Overturned Tower

In the end, no corner can find peace and survive this chaos.

——It is the same as the disaster of chaos that Seven Sky Island is facing now.

"Strictly speaking, it's not a war between the 'church' and the 'mage tower'. It's a war between the mage tower and all the anti-mage camps—the church is just the biggest and the only one that persisted to the end."

Huachu looked at the sea outside the window and sighed: "Actually, the Tower of Babel has different views and evaluations on this war.

"Because we all come from different lineups. And our consensus is that we need to do our best to prevent this war that should not exist."

"Then... what about you, Huachu?"

Russell turned his head and looked at the elf girl beside him: "Which side are you from?"

"I'm not the same as them," Hua Chu said, "I think this war is destined to come.

"Because it was the old man's death that triggered the war... It was only a report from the Medicine Association that caused the conflict between the church and the mages. But in fact, it was the long-term The grievances and grievances that have been piled up since then are the fire of innovation that people are looking forward to.

"The conflict between those who 'hope for the end of the mage era' and the party who 'do their best to maintain the mage era' is becoming more and more antagonistic. Even if there is no Medical Doctors Association, there will always be other associations; without this old man , there will always be another old lady; instead of these young people, there will be other old people; if not in that year, there will be the next.

"We can't stop this from happening. This is the tide of the times."

Huachu's delicate face is like a doll - it is the first time that she has uttered such serious words that fit her status as a scholar, instead of the frivolous words that were full of wickedness before.

"In the end, the intensification of the war is also doomed and inevitable. The mages are extremely resolute and will never retreat; and the church has no room to retreat. As long as they lose the battle, they will be completely wiped out. The inevitable decline The church finally used the 'nuclear weapon' they unearthed from the ancient ruins. The Mage Tower, which was severely beaten, finally went crazy-since the members of the church hidden in the folk are hard to distinguish, and almost all the people tend to the church On one side, they simply began to use large-scale spells to directly attack civilians who were unwilling to enter the mage tower.

"These civilians who enter the control area of ​​the Mage Tower are a kind of hostage. The nuclear weapon strike used against the church is also a monopoly on materials and labor—that is a scorched earth tactic. In order to cut off the church's ability to obtain food and other resources , the mages cast a curse on the original farming area and forest area.

"The land is poisoned and dry, and can no longer produce food. There is not even a single weed on the original grassland. The forest is full of poisonous swamps, and the trees have become deformed and poisonous. Even mosquitoes, snakes and ants have been strengthened and carried A deadly virus. The church was once forced to eat ant cakes and eat soil to survive... So they were forced to withdraw from the land and retreat to the sea. At least the ocean was not cursed at that time, and there was not too much radiation .

"And the church also retaliated - they still dropped nuclear weapons on the mage tower. There are only a dozen high-standard mage towers that can survive the nuclear attack, but they can't shelter the civilians outside the mage tower. And with A large number of civilians died, and the mages were also trapped inside the mage tower.

"As both sides stopped avoiding civilians, the war instantly entered another tragic intensity. Originally, people could still live as usual and watch the excitement... But since then, almost everyone has been forced to be displaced , fleeing from his hometown—or being destroyed silently by unknown means.

"Such 'polite aircraft' have not been used since the middle of the war. Since then, their purpose has only been to 'destroy each other'."

"...It sounds like it should be a very painful memory."

"Yes. It was pain beyond words."

Hua Touch said softly: "All my relatives and friends were missing or died in that war. It might be lucky if they died in the war... because the ensuing plague and famine are even more terrifying.

"Those who are hungry eat each other, those who have supported until now betray each other. Doubt and pain sweep the land, everyone regrets where he stood before, almost all regrets the side he chose, no one is free from hatred and curses , those who shed blood and tears knew that they had no way out - all they had in their eyes was victory."

The flight is still flying at low altitude, and the land is already in sight.

The deep blue sea is calm, while the lush forest can already be seen from a distance on the land.

And when their aircraft flew a little closer, Russell could see the deep ravines carved into the ground like terrible scars.

Those lands are gray.

Lost color, also lost life.

Covering a range of several kilometers, it looks like a burn scar on a human body.And forests avoid them because they cannot grow from those "scars".And looking down from the sky, the forest that was originally full of vitality is as ugly as the hair left on the head of a middle-aged man with alopecia areata.

"Sometimes, I wonder.

"Perhaps the world I love has been destroyed since then. What is born from the destroyed civilization is not a flower, but an ugly sore."

The soft sound of the flower touch is like the broadcast of background music.

Russell, who was still in the form of Alice, held hands with Huachu.Her hands are very cold, reminiscent of jelly.

"--look."

At this moment, Russell suddenly pointed to the earth: "Is that where human beings gather?"

It was an extremely small village in the depths of a very few, gathered forests.Smoke rises slowly, and medieval-like wooden and stone houses are scattered in the narrow living space.

