Chapter 504

What? After hearing Leon’s idea, Phelia’s originally precise and smooth soul suddenly experienced an extremely strange pause, as if a pile of sand had been poured into a group of tightly meshed gears, causing them to seize up almost completely.

What… does it mean that a girl as cute as you would definitely cry for a long time after getting hit? I was so polite to him, very cute, and always respectful, so why did he punch me? What was his motive for doing such a thing? What was the purpose behind his words? Where is the logic in all this? What kind of response should I give? How should humans react?

And while Princess Phelia didn’t know how to respond, her expression completely froze. At that moment, from twenty-three blocks away, in a certain underground structure buried deep beneath a lake, there was a thunderous sound as if ten thousand maids had simultaneously stomped their hooves.

“?!?”

“What’s going on?”

“Did Artefact 01 start calculating?”

Noticing the abnormal operation of Mechanical Intelligence No. 1, which seemed to be performing some very difficult calculations, the humans who were previously busy with their own tasks immediately became alert. They stopped what they were doing and surged toward the largest control panel in the main hall like ants.

Behind the massive glass wall in the main hall, the super-giant mechanism encased in a strange gel-like substance and submerged in lake water began operating at a terrifying speed.

In this enormous machine, which stood over fifteen meters tall on average and covered nearly two football fields, countless metal connecting rods as thin as hair quickly pushed forward according to sixteen notches cut into them, driving hundreds of billions of gears at its end to spin rapidly.

The tiny gears, each about the size of a grain of rice, momentarily paused every sixty-fourth of a second, invisible to the naked eye. During these brief pauses, the grooves that were in contact with the precision gears briefly opened, touching the dot matrix grids responsible for recording data and leaving rows of pricks much finer than needle points…

“What’s going on?!”

Seeing that nearly one-fifth of the area of the giant machine had been activated, the scholars who rushed over immediately surrounded the main control panel and launched a furious condemnation against the fifty-odd operators who looked utterly confused.

“Halt it immediately! Do you know how much energy is consumed by one second of calculation in this state!”

“Who requested the calculation permissions for Artefact 01? Damn it, the storage wheels and dot matrices are being consumed too fast!”

“Speak up! What exactly are you bastards calculating!”

“Quiet down!”

Picking up a chair nearby that had been knocked over, the middle-aged man with white temples and a half-mechanical clock embroidered on his collar slammed it twice against the side of the metallic instrument panel. With the loud noise suppressing the scholars’ complaints, he angrily shouted: “Shut up! Listen to me first!”

“No one applied for Artefact’s calculation today! The current computation was initiated by itself!”

By Artefact itself? After hearing the explanation from the duty supervisor, the scholars couldn’t help but exchange puzzled looks, but instead of quieting down, they erupted into even more intense arguments.

“There’s no way! With Artefact’s computing power, even recording the scales of every fish in this lake wouldn’t be this strenuous!”

“That’s right. Last time, when we calculated the travel data of 1.3 million people, the activation level was only a third of what it is now!”

“Could it be that ‘Determine the Basic Elements of the World’ project again?”

“It shouldn’t be. Didn’t they say that under current conditions, a complete calculation isn’t possible, so they stopped after calculating just over sixty?”

“Everyone, shut up!”

After yelling a few times and shooing away some of the scholars, the supervisor returned to the control panel and questioned Artefact 01 to find out what it was calculating.

After a few seconds of delay, the motion speed of the mechanical device behind the glass wall finally slowed down a bit. Then, through the acoustic copper pipes on both sides of the instrument panel, came a synthesized voice of a human female around thirteen or fourteen years old.

“Question: What is the motivation behind a psychologically stable male human attacking a cute young female without provocation and attempting to calculate the duration of her crying?”

???

What the hell kind of question is this?

Hearing the vividly simulated tone of confusion from Artefact 01, the remaining scholars at the main control panel couldn’t help but exchange puzzled glances.

Unprovoked attacks on cute young females and listening to how long they cry… Isn’t that just an animalistic behavior? Are you sure this thing is mentally healthy? “I might know the reason…”

Just as the group of scholars, averaging over forty years old, were collectively stumped by Artefact 01’s question, a female scholar in her twenties in the corner of the main hall hesitantly raised her hand.

“I guess it could also be a form of affection… right?”

Under the gaze of all the big shots, the female scholar with the lowest rank badge hanging from her chest blushed and said shyly: “My sister gave birth last year, and when I saw the baby’s chubby little face, I couldn’t help but want to pinch it secretly… I think it might be for this reason…”

No content inside the book!

A form of affection? After hearing the young female scholar’s guess, the other scholars in the main hall recalled and then showed expressions of sudden realization.

Indeed, they seemed to have done similar things before. When they saw particularly cute children, they really did have a strange urge to tease or bully them a bit.

Noticing the approving expressions of the scholars, Artefact finally stopped its frantic calculations, and the huge machine behind the glass wall fell silent once more.

Then, twenty-three blocks away, Princess Phelia, who had been standing motionless on the roadside for quite a while, tilted her delicately made-up little face and smiled shyly at Leon as she wrinkled her nose.

“Thank you for your affection, but please don’t do this.”

“???”

You’re going to hit me, and you thank me? And you look embarrassed? Watching Phelia regain her original mechanical precision after a brief period of chaos, her soul losing its “human touch,” Leon couldn’t help but frown and confirmed his suspicion.

The royal family of the Crocodile Kingdom has truly been completely controlled. That Artefact 01 might have found a way to use anomalous items, influencing the souls of the royal members.

Thinking about this, Leon couldn’t help but feel pity as he glanced at Princess Phelia.

What a good child, obedient, cute, and polite, yet ended up being controlled by an anomalous item. This definitely needs help. As for how to help…

Recalling how Phelia lost her mechanical precision earlier after his deliberate provocation and started to behave like a normal human, Leon’s eyes flashed with a look of enlightenment.

She needs to be stimulated! She needs to be heavily stimulated!(End of Chapter)