Trazyn, who had always been undiscovered in his voyeur, failed this time.
He was peeking at the battlefield, completely unaware that Zeke was already behind him, until Zeke placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Hello? What are you looking at? Let me see?"
Feeling the sudden pressure on his shoulder, Trazyn's entire body bristled.
Even though it had become a construct of living liquid metal, it still felt its hair stand on end.
Although he had no hair, this was a feeling.
Trazyn's mechanical joints made a "click-clack" sound, and he slowly turned his head, his green optical lenses constantly zooming and focusing.
When he clearly saw Zeke, who was standing behind him with a smile, his mechanical body visibly stiffened for a moment.
"Ah ha! This is truly... an unexpected encounter." Trazyn's mechanical voice carried a clear hint of awkwardness.
However, he was the king of Collectibles after all. After the initial awkwardness, he collected himself and looked at Zeke.
"How did you discover me, and even manage to touch me?"
In Warhammer, necrons are the true pinnacle of technology; they possess physical technology beyond anyone's imagination.
His attention was entirely drawn to Zeke, and he didn't even notice that the ten thousand Custodes behind Zeke also seemed to be able to move freely.
Of course, Zeke naturally didn't mind answering his question, but the Custodes behind him couldn't tolerate someone daring to be so disrespectful to the Emperor.
Two phase power spears were directly placed against Trazyn's neck, and he was sternly warned.
"Foolish mechanical lifeform, I hope you can correct your attitude, instead of casually questioning the Emperor here."
"If you do not know what etiquette is, then we can teach you what etiquette is."
"Of course, if you have lost your soul and therefore lost your etiquette, we can understand, but the necessary punishment will still be given."
"We guarantee that your informational consciousness will never be able to leave this body and reach another body."
The Custodes immediately recognized that the mechanical lifeform opposite them was a very peculiar entity.
Its central nervous system should possess some kind of consciousness, but they clearly lacked a soul.
It was similar to someone wanting to use Machine Ascension.
But that wasn't right either; Machine Ascension shouldn't cause a creature's soul to disappear; the soul should remain within the mechanical body.
This was like a half-crippled Machine Ascension, but the science they possessed left these Custodes a bit bewildered.
The necrons opposite them, their technology was not as weak and pathetic as some other civilizations in this universe; they posed a threat.
Even if this threat was indeed very small, the mechanical entity opposite them certainly posed a certain threat.
Feeling the pressure from the phase weapons on his neck, Trazyn still spoke unhurriedly.
"Is your attendant perhaps a bit too impolite?" Trazyn spoke again, addressing Zeke.
However, his words did not receive a direct response from Zeke, who merely looked at the necron opposite him with some interest.
He stared at the necron opposite him for a long time before speaking.
"To be honest, I'm quite interested in you. Logically, necrons shouldn't use the Machine Ascension path. Given your physical conditions, Genetic Ascension would be the right path. Why did you use Machine Ascension instead?"
As he spoke, Zeke reached out and pinched the necron opposite him. Hmm, it felt like living liquid metal; it was an excellent liquid metal mineral.
"Let's make a deal. Your living liquid metal technology is quite good; it's qualified liquid metal. Tell me, what do you want?"
Zeke proposed his deal to the necron Overlord in front of him.
He didn't want to engage in battle with the necrons right now.
So, trade was preferable. To enhance the effectiveness of his trade, Zeke spoke to him again.
"It seems that the consciousness within your current body can't be uploaded many more times. At most 800 times, your consciousness will completely dissipate.
By then, your so-called necron Overlord will become an empty mechanical shell. If you agree to the trade, I can provide you with some technology to solidify your consciousness."
Trazyn's mechanical eyes suddenly contracted, and the green light flickered violently, clearly deeply affected by Zeke's words.
He was silent for a few seconds, and for the first time, a clear emotional fluctuation appeared in his mechanical voice:
"You... how do you know our consciousness will decay?"
Zeke smiled slightly, gently tapping Trazyn's metal shell with his fingertip.
"Because your technological path, while unique, is not unresolvable.
Your consciousness upload technology is essentially a form of data compression and transfer. Each transfer causes a tiny loss of information—like repeatedly photocopying a document, it eventually becomes blurry."
Trazyn's mechanical body trembled slightly, seemingly pondering this astonishing information.
As the Transcendental, he had lived for tens of millions of years, and due to his frequent collection of collectibles on battlefields, the number of times he had uploaded his consciousness was undoubtedly high.
Now, he had clearly felt his consciousness beginning to dissipate.
"If you can truly do it, then we can make a deal." Hearing such shocking news, and the other party seemingly possessing something that could anchor his consciousness, Trazyn chose to take a gamble.
He was not worried that Zeke would deceive him. After all, he was an Overlord of a necron dynasty. If Zeke deceived him, he would rush back and deploy a Tomb Fleet to fight Zeke.
If he couldn't win, he could still go find his Phaeron.
In the necron's view, they did not believe that necrons would fear any race, after all, even the powerful C'tan had been defeated by them.
Moreover, Zeke, who was opposite him, was proposing a trade.
For a trade, it was natural to first confirm each other's situation. Even if the other party couldn't successfully anchor his consciousness, he wouldn't lose anything.
"Hmm, a wise choice. Although the fact that necrons.
However, my database has indeed encountered a necron empire that chose Machine Ascension."
"Theoretically, a race like yours should possess a powerful soul.
But clearly, you do not have powerful souls within your bodies, which is why your consciousness will continuously disappear."
"So, the solution to the problem is very simple. I'll get you a soul, won't I? If I let you regain a soul, this problem will naturally be solved."
"Since your original consciousness is still there, the problem is easy to solve. I will create a pure, unblemished soul for you, free of any corruption, and then you will transfer your consciousness into it, and you will then possess a soul of your own."
"Don't think these souls are easy to come by. To create a suitable soul for you, an sentient AI is required.
Sentient AIs are very expensive, and even more so a pure sentient AI."
To make the other party believe him, and also to strengthen the reliability of this transaction, Zeke rare explained.
"Don't worry, this technology is very safe. After all, you are not the only ones who failed at Machine Ascension.
Among the empires I destroyed before, there were indeed failures in Machine Ascension. This is what they developed. Do you want to try it?"
Zeke chose to give the necron in front of him the choice.
He believed that the guy opposite him would not refuse. After all, necrons have no souls, and they want to get their souls back; this is well-known.
And even if the guy opposite him didn't agree, then he could just go find Silent king Szarekh later.
However.
He could deal with one necron dynasty, after all, he had already discovered all the movements of his family.
Relying on the Terran Dominion of the Golden Age and the Iron Legion to deal with a necron, plus his own fleet of warships, should not be a problem.
But dealing with the entire Infinite Empire was still somewhat difficult given his current situation.
Necrons also possessed faster-than-light travel technology, so when engaging in battle with necrons, their greatest advantages of range and speed would be rendered useless.
Moreover, the opponent's attacks could indeed pose a threat to the Dominion's warships.
More importantly, necrons also possessed a large number of strategic WMDs. Although the Terran Dominion could withstand such weapons, the Imperium of Man absolutely could not.
Just a single Celestial Orrery could cause irreversible damage to the Imperium of Man.
Zeke did not want to erupt in large-scale conflict with the necrons before the entire Dominion arrived.
Trade can only occur when the combat power of both sides is not too different, similar to an equal footing, or at least not too far apart if unequal.
Otherwise, Zeke would not have sought to trade with this Trazyn opposite him; he was a notorious fellow.
Why bother with him when he could just go directly to the Silent King?