Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 917 Desire and Fear
"That is a misunderstanding of His gift by the ignorant," Neto answered decisively.
"Then can you give me a detailed description of the highly chaotic time and space in Genting? Maybe I will give up the idea of entering Genting." Ke Lan tempted.
Neto hesitated for a few seconds, as if he was calculating how credible Ke Lan's words were, and then he said, "The space at the top of the cloud is divided into many pieces, and each piece of space is independent of each other . It is not necessarily possible to reach the adjacent space through normal means of movement, and it is possible to directly 'jump' to a very far place. In addition, the time of each space fragment is different. The time flow rate of some space fragments is synchronized with the real world, and the time flow rate of some space fragments is only a few to tens of thousands of times that of the real world. The most dangerous are those space fragments where time is completely stagnant."
"Why are those space fragments where time is completely stagnant the most dangerous?" Ke Lan asked, "Is it because these space fragments have remained in the state of 500,000 years ago, and the power belonging to Him in them has hardly dissipated?"
"This is only part of the reason, but not the main reason." Nieto said, "Once you mistakenly enter those stagnant time and space, your body and consciousness will be frozen in an instant, and you will never be able to escape from it... just like the background when you use the 'time stop' ability."
"Can these completely stagnant space-times be observed? For example, if I shoot a bullet into one of them, and suppose the bullet enters one of the completely stagnant space-times, then at a normal flow rate of time, can I observe the bullet solidified in mid-air?" Ke Lan asked.
"In theory, yes, but in practice it won't work," Neto said, "because the connection position of each space debris is changing all the time. Suppose you shot a bullet horizontally at the twelve o'clock direction last second, and observed that the bullet passed through the space debris at a normal speed. But when you move to the twelve o'clock direction this second, you will not necessarily enter the space where the bullet entered, but there is a high probability that you will be teleported to a new space debris."
"Is there a pattern in the changes in the connections between space debris?"
"There is absolutely no pattern, everything is random." Neto said, "Also, as you said, there is a lot of power belonging to Him left in Yunding. Whether His power fades is also a completely random event. It is not necessarily safe in a place where space and time are completely normal... I suggest you give up. No matter for the benefit of either side, you should not enter Yunding."
"You were wishing I would die not long ago, why are you talking to me in such a negotiating tone now? Is artificial intelligence so cowardly?" Ke Lan joked. Although this kind of question was meaningless, as long as it could consume Neto's computing power, he didn't mind talking trash to this artificial intelligence all day long.
"According to the calculation results, the resources I currently have cannot achieve the goal of eliminating you, but may lead to my own destruction, so I must choose to protect myself. The priority of this order is higher than killing you." Neto's answer sounded a bit confusing, but at least it was very straightforward. He was not like those riddlers who would like to go around in circles for a dozen times before saying a sentence, and only realize that it was nonsense after the listeners figured it out. Such people are just like those unscrupulous online novel writers who write 1,900 words of a 2,000-word chapter with water.
However, reading spam online articles is a waste of money. If you are unhappy, just click the cross in the upper right corner. On the contrary, every sentence said by these riddlers may be related to life and death. Even if you know that 90% of them are nonsense, you still have to chew over every word over and over again. This is the most frustrating part.
"Then can you tell me what consequences will occur if I break into Genting?" Ke Lan asked.
Nieto did not answer.
"Are you unwilling to tell me because you're worried that I might cause trouble?" Ke Lan tapped the metal cylinder in front of him twice with his index finger. Surprisingly, ripples appeared on the surface of the cylinder like water, spreading out in all directions with the tapping point as the center.
"No," Neto said, "It's just that nothing can be predicted, so I can't give an answer. Even if I use all my power, I can't calculate one ten-thousandth of what might happen after you enter Cloudtop... That is a miracle created by His power, and it is not something that mortals can guess at will."
"Okay, let's not ask about the cloud top, let's ask something you know." Ke Lan turned around and glanced at the pink flesh around him with a threatening look, "What's going on with the dome in the upper city? If I look up, what will I see?"
Nieto remained silent.
"I suggest you answer it. The secrets related to the dome should not have a lower priority than your own safety, right?" The tentacles condensed from the living armor wrapped around the engineering shovel shot in, instantly sinking into the pink flesh, and then fiercely gouged off a large piece of flesh. But when the spurting blood was about to splash on Ke Lan, a layer of physical protective shield as thin as a cicada's wing, which was also condensed from the living armor, appeared in front of Ke Lan, blocking all the blood rain.
"I may not have the courage to enter Genting, but I can definitely kill you... You should know better than me what the chances of me being retaliated against are... I think we can take a gamble and see who between you and me can win the prize... What do you think?" Ke Lan continued to threaten.
"...Okay, I can tell you about the dome." Neto finally chose to compromise.
There wasn't much content related to the dome, only a dozen sentences in total, but the amount of information contained in these dozen sentences was more than a tome heavy enough to kill a person. Even with Ke Lan's brain power, it took him several minutes to digest and understand all the information.
Simply put, the dome was actually one of the sources of the disaster. Of course, this was only the source from Neto's perspective. In fact, the disaster should have first broken out at Cloudtop, but as a manager, Neto had no right to monitor the status of Cloudtop. So when the disaster first appeared in the upper city, no one except the owner of the nest knew what Cloudtop had become.
