Warhammer: Don't Call Me the God of All Machines

Chapter 410: Taking an Unconventional Path

"It's been too long. The Butcher's Nail has replaced more than one-third of his brain tissue. If it weren't for this damn vicious technology that is maintaining the life of the war dog, I'm afraid he would have died long ago."

Roche and Sage Rand nervously operated the equipment and conducted physical examinations on 193 War Dog Astartes.

These speechless war dogs silently endured the pain of the butcher's nails. They did not make a sound even when a medical cutting saw was used to cut open their skulls, and then a narrow metal probe was inserted into the cranial cavity to slowly obtain brain tissue for testing.

Because of the existence of the Butcher's Nails, conventional anesthetics are completely ineffective on them, and their nerves are always in a state of extreme excitement.

As Rand Sage controlled the metal needles to touch the distorted brain tissue eroded by the tendrils of the Butcher's Nail, the war dogs were even able to calmly answer Rand Sage's different questions.

The naked body of the war dog lay on the cold silver metal table. The dense and cruel scars were as dense as a spider web, and the black neural interface was particularly eye-catching.

That is the mark of their meritorious service. Every war dog that survived to this day is a true veteran of hundreds of battles.

The Stoneman assistants assisted in the inspection. They covered the war dog's body with a layer of white cloth, while the other Black Shield warriors fell into deep silence at the same time, silently looking at their fighting brothers.

Hal showed no expression at all, he knew that to his brother, this pain was not worth mentioning.

Even dying on an operating table is better than being tortured to death by butcher's nails.

The brain tissue samples taken from the war dog's head were sent for testing, and the collected data were entered into the intelligent brain model by the stone people for analysis and simulation to obtain the most perfect solution.

The precision of this examination and surgery has reached the cellular level. They must ensure that when removing the Butcher's Nail, the damage to the existing brain tissue is minimized.

"No, the Butcher's Nails are resisting our attempts, damn it!"

Suddenly, the Butcher's Nails in a war dog's brain twitched violently, and those thin cables seemed to come alive and wriggle madly, as if the frightened death worms were fighting back.

Immediately afterwards, the war dog's originally peaceful expression and even chest rise and fall suddenly became rapid. Veins popped out on his face, his muscles were tautly tangled together, and one could even hear the sound of his hard teeth biting and colliding violently.

A trace of deep pity and extreme hatred for the Butcher's Nail flashed in Luo Xi's eyes.

He hated how this blasphemous and vicious art of humanity tortured a loyal and brave war dog. The malice of humans towards their fellow men was sometimes no less than their hatred for aliens.

If there is no external threat, human beings will often start fighting among themselves and thus decline.

Sage Rand quickly retracted the probing metal probe from the brain, and the stimulated Butcher's Nails tortured their hosts as if to punish and vent their anger.

The Black Shield Warrior was shaking with anger, but he still tried his best to control his strength and hold down his fighting brother who was shaking in pain.

Emperor, if you have mercy on us - please grant us release.

Some people prayed silently in their hearts, longing for their brothers to be freed from the slavery of the Butcher's Nails.

"These damn nails are not dead objects. They have psychic reactions. Perhaps in a sense, they have extremely primitive and pure consciousness."

Rand analyzed calmly. In fact, he had studied the original Butcher's Nails with the Emperor as early as when Angron was found. The frustrating thing was that even Ohm Messiah himself said that he could remove the Butcher's Nails, but he could do nothing about the damage to the brain after the Butcher's Nails were removed.

"The Butcher's Nail has been constantly strengthening its perception of anger and killing. Its primitive consciousness will stimulate the host when it performs actions and thoughts that conform to the settings, and it will actively release various hormone compounds, making the host more violent."

"In addition, this ghost thing has an extremely keen reaction to psychic energy. It seems that it is born to hate psychics. Once it discovers the existence of a psychic, it will urge the host to launch a killing counterattack."

Luo Xi was also troubled by the Butcher's Nail's stubbornness. If the Butcher's Nail began to enter a stress state as soon as they sensed their removal surgery, how could the operation proceed? He had a way to deal with the trauma after removing the Butcher's Nail, but during the removal, the Butcher's Nail might stress and kill the host.

He and Sage Rand looked at each other and took a deep breath in tacit understanding.

If this is the case, there may be another way, but it requires taking an unconventional approach.

Wearing a white protective suit, Luo Xi looked at the display screen next to the operating table and explained to Hal the current situation of the peeling operation.

“Just do it.”

Hal's voice was a little hoarse. Although he had not been branded with the Butcher's Nails, his cold anger was no weaker than those battle brothers who had been branded with the Butcher's Nails.

He could even transform his anger into cold hatred, and then use hatred to maintain his clarity and rationality.

In this case, Luo Xi let go completely. He and Sage Rand both thought of one thing - the thought stamp they had just analyzed.

The difficulty of the Butcher's Nail operation lies mostly in the extremely sensitive self-awareness of this blasphemous technological creation. It is not some dead object that can be easily removed, but a being with simple consciousness.

Roche considered that if the Butcher's Nail was removed, the huge brain tissue defect left behind could be repaired through the self-replication of nanorobots. These extremely tiny machines could scan existing brain circuits and cell structures and regenerate the damaged parts according to the original context.

It's like a dilapidated tile house with even the roof collapsed, and the nanorobots are like building it up again along the skeleton of the house.

Of course, the premise is that the Butcher's Nails will not resist extremely, rebel or even directly destroy the host's brain.

These ghosts are extremely resistant to being separated from their hosts, so when they discover that Roche and Rand want to remove the Butcher's Nails, they immediately begin to resist.

"It's difficult to handle because it has consciousness, but it's precisely because of this that it gives us an opportunity."

"This is its difficulty and also its weakness. We now have an excellent tool to deal with sentient beings."

For objects with consciousness, even something like a butcher's nail, the thought stamp can work.

This was a crazy idea, and Roche and Rand intended to put their ideological stamp on the Butcher's Nail.

The Butcher's Nails' original instinctive logical reaction was to control the host, inducing him to continue killing and violence, and to release horrific pain in the host's brain to generate anger.

This damn nail craves for blood and death, and the host can only satisfy its desire by constantly killing and bleeding. This is its underlying logic.

Since it has logic, everything can be modified. In the face of the stamp of thought, the self-consciousness of the Butcher's Nail will face the possibility of being covered up.

But no one has ever done this before. Even things like thought stamps have just been analyzed and are still in the experimental stage.

Luo Xi didn't know what would happen when the thought stamp was implanted into the Butcher's Nail, but they had no other choice.

The condition of these war dogs is not good. The Butcher's Nails may make them completely out of control at any time and take their lives!
"The Butcher's Nails emphasizes violence and killing, and is an emotion of extreme anger and pain."

"In that case, let's put peace and tranquility, and a calm and rational mindset on the butcher's nails."

Using the opposite ideological stamp to neutralize the brutality of the Butcher's Nails is Roche's solution.

(End of this chapter)