Downstream of the Whitewater River, in the Gilen area, a large, newly built factory stood on what used to be a wasteland like a towering fortress. The building, built with grayish-white man-made materials, had straight, rigid lines, and a practical design style that made it very different from the complicated and exquisite magic workshops of the old era. Yet, it also had a rough and powerful 'industrial beauty'.
At the edge of the factory, the towering Magic Monitoring Tower was monitoring the magic waves in the entire area to prevent unauthorized spellcasting from interfering with the operation of the factory's machinery and communication system. There were also security personnel wearing light equipment patrolling the various intersections, guarding this key facility with the background of the government office. A road extended from the river bank and went straight through the entire factory. On the road, a black magic car was steadily parked in front of one of the workshops.
The door opened, and Countess Ropenny Gilen, who was tall and thin, wearing a dark skirt with her hair tied up, stepped out of the car. She looked at the large workshop in front of her. Behind her, another figure stepped out of the magic car. It was the ghostly 'Saintess of the Lamp', Selena Geerfen.
"So this is the main production area of Gilen Heavy Industries …" Selena looked up and saw the fortress-like workshop in front of her. The rigid and straight lines outside the workshop cut the clear and bright sky like sharp blades. The material, liquid, and gas pipes extended out from the top of the workshop like the blood vessels and nerves of a behemoth, connecting the other workshops nearby and the storage tanks in the distance. Selena could not help but squint at the industrial power contained in it. "No wonder it's one of the largest industrial bases in the south … I think I can understand why His Majesty chose this place to be the experimental site of the 'Smart Wetware Workshop'."
"The Empire has invested a lot of money and preferential policies here. His Majesty ordered me to use these things to build an industrial base that can support the southeast. What you see is actually just a part of this large-scale plan. In the big picture, all of this is just the beginning. In the future, there will be more large-scale facilities and more factories in this area." Countess Ropenny had a proud look on her face as she introduced her achievements over the years to her guest. "Other than the inhabited urban areas and the legally stipulated farmland, woods, and water conservation areas, the wasteland in the north of Gilen City is still large. Now, these desolate lands can finally be put to use."
As she spoke, the countess could not help but glance at Selena. Her gaze fell on the latter's legs as she asked curiously, "Although it's a little rude to ask this, it seems like you don't have to come with me in the car … As a network resident, you just have to appear in front of me when I arrive at my destination, right?"
"Life needs a little ritual. This is something His Majesty said, and I think it makes sense." Selena smiled, her tone was relaxed. "Occasionally, living like a 'living person' in the real world helps to maintain a clear self-awareness and prevent the mind from aging and becoming sluggish. This is the experience I've summed up over the past few hundred years."
"… Actually, I just find it a little strange, especially when I think about how you're actually just sitting in a chair and flying in sync with the arcanotech car …" Luo Peini's expression was a little strange.
"… Well, it's my fault." Selena was a little embarrassed, but she quickly waved her hand and changed the topic. "Let's not talk about these details first. Is the workshop ready?"
"Of course." Luo Peini nodded with a smile. "It's ready since yesterday."
It was not until now that the person in charge of the factory who came to greet them confirmed that the two ladies had finished their conversation and stepped forward with the technicians. Luo Peini briefly exchanged a few words with them before she made an inviting gesture to Selena. Selena had been looking forward to this moment for a long time. She looked up and saw the heavy mechanical gate in front of the large factory was steadily opening under the power of the arcanotech device. A brightly lit workshop gradually appeared before her eyes.
Inspecting the new workshop of Gelan Heavy Industries was one of her main tasks in the Gelan area. It was as important as observing Patty's situation and confirming the effect of the anti-divinity barrier. As for why a Node Scholar like her, who specialized in the field of neural and network, would be associated with the workshop of heavy industry, it had something to do with the cutting-edge technology that was about to be used here: wetware mainframe, arcanotech devices, and neural network. The three major technologies that the Cecil Empire was proud of would be integrated here.
