Eye of the Watcher’s Vessel

Chapter 226: Eye of the Watcher’s Vessel

It seemed impossible to calculate how much time could be saved by shortening the recorded universe now.

The Eye of the Watcher was filled with far too much complex information. Simply organizing and processing those files was already troublesome, leaving Miss Minutes no time to calculate anything else.

Thinking about it, this was a "camera" that had existed before the birth of the universe. It contained every video file from the beginning of all things to the present. Clearing and backing up all those .AVI files was no simple task.

"You can increase the transmission power a little. Otherwise, at this rate, we’ll waste quite a bit of time," Zhang Ye said to Agatha, paying no attention to the information lightning swirling around him.

"…O-okay." Agatha no longer knew how to describe what she was feeling. She looked at Zhang Ye as if he were a monster.

As an old witch who had lived for many years, she considered her knowledge fairly comprehensive. Yet this was the first time she had encountered an existence like Zhang Ye.

Enduring the erosion of countless years was no easy task. Even she could not withstand it for five minutes, let alone other Black Wizards. Yet Zhang Ye strolled about as if nothing were happening, utterly at ease.

In Agatha’s eyes, being able to do that already placed Zhang Ye beyond the realm of humanity. Studying him carefully, she felt that every inch of him was filled with the unknown and the uncanny.

After a pause, Agatha increased the information transfer while offering a reminder.

"The information inside the Eye of the Watcher is only the first difficulty. Even if you clear every record within it, you still won’t be able to crack its usage permissions. If you use that eyeball recklessly, you’ll still be branded as a ‘Watcher.’"

Zhang Ye nodded thoughtfully. The Watchers’ "curse" was indeed difficult to deal with. With Miss Minutes’ abilities, she could not yet reverse-infiltrate the Eye of the Watcher and seize higher-level permissions.

However, Zhang Ye did not say much. After all, he had never intended to use the eyeball himself. Just as he had said before, he wanted to find an obedient vessel for it.

"If I create a life-form to serve as its vessel, could I exploit a bug and make it work for me?"

"That’s impossible," Agatha immediately retorted. But she quickly froze in place. "…No, wait. It might actually work. The information stored inside has all disappeared, so even an ordinary person could bear this thing’s power, but…"

"But what?" Zhang Ye asked.

"But… you need to understand that once this eyeball merges with a living vessel, that life-form’s thoughts and consciousness will be contaminated by the concepts and imprints left behind by the ‘Watchers.’ By then, he will no longer be himself," Agatha warned.

"I understand. The mental contamination of an upper-level narrator, right?" Zhang Ye frowned, keenly catching the crucial point in Agatha’s words.

Zhang Ye had also dealt with conceptual entities known as "upper-level narrators." As the Watchers were a race that drifted through the Marvel Multiverse recording major events, he knew quite a bit about them.

Compared to that bizarre giant insect chrysalis, the Watchers’ contamination had not yet reached an uncontrollable level.

"Don’t worry. I have no intention of casually finding an ordinary person to serve as the vessel. I’ll use magic to create a new life-form instead. Artificial intelligence is still intelligence, and it will be easier for its creator to control than other forms of life," Zhang Ye said.

The Eye of the Watcher was a valuable thing. Zhang Ye did not want to hand it over to someone else casually. If he wanted to keep it firmly under his control, magical creation was the only option.

"Creating life could be a solution, but are you sure an artificial soul can become the vessel for the Eye of the Watcher? And there’s another problem. If the life-form you create has its authority seized by the Watchers, then you’ll lose control over it."

Agatha considered the feasibility of the plan before raising several unpredictable possibilities.

"I may not know much about science, but I do know that if there are two programs inside a machine, the one with higher permissions can control all the machine’s data without restriction."

"Then what if my permissions are higher than theirs?" Zhang Ye suddenly asked.

At those words, Agatha’s hand trembled, and the transmission magic nearly broke off. She quickly stabilized the magic in her hand, then stared at Zhang Ye in disbelief, her expression utterly vivid.

Faced with Zhang Ye’s habit of making shocking statements, Agatha instinctively chose not to respond. She now felt that Zhang Ye was either a wildly delusional madman or an incredibly terrifying existence.

Time passed bit by bit, and Zhang Ye and Agatha both fell into a strange silence.

Agatha did not want to form too many ties with an enigmatic existence like Zhang Ye, while Zhang Ye discussed with Miss Minutes the steps needed to gain control of the Eye of the Watcher.

According to Miss Minutes’ calculations, the Eye of the Watcher required an intelligent life-form as its vessel. Because of that, the Watchers’ imprint would contaminate that intelligent life-form, altering its thoughts and turning it into a part of the "Watchers."

But solving that problem was not particularly difficult, in a sense.

For that, they had Deadpool to thank. As one of the few bizarre characters in the Marvel Universe capable of breaking the Fourth Wall, Deadpool’s existence gave Zhang Ye and Miss Minutes an excellent idea.

That was, to make a product of madness become utterly insane, achieving a state of relative balance.

Simply put, they would use contamination to counter contamination—make a madman go even madder, then have it find a point of balance amid that double madness under Zhang Ye’s guidance and return to a state of "sanity."

Two negatives made a positive, essentially.

But an idea was only an idea. To accomplish this feat, Zhang Ye’s control over magical energy would have to be put to the test.

Fortunately, the Abstract Magic gained from devouring Shadow King proved tremendously helpful at this moment.

"The information has all been transmitted. The rest is up to you."

The surrounding streams of information lightning gradually settled. Agatha spoke between heavy breaths. She looked even older than before, showing just how much energy she had expended.

"Thanks for your hard work."

Zhang Ye nodded, then looked solemnly at the enormous eyeball floating in midair. He knew that the real key came next.

What kind of body should he create as a vessel for this eyeball?