# Chapter 14: Toward a New World 6100
Blood, rust, oil, and the fermented smell of food flooded into the sensory ports.
Joshua activated his optical observation circuits, and the soul scanning lens charged up. Accompanied by a faint hum and a snowy screen, the world became clear in his eyes. The warrior saw a black ceiling, walls with stains, and the body of an old man collapsed before him.
He pushed aside the six mechanical arms that were clearly used for repairs, controlling his current body as he stepped down from the workbench. The man stood on the floor of the workshop cluttered with debris and parts, lost in thought.
"Puppet body."
He muttered to himself, then scanned his entire form: red-black warning paint, a humanoid torso, severely damaged external armor, a large hole in the abdomen revealing chaotic steel parts and flickering electric sparks. He could sense a strong magical reaction at the damaged armor.
This was a humanoid puppet slightly taller than an ordinary person, with a streamlined body and smooth joints, somewhat resembling the human anatomy models from biology class.
"Soul core injection detected... SNVA-2 Harvester-type basic structure severely damaged, awaiting repair technician for part replacement. After repairs are completed, proceed to the eastern farming zone second defense line for combat operations."
Weak electromagnetic signals vibrated with strange soul fluctuations, emanating from a device built into the body's interior.
"This is getting interesting..." Using a Steel Shard to replace what this puppet called its "soul core," Joshua analyzed the electromagnetic signals and soul fluctuations coming from within and couldn't help but find it amusing: "I've descended into the body of a mechanical construct?"
Could it be that the World Will of Siberia considered his life form closest to this kind of steel puppet?
That's really unfair—I'm clearly human.
Thinking this, Joshua turned to look at the body of the old man beside him. The man had died not long ago, and his soul seemed to be dissipating. However, because of Joshua's presence, that fragile soul began to drift toward the Soul Abyss, eventually merging into Joshua. Skillfully accepting this seemingly broken soul, he couldn't help but sigh: "Forget it, a robot is fine."
There was a ready-made male body of a humanoid intelligent life form right next to him, but in the end, instinct had chosen the mechanical body. This proved that his own life form had indeed surpassed humanity, differing from most carbon-based life forms. Walking the path of Legendary gradually led to this kind of trouble.
"But the energy level of this world... doesn't seem like a small world."
Using the power granted by the Steel Shard, Joshua supported his damaged mechanical body and approached the corpse. Without a doubt, the intelligent life forms of this world—let's call them "Siberians"—possessed souls. According to the research results Joshua had confirmed with the Old Pope not long ago, souls were extraordinary organs that only appeared in worlds with a great surplus of free energy.
Moreover, the ambient magical energy in the air was not insignificant. According to world classification standards, Siberia World was at least a medium-magic world.
Without a doubt, all the information about the Steel Serpent Siberia was outdated.
He slowly lifted the body that had collapsed in the pool of coagulating blood and placed it on a nearby bed. Joshua observed the dead man and immediately noticed the large hole that went straight through his head, as well as the welding torch he still held tightly even in death. He understood that this man had committed suicide, though the reason was unknown for now.
"Sixth repair bay, repair technician. Status: deceased. Soul has dissipated. Transport body to medical area."
Just as Joshua was carefully observing the corpse, a weak electromagnetic signal came through, seemingly instructing the puppet he had possessed to complete its task.
Ignoring this information, the warrior shook his head, feeling a bit regretful... If the Steel Shard had descended into this body, Joshua might have been able to read the memories in the man's brain using his powerful soul. But now that he had possessed a construct, things were a bit troublesome. To find information about his current environment, the warrior scanned the entire repair bay. He noticed the bookshelves filled with books and naturally spotted the bloodstained diary on the workbench.
He approached the workbench and began flipping through the diary.
The language of the diary was recorded in the information transmitted by the Steel Serpent—it was the language of a small country in central Siberia World. Although there were some vocabulary variations, everything was within an acceptable range. At first, Joshua flipped through it mechanically, but when he reached the middle, the mechanical construct's hand paused for a moment. The warrior continued reading, and the construct's flipping speed grew slower and slower until finally, Joshua reached the last page and finished reading the entire diary.
"...Farming zone, Garden zone... Soul puppets, humans like puppets, and soul cores."
