Roya's smile faded, and his expression grew solemn.
"Alright—no more joking around.
In my judgment, given the level of your own consciousness energy, you're still capable of reverse-merging with the low-level intelligence inside this body, achieving mechanical ascension under your own control—and retaining your full consciousness in the process.
One way or another, this body already grants you immortality. Compared to mere flesh and blood, it's still a clear upgrade."
Vegapunk shrugged.
"Flesh is frail. Mechanical ascension doesn't sound bad at all. And since this stuff is bio-metal, I imagine I can… come up with quite a lot of variations, yes?"
Just from the look on his face, it was obvious—he had already fully adapted to life in a mechanical body.
After all, that whole harem of cloned female researchers… surely they weren't only vessels for his consciousness to use for research purposes…
Roya also shrugged.
"This skeletal metal form is merely what their race deems the most suitable baseline combat form.
Once you've reverse-merged with this low-level intelligence, you'll gain control over every single bio-metal cell in this body. You'll be able to transform yourself however you like—it'll be entirely up to you."
Vegapunk's eyes lit up instantly.
"In that case, there's no time to waste! I'll start reverse-merging right now!"
Roya sighed.
"Do you even know how to reverse-merge?"
Vegapunk's grin froze.
Shaking his head in exasperation, Roya transmitted the method directly into Vegapunk's consciousness via spiritual perception.
"Don't rush. Overreaching will only backfire. If it devours you instead… I'll have no choice but to eliminate you along with it."
Vegapunk shivered and nodded firmly.
"Understood, Lord Roya!"
Then, frowning, he asked:
"By your reasoning, wouldn't Imu's situation be the same as mine?"
Roya nodded slightly—he already knew exactly what Vegapunk was worried about.
To set his mind at ease, he explained:
"Imu's seed flame was indeed received and implanted by the Empty Throne. And because of the throne's nature, it directly designated him as a beacon seed flame.
That means his mind is constantly bombarded by information from that alien species. The fact that he's endured for centuries without being completely converted… is extraordinary. In truth, he's the world's greatest savior."
Vegapunk suddenly realized—if Roya could speak so clearly about the flame's nature, it naturally meant he hadn't been caught in the same trap as himself and Imu.
Roya waved him off and left the underground pyramid.
Once all the information was consolidated, he mentally retraced everything that had happened on the throne—and couldn't help but feel a rush of relief.
Clearly, the alien race had also tried to launch a seed flame at him via the Empty Throne.
But the system within his body had intercepted it completely—then used it as a catalyst to further enhance his attributes, digesting it entirely.
That, in turn, was the real reason why the alien bio-weapon had immediately submitted upon sensing his energy—ceasing all resistance and killing intent.
From the bio-weapon's perspective, Roya's energy signature was already on par with a supreme ruler among their kind.
And in front of a ruler, tools of their level weren't even ants.
The only choice was obedience—and more obedience.
"If it weren't for the system protecting me, I might not have escaped Imu's fate either," Roya thought as he walked.
"It seems this alien race mistook the Star Spirit's imitation pyramid for one of their own ships that had met with misfortune. That would explain why they poured so much energy into the Empty Throne, trying to lure in a living target and implant a beacon seed flame."
"Does this mean the original pyramid—the one that conquered this planet and repeatedly harvested its life matter—also met with some kind of accident?"
"In any case, I'll assume the worst. As planned, I'll gather all the world's top combat forces as soon as possible and prepare for war."
While he was deep in thought, a strange, mechanical-sounding voice of thanks reached him.
Roya snapped back to the present and turned toward the sound.
It came from none other than the fully mechanized Bartholomew Kuma.
Though his form was still bulky and sluggish, his fully mechanical eyes were locked firmly on Roya.
"Th…ank… you!"
The words, produced by the scraping and colliding of metal parts, came out in a strange, artificial tone.
A sweep of Roya's spiritual perception revealed that Kuma's remaining cerebellum had begun regenerating under the nourishment of life-origin substance.
Moreover, the consciousness seed Roya had planted there earlier had already fused with this revitalized brain tissue.
That was why Kuma now possessed a faint glimmer of awareness—and could even use the life-origin substance to manipulate his own metal components, reproducing speech through the movement and collision of parts!
At this rate, it was highly likely Kuma would soon rebuild a complete personality and consciousness—while also gaining perfect control over his mechanized body.
This, Roya realized, was essentially a civilian-grade version of an alien Harvester soldier.
In a flash, inspiration struck him—he had found the answer to one of the world's greatest vulnerabilities:
The mid-to-low-tier combatants, whose flesh-and-blood bodies were utterly countered by the alien Harvesters.
The solution?
Modify the Pacifista Corps after Kuma's example.
The Pacifistas were already clones of Kuma, heavily mechanized to begin with.
On that foundation, inserting a powerful consciousness seed was child's play for Roya—costing him virtually nothing.
This would take the formerly underwhelming Pacifista units and massively boost their combat power—turning them into true bio-weapons.
Normally, this would have been a colossal undertaking. But in a stroke of ingenuity, Roya thought of the alien seed flames—capable of transmitting both information and energy.
With a thought, his spiritual perception split into a full thirty thousand specially-crafted seed flames. Ignoring metal walls, they surged down into the Pacifista storage bays below.
Each and every seed flame embedded itself into the remnant brain tissue of a Pacifista unit.
At once, the sparks of consciousness ignited.
One by one, the Pacifistas marched out of their storage in perfect formation, equipped with their standard seastone armor, and ascended to the floor where the great black mountain of life-origin substance was housed.
There, transformation and upgrading began on every single Pacifista.
Kuma himself received a direct spiritual command from Roya—enter the very heart of the black mountain and commence deep fusion with the dragon-scale gauntlets Roya had left there earlier.
Once all was done, Roya calmly returned to the surface. He raised his eyes to the towering ceiling above the Empty Throne's audience hall.
His chest surged with boundless fighting spirit.
"If you dare to come back…" he thought,
"…I'll make sure you get a real taste of my upgraded combat drones!"
Pls drop some power stones supper me at my
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