Free Web NovelChapter 142: Chapter 142: It’s All Mike
Galen Seldon also looked bewildered, having no idea what his subordinate was talking about.
Shen Feng frowned. ’What the hell is this?’
He rose and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window to look down below.
He saw that the Holy Sanctuary was in complete chaos. The ongoing market had ground to a halt; Holy Sanctuary People and outsiders alike were scattering and fleeing in all directions.
The once-domineering Holy Sanctuary patrols were now taking cover behind various buildings, firing toward the entrance.
The sound of gunfire was coming from them.
A dense, dark mass of figures was now pouring into the Holy Sanctuary’s entrance like a black tide. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
These figures seemed impervious to harm. Bullets striking them at most created ripple-like indentations, revealing a silver-gray internal structure before they reverted to their original form.
They all possessed immense strength, capable of scaling walls and leaping across rooftops—they could even walk directly on the walls and vaulted ceilings!
A closer look revealed that they were all identical: bald, muscular, black men.
"Bo... Boss Mike!?" Billy looked from the muscular black men pouring into the Holy Sanctuary to Shen Feng, his face a mask of confusion.
’What is going on?’
Galen, Daisy, and the others in the room were even more stunned.
Galen muttered, "Devils... Devils... Are these things... Construction Machines? But why are they hurting Holy Sanctuary People?"
Based on the silver-gray structure visible when the muscular black men were damaged, Galen was certain they were Construction Machines.
But in the blink of an eye, several Holy Sanctuary Guards who were firing their weapons were torn to shreds by a few of the muscular men, who then assimilated and devoured the remains, birthing new muscular men from the carnage!
What bewildered him even more was that these thousands upon thousands of black men looked exactly like the man standing beside him!
He finally understood that the power of the outsider next to him was far beyond anything he could have imagined.
A single one had been enough to subdue his Guard; tens of thousands of them would be simply unstoppable!
As he watched the Mikes running in every direction outside, Shen Feng was beginning to piece together what was happening.
It was another one of those tired, cliché plotlines, which actually fit the long-standing habits of the entity behind the scenes.
"Fucking *The Matrix*... Interesting..." Shen Feng’s mouth curled up as he muttered to himself, "I’d like to see what you’re planning..."
"S-sir... what... what should we do? Are the ones down there... really Boss Mike?" Billy asked Shen Feng, his voice trembling.
’He’d also figured out part of it and, deep down, felt a secret thrill. After all, he’d seen *The Matrix* too, and it instantly occurred to him that the ones below could be the *real* Mike!’
’If that was the case, this Asian kid who’d been terrifying him was about to get what he deserved!’
Shen Feng let out a cold laugh.
"It’s not what *we* should do, but what *I* should do. Speaking of which, it’s time for me to recharge."
"Recharge? Re... recharge wh—" Before Billy could finish, Shen Feng’s fingers became like a knife, instantly plunging into Billy’s chest and piercing his heart.
"Wh-... But... how..." Billy’s face was a mask of confusion before he quickly fell silent. Starting from the wound, his body rapidly transformed into a silver-gray nanomechanical structure. In moments, he had become a complete Nanomechanical Cluster. Then, the surface of the mass writhed, reforming into the appearance of the black Mike.
Shen Feng let out another cold laugh, sensing the connection between this new Nanomechanical Cluster and his Silicon-Based Brain.
These Nanomechanical Clusters weren’t independent. They were part of the same cluster that currently enveloped his body, remotely controlled by the electrical waves his Silicon-Based Brain emitted in conjunction with his Consciousness Antennae.
They were akin to remote-controlled robots.
However, the Silicon-Based Brain’s ability to emit electromagnetic waves was finite, and controlling a large number of Nanomechanical Clusters at once required immense computational power.
With his current abilities, he could control a few dozen Nanomechanical Clusters—a few dozen Construction Machines—at most.
Any more than that, and he couldn’t maintain their lifelike movements, making it easy for flaws to appear.
Making tens of thousands of Nanomechanical Robots all act as if they had independent thought, like the ones outside, was basically impossible for him.
’Now, I’m quite interested in those tens of thousands of Mikes outside...’
Watching Shen Feng casually devour and assimilate his own "companion," Galen’s eyes widened once more in terror.
But in the next instant, Shen Feng had already directed the Nanomechanical Cluster to completely envelop, consume, and absorb him, creating another new "Mike."
It wasn’t just Galen. In the blink of an eye, everyone in the room besides Daisy—all the Holy Sanctuary People, along with the corpses and bloodstains on the floor—had been consumed. A total of nine Mikes were "assembled" from the material.
