The Doll

"Still nothing!" Master Tlod carefully read all the test results and sighed. He had the best laboratory equipment; even though wizards weren't as powerful as cultivators, they were superior in terms of research abilities and equipment. 

Tlod, for example, was only a crystal realm wizard, but even so, he had powerful equipment that gave him detailed data regarding health, genetic information, body mapping, the age of each organ, and extremely detailed data about a person's life from just one drop of blood, among other physical data. His equipment could also detect emotions, brain activity, energy levels, meridians, and apertures.

The only shortcoming was his soul-related equipment; he had only a few elementary-level tools for souls and couldn't discover anything with those backward devices. Anything related to souls is prohibited and controlled by holy wizards; nobody else can buy them, not even a wizard like him.

In fact, even his few elementary tools were extremely difficult to acquire. These soul-related devices were controversial; buying them was technically illegal, but Tlod could break a few laws and get away with them as a relatively powerful mage. After all, they were simple and only provided surface-level information about soul emotions and soul power.

It was very unfortunate that he didn't immediately test the souls of the corpses when they first arrived with his simple equipment; after all, they were dead. Who could have thought they would come back to life the next day? He had just put them in a freezer to preserve them for future experiments.

In any case, no matter the test or equipment he used, they have consistently shown the same thing for over three months: Jack and his followers are all ordinary, healthy people.

It truly blew Tlod's mind; he checked and, without a shred of doubt, confirmed that these people were truly dead when they first arrived.

According to the theory of reincarnation, the soul flies away immediately after death and enters the cycle of reincarnation. If that is the case, how is it possible for them to come back to life? Did their souls come back from the reincarnation cycle?

To research this point, Tlod read hundreds of books by famous theologians and holy wizards about reincarnation and how it works. The gist is that once somebody dies, meaning once their heart stops and they stop breathing for over an hour, the soul detaches from the body and enters the reincarnation cycle. Nothing can stop a soul from entering this cycle; a soul in the reincarnation cycle is completely irrecoverable because its memories are wiped completely as soon as it enters.

This part of the story kind of makes sense; Jack and his crew say they lost their memories. But even though they have lost their memories of the past, they still have language memories, and they can talk, write, etc. It seems that not all of their memories were wiped. Maybe, in the middle of the process, something drew their souls out and made them come back to life. But what entity has such power? Tlod has absolutely no idea what existence has such power. Books clearly state that even a detachment realm wizard has no such power as to drag a soul out of the reincarnation apparatus.

This incident has consumed Tlod's thoughts for the past three months; he hasn't been able to think about anything else.

At this point, Tlod isn't sure that reincarnation even exists in this world; he still considers himself a doubter, not a denier. However, Jack's incident pushes him from a doubter into a denier.

Certainties act like the pillars of arguments. For example, debate about 'the universe' would be much more straightforward if people could agree on indisputable facts, on pillars of unquestionable truth. Considering reincarnation as such a pillar, one could ignore inconsistent possibilities. Until now, Tlod has taken the reincarnation as a pillar of truth. His arguments, explanations, and thinking have been built on it. His conclusion, with reincarnation as the main pillar of truth, was that there should be a very powerful being who dragged Jack out of the reincarnation cycle for incomprehensible reasons.

But, if he disregards reincarnation as a pillar of truth, things get much more interesting. That would mean the soul wouldn't leave the body after death and that as long as the soul doesn't leave the body, it would be possible even to resurrect someone.

In general, those who base their theories and arguments on doubtful pillars of truth will lose their way and reach nonsensical conclusions. Tlod knew that, but after all, he was raised in a society that firmly believes in reincarnation after death, so he was unwilling to demote the 'reincarnation cycle' from a pillar of truth to just another theory that can be disregarded.

But now that he really thinks about it, the second explanation, the one discounting reincarnation, makes much more sense. He has studied the coffins for months and realized their amazing capability of sealing in what's inside. It's totally possible that Jack and his crew survived because their souls were forcibly kept in their bodies because of the coffins.

The only sciences in which certain truth pillars are called for and not to be doubted are those with certain answers, such as physics and math.

When considering the world's truth, pillars can only mislead. If something cannot be proven, it should not be positioned as unquestionable.

