Overturned Tower

Page 375

"It's really like this... Ah, it's the monkey-faced eagle's technique. You know it too. He's quite a genius. I tried for a long time before I completed the replica with the help of the bishop. This also shows that this The technology has matured..."

Holding the teacup in both hands, Lykaon also sighed, his voice even lower than that of Russell: "Oh...it would be fine if you didn't come back."

"Why, don't you want to confront me?"

"Ah... yes. But you came back with your girlfriend, so I have to celebrate... Ah, speaking of it, are you going to get married?"

"Yes."

"Ah... Then congratulations. You are going to Happy Island to get married, and I will rush there then."

Lycaon didn't look up at Russell, but just looked down at the teacup in his hand.

He said softly: "Can you... I mean, leave Chongguang Island as soon as you finish your birthday?

"Forget about the entrustment that the three sages gave you. Soon...there will be chaos here. By then...you may not be able to leave. I mean, it will be difficult to leave. It will be very troublesome of."

Russell was silent for a while.

The spectacle in front of him gave Russell an illusion—it was like the most autistic child in the class who suddenly said to you very seriously, "Russell, don't come to school tomorrow" .

Oh, Lycaon is indeed the most autistic kid in the class.

That's fine.

Chapter 64 All for Survival

Things will develop to the point where it is now. It is definitely impossible to say that Russell did not expect it at all.

What the monkey-faced eagle developed is, after all, a "technology" rather than a "talent".Since it is a technology, it means that it will be copied, popularized, and optimized one day.

And the force most eager for this technology is the Cyber ​​Church.

The twilight disaster named "Dream" is chasing this world forever.Whether it's humans or elves, as long as they have different personalities and differences in personality, as long as they take care of themselves more than others... they will eventually be caught up by Dusk.

It is not a certain person, nor an organization, or a certain country.Rather, the entire human civilization has been sentenced to death—with a reprieve.

Among the many plans for escaping from this nightmare and surviving the pursuit of the executioner, the most feasible one is to completely abandon the fight against illusions, to completely abandon the flesh and blood, and to reunite all consciousness with the clean attitude of "data" , reconstructing the gods...in order to embrace the ultimate sublimation of pure machinery.

—Let those bionic people never dream of electronic sheep again.

Everyone will lose a lot, but not everything after all.People will no longer be people, and civilization will no longer be civilization...but all "people" can still get the right to survive because of this.

That is the essence of "Cyber ​​Eternal Life" pursued by the Cyber ​​Church.

"...Since you know about the disaster of destroying the world, it's easy to say."

Lycaon sighed: "You are right, I am just a test subject.

"Because the state of the monkey-faced eagle is very unstable. But the church is not sure whether the unstable factor is the monkey-faced eagle or the technology itself. They need a person with sufficient wisdom, low desire, and dedication... at the same time There is no 'pioneer' of moral cleanliness to cut the way for them."

"A way to escape to the virtual world?"

"That's living, Susu."

Lycaon replied seriously.

"Of course the church knows that this kind of eternal life has many hidden dangers, and it can even be said to be a self-degrading dimension. We all know...the person who first implements cyber immortality will be turned into data—they can be modified and erased by outside manipulators at will. A piece of data that was removed. Hmm...just like me now.

"But so what?

"If I can bring the news of victory, we will finally be able to escape from a ruined future. Keeping civilization alive is what matters most—dreams, love, justice, ideals, freedom, faith.

"Seriously, Susu. All of these things can be discarded. They are not a great thing... because as long as they die, there is nothing. As long as we live, as long as our existence can continue, we can create Possibilities out of the future... I mean, entirely new possibilities."

"……I see."

Russell sighed: "A defeatist strategist."

He understood.

Even before the church became the cyber church, they were pursuing the "way of survival".And after they learned the truth of history and became the Cyber ​​Church, they never considered for even a moment how to defeat the illusion, or even whether they could escape the illusion.

From the very beginning, all the arrangements of the church were prepared on the basis that "they can never escape".

Just as the church always takes believers to escape the miserable reality and creates beautiful illusions.That's because they can't change reality or improve people's lives.All they can do is comfort.

But they can show the way for others - and yet, the church never taught people how to do it.That's not Alice's sobriety and compassion, but that they don't intend to sell "excess hope"...excess hope will only bring despair.

