Chapter 382: 136. Human-shaped “machine” _6

Translator: 549690339

Derek Davis raised a smile:

“It seems we’ve found our target. This cargo ship is hiding many treasures.”

“Or possibly even more enemies.” Miss Esme Smith, who had been silent for a long time, joined the conversation.

Everyone turned their gaze towards her and nodded in acknowledgment.

Esme held seawater with both hands, in which there was a lively sea fish.

This sea fish was an alchemical creation, its appearance hardly different from ordinary sea bass.

The fish would swim through the sea and bring massive intelligence back to Esme. Its reconnaissance efficiency far surpassed that of others present, only Noland Lee’s “Mind View” could compete with it.

Esme put the seawater and alchemical sea fish into an alchemical stone, crossed her hands in front of her, and calmly stated:

“I agree with Hudson’s viewpoint, let me now add some details. My sea fish tells me that this ship is drawing clean sea water, while discharging severely polluted warm sea water. The pollutants include liquid contaminants and toxic gases produced from burning biofuels. Furthermore, it is intertwined with a large amount of human urine and sweat, many containing unidentified drugs. What do you think?”

“There are so many people sweating and going to the toilet on this ship?” Derek Davis rubbed his head, looking at Noland Lee.

The others also turned their gaze to Noland Lee.

Their reaction was normal, considering Noland Lee’s role as a wizard with extensive knowledge about the Tatis Empire.

Noland reviewed the deconstruction results from the previous patrol squad leader as quickly as possible.

The panel information and memory fragments from the deconstruction result made Noland’s heart tremble, but he managed to maintain his usual calm demeanor.

“I once heard a rumor. I think that the abnormal situation on this cargo ship is related to this rumor. Have you ever heard of biochemical soldiers?”

In response to Noland’s question, the exploration team members looked confused. On the other hand, Derek Davis, among the Golden Merchant’s Sword, and Miss Esme Smith revealed contemplative expressions.

“Are they similar to alchemy slaves?” Derek Davis asked.

“Well, yes, they are, but not exactly.” Noland asked Hudson for a notebook and pen. He quickly sketched out an image of a biochemical soldier he’d seen before.

He set up the notebook and showed it to everyone:

“Here, this is what a biochemical soldier looks like. Alchemy slaves have alchemical tools installed in their bodies. In contrast, biochemical soldiers are created through the use of directed mutation technology. They prompt the body parts of ordinary soldiers to mutate, thus forming various kinds of biochemical weapons and protective equipment.

“Alchemy slaves possess their own thoughts and emotions, but they must endure the pain of being transformed. Biochemical soldiers do not have thoughts or feelings and do not have to endure the pain brought on by biochemical mutation. Which type of soldiers are more humane is a difficult question to answer. However, that doesn’t prevent them from delivering a physiological aversion to normal people.”

Everyone nodded their head in agreement.

“Inside the body of a biochemical soldier, there is a built-in biochemical reactor that burns biofuel.”

Noland made a circle on the notebook, marking the chest position of the sketched biochemical soldier:

“Theoretically speaking, if several hundred biochemical soldiers activate their internal biochemical reactors collectively, they should be able to drive a small cargo ship. This level of metabolic scale will produce many human metabolic byproducts, such as sweat, urine, and will also consume many biochemical potions to maintain the operation of the reactor. No further explanation is needed, you understand. This is the reason for the ship discharging so many human metabolic products and liquid pollutants.”

“Hiss…”

As Noland spoke, a collective gasp was heard.

Being natives of the modern Golden Federation, they subconsciously view this method of transforming people into machines as a serious criminal act. It was the inevitable result of the Alchemy Cathedral’s long-standing ban on using living alchemy to illegally modify living people.

But within the Tatis Empire, this practice is, if not right, at least a trend.

It’s hard to imagine two nations, separated by a mountain range, having such different attitudes towards this issue.

Perhaps it will take a catastrophe akin to the Aberrations for the Tatis Empire to realize that excessive modification of the human body can have serious consequences.

As for what the cargo on this ship is, Noland already had a clear understanding.

Further than that, he had found the ship’s mission from the memory of an Imperial Major.

In simple terms:

After the Tatis Empire found that the efficiency of the Military Officer from the Military Intelligence Department Five was low, they sent a whole biochemical army over and had them transformed by Samuelson into flywing mutants.

What the final product was and how the transformation process went, the Tatis Empire didn’t know.

They only wanted results.

A group of mutants capable of flying, absolutely loyal, capable of deploying biochemical weapons, and mastering Aberration Magic, were regarded as the most perfect products in the eyes of the Tatis Empire.

They hoped to solve the soldier shortage issue using the breeding abilities of the Aberration. Moreover, by adding Biotechnological Mutation technology, they planned to create highly explosive biochemical mutant soldiers.

Whether Tatis Empire’s requirements for Samuelson were high is not the current point, but there is no doubt about their financial strength.

On that cargo ship, there were a total of 2000 biochemical soldiers, 12 graduates from elite combatant class as Imperial lieutenants, one Imperial major who served as the commander of the entire ship, and several Imperial soldiers acting as crew members.

The 2000 biochemical soldiers were the test subjects the Tatis Empire gave to Samuelson — it was not an exaggeration to describe this action as cruel and bloody.

In addition, there were 12 million Life Elixirs for the birth of mutants and half a ton of alchemical materials.

The Life Elixirs were for Samuelson.

The alchemical materials were meant for the Re-forged Association. What specifically the alchemical materials were, the lieutenants didn’t know. Only the commander of the entire ship knew.

When Noland Lee saw these deconstruction results, he felt it was absurd.

Really, absurd.

He couldn’t figure out what the Emperor of Tatis wanted to do for a moment.

Defeat the Undead Cult?

According to the rules of the Wizard Advancement Association, any country can appoint a specific wizard force to operate its first-level Magic Research Institute within its territory.

If Tatis didn’t like the Death Herald Guild, he could propose that other wizard forces come to help research the Undead Cult.

If they simply wanted to exterminate the Undead Cult, then they could let the forces of the Glory System wizards do it. God knows how anxious those Glory System wizards, who are eager to wipe out the Undead Cult, have become.

Moreover, the wizards of the Glory System are famously disciplined. If you let them stay in the Suffering Borderland, they would absolutely not set foot half a step inside the Empire’s territory.

With such an ideal partnership here, why wouldn’t Tatis cooperate with them really?

He couldn’t figure it out.

Noland Lee shook his head secretly.

He vaguely felt that there was something extremely strange about this, and it was contrary to common sense, but he always felt like he was scratching the surface, unable to figure out the key to the problem.

There are certainly ways though.

Noland Lee looked at the cargo ship.

There was an Imperial major on board.

From the intelligence gained from deconstructing the lieutenant, that major will stay in the Black City for a long time, overseeing Samuelson’s work.

He carries the Emperor’s mission.

Find him, throw out the Deconstruction technique, deconstruct completely, and perhaps part of the answer could be found.

Note 1: The distance at sea should be calculated in “nautical miles”. For the convenience of everyone’s reading and the author’s writing, the author will uniformly calculate it as “kilometers”.