Crimson Embers Chapter 35: Liking to roll dice is a disease!
"This place is going to explode! Look at the lights extending from the ground. We are like standing on a sun. Maybe we will be melted in the next second."
While complaining harshly, Harley pressed the detonator to blow open the closed door in front of her.
With a loud bang, the little cutie rushed in carrying the X-metal hammer, followed closely by Rorschach and several other Masons.
They were fully armed and ready to deal with any enemy, but they rushed in aggressively and did not find any danger. Only Mason was waiting for them in the corridor ahead.
The captain smoked with a rather melancholy look. As the smoke flew, he looked at his companions and found that a few people were missing, so he asked:
"What about the others? Have the other Masons finally decided to abandon me and run away on their own?"
"Hey, you think you have a sense of humor, but this joke is not funny! Masons are always loyal!"
Engineer Mason shouted:
"They have taken antimatter bombs that can destroy the structure of a star to various places on this star. They will be deployed in a few minutes. Then you can give the order and we can blow up this damn place.
Although I don’t know what’s going on here, I can roughly guess from the rising energy levels and chaotic fluctuations in the time plane that this Doomsday Star is about to enter a damn activation process.”
"Yes, it has entered the 'sail' procedure."
Mason flicked the cigarette butt in his hand, clapped his hands, and said to the others:
“Once this place completes the resonance with the sacred timeline, the first cycle of the entire universe will begin, and we on this planet will be sent to a time when nothing has happened yet, and experience the beginning of the end times all over again.
If I'm lucky, I might even get to see myself being placed in the Weapon X bio-incubator."
"Then what are you waiting for?"
Harry's eyes widened as he said:
"Then let's go, we have to stop this from happening. I don't want to wait for my little sweetheart to grow up. By the time you're eighteen, I'll be over forty."
"You hesitated!"
Rorschach next to him understood Mason's hesitation at this time.
An angry expression gathered on the dark fluid mask on his face. He took a step forward, grabbed Mason's collar with both hands, and said in a hoarse voice:
"Do you think the beginning of this cycle is a good thing? Do you think you can repeat what you did in the outside world before all this happened, and get a 'perfect ending'?
They think so, and you too?"
Rorschach's actions triggered a reaction from others. Seeing that he was about to hurt Mason, Harley and Quinn immediately raised their weapons, but were stopped by the captain.
Mason stared at the mask of darkness swaying before him and said:
“I don’t deny, I do have this thought.
I came too late.
When I opened my eyes in this era, what I saw was a broken sea of stars. Many tragedies and disasters had already occurred before I intervened in the situation.
If we could do it over again, maybe we could save more people.
It may be a better way to end the crisis to extinguish the spark of the crisis before it happens. "
"madness!"
Rorschach scolded fiercely:
"They thought so too! They also wanted to go back to the past and solve all the problems before everything happened, and make up for all the regrets. That's why they created this circular system, but you have already seen their end.
The idea of going back to the past is itself a form of escape, and repeated attempts will only make things slide into a worse abyss.
Neither the past nor the future is under our control!
Only now!
I went through so much hardship and paid all to come here not to change the past, Mason. I never had such arrogant thoughts. What I want is very simple. I just want this damn conspiracy to end before my eyes.
I heard from Harley what you guys were doing out there.
That is the right thing to do. Facing reality instead of escaping from it and reshaping the future in the midst of desolation is what we should do.
Those who claim to have a perfect ending for everyone chose shortcuts, but facts have proven that shortcuts do not exist. I tried to stop this but I failed. You cannot repeat the same mistake.
You can’t create the future by dwelling on the past! Please… don’t make things worse.”
"There is no such thing as 'perfect' in the true sense, Mason."
The engineer also advised:
"If you allow the cycle to happen, you are putting your fate in the hands of others, and what we have seen along the way is enough for us to learn a lesson in this regard.
Relying on the favor of others will never bring any good results. You have to hold your destiny in your own hands.
They've tried this simulation thirteen times, and I don't think the guy behind all this has really learned anything from those failures, or the council wouldn't be in this state now."
"I'm not so naive as to ask for mercy from him."
Mason whispered:
"We will get rid of him and make Dr. Bluebird pay for what he has done, but perhaps we can take control of this cycle..."
"You mean you will replace Dr. Bluebird as the invisible person in the Council? You will lead all this and make the Council come into being, and the stars will appear?
Are you serious, sweetheart? "
Quinn stepped forward and stared into Mason's eyes. She asked:
"Are you going to make yourself the mastermind behind what you've been fighting? You're denying your own existence and all your past efforts... Listen to me, dear."
She took Mason's hand and whispered:
"I know you have many regrets. Although you have given everything along the way, you still feel that it is not enough. You want those lives that died in the disaster to have a happy ending, and those tragedies you have seen will not happen again.
But everything we have now is the best. Doom said he wanted to create a future but was unwilling to make the present better.