Unfortunately for the wizard civilization, at the moment, the holy wizards, led by the top 10 detachment wizards, are all suppressing any dissenting voices. So even if someone like Tlod has doubts, he doesn't dare to speak out.

He has heard of the rebellion detachment wizard in the Far East. It is said that she gives shelter to defectors of the main wizard civilization. Still, Tlod is not ready to betray the wizard civilization and join someone who refers to herself as a rebel.

He would risk it and publish his findings openly. They would only damage their credibility if they arrested him.

So, he started writing his daily findings and working on them day and night, intending to write a flawless essay about his observations.

...

Tlod didn't tell anyone about his work on the essay, but Jack could tell something was up with Tlod.

The original Tlod discovered the truth of reincarnation much later in life when he was already a disbandment wizard, but now, because of Jack's appearance, Tlod has discovered the truth in advance.

Now, if Jack allows him to publish the papers, it would probably lead to Tlod's death. Tlod's death wouldn't doom the inheritance; even if he dies, Jack could still win it, but it would definitely shorten the timeline by a lot. Jack doesn't want things to end so quickly; he wants it to take thousands of years, enough to complete more side missions and temporary tasks, buy more grandpas, and prepare himself for what is waiting for him outside.

So, he opened his coding console and started typing; he needed something to convince Tlod.

...

"Jack! You are early today!" Tlod was sitting in his lab chair, writing something. When he saw Jack, he smiled and put away his pen.

"Master Tlod, we need to talk," said Jack in a serious tone. Before waiting for Tlod's response, Jack took out an item. It looked like a human doll, a male one, the size of a palm, wearing cute aristocratic clothes, wigs, and all.

"This is ... a doll?" Tlod was confused.

"Say hi!" Jack said.

The doll's head turned, smiled, and said with its incredibly humanlike face, "Hi." Its voice was cute, like a child's voice.

Tlod looked at it, then at Jack, and said coldly, "You are a wizard?" Dolls like this are not difficult to create; they are programmed and use artificial intelligence to operate.

"Oh no! Don't get it wrong! This is not a doll! It is a human!" said Jack. That's right; he already found a way to create humans using only codes. There are downsides to it.

Jack could create as much equipment as he wanted using the coding system, but coding humans directly was a no-go. But what if he coded a doll with a human soul? Would it still be a human, or would it be a doll? He has been testing it for months and finally found a way to do it.

For now, the human dolls he creates have no combat power; he can code a yellow-grade doll at most, but those are small issues. If he continues his work, he can one day code black-grade dolls. The coding system has much potential; there should be more to it than just coding equipment and raw materials.

"A human, you say?" Tlod almost laughed; he was a master of this stuff and knew that the doll in front of him was not human.

"Test its soul!" said Jack.

"Its soul? Do you think your doll has a soul? It seems I overestimated you!" Tlod sighed with relief. At first, he thought some strong wizard had come in sneakily to catch him doing forbidden experiments, but after talking with Jack for a few sentences, he concluded that the mad wizard in front of him had no idea what he was talking about. He is probably a crazy wizard wandering around, pranking his colleagues for no reason. Tlod had heard of such pranking wizards; they are the worst kind, usually untalented ones who couldn't advance, so they try to prevent others from advancing with 'pranks'.

"Just test it!" Jack urged again.

Intending to expose him, Tlod took out his soul power testing equipment; it was like an hourglass. He placed it near the doll, and the sand inside started falling.

"This bit is just normal; this is a result of residual energy in the environment," said Tlod mockingly.

But, as time went on, more and more sand slipped down into the lower chamber of the hourglass.

"Impossible," Tlod's lower jaw visibly opened as the soul power indicator exceeded the '8' mark.

Tlod quickly picked up the doll and ran to another room. He reset the hourglass, put it near the doll, and ran out of the room, closing the door behind him. The room was an isolation room used for sensitive experiments; there was no detectable residual energy in the environment.

After five minutes, he went in and almost collapsed as he saw the hourglass indicating the number '100'; it meant the soul of the doll in front of him was at least 100 times stronger than a normal human. 100 was the limit of this hourglass.

He stood there for a long time, not talking or walking. After all, his worldview was just broken, so he was 'a bit' shaken. Then, he took the doll, went out, and looked at Jack.

After seeing him, he said seriously, "We need to talk."