Chapter 273

Chapter 273

Kashura laid me down on the operating table. He manipulated the surgical machine arms with precision using a holographic interface.  

The drug flowed through the needle lodged in the back of my neck, spreading through my veins. Sometimes, it felt cold. Other times, it burned as if scraping against my blood vessels.  

My consciousness flickered like a broken light.  

Clank, clank.  

With meticulous surgical tools, Kashura opened my scalp and skull, extracting deeply embedded fragments. My awareness faded into dizziness.  

"……You've put your brain through a lot. Heavy stress and deep trauma can cause physical alterations and leave scars. It's fortunate we met before it got any worse."  

Kashura spoke while my head was still split open. He stimulated my brain with an electric probe, checking my responses.  

Twitch, twitch.  

The muscles in my body convulsed involuntarily. If I had prosthetic limbs, they would have moved as well.  

"I'll monitor your recovery progress. Fortunately, it seems your primary functions are intact."  

Kashura stepped back after closing up my head.  

Even after the surgery, Kashura took great care of me. He was someone who replaced brains like mechanical parts. Naturally, his spaceship was equipped with state-of-the-art medical facilities.  

Whirr—  

A robotic arm descended from the ceiling, changing the bandages on my head at scheduled intervals.  

Buzz, buzz.  

Wherever I was, a drone the size of a human head hovered near me. Practically Kashura’s eyes, the drone watched me with its glowing red lens.  

"Kashura, you said you could find Giselle Custoria. I believe that wasn't a lie."  

The drone stopped at my eye level. Then, Kashura’s voice resonated from within.  

- If you cooperate, I promise to mobilize all my intelligence resources to locate Miss Giselle Custoria.  

"That’s exactly what I find questionable. I acknowledge your combat abilities, but it's hard to believe your intelligence-gathering capabilities are on par with a national agency."  

- A reasonable doubt. I will guide you to something that will make you believe.  

The drone turned around and led the way. The wheelchair I was seated in followed automatically.  

I was in no state to move on my own. How pathetic. Fuck.  

Buzzz—  

The drone flew nearly soundlessly down the corridor.  

Beep.  

It stopped in front of a door.  

As the door opened, the lights turned on one by one from the entrance to the far end of the room.  

- This is my intelligence processing chamber. I gather information on Planet Novus here.

The walls of the intelligence processing chamber were covered with screens. A mixture of holograms and physical displays projected an overwhelming amount of information outward.  

- The dominance of Planet Novus undoubtedly belongs to humanity. But the dominance of space does not. There are those who hide between the veil of darkness and the starlight, watching us. They are more cunning and devious than the Tajirun.  

Kashura’s drone spun in place before displaying a photograph. It was an image of the silent vastness of space.  

"Are you trying to show me a view of space? I've already seen plenty of it while being locked up."  

- Look closely at this image. There is a slight distortion in the light. An extraordinary technology is cloaking an entire spacecraft. These beings have been observing Planet Novus for a long time. Perhaps since humanity first settled here—or even before that.  

I narrowed my eyes. I wasn’t well-versed in space matters. But after hearing Kashura’s words, I could faintly make out what seemed to be the outline of a spaceship.  

"Are they connected to the reason humanity was driven all the way to Planet Novus?"  

Kashura’s drone tilted slightly, as if expressing curiosity.  

- Oh? Luka, you’ve peeked beyond the veil of history before, haven’t you? The veil placed there to avoid facing fear. One of the few societal agreements among the Three Nations. But your assumption is incorrect. The ones I’m referring to are not… ‘transcendent external entities.’ They are secretive, yes, but they are ultimately intelligent beings like us. They call themselves—well, in our language, it would be ‘Regnators,’ the Rulers. They believe they exist on a level far above other species.  

I could have pried further into this ‘grand’ secret of the universe, but finding Giselle and uncovering clues about her took priority. Time to steer the conversation back.  

"So, are these Regnators connected to finding Giselle?"  

- If I ‘expend’ some of my cherished equipment and friends, I can briefly tap into the Regnators’ communication channels. During that moment, I can extract information using the keyword Giselle Custoria. If neither the Tajirun, Ordo, nor the Regnators have any information on her… then Miss Giselle Custoria has completely disappeared from the network.  

I didn’t respond immediately, waiting for him to continue.  

- However, all of this will only happen once you and I become one. Your intense will to find and protect Giselle will undoubtedly influence me. Even if I didn’t make this proposal separately, the search for Giselle Custoria would remain within me… in the form of a ‘wish.’

"Haha, not resentment?"  

I twisted my lips into a grin.  

-Union is not a one-sided absorption but a mutual exchange of influence.  

If I had limbs, Kashura's drone would have been smashed into the wall.  

"You sure know how to spew selfish bullshit. To you, other people's brains are just replacement parts to enhance the performance of a single entity called 'Mushir al-Kashura.' Cut the crap about companionship and all that nonsense."  

