Wizard: Building a Golem Legion From Zero

Chapter 485: Chapter 473: Regaining Humanity

[WARNING! Commander, your Humanity Value has dropped to 61.4%!]

[You are only 1.4 percentage points away from the safety threshold of 60%.]

[Once it drops below that, Mechanical Mind will enter a state of irreversible, deep-seated solidification. At that point, all external emotional stimuli and internal logical interventions will become completely ineffective. You will be reduced to a purely rational machine!]

Jarvis sounded the highest-level alert in Allen’s Sea of Spirit.

But Allen, sitting upon his throne, remained expressionless, not even furrowing his brow.

He was now gradually losing the ability to even feel emotions like worry or urgency.

After his promotion to Second-level Wizard, every increase in his Spiritual Power and every division of his cognitive sub-threads had accelerated the assimilation by the ’Mechanical Mind Modification Skill’.

The increase in his Humanity Value from observing game data was, after all, "second-hand data"—a temporary fix, not a cure.

Soon, as he rapidly advanced toward the Morning Star realm, that faint increase was quickly worn away, and his Humanity Value even began to fall at an accelerated rate.

"How is the experimental data compilation coming along?"

Allen’s voice was as calm as the deep sea.

[Sufficient data has been collected and categorized.]

Jarvis immediately summoned several light screens.

On the screens were the highest-quality emotional samples contributed over time by countless players in Sword Art Online.

The complex emotional waves from the retired veteran Cole—a mixture of vigilance, pity, and a desire to protect.

The pure, ecstatic joy of creation felt by Professor Karl when he overcame a technical challenge in his virtual workshop.

The unwillingness to yield and the sheer resolve that erupted from countless players when facing an impossibly strong enemy.

Under the immense computational power of the Allen Network, these real, vivid emotions were stripped away, analyzed, and encoded one by one, ultimately becoming lines of "emotional code."

In the game, it was disguised as a hidden "Resolve System" that allowed players to deal extra damage in desperate situations.

But in reality, it was a massive array for collecting and compiling emotions.

"Very good."

Allen raised his hand and clenched it gently in the empty air.

All the data streams on the light screens instantly converged in his palm, forming a glowing sphere—a Rune Matrix composed of several thousand Will Runes.

This was the antidote he had prepared for himself.

A "Humanity Algorithm"—or, to put it another way, a "Humanity Plug-in"—compiled from a massive sample of human data.

"Jarvis, set the ’Humanity Origin Point’."

[Please define the temporal coordinate.]

"Lock it to the period when I had just become an Advanced Apprentice."

He had determined that period to be his optimal psychological state.

Before that, he was just a Transmigrator struggling to survive, his mentality still immature.

Any later, and the effects of the Mechanical Mind skill began to manifest, irreversibly altering his emotional baseline.

Only the Allen Wesren of that era possessed both a vigorous curiosity and a thirst for knowledge, while also retaining the thought patterns and the last shred of warmth from his life on Earth.

A perfect balance.

[’Humanity Origin Point’ locked. ’Humanity Operator’ core logic construction initiated...]

Allen closed his eyes, opening his Sea of Spirit completely.

What he had to do was forcibly inscribe this permanent consciousness Rune Matrix, one capable of correcting his emotions, into the sea of his mind that was on the verge of complete digitization.

This matrix would occupy one of his Permanent Sorcery Slots and would not provide any increase to his combat power.

"Begin inscription."

The glowing ball of Runes in his palm transformed into a stream of light and shot into the space between Allen’s eyebrows.

Monstrous waves immediately churned within his Sea of Spirit.

Countless Runes began to arrange, combine, and link themselves in the depths of his Sea of Spirit.

A vast, intricate matrix, like a chain of stars, began to forcibly brand itself upon it.

There was no pain in the process, not even any sensation.

Mechanical Mind, acting like a diligent antivirus program, had completely blocked all negative feedback.

Allen was like a cold observer watching a plug-in being installed in his own brain.

’Everything is under control.’

Until...

The final Rune in the matrix’s core perfectly connected with the first.

[Consciousness Rune Matrix inscription complete.]

[’Humanity’ now being integrated.]

Allen braced himself for the impact.

He expected it would be a rush of ecstasy, a flood of saint-like compassion, or perhaps a crushing guilt over his past actions that would shatter his entire worldview.

But this master of calculation had overlooked one thing.

The most immense, most deeply-rooted emotion isn’t some intense outburst in a life-or-death moment.

It’s the day-in, day-out, bone-deep color of one’s existence.

DRIP.

Like a drop of ink falling silently into a basin of clear water, it began to spread slowly, unstoppably.

A feeling, without any warning, began to seep up from the lowest depths of his soul.

An emotion he hadn’t comprehended for a very long time.

Loneliness.

Overwhelming and inescapable.

Allen’s entire body shuddered. The hands that had performed countless precise experiments, once steady as a mountain, were now trembling uncontrollably.

His brain, like a supercomputer, slowed its processing speed at this moment, slowly savoring the sensation.

He saw a cluttered rental apartment, with the city’s undying neon glow outside the window.

The faint blue light reflecting off the computer screen illuminated a young, tired face.

On the table was a takeout container, half-eaten and already cold, with red oil congealed around the edges.

The only sound in the entire world was the monotonous hum of the computer case fan.

That person, alone in the dead of night, staring at the screen, sometimes laughing, sometimes silent.

It was a scene from his past life, a memory he had long since buried, now resurfacing with startling clarity.

"Urgh..."

Sitting on the throne, Allen gripped the armrests so tightly that his fingers left deep imprints in the hard metal.

This was the first time he had lost control since his transmigration.

The shell of absolute rationality was violently torn apart, revealing the mortal soul within—an exile in a strange land, lonely to the point of madness.

He had intended to use the emotions of the masses to save himself, but he never expected that this tapestry of human experience concealed the sharpest of blades.

All manner of suffering may be eased by the collective, but this particular transdimensional loneliness, amplified a billionfold by the resonance of millions, came crashing right back down upon him!

He who once controlled everything had the dam of his own suppressed emotions, buried for years, burst by the flood.

’So... this is loneliness.’

Upon the throne, Allen slowly opened his eyes. Flowing data no longer filled his gaze; instead, they reflected the thick, unyielding darkness of the night outside.

’I thought I had forgotten long ago.’

He thought he had grown used to it.

From the very first day he transmigrated to this world, he had been all alone.

But being used to it didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

Mechanical Mind had merely suppressed it, blocked it, and buried it in the deepest part of his soul.

And now, the ’Humanity Operator’ he personally created had dug it right back up.

At this moment, he was no longer the lofty Allen Wesren.

He was the collective embodiment of millions of souls who felt lonely in the dead of night.

The algorithm was a success.

It was running perfectly, just as he had designed it.

Allen... was deep in his feelings in the dead of night.