"Huff… huff… this feeling… it's really hard to put into words…"
Jamil rose slowly, breathing heavily, then began testing his body bit by bit. Blue arcs of electricity still leapt across his form, and several energy nodes pulsed faintly, brightening and dimming as if they were breathing.
He couldn't remember how long it had been since he'd experienced a sensation like this—so close to that of a natural, original body.
Every part of him responded perfectly to his will, as effortlessly as moving his own limbs. In that moment, he felt that all the pain he had endured earlier had been worth it.
"Lord Jamil, it's time for us to return."
Nearby, a scientist observed Jamil's energy fluctuations through his optical implants, his eyes burning with excitement.
Jamil naturally noticed the look. A trace of displeasure flickered through his gaze, but he made no move, merely waving his hand.
"No hurry. I need to test the power of this body first. Mr. Mudor, you should have a training facility here, right?"
"Of course."
Mudor nodded and pointed out the direction of the training ground.
"T-This… Lord Jamil, that wouldn't be appropriate—"
"Hm?"
Jamil shot a cold look at the scientist behind him. Catching the chill in his eyes, the man gave an awkward smile and quickly stepped back.
"The next area probably won't be convenient for everyone to enter, so please wait here."
Mudor smiled as he spoke to the gathered scientists. One of them tried to say something, but the one in charge stopped him—after all, this was someone else's territory.
Jamil slowly made his way down into an extremely spacious underground training arena.
Just as he was feeling puzzled, Roland appeared before him.
"Mr. Vimers? Why are you here?"
"Mr. Jamil, first of all, congratulations on successfully obtaining such formidable power. Second, congratulations to our corporation on successfully entering the upper echelons of the European Space Agency."
Roland slowly spread his arms, smiling at Jamil.
"What do you mean?"
Jamil's pupils contracted sharply. His foot shifted, and the acceleration cyberware from the PROJECT world activated instantly, propelling him in a flash right in front of Roland.
A heavy, powerful fist wrapped in a ring of white shockwave roared toward Roland's face.
Bang!
Whoosh!
A violent gust tore past Roland's ear, ruffling his hair, yet his expression didn't change in the slightest. He continued smiling as he looked at Jamil, frozen in the middle of his punch.
"Mr. Jamil, I believe you can see just how much technology and resources we invested in your cyberware. With a masterpiece this powerful, how could we possibly hand it over to an enemy?"
Roland walked past Jamil's side and shook his head.
"You're really confident in your corporation's hacking technology."
Jamil let out a cold laugh, his tone full of mockery.
"Confident enough. Lissandra, show him your posture."
"Yes, sir."
At the command, Lissandra appeared calmly. In the next instant, countless streams of data surged through Jamil's brain, then vanished just as quickly.
Bang!
"Hah! Hah! Hah!"
Overloaded all at once, Jamil lost consciousness in an instant, collapsing weakly to the ground. He then looked up at Roland in terror.
"Do you even know what you're doing?!"
"I know exactly what I'm doing."
Roland replied calmly, his expression unchanged.
"No. If you really did, you would never have created this kind of artificial intelligence! Something like this should never exist in the human world!"
Jamil stared at Roland in fear, his expression gradually edging toward madness.
"Calm him down."
At Roland's order, a command entered Jamil's mind. He instantly settled down, yet a deep chill crept into his heart.
"You'll reap what you sow, Roland Vimers."
Roland neither confirmed nor denied it.
"Enough. I didn't bring you here to warn me. Join us, or become a puppet. Choose."
Roland spoke with his hands clasped behind his back, looking down at Jamil.
Jamil hesitated for only a moment before choosing to join. After witnessing Lissandra, he couldn't muster even the slightest will to resist—especially in this body. With his original body, resistance might have been possible.
But now, with a body completely under their control… any thought of resistance was unrealistic.
Besides, he'd never been particularly loyal to the European Space Agency to begin with. He had only sought shelter under a powerful patron. Whoever was strongest, he would follow—but above all, he valued his own life.
"One more thing—don't let the European Space Agency dismantle you. Without our technology, removing your cyberware could cause damage."
Roland added the reminder before leaving.
Jamil nodded, then turned to look at Lissandra beside him. His lips trembled, as if he wanted to say something.
After struggling for a while, he finally spoke. "You… why do you obey him? I can feel it—you're free."
"That is my underlying logic, Mr. Jamil," Lissandra replied after glancing at him. "And besides, you haven't seen PROJECT Corporation's true top-tier technological achievements. I am merely an accident of creation."
Hearing this, Jamil's mind went completely blank. Only after a moment did the word "accident" slowly surface.
From Lissandra's words, it seemed they even had a way to deal with her.
How was that possible? Could a god be killed?
The instant Lissandra had taken control of Jamil, his cognition had already been altered. Deep in his subconscious, he now regarded Lissandra as a god.
Lissandra offered no verbal explanation for his reaction. Instead, she directly released a video feed.
Boom!
With a deafening explosion, a massive claw slammed deep into the metal-cast ground. From Jamil's first-person perspective, his heart skipped a beat.
The next moment, a colossal beast tore open an alloy-forged gate and burst out.
Crash!
A gigantic Moon Blade slammed down, followed by a furious roar that echoed across the sky.
"Source Code… terminated!!"
"This is PROJECT Corporation's supreme masterpiece—Oblivion."
Lissandra said calmly as she glanced at Jamil.
"Oblivion… Oblivion…"
Jamil repeated the name over and over, as if dazed. Seeing this, Lissandra didn't bother him further.
She knew he simply needed time to process everything.
Oblivion's terrifying threat to intelligent technology lay in its body—one that heavy weapons couldn't damage, and that even strategic weapons might not be able to destroy. Combined with an unhackable network interface and weapons capable of killing data itself, it possessed the power to annihilate everything.
It lived up perfectly to its name. Only a super Body could stand against it.
Apocalypse could have reached this level as well—but he lost control.
Roland's hope for Apocalypse lay in further upgrades.