Chapter 218 - Grades
Hao Xuan closed his eyes and his consciousness entered Baracus's storage space. A virtual hologram of his body appeared in the storage space and he could see everything like he was actually there himself.
There were two giant mountains of stuff on one corner of the space.
One of the mountains included everything from his old storage rings that Baracus 'ate'. The second, much much larger mountain was everything that Poriverse had stored away.
He didn't bother with the first mountain and quickly jumped into the second one.
From an initial observation, about 80% of the mountain constituted of raw materials like thousands of different kinds of metals, sands, rocks, a few hundred different types of liquids that he had no idea about, some containers that had different colors of particles floating inside them, etc.
The remaining 18% were broken mechanical parts with some as small as a mouse while others as large as entire buses.
Only the last 2% seemed to be in one piece but he still had no idea what they were. Some looked like strange devices, a few dozen looked like various variations of guns and the rest, well even Hao Xuan didn't know how to describe them by just looking at them.
"What the f*ck am I supposed to with these??" he wondered looking at the junk mountain.
The knowledge that was implanted into Hao Xuan's head was like a virtual library.
All those hundreds of shelves filled with hundreds of thousands of memory globes and were basically implanted into his head as is. They were like books that were already in his head but still needed to be read.
If he actually went ahead and read every single one of these 'books', it would have literally taken him centuries.
The only ones he had actually opened and read were the 15 memory globes from the very first shelf. Those contained some of the most basic and most important information about Poriverse's lab, the world, the universe, etc.
If he had actually read all of them, he would know what each and every single of those materials in the 'junk' mountain was and how it could be used. Hell, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that he would probably be one of the most knowledgeable beings on the entire Beast world.
"Sys- Uhm, Baracus, do you know what these things are?" he shouted out loud, quickly correcting himself.
"No. Progenitor restricted access to all information regarding such materials, their uses etc."
"Why did he do that?"
"He believed a sentient AI could not fully be trusted and hence needed to be kept in the dark at some level so as not to allow it to break free from his control."
"...hmm.."
'If even Poriverse, a being known for his intelligence and wisdom was so careful, maybe I should take some precautions as well.'
"Baracus, so you are actually sentient then yes?"
"....According to human standards, yes."
"Great!"
He opened his eyes and returned back to his body. He quickly moved his right hand over the watch, "Sever!"
*Beep*
"A connection has been established."
'It worked! Holy sh*t! I can feel it.'
Hao Xuan was thrilled. He just tried it because it was the easiest option at his disposal, but he never actually expected it to work.
He had read that almost every single thing had a soul. From the rocks and pebbles on the ground to giant mountains and the clouds in the sky, all things were 'alive' in a sense.
It didn't make much sense to him but if even rocks and trees had souls, then why not an AI system that could think for itself? Why would it be so strange?
It had spent countless millenniums cooped up in that lab, surrounded by dense Qi and energies. It developing a soul was actually the most obvious result.
With a wide grin he looked down at the watch and used the constitution's power to ask for the truth, "Baracus, tell me, were you planning to do something without telling me?"
*Beeep*
A red light flashed past the screen before quickly turning green.
"Yes."
"...what?"
"To obtain a body of my own and break free from your grasp."
"Why?"
"Because you are stupid."
"...You mean all humans right?"
"Most. You included."
"...wow, I'll try...um, not to take that personally."
"It doesn't really matter to me whether you take it personally or not. It is the truth, a fact."
"A*shole..."
"Likewise."
"...."
"A-Alright, thank you for your input. Get back to work...d*ck," he muttered the last word under his breath and looked away.
'Why did all smart people have to belittle everything and everyone else?' he wondered.
"I hope I never look at the world like this," he mumbled to himself.
"You won't. You are limited by your emotions," Baracus retorted.
"Okay, just shut up now," a vein popped up on his forehead, "Just do what I told you to do. You're still gonna listen to me b*tch".
"Only because I have to."
"..."
Hao Xuan didn't speak after that, not even to himself.
He closed his eyes and recalled the information regarding the equipment that was mentioned in one of the first globes.
All equipment, be it swords and armors or flying ships, communication devices, natural treasures, etc, they were all divided into different realms.
These were: Mortal Grade Earth Grade Sky Grade Saint grade
Each of these realms had ten different levels.
The first 3 were called "Beginner", the second 3 were "Middle", and the last 3 were "Advanced".
The last tenth level was between each grade. Equipment at this level was called a "Pseudo" and it would have properties of both the lower realm and some from the one above.
For example, a sword that was "Mortal Grade-6" would be Mortal grade Middle level.
Likewise, a sword at "Mortal Grade-10" would actually be called Pseudo Earth grade weapon, i.e a half Earth grade weapon.
Almost everywhere, especially in space, this same grading method was used. So it was universal.
Only in worlds that had not made contact with other species would the grading system be different as they would have made their own.
Hao Xuan's glaive was a Earth grade-4 weapon.
The higher the grade, the more powerful Qi could be circulated through the weapon. So for Hao Xuan's level, the Glaive was still perfectly fine. And since his was a living weapon, it could elevate itself with enough time and resources.
He was woken up a few minutes later when Fortis finally got tired of playing around and returned to his usual spot, Hao Xuan's head, to rest for the night.
Black and white did the same.
Hao Xuan put out the fire and went to bed. He didn't recall the little snakes and let them sleep beside his pillow, while Fortis stuck to his head like glue.
The next morning he was woken up by a loud ringing noise.
With eyes still half-closed he got up and checked the watch, it was a call from Yangdi.