Mechanical Modification Laboratory.
Compared to the original team of fewer than ten people, the lab had undergone multiple expansions. The team now had an unprecedented 1,208 members.
At this moment, Mo Yu lay on the operating table.
Quietly waiting for the brain mechanization procedure to begin.
Over the years, the Supreme Council of Star City had given the mechanical modification project its strongest support.
This was thanks to help from Feng Qi, as well as Mo Yu's own efforts.
In earlier years, some members of the Supreme Council had opposed the project.
He had been summoned to the council and asked a pointed question during the meeting:
"If modifying limbs is already enough, why does the mechanical modification project need to continue? If a consciousness-upload chip is used and a chip replaces the brain, then what are you—still human, or a mechanical lifeform?"
Faced with that sharp question, Mo Yu stayed silent for a long time.
Then he gave his answer.
That response convinced even the opposition on the council that day.
He said this:
"I believe the defining factors of a human are consciousness and memory, not the body. At its core, mechanical modification is the same as cultivation. Cultivation is a gentle way to evolve our lives toward perfection. In a thousand or ten thousand years, if someone from the future appears before us—though they might look like us—their internal structure would be entirely different. Can you deny that such future cultivators aren't human?"
"Compared to cultivation, mechanical modification is a more aggressive path. Because of that, it may not align with the ideal image of human evolution. It abandons the flesh and blood, the surface-level identity of being human. But in terms of self-awareness, I have always been—and still am—human."
"I'm not denying the value of cultivation. I firmly believe that cultivation is and will remain the mainstream path for human growth. But I also understand this: when the ideal path can no longer allow us to grow quickly enough to keep up with a crisis-filled future battlefield, mechanical modification becomes a new path of hope carved from despair."
After that meeting, all opposition to the project vanished.
Mo Yu received full approval from the Supreme Council of Star City and was granted greater resource support.
But that alone wasn't enough for Mo Yu.
To gain even higher priority access to Star City's top-tier resources for the mechanical modification division, he wrote a comprehensive proposal detailing the benefits of mechanical modification and submitted it to the Supreme Council for review.
In this plan, Mo Yu divided mechanical modification into three distinct stages, outlining the function of each in detail.
The first stage was what Mo Yu called prosthetic modification.
Every year, the frontline supply zones of the five major cities saw a massive number of warriors discharged due to injuries.
Putting aside the moral aspects, and looking purely from a macro perspective on human development, these veterans—fully supported by the cities—essentially became a burden on both urban society and the future of humanity.
But with prosthetic limbs, these veterans, who would otherwise be confined to a life of retirement, could once again become valuable assets contributing to humanity's future.
The second stage was body mechanization.
This required fully replacing the body with mechanical components—except for the brain.
In the accompanying documents, Mo Yu provided a detailed comparison between flesh-and-blood bodies and mechanical ones.
First was environmental resistance.
In Mo Yu's view, the human body was extremely fragile and poorly adapted to harsh environments.
Toxic gas, extreme heat, freezing cold, vacuum… There were countless conditions where the human body simply couldn't survive. In such conditions, a flesh-and-blood body's combat power would drop drastically.
While mechanical bodies might not be perfectly suited to every harsh environment either, they held an overwhelming advantage over the organic alternative.
The third stage, Mo Yu called brain mechanization.
At this stage, the flesh-and-blood body would be completely abandoned, and the entire form transitioned into a mechanical body.
That was when the full benefits of a mechanical body would truly shine.
If life evolution through cultivation required absorbing spiritual energy from nature to temper the body, then mechanical modification was about upgrading component strength and functionality.
The evolutionary limitations of a human body stemmed from three factors: cultivation resources, cultivation techniques, and innate talent.
Among these, innate talent was the most critical.
But for mechanical modification, there were only two constraints: resource availability and technical upgrades.
Resources corresponded to the materials needed for cultivation. Technical upgrades were equivalent to evolving cultivation techniques.
The biggest advantage of mechanical modification? It required no innate talent.
