Chapter 148 Origin Artifact

The Origin Artifact emitted a soft, steady hum as it carried out its predetermined synthesis task. This device operated in a way completely different from human technology—including physics and chemistry. It used magic to combine various elements into a new life, and directly injected knowledge and power into it at the very beginning of its existence. This miraculous process intrigued Hao Ren, and he stared intently at the image displayed on the control panel in front of the artifact, wanting to see what this thing would ultimately create.

Some different images had already appeared on the control panel, which had not been visible when the core of the artifact was missing. It was an outline of a human figure, surrounded by a large number of parameters, symbols, formulas, and things that looked like progress bars. The previous guess was correct: the Origin Artifact was used to synthesize a humanoid creature—or perhaps multiple humanoid creatures. Now this device was operating under default instructions, and it was hard to say if it could create anything else.

Everyone gathered in front of the device, holding their breath and waiting for the next result. The four ascetics did not know what these people were doing, but they had confirmed that these people possessed technology far beyond the Dream Plane, and seemed to have the ability to unlock the secrets of these two sacred objects. Therefore, they also watched silently with excitement and longing. After a while, the young female ascetic suddenly asked the bearded man in a low voice, "Although I don't question the goddess's intentions, is this series of actions...a kind of blasphemy?"

The bearded man pondered slightly, then shook his head: "I didn't feel the goddess's anger. Did you?"

The other ascetics bowed their heads and meditated, seemingly asking about something deep in their hearts. Then they shook their heads together, and the older woman whispered, "The goddess's power is unusually calm. Since we left the land of those green creatures, it has been calmer than ever before, even more...serene than when I was baptized in the Royal City Cathedral. She seems to not only condone these things today, but is also delighted by them."

The bearded man closed his eyes and pressed his hand to his chest: "Thank the goddess for her grace, then let us continue. Follow the goddess's hints and cooperate with these people."

"But we can't directly feel the goddess's decree here..." another male ascetic hesitated, "This world isolates us from the goddess, only following the guidance of our hearts..."

The bearded man kept his eyes closed, his voice always unhurried: "Don't waver. Even if we are isolated from the goddess, her power has always left a seed within us. Believe in the guidance of this seed."

The other three nodded and fell silent.

In fact, Hao Ren's initial guess about the ascetics was completely correct: they were indeed a group of difficult people to deal with. They only acted according to the instructions of their god, and were indifferent to any demands from mortals. But the bearded man and the others had been quite cooperative along the way, for one reason only: in their silent prayers, they had received "the goddess's instruction."

Regardless of where this instruction came from, or whether it was true or false, they believed that they had interpreted the god's intention and chose to cooperate with the strangers.

Vivian was closest to these people. She glanced at them inexplicably after vaguely hearing the conversation of several ascetics, wondering what these people meant.

At this time, the data terminal detected that the Origin Artifact had completed the initial allocation process and was starting the next step of fusion and "infusion of life ritual." While checking the operating status of the device, it reported the situation to Hao Ren in a cheerful tone: "Oh, the operation is going smoothly. Let me see what's in the main container... Group A acidified synthetic product, moderate amount of protein clusters, bizarre macromolecules, cloud-like energy field, a fish... a fish?!"

The data terminal let out an unprecedented shriek: "There's a fish in the container! It looks familiar to me!!"

Immediately, everyone present was stunned. Hao Ren's scalp tingled, and he realized that his arm was empty. His fish daughter's habit of courting death since she was a child surged into his mind. He rushed behind the Origin Artifact like a gust of wind, and without caring whether the thing was still "live," he pounced on the back cover of the device: "Doudou!"

The back cover of the Origin Artifact was forcibly pulled down, revealing the large inner tank inside. Hao Ren's heart was pounding wildly. He stared at the figure of the fish in the turbid synthetic liquid in the inner tank, his eyes almost sticking to the outer shell of the inner tank. Vivian and others reacted a second later, and then they all swarmed up. Countless pairs of frightened eyes stared at the transparent container, and then they saw a small figure, a little over a foot long, floating upwards from the depths of the mixture in a daze.

