Life in North America, you call this an autopsy officer?!

"How fascinating..."

Brian, feeling amidst the Blissful Heart Domain filled with countless shuttling neuronal chains, couldn't help but exclaim.

Above the Blissful Heart Domain,

a vast human head was slowly taking shape.

This was the Cylinder Brain named "Night" from the NW organization (see Chapter 322).

When Brian left a Spiritual Imprint on the dormant Night, he immediately pulled its sleeping consciousness into his own Heart Domain.

Night's consciousness pattern was magical.

Compared to ordinary beings, Night's consciousness consisted of numerous faint, small awarenesses.

This pattern was somewhat similar to Brian before he had a Heart Domain.

It was made up of countless worm-like, trivial awarenesses.

These weak consciousnesses, surprisingly, were at the same frequency, maintaining a complete whole.

Adding up these synchronized consciousnesses,

the strength of Night's consciousness almost reached half of Brian's.

That was somewhat terrifying.

Brian had tested this using Rashid, who was breeding pigs in the farm.

Rashid, in his lifetime, was a normally evolved Third Rank Life.

Taking the strength of Rashid's consciousness as a reference unit,

Brian's consciousness strength was about ten times that of Rashid, a Third Rank Life.

This meant,

Night's collective consciousness strength was about five times that of an average Third Rank Life.

No wonder Night's computational abilities were so potent.

At this strength, it could even peer into the Fourth Dimension, or the Spirit Realm.

Probably, not even the Saint before being Mutated had a Spiritual Strength similar to that of Night.

And Night was just one of the Cylinder Brains differentiated from a Mutant brain, specifically defined as Subject Zero by Night.

There were a total of 25 individuals like Night!

Upon deeper thought,

observing Night composed of countless writhing consciousnesses, Brian actually felt a hint of dread.

Could these brains, just like those worm-like consciousnesses, sync up and, centered around Zero, reform as a whole?

Thinking of that possibility, Brian felt a chill.

It turns out there was such a bomb hidden on the planet.

He could also understand why Night, upon meeting him originally, volunteered this information, even saying he met the basic logic set by Zero: a genius transcending eras.

Damn it!

Wasn't this choosing someone to then seize possession?

Thinking of this possibility,

Brian's expression darkened as he awaited the awakening of Night's consciousness.

…

As time passed,

a large amount of free Spiritual Energy was absorbed by Night's collective consciousness.

Night's consciousness pattern flickered with light.

Once fully charged,

it finally slowly opened its eyes.

Changes in the environment did not cause any fluctuations in Night's group consciousness.

Or rather, it no longer possessed the emotions of a regular being.

A powerful, invisible wave spread outward from Night's group consciousness.

It seemed like a self-check mechanism.

Brian did not interfere, merely silently observing.

The Heart Domain was merely a realm of thought.

It could be infinitely large or infinitely small.

Its essence was composed of Spiritual Energy.

Naturally, Night's scanning yielded nothing.

It said mechanistically:

"Self-check complete…"

"Detection complete…"

"Environment unknown…"

"Loss of group network connection…"

"Detects traces of special energy intrusion…"

Night's consciousness, composed of human brains, flickered before dimming again:

"Unable to comprehend the composition of the special energy, expulsion failed…"

"Owner of permissions detected…"

"Spiritual Waves match."

"Verification passed…"

Night finally turned its attention to Brian standing before it: "Hello, Third Level Officer Brian, Mr. Disaster the respected, the recognized highest authority owner based on basic logic… Pleased to meet you again."

Brian's face darkened completely, "Is this your hidden secret?"

"Sorry, Brian, Night cannot understand; you may need to be more specific."

Night's tone was mechanical and unfluctuating.

Brian ignored its feigned ignorance and continued:

"Last time we met, you told me that by passing the logic set by Zero, I would automatically gain your highest authority, but you hid a lot.

For instance, your ability to link with other sub-bodies differentiated from Zero.

Your powerful consciousness strength.

The real state of Zero.

Night, tell me, the real purpose of picking out geniuses!"

Night's body flickered like a short-circuit in its brain.

Clearly, Brian's words touched on some of its core aspects, causing a computational short-circuit.

After a long time.

Night's mechanical, emotionless voice finally said, "Sorry, Brian, your question goes beyond your scope of authority, and Night cannot provide an answer."

Wasn't this practically a confession?

Brian understood.

Sure enough, above his so-called highest authority, there existed an authority higher than his.

No need to think.

The owner of this authority was Zero.

Zero was that Special Mutant originally captured.

It still retained its consciousness!

A subject that could control all sub-bodies.

These sub-bodies, used as central data storage by major powers' Cylinder Brains.

Tsk tsk.

This entity, with a staggering Spiritual Strength, had embedded a bomb within all sub-bodies, attempting to select an incredibly powerful individual for possession.

Meanwhile, before this,

no one possessed the Heart Domain technique like Brian.

Those who owned Cylinder Brains couldn't detect their collective consciousness, naturally unaware of the bomb hidden within.