Let’s not talk about the cloud top for now. In the upper city, the first time the disaster appeared was the changes that appeared on the dome.
Unlike the rock-and-metal load-bearing frame domes of the bottom nest and industrial zone, the dome of the upper city was originally a complete weather simulation system. Just like the virtual skylight on the Ark, the dome of the upper city can restore the scene of the sky, including the rising and setting of the sun and the moon, the alternation of day and night, cloudy and rainy weather and snow, all of which can be perfectly simulated... As long as people living in the upper city don't deliberately think about things related to the hive, the scenes they see on a daily basis are not much different from those on the ground... They can even modify the weather and day and night at any time according to their needs.
Of course, not everyone has this authority. Generally speaking, this authority is in the hands of the big family that occupies the western half of the district. The powerful people in the eastern half of the district can only control the dome a few times a year... Although this authority has no practical effect, it is a symbol of status for the residents of the upper city. Even the first prize of the regularly held hunting competition includes the opportunity to control the dome, but the first prize has long been monopolized by the big family in the western half of the district, so this reward has become a tool for the children of that family to compete with each other.
On the day when the disaster struck, the entire dome instantly changed from day to night - this kind of failure has never occurred in the upper city, and before each change between day and night, the residents of the upper city will receive an advance notice... This time the change was too sudden, and the people who didn't know what was going on subconsciously looked up at the dome... Once they saw it, they could hardly take their eyes off it.
The scenes that Ke Lan saw in the jungle hunting ground were actually the scenes when the disaster struck - at that time, because the jungle hunting ground used an independent weather control system, it did not "fall" in the first time. Those who participated in the hunting competition did not know that at that time, outside the hunting ground, the entire upper city area had become a mess.
According to Neto, the power that being injected into the dome is called "desire and fear". Everyone who looks at the dome will see what they desire and fear most in their deepest consciousness.
For example, a person who is timid and lustful at heart sees countless indescribable beauties. Such a wonderful scene will make this person feel that even blinking an eye is a waste of this rare opportunity... But when he is completely immersed in his own desires, the faces and bodies of these beauties will gradually become distorted and turn into terrifying alien monsters...
But the most incomprehensible thing is the process of this change. The people who are looking at the dome know that the peerless beauties in their minds are turning into monsters, but every change seems to make these beauties more charming... Their waists will become more slender and soft, and the breathtaking perfect curve is enough to make people forget to breathe, but soon, this curve will exceed the scope of a normal human body, but those who are addicted to it are completely unaware of it. They will only feel that this is not enough, far from enough...
People with stronger willpower may suddenly realize that the beauty in front of them has turned into a monster, while people with weak willpower may have their cognition distorted and be completely attracted by the monster's twisted and deformed limbs.
If you still find it hard to understand, just imagine those pornographic pictures you have seen. Most people would find a proud 36D mountain attractive, but when this mountain expands infinitely like a malignant tumor, and even grows larger than the body of the owner of the mountain, this pornographic picture would probably be labeled as "curiosity-oriented".
But in the eyes of those people, what they saw was a scene that was hundreds, even thousands, or tens of thousands of times more bizarre than this kind of "curiosity-oriented" scene.
If a normal person takes a look at that kind of thing, even if he or she is not crazy, it will leave a serious psychological trauma in his or her heart... As for those whose cognition is distorted and who are completely immersed in it, they are the first group of people to become monsters.
His power will be exerted on these people through cognition, and this power can also be projected into reality through cognition. In layman's terms, it is "wishes come true" - those whose cognition is distorted will think that monsters are "beautiful", and at the same time they will become extremely eager for this "beautiful" form. Gradually, their bodies will change in this direction. The more distorted their cognition is, the more bizarre the monsters they turn into.
Of course, besides desire, there is also fear...
But this kind of fear will not make people with distorted cognition withdraw their consciousness from it, but will make them sink deeper and deeper... The fear that comes from the deepest part of the origin of consciousness is like desire, which will attract people to constantly explore it... The more fearful you are, the more you want to understand it.
There is a truth that will never be refuted: mankind’s greatest fear comes from the unknown.
Therefore, people will subconsciously think that as long as they can understand fear, they can get rid of fear... This is like knowing that they are injured and that their wounds have not healed yet, but they just like to pick off the newly formed blood scabs... Those people are obviously scared to death, but they keep digging out the fear deep in their hearts, making what they see become more terrifying and more abstract.
And their appearance in the real world becomes more terrifying and abstract.
During that time, it was normal for all kinds of monsters to appear on the streets of Upper Town... Anyway, for the survivors, as long as they saw anything that moved and had any difference in appearance from humans, it would definitely be a good idea to open fire directly.
This group of people were the first to be swallowed up by the disaster. While they were destroying the order of the hive, they were also constantly attacking the minds of the survivors... No matter how strong a person's mind is, it would be difficult for him to hold on for long in such a desperate environment when he sees the people around him turning into abstract monsters one by one. When the inner defense line is lost, it will not be long before he is swallowed up by the disaster.
If we were to talk about the most mentally resolute group of people in the hive, they would probably be the "tunnel dwellers" who escaped into the garbage tunnel.
But there was one thing Ke Lan couldn't figure out... why was the dome he saw... a starry sky?
The starry sky...is the thing he yearns for and fears the most in his subconscious?
Why?
