Chapter 87 - Servants

*( mood song: "Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger")

Erik woke up after 4 hours feeling refreshed. He had recently programmed simple movements the avatars could do with the input of commands, and that had given him an idea, 'if I could just create a program that learned from living subjects and simulations the way to move the body it is controlling, then I could use the surplus of test subjects and captured enemies as efficient slave labor, or as death guards or explorers, I will keep the females and some strong males though, that way once the babies are born, I could just reeducate them any way I want..., but... should I make them a separate village? or maybe make it a ritual thing? like the stronger each year are sent up to receive upgrades and I could robotically modify them, with some slight modifications it could also work... but it would be way too much work... better just make them a village of their own with reeducated kids for now...'.

With the plan decided he went to the greenhouse, right outside he saw Anhuka coming with a big amount of meat tied to her back 'i should make her a cart to pull around with so much meat to carry around' he then got closer, greeting her "hey Anhuka, how's the work going? hope it's not too hard"

Anhuka was tired, seeing her lord gave her new energy as her arched back and pained legs filled with strength 'i can't look weak in front of the lord!' she quickly bowed without even unloading first, making her back creak, but she endured it and replied "I'm fine my lord! what brings you here today?"

Erik came closer and took half of the load "let me help you carry that, I will make you a cart for tomorrow onwards too"

Anhuka was flustered "N-no lord! how could I allow you to-"

But Erik stopped her with a finger to her lips "It's fine Anhuka, it won't take much effort anyway" while inside thinking 'since Rose will be the one making it'

[i heard that ( ͡°- ͡°)]

Erik: [that's great, get to it then please, bike style wheels and a light stainless steel body]

[hmm... fine...]

Erik: [thanks~]

He then went inside with Anhuka, while she thought 'my lord is so nice... but I need the exercise to get stronger...'. They took the meat inside, and to a meat storage to the left of the main entrance. Then Erik let Anhuka be as she started feeding the test subjects, while he grabbed one of the legless crab soldiers and went into the lab, the general still inside its tube.

Erik ignored him as he set the limbless soldier to a table and restrained its body and head, it tried to shout but he also gagged his mouth 'well, it's time to learn how their brains work i guess' he grabbed a surgical circutlar bone cutting tool from the wall and started it, using its rotatory blade to open a rectangular hole in the soldier's skull, lifting it carefully and exposing its pulsating brain that had an slightly blue color 'hmm now in a human i would need to tweak with the front and limbic lobes, then substituting them with nanobot neurons to turn them to servants, but this... is gonna be hard...' he had already expected it but the crabmans brain distribution was totally different, he sighed 'this will take quite some time...' he then scanned the brain with an ultrasound device, getting a 3D model of it 'hmm reminds me of a rugby ball' he augmented on the model using a screen that appeared on the nanobot wall of the room 'the emotions and personality in human brains are mostly in the frontal and middle parts so... let's try this...' he took an electrode and tapped the frontal part of the brain in the middle, causing the crabman to twitch repeatedly untill he took it out 'sigh... I might have to program the entire brain after all...'

[that's not how you test a brain you know (⌐□_□)]

Erik: [oh right! Rose, you can help me right?]

[well..., I have lots of data from past researchers of different races throughout the years so... yeah, I believe I can help you. What you need to do is measure the electrical activity of the brain while doing different tasks, that way you will know what parts of his brain he uses for each task, there was also some tests in your spaceships data, but I have a better way ] a helmet started coming out of the wall, made of nanobots [i saw a researcher once use a tool like this to test an abyssals intelligence, it will make a 3D map of the brain and show all active areas that show chemical and electrical activity, and even the blood flow]

Erik: [wow... this will save me a ton of work..., by the way, how intelligent was the abyssal?]

[i have the recordings, if you are curious I can send them to you, the abyssal they were testing was a *gibberish*] sending him an image of a being with 2 strong frontal fins, a big mouth full of sharp teeth, and an eel-like tail [its intelligence level was deemed at the level of an infant but with a really superior temporal memory and mapping memory, with a near photographic memory]

Erik: [nice..., like elephants huh... by the way, can you give me access to your database?]

[hmmm, don't just ask to enter a girl's database, it's private jeez! (ノ`⌒´)ノ┫: ┻┻]

Erik: [okay..., anyway, do I need to close the brain or...]

[leave that one for later, you need a healthy subject to test this you know, like the scared to death general behind you (・ω<) ]

Erik smiled while turning around, making the general tremble in fear [yeah, you are right, it's not dangerous anyway] he came close and opened the top of his container, getting the helmet close to the general's head.

The general on his part was the most scared he had been in his entire life, he was so scared his body froze and wasn't responding as he wanted, he needed to force himself just to mumble "n...no..p-please... i..t-told you a-all i... knew... p-please..." but it was no use, the strange helmet was put on his head as he closed his eyes and clenched his teeth waiting for the pain that he was sure would arrive, after several seconds of waiting was confused 'huh? no pain?' he carefully opened his eyes and saw the shiny biped looking at him intently, and then at something else, he followed his sight and saw it the in the wall, a floating brain on a screen and was instantly scared 'm-my brain! they wanna extract my brain!' his heart palpitating in fear.

