Shadow of Mechanical Soul

Emergency shield energy

Tom's train of thought was interrupted, and he felt a bit puzzled. How could the door of a moving train carriage suddenly open?

After listening for a while, he realized that there were thieves on this carriage, and there were two of them.

But what did it matter to him if there were thieves on the carriage? Tom once again turned his attention to his memories.

Tom had always believed that the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life had nothing to do with him. He never discussed such "silly" questions with others. In his free time, he might chat with acquaintances about which country's ship had been hijacked by Somali pirates or whether the prophecy of the end of the world in 2012 was credible, but he would never talk about aliens. To him, aliens were as unattainable as the President of the country.

However, his experiences over the past year had taught him that he was wrong. Aliens were right beside him. One might not know them, but they were indeed influencing people around. Although Tom had yet to see a real Fire Hell being.

What terrified him most was learning from the followers of the Fire Hell beings that not only were there many aliens on Earth, but they belonged to more than one species. They hid among human beings, lurking for their respective purposes, with the Fire Hell beings being just one of them.

Tom didn't know the ultimate goal of the Fire Hell beings' arrival on Earth or when they would act, but their special information channels had obtained a shocking piece of news.

A race called the Rolandians had suddenly and secretly controlled a portion of the strategic nuclear missiles belonging to the United States and Russia using technology beyond Earth's capabilities, and there were over two hundred of them.

Somehow, the Fire Hell beings knew that these strategic nuclear missiles would be used tomorrow, targeting the capitals and major cities of various countries. This was why the vassals of the Fire Hell beings hurriedly moved some important materials out of the base in Shanhai City to an abandoned mine in Lingshan, which they had converted into a base.

Tom knew the place well from the base's database, even knowing that it had taken on a certain scale and was equipped with many facilities, but it lacked materials and daily necessities, so it was currently empty.

Perhaps knowing that Tom couldn't escape his control, when he saw these people hurriedly moving, he asked Wang Hongming, who was in charge of the experiment. Wang Hongming didn't hide anything and briefly told him about it with a strange look in his eyes.

Upon hearing such significant news, Tom felt nothing. In the past, when he saw nuclear bombs being stolen and detonated in movie scenes, his emotions would still fluctuate, but now, his sea of consciousness seemed to have dried up, and the news didn't even cause a ripple.

There might still be people Tom cared about in this world, but now he felt that whether it was people or things, they were so far away from him that everything seemed like an illusion, and his whole life felt like a dream.

Two hundred nuclear bombs were not enough to destroy the Earth, and even if they did, what would it matter? After all, he wouldn't be alive to see the result.

"Click," the bionic person's sound wave detector received this unusual sound and accurately modulated it into a quantum signal, forwarding it to Tom's consciousness.

Someone had opened the alloy box where he was housed, and his appearance seemed to have frightened them. Tom found this unexpected event more intriguing than the news about the nuclear bombs.

However, the actions of these two thieves did not bring any benefit to Tom. Instead, due to the disruption of the low-temperature environment, his energy consumption accelerated significantly, and the countdown number for the dissipation of his consciousness suddenly dropped by thousands. Moreover, Tom couldn't communicate with the two thieves at all, as the residual energy in his body was not even enough for him to move his mouth.

"Biological energy detected. Absorb?"

As the two train robbers struggled, Tom suddenly felt something heavy pressing down on him, and immediately, his auxiliary intelligence agent issued a prompt.

Energy was a lifesaver for Tom at this moment. He didn't care what kind of energy it was or where it came from; he quickly confirmed its absorption.

A tingling sensation emanated from whatever was pressing on him, spreading throughout his body upon entry. This feeling was as soothing as a massage to Tom.

Energy! Yes, this was the long-awaited sensation of energy. The lackeys of the Fire Realm had infused him with various types of energy before, and this was one such feeling. Tom, like a starving man who suddenly discovers food, frantically absorbed it, but that little bit of energy was barely enough to moisten the lips of someone dying of thirst; it was consumed in mere seconds.

Fortunately, the two robbers kept throwing what they considered waste "earphones" onto him. As the stacked "earphones" conducted energy between them and into the "puppet" body, Tom finally felt a hint of rejuvenation.

"Body energy reserve exceeds 0.5%. Movement restrictions lifted. Body control transferred to consciousness."

The built-in intelligence agent delivered good news to Tom. From now on, as long as his energy reserve remained above 0.5%, he could move freely. He recalled that his last energy replenishment was two months ago, and even then, with a reserve of 0.48%, he could barely lift a hand, let alone speak.

Although Tom could move, he remained still as more energy continued to seep into him. He was too desperate for energy; even the slightest absorption was welcome.

"Consciousness enhancement initiated!"

A translucent screen suddenly appeared in Tom's vision, displaying something in strange words and symbols. Strangely, Tom understood their meanings intuitively.

A constantly fluctuating number occasionally jumped, representing the percentage of the body's energy reserve. The number was growing, but at an increasingly slower pace.

"A'gan, does consciousness enhancement consume energy reserves?"

A'gan was the name Tom had given to his built-in intelligence agent, a nod to its (lack of) intelligence, which even paled in comparison to that of Forrest Gump from the movie. It was more of a hope than an expectation, at least hoping it could attain such intelligence.

"Yes!"

"Then why prioritize enhancing the consciousness over storing precious energy? Wouldn't it be better to conserve it for future use?" Tom's thriftiness was understandable; he had been terrorized by energy deprivation, unable to even move without it, rendering him as good as dead.

"The storage of body energy reserves is not linear. The stronger the consciousness, the more energy it can store. The accumulation of large amounts of energy necessitates a robust consciousness to support it, lest it cause permanent damage. A weakened consciousness of the body's owner is at risk of dissipation at any moment. Bioenergy, a rare form that can strengthen the consciousness, should be prioritized for enhancement. However, since the body's energy reserve is far below the threshold, it is recommended to consume a portion for consciousness enhancement and transfer the rest."

So that was how it worked—a connection between consciousness and body energy. Tom reluctantly agreed but couldn't help but feel pained about the energy being consumed.