The Elder's name is Gaja.

He has been working on this negation device for quite some time. He is also an artisan that is focused on creating puppets, while being an expert on inscriptions. He has quite few great creations under his name.

One of his specialties is modernizing the ancient puppet building techniques.

He has explored numerous ancient and extinct civilizations that had various technological paths of their own. Understood those methods and integrated them with the methods of the Sanatan region and academy realm.

He is also one of the reputed professors of the Viswa Karma academy.

Ever since he got his own bird puppet from Hub, he has been trying to understand it. And his research started. Luckily, he had his own method of investigating it. Since he has the habit of exploring and reverse engineering the ancient tech, he created a device of his own.

It was called the observation device.

Once any puppet, machine, a formation disc, or even a pure mechanism without any spiritual energy reinforcements was placed in there, the device will give a complete scan. It is just the spiritual energy accompanied by a spirit that scans the object, by creating a energy mesh of some sorts.

The mesh has a great quality that is to trace out the patterns of formations and inscriptions inscribed on the object along with a three dimensional structure of the machine or object itself.

He actually tried his device immediately after he got the bird puppet.

But as if it to mock him, the mesh that came out was not only too dense, but the traces that were there were fully energized. The final projected mesh came out like a glowing lump of substance that he couldn't make any sense out of.

Then he realized that he needs to cut off the energy in the inscriptions, which would trigger the core to activate the self-destruction mechanism.

He has to deactivate the energy in the inscriptions for a moment when the scan in his observation device happens. In that time, the device will trace everything, including the ink or whatever it was that was used in creating the inscriptions and through the inscription patterns, he can recreate them in simulations to understand the whole structure at the same time.

This also gives him a ready made simulated blue print that could help him rebuild it.

But for all of this to happen, he needs to scan it without destroying it.

Then he realized something.

He needs to deactivate everything in that bird puppet without destroying it, before scanning it.

For that, he needs to create this negation device. That will completely shut off all the spiritual energy, including the core of the puppet. He has been working on it for a long time and it is at the ending phase right now.

All this while, he was working on it in secret.

But now that the situation has turned out of like this, he believed he would get more support if he is straight forward with it and might even get special access just like Virat did.

Instead just being a whiny, jealous old bastard, he started working with his disciples on fast tracking the machine.

He also wanted to make it so that he could beat Virat by the time whole dismantling process of the hub is taken care of.

Hours passed like that. Gaja constantly got some updates and about Virat's progress. Not because he wanted to beat him in getting information from an arcade machine, rather he welcomed Virat to dismantle it faster.

Once he does that, Gaja can understand the level of intricate detail these things possessed and tune up his own observation device to meet those requirements.

But what he failed to notice is that just like how he has been keeping tabs on Virat, someone else has been keeping tabs on him. And not for the same type of idealistic reasons that he had.

These reasons are a tad bit selfish and filled with ulterior motives of another elder. The same elder who constantly complained about Virat and his methods.

His name Vajan.

And right now, he has bought up one of the students under Gaja to act as his spy and kept tabs on it. He couldn't copy what Virat was doing. It was a great method and the gods he pray know that he wants that ability.

But it can only be earned and learned through experience. It cannot be copied or stolen.

So, he went for the next best thing. The one that he could steal.

That night, Gaja managed to make the first properly working prototype with the help of his students. He then connected it with the observation device.

He picked one of the bird puppets and placed it in the center. The device is not really that complicated.

It has four weird shaped pillars that are on four sides creating a square. At the center of the square was the puppet that needs to be scanned.

*SWOOSH*

A flash appeared from the four pillars when the device was activated. The bird puppet which was active just a few moments go suddenly fell as if all of its energy has been died down. At that moment another flash came from the design.

The flash stayed a bit longer. When it disappeared, a virtual holographic projection was floating on top of the bird puppet that was on the ground. Excitedly, Gaja deactivated the device and walked to the middle of it.

He wore a special bulky metallic glove and managed to manipulate the projection. The projection is nowhere near as clear as what Sam can create with his tech. Not even one twentieth, but for a wireframe it has enough quality.

Gaja muttered something inaudible to himself and snapped his fingers, the projection disappeared into one of the pillars.

Then he picked up the bird and started examining it on the side.

"Deactivate the device. We might need to spend some time on it.

"

He didn't even turn back and just left. And thus came the opportunity for the mole among his students who was bought over by Vajan.

The student didn't even hesitate and spoke to his fellow students.

"Did you guys have an insights after seeing this?

" He asked with such a genuine smile that the other students almost thought he gave a ** about their thoughts. So, they all nodded and said briefly about what they thought.

"I guess I am the unlucky one. I don't have much thoughts, apart for the quality of projection, so I am going to work on the projector, which as you all know might not work for a long time.

How about you go and work on the thoughts you have. I will dismantle the device by myself.

"

The students being the nerds they are didn't really think much and left. Anyway, that guy was used to doing a lot of grunt work, so they couldn't care less.

They just left. This kid, directly contacted Vajan.

"I have seen it. The projection came, the old man tweaked it and it worked.

"

And that's when all thing went south. Not for that greedy elder, not for the sold out student, not for Gaja or Virat.

But for the whole of hub and the Sanatan region.

If that student hadn't given into the filthy bribe given to him and sold out his soul, things would have gone extremely different for these people who were working on the hub.

One must understand how meticulous and enduring they were. They learned that the bird puppet was spying on them, they learned that the hub is gathering info on them and all the other academies. And they knew their deepest darkest secrets were seen by someone.

Instead of trying their best to destroy the one place that holds their secrets, they instead just started working together to decode it slowly. They even used the talents of the first grade without just dismissing him because of his cultivation level.

They have done everything right.

Except for reigning in the idiots that they had within them.

So, a skit was performed. The student was supposedly moving the machine and at that time, all of a sudden, an explosion happened.

His body was mangled and he was covered with fragments of the said machine.

The worst part is, since they are in an isolated room, no one responded instantly

When Gaja came and took a look after noticing the commotion within one minute, he just looked at the student and scolded him.

"Now I need to build another one. What the ** happened here?

"

He asked, the student brushed the answer saying that he **ed it up by clicking on something that he shouldn't. Gaja dismissed him in anger and rage and left.

Meanwhile, the geniuses who stole the machine were not smart enough to ask the student if Gaja cleared the machine for direct use and they are not skilled enough to understand that there is a reason why Gaja mentioned something about working on it more.