By now, Joshua knew that he had descended into a Harvester-type soul puppet used to suppress the "Farming zone," and the body before him was the technician who maintained the puppets. Frowning, the warrior stared at the body of the nameless technician. This dazed man, after awakening, had spent twenty years waiting alone in servitude, yet still held onto hope. He knew he was destined to die, but he chose the day of his death himself, refusing to let anyone else decide his fate.
"Brave one."
Reaching out, he closed the man's unshut eyes. Joshua placed the diary on the man's chest and began to summarize the known information.
From the diary, he could roughly deduce that he was currently in an area called the "Garden zone," which was surrounded by a vast "Farming zone." The Garden zone housed the best repair technicians and doctors, as well as the most elite soul puppets. Their only task was to complete their work and take care of the "children."
The "children" ranged in age from newborns to nearly sixteen. Those over sixteen would be taken away by soul puppets and sent to the medical area. These children were brought from all directions of the Farming zone—not many, but not few either. It seemed not all children were sent to the Garden zone for cultivation.
For example, the nameless technician's work log initially placed him in the Farming zone. It was only later, after improving his skills, that he entered the Garden zone.
The Garden zone did not engage in production; it was a place to be served, and what served it was the vast Farming zone. The Farming zone consisted of enormous fields and pastures where countless people labored, producing massive quantities of grain and meat. Some of the plants were used to supply the Garden zone, while the rest were sent far away.
Speaking of this, Joshua recalled what he had seen while still in the air above the Siberia continent: a barren land of sandstone and yellow-green plains, dotted with sparse patches of green. Now he realized those green patches might have been the Farming zone. Visible clearly from such a high altitude, those green farmlands should be enough to sustain a population of millions.
"Turning intelligent life into puppets, farming souls, extracting 'superpower units'... rebels who can control magic, a giant tower at the world's center... How has this world survived for over a thousand years?"
Neither the nameless technician nor the Steel Serpent Siberia knew much about this world. The nameless technician, through the damaged puppets occasionally sent in, speculated that there was a group of rebels outside the Farming zone. Joshua confirmed this through the tasks announced by electromagnetic signals. Beyond that, he knew nothing about this world.
But that didn't matter. The warrior loosened the joints of his current body. He had plenty of opportunities to observe this world.
Joshua was not the nameless technician, who didn't even have the strength to walk out of the repair bay corridor. That man had waited twenty years, only able to sneak out during puppet shift changes to observe. Joshua, on the other hand, could walk freely wherever he wanted, following his own will.
The warrior's goal was to find out why the World Will had been expelled. According to Joshua's intuition, this matter was definitely related to the spiral giant tower at the world's center... Even if it wasn't, that tower was the most important landmark in this world and was certainly significant. Most of the grain from the Farming zone was transported away, and he suspected it was sent toward that giant tower.
Controlling his mechanical body, he approached the bookshelf. Joshua felt no discomfort—in fact, he felt very relaxed. This body was far lighter than his original form, giving the warrior, who was used to weights of millions of tons, a floating sensation. With this strange illusion, Joshua pulled a book from the shelf, rubbed its cover, and flipped through its contents.
The book contained knowledge about soul puppets. If some alchemical engineering sorcerer had come here and read these books, they might have exclaimed in excitement, because this was a path completely different from the puppets of Mycroft World. It took a unique approach from the soul's perspective, creating constructs with high autonomy and intelligence. The key to this technology was the soul core.
"Because creating artificial souls requires too many resources, they directly use the souls of living people and modify them..."
Just by skimming through, Joshua could understand the true nature of the so-called soul core: it was the soul of a living person, transformed into a mechanical program through some special means! Souls naturally possess powerful computational abilities, capable of replacing the biological brain. With a little modification, they could easily serve as the control center of a puppet!
With Joshua's mental fortitude, he wasn't affected by such things. He had seen countless rituals of cultists, witnessed mad collective suicides and feasts of mutual consumption. He had been to hell and the abyss, personally slaughtered demons, and extracted and modified living souls. Such things were not uncommon—not just among demons, but even among some necromancers.
But those were done by chaotic Evil God worshipers, evil necromancers, and chaotic abyssal demons... Those beings did such things on a whim. But this world had systematized it, forming an industrial chain—from selection, offering, cultivation, to harvesting—everything was too perfect and natural. This had formed a society whose main purpose was harvesting souls.
