"This? It's a new product we developed. But currently, only we can effectively consume it."
The goddess Mikkor smiled, seemingly unconcerned.
"This is my own brain."
? ? ? ? ?
What! ?
"Our Smoke Mirror Company recently collaborated with the Heavenly King of the Mithra Group and has developed a technology to quickly clone any biological body and then install a replica personality chip on a blank brain. Although the cost is still high, the effect is not very stable, and the practicality is limited, it is quite good for consumption."
The goddess Mikkelsen smiled and seemed genuinely pleased!
"To consume one's own body, one's own brain, and one's own identical thoughts and wisdom as lunch—and to feel the death of 'another self' within. This is a pleasure that no one, not even gods, is entitled to enjoy, a nourishment and power that no one can absorb!"
The goddess savored the freshly severed brain, which was identical to her own, and put it into her mouth with relish, revealing a blissful smile.
“Mr. Hayden, wouldn’t you like some of your own brain marrow? Even though your body hasn’t fully recovered, it’s still a profound understanding of death and wisdom!”
Oh my god!
Hayden's ability to remain calm and collected at this point, let alone be completely stunned, is truly admirable.
It was only then that he truly understood why, despite both being rising stars in the financial world and exploiting their employees, different large companies could have such vastly different reputations. Why was Mitra Corporation the light, and Smoke Mirror Company the darkness? The difference between them was like the difference between a mountain peak and an ocean trench.
The capitalists of the Mitra Group also exploit their employees and leech off their hard-earned money, but they don't go to that extent.
This is no longer a matter of inhumanity or exploitation of others.
The capitalists of the Mithra Group are, in essence, still human. Those board members who act as bodhisattvas were originally human beings in disguise, just with greater divine power.
But the capitalists of the Smoke Mirror Company are monsters.
They have become alienated from mortals, truly inhuman monsters.
147: The little rabbit is white and white
We've all heard the saying "capitalists devour people" so many times that we're almost tired of it.
Some people, after getting used to it, even think it's a matter of course, a worldly truth of the survival of the fittest.
Cannibalistic magic has existed since ancient times. Hayden had dealt with demi-humans in the wasteland two months prior and witnessed their cannibalistic magic firsthand. The ancestors of the demi-humans were once legitimate citizens of society, and their flesh-eating magic originated from normal magic. It was likely modified from the magic of the Smoke Mirror Company.
But the demi-humans resorted to cannibalism because the environment was so dire that they had no choice but to eat people. If they didn't eat people, they would die, and their tribes wouldn't be able to continue.
The capitalists at Smoke Mirror Company prey on people not for the sake of survival, but for the sake of growth.
The way of man is to take from those who have little and give to those who have more. The poor get poorer, and the rich get richer. The richer and stronger they are, the more they can seize and plunder, devouring even more to make themselves even more powerful!
However, now that Hayden sees the goddess Micket happily consuming her own cloned brain, he can't help but realize that no matter what kind of human way, what kind of plunder and devouring, what kind of universal principles, humans cannot alienate themselves to the point of consuming their own cloned brain to gain wisdom about life and death, increase power, or grow capital.
At least it shouldn't.
Humans cannot be completely devoid of morality and ethics; otherwise, no matter how eloquent their words may be, they are merely beasts with only wisdom and strength, monstrous creatures that are immortal to the gods.
Ah, my apologies. The gods of the Smoke Mirror Company are nothing but immortal beasts.
However, this also answers one of Hayden's previous questions.
"I came to visit today mainly to learn about the secrets behind [Magical Girl Pazuzu]. Now I understand a little better."
Regardless of his inner feelings, Hayden appeared calm at least.
"That wasn't the real Pazuzu, but a clone created using the increasingly practical dream personality chip technology..."
……Um?
Hayden suddenly realized something was wrong as he said this.
Even if cloning were to be done, why choose Pazuzu to clone? Besides, Pazuzu is an evil spirit of the plague, and like the devil, it does not possess the duality of spirit and body, so theoretically it cannot be cloned.
The only thing that can be copied or imitated is personality.
But then again, isn't copying and imitating a personality a viable alternative? Look at the goddess Mikt before us. By consuming her cloned brain and replicated personality, she can experience the same thoughts and wisdom as "another self" through sympathetic magic, and comprehend the power and mystery of death.
Similarly, just look at the performance of [Magical Girl Pazuzu]: a cloned personality can obviously gain power similar to the deceased original through imitation witchcraft. If she can gain the belief and support of thousands of viewers and fans, this power will be even greater.
The more Hayden thought about it, the more horrified he became. This was a revolutionary new force, a new technology representing a new future—the only problem being that both the future and the technology raised serious ethical concerns.