What they did was to heal the hearts of believers and soothe their spirits so that they would not be tortured to death by life.What the church does is just to make people "persist a little longer"... They are from the bottom of their hearts, hoping that others can "live".

As long as there is life, there is hope.And one's own hope should be found by oneself-they don't grant hope to anyone.Because they don't have that kind of power, let alone that kind of obligation.

"Did you know...the church sets the [healer] as the lowest-level angel, not to say that the person of the healer should be the lowest...but because we always need the most healers. What we want is... …anyone who needs and is needed can become a temporary healer."

Russell understood this truth.

Just like the priests of DND... no matter what magic spells are prepared, they can be converted into healing abilities.

Because the foundation of the church is to heal suffering.Be it physically or mentally.

—to keep people alive.This is the foundation of their teaching.

Let more people live.Let the most people survive.

Compared with virtue, justice, faith, piety... these "external ideas" used to deceive and attract believers, the only belief of Cyber ​​Church is to "lead people to live".

"...Since you have become an information life form subordinate to the church," Russell said slowly, after being silent for a while, "I don't intend to dictate your choice. But I must tell you that the last one who was loyal to and believed in the church Yes, those mechanical angels.

"And now they are still sleeping, they are squeezed into juice. The church sells them to mages... for some purpose."

"Ah... I know about this. It's better to say... with my current posture, I can touch secrets that I have never understood before."

Lykaon took a sip of tea and responded flatly: "Do you want to know the truth about this matter? Speaking of it, you may not believe it...it is actually for the overall survival of mankind."

"The continuation of what is that for? To save people by killing people?" Russell asked rhetorically.

"--do you know?"

Lycaon avoided answering: "The battle of teachings a hundred years ago was to completely destroy the inheritance of mages.

"Mages seek power from the dream world, and the Church seeks power from 'God'...but I want to tell you a secret."

"—If you want to say that the foundation of the power of the dream world also comes from 'dreams'. I have already known this kind of thing."

"Ah, that's a good explanation."

Lycaon sighed again: "'Fantasy Derivative'...do you know what this word is?"

There was no hope, but no sorrow, on his thin face.

It is not so much numbness as indifference.

In some games, the game is over 5 minutes into the game, but the base will not explode until 10 minutes into the game——Lykaon's expression at this moment is like being in that kind of game, seventeen The same calm expression when he was wiped out at 8 minutes.

He should be angry, but his mood didn't fluctuate at all.

"It's a demon, isn't it?" Russell replied.

"... Your mentor told you?" For the first time, Lykaon's face showed an expression of surprise other than "sorrow" and "calm".

Obviously, he didn't expect Russell to know this answer that should not be known by anyone.

"My chairman told me."

Russell pondered for a moment, then replied.

"Then your chairman really trusts you."

Lycaon sighed, "That's great..."

Ah, that's not it.Russell thought.

At best, it can only be regarded as good words when people are about to die...

Chapter 65 Andrew the Deceiver

"...In short, you should know now. Whether it is holy orders, spells, or psionic powers, they all come from the same source, right?"

On Lykaon's pale cheeks that were so thin that they were even sunken, a complex expression mixed with self-deprecating and sneering appeared, like a frozen corpse: "Yes...they all came from dusk.

"The white primordial psychic energy has been polluted into a faint yellow thousands of years ago. The god served by the church, the so-called...'aggregation of the 'subconscious of the human group', has been corrupted thousands of years ago.

"Psychic demons are transformed by psykers polluted by dusk, and the power of holy orders comes directly from sealed dreams. Even spells are also impure-mages seek powerful in the 'Second Psychic Network' There are many 'First Psionic Networks', that is, those that have been polluted by 'dusk-colored primitive psionic energy', this uncontrolled power is spells. The difference between them and psykers is that demons reside in them In the body, the abandoned 'First Psionic Network' is in a dream within a dream.

"What does this mean... Susu, you should understand."

Lycaon's voice gradually stopped stammering.

His words became clear and his eyes became quiet.

"Ah, I understand."

Russell nodded: "All the power of our era comes from a certain aspect of the dusk.

"—but what does that have to do with the Angel of Slaughter?"

"It has a lot to do with it. We rolled up the battle of teaching law and created mechanical angels in order to completely destroy the inheritance of mages. But mages resisted very strongly... The big reason is that among those damn elves who inherited names, A large number of people are mages, and some are high-ranking in the church.

