Volume 14: Devastation Chapter 726 Super Eclipse
The meeting soon ended in a bad mood, but after everyone's projections were turned off, one person stayed.
The third "Queen" is Demeter.
She is one of the crew members that Ke Lan deals with the most, but in Ke Lan's heart, she is not someone who can be trusted 100% - her shadow is behind the meme infection incident... This seemingly dignified and steady lady is an out-and-out radical at heart.
"Lady Demeter, do you have something to tell me alone?" Ke Lan stood up and walked towards her virtual projection.
"If the vote remains tied, the existence of the crew council will lose its meaning. We will become like the administrative agencies of the old era, filled with factional struggles and mutual constraints. Everyone is pursuing their own selfish interests, efficiency is low, and decision-making is unclear... If this continues, human civilization will inevitably decline." Demeter said to Ke Lan seriously.
Hmm... these words have a bit of the flavor of an iron lady...
Ke Lan nodded in agreement and asked, "So what do you decide to do?"
"We must strike this balance," Demeter said. "If voting can't solve the problem, then we will solve the people who voted."
"Solve... the people who voted?"
"As long as the opposition camp loses one member... even if the Fool takes the stage again, it will be impossible to tie the votes."
Hearing Demeter say this, Ke Lan's eyes twitched violently.
Did she mean to assassinate someone? Kill an Undead Crew member from the opposition camp...
Pan's death caused an imbalance between the two camps, but Ke Lan's joining and the Fool's fate brought the balance back again... and now, Demeter is planning to break the balance again through assassination.
"If you want to break the deadlock, you must use drastic measures." Demeter said seriously.
You call this a thundering move? Ke Lan couldn't help but complain in his heart... Assassinate a member of the opposition, and then decide the winner through voting?
Is this woman brainless? Or is she completely crazy?
Did she think that when she broke the rules to make them work in her favor, the other party would still foolishly continue to abide by the rules?
Has she considered the consequences of doing this?
If more members of the Undead Crew die in assassination, there is a high probability that the two factions will openly split... The Ark will instantly fall into the abyss of civil war. The destruction brought by the civil war is far beyond the reach of an "Alexander". No matter which side wins in the end, human civilization will eventually decline in a very short time.
Let's take a step back and say that even if the other party does not choose to break up with them directly, we can assassinate the members of the villain party, and the opposition can also assassinate the members of Ke Lan's camp - I kill one of yours, and you kill one of mine... Does it make sense to do this?
The real thundering method should be to find out who are the traitors among the villains, and then uproot all the traitors before the other party can react, nip all signs of resistance in the bud, and let all the subsequent plans of the traitors fail in the womb - this is called thundering method.
As for Demeter's plan...
To say that she was narrow-minded was flattering her. Ke Lan could only describe her in two words: "reckless and stupid."
"I don't think this is a good idea," Ke Lan said. Since they were allies in the same camp, he gave Demeter some face and didn't say anything so harsh.
"Anything that breaks the rules of the game will only make the Undead Crew Association an organization that exists in name only... Is this the situation you want to see?" Ke Lan asked her.
"But they were the first to break the rules," Demeter retorted, "whether it was colluding with the heretical sects or secretly trying to kill Pan...we are now in a passive position. If we can't take back the initiative as soon as possible, our situation will only get worse."
"It's not wrong that you want to take back the initiative, but can you answer a few questions for me first?" Ke Lan stared at the eyes of Demeter's virtual projection and asked word by word: "Why did the Undead Crew send special forces to blow up the 'engine wreckage' built all over Alpha? What was the original function of these 'engine' wreckage? Yes, Alpha civilization, how many secrets are you hiding that you haven't told me?"
There was a hint of evasion in Demeter's eyes, although it was only for a very short moment, but it was still captured by Ke Lan - virtual projection is different from cyborg, the projection program can perfectly reflect the user's subtle changes caused by emotional fluctuations, including facial expressions, eyes and micro-movements of the body ... The reason for this setting is that the members of the Undead Crew Club once believed that they should be honest with each other... But as time went on, everyone gradually learned their own secrets, and this projection device was less and less liked by the members of the Crew Club.
This is also the main reason why most people keep a poker face during voting meetings, and can't wait to turn off the projection after the voting is over.
The older they get, the thicker the masks they wear on their faces, and the stronger the barriers between them become.
After getting used to the masks, they will feel uncomfortable even if they take them off for a moment.
"Pathetic." This was Ke Lan's evaluation of them.
They want to portray themselves as high and mighty gods who are neither sad nor happy, but beneath the statue's golden and gorgeous shell, there is a stinking blood flowing called selfishness and conspiracy.
Ke Lan never considered himself as a member of the supporters... Before he figured out those secrets, he would not tie himself to the chariot of either side. He also knew very well that the reason why Demeter and the others were willing to help him was simply because he still had value to them.