Do you remember how you refuted Old A? Those who always look up when walking will fall, and those who don't care about the present are not qualified to talk about the future.
Don't let their unrealistic ideas pollute your mind."
"Mason, listen to your wife!"
The hat on the captain's forehead made a blurry human face. The old hat said calmly:
"Harley is right, you should go all the way on this road instead of changing to a track that looks better. That won't make things better."
"But Hogwarts..."
Mason whispered:
"Don't you want to see your world escape from the doom? Don't you want to see you never disturbed or affected , and the little wizards and their families in that world don't have to experience an unforgettable destruction?
There is also Osborne Tower, the world of Jack and Elizabeth, the world of the old man and Martha, Utopia and my hometown... Old Peter no longer needs to experience separation of life and death, Barbossa can enjoy family happiness with his daughter, Little Flash does not need to carry the whole world and run until he is exhausted, and mutants do not have to go through more than ten years of hostility and killing with clones.
All that is lost will be made up, all that is regretted will be filled.
We have this opportunity, and it’s right in front of us.”
"But that also means we won't see you again..."
The old man made the final move with just a few words.
It says:
"If nothing had happened, then all of your stories and our stories would cease to exist, and I know that would be a good thing for a lot of people, but it would mean sacrificing everything you have now and everything we have from you.
Mason, no one wants to forget you, don't underestimate your position in others' hearts.
Listen to your wife, let's defeat Dr. Bluebird, end this cycle once and for all, and make everything we have now a stepping stone to the future.
We endured seventeen years of suffering in the apocalypse before we finally got you. Don’t you understand?
This circulation system is not the key at all.
You are the key.
Whoever punches him, this guy's mind must be disturbed! The Mason I know would never say such a thing as giving up. "
"Harley, where are you going?"
Quinn turned around and called out, but the angry Harley ignored her and just walked towards the end of the corridor with her dog, a baseball bat and explosives tied all over her body.
As she walked, she screamed:
"I'm going to kill that bastard! He bewitched my sweetheart and wanted her to give up his feelings and all our experiences, just to give those guys we don't even know the so-called happiness and perfect ending.
I don't want it!
I will never give up my own happiness, and I will beat up anyone who dares to stop me."
Everyone's eyes were on Mason. The captain curled his lips, reached out to push Rorschach's hand away from his collar, then reappeared next to Harley in the reconstruction of the water and grabbed her wrist.
The little cutie raised his head, stared at him with red eyes, and said fiercely:
"What? Are you going to stop me from being happy too? You bastard who wants to abandon us! Mason Cooper! You're a big bastard! Don't touch me! I'm angry."
"I have no intention of abandoning you."
Mason held Harley in his arms as she struggled and screamed.
He soothed the irritable little cutie, kissed her hair, and said:
"Well, I was just stupid. Maybe it was my expectation of perfection that never existed that made me ignore everything I already have."
"You said you would never abandon us, but it turns out you are a liar."
Harley hid in Mason's arms, wiping away her tears, and said coquettishly and complainingly:
"You must hate Quinn and me, and you want to use this opportunity to get rid of us. I won't trust you anymore. You are not allowed to touch those damn things. I will smash them to pieces with my own hands... bang"
Harley and Quinn took this opportunity to hit Mason's head from behind and in front at the same time, causing the captain to sway a few times and then shake his head vigorously.
He wasn't sure if he was really bewitched, but this heavy blow did make him much more sober.
"Thanks, my little cuties. I'll listen to you from now on."
Mason rubbed his head and looked at the engineer, who patted his bag and made an OK gesture, indicating that everything was ready.
"Let's go, everyone."
The captain let go of his fiancée and reached for the pistol at his waist.
The cold handle of this thing made the captain sigh in his heart. His destiny should be in his own hands, but he almost gave up the initiative just now.
This is certainly due to Mason's own persistent pursuit of certain things, but it is perhaps certain that this change in thinking should also be influenced by external factors.
After all, for an omnipotent being, plucking the strings of the soul is just a piece of cake, which undoubtedly made him angry.
Mason looked back at the people behind him, took a deep breath, and said:
"Let's get this over with."
Everyone responded in unison and walked towards the end of the long corridor.
There was a pale blue light shining there. That should be the circulation core mentioned by Tony Zero, the flashing energy light of Dr. Bluebird that could only be seen after the circulation process was started.
"Ah! Why isn't this guy wearing pants?"
The moment she rushed into the loop core, Harley covered her eyes and screamed, which made the momentum of sharing a common hatred against a common enemy become awkward in an instant.
But Harry was not wrong.
The guy who appeared in front of everyone was indeed not wearing pants. Not just pants, his entire body was naked, showing his perfect body lines in front of everyone. The golden ratio muscles formed a complete human body in the blue light, floating in the air with the embellishment of abundant energy.
In front of him was an energy model of the End Star, which was at the center of a more complex energy system.
