Hyperdimensional Warlock

Chapter 4329 Memory of Skills

Faced with the spirit of the city's doubts, Angor thought for a moment and replied, "You can understand it as the special energy being the fundamental force that constitutes the Fool's City and this world."

"And I happen to have mastered a portion of the fundamental forces."

Although the spirit of the city still didn't quite understand, it knew that "not seeking a thorough understanding" was the most important thing to do right now.

After all, its core instruction is to assist the principal in managing the academy, rather than delving into these questions that seem to point directly to the origins of the world.

So it stopped asking questions and turned its attention back to reality: "Headmaster, now that the special energy has been fully charged, shall we activate the creation platform now?"

Angel nodded: "Of course."

Wasn't he here to see how the Academy System creates humans?

The Spirit of the City: "I will now activate the Creation Platform..."

As soon as he finished speaking, a whooshing sound rang in Angell's ears.

"The creation platform even has sound effects when it's activated?" Angel muttered to himself.

The Spirit of the City: "...Headmaster, that was me exhaling just now."

Angell: "???"

The Spirit of the City said somewhat shyly, "This is also my first time activating the Creation Platform, and I'm quite excited."

Upon hearing this, Angell asked with some curiosity, "Didn't the academy create humans before?"

The spirit of the Citadel gave a negative answer: "No, because the Citadel used to be very prosperous..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the spirit of the Citadel seemed to realize that his statement was a bit strange, and quickly added, "I'm not saying that the Citadel is not prosperous now, but that the Citadel used to have a large population and did not need to use artificial humans."

Angell chuckled and waved his hand, "No need to be so formal."

His voice carried a hint of casualness: "The prosperity of the Academy City is a thing of the past, and its current desolation is also a fact. There's nothing that can't be said. You are the spirit of the Academy City, so there's no need for you to be so careful around me."

The spirit of the City was silent for a moment, then said softly, "What I really wanted to say is that the City is different now than before. I don't even know if I'm still in the original City."

"In my memory, the Academy City was incredibly prosperous, with countless ethnic groups studying and living there. Among them were even some uncommon ethnic groups, for example..."

The spirit of the city paused halfway through his sentence, then suddenly stopped: "...I forgot."

“This is normal. The former academy cities have all become the Fools’ Academy, and the prosperity has become desolate. Even the academy cities are changing, so you, as the spirit of the academy city, will naturally change as well.” Angor was afraid that the spirit of the academy city would suddenly conduct another self-examination, so he quickly gave a reason.

The spirit of the Academy pondered and said, "What the headmaster says is true. The Academy has clearly suffered a great change, and perhaps that's why I can't remember the past."

Angell: "So, don't worry about the past. If you can remember it, just chat about it. If you can't remember it, look to the future."

"The future," the spirit of the city murmured. "I don't know why, but when I hear this word, I feel a strong connection. I don't know where that connection comes from, I just feel... I like this word."

After muttering a few words, the spirit of the academy seemed to realize something and quickly said, "I'm sorry, Headmaster, I've gone off-topic again."

Angel waved his hand: "It's alright, I also like the word 'future', it represents infinite possibilities."

The air was silent for a moment, then a soft "whoosh" finally escaped.

I reckon the spirit of the City of Learning is probably exhaling again.

The Spirit of the Academy: "Headmaster, I do not remember much of the past, but I know that the Academy was very prosperous back then, full of people and a strong academic atmosphere... But for some reason, whenever I think of this, even though it is a prosperous Academy, I feel hopeless."

"On the contrary, now that the Fools' Academy is deserted, I feel that there is light ahead."

Angell: "Because there is nothing, everything needs to be rebuilt."

That's what they say, but Angell estimated that "the past hopelessness of the city of academy" was truly hopeless.

Although Angell did not know where the Fool's City was based on in reality, he was certain that the city's prototype was probably not doing well now.

Even the spirit of the city was "salvaged" into the dungeon by the power of the fairy realm.

This means that the spirit of the city in reality either died or encountered a change in its consciousness, resulting in a split.

