Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 950: Torches
"I've always been like this." Ze Luo looked directly at Ke Lan and said, "Maybe I was too quiet during my hibernation, which caused your impression of me to be distorted by comparison."
"Let's skip this topic for now..." Ke Lan looked at Yaguna Kotor in the distance. He noticed that the surface of Yaguna Kotor was covered with a strange "coating". This coating was glowing dimly, like an energy shield with severely insufficient power supply.
"That's a one-way space barrier." Ze Luo said behind Ke Lan, "We can see Yaguna Kator, but the people on Yaguna Kator can only see what the space barrier wants them to see when they look out... Maybe they still think they are in the deep sea."
"It sounds a bit like the small dark room of the Security Bureau." Ke Lan whispered, but a trace of regret flashed in her eyes - the Security Bureau has a special 'interrogation room' used to detain suspects, which is called the "small dark room". The interior space of this small dark room is very small, and the people locked inside can't even bend over or squat. The door and three walls of the small dark room are made of one-way peep glass. If the light is on, the people inside can only see themselves in the mirror. If the light is off, it will be pitch black. People outside can clearly see the movements and expressions of the people inside...
In this environment, the detainees will be under tremendous psychological pressure. Coupled with a drug that can keep people awake and unable to sleep, almost no one can last more than a week in the small dark room. Combined with other torture methods used by the Security Bureau agents, even the hardest mouth can be pried open.
When mentioning this one-way space barrier, Ke Lan thought of Mo Jue - when she was being eroded, he had also used a one-way space barrier to trap her... Unfortunately, she was still an ordinary person after all, and from the moment her body began to mutate, her final fate was already determined.
"The owner of the nest city told me that the Tower of Babel has a control center that can open all the space channels connected to the Tower of Babel." Ke Lan said to Ze Luo, "I can't use my ability easily... Can you find it?"
"I'll try." Ze Luo closed her eyes. At this moment, Ke Lan could feel countless tentacles of thought extending in all directions with her as the center.
Compared to Asano Akira's mental tentacles, Ze Luo's detection radius is several kilometers away, covering almost the entire altar.
"Found it." Ze Luo opened his eyes and said, "From where we are facing, it's on the right side of the altar, at the 850th step, in the middle."
The shape of this altar is very similar to the flat-topped pyramids of the Mayan civilization, but its volume is many times larger than the Kukulkan Pyramid on Earth. The height of each "step" is more than ten meters... It seems to have been built by a group of giants over a hundred meters tall. The gate of the "temple" at the top is as high as two hundred meters.
However, compared with Yaguna Tor in the distance, this altar seemed a little "petite" - the space at the top of the Tower of Babel was very vast. Ke Lan could not see the boundary of the space inside the tower with his naked eyes. Looking into the distance, there was only a vast expanse of white. This kind of space technology was completely unimaginable for the Ark civilization.
Ke Lan soon arrived at the location that Ze Luo had found. On the flat steps, there was a sentence written in Alpha: "What is the mission of the Night Watchman?"
"Is it a question?" Ke Lan's fingers stroked the inscriptions on the words. Obviously, this was a test left by the Night Watchmen. Only those who passed the test could gain control of the control center of the Tower of Babel.
But the hive master did not tell Ke Lan about the existence of this test, let alone the answer.
"The mission of the Night Watchmen..." Ke Lan couldn't help but fall into deep thought, "Is it to fight against that existence's plan to create gods? Is it to continue the flame of civilization? Or is it to pass on the 'baton of time and space' in your hands?"
Logically speaking, it seemed that all these answers were correct, but Ke Lan subconsciously felt that there should be more accurate answers.
He didn't know how many chances he had to answer, but he didn't intend to try the "options" that had just popped up in his mind... He sat down cross-legged on the steps, tilted his head, supported his knees with one hand and his chin with the other.
"Night Watchmen..." Ze Luo squatted beside Ke Lan and murmured, "I seem to... know this group of people..."
