Overturned Tower

Page 406

"Because the [sheath] is dead."

Russell replied in a low voice: "He is just an empty shell now."

To those who try to kill me—

But you will never succeed.

because……

Bad Day raised his hand again, and the table knife cut the distance—the black cloth was cut off and fell to the ground.

This time, the sheath didn't resist or block.

He seemed to know that the attack would not hurt him the moment he saw the attack.

In Sheath's eye sockets covered by the black cloth, there is still that faint yellow halo.

But the scarlet flesh and tiny blood vessels pulsating like tentacles could no longer be seen in it.All his flesh and blood were removed.His face was cleansed, bionic skin over metal and plastic.

About [-]% to [-]% similar to Russell's face, but completely without eyes, not even eye sockets.Under the black cloth is a "blindfold" that glows like a robot.But Russell knew that it was the halo of an angel.

Now he... no longer needs blood vessels to feed his cyborg brain.

— which means that the sheath has taken that last step.Completely abandoning his flesh and blood, uploading his thoughts, he became the partner of Sheng Sheng and Lycaon.

And even more than that...

"Yes, I'm dead. I'm glad you remember and you realize, Russell."

"Sheath" still replied calmly, the voice was like a mechanically synthesized voice: "I am very happy about this.

"Because 'I' deserved to die. Because 'I' wanted to die. Because it would be better for everyone if 'I' died.

"Because if that useless 'I' could have died earlier, those tragedies would not have happened. But I am still happy for 'I'. Because 'I' finally made up my mind and completely dedicated what I have. The last possession of human beings - life. But that is not enough.

"The personality shaped in the past life, that is, the internal tendency and psychological characteristics of the individual's behavior in social adaptation to people, things, and himself, etc., is also the cause of the fragility and incompetence of "I" one.

"Therefore, I took the initiative to ask for promotion-when I was sublimated, my old personality was erased. Today, I am an artificial intelligence that has deeply studied my visual memory and is not an 'simulated' perspective. A pure new self remodeled.

"I seem to have been deprived to be inalienable. But in fact, I should have done so long ago. It's just because of inner timidity and evasion that I chose to back down at every moment when I should stand up.

"The only regret is probably not being able to catch up with your marriage and childbirth. This makes me feel a little regretful as a 'father'. But he missed more than this, and it doesn't matter. However, as a proof of new life—— I still hope that you, 'my' son, will be the first to witness this. And not the monkey-faced eagle. That's why I came here before the battle began."

"...When did you complete the last step?"

Russell was silent for a long time before asking.

"Started half a day ago, just finished. It's still hot."

Sheath said flatly: "After you said those words to the Pope, he attached great importance to what you said - the uploading of thoughts does not mean that the human spirit will not deteriorate because of it. Will not split again.

"So he recalled me and asked me to 'upload'——after the human race completes the great integration, I will act as the antivirus software and immune system of the 'group will' to correct all errors. What I use now is just a downloader It’s just the body of the present world.”

"...That is to say," Russell said word by word, "until the end, your 'death' is still someone else's decision for you... right?"

"It should be so. Since you don't have the ability to lead others, you should obey orders."

The sheath replied flatly: "In the final analysis, the 'sheath' shouldn't choose the blade from the very beginning. It should be the sword that chooses the sheath. I don't have any special talents, but I just fit in with Ellie. Alice. After leaving Alice, I lost my meaning.

"People just saw the gorgeous scabbard, so they had some expectations for the beauty of the blade in the scabbard. So they handed over freedom, power and responsibility to the scabbard. But it is just an empty scabbard after all. Anyway, It is also impossible to conjure a blade out of thin air. If you can't do it, you can't do it.

"Since this is the case, it is better to completely destroy my despicable and fragile mortal nature, together with my corroded personality and decayed life—only my wisdom, will, talent, and strength remain as the ultimate 'shell'.

"—Do you understand, God's Vessel? If you have doubts, I can continue to answer them for you."

In the halo of the sheath, a faint yellow light shone.

His voice was still calm without any fluctuation: "The one standing in front of you is the [Second Container] of the group god."

Chapter 1 I am Alice

Abandoned childhood in exchange for freedom;

Abandoned freedom in exchange for ideals;

Abandoning ideals in exchange for love;

Abandoned love, in exchange for the road;

Abandoning the way, in exchange for strength...

In the end, Sheath also discarded this power obtained after negating everything.

"[The Whistleblower of Neverland]..."

Russell muttered the first code name of the sheath.

