I absolutely hate this kind of thing.
After a long while, she suddenly popped out this sentence on the phone screen.
"Huh?" Hayden couldn't understand at all. "Hate what? Sanskritization?"
Karen sighed: "You don't see anything wrong with what these two families are doing, right?"
“Oh, you mean this?” Hayden raised an eyebrow. “It is indeed very sad from a social perspective, but to be honest, there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do—we have no reason to continue meddling in other people’s business.”
【ha. 】
However, Karen scoffed at this idea.
[You once told me in college that you hated how generations of the dead imposed their will on the living.]
Hayden frowned. "I do say things like that occasionally, but that has nothing to do with... oh."
He finally came to his senses.
[If the dead shouldn't control the living, then should the living control the living?]
Karen countered with a question.
Hayden was speechless.
He did say he disliked the idea that a person's will can continue in another life after death. But isn't this whole affair—a matter of generations working together to elevate the social class of their descendants—essentially the same thing?
This certainly put Hayden to the spot using his own words. But what exactly was Karen's intention in saying this?
Although I have indeed been considering this matter recently and have made some preparations, I didn't expect this opportunity to come my way.
She suddenly said something even stranger.
[Hayden, don't get involved in this anymore.]
Hayden hadn't wanted to get involved in this matter in the first place. But now that Karen had said that, he felt something was off.
"Karen, what exactly do you want?"
Karen still did not give him a direct answer to the question.
Hayden, people don't need to rely on the legacy of their ancestors to survive.
She simply said calmly,
You create the life you want with your own hands. Haven't you always done that?
After uttering that riddle, Karen abruptly ended the call.
Hayden hated riddle tellers.
If it were an ordinary person speaking riddles, he might have just laughed it off. But Karen was no ordinary person. There was a strange rebellious undertone in her tone just now, which made Hayden feel uneasy.
No matter how hard Karen seemed to work, living a life no different from an ordinary office worker, Hayden never forgot that she was actually a god—and a rebellious god who refused to obey her parents!
071: The Power of Fear Kallen!
Although Karen's enigmatic words were unsettling, Hayden couldn't dwell on it indefinitely.
Good heavens, doesn't Hayden have his own important things to do?
So he didn't have time to keep playing along with Karen's antics. If Karen wanted to spout riddles and cause trouble, then let her do it.
Hayden also has his own wind-up wife to take care of.
So when Hayden got home, he went into his workshop and took out the Valkyrie heart component that Eric had given him that morning to examine it carefully.
In terms of mechanical technology, Wotan Mystery Corporation is undoubtedly the world's number one, with Mitra Corporation only able to come close. Hayden is just one person, and he doesn't have the most advanced equipment of those large companies, so researching the core components of this [Valkyrie] is naturally very difficult.
Fortunately, he did possess some talent, and many of Angela's parts were actually custom-made by Wotan, so Hayden was quite familiar with its design style. He spent the afternoon tinkering in the studio, and when Angela came in to call him for dinner, Hayden had already copied a wind-up key and was testing how to activate the heart.
This is a clockwork mechanism, a golden heart resembling a music box, its exquisite construction making it a work of art. To the uninformed, it might genuinely appear to be just a music box. Only those who have delved into this field can truly understand the astonishing density of accumulated technology culminating here.
Hayden slowly wound up the spring, pulled out the key again, and set the mechanism in motion, sending the magic to the heart. Gears transmitted power, and the jagged cams rose and fell, breathing life into the stagnant artificial heart and making the comb begin to vibrate.
He sensed the vibration and melody and quickly came to a conclusion:
"This heart component is defective."
Angela tilted her head as she entered the studio, not surprised at all, as if she already knew: "Even so, it can still be used."
Hayden nodded.
Neither of them was discouraged by the fact that the clockwork heart was defective.
Rather, Hayden even suspected that perhaps it was precisely because the heart of the Valkyrie was defective that it was left in Eric's factory and eventually ended up in Hayden's possession.
Because the technology and secrets of the Valkyrie are simply too valuable.
Flesh and blood are bitter and weak.
The Valkyrie, the elite combatant force of Wotan Mystic Technology Corporation, are all completely cyborgs. Their bodies contain not a trace of protein; they are purely mechanical structures.
Their artificial hearts are the source of maintaining and controlling the circulation of divine power within their mechanical bodies, and also a testament to the wisdom of structural engineering. If such a heart were to be found intact and scattered among the people, Wotan Corporation would certainly not let it go unpunished.