"...It should be the sinners who were exiled to the ground, or the miners who escaped. It may also be the aborigines on the ground... who knows."

Hua Chu took a serious look, but was not interested.

"I mean," Russell said softly, "Look at them, there is nothing... Outside the narrow gathering point, there is dead land. There are no animals in the forest, and there are still monsters wandering outside..."

"That's Radbeast and Chimera."

Huazhi's pupils were full of sarcasm: "The monsters that appeared due to the radiation of the church and the curse of the mage... Some of them are beasts, and some are humans."

"Yes. Whatever it is—someone's still alive, isn't it?

"They can't even see hope, but they are still living tenaciously. They are not trying to survive, but they know the difficulties and pains of life, and still choose to live seriously.

"Because to live is hope, and to continue is everything—because just being alive is better than being dead."

Russell's voice fell, and the aircraft crossed the mountain.

Huazhi suddenly opened his eyes wide.

After flying over this mountain, scattered human gathering places suddenly increased.

Not one or two...but a dozen, more than 20.

There are not many people in each gathering place, and the technology of all gathering places is underdeveloped.Villages, small towns... There are no large-scale gatherings, but they are still alive.And they are still alive and well, and their lives are on the right track.

Some children pointed at the low-altitude aircraft, some fled back to their simple houses in fear, and some shouted as hard as they could.

at dusk.Dusk draws near.Cooking smoke curled up.

They are still living on the ground, and they are still working hard to continue the human civilization of the earth age.

Chapter 26 Russell: I'm a little confused

As the Tower of Babel flew—or glided, it gradually began to approach the ground.

The pictures captured by the spherical camera became clearer, and the ground under Russell and Huayu's feet began to "become transparent".

"Want to see it more clearly?"

Huachu turned her head and saw Russell staring intently at the ground, so she said, "You can tell it directly to let it zoom in a little bit—the head portrait of a deer, zoom in a little closer."

"...Is there no internet here? Can the deer head figure also control the facilities here?"

Russell raised his head and asked in surprise.

He thought it was Huatouch or some automatic system that controlled the "Tower of Babel".As a result, Hua Chu was sitting beside her like this, she was really a passenger just like herself...

"The deer head can't speak now, so don't ask her."

The smirk appeared on Huachu's face again: "After all, there is no device here that can synthesize sound, as a program virus, even if she hears it, she can't talk to you directly.

"At that time, there was no artificial intelligence technology as advanced as it is now. But as early as the Islamic War, the computer had been re-invented by church scholars for a period of time-but we called this 'personal terminal for computing' at that time. Use It is used to distinguish it from equipment such as 'personal terminal for divine descent', 'personal terminal for treatment', and 'personal terminal for combat'."

"...It turns out that the Cyber ​​Church at that time was already so cyber." Russell was a little surprised.

"The church is the biggest pusher of electronic technology—you know, mages don't need this kind of thing. Spells are not something that can be optimized through calculations, and only when this extraordinary power is in their hands can mages use it have a transcendent status.

"In the same way, the power of the nobles lies in their taxation of the people; the power of the ministers lies in their management of business, military, agricultural and other activities. Inventions that can improve personal combat effectiveness and productivity without control are unreasonable. Conducive to maintaining the kingdom's rule.

"For example, the factory assembly line - the scale, output and type of production that all factory owners can open, as well as the number of employees that can be recruited, were strictly limited. There were also some transnational armed frictions on land back then, and firearms technology Maybe even more developed than it is now. And the control of firearms is not much stronger than it is now.

"At the time, even armor, horses, and everything weighing more than a kilogram were strictly regulated.

"When I was traveling around the mainland, there was a classic joke - that is, the best weapon is a one-handed sword weighing 0.9 kilograms. And how to restrain the opponent? The answer is to hang a weighted ball on the handle of the opponent's sword , and then you can report the other party.

"After that, law enforcement officers in armor, riding huge horses, armed with rifles and heavy hammers will rush to arrest him."

Huazhu felt a little emotional: "The church was not called the Cyber ​​Church at that time, and there was no such thing as 'cyber ascension'. Their ideas may be a bit simple now... They hope that through the research of automated assembly line technology, the factory can only One person can easily do the work of ten people. That way, people don't have to work endlessly."

"...Then won't you be unemployed?"

"Indeed. But the scholars of the church realized this after they invented this technology. But after discussing it, they found that this problem cannot be solved-as long as they promote technological development and iteration, it will inevitably be accompanied by Unemployment of old workers. But as long as the technology is promoted, most people can benefit from it.

"So the church has another way of thinking... They plan to develop a generation-dating technology that allows society to fully iterate, making everyone's work meaningless. In other words, they don't plan to promote new technologies from generation to generation. , Continuously eliminate old workers, but intend to make up a technology 50 or 100 years in advance, so that everyone can relearn new technologies equally, and achieve fairness through this method.

