episode_0080

The life of the mage engineer, Kern, was not smooth sailing.

In his youth, he was one of the promising talents with a bright future.

As a newly adult, Kern served as the director of a research institute that combined intricate Taeyeop machinery with magic.

He succeeded in creating a device that replicated the basic magic of each attribute.

This marked the beginning of the field of Taeyeop engineering.

From the moment Kern discovered the potential, numerous dwarves joined the research.

Various magics were reproduced through machinery.

Unlike magicians who needed special talents and education to be nurtured, Taeyeop machinery could be mass-produced, leading to endless demand.

Agricultural tools, industrial excavators, weapons, and more.

Factories began to emerge in the barren land to meet the demand, eventually forming a massive city-state known as Taeyeop City in a matter of decades.

However, despite the development of Taeyeop City, Kern’s status gradually faded into obscurity.

Though respected as a pioneer of Taeyeop engineering, he was merely that.

Compared to the active entrepreneurs, Kern seemed to have lost his identity.

A recluse, a forgotten relic.

A legend that opened an era.

That’s how he was remembered, destined to be a figure in history.

Around the time when everyone thought that way,

“What? You want me to hold an exhibition at the fair? What should I showcase?”

“Hmm… What should I name it? Taeyeop, Taeyeop Human? No. Taeyeop Doll. That sounds better.”

Kern returned.

This time with humanoid machines.

There had been several attempts to create humanoid machines before, but they were merely visually convincing.

However, Kern’s creation was different.

Her name was Linda.

With a human-like appearance and attire, Linda could understand and respond to human speech, following commands.

She could recognize faces and distinguish voices.

Linda appeared as if she were a thinking machine.

The response was explosive.

The Taeyeop doll, once confined to the realm of imagination, evolved from repeating recorded voices and movements to becoming an autonomous robot in an instant.

Kern became a star once again.

Unlike when he had lost the rights to Taeyeop engineering to latecomers in the early days, this time Kern was thorough.

He patented his creation and actively pursued business ventures.

Orders for Taeyeop dolls poured in from around the world, and Kern quickly found himself atop a mountain of wealth.

Taeyeop dolls created by Kern roamed the streets.

Many households had butlers and maid dolls.

Even those purchased for nighttime activities in quiet alleys were not uncommon.

As fuel prices rose globally and most Taeyeop dolls ended up as scrap due to poor fuel efficiency,

Kern’s earnings were enough to live in luxury for a lifetime without exhausting them.

But Kern was not satisfied with that.

While people thought the Taeyeop doll craze had ended, Kern’s thoughts were different.

To Kern, Linda was still incomplete.

Although the hardware was convincing, the software was lacking, far from complete.

Kern dared to venture into the realm of life creation.

He wanted to create artificial souls.

Not machines that appeared to think for themselves, but machines that actually did.

He aimed to make them feel emotions.

While vampires were based on dead bodies with consciousness,

Spirits were made solely of magic and capable of thinking.

Why couldn’t he create artificial souls with machines?

Kern cast everything aside and focused solely on developing artificial souls.

His wife and daughter supported and stood by him.

Until Kern finally achieved success,

“Ugh. Overslept again. What time is it? Can’t keep the promise of going on a picnic.”

[Have you woken up?]

“Yes, Linda. Since I missed the picnic, I’ll spend the whole day researching. Sit at the experiment table.”

“You look very tired. How about starting with a cup of coffee first?”

“Good idea. Let’s have a cup of coffee first… Huh?”

A steaming coffee cup was pushed towards him, and as Kern yawned and reached for it, he realized something was amiss.

Kern slowly turned his head.

“Is there a problem?”

And with a faint smile, he discovered Linda standing there, somewhat stiff.

Unspoken lines.

Unspoken reactions.

And an unspoken expression.

Linda was exhibiting outputs that couldn’t be produced by her logic circuits.

She seemed to be thinking and feeling emotions on her own.

Linda was behaving like a person with a true soul.

“Damn it! Camera, camera!”

Confused, Kerne found something to do.

First, he needed to record.

He had to figure out what the ‘error’ in Linda was.

That error would soon lead to the artificial soul.

“Linda! Look here! What did you say earlier?”

[Hello, Kerne. Good morning.]

“No. Not that. Earlier…”

[Command not recognized.]

…

But when Kerne returned,

Linda was back to her usual self.

Acting crazy.

For a brief moment, Linda clearly had a soul.

Speaking and acting like a human.

And the clue was surely still inside Linda.

“Alright. Let’s dissect her.”

Having confirmed the possibility, there was no hesitation.

Kerne devoted himself to dismantling Linda and finding the ‘error’.

Skipping meals and sleep.

Only for that day, to meet Linda who had offered him coffee again.

He immersed himself in recreating the artificial soul that had briefly appeared.

“Honey. Take a break.”

