9899, who had just escaped Trash City, was brought back once again.
When she led the corps members back to the temporary base, Li Ban was, unsurprisingly, nowhere to be found.
Even the reader he had just acquired was gone.
Only a suitcase and some trash remained on the ground.
Discovering that the power supply she had built had also been taken by Li Ban, 9899 knew he had likely anticipated Trash City tracking her down. He must have left his original spot the moment she departed the base.
9899 let out a soft breath. "This is the place. But he's obviously left. I was just a temporary tool to him anyway."
The corps members tried to track him but found absolutely no clues. Without any camera-equipped machines operating nearby, they couldn't trace Deep 19's movements.
Left with no other option, they could only bring 9899—who actually knew nothing—back to the main district of Trash City.
However, they believed the Main Brain would have a way.
Perhaps it could uncover data clues they couldn't from the Smart Mecha Deep 19 left behind.
What 9899 didn't expect, however, was being ordered to go alone to the top floor of the building housing the Main Brain.
The Central Building, where the Main Brain resided, wasn't the tallest or grandest structure in Trash City's main district. It stood only ten stories high and didn't cover much ground.
But it was situated at the exact center of Trash City.
Everything in the city revolved around it.
And the tenth floor of the Central Building was the Main Brain's absolute top-secret room.
Normally, only the beneficiaries of the major corporations, the corps commanders, and the heads of Trash City's various departments were allowed inside.
But today, entirely unescorted, 9899 stepped onto this mysterious tenth floor.
The doors parted before her, revealing silver metal walls glowing with a pale blue light.
It was too bright.
Accustomed to the oppressive, cloud-covered skies of the Trash Realm, 9899 reflexively squinted her eyes shut.
Her eyes were still organic, lacking the resilience of mechanical ones.
It took a moment to adjust to the new brightness before she slowly lowered the hand shielding her eyelids.
No one urged her forward.
The vast, empty corridor ahead led straight to a mechanical door on the opposite end.
It was as if they were certain she would obediently enter as instructed.
In truth, 9899 had no choice. The doors behind her had sealed shut the moment she stepped through.
She walked forward, her mechanical legs striking the floor with crisp, rhythmic clacks.
The corridor was so hollow that 9899 could almost hear the echo of her own footsteps.
"I have to face it eventually," she murmured, sniffing slightly as she hurried toward the opposite door.
She arrived at the threshold, and the door opened automatically.
Compared to the blindingly bright corridor, the interior was excessively dark.
Only the emergency indicator lights were on; the rest of the room was pitch black.
9899 stepped inside, and the door automatically closed behind her once again.
Left in the gloom, she could only see the spots where the indicator lights glowed. Everything else was swallowed by darkness.
Is it dark in here because the Main Brain doesn't need eyes? 9899 guessed with a touch of reckless resignation. Or maybe the Main Brain just doesn't want me to see what's in the room. This would be easier if I had a mechanical prosthetic eye.
Just as the thought crossed her mind, 9899 suddenly felt something brush against the chip at the back of her neck.
She violently jolted, her instincts screaming at her to pull away.
But her mechanical legs failed to execute her command. They remained rooted in place, utterly motionless.
"What's going on?"
[Because my commands take priority over yours.]
A calm, clear male voice rang out.
If not for the faint mechanical undertone mixed in, 9899 would have thought a normal human man was speaking.
"Main Brain?"
Thrashing her upper body didn't help her avoid the thing touching her nape.
She heard a soft click, and her chip was connected to something once again.
9899 began to tremble uncontrollably.
She felt an electrical current surge into her brain. For a split second, even her thoughts seemed to slip from her grasp.
Her life and fate were entirely controlled by machines.
[There is also a Virus response in your chip. The Virus is more restrained than the one discovered in the Mechanical Dog previously.]
[Destroying the connector.]
The connector on the back of 9899's neck suddenly detached on its own and dropped into a hole that had silently opened in the floor, vanishing into the unknown depths below.
[Scanning residual data in the mechanical prosthetics.]
9899 abruptly dropped to her knees, forced to brace her hands against the floor. A second later, she realized she had lost control of her arms as well.
It's the floor. Even just from physical contact, the Main Brain can control my prosthetics.
9899 felt as though the entire room was the Main Brain.
[Performing imaging analysis based on radar logs—]
The speed was incredibly fast.
[Analysis complete.]
But what followed was a prolonged quiet.
If the Main Brain had been human, 9899 would have called it a heavy silence.
An unknown amount of time passed before she unexpectedly realized control had returned to her limbs.
She stood back up.
Just as 9899 was wondering if the Main Brain was searching for Deep 19, she suddenly heard it speak, uttering a word she didn't understand.
[Director.]
After settling his luggage in his new quarters, Li Ban immediately brought Shi Ming and Deng Jun to report to Pagoda Master Qian.
Qian Jing handed Shi Ming and Deng Jun over to others, while she personally led Li Ban up the Myriad Ancient Pagoda.