"—and they can actually do it. Because they are not 'inventions' in the strict sense from scratch. Back then, 'archaeology' was a taboo subject, but there were always people involved. Because the ancient technology and documents unearthed from the ruins are sold to scholars, and they can always be sold at an astonishingly high price.

"This kind of 'adventurer' is the easiest profession for ordinary people to reach the sky in one step. And it is because there are a lot of ancient technologies as a reference, and there is no practice to optimize these technologies, so the technology on the church side is so advanced ...and the subtle ones aren't very practical."

"It's a bit outrageous to say yes." Russell looked down at the ground, and replied somewhat absent-mindedly.

"really."

Hua Chu agreed: "I think so too."

She noticed Russell's distraction, so she followed Russell's gaze and looked to the ground: "Oh...you are watching them kneel down to you.

"Why, looking down on mortals who are as small as ants, will it make you think of yourself as a god?"

"I just think..."

Russell stared at the land and whispered: "Their eyes are full of hope and fear at the same time. It's very strange."

"It's normal."

Huazhu said lightly: "You were born on Sky Island, so you don't have any idea about this.

"But for those who have been on land since birth, feel the scarred earth, and barely survive the authority of nature, they can only rely on the 'books' that still existed in the land era, or the traditions and simple traditions handed down by word of mouth. For savages who barely maintain civilization with the knowledge they need...

"Now you are a real god. You are a clean angel who was born in the God Realm and descended from the God Realm."

"—It's not just that."

Russell suddenly said: "In their blood... there is an unconcealable fear of flying machines of this shape.

"More than 100 years have passed...In this difficult living environment, those who witnessed the war have long since died. But they will do their best to leave behind the knowledge and technology they mastered in the once 'brilliant' civilization. And they It also passed on the destruction brought about by this type of aircraft when it landed.

"That's why people kneel down and pray. It's not a prayer for the gospel and salvation, but a prayer for me not to destroy them..."

Getting close to this distance, Russell could easily sense the emotions stirring in the hearts of those people on the ground.

That was a "frequency" Russell had never been exposed to.

Compared with the people of Sky Island, their minds become simple and dull.It's not like the Sky Islanders, who can turn their minds back and forth in just a moment... When they think, fear, pray, and kneel, their emotions change and fluctuate so slowly.

They have adapted to this land with no new changes, and even the way of thinking has coexisted with the slow-paced nature.It's like their "evolution" in just a hundred years, the body naturally shut down part of the brain's authority to reduce the body's energy consumption and save resources.

Even in such a humble and arduous life—even in a place where it is extremely difficult to survive, people are praying to the "God" for the continuation of life, and doing their best to pass on even a little bit of "civilization".

But the so-called "gods" fight each other to the death and destroy each other because of those empty hatred, fear, jealousy, and greed.

"I'm a little confused, Huachu."

Russell murmured in a low voice: "Which side is... people?"

Chapter 27 Dragon

"No matter which side is the person, the first thing you should pay attention to is the person around you."

Hua Touch reminded: "Think carefully - you must first be kind to the people around you before you can consider such a grand topic."

She was sent out by the head of the deer, not entirely because of the reason "she used to live on the ground".The more reason is that she is indeed a psychiatrist for the Tower of Babel.

After the deer head figure judged that Russell had come into contact with the truth on the ground, his mind would definitely fluctuate violently.

In order to prevent him from being like a sheath, she specially sent the best psychiatrist to accompany him this time—after all, Russell is also Wendy's child.It is perfectly reasonable for the deer head to be so worried.

Moreover, considering Russell's current status and ability, if he fell ill, the damage he would cause would be much higher than Wendy's.

"...Indeed, you are right."

Russell calmed down a bit: "If I have to say it, I'm actually most sorry for Delphinium. She is obviously pregnant, but I sent her a very troublesome task when she needed company the most."

"No, you are wrong."

Hua Chu replied calmly: "It's better than letting her watch from the sidelines. You have never copied or invaded Delphinium's mind, so you thought you didn't understand her, thought you were sorry for her...but you have already Gradually understand her.

"She is a strong and confident woman. She doesn't need your protection, she wants to protect you. She will only be happy when you entrust her with a heavy responsibility. It's better than letting her watch from the sidelines— She is not a vase.

"... But having said that, you still have to apologize to her afterwards. Because although she doesn't need your protection, she will want your company."

"you're right."

Russell nodded.

His mind became a little quieter, and he no longer hesitated because of that kind of wild thinking.

Russell tried to sink his heart slowly, submerging his mind in the subconscious sea of ​​these "savages", looking for more information.

Only then did Russell clearly realize how the war had changed them, the "abandoned".

——The sea of ​​group subconsciousness of these people on the ground is even cut off from those "Sky Islanders".The sea of ​​their group subconscious is so dry... like a yellow, muddy pond.Just fluctuating the water surface may cause the deep sediment to surge up.

...and indeed.