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The day after turning one person into a harvesting machine and greeting the individual inside, I returned home.

Upon arriving at my house, an immense amount of luggage had been delivered, supposedly as gifts.

Most of it was clothing.

Anyway, since fashion trends change every six months, what’s the point of giving me this?

Well, I suppose the clothes I wore before were royal garments, so it’s not like they meant to make me wear rags.

I’d wear them if gifted, but shouldn’t all the gratitude go to Highpion instead?

Or maybe what was left behind after taking everything was just this?

Regardless, Tiana Amphibia is not going back to her country but attending the Academy here instead. From what I overheard while she was talking with her father, James Amphibia, returning to her country would only put her in danger again anyway.

By the way, the person who cursed her along with the light inside her has also died.

He was a shaman by profession.

How did I know? Well, even if I don’t get every memory just like during the contract, the warmth can bring some memories back.

So, the memories I gained along with the shaman’s warmth aren’t complete.

The most I found out is that he was a shaman, earning money by cursing and tormenting people.

But shamans don’t work alone.

The curse was cast by the shaman who used magic, but it also means he was a member of a group.

In other words, there exists a Shaman Group.

They say that the magic in this world doesn’t just happen with a chant instantly; the preparation process is complicated and lengthy.

So, to gain profit during that process, shamans formed groups, and the unit of this group is a clan.

Clan.

I mean, using bugs or whatever, it’s hard to just create them from the ground up every time you need them.

So they take commissions from clans and use shamans within the clan as bullets.

The shaman I remember from my memories only knew how to use magic. So, I can’t say for sure how the clan system works.

If their style is to complete one commission before taking another, then even if the two people return home, they would face danger again.

Knowing this, Tiana Amphibia enrolls directly into the Royal Academy.

Hmm.

Interesting.

The situation with the father-daughter duo in this country and the one living in the kingdom of Malfovia is quite similar.

In this country, Aurora, who has regained her health thanks to the harvesting machine, is also busy preparing to enroll.

In other words, many prominent figures from various countries will be enrolling starting this semester.

I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of outcome that will result in.

By the way, when Kanna heard this news, she sighed heavily right away, and a few days later, Polaris, who also heard the news, lamented about wanting to survive.

The day of the new semester is gradually approaching.

This morning, Victoria was almost pushed onto the train by her parents.

Beatrice and Morris are somehow trying to rekindle the relationship between me and Victoria.

But what I heard back then was a bit funny.

They both seemed suspicious and not quite human. Yet, they said the same thing.

All of it was true, and Victoria was right.

But what can you do? I’m disguising myself as a human, aren’t I? So, it’s not strange for others to see me as a person, even if I’m not one.

Plus, since I claim I’m not a human, I’m not lying either.

Did you know?

Humans can project personalities onto objects and empathize with them.

If they talk and act like a person, empathy becomes much easier.

Of course, there are people among humans who can’t empathize. That’s just due to being born with disabilities or low intelligence, so they don’t know how to empathize.

In truth, empathy is a very difficult skill.

First, you have to distinguish between others and yourself. A typical example is the mirror test. If you place a creature that recognizes its surroundings visually in front of a mirror, its ability to recognize that it’s seeing itself indicates its intelligence.

Next, you must be able to calculate the future. At the very least, one should recognize the existence of causation. Not many beings understand that jumping into muddy water will dirty their clothes, and that they could get sick because of the germs in the muddy water.

And you need to see the world from the other person’s perspective. This is genuinely hard. Why? Because it requires imagination. If intelligence is low, then imagining is also difficult. That’s why, in the faded memories, humanity was considered the only great being.

However, in other worlds, there are many creatures with higher intelligence than humans, perhaps due to magic.

Anyway, only after all that can you barely empathize.

Most ordinary people can do this. In other words, the average intelligence of humans is exceptionally high.

That’s how they can project others onto inanimate objects and communicate emotions.

But this leads to problems.

If someone resembles a human, understanding their actions becomes easy.

That opens a gap for creatures like me to slip in.

As a minimum safety measure, there’s something called the uncanny valley that doesn’t exist with other animals.

But if there are no flaws in appearance, that doesn’t work well.

Don’t you often hear that beauty reduces guilt?

It’s different when an ugly uncle places a hand on your shoulder compared to a beautiful woman doing the same.

Even if someone isn’t strikingly beautiful, if they have clean skin and symmetrical features, they don’t look very unattractive.

It’s also why rapidly grown clones have unusually clean appearances, after all.

Since there are almost no distortions occurring as they grow, they end up looking exactly as their genes intended.

My own body is similar.

That’s why I act like a human. There’s no need for me to act maliciously. By acting moderately kind and moderately mischievous, people naturally think of me as a human.

They don’t think I’m doing horrific things beneath that guise.

In fact, I have opened up about all my actions, and yet nothing has gone wrong, right?

Of course, if one understands what it means to drain warmth, like the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign or Daegon, humanity would change their attitude.