A pure relationship of exploitation and being exploited.
"I cannot tell you these things." Demeter finally shook her head. "You are a symbiote, and you have been watched by Him before. Your body and consciousness have been deeply corroded. If you know those secrets now high probability that He will pay attention to you again... Even if He just glances at you out of the corner of His eye, your degree of corrosion may instantly exceed the safety threshold."
"How do we determine the progress of erosion ?" Ke Lan asked.
"There are no specific standards, and we can only rely on past experience to evaluate," Demeter replied.
"What will happen if the safety threshold you mentioned is exceeded?"
"I don't know." Demeter shook her head slowly.
"You don't know? Are you kidding?" Ke Lan was a little stunned. His first reaction was that the other party didn't want to tell him the truth, but judging from the micro-expressions of Demeter's virtual projection, she seemed to be telling the truth.
"When the degree of erosion exceeds the safety threshold, there will be many situations, and there is no pattern to follow." Demeter explained, "Some people will die suddenly; some people will turn into monsters like the Seed of Erosion and the Fusion; and some people will have reactions similar to the Black Cardinal's sacrifice ceremony. The most special one in the record is a symbiote... Yes, it is the same kind as you and Leininger (the Prophet). He exceeded the safety threshold of the degree of erosion forty-seven minutes after his body matured, and the whole person instantly exploded into a ball of blood mist... But two seconds later, he quickly returned to human form. During this gap, he was even able to call for help from the experimenters, but soon he turned into blood mist again... This cycle was repeated a total of 258 times. When he exploded into blood mist for the 259th time, he was no longer able to restore his human form."
"It sounds like a scary ghost story." Ke Lan gave a very pertinent comment.
"Except for you and Leininger, the direct or indirect cause of death of all other symbiotes is because the degree of erosion has exceeded the safety threshold. We named this situation 'super-eclipse'... The specific state of each 'super-eclipse' is very different, and only a small part is repeated."
"In other words, 'Super Eclipse' is equivalent to opening a blind box, and it is a blind box whose prize pool is not public, right?" Ke Lan rubbed the stubble on his chin like an old dog and said with a frown.
"You can understand it that way."
"Since Leininger and I are the only two survivors among this group of 'symbiotes', maybe that means we are special?" Ke Lan originally wanted to say that he was the "chosen one", but in the end he didn't say it out loud because he was too shy.
"You are no different from other symbiotes. You are just lucky." Demeter glanced at him and said unhappily, "In fact, during the East 9th District incident, when you used the 'Holy Word' for the first time, three warships at an altitude of 20,000 meters already aimed their main guns at you. Once you enter the 'super eclipse' state, the plasma cannons will immediately eliminate you."
"It seems that my life has always been under your surveillance." Although he had guessed it a long time ago, he was still a little unhappy after hearing Demeter say it herself.
"Of course." Demeter admitted readily.
"When my fiancée and I were doing that, were you guys watching?"
Demeter did not answer the question directly, but changed her statement: "We are always monitoring Zofia Soma's physical condition. If she shows any pregnancy reaction, we will take emergency measures-"
"Emergency measures? Do you mean installing explosive anklets on my fiancée's feet?" Ke Lan's tone was filled with a hint of anger. If Demeter was using a biochemical body instead of a virtual projection, Ke Lan would have probably grabbed the other person by the collar.
Dr. Renee's backer is Demeter, which Pan told Ke Lan in the underground ice storage.
"You don't want...your fiancée to give birth to a monster after ten months of pregnancy, right?" Demeter said calmly, "In your mind, you have always been a member of the human race, which is good...but you can't ignore the fact that there are huge differences between your genes and those of normal humans. We can't even rule out the possibility of reproductive isolation between you and humans."
"What about the memetic contagion incident?"
"That incident was Smith's fault. I only gave him a certain degree of authority and did not allow him to directly fuse your cloned cells with the cells of the Seed of Erosion. It was his impatience that led to the disaster."
Ke Lan sneered: "Haha, you're really good at passing the buck..."
"I am not shirking responsibility. I am just stating the facts. And I have also assumed my responsibilities. For specific details, you can check the process records of the accountability procedure initiated against me by the crew not long ago." Demeter said.
"Can't we just give it a try? I mean...'Super Eclipse'." Ke Lan did not continue the previous topic, "Perhaps, that insignificant amount of information will not attract 'Him''s' attention."
"As a member of the Undead Crew, we can't take that risk."
"What if I voluntarily give up my membership in the Undead Crew?"
"That won't work either. First, if you're not a member of the Undead Crew, you're not qualified to know those secrets. Second, you're the last 'symbiote' left in the world. You can create greater value for human civilization if you stay alive. Using your life to conduct such a risky and meaningless experiment, this resolution will not be passed."
"I don't even have the right to kill myself, do I?"
"Yes."