Counting his own body, that made ten in total.
All of these "Mikes" were controlled by Shen Feng’s Silicon-Based Brain. They couldn’t stray too far, but thankfully, supported by his immense processing power, their actions were still perfectly lifelike.
Shen Feng gave a satisfied nod, and the ten muscular black men filed out of the room.
They were immediately met by several dozen Mikes climbing up through the elevator shaft. Shen Feng said with a deadpan expression:
"I’ve already checked. There’s only one woman."
The other Mikes didn’t suspect a thing. They also nodded, then turned, walked to the window, smashed right through it, and began to scuttle down the wall like ants.
Shen Feng and the nine Mikes under his control blended into the group, filing out and swiftly descending the wall to the ground below.
This initial contact had already allowed him to draw a few conclusions.
First, these Mike-form Nanomechanical Robots did not share a hive mind.
Otherwise, he would have been discovered the moment he showed up.
They were more like clones or copies, fully replicating Mike’s memories and consciousness. It was similar to the idea of ’different bodies, one mind,’ yet each was an independent individual.
There had to be an original.
’Or maybe more like an ant colony?’
’This would probably be a sensational topic in psychology...’
This copy-and-clone model was how Mike could sustain tens of thousands of duplicates, with the potential for infinite growth.
This was completely different from Shen Feng’s method of control via his Silicon-Based Brain’s electrical waves.
Though, each method had its pros and cons.
By now, over seventy thousand Mike Robots had taken complete control of the entire Holy Sanctuary.
Everyone who had been in the Holy Sanctuary, both Holy Sanctuary People and outsiders, was now herded into the central square of the marketplace, forbidden to leave.
The Holy Sanctuary Guards who had been carrying guns had long since dropped their weapons, avoiding the Mikes like the plague and not even daring to look in their direction.
After all, the guards who had just been torn to shreds and assimilated served as a potent example.
The Holy Sanctuary People, clad in their tattered, orange-red Azure Sky Technology uniforms, all hung their heads, looking utterly defeated.
They had never imagined that the special authority they so proudly wielded over the Construction Machines would one day simply cease to work.
Meanwhile, many of the oppressed outsiders and slaves were gloating, taking pleasure in the misfortune of the Holy Sanctuary People.
But their glee quickly turned to deep-seated terror.
These identical, eerie men were extremely brutal, killing as casually as if it were a game. In the blink of an eye, dozens of people had been ripped to shreds on the spot for moving too slowly.
Everyone immediately fell deathly silent, not daring to make a sound.
Mike flashed a cruel smile, revealing a mouthful of sharp metal teeth. He looked at the people, who were now as timid as quail, and said grimly:
"I’m looking for a black-haired Asian kid and a scrawny white devil. They left tracks, so they must have come through here! Anyone see them? I’ll let you live. Anyone who didn’t... you all die!"
As he spoke, he violently grabbed a Holy Sanctuary Person by the head and squeezed. The man’s skull burst, splattering brain matter everywhere.
A collective gasp of horror rose from the crowd. Some of the women and children were so frightened they burst into tears.
"Answer me!" tens of thousands of Mikes roared in unison. The sound vibrated through the surrounding metal structures, making the very ground tremble and shattering the precious, ancient glass that had long adorned the nearby buildings.
As the roar faded, several Mikes grabbed a few Holy Sanctuary People, hoisting them high into the air.
The captives struggled desperately, but were completely unable to break free from the Mikes’ grip.
"I... I really haven’t seen any Asian kid..."
"I remember! Three years ago! A black-haired Asian kid came here three years ago. He was... he was an awakened sleeper!"
"No, that’s wrong, an Asian kid was here just a few days ago, but he’s already left..."
In their panic, the captives started babbling incoherently.
Several Mikes narrowed their eyes, and with a sudden exertion of force, ripped the captives to shreds.
Then, as if plucking chicks from a coop, they grabbed several more hostages.
Having learned from the previous victims’ fate, these new hostages immediately began to struggle and scream, desperately wracking their brains to remember if they had ever seen an Asian kid.
The attention of everyone—the tens of thousands of Mikes and the tens of thousands of hostages—was now fixated on the people being held aloft.
No one noticed that ten Mikes, their faces blank, were casually strolling forward, gradually approaching the one who had spoken first.
Soon, they had pushed through the other Mikes and arrived beside the one who had first spoken. With a seemingly casual gesture, they reached out and placed a hand on the first Mike’s shoulder.
