Chapter 19 Humanoid 3D Printer

Patient No. 12 was also under the responsibility of the research team led by Cong Wen.

Similar to a regular psychiatric hospital, it would be impossible for one doctor to be in charge of a single patient exclusively.

However, there's always a particular focus, and although Ji Tianqi was not the main focus before, he is now.

"A human-shaped super-sized 3D printer?"

After learning of the patient's superpower, Bai Xiuchu's eyes lit up—feeling an almost perfect harmony with Ji Tianqi.

"Yes, his superpower is similar to a 3D printer, and it is of the super-sized variety. If there are no problems on his end, he only needs three hours to complete the inn setting we need."

"What's his condition?"

"Also a human-shaped 3D printer."

"Huh?"

"To be specific, he has a body image disorder. The patient's basic sensory functions are normal, but there's a recognition disorder concerning the existence of his own body parts, their spatial positioning, and the relationships between the different parts. This manifests as autotopagnosia, unilateral body neglect, analgesia, and phantom limb syndrome among others.

In the textbooks, it is named somatoparaphrenia, also known as dysmorphophobia. Looking at the disease characteristics, it should be categorized within the scope of hypochondriasis..."

"Uh... Team leader, there's no need to tell me such technical stuff. I don't understand it."

Bai Xiuchu interrupted: "In simple terms, does he think he's actually a 3D printer because of his superpower?"

"That's right. He's much more severe than a typical patient with body image disorder."

Bai Xiuchu understood.

If Patient No. 12 believes he is a human-shaped 3D printer, to the point where he can't even take care of his basic living needs, then indeed he requires treatment.

Cong Wen continued: "He can even print conventional weapons, such as firearms, and in batches. Therefore, until he is cured, or at least until he has the correct self-awareness, he must be treated in a place like ours."

This made it even clearer that treatment was necessary.

It could be understood as an uncontrolled arms factory.

Bai Xiuchu thought for a moment and asked the question she was most curious about.

"How are these patients assigned their numbers?"

Cong Wen pondered for a moment before answering: "By threat level and potential level."

Bai Xiuchu was surprised, "But it sounds like Patient No. 12 is a bigger threat than Ji Tianqi. Is their ranking mainly based on potential level?"

Ji Tianqi was only a Single Soldier Level Superpower User before, and not to mention a Tactical Level Practitioner like Li Yuanhong, even an ordinary police officer with a firearm could pose a fatal threat to Ji Tianqi.

But Patient No. 12 sounded like he could entirely outfit an armed gang or even an armed group.

"Yes, the main parameter is potential level. Because we indeed crave that the martial arts obtained by Ji Tianqi in the Otherworldly realm can be mastered by people in our world."

Bai Xiuchu frowned slightly, "Under these circumstances, he is only No. 9?"

Cong Wen laughed.

"Don't worry, there are still five patients ranked ahead of Ji Tianqi. There were originally eight, but two have been cured and discharged, and one has died. Those five are indeed very dangerous, with the lowest superpower rating being Battle-level, but all are under effective control."

Without further digression, Bai Xiuchu and the others watched Ji Tianqi's solo performance while waiting.

It didn't take long to confirm everything through communication.

Patient No. 12 and the corresponding raw materials were all brought to the No. 9 Training Ground.

Bai Xiuchu was stunned once again.

Because the first thing to be transported in was a large piece of equipment.

It stood three meters tall, six meters long, and two meters six in width, with a shell mainly made of metal material. It had some screens and buttons distributed on it, and there were two transparent glass sides in the middle position, which allowed one to see that the middle part was empty.

From the outside, it looked somewhat like a CNC machine found in factories.

While Bai Xiuchu was curious about what it was, she saw someone moving inside it.

???

"He is Patient No. 12."

Little Wang, still somewhat reluctant, approached Bai Xiuchu and said with a laugh, "He insists on living inside this thing. At first, he would just crawl into a 3D printer and refuse to come out."

Bai Xiuchu frowned slightly and moved a bit further away.

Little Wang felt slightly embarrassed, but chasing a girl is something that requires a thick skin, so he subtly shuffled closer.

But he was blocked.

It was Xiao Wu, who regarded himself as a minor character and Ji Tianqi as the leading one.

Xiao Wu stepped between Little Wang and Bai Xiuchu, standing close to Little Wang, appearing as though they were on good terms.

Yet, 'hurting others without benefiting oneself,' he snatched away the spotlight from Little Wang and began to introduce himself to Bai Xiuchu.

"Patient No. 12 is also a pitiful person, a civil engineering dog, who before graduation was already toiling at construction sites, and after graduation, was entrenched at the sites year-round.

No girlfriend, no personal life, constantly working overtime, bearing the various pressures from clients, the pressure from family to get married, and the lifetime accountability for project safety, and so on.

Lu Xun once said, if one does not explode in silence, then one will perish in silence. So he exploded, awakened his superpower. He also perished, for he went mad.

He had fantasized countless times that if he were just a 3D printer, he could produce products directly from others' designs without any pressure, without expending much effort, how wonderful would that be."

Xiao Wu's tone grew increasingly somber.

"From a certain perspective, you could say he got what he wished for."

Bai Xiuchu was much more receptive to Xiao Wu's attitude and asked worriedly, "He can't hear us talking, can he?"

