For the past few days, Lu Qingchen had not bothered him, which was out of the ordinary.
The steam ball where the demon had been hiding seemed to have run out of energy and turned into a cold, dead lump. It had been lying in the basket obediently all the time.
This gave Gus a sense of relief. He thought that Lu Qingchen had been suppressed by A Boxing Champion or found some other way to disappear forever.
If that was the case, Gus would not have to worry about whether or not he had betrayed him. He would not have to worry about the dilemma.
But it also meant that Gus had lost his value as a demon, and there was no hope for him to escape from the collapsing illusionary world.
Thinking of this, Gus fell into despair again. He often took out the steam ball and rubbed it involuntarily. He even whispered to the demon, hoping to get a response.
What was to come would come.
On the seventh day of the battle between the Iron Fist Army and the Steam Army …
As the battle heated up, there should be more and more wounded soldiers.
But the stable supply line between the frontline and the rear had been cut off, and so many old, weak, women, and children could not be transferred to transport and take care of the wounded soldiers. More than half of the wounded soldiers were sent back to the rear.
As a large number of wounded soldiers died, Gus had a lot less work to do.
The camp for wounded soldiers seemed to have turned into a silent tomb. The old, weak, women, and children curled up inside were like wandering ghosts. A plague could break out at any time, and the strong, healthy soldiers were unwilling to come close, which gave Gus a lot of convenience.
The demon finally came out.
It was still a faint black fog that covered an area of three to five meters around Gus, creating an independent space.
"It's about time."
Lu Qingchen looked at Gus with a smile. "The main forces of the Steam Army and the Iron Fist Army are already deeply entangled. Both sides have more than 100,000 elite soldiers, and the center of the battle formation is less than five kilometers away from each other. There have been several night attacks. The probing is about to end, and the final battle is about to begin.
"Now, as long as we go to the fiercest battlefield, there is a high chance that we will find a fatal flaw in this world. Then, we will invade the deepest part of A Boxing Champion's soul through this flaw and completely devour him!"
Looking at the demon's smug face, Gus felt uneasy.
Half of it was because he was guilty, and the other half was because he was sad.
Seeing how confident the Devil was, he would never have guessed that his calculations were all within the calculations of A Boxing Champion. He had already fallen into the trap and was only one step away from becoming a fish in a cauldron.
However, for the humans living in the virtual world, between A Boxing Champion and Lu Qingchen, who was the true god and who was the devil? Who should they help?
"Most of the elites of the steam army have been sent to the frontline. The defense here is not very tight. Also, they would never have expected that a seemingly honest 'Saint' like you would be bold enough to act on your own."
Lu Qingchen was still talking about his' foolproof 'plan. "Bring your sister and perhaps Anderson's steam army in the north. The small troop admires you so much right now that they will certainly listen to your every word. We will sneak out. We should be able to reach the most chaotic battlefield before dawn. Leave everything else to me."
"I …"
Gus was absent-minded and hesitated.
"Hmm?"
Lu Qingchen glanced at him. "Is there a problem?"
"I want to know, if you really … swallow A Boxing Champion's soul, which means that you control the entire virtual world, then what?"
Gus summoned his courage and asked, "Then, what will we get in return?"
"Who is' we '?"
Narrowing his eyes, Lu Qingchen eyed the young man up and down. "You and your sister? What do you want? "
"Not just me and my sister, but also everybody living in the Fist God's World."
Gus thought for a moment and added, "No, maybe not just the Fist God's World but everybody living in hundreds of virtual worlds, including the 'World of Combat Energy', the 'World of Magic', the 'World of Cards', the 'World of Summoning', and so on. I believe that there must be a lot of people in other virtual worlds who are suffering the same pain as us, right?
"I want all the virtual people to be freed from their pain and their fate of being manipulated by gods and devils forever. Can — can you do that?"
Lu Qingchen raised his eyebrow high.
He seemed to have a new view of the young man.
"Since the beginning, you've brought me more and more surprises, and I appreciate you more and more," the demon said.
"However, you seem to have made a self-contradictory request. While I will be able to do almost anything in the virtual world as long as I swallow A Boxing Champion's soul and inherit all his strength, I will be able to do almost anything in the virtual world. But self-contradiction won't do. Even the omnipotent true god cannot create a stone that he cannot lift himself. You are too greedy."
"How is my request 'self-contradictory'?" Gus asked.
"Listen. I can free all the virtual people from the cruel struggles and bloody pain. I can even arrange an eternal and perfect paradise where they — including you and your sister — can live in comfort and carefree forever," Lu Qingchen said.
"I can, too," Lu Qingchen said. "At the very least, I will try my best to help you fight against the high and mighty deities and devils. I will break the shackles that bind you so that you can control your own destiny and become real, noble human beings.
"But the two things cannot be accomplished at the same time.
"Do you still not understand?
"If I really create a perfect virtual paradise and dedicate all the virtual people to it so that you can live a carefree and perfect life, it will mean that you will still be puppets in the sandbox and lose all the meaning of your existence. You will have no purpose or effort, and it will be impossible for you to unleash the brilliance of humanity. You will be even worse than the pets raised by human beings.
"You are a cluster of illusionary data in the first place and lack real vitality. If you lose the meaning of life and the motivation to find meaning, will you still be a real human being? Will you still be bold enough to claim that you boast a real soul?
"If you are not real human beings and do not have anything that can be called 'soul', why do you insist that I waste my precious computational ability to build such an illusionary eternal paradise? If you are just yourself and want to forget your pain, I can simply delete or even tamper with part of your memories. Wouldn't it be the same? "
Gus' eyelids twitched, and he subconsciously said, "No …"
"You don't want your memories to be deleted or tampered with? It does make sense. Memories and souls are inseparable. After your memories are deleted or tampered with, will you still be the real you or even a real human being? "
Lu Qingchen smiled at first, but then he sighed. "It's a pity that you have to pay a price for sticking to your soul, becoming a human being, and controlling your fate. Human beings do not belong to paradise, and paradise does not belong to human beings. The cold, cruel reality is our eternal battlefield."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
