Chapter 80
Chapter 80
Ch. 80 .｡.:✧ The Clockwork City (7) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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The life of Cern, the magical engineer, had not been smooth.
In his youth, he was one of the most promising talents.
Barely an adult, Cern had served as the director of a research institute that combined intricate clockwork machines with magic.
He succeeded in creating devices that could reproduce all the basic elemental magics.
That was the birth of the field of clockwork engineering.
Since Cern discovered its potential, numerous dwarves dove into research.
Various types of magic were gradually reproduced through machines.
Unlike magicians who could only be cultivated by selecting and educating those with special talents, Clockwork machines could be mass-produced, and demand grew endlessly.
Agricultural tools, industrial excavators, weapons, and so on.
As demand increased, factories began to spring up in this barren land, and within a decade or so, the massive city-state of the Clockwork City was formed.
However, separate from the development of the Clockwork City, Cern’s status was gradually forgotten.
He was respected as a pioneer of clockwork engineering, but that was all.
Compared to the latecomers who were actively doing business, Cern seemed stagnant.
A worthless has-been shut away in a back room.
A legend who had opened up an era.
That was how he was remembered and would go down in history.
That was what everyone thought, until…
“What? You want to hold an expo? What are you going to exhibit?”
“Hmm… What should I call it? Clockwork, clockwork human? No. Clockwork doll. That sounds better.”
Cern had returned.
This time, with a humanoid machine.
There had been several attempts to create humanoid machines before, but they were all just superficially human-like, but what Cern brought was different.
Her name was Linda.
People were thrilled by her appearance and attire, so similar to a human’s.
Linda understood human speech, responded appropriately, and carried out orders.
She recognized people’s faces and distinguished voices.
Linda seemed like a thinking machine.
The response was explosive.
The clockwork doll, which had only existed in the realm of fantasy, had suddenly evolved from merely repeating recorded voices and actions to an autonomous robot.
Cern became an instant star once again.
Unlike in the early days when he had lost the rights to clockwork engineering to latecomers, Cern was meticulous this time.
He filed patents and actively pursued business.
Orders for clockwork dolls poured in from all over the world, and Cern quickly found himself sitting on a pile of money.
Cern’s clockwork dolls roamed the streets.
Many households were equipped with butler and maid dolls.
Not a few people bought them quietly for nighttime activities.
Although most ended up as scrap heaps when fuel prices rose worldwide due to the poor fuel efficiency of clockwork dolls, by then, Cern had earned enough money to live luxuriously for the rest of his life and still not spend it all, but Cern was not satisfied with that.
People judged that the clockwork doll craze was over, but Cern thought differently.
In Cern’s view, Linda was still incomplete.
Although the hardware was plausible, the software was far from adequate.
What Cern dared to aim for was the realm of life creation.
He wanted to artificially create a soul.
Not just to make the machine appear to think on its own, but to actually make it think for itself, and to make it feel emotions.
Blood ghouls already had consciousness based on corpses that had already died and stopped, and spirits were made of only magical power without organic matter and could think, so why couldn’t an artificial soul be made with a machine?
Thus, Cern abandoned everything and devoted himself solely to developing an artificial soul.
His wife and daughter supported and encouraged such a Cern.
Until Cern finally achieved success.
“Ugh, I overslept again. What time is it? I won’t be able to keep my promise to go on a picnic.”
[You’re awake.]
“Yes, Linda. Since the promise is broken anyway, I’ll spend all day researching today. Take a seat at the experimental table.”
[You look very tired. How about having a cup of coffee first?]
“Good idea. I’ll have a cup of coffee first… Huh?”
As a steaming cup of coffee was offered to him from the side, Cern, who was yawning as he took the cup, belatedly noticed something was strange.
Cern slowly turned his head.
[Is there a problem?]
And then, he discovered Linda standing demurely with a faint smile.
Unscripted dialogue, unscripted reactions, and unscripted expressions.
Linda was producing outputs that could not come from her logic circuits.
As if she was thinking for herself and feeling emotions.
Linda was acting like a person with a true soul.
“D-damn it! Camera, camera!”
Although Cern was perplexed, he found what he needed to do.
First was to record.
He had to find out what ‘error’ had occurred in Linda.
That error would directly lead to an artificial soul.
“Linda! Look this way! What did you say earlier?”
[Good morning, Mr. Cern. It’s a lovely morning.]
“No, not that. Earlier…”
[Command not recognized.]
“…”
But when Cern returned, Linda had already reverted to her usual self.
It was enough to drive him mad.
Though it was only for a moment, Linda had clearly possessed a soul.
She had spoken and acted like a person, and that clue must have remained inside Linda.
“Alright. Let’s take her apart.”
Having confirmed the possibility, there was no hesitation.
Cern devoted all of his efforts to disassembling Linda and finding the ‘error’.
He skipped meals and didn’t sleep.
He was solely focused on meeting Linda again, who had handed him coffee that day.
He dedicated himself, wearing away his body, to recreate the artificial soul that had briefly emerged.