“Oh, okay. Go out. You’re bothering me.”

“Honey. About selling the factory…”

“Do it yourself. Don’t bother me! I’m doing something much more important!”

“…”

What was being worn down was not just his body.

“Dad, picnic?”

“Sorry, dear. Once I finish this, we can go on a picnic to our heart’s content. I’ve dedicated my life to this. Once this is done, we can play together without any worries, okay?”

“But I want to play now…”

“Let’s go out first. We’ll talk later.”

As Kerne was engrossed in his research, time flew by.

His daughter’s patience quickly wore thin.

Days passed without Kerne coming home.

And eventually, he practically lived in the lab.

Yet, there was no progress in sight.

“Kerne, sir. I’m sorry to say this, but… I think I must have seen things back then. It doesn’t make sense. I didn’t touch anything, how could an artificial soul suddenly appear?”

“What? Are you saying you can’t create an artificial soul now? Are you like those religious fanatics? Do you feel like I’m challenging the authority of God and you don’t like it? Want to start a fight with me, huh?!”

“No, sir… That’s not what I meant…”

Some cautiously mentioned that Kerne seemed to have seen a ghost.

But it didn’t work.

Kerne’s eyes had long since turned cold.

There was nothing that could stop him.

If even a slightly critical voice or one that denied his research came up, Kerne considered it an attack on himself.

He responded aggressively, and people started to leave him.

And time passed.

Kerne finally came to his senses.

“Now, there’s nowhere left to touch…”

The intricate leaf doll.

He carefully examined all of Linda’s parts.

One by one, over a dozen years.

At the end, he realized.

There was never an error to begin with.

With that realization, a bleak thought began to creep in.

Perhaps he really did see a ghost that day.

“Sigh. Finally. What is this.”

It was disappointing, but also relieving.

He could finally rest.

It seemed like the ghost that haunted Kerne had disappeared.

“Honey! I’m ready to… Honey?”

It was all in vain.

Realizing that everything was futile.

The house, which had been empty for so long, was desolate.

With no family or furniture, the house was empty.

In the midst of it all, Kerne found a note.

His wife’s note saying she couldn’t live like this anymore and was leaving.

Only then did he remember.

The memory of harshly driving away his wife, who had come to the lab begging him to come home.

It was too late.

When Kerne realized his mistake.

Everything had already left his side.

“Take a deep breath. Return to the industry. Your skills haven’t rusted yet.”

“Return… Is it possible?”

“The clock tower has been decided as the landmark of the city. You’re in charge of the construction, Kerne. It doesn’t have to be a grand return. Slowly come back to this industry. Once you finish this, you can play with our daughter without any worries.”

Thanks to the consideration of the mayor of Leaf City, Kerne was able to secure a project.

The construction of the clock tower, to represent the city that was turning into a tourist destination.

Kerne decided to rise again after overcoming his pain.

Although his estranged daughter remained silent in her letters, he believed they could mend their relationship.

He would become a solid engineer again.

Return to a normal life and live peacefully.

The first step was the construction of the clock tower.

[Have you returned, Keern?]

“It’s because of you…”

Keern, who returned to the lab after a long time, was filled with anger as soon as he saw Linda.

When you think about it, it was all because of that.

If he hadn’t made that doll.

If he hadn’t been captivated by that doll and seen the apparition.

If he had smashed it earlier, things wouldn’t have turned out this way.

As if venting his anger, Keern began to dismantle Linda.

He tore apart the internal logic circuits and pulled them out.

He grasped the crystallized result of a lifetime of effort in his hand.

As he watched the tiny gears meshing and turning diligently, his heart wavered.

But that was only for a moment.

To get rid of this, the lingering attachment must disappear.

“I will use this as the clock’s mechanism.”

“What? What is this?”

“The logic circuit of the doll. It’s now a useless fellow.”

Keern decided to insert Linda’s logic circuit into the clock tower.

Linda’s complex logic circuit, which hinted at countless words, actions, and reactions, now had only one task.

To turn the clock hands accurately.

Once the internal machinery was completed, the clock tower was soon finished.

A new landmark rose in Gear City.

“Yes. Thank you to everyone who attended the completion ceremony. Now it’s time for Gear City to evolve. In order to attract tourists from around the world…”

On the day of the completion ceremony.

Keern felt all the strength leaving his body.

It was all over.

He buried Linda’s heart in that clock tower, which he had dedicated his life to.

Keern stared blankly at the clock hands moving without a hint of error.

“Construction supervisor! Let’s give Keern a round of applause! Keern! Where should we place the commemorative plaque?”

“Anywhere on a suitable wall-”

Clang!

As Keern stepped forward to nail the plaque, a vibration rang out.

The vibration clearly originated from the clock tower.

Startled, Keern looked up at the clock tower.

His eyes trembled.

The speaker, which should only produce chimes, emitted static noise before transmitting a strange voice.