If the "spirit" of a school city suffers misfortune, then the school city itself will certainly not fare well.

Just as if the giant city spirit of Crystal City were to die, the Crystal Eye Clan would likely face a life-or-death crisis as well; it's the same principle.

The spirit of the city thought for a moment and said, "It's one thing that everything needs to be rebuilt, but I think there's another aspect as well."

"For example, the Academy system, as well as the ability to create things and people, are amazing abilities that the Academy did not have before, but now they have appeared."

"The existence of these authorities makes me think that the City of Knowledge might really have hope, a... future."

When the word "future" was mentioned, the spirit of the city's voice became noticeably distorted, which shows that it seems to really care about the "future".

Is it because the real-world school town has no future? Angell wondered silently.

Angel didn't ask any questions, or even continue the conversation on that topic. Instead, he changed the subject, saying, "Speaking of which, since the Academy City didn't have the ability to create things or people in the past, what about shrinking?"

What amazed Angor most about the entire Fools' City was the "Gulliver Tunnel," which, under normal circumstances, did not change its energy consumption even when shrunk.

Just like Angor himself can shrink through shapeshifting, but the change in size does not change the energy consumption.

To give a simple example, the amount of energy he needed each day to survive before shrinking will not change after shrinking.

However, the shrinking of the Fool's City seems to be more than just a change in spatial scale; it also forces a matching of energy supply and demand with the utility of matter.

This involves rule changes.

This is what made Ingres marvel at the concept of "shrinkage".

"Shrink?" The Spirit of the City: "Does Headmaster mean shrinking when entering the sand table from outside?"

Angell nodded.

The spirit of the City said softly, "This is something that the previous City of Learning didn't have either."

"Although I don't remember it very clearly, the old Academy City was connected to the world, rather than being placed on a sand table, which was placed among the dark rules."

"Whether it's the shrinking, the sand table, or the rules themselves, they all appeared after I woke up this time."

Angell understood when he heard this.

The Fool's City has a prototype, but Fairy Authority has drastically changed it, not only turning it into a sandbox but also adding many new things: the city system, the sandbox, and the rules, all of which were added by Fairy Authority itself.

As for why these were added?

In other instances, Angor might not be able to see through the source of the Wonderland's power behavior, but all the new things added to the Fool's Academy point to one thing—easier management.

Angell, as the principal who was forcibly brought in, was given absolute jurisdiction and many "management-friendly" measures were added.

To put it simply, the power of the Fairy Realm helps Angor solve problems and provides convenience for the Prusha people's life in the Dream Crystal Plains.

Angor could even confirm that the appearance of the City Spirit was probably part of the Fairy Realm's power to "provide convenience".

After Angell figured this out, he didn't delve into it further. Instead, he chuckled and moved on from the topic for the time being: "It seems that the City of Academia has really undergone earth-shattering changes since you woke up."

"Getting back to the main point, are you feeling more stable now?"

The spirit of the city was taken aback, and it took a long time to understand that Angell was referring to its excitement at "activating the creation platform for the first time".

It replied somewhat shyly, "Thank you for your concern, Principal. I'm much better now."

"I'll activate the creation platform right now!"

After he finished speaking, the spirit of the City fell into a brief silence, presumably already secretly controlling the City system.

About half a minute later, the silver metal creation platform suddenly lit up, its patterns flowing like a galaxy, with tiny points of light moving along the symmetrical lines, emitting a deep and steady hum.

After a buzzing sound, a small hole split open in the middle of the silver creation platform, and then Angel saw a screen slowly rising from inside the hole.

Yes, all that glowing and buzzing noise was ultimately just to raise this one-meter-square glass screen.

The glass screen slowly emerged, supported by a silver metal rod.

When everything calmed down, images began to appear on the glass screen.

And this image... Angell felt a headache just looking at it.

It's not that there's anything wrong with the image, but the feeling it evoked in him can be summed up in one sentence: It tastes really strong!
This image is from a game character creation system!
Yes, it's the same creation interface as those character customization games on holographic tablets!