“Honey. Take a break while you work.”
“Oh, alright. Get out. You’re in the way.”
“Honey. About selling the factory…”
“Do whatever you want with that. Don’t bother me! I’m doing something much more important!”
“…”
What was being worn away was not just his body.
“Daddy. What about the picnic?”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Once I finish this, we can go on all the picnics you want. This is what Daddy has dedicated his life to. Once this is done, I can play with you to my heart’s content, so could you go out for now?”
“But I want to play now…”
“Well for now leave and we’ll talk later.”
While Cern was so absorbed in his research that he lost track of time, the minds of his wife and child were rapidly wearing down.
The days when Cern didn’t come home increased, and from some point on, he practically lived in his laboratory.
Yet there was no sign of progress.
“Brother Cern. I’m sorry to say this, but… I think you must have seen an illusion back then. It doesn’t make sense. How could an artificial soul suddenly appear out of nowhere without you touching anything?”
“What? Are you saying an artificial soul can’t be created? Are you the same as those religious fanatics? Does it bother you that I’m daring to challenge the authority of God? Do you want to interfere? Huh?”
“No, brother… That’s not what I’m saying…”
Some cautiously suggested that Cern might have seen an illusion, but it didn’t make a dent.
Cern’s eyes had long since turned.
Nothing could stop him.
If even a slightly displeasing voice or one that denied his research emerged, Cern took it all as an attack on himself.
He responded aggressively to all of this, so people began to tire of Cern and leave.
After much more time passed, Cern finally came to his senses.
“There’s nowhere left to touch…”
The clockwork doll was famous for its complexity.
He had examined every single part of Linda, one by one.
Over more than a decade, piece by piece, meticulously.
At the end of it, he realized.
That there had never been an error in the first place.
Then ominous thoughts began to creep in.
Perhaps he really had seen an illusion that day, he thought.
“Hah. What is this.”
It was futile, but at the same time, he felt relieved.
He could finally rest now.
It felt as if the ghost that had been driving Cern had disappeared.
“Honey! I’m now… Honey?”
Realizing that it had all been in vain, the home he returned to after a long time was desolate.
A house empty of family and furniture.
In the middle of it, Cern found a note.
A note from his wife saying she couldn’t live like this anymore and was leaving.
Only then did he remember.
The memory of him roughly chasing away his wife who had come to the lab, crying and begging him to come home.
It was too late.
By the time Cern realized his mistake, everything had already left his side.
“Pull yourself together. Return to the industry. Your skills haven’t rusted yet.”
“Return… Is it possible…”
“A clock tower has been decided as the city’s landmark. Cern, you’re in charge of construction. It doesn’t have to be a grand comeback. Return to this industry slowly. Life quickly becomes boring when you stop working.”
Thanks to the consideration of the Clockwork City mayor, Cern was able to secure a job.
A landmark to represent the Clockwork City, which was just transforming into a tourist destination.
It was a commission to construct a clock tower.
Cern decided to get back on his feet, overcoming his pain.
Though his runaway wife and child remained silent despite a barrage of letters, he believed without doubt that he could restore their relationship someday.
He would become a sound engineer again and return to everyday life and live ordinarily.
The first step was the construction of this clock tower.
[Welcome back, Mr. Cern.]
“Because of you…”
When Cern returned to his lab after a long time, he felt anger surge up as soon as he saw Linda.
Come to think of it, it was all because of that thing.
If only he hadn’t made that doll.
If only he hadn’t been captivated by that doll and seen an illusion.
If he had just destroyed it earlier, none of this would have happened.
As if venting his anger, Cern began to dismantle Linda.
He tore out the logic circuits inside and pulled them out.
He held in his hand the crystallization of his life’s efforts.
Looking at the tiny gears meshing and ticking busily, his heart wavered, but only for a moment.
He had to get rid of this to erase his lingering attachment.
“I’ll use this as the drive for the clock.”
“Pardon? What is this?”
“The logic circuit of a clockwork doll. Something to be thrown away now.”
He decided to insert Linda’s logic circuit into the clock tower.
Linda’s complex logic circuit, which had displayed countless words, actions, and reactions, now had only one job.
To accurately turn the clock hands.
Once the internal mechanism was completed, the clock tower was quickly finished.
A new landmark rose in the Clockwork City.
“Yes. Thank you all for attending the completion ceremony. Now it’s time for the Clockwork City to evolve. To attract tourists flocking from all over the world…”
On the day of the completion ceremony, Cern felt all strength drain from his body.
It was over.
He had buried Linda’s heart, to which he had dedicated his life, in that clock tower.
Cern stood blankly, looking up at the clock hands moving without the slightest error.
“Construction manager! Let’s give a round of applause to Cern! Cern! Where should we put the commemorative plaque?”
“Just put it on any wall-”
Boom!
The moment Cern stepped forward to nail in the commemorative plaque, there was a rumbling vibration.
The vibration clearly started from the clock tower.