He should be monitoring the process.
But he looked so familiar with it that it was definitely not the first time he had done this.
The circulation core itself is a special device embedded in the star body of the End Star. Countless complex parts and modules are constantly changing and combining in this spherical space like building blocks, just like the posture of a super-large instrument working at full speed.
According to Tony Zero, this is the "energy amplifier" they made for Dr. Bluebird, which strengthens his already exaggerated god-like abilities to the point where he can directly affect the origin of the universe. Only in this way can they fine-tune the entire universe at the level of the sacred timeline.
"Please wait a moment."
A calm and rational voice sounded in the spherical space, but it was not made by Dr. Manhattan through the vibration of his vocal cords. Perhaps he no longer needed that backward and extremely inefficient way of communication.
He said in that voice that goes straight to the heart:
"I still need a little bit of adjustment to return the influence you have exerted on the entire system to its original state. Only in this way can we ensure that the first reality cycle unfolds perfectly.
I have to say, Mason Cooper, that you, as an outsider, have had a profound and rapid impact on the entire system, which has forced me to spend more energy to complete this task which should have been very simple.
But I also have to thank you for helping me make up my mind in the end."
“Are you rolling the dice?”
Mason looked at Dr. Manhattan's actions and said:
"Rolling the same dice over and over again in the hope of getting a different result, do you know that this behavior is really sick?"
"Dice? Well, that's a good way of saying it. It not only explains how evil I am in your eyes, but it also uses the metaphor of God to make a mockery. I appreciate this way of saying it."
Dr. Bluebird turned around.
His eyes, emitting white light, stared at Mason and the people around him, lingered on Rorschach for a moment, and then focused on the captain's eyes.
This guy has an atomic mark on his forehead, which is probably the only embellishment he makes to his existence.
His naked posture was really indecent, especially the thing hanging down with a blue fluorescent light, which was enough to make this scene classified as restricted.
"I see disgust in your eyes, but I am not evil. Evil cannot describe my thoughts and actions. I just accept their invitation to try to change the past and try to challenge the future."
Dr. Manhattan explained very seriously:
"This is the job the council gave me, I can do it and I've performed it well."
"The Council didn't ask you to erase their memories after every simulation cycle!"
The engineer immediately retorted:
"Their plan was to learn from each failure so that the next attempt would be closer to the perfect ending they wanted to see, but you played a trick.
The experience gained from each failure will not be accumulated, which results in them repeating the same mistakes again and again. You just treat them as your guinea pigs.
Trying different solutions under your control only to get bad results...
In your words, change the past and challenge the future. ”
"No, you are using your own ideas to generalize my behavior, which will naturally lead to terrible cognitive biases."
Dr. Bluebird patiently corrected the engineer's mistake. He raised his hand and projected thirteen flashing images in the air. He said:
"I deleted their memories starting from the eighth cycle. Tony Zero didn't tell you everything. Before the seventh cycle started, he asked me to return all their memories to them.
I did so.
That's an observation too, but do you know what happened during that simulation cycle?
After obtaining all the looping memories, the council members failed to learn any lessons from them. Instead, their fragile and short-lived union fell apart within a few years.
Instead of using the lessons learned from the first six cycles to better advance their self-rescue plan, they used those technological reserves to complete the military upgrade and began the "Great Conquest" across the universe.
Their footsteps crossed the Milky Way and even approached the origin of the universe.
They wanted to control the power of disaster, but the end result was that in the starry sea of the origin of the universe, the aftermath of the attacks between the fleets of various forces hit the already fragile origin of the universe, and the energy that triggered the third impact in advance destroyed everything.
I tried to honor my agreement with them.
But the result was more tragic than any other cycle, so I made a judgment and hoped that the Council would not be able to change this era.
They are not saviors.
Their plan was perfect, but they ignored the chain reaction that would be caused by the superposition of human nature and power. In that one cycle simulation, the doomsday of destruction did not come from the will of the universe.
It’s themselves.”
Dr. Bluebird paused, shook his head and said:
"This is the essence of the simulation loop, because I can see the end of the universe, I can observe everything in all time branches and parallel planes at the same time, their struggles and resistance.
We should all be thankful that the first thirteen cycles only took place in the simulation and not in the real world. I saw the results, but they were all destruction without exception.
This outcome was destined when the universe was born.
No matter how brilliant the process is, it cannot change the final outcome. Rather than despair, they may prefer to enter the final bloom in a cycle full of hope.
I repeat this process over and over again not to hurt anyone.
I don't play dice either, Mason.
But now, the situation has changed, because your appearance has created new possibilities for the future, so I have made up my mind, because someone has already held the key to the future!"
Dr. Manhattan tilted his head and looked at Mason.
He held out his hand to the captain-general and said:
"I decided to help them and give everything I have in exchange for a perfect ending. I invite you to join me. Come on, Mason, savior, let's solve this doomsday from the source."