With anticipation, she followed behind Countess Luo Peini and stepped through the alloy gate that was powered by the arcanotech device. After passing through a short connecting bridge and going through identity verification and entry registration, she finally found herself in the middle of those huge machines, pipes, and cables.
In the unusually spacious and bright workshop, processing machines that were two to three meters tall and more than ten meters long were neatly lined up on both sides of the passage like steel behemoths. Thick material pipes were slanted from the upper floor of the workshop to the top of the machines, and various large-scale and complex transmission mechanisms were connected behind the large processing machines. These things intertwined together to form the arteries and branches in this "steel palace." All of these things were unimaginable in the era of traditional magic workshops. But if it was just these things alone, it was not enough to surprise Selena.
She had visited factories in other places, and there were similar arcanotech devices in other factories. At most, the scale was smaller and the quantity was less.
What really deserved the attention of a technical expert like her was the "nerve wires" that connected the machines.
Between the material pipes and the transmission mechanisms, another complex network structure came into her sight. It was the pipes and cables wrapped in thick and strong composite protective layers. They extended from the inside of the machines. Some went deep into the ground, and some extended along the upper beam of the workshop to a certain area outside the workshop or inside the workshop. These pipes had dark red markings on the surface, and there was a faintly glowing enchanted paint covering various important interfaces or repair points. Some kind of faint light slowly flowed and flickered inside them, making them look like they were alive.
In fact, they were indeed alive and even sentient.
"All the machines here are actually modified from the existing ones. Their main working structure is still the original set, but a new control unit has been added. This has reduced the upgrade cost of the workshop by at least half." Countess Luo Peini stepped forward and tapped the metal cover on the side of one of the large processing machines with her finger. "This is the new control unit. Note, it's a new addition. The original manual control part is still in place for manual takeover or emergency shutdown when necessary. Mr. Pluman, please help to open the cover. "
The person in charge of the workshop, Pluman, immediately stepped forward and used a special key to open the sturdy-looking steel cover. Selina leaned forward, and the structure under the cover came into her sight.
She saw a delicate "rune palette" installed on the internal rack, and the end of the rune unit was connected to dark red biological tissue. The biological tissue grew out from a pipe buried deep inside the machine and divided into nerve wires, like vines spreading in the soil and fusing with the entire "palette" device. Deep in the runes, nerves, and pipes, she saw another conduit that transported nutrients. Thin biomass was slowly flowing in the conduit, nourishing the nerve nodes inside the machine.
At this moment, in Selena's eyes, one of the nerve wires seemed to have suddenly received a signal from a superior. The connected rune lit up, and a low humming sound came from inside the machine. After a few seconds, everything returned to normal.
Countess Luo Peini's voice came from the side. "The system is self-checking. The neural network in the workshop will do this every once in a while, just like the workshop supervisor inspecting the machines. But the human eye is not as sensitive as these nerves. These nerves can clearly feel the condition of each machine like a human perceiving their own fingers. All faults and potential faults can be detected and uploaded immediately."
Selena nodded. She got up and left the "nerve control unit" of the machine. She looked up and saw a nerve conduit extending from the top, connecting and merging with several other nerve conduits and disappearing into a beam at a higher level.
"There are a several-kilometer-long nervous system and supporting biomass conduits here. They communicate between machines, exchange data between nerve nodes, draw nutrients from the underground circulation pump and splitting pool, and reserve external interfaces to other workshops. But if you want to transmit data to a farther place, you still need to forward it through the magic net hub," Luo Peini explained as she raised her hand and pointed to a facility deep in the workshop. "Next, we are going to the 'brain' of this workshop. Well … the real brain."
Under the lead of Luo Peini and the workshop supervisor, Selena came to the depths of the workshop. At the end of the connecting passage, she saw a large tower-like facility. It looked a bit like a large distillation tower in an alchemy factory. The lower half of the tower was buried in a large hole under the workshop, and the upper half was connected to the dome of the workshop. A large number of conduits and nerve cables converged at the top and flowed into the tower like the blood vessels connected to the heart. A connecting bridge controlled by a mechanical device connected the middle of the tower and the main road of the workshop.