Racial selection, basic body type, facial contours, facial features, skin color and hair, clothing and accessories...

The character customization features in the game are fully displayed on this screen, and even more detailed. If you want, you can even customize the pores!
Is this what creating a human being is like? Is it really that casual?

Although Angor silently complained in his heart that the Fairy Realm's powers were "plagiarizing" again, he had to admit that compared to the vague rules of creating people, the expressive power of creating characters and faces was much more intuitive.

Angel glanced at the character creation options and looked down at the function selection at the bottom.

Then he saw the skills of various trades in the academy.

Pipeline inspection, material sorting, machinery debugging, equipment calibration, landscaping maintenance, access control, warehouse management, machinery repair, site cleaning, parts handling...

Each technique is followed by the "time of initiation".

Simply put, once an artificial human is born, it will be placed in a life support pod and given corresponding skills... or rather, memories.

The initiation time varies depending on the technique; the more complex the technique, the longer the initiation time.

This is consistent with what Angell saw in the booklet outside the life support pod earlier.

After carefully examining these techniques, Ingres noticed something: there seemed to be no techniques related to subjective feelings.

For example, painting, composing music, reciting poetry, sculpting, weaving patterns, perfumery... these skills that require aesthetic perception and subjective creativity are not shown on the screen.

All of the listed techniques are mechanical operation and maintenance skills that rely on standardized processes and require no emotional intervention.

Angell was somewhat disappointed.

He had originally thought that if he could create artisans who could provide subjective experiences, then perhaps he could directly create a group of teachers to teach.

But it doesn't seem to work now.

However, upon further reflection, he found it to be quite reasonable.

Judging from the current state of the Academy, the existence of androids seems to be merely that of "tools" to maintain the Academy's operation, rather than the creation of a sentient being with subjective initiative.

Absolutely autonomous life can probably only be achieved by the authority of "creation".

Returning to these skill choices, Ingres discovered another option: "nothing."

Angell had initially thought that "none" meant the end, but he later discovered that it was actually an option. This was because there was a clear note following "none": "No initiation time".

Other techniques range from one-day initiation to seven-day initiation, and even half-month initiation, but this one does not require initiation or entering a life support pod.

It creates an empty shell with nothing inside.

What's the point of this?

"Hollow people? That's a fitting description, Principal." The Spirit of the Academy: "Choosing 'nothingness' does indeed make one a hollow person. Based on my memories, hollow people are for certain special experiments."

"Special experiment?" Angell's mind instantly conjured up images of limbs flying everywhere.

Cruel human experiments, bizarre biological modifications... it seems that hollow humans can be used as experimental props?
But seriously, does the Fools' Academy really need to teach to this extent? Isn't it supposed to be teaching fools? How did it turn into teaching Calabria?

While Angell was imagining all sorts of scenarios, the Spirit of the Citadel continued, "For example, it can help students understand their bodies, know their own gender, and how to determine the gender of others."

In other words, it is about gender enlightenment and gender education.

Angell: "..."

It seems his thoughts are too complicated.

He coughed lightly, trying to hide his morbid curiosity, and replied in a serious tone, "Gender education is indeed an essential part of primary education."

"However, it doesn't seem necessary to create hollow people right now, so we should choose..."

Angell had originally intended to choose any skill at random and observe the process of creating a human, but as he looked at the hollow man, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind.

Angel: "I remember you said before that when your growth reaches a new stage, you can appear in a mimic form?"

The spirit of the city instinctively replied, "Yes, but I am not yet able to perform mimicry projection..."

Angel: "No, what if we didn't need you to perform mimicry projection, but instead gave you a physical body directly?"

The Spirit of the Citadel paused for a moment, looking at the Hollow Man option on the screen, seemingly understanding Angor's meaning: "Does Headmaster mean...?"

A flicker of excitement crossed Angell's eyes as he nodded. "That's right, I plan to create a body for you! Not a mimicry, not a projection, but a real body that truly belongs to you!"