The drone approached right up to my face. Tiny components moved within its red optical lens, expanding and contracting like a pupil.  

-Really, you misunderstand me. Especially the existence of Mushir al-Kashura. I—we—Mushir al-Kashura is not a monistic entity defined by physicality but a phenomenon recognized as the continuity of consciousness.  

The more I realized what that meant, the colder my spine became. A wave of nausea nearly overcame me.  

Drip.  

A rare cold sweat trickled down.  

If my guess was right, Kashura was truly insane. No, insane wasn't enough to describe it—he was a monstrous abomination beyond words.  

"What… do you mean by that?"  

-Have you ever heard of the 'Ship of Theseus'? It's an old philosophical thought experiment. If you replace each part of a ship one by one, until not a single original piece remains, can you still call it the same ship?  

"…And you think it can be defined that way."  

Bizarre. Absolutely bizarre.  

How could a human maintain the continuity and consistency of self in such a manner? I had never encountered anything more grotesque.  

-The original 'human Mushir al-Kashura' is biologically dead and gone. There isn’t even a single fragment of his brain left in me now. Hmm, considering that, we could debate whether calling Barbara his biological… daughter is appropriate, but that’s not important, so let’s move on. In any case, I believe I am the continuation of the human Mushir al-Kashura. In the end, isn’t belief what truly matters?  

I remained silent.  

Whirr.  

The center of the drone opened, and a holographic screen materialized in midair. Like a network diagram, it displayed names of people and brains, intricately connected like a neural system.

-This is the existence map of Mushir al-Kashura. Just as our brain is divided into the frontal lobe, occipital lobe, midbrain, temporal lobe, diencephalon… Mushir al-Kashura is also a collective of specialized brains. What defines us is the continuity of consciousness. The chemical and electrical interactions that began in the very first Mushir al-Kashura brain have never been interrupted to this day. I have never perceived myself as having died. Just as brain cells perish, regenerate, and replace each other, everything is merely a natural phenomenon.  

A massive brain made of brains.  

I had thought that at the core of Mushir al-Kashura, there was an original body, and that the other brains were simply consumed as expendable components.  

‘But that wasn’t it. Mushir al-Kashura’s original brain is long dead. Only the remnants of its consciousness wander, transferring from brain to brain.’  

An instinctive sense of repulsion struck me.  

Kashura’s words were impossible to accept as a living being. Even the Empire of full-body prosthetics had yet to overcome the ‘final biological barrier.’  

Are we, as humans, truly capable of discarding our natural-born brains and still being certain that we are alive?  

Mushir al-Kashura had crossed that barrier.  

Its consciousness was like a virus. No matter how fiercely I resisted, as long as I was connected to a network of contaminated brains, I would eventually assimilate into Mushir al-Kashura—leaving behind only faint traces of individuality.  

‘A Mushir al-Kashura that has merged with me will attempt to find Giselle Custoria.’  

I realized something else. Perhaps even saying that Zvely was dead wasn’t entirely accurate.  

Even if Zvely’s brain had perished, only the physical functions it managed would have ceased. Its memories and echoes of consciousness would have been transferred to another linked brain, lingering there like distant, faded recollections.  

-I believe that rather than digitizing human consciousness and placing it in machines in pursuit of immortality, using the most biologically compatible hardware—our own brains—is the far more efficient path.  

"That’s something only a lunatic like you would do."  

-It pains me a little to be so despised. I consider this a much more human approach than abandoning biological brains in favor of full cyberization and digitized consciousness.  

"You’re nothing but a wraith."  

-Haha, unlike such superstitions, I have a tangible, physical existence. And that existence believes itself to be Mushir al-Kashura. I continue to progress as a living being. I learn flexibly, experience diversely. In the end, you too will board the ship of Mushir al-Kashura.  

Yes, Mushir al-Kashura was indeed an extraordinary being. Because it had instilled fear in me.  

I was afraid of Mushir al-Kashura.

*         *         *

I sank into deep thought, swallowed by darkness.  

‘What happened to Ilay?’  

‘What about Lante and the former Imperial Guards?’  

‘Did En and the Equessians find Kinuan?’  

‘Jafa, Anguis Regina, Boyan.’  

‘A way to escape from here…’  

No matter how much I thought about it, no method of escaping Kashura’s grasp came to mind.  

I had no limbs. On top of that, this was outer space.  

Despair, inescapable by my own means, was closing in step by step.  

Akies Victima did not create something from nothing. If I couldn’t even find the possibility, it was meaningless.  

Despair grew inside me, pitch black. Anxiety and unrest gnawed at my cognitive functions.  

…I was collapsing, trapped helplessly in despair. The world was shrinking, tightening around me like a prison. My breath became labored, and my heart pounded irregularly.  

A state commonly called ‘panic.’  

Clunk.  

The door opened. I lifted my limp head.  

Beyond the door, there were no lights—only darkness, swaying as if it carried weight.

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