Wildman glanced over. What’s Mortal doing?

Who cares? At least he’s quiet, Rogue responded, focusing on the information.

Wildman shrugged. Fair enough, I suppose.

Focus, guys, Sectgoer called, sighing.

Deep within his network, Mortal ignored them. He tapped his chin. How do I create an automated script? It’s not like we’re home. I don’t have access to any computers, let alone programming languages, and even if I did… it’s not like I was a programmer back in my world. I was just an ordinary guy. I understood the basic principles, but that didn’t mean I could code… back in my original world, that is! But now I’m in a cultivation world. A cultivation world, where knowledge is quite literally power! As long as I comprehend the basic principles behind it, I can accomplish anything!

But uh… how do I go from comprehending the basic principles of computer programming to enacting them in a cultivation world using cultivation…? Waiting urgently online! Wait, no, that’s the problem. There is no online!

He put his hand on his chin, considering the network for a moment. Let’s break things down. Here in a cultivation world, we don’t have computers. Instead, what I use for compute power is my own brain. It’s a cultivation world, so my brain has a lot more power than an ordinary brain. Plus, I can spin off clones to act as threads, and let them handle tasks autonomously. In fact, that’s what I am right now. Essentially, I’m peripheral computing power the main brain has spun out.

In other words, if I want to create an automated process, I also have to create a new periphery brain. A new clone! But… unlike the rest of us clones, it doesn’t need to be a full consciousness. It only needs to be awake enough to follow my instructions and correctly place the items in the network. Once I create one, I can quickly expand into lots of weak clones who are only optimized for one thought, that is, network sorting, then leave the bulk of the work to them! I, the more powerful clone with more compute power, will instead spend my time comprehending the concepts, rather than simply sorting and placing.

Excellent, excellent. Now then, quickly, before the rest of the clones notice, let’s begin!

Mortal held out his hand, palm down. He separated out a small portion of his mental energy and sent it out from his palm. It formed into a misty ball. Bits of mist spun around, idly shifting around a point of light at its center. From that center point, light radiated out, playing off the mist and casting strange shadows on the mental space they stood inside.

“Hello,” Mortal tried.

Without responding, the misty ball shot over to the network and got to work, immediately shuffling the backed-up information into the right place. It moved quickly and efficiently, but no faster than Mortal himself.

Pleased, Mortal put a hand on his chin and nodded. What a good son! Truly a single-minded entity. Born ten seconds ago, and it knows its purpose in life already! No training or teaching required. How wonderful! If only all children could be so easy…

Ah, though, it isn’t truly a child. It’s merely a portion of my own mental energy. There’s no purpose in comparing it to a true child. Mortal lifted his hand and separated off another portion of his mental energy. A second misty ball joined the first, and the process moved twice as fast.

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It’s curious how creating these clones are faster than simply doing it myself. It is all my mental energy, after all!

No, no. It’s the same as a computer! A mind can only focus on so much at one time, just like a computer can only complete one task at a time. The smartest person can hold at best three, maybe four thoughts in their mind, and as for a computer, no matter how powerful its hardware is, it can still only complete one task at a time. By splitting off into separate minds, or in the case of a computer, separate threads or multiple cores, I can complete multiple tasks in parallel rather than having to wait for each task to end in order to move on to the next.

It got a bit messy in the middle there, but all that to say that creating multiple minds allows multithreading, or the completion of many simple tasks at the same time, whereas focusing all my mental power into one mind means I can focus really hard on comprehending one thing, but if I’m doing menial tasks, there’s a lot of wasted compute—ahem, mental power.

He split off a third and a fourth simple clone, then stepped back. At the rate the other clones read the labels, the four clones now immediately grasped the knowledge the other clones fed them and placed it into the network, with no backlog or delay. They ate through the backlog created by Mortal’s distraction as he created them, and in a few moments, they began to idle every now and again, capable of setting data into the network faster than the clones could ingest it.

Hey! Move faster, slowpokes! Mortal called to the other clones.

What are you doing down there?

If you want us to move faster, then come join us!

No, no. Here. Use this technique! Mortal sent the weak mental clone technique to them, passing along his method to create single-minded clones.

The other clones paused.

Mortal…

Hey, what was that about a hundred Mortals? Who didn’t want that?

Too late now. He’s gone and done it himself!

Mortal rolled his eyes. There’s four of them, and they’re all good single-minded children. You’re the ones who are worried about me revolting! Just because I got our tongue and sense of humor, unlike the rest of you, doesn’t mean I’m about to go evil or anything.

I mean… they are doing exactly what he told them to.

They’re kind of the platonic ideal of clones, I’ll be honest.

Yeah, they’re basically… not clones, but instead a single thought split from our mind and given a small portion of agency. Actually, this technique might be safer than our own clone techniques.

I mean, our old clone technique split our soul and almost killed us through soul obliteration, so that’s not a high bar.

Wait, guys, hold up. Did… did Mortal actually make something good?

Mortal scowled. Hey! Who said that? I make good things all the time!

Silence. Mortal pursed his lips. Buncha cowards.

Damn right!

First cleared his throat. Er, in any case, shall we follow Mortal’s lead? We might as well increase our efficiency, now that he’s found a viable method.

Oh, yeah. Yeah!

Catch up to that genius girl!

Yeah! Show her that genius isn’t everything! Sometimes, you can make up for it by being a seventh-tier cultivator competing with a much lower tier cultivator!

…

You know, I liked it better before you put it like that.

What? Nothing wrong with that.

I mean, no, but… er, doesn’t it make us sound a little… you know.

A little what?

Like the baddies, maybe?

…

Ha! Don’t be ridiculous. We’d never do something stupid like put our all into killing the protagonist! We’d run away at top speed instead! Clearly we aren’t the baddies!

Misty thought-clones spun out from the clones’ palms as they chattered. The thought-clones surged forth, racing to comprehend the pieces of information written down beside the herbs. With the extra thought clones created by the other clones, Mortal’s thought clones sped up again, barely able to keep up with the influx.

In the midst of the madness, Mortal sat down and assumed the lotus pose once more. Data flew all around him, input flooding in while the original thought clones bustled by, settling each piece into its rightful place. Taking in the totality of it all, Mortal let his mind go blank and absorbed everything without discrimination. If any clone’s going to understand pill cultivation, it’s me!