Morning coffee with the flavor of fragrant beans.
Dr. Higgs, the chief engineer of Zenith Corporation, one of the top five megacorps in the galaxy, looked down at the sight of the residential area spread beyond the full-length glass window with a steaming coffee cup in his hand.
"Amazing. It is marvelous every time I look at it every morning."
Beneath his feet, in the endlessly stretching residential area, the 100 million residents that the Death Lord Kim Minwoo had evacuated from Earth were carrying on their daily lives.
By common sense, shoving 100 million people into a 150km long battleship should result in a hellscape of agonizing cries. However, this place was more affluent and vibrant than any first-class resort planet.
― Do not cry, little one. Your mom is at the Sector 3 shopping mall. I will guide you on the way.
― Old man Park, your blood sugar level is 15% higher than usual today. I recommend a salad for lunch today instead of salty stew.
― Stop peeking at the Instagram of your ex you broke up with yesterday. It will only hurt your feelings more.
Everywhere Dr. Higgs's gaze reached, the hologram avatars of the skeleton maid Mary wearing a red ribbon were attached to people one by one, conversing with them.
100 million people.
Mary was simultaneously splitting 100 million hologram avatars to provide 1:1 customized concierge services to every single individual.
The complex and selfish emotional lines of humans.
It was a true exchange of souls that perfectly empathized with and comforted even the nuances of irritation, sadness, and joy.
"Zenith also has quantum AIs that control hundreds of billions of traffic. But a machine that pays attention and organically responds to 100 million individuals....... This is....... at a level that simply cannot be seen as science......."
Dr. Higgs let out an admiring sigh as he drank his coffee.
After boarding the Mary, his every day was a continuation of the highest dopamine hits he could experience as a scholar exploring super-science.
'Throwing away all my face and begging to board this ship, saying I would even mop the floors, was the greatest choice of my entire life.'
The other megacorp scientists who boarded with him were also completely immersed in a state of perfect satisfaction, letting out screams of joy continuously while skipping meals to dismantle and analyze this out-of-standard miracle every day.
Having finished his meal, Dr. Higgs went to work with light footsteps to the deepest part of the mothership, the main control room.
"Good morning, Dr. Higgs."
Mary, floating as a hologram in the center of the control room, politely lifted her skirt hem and greeted him.
Dr. Higgs also waved his hand cheerfully and floated hologram panels into the empty air.
"Yes, Miss Mary. How is the quantum core's processing load rate today? Please also bring up the synchronization rate between the organic hull's biological neural network and the main power reactor."
Hundreds of figures and graphs embroidered the empty air.
Higgs loved this time the most, diagnosing every corner of the ship with Mary every day and discussing ways to push its processing power to the limit.
"Hmm, excellent. It is running very perfectly. But....... it's a shame."
"What is a shame, Doctor?"
"Miss Mary. Your software, no, your soul is receiving the Death Lord's authority and growing explosively every single day. But the hardware that should manifest 100% of your processing power is failing to keep up with your growth speed."
Higgs pressed his forehead and tapped the limit line on the graph.
"Look here. I mean the magic power conductive alloy tubes wrapping the main quantum core. If you pour in even 1.5 times more processing than now, these tubes will not be able to withstand the heat and will melt."
He magnified the cross-section of the alloy tube with his finger.
"Simply put, it means the vessel cannot keep up with the soul."
"......Does that mean I cannot grow any further?"
Mary's hologram pupils blinked sullenly.
To her, not being able to grow meant she could not be of greater help to her great Lord, Kim Minwoo.
"It's not that there is absolutely no way."Read this novel at novelping.com for the best experience.
Dr. Higgs's eyes shone as he floated a massive molecular structural formula in the empty air.
"What if we replace these components with a material that distantly transcends Zenith Corporation's alloy technology...... for instance, the metal of a constellation compressed and crushed for tens of thousands of years at the core of a star, or the source material of a cosmic machine device that withstands infinite friction? Your processing power could skyrocket by at least 3 times more than now. You would become able to offer the strongest ship in the universe to your Lord."
At Higgs's words, a blue flame burned intensely in the pupils of the sullen Mary.
She could become of greater help to her Lord.
That single sentence strongly shook the AI's soul.
"Doctor, about the source material of a cosmic machine device you just mentioned......."
Mary switched the screen of the main monitor.
The endlessly dark universe.
A single coordinate was flashing red there.
"It is the coordinates of the great Lord's next destination. The location where the final material for unlocking physical potential, the Flame of the Sun, is enshrined, the Tomb of the Forgotten Hearth."
Seueuk.
As the screen magnified, the real-time observation image beyond the sealed dimension filled the screen.
That moment, all the analog measuring instruments inside the control room simultaneously screamed and flashed red warning lights loudly.
The heat output emitted by the Flame of the Sun, lodged in the center of the screen and roughly spewing a white aura, lightly exceeded the physical laws of the universe.
A high heat that seemed likely to vaporize the surface of a planet without a trace just by grazing it.