Cern looked up at the clock tower in shock.
The corners of his eyes trembled.
The speakers, which should only have rung out bell sounds, crackled with static noise and then emitted a strange voice.
A woman’s voice, as if filled with resentment.
The voice he had once modeled after his wife’s.
It was Linda’s voice.
“Linda?”
And when Cern raised his head, there was a black pupil where there shouldn’t have been one on the clock.
The pupil slowly moved down and met Cern’s gaze.
Cern froze at the overwhelming presence.
Rumble!
“Ah…”
“Cern! What are you doing! Run!”
With a tremendous roar, an explosion occurred.
The clock tower sank, collapsing with its foundation, and Cern barely managed to save his life with the mayor’s help.
There was nothing to say except that it was unlucky in many ways.
Of all days, on the day the clock tower was completed, a dungeon formed underneath and swallowed the entire clock tower.
It was a natural disaster.
“It’s my fault. Because I, I killed Linda with my own hands… This happened because Linda resented me.”
“What on earth are you talking about, Cern?”
“Didn’t you hear? At the completion ceremony, Linda’s voice resented me!”
“It was just static noise.”
“A pupil appeared on the clock and glared at me!”
“You saw an illusion. No one else who attended the completion ceremony saw anything like that.”
“No. Linda was definitely there. She had been there all along. The artificial soul was complete from the beginning. I just didn’t recognize it, and buried it in the dungeon myself. That’s why Linda got angry…”
After that day, Cern kept repeating the same thing.
I had already completed the artificial soul long ago.
I just didn’t know I had completed it.
As proof, Linda resented me while becoming the clock tower…
But no one believed those words.
Cern had gone mad.
That was the general consensus.
“How’s Cern these days?”
“Don’t even ask. He’s out of his mind. You know that clockwork doll with its logic circuits torn out and only the shell remaining?”
“You mean Linda?”
“Yeah. He keeps pointing at it and repeating the same sentence.”
“What sentence?”
There was no one who could handle Cern, who had entered the final stages of dementia.
Only one thing remained by his side.
Linda, with only her shell remaining.
A clockwork doll that had lost its ability to think and only repeated simple actions.
“There are ghosts in the machines.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know either.”
And not long after the dungeon appeared, news came that large numbers of clockwork dolls had disappeared from the scrapyard, but that was no longer a matter that concerned Cern.
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“Linda. It was you.”
The mystery was solved.
A dungeon without a boss, and the clock tower that had sunk and disappeared into the depths of the dungeon.
The boss was Linda.
Linda had been exposed to demonic energy and became a monster full of malice.
Wouldn’t Cern be happy now that she had finally become an artificial soul that could think and act on her own?
“Still, I suppose I have to kill her…”
I was not sure if this was an academically significant specimen or not, but for my immediate survival, I had to destroy that thing.
Using the Weak Point trait, the drive busily turning inside the clock tower was highlighted in red.
That was the weak point.
“This is troublesome.”
The problem was that there was no way to target that weak point.
I’d already used up a large amount of magical power spreading the curse throughout the dungeon.
The small amount of magical power that remained was used up on telekinesis to save those mercenaries.
Now only a tiny amount of magical power was left.
There was nothing I could do with this, and if I used even this up, I’d suffer magical exhaustion.
Breaking through the thick walls of the clock tower with pure physical strength without magical power?
That was impossible unless you were a powerhouse like Yerina.
Without my traits and magical power, I was just a talentless, ordinary person.
‘It seems the best play is to just snatch the dungeon core and run.’
Of course, there was no law saying you must defeat the boss monster.
Currently, the dungeon core was embedded at the top of the clock tower.
If I just pulled that out, the dungeon would start to collapse.
If I grabbed the dungeon core and escaped, that clock tower would be crushed by the collapsing dungeon anyway.
“Hoeee! Please let me down!”
Conveniently, there was someone riding on top of the clock tower.
“Hey! Avatar! Do you see that shining dungeon core! Pull that out!”
“W-what?! Hngh! Hnnnngh! Huuuuungh!!! It won’t come out!”
“It’s useless. The power I gave to that one isn’t even 1 percent.”
The avatar’s face turned red as it strained to pull the dungeon core, but it didn’t budge at all.
That avatar was useless.
So in the end, I had to climb the clock tower myself to pull out the dungeon core…
“I need to stop those legs.”
The movement of the clanking legs was too vicious.
First, the legs needed to stop before I could even think about climbing up, and meanwhile, the clock tower was still glaring at us while gradually closing the distance.
At this rate, we’d be cornered and flattened like dried squid.
I had to find a way somehow.
“…Yoo-jin. Legs. Way to, stop.”
“What? What is it?”
Just then, Undecided tugged at my sleeve and called out.
“…Bug. If caught, in gears, will work.”
“Oh.”
So there was such a method.
Pushing a bug into the drive to break the machine, as I marveled at Undecided’s genius idea and turned to the side,
“W-why are you looking at me?!”
The centipede nun’s face turned deathly pale.
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