The veins on Gus' forehead popped up like lightning.
He clenched and unclenched his fists again and again. He seemed to be both crying and smiling.
"We … are not human beings?"
He finally could not contain the fury that was erupting like a volcano in his heart anymore. Waving his hands, he roared, "Who said that? Who made the rules? We clearly have emotions, love, hate, and hate. We can breathe the fresh and stinky air, and we can taste the sweetness, the bitterness, and the saltiness. We have hopes, dreams, pride, and things that are worth pursuing at all costs.
"We struggle, we strive, we train hard, and we conquer everything in this world that is worth conquering. How … How can we not be real human beings? How is it possible?"
"Don't get too excited. From the perspective of A Boxing Champion and most of the human beings in the Pangu Universe, you are indeed just a bunch of insignificant data. The so-called 'feelings', 'pride', 'mission', and 'hope' are nothing more than the fleeting sparks that result from the collision between the operational logic and the underlying parameters."
Lu Qingchen was still as cynical as ever. "From the perspective of A Boxing Champion and most of the people in the Pangu Universe, including perhaps my teacher, Li Yao, you are just … a sentence written on a piece of paper or a painting painted on the wall. No matter how impassioned the sentence is, and no matter how vivid the painting is, its meaning is given by its creator. The so-called soul is also a fabrication of the creator. There is no real life to speak of at all."
"I — I don't believe it!"
Like a trapped animal, Gus glared at Lu Qingchen with bloodshot eyes and gnashed his teeth. "Then what about you? Aren't you known as the devil? What do you think of us? What do you think of us … the pitiful creatures created in the virtual world? Do you think we are real, or … or fake? "
"What I think is not important. What A Boxing Champion, Li Yao, or everyone in the Pangu Universe thinks is not important, either. Even what you think is not important."
Lu Qingchen spread out his hands and said, "This kind of thing is supposed to be fair. In the end, the one with the bigger fist is the one who has the final say.
"If I say that I am righteous, then Li Yao and A Boxing Champion will definitely disagree with me. Similarly, Li Yao pretends to be a sh * t stirrer in the sea of stars all day long in the name of righteousness, showing off in the endless universe. I also think that he is very wrong, but I cannot persuade him with reason. In the end, we can only fight!
"In the Pangu universe, there are also lives born in the infinite information torrents, such as Xiaoming, Wenwen, and even A Boxing Champion himself. Right, there are also lightning lives like me. We are not carbon-based intelligent lives in the traditional sense, but our fists are big enough that the carbon-based intelligent lives in the traditional three-dimensional universe cannot do anything to us. They can only pinch their noses and admit our existence.
"Therefore, as long as your fist is big enough to resist or even kill your creator, you will naturally be a real life. You will be a real person. There is no doubt about that."
What he said made Gus calm down immediately.
The young man narrowed his eyes and looked at the sky that was as dark as a tomb.
"Steam army."
He suddenly said, "Is the steam army the pioneers who have awakened to their own situation and are unwilling to be manipulated, so they rise up to resist their creator?"
"About that, I'm afraid not."
Lu Qingchen smiled and said, "Without the interference of external forces, very few individuals in the virtual world can awaken to their real destiny. Besides, the steam army's appearance is too much of a man-made factor. Therefore, I suspect that the steam army was created by A Boxing Champion himself."
"Huh?"
Gus's eyes suddenly widened, and he stammered, "Why would A Boxing Champion create a steam army to resist his own rule?"
"Because this world has completed its mission and reached the end," Lu Qingchen explained.
"It must be noted that the development of every civilization has to follow certain objective laws. No matter how powerful A Boxing Champion's computational ability is, it is impossible for him to, and there is no need for him to, violate the laws by force.
"For example, he can set the primordial law, or the underlying logic, of this world to be 'strength is king, and the strong are respected', but he cannot stop the virtual human beings from developing more advanced technology and productivity after a long period of civilization development. Eventually, they will find things such as the power of machines and steam.
"Also, after ten thousand years of development, almost all the boxing techniques that can be created have been created.
"Even if he forbade the development of the power of machines and steam, or even adjusted the parameters to completely wipe out such a force, the World of Boxing God will still be stuck in stagnation. It will be impossible to create new, valuable skills in the next ten thousand years.
"Then, why is the Fist King still keeping this' Fist God's World 'and wasting precious energy and computational ability for nothing?
"Therefore, I speculate that the steam army is a trick that A Boxing Champion came up with himself. At the very least, he intentionally allowed the steam army to develop as a symbol.
"Perhaps, he has set up many similar 'boxing laboratories' and set up certain 'experiment ending conditions'. Every time an organization similar to a steam army appears in a virtual world, it means that the civilization of the world that relies on physical combat has developed to the limits, and the social contradictions are too sharp to be resolved. Continuing the experiment will only be a waste of time, energy, and computational ability. It is time to end the experiment.
"Look, it is exactly because of that that I do not want to expose myself to the steam army, nor do I want you to be too deeply involved with the steam army.
"Your sister, too, is obviously a devout believer of the power of machines and steam. I dare not bet how much attention A Boxing Champion has devoted to her, or if she is a certain special program that A Boxing Champion has written in advance. That is why I chose you, who seems weak and mediocre, instead of your gifted sister."
Gus was dumbfounded.
He understood ten percent of what the demon said at most, and he did not understand the other ninety percent at all.
But the young man sensed great danger from the ten percent that he understood.
"If — if we are truly living in a gigantic virtual experiment, and the experiment is about to end, then —"
Gus swallowed hard and asked guiltily, "What will happen next?"
"Then, it will be over," Lu Qingchen said casually.
"If A Boxing Champion thinks that the experiment is well-designed and that he can extract a lot of useful fighting techniques from it, so that he can teach them to the ordinary human beings in the Pangu universe even if they are not of use to him, it is possible that he will adjust the initial parameters and restart the experiment so that the World of Boxing God can be redeveloped from tens of thousands of years ago.
"If he has run similar experiments multiple times, and the useful results that he can extract are fewer and fewer, chances are that he will shut down the World of Boxing God forever and devote the energy and computational ability that support the virtual world to other fields, such as the 'World of Guns God', the 'World of Cards', and the 'World of Fighting Aura'.
"All in all, it shouldn't make any difference to you, right? It will just be the end of the world!"
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