Chapter 310: The Caged Bird

“The model algorithm is still not precise enough, resulting in an extra 10% of emotional information injection.”

“For a weapon, developing autonomous desires during a mission is not a good thing. But… just wanting to eat cake? So cute. Then let’s fulfill your wish with this reward.”

A young man in a white lab coat looked at the log and smiled slightly.

He tapped a few times on the keyboard, and lines of text quickly appeared.

[Task Reward Confirmed: Sweet Cake]

[Emotional Information Injection Ratio Confirmed: Happiness 40%, Satisfaction 50%, Desire 10%]

[Task Reward Duration: 1 Empire Day]

[Weapon Estimated Cooldown Time: 20 hours]

[Pavlov’s Dog Project Progress Estimated to Increase by 0.04%, Current Progress: 84.45%]

Dr. Forefinger smiled with the corners of his mouth and took a light sip of coffee.

Pavlov’s Dog, a classic experiment from the Earth Era, used to confirm the formation of conditioned reflexes.

What he did, however, took it to the extreme, returning to the essence of human behavior—emotion.

People act because of emotions, and generate emotions because of actions.

By analyzing the emotional fluctuations produced by various behaviors to generate a model, then using the model to artificially interfere with emotions and control behavior.

This is the Pavlov’s Dog Project.

Yun Ruoxi, who once made a grave mistake, was the first successful test subject under this project.

Under the stimulation of emotional information, she could no longer generate emotions autonomously; all emotions came from the outside.

And in order to obtain more emotions, she would firmly obey all orders from the Saints’ Hand Society.

What was pursued was absolute taming technology with no possibility of betrayal.

And this was the pinnacle of mind control technology, something the upper echelons of the Saints’ Hand Society had always sought.

“Perfect…!”

Dr. Forefinger sighed softly and opened another interface.

On it was the latest whereabouts intelligence on Lin Zhen.

“Academy Tournament… I imagine you’ll be participating, right?”

Dr. Forefinger shook his head and sighed.

“It’s a pity we can’t participate in such a major event; otherwise, I’d really want you to see my latest masterpiece—the humanoid weapon ‘Dark Dust’!”

The Saints’ Hand Society has been able to last over five thousand years by being steady and never actively stepping into the spotlight.

The Academy Tournament, which draws the attention of the entire Empire, is undoubtedly the most dazzling stage recently.

The Mission Department had already temporarily banned missions related to the Academy Tournament, and even those whose mission locations were close to the tournament venue were postponed until after the event.

One could say they were as cautious as could be.

That’s why Dr. Forefinger felt it was a pity.

A stage attracting worldwide attention like this should be where his masterpiece appears!

Drip drip drip!

Dr. Forefinger shook his head, closed the mission log, and went to conduct the next project’s research and development.

The Pavlov’s Dog Project was already on the right track.

‘Dark Dust’, whose taming progress was already close to 85%, could now automatically fight according to the AI’s adjustments.

Including receiving missions and formulating rewards, everything was handed over to the AI.

It no longer required him to personally adjust the emotional information at the start of each mission like at the beginning of the project last year, to the point that ‘Dark Dust’ could only operate in the Negative Universe.

He wouldn’t even open the mission log.

This time, if he hadn’t just finished a research session, he probably wouldn’t have opened the mission log either.

As a Level Five Researcher of the Saints’ Hand Society, he had great authority, but he was also truly busy!

So Dr. Forefinger, who had left the laboratory and was taking a spaceship to another planet for an experiment, did not know —

After he left, the AI on the ‘Caged Sparrow’ battleship, not having received his specific instructions for the next mission, started selecting missions suitable for ‘Dark Dust’ from the Mission Department’s mission library, just like many times before.

As a superpower, the Mission Department had an unusually large number of missions.

There were strategic missions issued by the Saints’ Hand Society’s upper echelons, department missions like experimental material collection sent by the Research Department, and even rescue missions sent by members of various departments when they were in danger.

These missions covered both the Positive Universe and the Negative Universe.

But for some unknown reason,

Maybe it was because ‘Dark Dust’ hadn’t gone to the Positive Universe for a mission in too long, or because the rescue mission had a higher priority, or even possibly due to interference from some mysterious force.

Among these missions, the ‘Caged Sparrow’ AI locked onto a rescue mission from the Positive Universe.

[Emergency Rescue Mission: Kill Chatosi]

[War Camp trainee input channel suspected of exposure risk. Galactic Police Department is investigating external personnel Chatosi. Please dispatch at least five three-star energy users or one fourth-level star-capable for support.]

Swish!

The moment the mission was selected,

The ‘Caged Sparrow’ battleship began to warp, heading at full power to the star system where Chatosi was currently located.

Meanwhile, in the System Space unknown to anyone, some existence curled the corners of its mouth.

“The plot has indeed returned to the right track. So this is the self-correcting ability of the plot, huh?”

Yun Ruoxi, who had been immersed in the fake emotional rewards, suddenly appeared.

“Even with her doing as she pleased these few years after learning the rough outline, in the end she still…”

“I’m coming, Lin Zhen!”

Chicha’s voice rang out from all directions.

Lin Zhen, who had packed his bags and was sitting cross-legged with eyes closed in meditation, suddenly opened his eyes wide.

“I’m coming!”

As his voice fell, his figure quickly descended, and in the blink of an eye he arrived in front of the quantum supercomputer located beneath the building.

On the projection screen, dyed red due to Chicha’s personal preference, six solid black square frames were arranged in order.

For safety, there were no avatars or names on them, and even after the chat ended, all records would be destroyed.

Although these measures seemed a bit overkill, considering the power of the Saints’ Hand Society, they were very necessary.

“I’m Lin Zhen. I already have accurate intelligence on Chatosi and am ready to move. This operation will take at least three months.”

“The rendezvous point is Fifth Spaceport outside the Hundred Sail Star Stargate, and the meeting time is tentatively set for one week from now.”

Even with military technology, there would still be some delay over the vast light-years.

So Lin Zhen said most of the things in almost one breath, then silently stood in place waiting.

***

A full three minutes later.

From who knows how many light-years away, a clear female voice came through.

“Phew! I’m Zi Jiu. I understand. I can participate…”

In a private training ground covering a full 50,000 square meters,

A man-made granite hill hundreds of meters high, like blanched white meat hacked up by a novice chef, was covered from top to bottom with dense knife marks of unclear depth.

A purple-haired girl, wearing a sports bra and possessing an almost unrivaled figure, stood in front of the hill.

After finishing the report, she took a deep breath and fiercely swung the huge war horse saber gripped in her right hand.

Swish!

A massive, visible flame blade light swept across the hill at terrifying speed.

The next instant.

The hard granite hill, like tofu, instantly split smoothly in half, crashing down to the left and right, turning into rubble all over the ground.