"Just because of this stupid political reason, we couldn't make it to the end in one go. The result is now a disaster. Let the legacy of the mage still exist."

"So what?" Russell asked back, his tone gradually becoming harsh.

He realized it, and he didn't know where to start... This person seemed to be no longer the "Lycaon" he was familiar with.

——Lycaon will not use this kind of clear logic to talk to people.

If he could do it, he wouldn't have to talk so anxiously all the time.

And "Lycaon" went on to say: "The battle of teaching law was interfered by the giant dragon. The reason why the dragon judged our victory is simply because they think that the mage is the more dangerous side.

"The power of the dream world is not infinite, nor is it priceless. There is no perpetual motion machine in this world, and even the 'spiritual energy engine' of the prehistoric era is only a pseudo-perpetual motion machine.

"Every ounce of power that mages dig out of the dream world means drilling an oil well. This kind of drilling will undoubtedly destroy the geology-every time the mages drill a hole, it means 'the first psionic network' The barrier from us has been dug thinner. This also means that the protection of the 'spiritual relatives' has begun to weaken."

...So, in the past, the protection of our soul relatives was not bad, but these years have gradually begun to weaken.

Russell understood something.

It wasn't that after the religious war, the number of psykers suddenly increased—it was because the number of psykers began to increase. The truth behind this incident made the church decide to launch a religious war!

"Now that you know these things... don't you still think that we are showing favor to those selfish and arrogant fools by giving them the 'Source of Holy Orders'?"

"Lykaon" sneered: "It can eliminate the corrosion of shadows, and it can also increase resistance to shadows—how could such a good thing appear for no reason?

"You must have studied the source of the Holy Order. Otherwise, you would not have known that it was made of angels.

"So, have you ever considered -- why is it gold?

"Or...if it doesn't glow, what color should it be?"

The answer is self-evident.

Russell had seen the truth—

The power of holy order is the power of twilight after being partially purified, so the concentrated liquid of the power of holy order can only be liquid twilight fragments.

"People who have used the source of holy orders can gain tranquility in a short period of time. Their blue shift will suddenly increase in a short period of time...but that is just false.

"When the effect of the medicine is over, a stronger desire will come to my heart. This usually means an increase in 'red shift', and the increase in red shift is greater than that of blue shift—see, after blue shift and red shift, Isn't this "drinking makes you stronger"?

"But you should know by now. The essence of 'redshift' is the degree of contamination by illusions... and 'blueshift' is the limit of the power of illusions. The power of psykers is filtered by demons once The power of illusion...but the mages don't have the protection of demons.

"Since they want more power of 'dream', then I will give them. I have used the source of the holy order once, felt the pure power that can only be obtained by wandering in the dream world for decades, and felt the power in the body. The tranquility generated by the shadows being completely cleared, their endurance and vigilance were destroyed. Maybe they could have endured a long period of loneliness and felt getting stronger bit by bit...but if the strength they accumulated, they would lose power in an instant. time will be easily surpassed, then they will never be quiet again."

It's like a player who works hard to move bricks.

Spend a lot of time earning in-game resources.Then sell it in exchange for higher-level resources-this feeling is very satisfying.

But if one day, he suddenly finds that he can buy the resources he obtained after moving bricks from X Bao or X Fish at a very low price.They can no longer enjoy the game.

Because of their playtime, they have a "price" from that moment on.An hour, or even an afternoon of struggle, other people can buy it for only a few dollars... and his hourly income is dozens or even hundreds of times, so his real afternoon game experience will be become so stupid.

——Why don't I go and buy more resources?

And it's just a game.Someone can restrain themselves and allow themselves to experience the game wholeheartedly.

But what the mages got was real power.

Under the temptation of the source of the holy order, no one can calm down again.

"Whether it is a mage or a psyker, their abilities are bound to be accompanied by the same side effects-the higher the redshift, the faster the growth. Their rationality desires a higher blueshift to control this dangerous power, so they Soon it becomes restless again, hungry for a new source of holy order.

"Their strength has improved too fast... and compared to undergoing a long period of self-discipline and going to an unknown area full of dangers in the dream world for a long expedition that lasts for several years, all you need is a bottle of the source of the holy order. Solve everything.