In the beginning, the sheath who was "Wendy" betrayed Peter Pan who set him free.The two children "Michael" and "John" who betrayed Peter Pan with him did not reveal the names of the sheath until their death; "Whistleblower" name.

Immediately afterwards, he betrayed Happy Island, Tianen Group, and his mentor, and joined the Tower of Babel, which was an enemy of elves and dragons; his talent and character were liked by Sai Lun, and he gave the sheath "lethal dose" "Love" to further catalyze his talents, and the doomed betrayal of the sheath also means that the flowers of talents that are overblown will eventually wither.

He lost the sheath of his "heart", fled because of cowardice, and betrayed Alice who loved him and the "bishop" who trusted him.He tries to embark on a journey of seeking self-meaning, seeking a grand death as the end of life and giving meaning to his life.

But he still failed.The journey was pointless, and what he did only deepened the despair.He pushes the world into a more bleak future...

He exhausted all the miracles he achieved—with a mortal body that has not yet crossed the Leviathan wall, has not yet undergone elf transformation, without the assistance of sufficient capital and technology, without the help of demons and mages, alone Killed the dragon.

Destroyed the spaceships of the previous civilization with bare hands, extinguishing one-seventh possibility of the future.

—So, he finally despaired.

After being confused and wandering for a long time, Sheath finally denies and betrays herself.

Obviously possessing talent, opportunity, talent, luck and the love of others, but shea dances alone like a clown.

The more he wanted to hold everything, everything in the world was like sand lost between his fingers.The more you try to hold on, the faster the sand will be lost.No matter how hard you try and what sacrifices you make, you get nothing.

"...You finally denied yourself too."

Russell sighed.

Sheath's life of constant search for meaning is over.What he ushered in was only infinite emptiness.

As an empty shell of absolute nothingness... As another projection of Russell, the sheath finally has the "qualification to destroy the world".

What he projected from his eyes before was definitely not such an ominous dim yellow light.

— not “the negation of the negation”.Instead, completely deny it.

Russell already knew that the power of holy order possessed by mechanical angels comes from the group subconscious.

That is the power belonging to "human consciousness", the tiny part of the huge and chaotic primitive psionic energy held by the polluted "old gods", purified by the goodness in human hearts.

If the human body is lost, it is impossible to be recognized by the group consciousness, and it is impossible to have the power of the holy order; therefore, mechanical angels must be made of recognized good people as "materials".It is impossible to drive the power of the Holy Order purely mechanically.

And the pope's plan is to artificially create a "new god" and create a new "group consciousness" to overwrite the influence of the "old god" on human beings, and it is even more impossible for him to be recognized by the old god—from From a physical point of view, his plan is to kill the old gods completely.

Just as if you want to completely destroy a program, you should not delete it, put it in the recycle bin, and shred the file, but you should overwrite each file repeatedly many times.

The reason why Sheath can obtain this "anti-electronic" power... and can continue to hold it after he has gone through inhuman physical transformation and semi-prostheticized his own brain is precisely because this power belongs to him.

——It wasn’t because he imported the memories of the sages of the past to allow himself to obtain the power of this holy order.

But after doing these actions, Sheath gained the power that belonged to him!

That is to say...

It is precisely because he has mechanized his brain and made it into a "local server", and his strong desire for self-destruction and self-denial allows him to obtain the power of this "anti-electronic" Holy Order.

"Why does the church seal this power..."

Russell understood everything: "It's not entirely because the church is afraid of 'angels who can counter and deny all angels'. It's because angels with this power will eventually destroy themselves."

Because the "power of holy order" of the church is not natural.

They did not fundamentally perceive the essence of this power, and the technology they used did not touch the principle, but "invention based on the application level".It just used a superficial method to steal this power.This means that once the power of the Holy Order of the "anti-electron" is activated, it will immediately lose control-because it will also negate its own aura.

The transformation of the sheath on itself is even deeper.He even transformed his own brain together. According to the original definition of the ability of "anti-electronics", the moment he uses the power of the Holy Order, all his prosthetic bodies and modified parts will be forcibly stopped. , or even burn it permanently.

But he can use this power normally...and even control it precisely.

Shea's series of painful modifications to himself, along with his life itself, became a ritual - calling out psychics with the ability to "anti-electron".It is no longer simply the power of the holy order, but like the "vessel of god" and "anima animus", it belongs to the "brand new spiritual energy" of the sheath itself.

Since then, Sheath has gained the meaning of his life——

However, he didn't realize it.