In front of the tower, Selena closed her eyes slightly, but another layer of vision opened. It was a sight that normal people could not see with their naked eyes, but something that only an eternal sleeper like her could see.
A stream of thoughts formed by nerve impulses flowed quietly in the cold steel workshop, intertwining into a net.
In her vision, in the darkness, all the machines gradually glowed. Tiny specks of light appeared inside them and flowed along the man-made network. They converged in the air and underground, growing like a river of life, and finally connected to the common source. The source was right before her eyes, an artificial brain formed by countless nerve nodes emitting powerful thought pulses … and there seemed to be more than one brain?
She opened her eyes, and the image formed by her extraordinary senses was replaced by reality. She saw Countess Luo Peini stepping forward, and the door to the tower that carried the factory's consciousness was opening.
The tower was brightly lit, and three tubular devices with a diameter of two to three meters were fixed on the floor in the middle of the room. Each device was a few meters apart, and countless pipes were neatly connected to the top of the devices from top to bottom. In the middle of the three devices, Selena saw something half-buried in the floor. It looked like the carapace of some kind of insect. The upper part had a smooth arc, and the lower part was a base made of alloy. The most powerful thought pulses were coming from inside it.
"This is the mainframe of the workshop. After the inspection, it will also become the mainframe of the entire industrial area. Next to it are the backup and servo computers. They have different functions, and they can quickly take over the system when any one of them has a problem." The technical supervisor of the workshop came forward. He was a senior Druil, and his sparse hair and deep-set eyes showed his professionalism and reliability. "In theory, unless all the brains die at the same time, as long as one of them is running normally, the whole system will not stop. At most, the efficiency will be reduced …"
Countess Luo Peini took a few steps forward, curled her finger, and gently knocked on the shell of the mainframe. With a crisp sound, the shell slowly opened, revealing the crystal container filled with biomass solution and the artificial brain soaked in the container.
Then, the three tubular devices around it opened their shells. As the alloy shells slowly lowered, the crystal tubes filled with biomass solution and the floating brains soaked in the liquid were also exposed inside the devices.
A large number of artificial nerve cords, metal needles, and fiber conduits were connected to the brains. If ordinary people saw this scene, they would probably feel … very excited.
But those who had worked here for a long time were obviously no stranger to this. Just like Druil and the doctors, they were also used to the appearance of corpses.
"These are the nerve connection units, which also include monitoring poles. The mainframe of the wet parts gives orders to the neural network in the workshop through these connection units, perceiving and controlling all the machines. The monitoring poles allow our main control center to know the situation of each servo brain at all times, and at the same time to give orders to these servo brains." The technical supervisor introduced this complex and advanced system. "According to the deepest instructions of the servo brains, they will only release orders when they receive signals from the monitoring poles and recognize the operator's authority. If any part of the whole process is abnormal, they will cut off the neural network and remind the workers in the workshop to manually take over the machines through the broadcast system."
"This is to prevent someone from stealing the command of the factory," Countess Luo Peini added. "According to His Majesty, when a set of system achieves a high degree of integration and centralization of instructions, it also has the risk of being stolen. In the near future, it may only take one wrong order to take over a factory. We have to guard against this risk."
"Ah … His Majesty is indeed very good at this kind of network level infiltration and authority control …" Perhaps she had recalled something that made her break out in a cold sweat, Selena's expression was a little strange for a moment. Then, she noticed the manual control panel in the corner of the room. On the control panel, there was a bright red button that was particularly eye-catching. "What's that?"
"One-button overclocking. It is used to increase the operating efficiency of the system in a short period of time. It is usually used when overtime is needed or when the system needs to be reset quickly," the technical supervisor immediately replied. "The main mechanism is to automatically inject syrup into the biomass pipe when the button is pressed …"
(End of Chapter)
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