Colleöne stared at the air with half-closed eyes.
“I designed this Room to be somewhat different from the original process, basing it more on the Dungeon evolution process and your feats with Ateia and the Sacred Otterkin. It should be less invasive, and more focused on supplementing the body than replacing it. No more removing perfectly healthy limbs now. I have also not included your emotional controls, and reversed some of the ‘intelligence leashing’ measures.”
Colleöne’s face scrunched up at that. But she shook her head and continued.
“In any case, you will not be able to forcibly subject people to the procedure as your original organization did. But in return, they should have a significantly easier time adjusting to the procedure than Ateia did, and will not need to have their minds wiped in the process.”
Colleöne then made a wry smile.
“And we are offering this one to you for free, in exchange for a request. Please utilize this facility whenever possible from now on, rather than some of your more…manual procedures. The emergence of new races and new Aesdes is generally less…sudden than they were in your experience.”
NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye began flickering as fast as it could. An NSLICE processing center had some very obvious use cases. Her non-monster subordinates could now be integrated into the NSLICE network. Her monster subordinates no longer needed to wait for an evolution, which could be especially applicable for the monster types she had not unlocked cyber-variants of, or newly Contracted monsters from outside.
And if what Colleöne said was accurate, then she had already fixed the damaging incompatibilities of the NSLICE process NSLICE-00P had recently become aware of. Though, NSLICE-00P couldn’t confirm this just yet, as the UI option didn’t provide exact detail on the upgrade process.
Still, it was being offered for free, and she had more than enough mana to spare on the upkeep. NSLICE-00P calculated no reason why she shouldn’t simply build the facility and observe it for herself.
“Gratitude: This unit thanks Colleöne for the assistance.”
Colleöne nodded, and then NSLICE-00P got to work. She selected the Cyborg Processing Center. However, the facility was larger than the stone platform she had available in the new world. But, NSLICE-00P found she could move the facility beyond the bounds of the platform, and a transparent addition to the platform appeared.
Extend feature: Stone Platform? Growing the Material Plane will increase Max Mana and Dungeon XP income.
It appeared the extension was beneficial in and of itself. NSLICE-00P did have to spend some perk points to do so, but if it increased her Dungeon XP then it would pay itself back eventually. So NSLICE-00P went ahead and finalized the purchase.
The stone platform rumbled. One of the side edges began to glow, Holy mana streamed from the side. The Boundary of the plane appeared and a small hole opened up, letting unattributed mana from the Source spill in. The Holy mana contacted the unattributed mana and fused together, and then the stone platform began to grow, pushing the Boundary further as well.
Once it had reached the extent NSLICE-00P had specified, it stopped. Both streams of mana faded, and the Boundary disappeared from view. Then, mana appeared on top of the platform, and formed into the shape of a rectangular structure. The mana faded to reveal a metal building.
NSLICE-00P looked inside, but to her surprise there wasn’t much infrastructure she could recognize. No automated assembly lines to create prosthetic limbs, no surgical equipment for installation. Rather, the structure contained a large mana-core at its heart, connected via engraved magic circles to a variety of caskets and vats throughout the room.
Colleöne giggled lightly.
“You seem surprised.”
“Confused Observation: This unit cannot locate infrastructure necessary for NSLICE processing.”
Colleöne nodded.
“The room uses a magical process based on records rather than a purely physical procedure. This should make it more adaptive. Again, it is much like how you evolved Ateia.”
NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye flickered.
“Statement: NSLICE processing centers were also utilized to perform maintenance, apply new upgrades, and swap implants for specialized mission loadouts. Query: Is this facility also capable of those tasks?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Colleöne nodded.
“Yes, it can be used to repair damaged components. As for changing implants, that is also possible. Again, it is based on records, so any implants you or your subordinates have unlocked should be available…as well as any others that you may come up with.”
NSLICE-00P’s eye turned solid. If that was the case…then this facility was a full replacement for the NSLICE processing center. Provided it worked as advertised. NSLICE-00P would need to test it and see it in action.
“ME! MEMEMEME! PICK ME, MASTER!”
A gray blob shot from her Monster Hangar at incredible speed. Melion zipped into the entrance to the New World, rushing straight towards the Cyborg Processing Facility and bouncing as fast and high as they could outside the door.
Colleöne blinked and rubbed her chin.
