Chapter 551

After seriously listening to Apheta 00’s explanation of the situation, Prince Andre nodded and then replied with a smile: “According to the Execution King Assembly’s claims, this Chief of the Scorpio Division’s level, though not yet at the Pillar Deity tier, is already very close. In terms of the Clearing Bureau’s standards, that’s roughly equivalent to a near 70 Leon Value.”

“And the materials you have in hand are merely the flesh of some long-dead ordinary True Gods, which differ greatly from human bodies. The best quality ones have just barely surpassed the 60 Leon Value mark, so it’s not your fault that they can’t fully repair the damage.”

“…”

Is today’s Andre being a bit too easygoing? After hearing the actual condition of the Scorpion Bureau Director’s body, Apheta 00 felt awkward as Andre maintained a good attitude and even voluntarily excused her.

A kind of instinct different from Mechanical Intelligence calculations, something left over from the human brain, was wildly warning her. This abnormal situation, if not addressed, might lead to something unpleasant for herself.

“Actually, there are also some defects in his soul.”

Unconsciously clenching her fists, Apheta 00 said without showing any emotion:

“You know, his soul strength differs fundamentally from all the previous experimental subjects. My soul encoding technology cannot perfectly analyze such a powerful soul.

So both his soul and body are alike; if that Leon truly forces him to unleash his full power or causes excessive stimulation, his soul could break free from the control of the soul encoding.”

“Hmm, you mentioned this before.”

Nodding again, Prince Andre calmly stated: “I remember you proposed a solution, right? If his soul breaks free from control, immediately disrupt the soul encoding, plunging him into a 24-hour slumber, and then reawaken him once the soul stabilizes…

What’s wrong? Is there a problem with this additional safety valve?”

“This one doesn’t… have any issues…”

“That’s all then.”

Smiling toward Apheta 00, Prince Andre spoke:

“Since you’ve done your best, whatever the final result may be, I won’t blame you… By the way.”

At this point, Prince Andre seemed to recall something and curiously asked the somewhat uneasy Apheta 00: “Weren’t you always calculating my chances of victory using the Mechanical Intelligence’s computational power? What’s the current probability?”

“Uh… about a sixty-forty split.”

Feeling uneasy, Apheta 00 instinctively took half a step back and then explained:

“The last time it was seventy-thirty, but His Royal Highness Prince Leon’s strength is stronger than I initially judged. Additionally, the Scorpion Bureau Director’s condition isn’t great, so your odds slightly decreased, but you still have around a sixty percent chance, which is higher than Prince Leon.”

“I see.”

Prince Andre nodded noncommittally and smiled.

“I do trust the probabilities you calculate, but did the shift from seventy-thirty to sixty-forty happen because the Scorpion Bureau Director’s condition worsened, or because you’re planning to completely side with Prince Leon?”

“?! He knows?!” Upon hearing Andre’s inquiry, Apheta 00 couldn’t help but feel a sudden shock in her heart. She then smiled and counter-asked: “My dear Andre, your aunt loves you very much. How could you have such strange thoughts? You…”

“Rest assured, I don’t mean to blame you.”

Interrupting Apheta 00, Prince Andre smiled and said with an air of ease: “Though you didn’t have good intentions, your contact with him was something I tacitly allowed. Otherwise, I could have directly ordered you with the Time Sharing Scepter not to interact with him, right?”

In Apheta 00’s expression filled with doubt, Prince Andre walked to the corner of the room, retrieved a drawing board from the cabinet, set it up, and began sketching something on it while calmly asking: “Although I thought you might collaborate with him since I did confine you for many years, it’s normal for you to harbor resentment towards me, and it’s even more normal for you to want to team up with someone else to overthrow me.

But from some details of your ‘collaboration,’ it seems he’s the main planner, and you seem entirely under his control, being led by him from start to finish. So…”

After making a few strokes on the old canvas pinned to the drawing board, Prince Andre looked up again and asked curiously:

“Aunt Artefact, has he somehow gotten leverage over you?”

?!?! Seeing Andre’s curious eyes, Apheta 00 suddenly felt a chill down her spine.

The “leverage” she had been caught by was the truth about the incident years ago, and worse still, she wasn’t entirely innocent in that matter.

Phelia and Andre’s “illness” was real, but apart from sacrificing Phelia, there were other ways to solve the problem—regularly damaging parts of these two children’s brains according to the structure of ordinary people’s brains.

This process would be painful, accompanied by periodic memory loss and intermittent physical coordination problems, with aftereffects possibly lasting until their thirties or even throughout their lives. But it would indeed allow both children to survive.

However, she didn’t want Phelia’s extraordinary talent to be wasted, so she deliberately transferred several scholars capable of proposing and completing this plan more than a year in advance. As a result, Fein could only choose between the two, ultimately turning Phelia into Apheta 01.

If Andre found out about this…

“It seems like it’s a secret you can’t tell me.”

Staring into Apheta’s eyes and detecting a certain resolution within them, Prince Andre helplessly paused his brush, furrowing his brows slightly.

“Your expression tells me that if I force you to answer with the Time Sharing Scepter, you’d rather violate the rules of soul encoding and risk temporary ‘shutdown’ due to disobeying my order than confess to me.”

“Yes.”

After taking a deep breath, Apheta 00’s expression calmed again, and she smiled at Andre: “Andre, everyone has secrets they don’t want others to know. Learning not to pry into these things is an unspoken rule among adults. Not touching others’ secrets benefits you, me, and everyone.”

“Heh.”

Upon hearing Apheta’s words, Andre couldn’t help but chuckle lightly and said humorously:

“Interesting. Father mentioned that you’ve always detested worldly formalities like ‘unscientific’ things, but who would have thought you’d end up saying something like this one day.”

“…”

“Alright, since you don’t want to say, I’ll guess myself.”

Holding the brush and outlining a few strokes, with just a few lines, he sketched Apheta 00’s figure on the corner of the canvas. Then, amidst Apheta 00’s rather unpleasant expression, Prince Andre continued without looking up:

“Aunt Artefact, the thing you’d rather trigger the soul encoding and get forcibly shut down than tell me—wouldn’t it be related to the ‘two-out-of-one’ choice involving me and Phelia back then?”

(End of Chapter)