with advancement through the normal channels in the Cult of Machine God."

"But just remember, there's no such thing as a free lunch here."

"Any good intention comes with an ulterior motive!"

Upon hearing this, Duncan suddenly smiled, stared at Tasia in front of him, and slowly said, "Including you?"

“Of course,” Tasia nodded readily, “including me.”

"I'm still counting on you to turn things around!"

Before leaving, Tasia told Duncan some good news: they had obtained the Trail Blazers' license, which meant they had become mercenaries in the Nest City world.

In the afternoon.

Duncan went to the prayer room again, a place he was now quite adept at.

It's obvious that fewer people passed the first test today, because those who could pass in the previous days have already passed. For some reason, Duncan feels that the existence of the prayer room is somewhat like letting others brainwash themselves. As long as you come every day, day after day, year after year, you might brainwash yourself into a fanatical believer.

There were only three people this time.

Duncan discovered that the pass rate for the mechanical priests' exam was only about one in ten thousand. Those who passed in the past two days were either assigned to the Guardians of the Church or to the Technical Logistics Department.

Dimensional space, projected below the page.

Duncan completely unleashed his senses and switched to an observer's perspective, directly using a semi-managed method to cheat on the assessment.

This time, he not only recited the mechanical prayer before him, but also secretly mobilized a trace of power.

"Homage to the god of machinery!"

The moment the mechanical prayer was recited, the third human host's fingers touched the steel-cast mark, and he felt a surge of electricity in his body, as if an electrostatic field had appeared inside him.

—"Resonance complete!"

—"Perceptional alignment".

— "Analyzing mechanical prayer!"

Everything on the projected screen began to change. The steel-cast prayers that Duncan saw were no longer characters; they were like circuits engraved on an iron plate. The inscriptions formed runes, like an integrated circuit board. On a complete piece of steel-cast armor, an extremely precise circuit rune was arranged by inscribing mechanical prayers.

"So that's it?!"

Duncan's eyes widened in an instant. As the third human host chanted the mechanical prayer, some kind of magical energy surged into it, causing the steel runes engraved on it to emit a faint glow.

At that moment, beneath the mechanical angel statue opposite, a mechanical priest exclaimed in surprise, "Another promising talent."

"You go and make the arrangements."

Soon, the church deacon standing next to the mechanical priest bowed his head and said, "Yes, sir."

Sometime later, after the third human host finished reciting all the mechanical prayers, the steel armor before them changed.

—"Steel Cast Armor (Artifact): The Cult of Mechanic infuses steel with supernatural power by inscribing mechanical prayers, but it also requires the application of holy oil and activation with devout faith and primal magic. Once fully completed, this steel cast armor is considered a construct artifact."

The mechanical inscription engraved on it is like an integrated circuit, and Duncan has now fully charged it.

At this moment, the church deacon came over and said, "Please come with me."

Led by a church deacon, Duncan walked through a dark corridor and went directly into the underground prayer room. This underground space was much larger than he had imagined, with a series of intersecting passageways and gates leading to unknown destinations.

Duncan felt like he had been walking for quite a while.

Steam billowed out ahead, and the church deacon opened a piston valve, revealing a mechanical prison resembling a sauna.

—Mechanical Acolyte (Four-Star Silver Gray)!

As the steam gradually dissipated, a figure sitting cross-legged appeared in Duncan's line of sight. His upper body was bare, and there were two mechanical interfaces on his back at the position of his shoulder blades, from which silver-gray wires extended, surrounded by leaping arcs of electricity. His hands were self-bound, wrapped in chains engraved with countless steel runes. The ends of the chains resembled nine-section whips, also leaping with eerie blue sparks, directly connected to the electromagnetic shaft at the front of the room.

Crackling!

Amidst the leaping arcs of electricity, the most striking feature was the mechanical acolyte's head. His head was bald, with what appeared to be a layer of melted keratin on top, bearing the marks of welding torches.

Everyone knows about the ordination scars on a monk's head, but the ordination scars on this mechanical acolyte's head are the kind of marks left by electric welding.

The church deacon standing nearby bowed respectfully and said, "Master Qiao."

"These are apprentices who have just passed the assessment."

Arcs of electricity surged into the mechanical acolyte's body. He withdrew his hand, and chains instantly snapped back and wrapped around his waist on his steel-like, silver-gray skin. He slowly raised his head and said in a hoarse voice, "Why were you sent here?"

"Where is Bishop Mendes?"

