Love, death, and false man

Chapter 25. Hard Wonderland
After the first class in the afternoon.

The eerie green glow of the EXIT signs in the performance hall, fire exits, and emergency exits resembled the underworld.

More and more people are gathering to smoke. In addition to mid-term and final exams, Binhai No. 6 Middle School also has monthly exams. There is no such thing as a diagnostic test. The fast class finishes all high school courses in the second year of high school, and the rocket class finishes all courses in the first semester of the second year of high school. There is one exam per month, but the mid-term and final exams are the big exams and the monthly exams are the small exams. The exams go directly to the college entrance examination.

As we all know, the gods do not answer people's prayers, except for the one you had when you were in your senior year of high school.

People who smoke in fire escape routes are capable of killing even the mothers of the gods.

Especially for high school seniors, some even have recipes that include nuts and deep-sea fish.

What medication have you been taking lately?

"Ginkgo biloba extract EGb761, I don't know where my mom got it from, but it's quite effective."

"Wow, this is high-tech! I'll just get some Omega-3 fatty acid capsules and vitamin tablets. Auntie is too authoritative."

The fire escape was filled with a cheerful atmosphere, as the pressure of the upcoming monthly exams dispelled some of the anxiety and gloom permeating the violent smoke.

Fang Yan came here not primarily to smoke, but also because the place was rather dark and creepy, filled with high school seniors who seemed to be obsessed with something. His main purpose was to find Wang Ying.

Sure enough, right here, they were still smoking Hongtashan cigarettes.

I want to ask you something.

"You can ask me anything."

"It's about Luo Di from No. 10 Middle School. Have you had any contact with him?"

"Of course not, he's a very mysterious man. Only the administrator has seen him, and we've met in person."

After listening to what Wang Ying said, Fang Yan read the same immediate thought process.

To gather information about Roddy, we might need to start with the people he's monitoring, specifically what kind of mind control they're subjecting to.

Luo Di might still be a powerful henchman of the Soul-Sucking Lord, essentially someone monitoring thousands of people and keeping them on a predetermined path, belonging only to the worldline desired by the Soul-Sucking Lord.

"Don't you find it strange? All his resources are of master-level clarity, and the frame rate hasn't been compressed by the website. It's like first-hand resources, like he filmed it on location."

"It is indeed subtle, but I have heard that he has won an award in ACM. He is quite a genius. In any case, as long as it is shared for free, it is a heroic debut."

"Nothing is free; everything has an invisible cost."

"Tell me."

“Something important disappeared in the process, along with some accumulated negative emotions.”

"Isn't this a good thing?"

"Damn, this seems like a really good thing, but wait... something still doesn't feel right. Have you ever heard of the 21-day rule for forming a habit? People develop path dependence. Because they don't actually reach base, after creating a completely dependent environment, some metaphysical things are erased, and a certain masculine quality is spiritually castrated. If you have to say what Roddy gained, maybe he's the king of the board, and he wants to lower the score line of Binhai to raise his own cut line, which also makes it easier for him to pick up girls. One more captain means one more girl."

"Damn, this is confusing me. Is it challenging my values? It does make sense, and there's a possibility. But... have you already overcome that hurdle? To be honest, the idea of ​​castrating male traits is really disheartening."

Wang Ying pointed to the group of senior high school students listening in. Fang Yan's words had made many of them feel down, and everyone present was an older captain.

"Of course not, I'm terrible at attracting women."

Fang Yan spoke the truth.

"Forehead……"

Wang Ying and the rest of the group were speechless.

"It's just strange. Humans have become different from the pure 'flesh and blood.' Functional, productive flesh and blood have replaced the human body from a natural, materialistic perspective. Machines have become internalized into the body, electronic devices are a second brain, input methods are a second sex organ, and as for the eyes, you know, they belong to the second mucosal cortex that stimulates the central nervous system. Everything is like some kind of surveillance concentration camp. Only by castrating animals in this way can the flesh and blood be free of any fishy smell." Fang Yan took a drag of his cigarette, somewhat surprised that he had blurted out these words.

Wang Ying was somewhat stunned, recalling the mind-control remarks this person had made in the convenience store earlier: "Actually, sometimes I'm quite afraid of you. Ever since the Lamborghini incident, I've discovered a key element."

The idea that money can buy sexual resources seems immoral and contrary to basic human needs. However, what is quite counterintuitive is that without this prerequisite, under the control of armed groups, the vast majority of people would completely lose their animal instincts for survival and reproduction. We are indeed irresistibly drawn into a set of rules, but we are dialectically interdependent.

We've strayed a bit from the topic. Let's return to the initial question: keep fighting. This is our only way to fight against this cruel world, until we reach the end of the world, the end of these rules, the cold wonderland of the technician and the princess.

After Wang Ying finished speaking, all the senior high school students sighed, realizing that people like them had no youth, only studying.

"Where did I come from? Is this still Binhai No. 6 Middle School?"

A senior high school student complained, "No wonder he's called Brother Ying. He's become a philosopher. Only by getting into university and finding a good job can one escape this cruel fate. Even if you don't have the mind of a scientist or a near-scientist, it's still just as bad."

"What a... cold and icy wonderland."

Fang Yan was speechless. What a wonderful... dialectical interdependence. It sounded perfectly reasonable. Was he just overthinking it?

Whether the current worldline is some kind of natural phenomenon or controlled by the Lord of Souls is something I can't perceive because I'm on this worldline.

wrong……

My starting point was completely wrong. The Soul Master's goal was not to control humanity; that was just one of the means. The ultimate goal was to become the axis of the historical process. What the historical process was like or what society was like was completely irrelevant.

Because society itself is a false convention, existing only as a spiritual concept, while the real world consists only of individuals.

Anarchy, feudal emperors, Mad Max: Fury Road, it doesn't matter what.

As long as it's the most efficient and effective, that's fine.

Fang Yan felt as if he had found the [gun] he needed for the Deer Hunting Game, the [gun] that had been confiscated by the Lord of Souls, but he also felt as if he hadn't found it.

Looking at the data jumping around on the Retina UI.

[Soulfire Strength: 315 Joules.]

Peak intensity: 1332 joules.

【Soulfire Trait: 8@#$%^&*】

He possesses a gun, but what exactly is this gun?

The school bell rang, and the students went back to class.

"Keep leading, and the road will continue to extend; do not enter gently into that good night."

Seeing that Fang Yan was under too much academic pressure and was somewhat mentally confused, Wang Ying said that he was still too young in his second year of high school and that hell lay ahead. After saying this earnestly, he left the fire escape.

Fang Yan completely ignored the school bell and continued to stay in the fire escape, turning on his phone to spy on [Earth Defense Base]-9.

Earth Defense Base...

Perhaps I am the terrorist.

The eerie light from the EXIT emergency exit shone on Fang Yan's face.

Everything was too secretive and roundabout. As for not being able to find out who the real murderer was, the puppet became the target, and the substitution was a case of mistaken identity.

(End of this chapter)