Cloned bodies are one thing, and clones without intelligence are another. But stuffing a cloned personality and memories into someone else's brain—what kind of creature is that? What kind of person is that?
Will there come a day in the future when the lower classes can no longer even trust their own memories and personalities?
Even not just the lower classes?
Such a future prospect and technology is truly terrifying.
However, Hayden couldn't reveal this to the goddess Mikt. She was a monster, truly inhuman and devoid of humanity, and most troublesome of all, she probably lacked any self-awareness. Hayden didn't believe other members of the Capitalist God race would be this inhuman; setting aside Karen, the exceptional case of betraying her class, even Hela, another goddess of death…
…………
...Hela wouldn't actually eat people or her own cloned brain, would she?
Hayden shook his head, banishing the terrifying images that flashed through his mind, and decided to still have some faith in Karen's mother—just by observing how she interacted with Karen, he knew that Hela, or rather most normal capitalist gods, still possessed humanity. Whether they were capitalists or not was not necessarily related to whether they had humanity or exploited workers.
Do capitalists with a conscience not need to exploit people? No, that's simply not the case.
"This is truly remarkable technology."
So Hayden immediately changed the subject, moving on to another topic.
"I cannot speak directly on behalf of the Peacock King at this time, but even if I can only speak on behalf of Karen, I would be happy to discuss with you other commercial applications of this new technology."
Upon hearing this, Goddess Mikkelsen stopped eating the brain, turned to look at Hayden, and smiled: "What are your thoughts?"
what
This is something Hayden is best at, like trying to scam funding.
"There are too many. Such new technologies for replicating personalities and memories can bring about earth-shattering changes."
So Hayden returned the smile.
"For example, such new technologies could be used to teach us the techniques and knowledge to seize the dead, to steal the power of dead gods and demons, to 'resurrect' ancient gods and demons, to create artificial demons, and even..."
He paused deliberately at this point.
The goddess Mikkelsen showed no reaction and listened calmly to Hayden's words.
Clearly, the vampire goddess hasn't shown much surprise or excitement about what Hayden has said so far. As one of the main people in charge of this collaborative project, she had already anticipated any of the changes Hayden could immediately think of.
Hayden was prepared for this. He had very few bargaining chips to use to negotiate with a god of capital, especially since he couldn't actually sell Karen's things. His relationship with Karen would make the gods see him as someone of the same class, but being of the same class was just a stepping stone.
The goddess Mikk currently treats Hayden as an equal, but if Hayden cannot offer anything of interest to her, she will only politely ask him to leave. She is not about to let Hayden have access to the deeper secrets of [Magical Girl Pazuzu] and the personality chip technology for nothing.
Capitalists won't act until they see a clear benefit; they don't give things away for free.
Fortunately, Hayden did have a trump card.
“Perhaps, for example… we can even recreate the primordial, inextinguishable fire of the ancient gods like Terasque.”
Hayden slowly cast out this bait.
These words finally made the goddess Mikkelsen raise her eyebrows.
"You're really making empty promises. Recreating the Secret Flame, synthesizing the Secret Flame—that's an extremely profound and mysterious matter. Can you really do it?"
In fact, Hayden could actually do it. He could even provide it in large quantities. He just needed to have Angela beside him keep exhaling into bottles and sending them out. It's just that doing so would inevitably lead to extremely serious and troublesome problems, making it practically impossible.
But Hayden had a safer, though less useful, trump card that he could use to make empty promises.
He took out a crystal box specifically for storing wild biological samples, calmly opened it, and showed the contents to the goddess Mikt.
Because inside was a tiny creature, about the size of a fist, crawling around in the box.
Mini Tentacle Monster
It is a miniature Terasque clone monster that Hayden accidentally created using Angela's aura and a chunk of Terasque's heart flesh.
Even the goddess Mikkuri couldn't help but show a look of astonishment when she first saw this disgusting little monster with tentacles that looked like a hermit crab.
"As you know, when I was recovering Terasque, I took some flesh and blood as experimental material and successfully cloned this thing, which can barely be considered a replica."
Hayden said calmly,
"Although at this stage, my technology cannot replicate Terasque's Primal Flame, only the physical body, your company has now developed a new personality replication technology. Isn't it worthwhile to cooperate with us and explore further possibilities?"
"After all, Karen's father is the Peacock King, the oldest existing extraterrestrial god in the world. His knowledge and understanding of the Secret Fire is the best in the world."
This is the ultimate example of using someone else's name to inflate someone else's prestige.
Who in heaven and on earth doesn't know the name of the Peacock King? Which of these capitalist gods doesn't know that the Peacock King is an ancient god from beyond the heavens who has dominated a region for thousands of years and whose military power is the most powerful? His power even led the Mithra Group to absorb him when the new gods rose, making the Peacock King the only god to be transformed from an old god into a new one.