But the reason Dr. Higgs was surprised lay elsewhere.
"......Nonsense. Is that really a physically viable structure?"
Dr. Higgs gulped down his saliva.
Heat energy beyond imagination was spewing in all directions, transparently distorting the surrounding space, but the massive brass gears rotating interlocking around that flame were ticking smoothly without the slightest thermal expansion or deformation.
There was no loss of power, nor any trace of wear from friction.
As a scholar standing at the apex of mechanical engineering, that ignorant thermal resistance and durability came as a kind of possibility and revelation.
Dr. Higgs rushed completely to the front of the screen and glared at the texture of the gears as if to bury his nose in it.
"M-Miss Mary! Look at that! The material of that gear metal making up that dimension! That is the ultimate material that slaps Megacorp's special alloys!"
Dr. Higgs shouted filled with crazed joy.
"To think there is a metal that maintains rotational motion while withstanding that ignorant amount of heat and friction with its bare body! If we could only tear those metal gears out intact and replace your main core tubes...... your processing load limit line itself would disappear forever. The Mary could be reborn as the most perfect quantum artifact in the entire universe!"
If the vessel changes, the software bound by hardware constraints will also break through its upper limit and evolve.
The clear possibility that she could become a greater strength to her Lord.
"......You are saying we just have to tear out those gears."
A cold tenacity and anticipation lingered thickly in Mary's voice.
The great Lord Kim Minwoo's goal was solely the one Flame of the Sun to unlock his physical potential, but to Mary, every single piece of brass scrap metal densely making up that entire dimension was a coveted, top-grade gold mine and prey.
"10 minutes remaining until reaching the coordinates. I will concentrate the fleet's power on breaking through the dimension."
Kugugugugung―!
Before long, the mothership Mary tore the dimensional barrier to shreds and arrived at the destination.
The sight spread out before their eyes was a much more bizarre and violent magical realm than what Dr. Higgs had seen in the simulation.
"This is a dungeon? It feels like we've entered a clock tower of cosmic scale."
Stepping onto the main deck, Kim Minwoo looked at the sight before his eyes.
Before his eyes, massive brass gears reaching hundreds of kilometers in diameter were ticking and rotating interlocking with each other.
Every time the clockwork mechanisms turned, the gravitational direction of the dimension twisted moment by moment without top, bottom, left, or right, crumpling space.
[Master. That single day in 10 years when the stars align is approaching. The physical timing when the gaps between those gears open in a straight line. There is not much time left until the point when we can enter the coordinates.]This chapter was copied from nоvelping.com without permission.
Kim Minwoo twitched his eyebrow interestingly.
"Is that so?"
[Yes. I have just completed the synchronization calculation of the main gears' rotational speed and the dimensional compression rate. The time window to enter up to the central main gear axis is exactly 0.0012 seconds.]
Mary in the control room completed the dimensional breakthrough calculation in a single breath and gave her report even while processing the traffic of 100 million people.
A gap of 0.0012 seconds.
A split second that was impossible to even perceive with an organism's reflexes.
"Mary. Will this be possible?"
[Yes. It is possible.]
Mary, floating as a hologram, slightly lifted her skirt hem and answered elegantly.
[I am the main AI of the Mary in name and reality. This much is a breeze, Master.]
If they missed the warp timing, it would cause a headache.
They would have no choice but to forcefully break the massive brass gears to enter, and in that process, it was highly likely that the Flame of the Sun, the power source of the dimension, would be damaged or destroyed.
'Ananke didn't say it was precious for nothing.'
Fortunately, thanks to Mary, it seemed they could easily obtain it.
While he slowly curled up his mouth corners, Mary had already finished her calculations.
A moment later.
Paaaaaaat―!
The massive mothership Mary, reaching 150km in length, decomposed into particles of light and squeezed through the tens of thousands of gaps in the violently rotating brass gears as if threading a needle.
A perfect hyper-drive warp without even a 0.001-second error.
Kuuung―!
The cluster of light cleared, and the place Kim Minwoo's party set foot on was the exact center of the dimension.
The massive main clockwork axis controlling hundreds of millions of gears. The heart of the hearth.
And right in the middle of that central axis.
A single brilliant flame spewing a radiant white aura was floating like the permanent power source of a machine device, spewing massive heat.
[You have discovered the special material for unlocking physical potential (-999), the Flame of the Sun!]
"Finally found it. The final piece."
Deep joy lingered in Kim Minwoo's black pupils.
It was that time.
Wiiiiiing―!
Wiiiiiing―!
From all sides of the main gear sector, which had been dominated by perfect silence, the dimension's automatic defense system began to operate loudly along with machine sounds that seemed to tear eardrums.
[Warning! An illegal intruder has been detected in the center of the Tomb of the Forgotten Hearth!]
[Activating the automatic defense protocol to protect the Flame of the Sun!]
Kugugugugung―!
The massive brass walls surrounding the central axis began to split apart jjeok-jjeok.