Hayden cast several spells on his eyes, then picked up the Clockwork Heart and carefully examined the runes etched with nanometer precision indistinguishable to the naked eye. This was the essence of Norse magic—or Germanic magic, the only difference being what you prefer—possessing considerable, almost omnipotent power and applications.
In addition, the word "rune" comes from Proto-Indo-European and means "whisper." In other words, it is definitely not a type of magic that can only be used by inscribing objects; it can certainly be cast through chanting.
That is what is known as "galdr". By chanting songs using the mysteries and rules of runic language, one can cast spells with various effects.
Why mention this here? Because the Valkyrie's artificial heart can use divine power to drive nanometer-precision runes, playing hundreds of thousands of melodies of incantations, and powering the Valkyries' mechanical bodies to display the miracles of the Norse gods.
The heart Eric gave to Hayden was defective. The runes and incantation scrolls engraved inside were incomplete... but that might not be a bad thing.
It would be more troublesome to offend a big company, so it's better to keep it in its current semi-finished state and make use of it.
As an aside, in the Norse magic system, there's a type of witchcraft called "Vazlock Song," also known as "Sez Spells," which can only be used by witches. It's said that men who use this spell will become effeminate, or even submissive. Hayden has no intention of ever touching something so dangerous, so I'm just mentioning it here.
“Angela, you must also have a lot of singing magic?”
He put down the wind-up heart, rubbed his eyes, and asked.
Angela tilted her head: "There are many magical singing techniques all over the world, aren't there?"
This is true.
That's why Hayden believed that this unfinished Valkyrie heart would play a significant role in enhancing Angela's combat abilities.
Angela's magic is strange. She gets tired and temporarily weakens after consuming a lot of magic. But on the other hand, even if Hayden doesn't replenish her, Angela seems to recover quickly and become lively again.
Within her elusive soul, there seemed to be an inexhaustible spring that overflowed endlessly without needing anything else, providing Angela with strength.
In other words, what determines Angela's combat power should not be the total amount of her magic power, but the energy output that her mechanical body can continuously generate, right?
"I need to conduct further testing and research, just in case. But the final conclusion should remain the same."
Therefore Hayden said,
"This Valkyrie heart component should be able to be installed on you, and it will be beneficial and harmless."
Angela nodded happily: "I think so too. It wasn't that it wasn't necessary before, it was just that I didn't have the opportunity, so I never got to try it. But if I could have more power, I could sing in battle too!"
Hayden recalled the strange phenomenon she had caused when she sang at Alicia's house last time, and he still felt it was a bit scary. But now, in order to maximize Angela's combat power, he didn't really have many options.
To be honest, Hayden didn't think he would need to fight the War Gods with Angela all the time, but... well, better safe than sorry. He didn't want to see Angela surrounded by a group of Vajra Gods, in grave danger, even having an arm blown off, anymore.
And so, Angela's modification plan was put on the agenda. Even though her body was mechanical, she couldn't just disassemble and reassemble parts haphazardly. Hayden still had to spend a lot of time slowly researching, testing, and adjusting. These things are never accomplished overnight.
On the other hand, Hayden certainly couldn't just focus on strengthening Angela. After the battle with the Russian mafia family Volkov at noon today, he had proven that his combat abilities had indeed improved. However, compared to the Protoss, the gap was still considerable.
What are Hayden's chances of winning a one-on-one fight against a non-combat Protoss? If Hayden doesn't hesitate to use all sorts of equipment and items, and the Protoss doesn't use any powerful items, Hayden would probably have a 50/50 chance—although it's hard to say whether he'll even be able to fight another battle after that 50/50 fight.
Since Hayden just happened to have stolen a batch of items and even new spells from the Russian mafia, he should definitely use them to make himself stronger!
So, in the days following the defeat of the Volkov family, Hayden basically stayed home, studying, testing, and conducting research, ignoring everything that was happening outside. At most, he would occasionally speak with Abigail to receive some guidance from her on Eastern European witchcraft. Due to her contractual curse, this dark witch wasn't actually very skilled in this kind of beast-transformation magic—but the over four-hundred-year-old loli witch was never short of unique and brilliant ideas.
You must understand the true nature of transfiguration.
She said this to Hayden while giggling on the phone.
What's the point of makeup? What's the point of transformation? Don't be foolish and blindly copy those Russians, putting on a wolf's skin and turning yourself into a big wolf. What's the point?