The church deacon respectfully replied, "His Excellency the bishop has temporarily traveled to District F43, where it is said that lost ancient ruins have been discovered."

Master Qiao slowly opened his eyes.

His eyes had completely melted, the sockets now containing a glassy structure, like molten glass. The mechanical acolyte turned to look at Duncan, a slight look of surprise on his face, and said, "Not bad talent!"

"Come with me."

Duncan was an ordinary person in his previous life. He became a genius, one in a million, by relying on the foundation accumulated by his first human host.

But this world has hundreds of billions of people. A genius who is one in ten thousand is merely considered to have good talent in the eyes of the mechanical acolyte. If someone is an outstanding individual among a hundred million people, it might actually shock him.

Duncan followed the other person into the secret room at the back.

A servant of the Mechanical Church entered. He was also dressed as a monk, but looked like an ordinary person with normal skin color. He handed over a tool and said softly, "This is for removing body hair."

"None of them can be left behind."

Ok?
Shave it all off?

The church servant kindly asked, "Do you need my help?"

Duncan immediately declined: "No, thank you."

The whole process took only about ten minutes. Duncan even shaved off his eyebrows, which made him feel very uncomfortable. Then he took off his clothes and entered the room naked. There was a pool in front of the rising steam. As soon as he entered, he smelled a mixture of engine oil and spices.

On either side of him, attendants from the Mechanical Church were applying holy oil to Duncan. One was a man and the other a woman. It was a bit awkward to see the woman applying the holy oil to him, but the man doing so was rather unsettling.

The mechanical acolyte clasped its hands together toward the shrine beside it. Inside the shrine was a statue that resembled Vajrapani, very similar to the Buddha statue in Duncan's memory, but its entire body was covered in cast steel armor, and the vajra it held had been replaced by a heavy gun. The rosary was engraved with cast steel runes, carved into the shape of metal skulls.

This is one of the Vajrasattvas under the throne of the steel-cast angel, originating from the esoteric school of Buddhism in the East.

The product of the fusion of esoteric Buddhist monks.

After the Mechanicus unified its beliefs, many godlike beings had different mechanical aspects, and even some demigods worshipped by ancient esotericists were incorporated into the Mechanicus belief system.

The mechanical acolyte slowly removed a transistor the size of a fingernail from beneath the shrine.

—"Nanomechanical Modification Fluid (Artifact): A nanotechnology artifact developed by the Cult of Mechanism. When injected into the body, the nanoscale construct will affect the entire person's metabolism, strengthen bones, muscles, and blood, immunize against common diseases, and gradually improve adaptability to the environment."

During subsequent advancements, these nanostructures dissolve into the skeleton, causing the mechanical priest's skeleton to gradually undergo a metallic transformation.

(warn!)

(After being injected with this artifact, you will slowly transform into a racial template that is half-human and half-construct.)
(If you cannot control its power, you may suffer a backlash and be transformed into a mindless mechanical being.)
Strands of electric arcs leaped.

The mechanical acolyte stared at Duncan before him and said slowly, "Are you ready, young man?"

Duncan nodded slowly.

With the help of church attendants on both sides, Duncan was completely immersed in the holy pool, and he felt like he was about to choke to death from the engine oil!

next second.

The mechanical acolyte moved with lightning speed, so fast that it was impossible to see, and directly injected the nanomechanical modification fluid into his body.

The heart starts pumping!
At that moment, Duncan felt as if his heart was a turbine. As the nanomechanical modification fluid entered his bloodstream, his heartbeat became faster and faster. These extremely tiny nanoscale constructs seeped into his limbs and bones, affecting the genetic structure at the cellular level.

Meanwhile, on the projection page in dimensional space.

Duncan caught a glimpse of a massive phantom, a construct resembling a light-cast crystal. It was constructed from crystalline rhomboid patterns, its interior resembling a complex matrix, while its exterior somewhat resembled the Naaru, a deity worshipped by the Draenei, hovering above the black obelisk.

The prototype of these nanomechanical modification fluids comes from Him, a special substance that can slowly transform flesh and blood into machinery.

He is a pure construct, composed of countless tiny molecular-level machines.

what is that?
Is he the earthly vessel of the God of Machines? Or the earthly vessel of some angel?
Duncan has always had a question in his mind: is the God of Machines worshipped by the Cult of Machines a powerful being who has acquired the divine office of 'machines', or is He simply a conceptual deity similar to an upgraded form of artificial intelligence?

There must be a reason why the seven guardian angels simultaneously betrayed the god of machinery.

………………

(End of this chapter)