"He can't. And..." Xiao Wu hesitated: "He and Ji Tianqi, as well as others like them, are all pretty much the same. They would directly ignore any voices outside of their cognition."

Bai Xiuchu understood.

Ji Tianqi firmly believes that his superpower is Crossing; Patient No. 12 is convinced he is a 3D printer.

For the latter, what do the random words of humans have to do with me, a printer???

"Looking at it this way, Ji Tianqi does seem much more normal."

Xiao Wu nodded in agreement, but Little Wang voiced his dissatisfaction, "That's because you arrived late and never saw him publicly..."

"Can you just shut up?" Xiao Wu cut him off directly, "Do you know that this confrontational personality of yours, always opposing whatever others say, can easily become a mental illness?"

"Wu Ya, you son of a..." Little Wang was angrily pointing at Xiao Wu when.

All of a sudden, Wu Ya shouted out loud, "Team leader, I formally report that Wang Biao's mental state is abnormal and request a psychological health examination for him."

"..."

"Enough!" Cong Wen frowned and said, "Little Wang, go stay with the second group for now."

"But team leader, I..."

"I said, go stay with the second group."

"..."

Wang Biao found the matter utterly baffling, but he had no choice but to leave the area for now.

Yet, the others didn't think there was anything baffling about it.

Cong Wen, fearing that the others didn't understand, sternly reminded them, "Although I don't want to say it this way, you must all have a clear understanding that Ji Tianqi is now more important than any of us, even if he does have a mental illness."

[Because he's very strong, and he's going to get stronger.]

As everyone thought this, the related preparations were already complete.

The human-shaped 3D printer at the bottom, equipped with wheels, was pushed to a corner of the No. 9 Training Ground.

Someone holding a tablet computer transferred an image of a guesthouse that had just been created to the screen on the casing of the human-shaped 3D printer.

It was a two-dimensional image.

Wu Ya and Bai Xiuchu kept a certain distance and enthusiastically continued with their introductions.

"There's also a screen inside this machine; Number Twelve will be able to see it from the inside. Although it's a two-dimensional image, he'll mentally construct a three-dimensional architectural diagram, similar to a CAD drawing."

While Bai Xiuchu kept nodding, she observed meticulously.

The staff connected a giant plastic barrel to the human-shaped 3D printer with a hose.

"The barrel contains the raw materials, very tiny plastic particles, but what's printed out is very hard. Yeah, it's somewhat like the material used for printing human bones, a mix of calcium phosphate, silicon, and zinc.

You know about human bone printing, right? It's when bones are printed with a 3D printer to replace damaged human bones."

There were many barrels filled with material, as the guesthouse scene required a substantial amount of it.

Once connected, an articulated arm extended from inside the machine, with a nozzle at its tip that looked like a showerhead.

"These devices are actually not much use; it's mainly Number Twelve's superpower that does the work. These devices are just to assist and stabilize Number Twelve's condition. Well..."

Wu Ya paused for two seconds before continuing, "If we don't use these devices, Number Twelve will be very unstable."

As the articulated arm extended, invisible plastic particles erupted continuously from it, creating solid objects.

A building began to take shape.

Amazed by the wonder of superpowers, Bai Xiuchu curiously asked, "What kind of state is 'unstable'?"

"It's like staying up all night, and after working for a whole day and night on drawings, because of a system crash and a damaged hard drive, they're lost."

"That's... not too bad, right?"

"What if it happened twelve times in a row?"

"..."

"That's the level of instability we're talking about—quite frightening."

"I see, thank you."

"You're welcome."

What followed was a silent wait, watching Ji Tianqi 'riding' on the treadmill and the human-shaped super-large 3D printer printing the guesthouse scene.

Bai Xiuchu suddenly felt some sympathy for Wang Biao, realizing that living in such an environment all year round, it was indeed easy for one's mental state, behavior, and speech patterns to become abnormal.

But she couldn't accept it.

[This is the hero I'm supposed to protect, after all.]

As time passed, the incredibly efficient Patient Number Twelve managed to build an entire guesthouse scene in just two and a half hours.

This included tables, chairs, benches, and counters.

He was simply an architectural prodigy.

As Patient Number Twelve began to be wheeled away, the staff who had been prepared all along rushed forward with their spray painting equipment.

The plastic particles were white, so the guesthouse scene was white too, which made it look fake.

But, with the application of wood grain paint, it started to look a lot more realistic. The only dissatisfaction was the smell inside the No. 9 Training Ground, which became very foul and pungent.

This task took half an hour, and from the arrival of Patient Number Twelve, a total of three hours were spent, just as Cong Wen had said.

This showed that Cong Wen had a good understanding of the patients under his command.

The guesthouse scene was finally completed, and with exhaust fans and air purifiers working furiously, everyone eagerly turned their attention to Ji Tianqi on the treadmill.

He didn't head straight for the guesthouse.

Everyone waited patiently, one day, two days, three days.

Just when everyone thought that perhaps the props weren't quite right this time or maybe Ji Tianqi himself wasn't really ready,

Ji Tianqi, who had stepped down from the treadmill, walked toward the guesthouse's doorway.

On the door hung the four characters "Yi Jian Guesthouse," printed on four sheets of A4 paper by Bai Xiuchu the day before.