In other words—this was an order.
Joshua closed the book. It wasn't that he didn't want to continue reading, but because the wound on his current body's abdomen was emitting bursts of electric current, and warning error messages kept coming through.
"Before exploring the world, I need to repair my vessel first. Without sufficient combat power, everything is empty talk."
The warrior sank his spirit into the Steel Shard, began to mobilize its power, and thoroughly scanned his current body.
The body was made of a unique inert metal alloy, possessing strong corrosion resistance and flexibility. In comparison, the melting point of this alloy was only average, and its strength was mid-to-high. The overall design of the soul puppet was well thought out, with excellent performance—it could serve as a design reference if brought back to Mycroft Continent. But now, its abdomen had been pierced by some kind of magical attack, causing most of its functions to be damaged. Joshua was only able to move by forcefully supporting it with his own power.
"Troublesome. Needs careful repair." Joshua mobilized his power. Although his original body wasn't here, his soul could still control part of the Steel Force. With the help of Siberia's Steel Shard, the metal composing the nearby workbench immediately twisted and deformed, as if alive, turning into basketball-sized metal balls that rolled toward the warrior's body.
"If I hadn't descended and this puppet hadn't been repaired, the leaking soul energy would have caused an explosion, at least destroying everything in this repair bay... I wonder if the nameless technician prepared this himself, or if it was an accident."
Joshua, after all, was a powerful being who had mastered the creation of Steel Force. Repairing a construct was child's play for him.
Through soul control, he made the metals in the surrounding space that met the requirements spontaneously gather before him, then directly extracted material from each basketball-sized metal ball to shape parts. The Steel Force operated, and Joshua even began to fuse these metals into a new, stronger alloy for repair and body enhancement.
It could be seen that as each metal ball turned into parts and merged into his body, the soul puppet, which was originally about 189 centimeters tall—only slightly taller than an average person—began to visibly grow larger, becoming tall and robust.
The streamlined construct body began to be covered with a layer of solid, heavy armor. The smooth body joints were fitted with sharp, vicious ramming horns. The round, human-like head began to transform and deform, eventually becoming a helmet-like steel structure. A red prismatic crystal strip ran across the center of the helmet—that was the new observation port, with a red glow flickering inside.
Before long, the enhanced Joshua stood over 2.2 meters tall, and his weight had nearly doubled. As for the original wound, it had long been repaired. Joshua had even completely overhauled the puppet's internal structure and energy engine, allowing him to better exert his power.
At this point, the original soul puppet had completely transformed into a ferocious, towering black-red giant construct that exuded pressure. Protruding ramming horns jutted from his elbows, and sharp metallic blade light flickered along his arms. Following the habits of a certain warrior, his body had become a combat killing machine, vastly different from the original puppet.
This series of modifications took only a few minutes. Joshua sensed the abundant energy from the Steel Shard flowing through his entire body. This puppet body could now exert considerable combat power.
"Time to see what's outside."
With everything prepared, Joshua clenched his hand. Layers of power sufficient to easily snap steel bars and pillars gathered. He felt that his current body should have Gold-rank combat power, enough to handle most troubles in this world.
He walked to the door of the repair bay. Before opening it, Joshua turned his head and glanced at the nameless technician lying on the bed. Then, he turned back, opened the door, and walked out.
Pure white light shone into the dark workshop. Clean air blew away the smell of blood and rust. Joshua stepped into the corridor, and the door behind him slowly closed. The warrior looked up, observing this small world that had trapped the technician for twenty years.
It was a pure white tiled corridor. The left side was a dead end, and the right side led to an exit. The ceiling was lined with bright white lights. There were eight doors on both sides of the corridor, and he was at the sixth door near the outer side.
At the exit on the right side of the corridor, four puppets holding weapons shaped like welding torches—probably what the technician called "Furnace Ray Generators"—seemed to sense something. They all turned their heads simultaneously, looking toward Joshua's direction. Joshua sensed waves of soul fluctuations being emitted by these puppets, scanning his entire body. Soon, two puppets began walking toward Joshua. Holding their ray generators, they approached the warrior and said in a mechanical, emotionless tone: "SNVA-2, you have not completed repairs. Immediately return to the Sixth Rep—"
Crack.