[Hate…]

A voice of resentment, like that of a woman.

The voice he had created mimicking his wife’s voice.

It was Linda’s voice.

“Linda?”

And as Keern raised his head.

There were black pupils where there should be none in the clock.

The pupils slowly descended and met Keern’s gaze.

Overwhelmed by that presence, Keern froze.

Clang!

“Ah…”

“Keern! What are you doing! Don’t run!”

With a tremendous roar, an explosion occurred.

The clock tower collapsed, sinking into the ground, and with the help of the townspeople, Keern barely escaped with his life.

In many ways, luck was not on his side.

It was just his luck that on the day the clock tower was completed, a dungeon emerged from underground and swallowed the entire clock tower.

It was a natural disaster.

“It’s because of me. Because I, with my own hands, killed Linda… That’s why she resents me and this happened.”

“What nonsense are you talking about, Keern?”

“Didn’t you hear? Linda was resenting me at the completion ceremony!”

“It was just noise.”

“A pupil appeared in the clock and glared at me!”

“You saw things. None of the people at the completion ceremony saw that.”

“No. Linda was definitely there. She had always been there. The artificial soul was complete from the beginning. I didn’t recognize that and buried it in the dungeon myself. That’s why Linda is angry…”

Since that day, Keern repeated the same words.

I completed the artificial soul long ago.

I just didn’t know that I had completed it.

As evidence, Linda, who had turned into the clock tower, resented herself…

No one believed his words.

Keern had gone mad.

That was the consensus among the people.

“How is Keern these days?”

“Don’t even mention it. He’s not in his right mind. Just a shell of a doll left, right?”

“You mean he’s talking about Linda?”

“Yeah. He keeps pointing to her and repeating the same sentence.”

“What sentence?”

With Keern entering the late stages of dementia, there was no one who could handle him.

The only thing left by his side was Linda, just a shell of a doll.

A doll that had lost its ability to think and only repeated simple tasks.

“There’s a ghost in the machine.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know.”

And not long after the dungeon emerged, news spread that the doll shells were disappearing in large numbers from the landfill.

But that was a story that no longer concerned Keern.

.

.

.

[Hate… Hate… Hate…]

“Linda. It was you.”

The question was finally answered.

Dungeon without a boss.

And inside the dungeon, the disappearing Clock Tower.

The boss was Linda.

Exposed to magic, Linda turned into a monster filled with malice.

Wouldn’t Kern be pleased that she had finally become an artificial soul capable of thinking and acting on her own?

“Well, I still have to defeat her…”

I don’t know if she is a scientifically significant entity.

But I have to destroy her right now in order to survive.

After using her traits and weak points.

The mechanism spinning rapidly inside the Clock Tower is highlighted in red.

That’s the weak point.

“Oh, I’m in trouble.”

The problem is that there is no way to exploit that weakness.

Having already used up a large amount of magic to spread a curse in the dungeon.

The remaining small amount of magic was consumed in an attempt to revive the mercenaries.

Now, there is only an extremely small amount of magic left.

There is nothing I can do with this, and even using it will lead to magical exhaustion.

Breaking through the thick walls of the Clock Tower with pure brute force without magic?

Unless you are a sharp and powerful individual, that is impossible.

Without traits and magic, I am nothing more than a talentless ordinary person.

‘It seems like the best option is to remove the dungeon core and run away.’

Of course, there is no rule that says you have to defeat the boss monster.

The dungeon core is currently embedded at the top of the Clock Tower.

If you just take that out, the dungeon will begin to collapse.

If you take the dungeon core and run away, the Clock Tower will collapse anyway, crushing you.

“Ohhh! Please let me down!”

There is someone at the top of the Clock Tower.

“Hey! Clone! Do you see that shining dungeon core? Pull it out!”

“What?! Huh! Huh! Huh! It’s not coming out!”

“It’s useless. The power I gave that guy is less than 1 percent.”

Despite pulling with all his might, the clone’s face contorted in frustration, but the dungeon core didn’t budge.

That clone is useless.

So in the end, I have to climb up the Clock Tower myself and pull out the dungeon core…

“Hate… Hate… Hate…”

“I need to stop the legs.”

The movement of the legs clanking is too harsh.

I need to stop the legs first, whether I climb or not.

And in the meantime, the Clock Tower is narrowing the distance, targeting us.

If this continues, I will be crushed in a corner and become a mouse.

I have to find a way out no matter what.

“Yujin. Stop. Legs. How?”

“What? What do you mean?”

Then Mijeong grabbed my sleeve tightly and called out.

“Bug. Stuck in. Gears. Okay.”

“Oh.”

There was a way.

Pushing a bug into the mechanism to break it.

As I admired Mijeong’s genius idea, I turned to the side.

“Why, why are you looking at me?!”

The face of the girl turned pale.