Chapter 14  Angry Bearded Man
作者:Zhu Congqian      更新:2024-08-06 10:35      字数:3165
    "Mortal fates are bound by demons!" The anger in the voice of the king of False God couldn’t be sneezed at.

    "Human beings are born slaves. Think what you say and do, what you call justice and morality, is there anything not a product of desire? To kill for hunger, to fight for reproduction —— to preserve one's own blood, and to desire revenge, suspicion, hatred, betrayal…… Isn't even the morality praised by mortals the greatest common divisor of society for the sake of human survival and reproduction?" The King of the False Gods spoke rather absurd sayings in a childish voice.

    "Even if you're right, it's just that the cruel world forced us to do these 'imperfect' things in order to survive," the Dwarven chief retorted. "In order to be free and happy, mortals must fight back against the cold world laid down by the False Gods, so that future generations may live happier and freer……"

    "Why do they fight back? The freedom and happiness you speak of?" A glimmer of knowledge flickered in the eyes of Mi Long, the King of False Gods. "Consider the nature of freedom and happiness to which mortals aspire!"

    "Aren't those unthinking pleasures just lust? And desire —— the illusion of hormones and DNA! While you mortals are biting at the bait laid out for you by your genetic material, your genes preserved billions of years ago will give you the illusion of happiness! And humans hold it in high esteem."

    "Lord Zulu, the intimacy that makes you so sad is an illusion created by genes —— allowing humans to indulge in the family and continue to reproduce in order to complete the continuous self-replication of genes." The most valued intimacy in the world is so insignificant in the eyes of the King of False Gods.

    The hammer hit the ground like the sound of a broken heart.

    "Bastard!” Zulu spat. Bits of spit fell on the Dwarven chief's untidy beard.

    "You lie to me. You heartless False Gods are born without human feelings. How can you be qualified to despise the truth of the world?" Even if the other person had the face of a child. But that child was defying me, and all the emotions I've ever lived with, and for that matter, I couldn't sit still.

    But the "child" who turned his back on me ignored my anger, and the noise passed by my ear. Replacing the King of False Gods' reply was actually the demonic voice - the digital demon appeared as a virtually flickering avatar in the void.

    "Children, now take a good look at everything you have experienced, including the care you cannot put down —— intimacy, even the most disinterested of mortals' giving, hidden behind the motive of desire! Think about why your parents love you, think about why other people in your tribe treat you with respect, think about your food, your pets, even your favorite loyalty, friendship, all of these have their shadow behind the desire to program your destiny."

    "No, it is not all desire! You're not a person. You're just a phantom. How can you feel that? How can you say emotions aren't real?" Despite being confronted with the phantom of a digital demon, I did not flinch.

    "No, I do, and that is why I admire your courage and the mortal's quest for freedom. Although those pursuits are undoubtedly wrong from a pros and cons perspective." The human form of the demon made the most sincere disguise, "At least mortals insist on one thing I agree with —— human beings should get more freedom! Evolving into a more complete life…… But……"

    Enraged by the digital demon, Zulu wielded his giant hammer and without hesitation swung it at the digital demon.

    "Hold your tongue! The devil! We're fine now. Stop your pretenses. We mortals believe what we want to believe." The roar of rage wanted to kill the digital demon…… The bearded man wielded the hammer unhindered…… It turned out to be a blow out of thin air, and the digital demon reappeared in a different direction within the blink of an eye.

    "You are so consumed by the desire for revenge, my friend. You only want to find an outlet for the urge, regardless of whether it really solves everything. Your dead relatives will not be brought back to life by your revenge. The desire for revenge creates imaginary enemies in your heart. In other words, revenge leads to endless revenge…… And you, my friend, are still in endless pain."

    The King of False Gods laughed at the angry Zulu, and he went on with the demon's talk, developing an absurd theory of False Gods. "There's no need to hate, it is like love that blinds you."

    “Ailey is a cute girl. She is only two years old, but she knew to wait until I came back before she would eat to make sure I wasn't hungry. Even when her mother died, my poor Ailey didn't cry out because she thought it wouldn't help, it would only disturb my sleep and make me sad. But you, demon, it's you! The falling cold has taken her away forever!" Zulu's eyes were as red and swollen as walnuts, and the dwarven chief's voice was more hoarse than ever from the fierce roar.

    "Stop, Lord Zulu, this will change nothing.” Said the King of False Gods consolingly, with his almost tearful eyes.

    His childlike expression made the scene even more vivid, "The devil you speak of is not the murderer of your loved ones. I can give you the truth if you must, that the heavenly people from the bottom world who have shown so much love for you —— sustainers with their kindness, your survival, and that of all mortals on earth, but it is not without cost."