Silently, two enormous hands rose and pressed down on the heads of the two soul puppets. The heavy palms casually tightened, producing the sharp noise of steel grinding against steel... followed by the crisp "crack" of metal breaking and the sharp, twisted sound of steel deforming.
The soul puppets struggled fiercely, swinging their arms and legs, striking the opponent's arms. But after a few seconds, their hands drooped, and they stopped moving, causing the Furnace Ray Generators to fall to the ground.
Joshua, who had crushed the enemy's observation ports with one palm and destroyed their soul cores with energy, threw the two soul puppets—now reduced to trash—to the ground. He picked up a Furnace Ray Generator from the floor, while the other two soul puppets in the distance had already detected the anomaly and turned around.
"SNVA-2, you are attacking the Garden zone repair bay corridor guards. TBeta-34 and TBeta-35 have been destroyed. Confirming SNVA-2 soul core program malfunction. Requesting termination authorization."
"Authorization granted. Initiating termination operation. Beginning attack."
The soul puppets transmitted permissions in an instant. No matter how complex the information, it was many times faster than humans. The moment the attack was confirmed, they had already raised their ray generators, and the lens ports began to rapidly turn red and hot.
However, a black shadow crossed the space, flying at a speed that even machinery could hardly react to, and then slammed violently into the left soul puppet.
Boom!
The immense impact force immediately destroyed the chest armor of this puppet, even sending it floating in midair. At the same time, a large amount of energy leaked from the soul core in the puppet's chest. Amidst electromagnetic flickering, a violent explosion occurred in midair—silver-blue powerful energy currents mixed with high-temperature shockwaves echoed through the small corridor, producing a thunderous roar.
At this moment, the true form of the black shadow could be seen: it was a twisted ray generator. The wielder had chosen not to use it as a weapon but had thrown it as a "projectile."
Even soul puppets couldn't aim under these circumstances. The only remaining soul puppet rapidly adjusted its observation window and stabilizer in the explosion. But before it could perform a combat-programmed side roll and launch a second attack, a tall, robust figure had already appeared before it.
The black-red painted mechanical construct raised its hand, dispersing the shockwave from the explosion. Joshua slightly sidestepped, avoiding a golden-red furnace ray. The ray struck the corridor ceiling, melting a hole through it. Golden-red liquid flowed at the edges of the hole, dripping molten rock and steel.
Joshua remained unmoved. He extended his left hand, grabbed the soul puppet's right arm, and crushed the ray generator in its hand. The next instant, the warrior raised his right hand, and the soul puppet's head was torn from its body. Electric sparks and silver-blue soul energy flickered at the wound on its neck.
Joshua grabbed the puppet's headless shoulder with one hand and, while it resisted, disarmed its limbs. The movements were smooth and efficient, as if he had disassembled them countless times.
Through self-modification, the warrior had long become familiar with the structure of soul puppets.
He placed the now-immobilized puppet on the ground and crouched down. He extended an index finger, and the black metal fingertip changed like liquid, transforming into a sharp silver blade. He used the blade to cut through the puppet's chest armor, revealing a soul core flickering with silver-blue light.
It was a silver-blue flame placed in a hexagonal transparent prism. It seemed to be burning, pulsating like a heart. The soul core, through the puppet's built-in energy absorption device, transmitted collected energy throughout the body. At the same time, it was the control center of the entire puppet. Joshua reached out, took out this soul core, and observed it carefully for a while.
"Beautiful, perfect. This method of modification and control is simply art... not to mention the programs inscribed into the soul."
He murmured in admiration, then shook his head and crushed the hexagonal prism. The silver-blue soul flame drifted out from within and slowly dissipated into the air. Joshua stood up and walked toward the end of the corridor that had trapped the nameless technician for twenty years. Ahead was light. Ahead was the Garden.
He walked out.
With his back to the corridor exit covered in explosion marks, stepping onto the white tiled avenue, Joshua raised his head. The red observation port flickered with light as he scanned everything around him. The warrior, who had seen all kinds of grand spectacles, thought he wouldn't be affected by anything.
But he was wrong.
The observation port of the robust construct flickered with unstable light, indicating his fluctuating mood.
What met his eyes was beyond belief.