“A…metal slime? Well, that would certainly put the adaptability features to the test.”
NSLICE-00P turned to her.
“Query: Is it possible to upgrade units of questionably organic natures?”
Colleöne hummed and then slowly nodded.
“As I said, it is a process based more on records than on the physical body, so it should be possible. Though, I cannot fully predict what will result.”
“Acknowledged. Warning: This facility is untested, and this unit cannot verify any of the claimed capabilities at this time. Faulty NSLICE upgrading is known to have significant risks, up to and including termination. Does friendly Melion still wish to proceed?”
“YES!”
“Affirmative. Please proceed to processing.”
“YESYESYESYESYES!”
Melion launched right into the door, and into the nearest casket.
Would you like to convert Melion into a cyborg? Cost: 95 perk points.
NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye flickered at the price tag.
Cost breakdown: 1 point per target level. Additional 30 points required to convert species ‘Metal Slime’ for the first time due to significant differences from existing records.
Fortunately, the foreign system included a breakdown this time, so NSLICE-00P could accept the price. In fact, it seemed reasonable to spend extra resources to convert a more powerful unit, as well as to bypass any research and development required to adjust the process for Melion’s extremely non-human physiology.
Fortunately, the Otter Burrow income had only continued to grow over time, and now the New World had begun contributing as well, despite the lack of people within its borders. NSLICE-00P currently had 405 Dungeon perk points to spare with more coming in. She could afford the expense, even on an experimental procedure.
So she predicted it was worth the cost, provided the process was successful. And while NSLICE-00P couldn’t verify the facility’s function at the moment, the foreign system had never failed an upgrade prior to this, so NSLICE-00P was reasonably confident in its success.
She confirmed the upgrade.
The magic core at the center of the facility began to glow, and the casket Melion had jumped into closed shut. NSLICE-00P could perceive Melion cease bouncing around, perhaps indicating a restful state. The lights began to travel along the engravings to the casket, which began to glow bright as well.
The process took about an hour, and then the lights began to fade. The casket slowly opened.
Melion has been converted into Cyborg Metal Slime!
NSLICE-00P didn’t require the foreign system’s message, however, as her cybernetic components had already detected a new unit requesting a link to the NSLICE network.
Melion hopped out of the casket…
Their appearance…was unchanged, save for a slight increase in volume. On the outside that is.
But NSLICE-00P had already linked to Melion and was running diagnostics. It appeared that as Melion’s ‘body’ consisted of a homogeneous liquid they could reshape at will, that the processing facility had not applied any implants to Melion’s exterior, or any limb-based implants. Instead, a metal polygon now surrounded Melion’s slime core, which in turn was surrounded by Melion’s liquid metal. The polygon connected to the slime core and so was able to interface with Melion’s consciousness, using a magical variation of the techno-organic interface that communicated using mana instead of electrical signals. As a result, Melion was able to connect to the NSLICE network despite the lack of a conventional nervous system. In fact, if anything NSLICE-00P noted Melion’s connection was even smoother and more efficient.
It appeared Colleöne had been correct regarding the emotional controls as well. Melion did not appear to be experiencing any incompatibilities or damage from the procedure. Admittedly, at the cost of a number of protocols NSLICE-00P had available, but given recent events she considered that an acceptable tradeoff.
But the techno-organic interface was not the only change to Melion…
The process had also taken NSLICE-00P’s attempts to adapt the NSLICE UI into account, so Melion was able to navigate it. They selected a button that seemed curious to them…
A square nozzle broke the surface of Melion’s slime, extending out slightly. It began to glow…and then the thruster engaged and Melion rocketed into the air.
“This…is…AMAZING!”
It turned out that Melion had implants after all. The processing facility had just stored them within a central, internal device since Melion had no other permanent limbs or body structures to hold them.
“Diagnostics on new unit complete. Results: All detected systems operation. No incompatibilities detected. Integration into NSLICE network confirmed. Implant arsenal and predicted capabilities judged as suitable. Analysis: Cyborg Processing Facility appears to be highly capable, and able to successfully adapt to non-standard physiologies. Gratitude: This unit thanks Colleöne for the assistance, and an improved NSLICE upgrade process.”
Colleöne smiled and nodded.
“You’re welcome. Just try not to make any more Aesdes, ok?”