Erik observed that the lower front part of its brain illuminated 'that should be their Amygdala equivalent, will it remove their emotions if I replace it?' with a target set, he moved to the previous soldier and carefully extracted those parts of its brain, injecting nanobots to replace them, they wouldn't do anything for now, as he needed to observe the result it produced. He removed the soldier's gag and asked it "are you afraid to die?"

The soldier looked at him and calmly replied "yes, I don't wanna die"

Erik nodded and gagged it again 'I think I'm onto something, now I need to trigger a happy response when they see me or the octopeople...'

He went back to the general and lied to him "I decided to let you go back with some females as gifts back to your king" immediately seeing the back sides and middle illuminating 'alright, that's happiness, now...' "what do you think your king would say, seeing you bring him back thousands of sexy females? he would reward you for sure right?" and nodded to himself 'confirmed, same areas illuminated and some more at the back... must be related to memory maybe? now I just need anger...' he then chuckled "Nah, I was kidding, I will make you and your soldiers kill your own wives and children, how does that feel?"

The general's face fell and contorted in anger "you wouldn't dare?!"

Erik nodded 'anger indeed, let's see... the same amygdala area as earlier but also the middle, well, I have enough information to work with with this' he ignored the general and moved to the soldier, replacing those parts of its brain by nanobot structures, and then removing the gag and activating a happiness response "how do you feel about being here?"

The soldier's face seemed to struggle but finally said "It's not that bad I guess"

Erik then activated an anger response "how do you feel about your king that sent you all to die then?"

The soldier's face contorted in anger "that bastard! I would rip him to threads myself!"

Erik smiled widely to that 'great, now I just need to create a program that sends all these responses by itself and done, if I deactivate those parts or leave a happiness response active while they are here... hehe~ I got this' [thanks Rose, it was all thanks to you~]

[you are welcome~ (・ω<)]

--- hours later ---

Erik was standing in front of a quietly standing shadow claw soldier, he had given him an electronic pair of eyes connected to a program, it would trigger a happy and servile response when looking at Erik or any octopeople, also deactivating all anger or fear responses, happy to die if ordered, and also programmed a strong loathing response upon seeing his king or anyone harming the octopeople, with also a block on their spines that would block all pain responses during combat, combining it with the wonders of virtual reality, he had also already tested its efficacy, with them jumping to kill their king and former comrades in the simulations no matter the odds against.

As for weapons, he had installed 2 additional robotic arms and replaced his claws sharp part with smooth metal parts, it would make it easier to work in construction that way, and also some light armor to be able to attach new modules to the armor.

And lastly and for good measure, a kill switch small bomb on its chest that would blow up its chest area on command.

Erik was really proud of the final result, they still had their memories so to avoid disasters he stored him restrained again when he was finished.

It had been a lot of hours of work so he decided to go back to base, with his helmet closed and gills operating on the module on his back he decided to walk back to base, the ice on the surface making the area dark as he had to activate his lights, seeing the lights reflecting in the ice far on top he couldn't help thinking 'it's beautiful yet terrifying at the same time, if not for Rose I would have had to drift around running from the ice..., you are reading my thoughts right?'

[yeah... you better be grateful ¯\_( ◉ 3 ◉ )_/¯]

Erik: [I am Rose, I'm truly grateful for all the help, I might have been running around still if it wasn't for you, I might have managed to modify the scape pod with its solar panel's energy using the ocean water to generate oxygen, or maybe recovering parts from the spaceship earlier... I don't know, but it would surely have been way harder, you have my eternal gratitude for that]

[awww Erik, you are welcome (*≧∀≦*)]

As Erik walked, the mud on the bottom created plumes of small mud clouds as he went, sinking a bit with each step, he had to activate the heating in the suit too, as the water was really cold 'It's so cold... I wonder if the hybrids are doing okay...' and so he decided to go visit the new village, starting to walk in that direction.

On the way, he came across some wild crabs that tried to attack him and even a weird worm with a maw full of teeth that came out of the ground, but he easily dealt with them using his chainsword.

Finally, after a not so relaxing walk as he had expected, he arrived outside of the new village, greeting the guards patrolling around that were wearing thick and tight leather armors for the cold. The walls of the village were made of solid giant 6x6x6 meters blocks of granite, their wair sinking them a bit on the sand underneath

He touched the cold solid stone wall and could feel what parts had been extracted from the exposed part of the cliff as they were still covered in, algae, sponges, and other small animals like barnacles and giant 30cm limpets, while the other blocks were smooth, with some algae growing already, feeling cold to the touch as he passed his hand over them 'with so much weight and precise cutting just with gravity holding them should be enough, we will need metal staples between blocks tough' he sighed 'a pity I can't use lead or concrete between the blocks, as lead would cool down too fast and would poison those around, and concrete would get way too watery, its a pity since lead would make it almost indestructible, but oh well, maybe I can find some coral or something to grow over the dome and make it even stronger over time...' he saved that thought for later, as he got closer to the village entrance, the octopeople guards bowing to him as he passed by them, going inside the village.

Looking around from the entrance, he could see they were evidently less advanced than the octopeople at a glance, with most houses not even having a roof, and just being a nest in the sand with leather and bones laying around, to his right he even saw some hybrid crabs just laying on the sand with lost looks on their eyes, he tried going closer they started trembling as they quickly moved to hide under or behind anything close to them, making Erik sigh 'seems like they are still traumatized... I don't know how to help them, I hope a calm life manages to help them calm down over time...'