    "I'm sure your Ailey is a good girl, but without the mercy of the sustainers, more mortal children will not exist in the world…… Can you imagine what will happen once the frosting stops?" The King of False God winked slightly at the demonic apparition behind him as he spoke.

    "Yes! Lord Mi Long." Answered the demon's vision meekly.

    Phantoms came violently into white space - glaciers, and snow-capped mountains rumble and sink, the time was fast-forwarding, and the transformation of the earth's surface in ten thousand years took just a second.

    As time went on, the blue sea level rose, and the Sky Tower, in the illusion, came crashing down. The icebergs that had been standing under the Sky Tower began to melt when the frosted floss stopped. The world of ice and snow began to collapse. The melting icebergs began to flow for thousands of miles, causing the sea level to rise rapidly, and the continents of the miniature world to be engulfed by monstrous floods. I could clearly see the tribes and caves where people lived, all of which were flooded.

    But I could see clearly villages, tribes, and caves, and there was no exception —— all of them were destroyed.

    "You wouldn't want such a catastrophe to happen, would you? So tell me, where will you be preparing to attack?" "Asked the King of False Gods eagerly. Indeed, if what has just been shown is indeed the disaster that awaits mankind after the toppling of the Sky Tower, then it is we humans who should worry about it now. “The fall of the Sky Tower has done you mankind no good at all. Your miserable fate has been decreed by a 'contract' operating among the stars. It is the overflowing sympathy of the heavenly people from the bottom world—the maintainers that have kept you mortals alive today, free from the mass extinction brought about by the irreversible warming of the Earth. So please don't let them down.”

    "It is ironic that the False Gods who torment fate keep insisting that he is a selfless deliverer. I almost believe the lies you tell me, but, people of heaven, you do not have a motive!" I suddenly thought of the spear I was forced to throw at the rhinoceros, which I would never have done had it not been for my father's contemptuous and urging eyes!

    "My child, it is only the vulgar logic of mortals to talk of motives, to think of all you see and all you accuse." The King of False Gods said earnestly to me, moving his big, beautiful, innocent eyes.

    "Illusion! What you False Gods say, what you show, and what you believe are illusions!" This time the furious Dwarven chief stopped short of calling what he had seen a lie. “These are the nightmares of digital demons. Why should we believe them?”

    "If you still wish to stubbornly hate the digital demons that 'live forever' in your eyes or perhaps you should come at me. In fact, if your anger is true, then the only person who can bear your anger is me —— I am the king elected by all heavenly beings to be in charge of the DI system. My duty is to examine the DI system and make final decisions. The DI system is only the body of the future evolution of the human, but no matter how it changes, the heavenly people are still the brain and soul of the whole system.”

    In the imaginary world of lies, where the waters of the sea were violently crashing against the icebergs shrunk by digital demons. "Once again, the demons that mortals think of are only tools for the evolution of human beings. It is not the body and desire that make human beings free, but the free soul. DI system has freed us celestial beings from the slavery of our biological genetic material enslavement, and technology has allowed us heavenly people to finally free ourselves from the shackles of our desires."

    In the pale light, the King of False Gods had a thunderous determination in his eyes. His determined gaze and his childish body formed a ridiculous irony.

    "Don't be blinded by what you see. The truth is that everything you see, the joys and sorrows of your emotions, is exactly what your selfish DNA wants you to see…… It's like you can't talk to a saber-toothed tiger about color in the eyes of humans. The cat sees the world in black and white. You can't talk to crocodiles about peace. Everything they can see is moving. And you can't talk to a fly about directions. Their thousands of flowers are always upside down. Now think about why you see the world before you!"

    The steps of the King of False Gods approached, and the wise look became deep in his eyes.

    "Wake up! Mortal! Don't be deceived by what you see and what you believe in as a 'story'. We celestial beings forbid desires, eschew morality seemingly departing from humanity, but all to escape the bondage of the DNA, to escape the destiny of being a creature engrained in genetic material …… Once again, we choose to cooperate with digital technology, just so that we as human beings can get real freedom, no longer compromise our will to live, old age, illness, and death, and no longer waste wisdom for non-existent happiness!"

    The words uttered by the child in front of him were as grave as those of a sinking old man.

    Behind his blue figure, the faces of the digital demon apparition split in two, like two ghostly faces burning in the air, two odious faces, coiled around some invisible central axis, they whirled faster and faster, in the unfolding spiral apparition, countless human figures came running, with happy feet, running first into the whirlpool formed by the revolving center of the faces of the two evil spirits, they were willing to be consumed and destroyed by the haunting flames.

    "Look how ridiculous this situation is, this is your praise of emotional morality, all is just genetic material to drive the human desire to devour."