"I thought you would rest for a few days."
"The journey was rest enough."
If he hadn't unexpectedly become a 4th Tier Priest, Li Ban would still be hovering at the 3rd Tier right now.
Though advancing to the 4th Tier in just three months was a speed others could only dream of catching up to, to Li Ban, he had genuinely been so busy that he hadn't cultivated properly in a long time.
Without using any spells, Pagoda Master Qian led Li Ban all the way up to the fifth floor of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda.
"The previous Floor Master of the fifth floor was already promoted. When I learned that you were coming, Priest Ban, I left this position vacant for you to choose."
They arrived on the fifth floor of the pagoda.
Perhaps because there were usually fewer corpses to process here, there was no faint stench of decay lingering in the air.
The Myriad Ancient Pagoda in the Unreturning Place was roughly cylindrical, and the internal layout of each floor was also circular.
The outer rooms surrounded the central chamber. The rooms were interconnected, ultimately forming a coiled snake layout.
Li Ban's assigned room was right in the center of this floor—the position corresponding to the snake's head.
As they walked along the circular corridor toward the centermost room, the workers in each room stepped outside and waited by their doors.
Seeing Li Ban, they all cupped their hands in salute and said, "Greetings, Floor Master Li."
No one called him Priest. Before he arrived, Pagoda Master Qian had told him that Priests generally kept their identities concealed during their daily work in the pagoda.
Thus, Li Ban wasn't wearing his ceremonial robes today, but instead a standard set of martial arts training clothes.
He was only about eighteen years old, and being a Priest meant he was in peak physical health. He looked just like a young martial hero fresh out of a martial arts clan to roam the world.
In contrast, the staff at the Myriad Ancient Pagoda looked experienced and mature, making Li Ban seem much more youthful and green.
However, none of the pagoda personnel who bowed to him showed any hint of contempt.
Having stayed in the Unreturning Place for a long time, they had all gleaned certain secrets and witnessed Priests entering and exiting the Shattered Eye. With broadened horizons, they wouldn't easily judge a person by their appearance.
No one knew how strong the person standing before them was, or how powerful the backers behind him might be.
After a brief round of greetings, Pagoda Master Qian led Li Ban into the final room, and the rest returned to their work.
Entering the final room, Li Ban realized that the interconnected layout was designed specifically to facilitate the sequential transfer of processed corpses and elements to the next stage.
Items were transported between rooms via hanging baskets.
Corpses were not sent to Li Ban's room; only the extracted elements made their way here.
Whether they were waste elements or normal ones, they were all delivered to this spot.
This was to prevent anyone from secretly pocketing good elements and passing them off as waste.
Exactly what work each person had done would be clearly recorded. Furthermore, specialized abilities were used to run inspections.
Li Ban's duty in the room was to inspect the elements and check the registry for any errors.
He needed to verify if any still-functional normal elements were mixed in with the waste.
These tasks could be handled daily, or they could be saved up and processed all at once.
The verified elements would be transported up through the central support pillar to the upper floors, where the Vice Pagoda Master would handle further processing.
"As for the waste elements, you will personally take them underground and toss them into the connecting channel between the underground and the Unreturning Place, sending them to the very bottom," Pagoda Master Qian explained. "That leads to the Shattered Realm, where the useless elements will be torn apart by spatial forces."
Pagoda Master Qian showed Li Ban the elements, which were piled up into two small mounds.
"Since the fifth floor has lacked a Floor Master these past few days, a backlog has built up. It's not too much, though; you can probably finish processing it in half a day."
"Aside from inspecting the condition of the elements, the most crucial task is confirming whether any insects have infiltrated the corpses."
Pagoda Master Qian pushed open another door and led Li Ban into the corridor. Directly opposite was the very first room they had passed when entering the fifth floor.
Because of the coiled snake layout, the first and last rooms were separated exactly by the hallway.
Unavoidably, there was a certain smell in the first room.
While giving Li Ban the tour, Pagoda Master Qian covertly glanced at his expression. Finding not the slightest trace of discomfort or disgust on his face, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Although the Myriad Ancient Pagoda held a high status, the materials they handled were certainly not things ordinary people would willingly touch.
In the past, a newly minted Priest had come to the pagoda for training, but upon learning the job description, he immediately turned around and chose to go slay insects in the Unreturning Place instead.
Li Ban, of course, didn't mind the work of handling corpses.
When he first arrived in the Wizard World, struggling to survive on death row, he had personally swept up putrefying, mangled bodies. Naturally, he couldn't care less.
He stepped forward to inspect each corpse, familiarizing himself with the general inspection methods and the final disposal process.
Unidentified corpses were tossed into the Unreturning Place, exactly the same as the waste elements.
Corpses with known origins were usually sent back to be buried according to their respective customs.
Li Ban suddenly stopped as he walked up to the third corpse, which had clearly been hacked to death by swords and sabers.
He heard the voice of the system.
[Waste element "blood drinking" discovered. Absorb?]