Doudou was swimming crookedly in the turbid solution, as if drunk. Energy clouds like electric芒suspended in the solution, and these clouds were crackling and jumping on the little mermaid's body, and even constantly fusing into the little guy's body. However, despite her strange state, Doudou's spirit was obviously very good. She even waved to the people outside the container, and after swimming up happily, she bumped into the crystal shell of the container.

The little guy rubbed her head and continued to bump into it.

Hao Ren's hair stood on end, and he roared: "Stop the machine!!!"

Without him saying so, the data terminal had already entered the shutdown command next to it. However, the internal reactions of this kind of synthesis equipment were chain-like. Even if the energy input was stopped, the reaction in its container would continue for a long time. Hao Ren saw that the crystallization device at the bottom of the artifact had dimmed, but the flashing clouds in the container had not dissipated. He immediately raised his fist to smash it down, but Vivian stopped him at the critical moment: "Don't be impulsive! It'll be over if it explodes!"

Hao Ren gasped and put his hand down, waiting with everyone else in a sweat for the reaction in the container to stop completely. The only thing that could make him feel a little more at ease was that Doudou was still swimming in it unhurriedly (and occasionally bumping into the crystal shell energetically). As long as the little guy's expression was normal, he could feel a little more at ease.

Finally, the reaction in the container subsided. Several compounds used to quickly terminate the reaction were injected into the mixture through several pipes above the tank, incidentally dispelling the glowing clouds inside. A few seconds later, there was a "哗啦" sound, and a gap opened in the center of the inner tank, which was more than one person tall. The crystal shell opened to both sides, and all the mixture inside flowed out at once.

Doudou also flowed to the ground with the liquid in the tank. The little guy hadn't reacted yet, and was lying on the ground, continuing to jump and jump a few times in a swimming posture. After finding that she hadn't moved, she raised her head to look around, and then happily jumped towards Hao Ren: "Daddy!"

Hao Ren quickly grabbed the little guy to check if she was injured. Doudou curiously watched him busy there, occasionally giggling because her body was itchy. Hao Ren checked around and found that the little guy still seemed healthy, and then he breathed a sigh of relief: "My god... you scared me to death. How did you jump in?"

"There was a tube open," Doudou explained with gestures, her language was chaotic but barely understandable, "It smelled good inside, so I jumped in and swam... swam... swam for a while in the long place... and came out!"

As she said, the little guy energetically patted Hao Ren's arm with her tail, and then suddenly let out a small burp: "嗝—"

唰, the little mermaid disappeared from Hao Ren's hand, and then there was a啪嗒sound from the test bench not far away.

Hao Ren stared blankly at his empty hands, slowly turned around, and saw Doudou looking at him foolishly from the test bench a dozen meters away.

Everyone did the same action as him. Nangong Wuyue was the first to exclaim in surprise: "What... what happened just now?!"

Doudou was even more confused. She looked around and stretched out her hand to Hao Ren in a daze: "Hold... 嗝!"

Hao Ren only felt a blackness in front of his eyes, and then a fish tail slapped him in the face: Doudou "flew" back again.

After this happened twice in a row, someone finally reacted. Izhaks scratched his bald head and muttered, "Space teleportation?"

Doudou looked at Izhaks, and another burp, her body disappeared again in an instant, and reappeared again with a啪嗒sound on top of Izhaks' head.

Everyone was greatly surprised. Now even a fool could see that the little mermaid had inexplicably learned space teleportation, and it seemed to be triggered by "burping." Hao Ren felt that his head was in a mess and he couldn't figure it out. He stared blankly for a long time before slowly looking at the "Origin Artifact": "Is it related to the accident just now?"

Vivian looked at Doudou, who was bouncing on top of Izhaks' head, with a subtle expression: "This kind of teleportation talent... why does it look familiar to me?"

At this time, the data terminal also remembered something. It quickly floated to the top of the Origin Artifact and connected itself to the Sacred Hall Orb, extracting the last layer of information from the database, and exclaimed: "I'll go... we guessed wrong at the beginning!"

A set of holographic images was projected from the bottom of the data terminal. It was the final image of the synthetic creature stored in the Sacred Hall Orb, and the description of the functions and "parameters" related to this creature.

Vivian was dumbfounded: "...Hunter?"

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