    "Clinging to human morality and kinship will only bring you more children and grandchildren, in addition to the increased responsibility and obligation, what can you do for your personal freedom of will…… Of course, none of this is a problem, because your life is only a hundred years, and you will think that every day you live is a day less, and even if you feel that your true freedom is being held hostage by morality, patience will pass, because there will be a moment of relief for everything……"

    I thought that the words told by the King of False Gods would make the bearded man lose his temper again, but he was quiet and silent. His lifeless eyes were fixed on the ground, and even his beard sagged around his mouth. His limp arm rested lightly on the heavy hammer.

    Perhaps it was the deadened look that inspired the “Child's” speech. The King of False Gods replaced his sadness with a smile of satisfaction and then proceeded to talk elegantly, "To evolve into a perfect life, one must cooperate with digital technology, which means the annihilation of human desires, just as you mortals have persevered in the pursuit of physical and sensory freedom. We never retreat in our determination to pursue the freedom of the soul…… All for the future of mankind!"

    "I am so sad, losing them, losing my family…… Sadness……you know?" The mournful aftermath came over the bearded man's sobbing shoulders as some sort of impulse was building up.

    "You! Give me your life!" With a piercing cry, the bearded man suddenly raised his hammer and hurled it at the King of False Gods.

    “Crap!”

    My heart suddenly suspended, closed my eyes not daring to imagine the next possible outcome…… The feeling of being suffocated for less than a second becomes the longest moment in my life…… Until the sound of something heavy falling reached my ears, and a bloodless broken arm, after bouncing twice, slid painfully before the “child”.

    "Even if parts of our bodies are turned into machines, we are still human, and digital technology is an extension of our human will." Staring at the debris left by the mechanical arm, the King of False Gods continued his story coldly —— a False God guard had stepped in front of the child for a thousandth of a second and fended off the Zulu's blow. The King of False Gods was unfazed by what had just happened.

    "In fact, mortals are the same as celestial for being human beings. But on the road of evolution, mortals are still greedy for human desires. In order to seek the other side of wisdom ——the celestial choose to coexist with science and technology, so they have to completely separate from human society on the earth."

    Zulu was pinned to the ground by the guard of False God, struggling like a dying porcupine.

    "Attacking a tribal leader would be death by a thousand cuts anywhere, needless to say, who Zulu attacked is the King of False Gods!" The more I thought about it, the more I feared what was waiting for Zulu.

    Kun became the only straw I could cling to in front of the tragedy. I threw my eyes to him for help…… However, I saw more fear in the eyes of the Kun. Kun's distorted face had to let me guess whether he was experiencing the torture of digital demons. His natural and unrestrained flowing hair, because of the pain of exudation of cold sweat, tightly attached to the face. Blue eyes were tortured and covered with red. Kun's strong support of the trembling body would collapse at any time.

    "Come, this is really your last chance. Now that you have chosen to attack me first, the law is no longer binding on heavenly people. Tell me where mortals will attack the Sky Tower, or there will be other ways for you to speak!"

    Lie after lie, disguise after disguise, I finally understood why each False God had to patiently engage in lengthy conversations with us —— in order to provoke us, make us angry, and then they were unsealed.

    So, every word they say was a lie! Whether it was the kind and friendly False God who looked like the mortal - maintainers, or serious, wise, and elderly False God, or the "child" - the King of False Gods who had a confusing appearance in front of me.

    "False Gods live on lies!"

    My father's words came to me like a ghost, and I had an Epiphany. As I understood, my father's scornful face came back to me.

    "Put the filthy dwarf on the sensors of the DI system, and since they won't talk, let technology make them talk!" The King of False Gods commanded his executors viciously behind him. He had no patience with us.

    The mirage transformed once more. A spiky chair quickly took shape, sculpted by the aurora. Hot flames clung to the instrument of torture summoned from hell, making the chair look as hot as lava.

    Kun's gaze was almost weeping. He was like a body drained of the soul. There’s no hope in his eyes. Kun collapsed to the ground, silver hair messy in the air was like god's last cry. His body exuded the faint blue light which was also in little by little dim. Everything was over?

    Just as the bearded figure was about to sink into the instruments of torture from hell……

    “No, wait!”

    The words of Mi Long, the King of False Gods, became the turning point in the nick of time. The eyes of the "child", after a brief hesitation, fell upon Kun, as he casually admired the traitor, Kun, whom he had utterly crushed.

    Kun’s limp sinking body was like falling into the giant’s soup of insects, no struggle before death, no useless entreaty. Kun seems to have completely given up the faith of life.

    "I've changed my mind about a different person. That kid, I think he knows more."

    A few pairs of powerful hands suddenly lifted me. The hot and sharp chair in the shaking line of sight came to me closer and closer. Before my fear drowned me, I saw Kun struggling to climb up, his painful eyes were staring at me……

    "Kun! What should I do?"

    "Listen, boy, trust your heart! Remember? You're the perfect……"

    That was probably the last thing I ever heard in this world……