"The head that was carried off by a dog... really can't be found?"
Before the operating table, Victor held a pair of vernier calipers used for measuring dimensions and asked for one final confirmation.
The headless knight sat on a specially reinforced chair, his pitch-black heavy armor rising and falling slightly with his breathing.
Hearing the question, his shoulders slumped dejectedly, and he spread his hands in a helpless gesture.
It wasn't just that it couldn't be found.
According to the rules of this world's food chain, it had likely already become fertilizer for some kind of plant by now.
"In that case, don't blame me for getting creative."
Victor adjusted his glasses, a hint of fanatic craftsmanship flashing in his eyes.
"As a doctor who pursues perfection, I will never allow my patient to be an incomplete specimen."
"Original parts are fine, but since they're gone, we'll just build something even stronger!"
He turned and walked toward the nearby workbench.
There, a pile of top-tier materials "scavenged" over the past week was stacked high.
There were adamantite gauntlets stripped from the Black Iron Knight Order, magic crystals swiped from an abyss drake's nest, and fragments of the gold-rank shield that Mia had just bitten to pieces.
"Zoe!"
Victor called out toward a corner of the laboratory.
"Present, Director!"
The alchemist girl, wearing thick bottle-bottom glasses and sporting messy hair, immediately ran over clutching a stack of blueprints.
She looked at Victor as if he were a deity about to create a miracle.
"Is the magic circuit designed?"
"It's finished!"
Zoe excitedly unfurled a blueprint covered in a dense network of complex lines.
"Per your request, I've implemented a 'dual-core drive.' The left eye is a 【thermal imaging night vision】 device, and the right eye is a 【wide-area magic radar】. As long as there is sufficient mana, even an invisible mosquito within a five-kilometer radius won't escape his sight!"
"Excellent."
Victor nodded in satisfaction.
"Then let's get to work!"
"Alice, melt those metals!"
"Roadhog, get over here and act as the anvil!"
"Elizabeth... go give that knight a sedative so he doesn't move around."
The clinic's underground laboratory instantly transformed into a bustling...
Blacksmith shop.
Or rather, a cybernetic augmentation workshop.
Sizzle—!!
A high-temperature welding torch spat out blue flames, melting the precious adamantite and mithril into a liquid state.
Victor didn't use molds.
He guided the flow of the liquid metal directly with his mental power, sketching the prototype of a head in mid-air.
"The shape..."
Victor looked at the flowing mass of metal and fell into deep thought.
Should he make a realistic human head?
Too cliché.
And with current technology, it would be difficult to replicate micro-expressions. It would just end up looking like a paralyzed face, which was quite creepy.
Make a skull?
That was Aur's style; it would be easy to clash.
Since he was a headless knight...
A classic Halloween image suddenly flashed through Victor's mind.
"That's the one!"
He snapped his fingers.
Under the control of his mental power, the liquid metal rapidly deformed and solidified.
A few minutes later.
A metallic sphere about forty centimeters in diameter, with a dull gold luster and a surface texture similar to a pumpkin, appeared before everyone.
It had two triangular eye sockets and an exaggerated, jagged mouth that stretched all the way to the ears.
It was both terrifying and possessed a strange sense of... humor and punk aesthetic.
"This... this is a pumpkin?"
Zoe was stunned.
She hadn't expected the Director to go to all this trouble just to make a vegetable.
"This is called art,"
Victor explained solemnly.
"A pumpkin's spherical structure offers the best pressure resistance. Furthermore, the internal space is large, making it convenient for us to stuff in more electronic components."
As he spoke, he picked up a pair of tweezers and began filling the "metal pumpkin" with core components.
Two prosthetic eyes polished from top-grade rubies were inserted into the eye sockets.
Complex magic-conducting lines filled the interior of the head like blood vessels.
Finally, a 【magic crystal】 emitting a faint blue glow was embedded at the "brainstem" position to serve as the central processor.
Click.
The final piece of the outer shell snapped shut.
A mechanical pumpkin head, brimming with a steampunk style that was both retro and sci-fi, was complete.
"It's so beautiful..."
Zoe couldn't help but marvel as she looked at the metallic masterpiece.
This wasn't just alchemy.
This was the perfect fusion of alchemy and otherworldly technology!
"Next is the most critical step."
Victor picked up the heavy pumpkin head and walked over to the headless knight.
"This might hurt a little."
"Because I need to connect your nerve fibers, one by one, to this iron lump."
The headless knight sat in the chair. Though he couldn't see, he could feel the powerful energy fluctuations radiating from the metallic object.
He gripped the armrests nervously, leaving finger indentations in the iron pipes.
"Begin."
Victor's gaze sharpened.
The scalpel in his hand turned into a blur.
Swish!
The skin at the headless knight's neck was sliced open, revealing the nerve bundles inside—withered, yet still possessing a faint spark of life.
"Neural interface... synchronization calibration..."
Victor's movements were incredibly fast.
Using silver threads thinner than a human hair, he connected the physical nerves to the circuits of the mechanical head one by one.
This was an extremely delicate process that allowed for no mistakes.
If even one wire was connected incorrectly, the knight might end up as a hemiplegic who "kicks when he wants to lift an arm."
"Ugh—!!!"
The headless knight's body trembled violently.
Despite the sedative, the sense of rejection from having his soul forcibly connected to a foreign object still caused bouts of dizziness and stinging pain.
It felt as if ten thousand needles were piercing his mind simultaneously (even though he had no brain).
