Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 383 - 140: Harvest, Disguise

Chen Ming stepped forward quickly.

He picked up the Mind Fluctuation Generator fitted with the Whispering Stone.

Although this thing appeared somewhat damaged, as long as it remained a machine, it could be repaired without much issue.

However, Chen Ming noticed that the Whispering Stone inside seemed to have a problem.

Now, the Whispering Stone only maintained its appearance intact.

But when Chen Ming just attempted to take the Whispering Stone out, the entire stone shattered instantly, leaving him with a handful of dust.

And, a peculiar substance that was neither gas nor liquid suddenly seeped into Chen Ming’s palm, emitting spiritual energy fluctuation.

This seemed to be a substance known as Spiritual Energy Essence.

Chen Ming began to recall in his mind.

When he first received the Whispering Stone, it was around the time his spiritual energy had grown, and he had mastered the ability to disassemble.

So Chen Ming took a glance at the confirmation panel for disassembling the Whispering Stone back then.

It displayed the items that could be obtained after disassembling.

Aside from the ordinary stone material, the only thing that the Whispering Stone could be disassembled into was this Spiritual Energy Essence.

Chen Ming originally thought that the Spiritual Energy Essence would be something more substantial, not expecting it to be such an existence.

Even more unexpected was that it was directly absorbed by his skin.

Chen Ming loosely clenched his hand a few times without any special feeling.

Neither his spiritual energy nor Spiritual Power increased, and he didn’t feel anything strange; the spiritual energy also didn’t give any sense of danger.

It was as if what just happened hadn’t occurred, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Chen Ming didn’t worry too much; after all, he didn’t feel any danger, no threat to his life.

If it really comes to it, he could ask the boss later.

For now, only the loss of the Whispering Stone left him somewhat distressed.

Luckily, the Delusion Stone nearby seemed to be fine.

The Spiritual Stone itself retained its strength, even more so because the Delusion Stone was essentially a Resonating Spiritual Stone.

So it was because this Whispering Stone was relatively small, with weaker spiritual energy fluctuation, inherently more fragile, that it was destroyed in the last desperate attempt of the distorted flesh to absorb the Spiritual Stone to survive.

But agonizing over it now was useless; at least one stone was preserved.

And the exterior of the G3 core beside it seemed fine too.

Equivalent to exchanging the Whispering Stone for an Alpha Core, unclear if it was a loss or gain.

Besides, Chen Ming was really curious whether the last curse was influenced by G3 on the distorted flesh, or it was the distorted flesh itself talking.

So his hand, originally reaching for the Delusion Stone, turned to the G3 core, and he controlled it.

Chen Ming directly opened the Alpha Level core panel.

But looking at the data on the panel, he suddenly frowned.

[Dusk Alpha Level AI Core]

[Manufacturer: Dusk BP-55 Colony Extreme Northern Industrial Production Center]

[Self-consciousness: None]

[Computational Power: None]

[Executable Operation: Modification]

The core panel didn’t display the name of the individual inside, namely the "G3".

The big "None" following the self-consciousness section completely took Chen Ming by surprise.

Chen Ming was certain this must be G3’s core, otherwise, there was no reason for the distorted flesh to bother inserting this core into its body.

It even kept carrying it after being chopped up and sent to the institute as a flesh wall.

Moreover, Dusk surely wouldn’t bother arranging two Alpha Level Dusk near him; one G3 was more than enough.

Adding another Dusk individual posed an additional risk of being contacted by Chen Ming.

Even the excuse of a spare core wasn’t very convincing.

If G3 really was touched by Chen Ming, what would be the point of replacing it with a new core?

Which individual would dare truthfully trust G3?

So this core must belong to G3, no doubt about it.

However, although the core’s exterior was undamaged and the panel didn’t indicate damage, where was G3?

Chen Ming’s mind was full of questions.

He wondered if it’s possible that G3 had transferred out of this core and hid inside a piece of equipment at the institute?

Chen Ming quickly shared his situation with Brilliant through his consciousness.

But Brilliant responded to Chen Ming’s speculation with a negative answer: "Our Alpha Level entities are enormous on the data level; transferring between different cores is extremely difficult."

"If physical damage to the core occurs, transferring between different cores would take at least a week, and this time increases with the enhancement of the entity’s own capability."

Brilliant’s response further confirmed Chen Ming’s suspicion.

An Alpha Level Dusk entity requires a week to transfer; Dusk is even less likely to prepare a second core.

Still, there are things he must clarify: "Is there a fixed device that can temporarily store a Dusk entity?"

"No, since their creation from Kleitka, all our entities can only exist within cores of different levels."

"Outside of the core, our consciousness cannot survive in any equipment environments."

"If G3 isn’t in the core, it simply no longer exists."

Brilliant spoke plainly, yet Chen Ming felt something seemed off in Brilliant’s words.

Only cores can support the existence of consciousness, other equipment cannot.

Indicating that Dusk’s consciousness relying on cores requires their very design to have this functionality.