But when will that time come?

Hehe.

By then, the world will already be full of harvesting machines and their descendants.

Speaking of which, maybe I acted too much like a human. Every three days, maids working in my accommodation—no, people come to visit me.

“Oh, you came again! We can’t just leave this alone!”

“Let’s tidy up in order. When we came last time, there was nothing in the wardrobe.”

“This is what I hinted at when you visited that day; I’m glad you came.”

They all rushed into the empty room where I had piled up my clothes, opening each item as they organized. One person asked me how to wash various materials, claiming this is how to handle this fabric.

So, I told them, and they made an extremely satisfied expression.

Hmm.

I’ve only had a brief conversation during the vacation when I stayed quietly in my accommodation, yet it’s quite strange.

I don’t even know what my future will be like after graduating from the Royal Academy.

So they’re not approaching me for any specific reason, at least as far as I know.

It’s good to get along well.

I act like a human, telling them to have dinner together and went out to buy various things.

There’s a commercial district near my house.

So, it was convenient to buy things.

Food prices are considerable, and about half the shops are empty, but I receive enough money.

I have no specific place to spend it.

So, while I’m at it, I’d drain the money.

And that day, I had dinner at a loud table.

*

Meanwhile, how’s the Fourth World?

“Begin.”

Jeber commands.

“Observing the purple mutation process, experiment number R008. Starting now.”

Then the assistant echoes the command while instructing the Chimera on various tasks.

As the Chimera manipulates the controls, a machine descends, removing the steel blindfold.

And before me stands a person, trembling. All I can see beyond that is just a steel plate. It’s impossible for me to observe the inside of the laboratory now.

Everywhere is filled with machinery, and all actions related to me are being handled by mechanical hands.

I feel like I’m trapped inside a gigantic mechanical lump, completely isolated. And at regular intervals, the machine opens and people are placed inside.

Then, through metal needles embedded in their brains, shocks are delivered.

At that point, I recite the contract document.

The person becomes a harvesting machine.

Their skin transforms to that of porcelain and shatters, revealing a pure white individual from within.

Currently, I’m observing the creation of harvesting machines, but not long ago, I was the one being observed.

After that coward fled in flames.

Jeber added equipment and completely isolated me.

Then he started investigating my body.

He took my skin, extracted my organs, and examined them. He even plucked out an eye, regenerated it, and attached a hand to my abdomen.

In the meantime, I also learned about my body.

The physical body I entered tries to maintain an ideal state.

If any parts are missing, it regenerates, and it strongly resists poisons and diseases. Of course, there are limits, and it consumes enormous amounts of calories to do so.

Although picked up by the Chimera harvesting machine, calculations show that the calories consumed by the detached cells make it impossible to stay alive with the current amount being injected.

It’s suspected that I’m drawing calories from somewhere, and Jeber speculates that place is me. However, there’s a problem; he doesn’t know where those calories are coming from.

Even if he sticks needles all over my body to draw blood, they report no notably calorie-rich blood is present.

And to maintain the body, it sometimes causes impossible mutations. When nutrients are intentionally injected into the abdominal cavity, the body mutated to absorb them.

Typically, it should just rot in the body, or, if unlucky, form a pouch covered in inflammatory cells.

This maintenance process is so robust that hormonal changes don’t occur properly. The body remains entirely unchanged.

It seems like it’s trying to remember and maintain its shape, which is Jeber’s assessment. He also mentioned that it’s strange that while trying desperately to maintain its form, it would cause intense mutations if necessary.

Following that, he conducted an experiment to determine the extent of my physical body.

Originally, my physical body shares the same biological structure as the Chimera, as they were cultivated in the same way.

So, he tried removing the limbs of a Chimera and attaching them to my body. Not to its original site, but to my abdomen.

And?

The arm on my abdomen slowly got sucked into my belly. According to Jeber, I digested it. Then the arm regenerated up to just before the elbow. Sadly, it got cut off again immediately after.

The facts discovered by Jeber and me are:

1. My body tries to maintain its original form.

2. If necessary, it mutates to obtain resources required for survival.

3. The cells consume 30 times more calories than usual to do so.

On my side, there’s a note that says it’s living even though it hasn’t received such calories.

By the way, the calculation of the 30 times increase was determined by analyzing the rate at which the medium’s nutrients depleted during cultivation of my cells separated from my body and comparing them to those of normal cells.

In simpler terms, it means my cells are consuming the equivalent of a month’s worth of food in a single day.

It’s no wonder that with increased performance, it’s sucking up so much energy like a graphics card.

Anyway.

Once the experiments about my physical body concluded,

Jeber is now creating harvesting machines while observing that mechanism.

Doing whatever with the body housing me is fine by me. But I have my complaints.

When it comes to harvesting machines made that way,

Wouldn’t it be better to just let them flow out instead of pulverizing them?

But because they’re scared of me, it’s impossible for now.

They’re cowards.