[Witchcraft is not arcane; there are no absolute laws or standards in witchcraft. Unlike arcane arts, which focus on standardized procedures, witchcraft is not something that can be taught and mastered simply by imitating others. Blood ties, climate, location, time, materials… too many factors can interfere with the accuracy of witchcraft. Furthermore, human speech is not stable. No one can say the same thing twice.]
Even when the same person speaks the same sentence, the waveform of the sound wave will be different; even when writing the same words, the handwriting will not be exactly the same. Arcane magic can speak and record through machines, but sorcery cannot achieve such stability and cannot reach the homogeneity of arcane industrial products.
More important than process and form is the essence; figure out what the most suitable magical feeling is for you, and consider the meaning behind the magic.
Abigail's guidance can be seen as highlighting the essence of magical power.
Out of gratitude, Hayden specially selected some of the most precious items from his previous haul to send to her. He didn't know what kind of cosmetics women liked, but he at least knew which were the most expensive and what magical meanings certain floral ingredients possessed. For example, rosemary perfume could uplift the spirit and keep one in a good mood.
So Abigail giggled happily after receiving the gift.
For some reason, Angela seemed quite pleased that Hayden occasionally lived this kind of life. So Hayden spent two weeks in this pleasant tech geek life—or, to put it more kindly, hermit-like life.
Two weeks later, Hayden finally completed the testing of Valkyrie's heart, replaced Angela's body with this precious new part, and wound it up again.
However, at the same time, the Hayden family's workshop also ran out of several medicinal herbs.
"The horn of the two-horned beast and the suckers of the leech are gone."
Hayden glanced at his medicine cabinet as he finished speaking.
"We've almost used up the wolf pelts we looted last time. We need to buy more."
The question is, where should we buy it?
The thought of "buying medicinal herbs" made Hayden's stomach ache. But then again, Boss Sok had said he "planned to sell the shop within the next two months," and only half a month had passed. "Sock Natural Knowledge Wonders Shop" should still be open, right?
With this thought in mind and an irrepressible curiosity, Hayden went to the herbal medicine shop again to check things out. Fortunately, the old shaman's shop was still open. The exterior decorations seemed to have changed a bit, but at least the same sign was still hanging at the door.
However, when Hayden pushed open the shop door, he was somewhat surprised to find that the person sitting behind the counter was not the owner of the shop, but a rather young orc whose skin was still green, unlike the old shaman whose skin had turned gray; his back was also quite straight, and he looked to be no more than twenty years old.
what happened?
Could it be that Old Sok was in a hurry to deal with his son's wedding and couldn't manage it all, so he found a young orc from his clan to help run the shop? That's not impossible.
But just in case, Hayden went over and asked, "Is Mr. Sock here?"
The young orc was checking the stock market on his phone when he heard the guest enter. He looked up and grinned at Hayden, saying, "Hey, wizard kid, looks like your eyes aren't as sharp as people say."
……ah?
"I heard that two weeks ago you single-handedly went and beat up the Volkov family, completely subduing them. Is your business growing bigger and bigger?"
what?
“Wait a minute.” Hayden frowned; he wasn’t truly stupid. “...Who are you?”
His intuition had already guessed the answer, but his reason was not sure.
The young orc laughed even harder: "Is it really that hard to recognize?"
This... but that's impossible.
Hayden was finally stunned.
There are only two things that could make this happen, one of which is too expensive and rare to even consider, but even the second is unbelievable.
"Weren't you so short of money that you were even planning to sell your shop? Where did you get the money to buy such a large dose of the Rejuvenation Potion!?"
The no-longer-old Boss Sok blinked his small eyes: "You didn't know? Didn't Miss tell you?"
Miss?
Hayden had only ever heard the boss of the Sock use that word to refer to one person.
Given the current unusual situation, Hayden can only think of one "culprit".
"Karen paid for the Rejuvenation Potion for you, so you don't need to rush Andrei to get married."
He shook his head in frustration.
"I know this is a good thing, but this approach is too crude. It's just that she's throwing money around because she has money."
These words made the orc raise his eyebrows, looking neither agreeable nor disagreeable.
"That's right, Miss did pay for the Rejuvenation Potion for me and my wife, but this isn't just throwing money away, wizard kid."
It said calmly,
"Miss used two doses of a thirty-year-old rejuvenating potion to invest in my shop. She is now a shareholder of 'Sock Natural Knowledge Wonders Shop'."
The scene paused for a moment.