Chapter 999 — Unstable

The scene made Gao Yang's eyes widen in surprise, and then he understood at once: this was the work of the Neural Thorn.

This was exactly the final step he had once envisioned long ago—the final step that would let ordinary people break through the limits of the transcendent, that would let ordinary people truly "release" spells—controlled directly by the user's thought and mental power rather than by buttons and preset spell models, the final link that would allow ordinary humans to truly perceive and manipulate magical power!

And now, that link had been realized.

"Very good. Test subject's condition is stable, all devices outputting normally... Neural Thorn feedback signal clear and stable, brainwave readings normal..." Yuri, monitoring the data nearby, spoke while directly sensing the magical fluctuations on site with his mental power. "Now let us increase the load. Mr. Ex, please try to activate the psionic echo and let us see the effect of the Song of the Deep Sea."

The test subject floating in midair nodded, then slightly raised his arm and clenched his fist. A sound like low-frequency noise immediately came from the three neural signal amplifiers floating behind him, and this noise lasted only a very brief moment before reaching a frequency beyond human hearing—it seemed to have vanished, but Gao Yang was certain that the "Song of the Deep Sea" had begun operating and was now covering the entire room, because he keenly sensed ripples spreading through the magical power in the air, and a force that gently invigorated and awakened was slowly seeping into everyone's heart.

"This looks like it's going well?" he could not resist saying to Wendy beside him. "But I heard the prototype soldiers had stability problems?"

"Yes, there are stability problems. What you are seeing now is only the lowest load, barely enough to resist unconscious, undirected mental contamination. But as the load increases, the prototype soldier quickly loses control of the Neural Thorn..."

As he spoke, the test had already progressed to the next stage. After collecting enough data, Yuri signaled the test subject on the ground to increase the intensity of the psionic echo, and Gao Yang distinctly felt a stronger magical power appear in the room—he even had the illusion that his skin was tingling slightly—but all of this lasted less than a few seconds.

Accompanied by a burst of high-frequency noise, the suit on the test subject suddenly flickered erratically, and the Neural Thorn that had been floating in midair along with him instantly went dark. The young man seemed to strive to regain control of the magical power, but without the Neural Thorn's assistance he managed only a brief buffer in midair before dropping back to the ground.

Fortunately, he had only been floating a little, and the fall of some ten-odd centimeters caused no injury. He merely staggered once before finding his footing, then dejectedly pulled off the helmet.

"I lost control," he said apologetically. "I am very sorry. I tried my best to maintain the energy balance, but it seems part of the magical power was beyond my perception..."

"You did very well, Mr. Ex. This is a technical problem at the current stage, something we need to solve next," Wendy said with a soft sigh. "Go and rest for now; the next test will not be until tomorrow."

"Understood, Lady Wendy."

Gao You stood by watching all of this, and only after the test subject had left did he frown slightly and look at Wendy: "What is the cause?"

"Manipulating mana is effortless for a veteran Transcendent, but for an ordinary person it is an entirely different matter," Wendy said with a sigh. "Even if the Neural Thorn gives them the 'physical basis' to sense and control mana, their minds, their habits of thought, their neural reflexes—all of it will need a long process of adaptation and adjustment before they can master it."

"...In other words, letting ordinary people sense and control mana is far from enough. Their nervous systems... simply cannot comprehend it?"

Wendy nodded. "It is like suddenly fitting a person with an extra set of limbs, and limbs several times more complex than the four he already has—the nervous system needs a very long time to work out how to control these added 'organs,' and the human mind itself needs a long time to adapt. Of course, effective training methods might greatly shorten that process, but developing those methods takes time in itself, and at present we have no idea where to begin—I know how to teach Transcendents, but no one knows how to teach an ordinary person who has never used mana to cast a spell."

Hetty frowned slightly. "...I fear we do not have that much time."

"...Are there any 'special talents' who can adapt to the Neural Thorn quickly without training?" Gao Yang could not help asking.

"There are—veteran Transcendents, mages and knights for instance. They can use a psionic singer's kit to unleash the 'Song of the Deep' without any training at all," Wendy shrugged. "But that defeats the purpose. The Neural Thorn was created to let ordinary people master mana, and now ordinary people are to be shut out."

"True, there is a certain irony in it..." Gao Yang reluctantly agreed with Wendy. "But if there is truly no other way, then we can only have a batch of mages undergo crash training and become psionic singers—we are desperately short of these specialist soldiers right now."

"I understand what you mean. I will draw up a plan," Wendy said with a sigh, then, as if something had just occurred to her, added, "Though... something has just come to mind."

Gao Yang and Hetty said in unison, "What is it?"

"We do not know how to make ordinary people master mana techniques quickly, but Typhon... they have spent many years researching the mass production of Transcendents," Wendy said, thinking aloud. "Of course, their mass-produced Transcendents must be selected from childhood and cultivated over the long term before they take shape, but that standard is set by becoming a full mage with real combat capability. Setting that aside, they have mature catalytic agent technology that can be used to reconstruct the human nervous system, special magical rituals for enhancing the mana perception of the low-talented, and mature rapid-training methods and mana-stimulation techniques that can let someone touching mana for the first time master skills quickly...

"If all we want is for ordinary people to become 'familiar' with mana, for their nervous systems to 'adapt' to mana, then these technologies might be of use to us."

Wendy's words set Gao Yang and Hetty both thinking.

(End of Chapter)