"Hold on!"
Victor barked, fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.
"The final step! Main neural connection!"
He slammed the heavy mechanical pumpkin head onto the knight's neck.
Clang!
A crisp mechanical locking sound rang out.
The metal buckles at the neck automatically snapped shut, sealing the connection between the head and the torso with seamless precision.
It was like corking an expensive bottle of wine.
Boom—!
An invisible wave of energy erupted from the knight, spreading in all directions.
The laboratory lights flickered.
All the instruments began to alarm frantically.
"Did... did it succeed?"
Alice clutched her great scissors, nervously peeking out.
On the operating table.
The tall black figure remained motionless.
Like a true corpse.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Just as Victor was about to go up and give it a few taps to see if there was a loose connection.
Zzt—
A faint sound of electrical current emanated from the metallic pumpkin head.
Immediately after.
A cold, emotionless electronic voice, yet one filled with a sense of high technology, suddenly echoed in the deathly silent laboratory:
【System self-check in progress...】
【Visual module... normal.】
【Auditory module... normal.】
【Identification Friend or Foe system... loading complete.】
Hum—!
Inside those originally hollow triangular eye sockets, two clusters of eerie blue light suddenly ignited!
That wasn't soul fire.
That was... the glow of a high-energy particle stream!
"He moved! He moved!"
Zoe jumped up in excitement.
Under everyone's gaze.
The headless knight who had been silent for countless years... no, he was a knight with a head now.
He slowly raised his hand, stiffly and bit by bit, feeling toward his own neck.
A cold metallic touch.
A smooth curve.
And that... long-lost sensation of being able to see things!
His vision was no longer a void of darkness.
Instead, it was a clear, new world, even accompanied by various data analyses!
【Target: Victor (Director/Creator). Threat Level: 0.】
【Target: Alice (High-risk biological entity). Threat Level: S.】
【Environmental Analysis: Temperature 24°C, Humidity 45%, Air Quality: Excellent.】
Lines of pale blue data streams refreshed frantically across his retina.
Is this... the feeling of having a head?
"Roar..."
He tried to make a sound.
But what came out was no longer a raspy growl, but a low voice processed through an amplifier with a metallic resonance.
"I... can... see..."
"Fantastic!"
Victor snapped his fingers, a look of gratification on his face, like a father watching his child finally learn to walk.
"Congratulations on your rebirth."
"And to celebrate your recovery, the system has included a little 'easter egg.'"
Victor pointed at the armor on the knight's body.
"Your soul has perfectly fused with this magic-conducting head."
"Therefore, your body... will also undergo a slight 'fine-tuning' accordingly."
"Fine-tuning?"
The knight froze.
The next second.
Vroom—!!!
A massive surge of mana erupted from the pumpkin head, instantly flowing through his entire body.
The originally heavy, bulky black plate armor, full of masculine features, began to... transform under the wash of this mana!
Clack, clack, clack!
The metal armor plates automatically shifted and reorganized.
The originally broad shoulder guards shrank, becoming rounded and form-fitting.
The thick breastplate retracted inward, rising into a distinct curve.
The armor at the waist tightened, carving out a breathtakingly slender waistline.
Even the pair of boots, which originally looked like iron buckets, turned into slender metallic long boots with sharp heels.
In just a few seconds.
The originally burly and sturdy male knight.
In front of everyone's eyes, he had transformed into a tall, curvaceous, cybernetic-styled...
Female knight?!
"This..."
The knight looked down at the breastplate that had suddenly appeared and her now slender, graceful fingers.
The blue light on the metallic pumpkin head flashed violently a few times, revealing the extreme shock within.
"Don't be surprised,"
Victor explained calmly.
"This is to comply with aerodynamics."
"Furthermore, according to my tests, your soul's wavelength leans toward the feminine. This body is the true manifestation of your soul."
"To put it simply..."
Victor revealed a meaningful smile.
"You were a woman all along. It's just that your armor was so thick before that you even fooled yourself."
The knight... or rather, the female knight, fell silent.
She slowly stood up from the chair.
Her movements were no longer stiff; instead, they carried a lightness and elegance she had never possessed before.
She walked to the mirror and looked at herself—sporting a pumpkin head, a hot figure, and radiating a dangerous aura.
There was no sense of rejection as she had imagined.
Instead, there was a sense of... harmony, as if her soul had finally found its home.
She turned around to face Victor.
Clang.
She snapped her legs together, producing a crisp metallic collision sound.
She knelt on one knee, clenched her right hand into a fist, and struck it heavily against her left chest.
Beep—
"Voice module calibration complete."
This time.
What came from the amplifier was no longer a low male voice.
It was a cold, majestic female voice, yet one with a hint of a mature woman's magnetic charm.
"Thank you for the grace of my recreation, Commander."
"Helena, awaiting your orders."
【Ding!】
【Congratulations to the host!】
【S-rank surgery "Cyber Cranial Transplantation" complete!】
【Obtained God-Chosen No.4—War Goddess Helena】
【Position: Field Task Force Captain】
【Traits: Mechanical Ascension, Full-map Radar, Digitalized Combat.】
Victor looked at the new member, who embodied the beauty of both technology and magic, and nodded in satisfaction.
"Very good, Helena."
"Now that you've found your head."
"Go and test out your new eyes."
He pointed toward the exit of the laboratory.
"Go see if there are any 'patients' outside who haven't run away yet."
"And while you're at it..."
"Bring them back to register."
Rate on N.U.
