Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 102-101: Spider Silk

The drug took effect, and Suger could almost hear the rustling sound of it spreading through his blood, like ice shards rushing through a river. His senses remained normal, even clearer than usual; every detail outside the shady clinic was laid bare before him—people were praying, people were stealing—but he felt as if he had become a heartless security camera.

His consciousness shrank into an unsprouted seed, a singularity existing between existence and non-existence; everything was irrelevant to him, and everything was meaningless.

He no longer had any worries or burdens.

He suddenly wanted to succumb to this non-existent state.

But just as he had this thought, the silence deep within his mind was broken.

He felt a sudden weight on his body, as if he had been pulled back into the real world.

The colors before my eyes, the temperature and humidity around me all took on meaning. It was as dim, cold, and damp as ever, making me feel depressed.

He stared blankly for a while, then threw away his cigarette butt and looked into the distance.

A man sat against the wall, his prosthetic arm's blue-gray coating covered in brownish-red rust. Before Suger went to the clinic for treatment, he had overheard the man discussing the free medication with the intern. Suger didn't know what the Deer Valley Group was planning, so he intended to find out from the man. As soon as he approached, the man warily looked up.

Sog saw the man move his fingers, revealing a miniature electromagnetic gun hidden in his knuckles. This type of weapon was common; Sog had been injured in the stomach by the same thing at the Nightfall Summit.

"Don't be nervous." Su Ge took a step back. "I need to ask you something."

The man did not lower his guard, but his hostility did not intensify either.

"Where does Lugu Group distribute the medicine?" Su Ge continued to ask.

The man sized up Suger, then glanced to his side. Suger's abrupt approach drew the attention of some people. He remained silent for a few seconds. Chiba Ryo flicked his thumb, and the projection of a coin was tossed towards the man. Although currency has been digitized, this kind of interaction is still preserved as a form of behavioral language.

Chiba Ryoko and the man exchanged a glance, and some data was exchanged. Then, Chiba Ryoko looked at Suger and gestured with her chin. Her meaning was clear: the matter was settled. Suger glanced at the man and continued towards the exit of the passage. As she passed the man, Suger noticed a hint of displeasure in the man's gaze.

They left the exit, where there were no more patients, only the dim light faintly illuminating the graffiti of the Six Paths of Reincarnation on the walls. The images of celestial beings, asuras, and hungry ghosts from hell reminded Suge of his encounter with Li.

“He complained that you leaked the information,” Chiba Ryoko said.

"What news?" The effects of the medication made Suger a little slow to react.

“Free things are limited, and he didn’t want everyone to know about it,” she said.

Suger frowned, turned to look in the direction of the illegal clinic, and remained silent.

"Disillusioned with humanity?" Chiba Ryoko said.

“No,” Sog shook his head. “He can’t even protect himself.”

“But you look a little disappointed.” Chiba Ryoko turned her head to look at Suger. “You want to fight for their interests, but they’d rather fight tooth and nail with their own kind.”

"I'm not disappointed in him."

"That is?"

Ryoko Chiba's prosthetic eye emitted a green glow in the darkness, like some curious and probing feline.

“I don’t know.” “Don’t say you’re disappointed in yourself,” Chiba Ryoko mocked.

“Not at all,” Su Ge smiled.

Above the passageway, a spider in the corner dangled down its glandular silk.

“Let me tell you a story,” Socrates suddenly said.

"Uh." Ryoko Chiba turned her head slightly. "No problem."

"Your reaction is quite strange."

“This is the first time,” Ryoko Chiba said. “Storytelling is something that only happens in stories.”

Suger suddenly remembered that she was born in a nursing home, which apparently didn't have a tradition of telling stories to babies. He felt a little sad about it, but in this era where the concept of family had disappeared, perhaps only he felt sad about it.

“There was a sinner who was suffering in the Avici Hell. To atone for his sins, he had to endure the torment of mountains of knives, iron trees, boiling oil, and pools of blood every second he spent in hell, without any time to rest.”

Socrates began to tell a story, but after just one sentence, he felt a sense of dread. If gods and Buddhas could create spiritual realms, they could certainly create the mythical hell, and those punishments might very well exist in reality.

He looked at Ryoko Chiba, who was still listening quietly without any reaction, which relieved Suger.

“One day, this sinner was soaking in a pool of blood, his body mostly corroded. Suddenly, a thin, shimmering silver thread appeared before him. Upon closer inspection, he saw it was a spider's thread, hanging down from above hell, leading straight to the other shore. It turned out that the sinner had once done a good deed by saving a spider; this was his good karma. The World-Honored One, seeing the sinner's suffering in the Pure Land, caught the spider and threw out its thread. As long as the sinner could catch it, he could escape the sea of ​​suffering.”

"The sinner was overjoyed, of course. He leaped into the pool of blood and began climbing up the spider silk. However, getting from hell to the other side was not easy. After climbing for a while, the sinner wanted to rest and catch his breath. Only then did he have a moment to look down. He should have looked, because what he saw terrified him. Below him were countless other sinners suffering in hell, climbing up the same spider silk."

"This spider silk was already trembling precariously, how could it possibly bear the weight of so many people? The sinner, seeing his hope of salvation about to be dashed, was so anxious that he cursed and kicked, wanting nothing more than to get rid of these fellow sufferers. And in the instant he was shouting and yelling, snap, the spider silk broke."

He turned to look at Ryoko Chiba.

"He and everyone else were plunged back into the deepest abyss."

“If he hadn’t harbored evil intentions, he could have reached the other side,” Ryoko Chiba said. “I’ve read this story, the holographic version, where you can choose different character perspectives. Of course, this is the first time I’ve heard someone tell it from another source.”

“Spider silk can’t support that many people, so his reaction is normal,” Soger said. “All living things protect themselves.”

“I understand what you mean,” Chiba Ryoko said. “There was a chance that one person could have been saved, but they all climbed up, and in the end, no one was able to escape from hell.” She glanced in the direction of the black clinic.

Socrates still shook his head.

"That spider silk couldn't save anyone in the first place; the outcome was sealed the moment it was thrown. No one did anything wrong, and everyone wanted to be saved, but their fate wouldn't be changed by the spider silk; they would continue to sink into the deepest hell. But something did change. What changed?"

Suger raised his head.

“They originally hated the oppressors who created suffering and punishment. But when they fell from the spider’s web and their hope of salvation was dashed by the struggle of those who shared their suffering, they began to hate one another.”

"This is called shifting the blame."

He walked toward the exit, and a few strands of spider silk hidden in the shadows stuck to his face. He wiped his face, and the thin protein threads remained between his fingers, as if he had deliberately torn off the spider silk.

(End of this chapter)