As long as resources were sufficient, every technical upgrade could be matched with component replacements to complete self-upgrades.
This kind of progress would never regress—only steadily move forward.
It was similar to the elevation of bloodline potential in humans.
Humans had to improve generationally, gradually boosting the potential of future generations through cumulative effort.
But once mechanical modification technology advanced, the starting point for the next generation would be the peak of existing technology.
One major advantage of mechanical modification was that it didn't require a long cultivation process. Even a newborn baby could instantly obtain the most advanced mechanical body through modification.
In this detailed 38-page analysis, Mo Yu listed the benefits of mechanical modification over the flesh-and-blood body.
But at the end of the document, he also shared his thoughts on the cultivation system.
Mo Yu believed that flesh and blood had one advantage that mechanical bodies could never replicate.
That was adaptability.
Choosing mechanical modification was like locking yourself into a single path, with no more chances to pivot in the future.
But flesh and blood was different—it allowed for countless future possibilities.
Planting elf seeds, elemental modification, mechanical modification, cultivation techniques, faith-based evolution... If the human body was a blank template, then each path was like choosing a class in a game. The flesh-and-blood body could freely decide its growth trajectory.
Finally, Mo Yu made a bold hypothesis about the flesh-and-blood body.
He believed it could be seen as an organic machine—the human body was the most precise instrument, far more complex than any machine.
Cultivation followed the natural order, and its endpoint might be something that only existed in myths.
A god!
Thanks to this 38-page breakdown of mechanical modification, Mo Yu secured a higher resource priority tier. His monthly resource allocation was doubled.
...
At this moment, the staff of the mechanical modification department stood behind a glass wall, watching Mo Yu lying flat on the operating table.
Brain mechanization was about to begin, and their faces were filled with tension.
Years of effort would be judged in the next few hours.
As the three control operators at the console activated the robotic arms and began tuning the systems, Mo Yu opened his eyes.
He turned to look at his colleagues watching through the glass and gave them a faint smile.
Failure meant death, but he had long since let go of fear.
He knew exactly how difficult this mechanical modification would be.
In the past, predecessors at the Future Research Institute had proposed many forward-looking ideas about brain mechanization, but all pointed to one outcome—storing brain data onto a mechanical chip.
But that approach meant the original consciousness would be erased.
Even if it succeeded, the result would just be a machine that perfectly mimicked his memories.
Over the years, he had improved on those earlier ideas.
His path was the spiritual-energy mechanical modification route, which meant he had to integrate spiritual energy tech with machinery. He couldn't follow a purely mechanical path—consciousness was essential.
So he abandoned many of his predecessors' concepts and designs in favor of a new idea.
He would forge his own consciousness into a spiritual-energy chip, not just copy his brain data into a machine.
At that moment, green lights lit up on the eight robotic arms—tuning was complete.
"Begin!"
Lying on the operating table, Mo Yu didn't hesitate. He turned toward the control panel and gave a nod.
Hearing his command, the operators activated all eight robotic arms at once.
As the cold metal helmet lowered onto Mo Yu's head, his consciousness entered a strange, drifting state.
It felt like his awareness was wrapped in liquid, unable to expand or escape his body.
During this process, his consciousness was compressed, eventually forming into a semi-transparent orb.
Inside the helmet, components moved on their own, swiftly dismantling Mo Yu's skull.
Skin, eyes, teeth, nose, ears... As the outer flesh was removed, metal components replaced each biological organ.
Once the surface replacements were done, the external arms detached the helmet.
What appeared beneath was a new metallic head, glinting with a polished finish.
Then the eight robotic arms moved in closer, preparing for the most crucial part of the modification.
At this point, the only remaining flesh on Mo Yu's body was his brain, dense with neurons.
One of the arms started scanning at high speed, mapping the neural network.
The other seven arms moved on the opposite side, constantly picking up parts from the tool rack and assembling them—replicating the detailed structure.
Several hours later, a metallic brain was completed.
At its core was a spiritual-energy chip.
But the chip was still empty.