These ancient gods who fell from the heavens cannot be permanently killed. The remaining ancient gods in this world either became demons hiding on the edge of the world, barely surviving, or were sealed away by the new god corporation (Telasquie is also considered the latter). Only the Peacock King can openly sit on the Mithra Group's side and hold meetings with the new gods.
Although there are other old gods in the world who transformed from feudal old gods and joined the new capitalist god race, such as Dhritarashtra and the Great Sage Joyful God who caused trouble for Karen last time, they are not old gods who fell from the sky, and they do not have the inextinguishable secret fire.
The undying secret fire, the primordial life force—isn't the Peacock King the one who understands it best?
This tiger skin will surely hook the goddess Mikkelsen.
What do you want from me?
She raised her eyebrows and asked very directly.
This is the attitude a businessman should have.
Hayden didn't answer directly. Instead, he asked, "Why did you choose Pazuzu for this experiment of creating a cloned personality and a virtual idol? That's not a good name; it's a demon. How can you expect to attract enough viewers and generate enough revenue?"
Upon hearing this, Goddess Mickett was taken aback and shook her head: "That's not necessarily true. Mr. Hayden, I know your expertise lies in technology development, so you may not know the entertainment preferences of lower-class consumers—these days, lower-class consumers have only one standard for judging entertainment: whether it's funny or not, nothing more."
"Demons? Nobody cares what those things were like hundreds of years ago. After all, they're not like devils. Demons occasionally go into the city and blow up a building or a subway."
In this age of entertainment to the death, if you take the "demon" concept too seriously, you've already lost—that's probably the feeling.
"I decided to use Pazuzu for this experiment simply because it was just killed by you and is still very fresh. An ancient god or demon of this level has just been killed, so this opportunity is naturally not to be missed. And I just happened to decide to use new technology to conduct this experiment, that's all."
That's true, well, it's not entirely wrong.
Hayden was speechless.
While the goddess Mikkle might be deceiving us, or perhaps she's hiding something, that's probably the case. As for the remaining 20% of doubt, that's easy to resolve.
"I hope to participate in this virtual streamer idol project called 'Magical Girl Pazuzu'."
Hayden said so.
--------------------------
The detailed negotiation process that followed is probably best left unsaid.
Not long after, the goddess Mikkuri agreed to Hayden's request, allowing him to first examine the details of [Magical Girl Pazuzu]—in other words, to "test its quality." The specific terms and projects for the collaboration would be discussed after Hayden had seen Pazuzu.
As for the person responsible for leading the way, it was someone Hayden already knew.
"Welcome, welcome! Mr. Hayden, it's wonderful to work with you!"
Ms. Echo, who had been demoted to "Eclipse Skull" for causing Terasque's theft, shook hands with Hayden with delight.
She's not a skeleton now, at least not in appearance. The goddess Mikt punished Eko by turning her into a skeleton, but having a skeleton as an idol producer would cause problems. Normally, Eko has to be a skeleton, but during work hours she can don human skin and flesh, looking like an ordinary goddess woman, not a skeleton anymore.
This way, Ai Ke will feel that working is more comfortable than going home after get off work, and she'll be more willing to work 007. For the company, it's a win-win situation!
And so, disguised as a normal office lady, Ms. Aiko excitedly led Hayden and Angela straight to the location of [Qiqimiti Entertainment]. This was a completely new company; the goddess Micket had casually rented an entire floor of an office building in downtown New Seattle. The entire move was uneventful and unremarkable.
Angela, on the other hand, sighed during this process.
"What's wrong? Is there something amiss?"
Hayden, noticing this, immediately asked.
“No, that’s not it.” Angela shook her head, her expression somewhat sorrowful. “I’m just a little disappointed. Vampires, skeletons… I wanted to give my master a push, so why have I been encountering only undead creatures lately?”
What strange things is she saying again?
Hayden really didn't understand what he meant.
Ms. Eko, on the other hand, overheard a bit of it, though she didn't quite understand it. She immediately replied, "Our company has a high percentage of undead employees, which is unavoidable. But the person you're about to meet is a living person."
By this time, Aiko had brought Hayden and Angela to the spacious office of [Qiqimiti Entertainment]. A quiet atmosphere filled the air; there wasn't a single person moving about.
There were only a dozen or so coffin-like sealed StarNet login operation cabins, and it was clear that employees were fully submerged into StarNet space inside.
"Most of our company's workspace is in cyberspace. We go in when we start work and come out when we finish get off work, that's basically it."
As Ms. Ecke spoke cheerfully, she led Hayden to a corner of the office and to a silver, sealed operating pod.