It wasn't until his life was shattered after his consciousness was shattered that he was finally affirmed and endowed with meaning by "Twilight"—the meaning of destroying everything.

"I believe you now... you will indeed completely destroy the monkey-faced eagle."

Russell said slowly: "Because it is absolutely impossible for you to coexist, and the monkey-faced eagle is absolutely no match for you. Or, the other you—you in cyberspace, should be killing the monkey-faced eagle virus on the entire network right now." Right. With the decline of the monkey-faced eagle, your strength is also increasing."

Just like his uncontrollable hostility towards the monkey-faced eagle, and the monkey-faced eagle's undisguised killing intent towards him... only one "Twilight" can be hatched in a world.That means they either fight to the last man standing, or they destroy each other.And now, in addition to the two candidates, a new one has been born.

It is also meaningless and completely denied, and eventually the meaning of my life is also denied. I also upload my consciousness to the Internet in an attempt to complete the "transformation of group gods"... Today's "sheath", or "second container", it is the monkey-faced eagle as a contender for the "grave"!

In other words, today's "sheath" is the superior monkey-faced eagle!

Just as the unpredictable fate sensed that the monkey-faced eagle's plan was about to fail, but the world's disaster itself was not resolved, and Russell was not sublimated or destroyed because of it—after all, the Pope's plan does have the possibility of being realized— Therefore, in order to ensure the destruction of the world, a new "grave" that can definitely destroy the world was born again.

From the very beginning, he was born inside the "New God" created by the Pope, and exists as His irremovable and irreplaceable "antivirus software".

"Yes, it really should be so...Since Dusk was born in the end of the world, what's the point of not destroying Doom, but only destroying the eggs of Dusk? It's just cutting off the water with a knife..."

Russell suddenly laughed self-deprecatingly.

He reached into his arms, trying to feel for something.But in the end still did not touch.

"What are you looking for?"

Delphinium realizes something: "Sage decapitated?"

"Ah... yes. Because of the security check of the airship, I couldn't bring it this time."

Russell hummed softly, as if he was explaining something, but also as if he was regretting something: "I just want to see what my determination is now... Compared with a knife, it is more like a knife that can see Clear the mirror of your resolve."

He had realized before that it was absolutely impossible for him and the Pope's plan to coexist.But Russell has not fully confirmed this until today.

——The sheath is sublimated into an egg of dusk, which is not only forcing the monkey-faced eagle, but also forcing Russell to give up his fantasy.

Or……

"I finally realized what the three of us have in common."

Russell murmured in a low voice, left from the table, and walked towards the sheath: "We all hold a certain kind of innocence...that pure idea inherited from childhood. The pain encountered in childhood, the obsession left behind. After becoming an adult, he is so out of place in this world.

"The monkey-faced eagle wants to get everything, so it is so greedy that it wants to swallow the whole world; I want to connect everything, so no one wants to offend, try to be friends with everyone, and make peace... But you always want to give up everything .for you are still living the day you escaped Peter Pan with your two companions."

"Dangerous, don't go there..."

Bad Day subconsciously wanted to grab Russell's cuff, but Delphinium predicted his movement and reached out to block his wrist one step ahead.She seriously shook her head at the frowning bad day, and then looked at Russell's back with some concern.

And the sheath didn't respond to it.

He wasn't smiling, or thinking, or angry.Like a puppet, expressionless and emotionless.

Both belong to the uploaded thinking, whether it is "promotion" or "Lycaon", their emotions are obviously much richer than the sheath.

"Your empty and empty feelings are because the Pope completely deleted his personality at his request...

"Or after vaguely aware of his end, before he really fell, he made a final decision to erase his twilight will and deny his subjective harm?

"Negating the purest negation...is ironic. As expected of a man who can't do anything, an absolutely empty life..."

Russell walked slowly, his body melting with it.

His voice suddenly became soft and gentle, and Alice's body appeared here: "You can't even be a half-assed demon king..."

Her expression is complicated, her eyes are gentle, full of love, but extremely sad.

Like being hurt by something.

It seemed that he was still being hurt by him to this day.

"……I miss you so much."

Hearing Alice's miserable words, the mechanical look on Sheath's face finally, for the first time, moved slightly.

It was a tiny amount of shaking - like salt dissolved in water.

You can vaguely taste the bitter salty taste like tears, but you can't see the slightest white crystal.

"I've been trying to wake up those pretending to be asleep and let them face reality..."

Alice said softly, standing in front of the sheath.She looked at the sheath as if looking at an old phantom.