When the metal brain was placed before Mo Yu's original brain, the consciousness upload began.
If consciousness was the soul, then this upload process was the transfer of a soul.
This wasn't mechanical transcendence in the sense of memory-copying—it was pure consciousness transfer.
Energy-woven nodes appeared on the surface of the metallic brain. They rapidly expanded into a magnified three-dimensional structure of a brain, clearly displaying countless interlinked energy points.
On the other side, the mechanical arms kept moving. A small formation emerged above Mo Yu's head.
At the center of the formation, a faint blue energy conduit appeared and connected directly to the mechanical brain.
As the formation activated, wisps of white mist floated out of Mo Yu's head, drawn into the formation, then channeled through the blue energy conduit into the metal brain.
A progress bar appeared on the control panel.
Countless chaotic symbols flickered rapidly across the screen as Mo Yu's consciousness was extracted and gradually fused into the mechanical spiritual-energy brain.
The process was extremely slow.
The on-screen percentage could only estimate the progress of the consciousness transfer. It couldn't give an exact figure.
Mo Yu and his team were tackling consciousness-level research for the first time.
Over the years, they had only experimented with animals like lab mice—never a human subject.
Whether it would succeed was completely unknown.
As time passed, every staff member watching the operation held their breath, waiting for the outcome.
Eventually, the formation extracting consciousness stopped running. The progress bar on the large screen hit 100%.
Under operator control, the mechanical arms slowly lifted the mechanical brain and fitted it into the open cranial cavity of Mo Yu's head.
With a smooth motion, the arms sealed the mechanical skull shut.
At the same time, fine tubing within the skull extended automatically, linking with the synthetic neurons of the mechanical brain.
Mo Yu's body entered an initialization state.
The energy core in his chest pulsed, sending energy coursing through his entire body. All of his body components lit up green.
Finally, the energy surged into Mo Yu's newly modified brain.
When the green light appeared at the back of his head, it meant the energy transfer was stable and functioning.
But Mo Yu still hadn't regained consciousness.
At that moment, the eight mechanical arms switched tools and began spraying bionic skin solution over his metallic head.
The shining silver-metal surface was gradually covered in synthetic tissue, restoring Mo Yu's original appearance.
The anxious wait pushed everyone's nerves to the limit.
According to simulation data, Mo Yu should have awakened as soon as his brain connected with the energy core.
But he remained still, like his consciousness had vanished.
As time went on, the mood of those watching grew heavier. It felt like things were headed in the worst possible direction.
Then suddenly, Mo Yu's eyes snapped open.
His silver-white artificial eyes blinked. As they did, the color shifted and simulated natural black pupils.
Cheers erupted from the crowd witnessing the transformation.
But Mo Yu didn't react to the noise.
He slowly raised one hand, bringing it before his face for a close look, then leaned forward and sat up.
The world through his artificial eyes looked just like it had with his real ones—except now, a semi-transparent overlay appeared alongside it.
Temperature in the air, humidity, airflow speed... everything was broken down into detailed data.
His mechanical body gave him the ability to digitize the world around him.
He rose from the operating table.
His internal energy core suddenly ramped up. Mo Yu leapt five meters straight into the air and landed lightly.
Then he began punching the air repeatedly.
Every motion from his mechanical body sent instant data feedback to his brain.
He could precisely control the force of each punch.
If a flesh-and-blood fighter threw a punch with one hundred catties of force, he could only guess roughly how strong it was.
But now, with the integration of his mechanical body and consciousness chip, every strike Mo Yu threw had exact, measurable force.
He turned to look at one of the mechanical arms still hanging over the table.
His artificial eye zoomed in. The consciousness chip connected to the database and instantly pulled up relevant data.
A semi-transparent window appeared before his eyes.
[Multi-Function Mechanical Arm Version 8.7]: Produced by the 397th batch of the Institute of Technological Research. Specially customized by the Tiger Soul Research Institute. Order number: AAFD0023…
Staring at the details in the floating window, Mo Yu clenched his fist.
He was now one step closer to mechanical ascension.