"Of course you know, because you were created by them." Ke Lan responded casually.
"So am I a member of the Night's Watch?"
"You used to be an object, without an independent personality and consciousness, so you shouldn't be counted." Ke Lan said, "But now, since you regard yourself as a human being, I think..."
Ke Lan paused, thinking for a few seconds, and then said: "You should have the right to choose. But if you choose to become a member of the Night's Watch, you must assume the corresponding responsibilities and... and missions."
"What is the mission of the Night Watch?" asked Ze Luo.
The problem is back to square one.
"Yes..." The answer came to Ke Lan's lips several times, but Ke Lan just couldn't say it.
Subconsciously, he felt that he had found the correct answer, but his mind kept reminding him again and again that this "question" could not be so simple.
This is like an extremely difficult advanced mathematics test paper, where the last question at the end of the paper is "1+1=?", which makes people wonder if this is a trap.
"Have you guessed the answer?" Ze Luo looked at the question engraved on the steps, then looked at Ke Lan.
"The mission of the Night Watch... is... to live as a human being; or, to die as a human being."
A substance with a texture close to mercury poured out from the gaps in the engravings, gradually filling up the words... Then, the originally integrated steps cracked open with a gap about three meters wide, revealing a ball of light suspended in the air in front of Ke Lan.
"What does it mean to live as a human being?" Ze Luo asked curiously.
"To put it bluntly, it's actually very simple... You are a life created by the Alpha civilization. In the eyes of most people, you may be the crystallization of Alpha civilization's technology; you may also be a powerful super weapon; or you may be a terrifying monster... But the key lies in what you think you are."
"I want to be like you." Ze Luo said without hesitation, "When my consciousness was still in chaos, I could actually feel the things around me... I actually have some impressions of the Alpha civilization. From the perspective of you Ark people, their appearance may be a little scary... but their daily life is actually very similar to yours."
Ze Luo recalled: "At that time, I longed for such a life. I really wanted to be one of them... But at that time, I could only feel everything like an outsider, but I couldn't think or communicate... Until later, when my consciousness was fully awakened, they had disappeared for a long time, and replaced by you who were very similar to them."
"So that's why you want to integrate into this world as a human being?"
"I... I'm not sure." Ze Luo's eyes flashed with confusion and he shook his head. "I just think it should be like this."
"Do you still remember Mo Jue?"
"Remember."
"Do you remember what she looked like last?"
"Remember."
"Then do you think she died as a human?"
"yes."
"...This is the dignity of being a human being. Dignity may seem ridiculous in the face of absolute strength, but it is because of this that we can muster the courage to resist. There is a Chinese saying. I don't know if you have ever read it in the books you have read. It is called 'a breath of life'... No matter how big the gap between him and us is, even if all our efforts seem so insignificant... It can still prove that we have not surrendered."
"I don't know if the dead have souls. I'm an atheist and I don't believe in supernatural concepts. Even if there are 'gods', I think they are just high-dimensional life forms with strong enough strength." Ke Lan continued, "But if people leave behind obsessions after death, the idea of 'not willing to give up', the idea of wanting to fight to the end until everything is truly over... then I think I seem to have felt it."
The ball of light slowly floated towards Ke Lan. Ke Lan felt warmth at first, but soon, the warmth turned into scorching heat... He put his hands into the ball of light. Although his skin did not change at all, Ke Lan felt as if he had put his hands into burning molten iron. The excruciating pain and burning sensation stimulated every nerve in his body. This feeling instantly moved from his hands to his brows. Ke Lan seemed to hear someone shouting in his mind. Heavy drumbeats were beating, the earth was shaking and cracking, fire rained from the sky, and magma rushed from the ground to the sky, tearing open the dim sky...
Countless figures staggered forward in this doomsday-like scene. Although the rain of fire and magma illuminated the surroundings very brightly, these figures still held torches high and trudged forward with one step deep and one step shallow.
At every moment, someone was hit by the rain of fire or fell into the abyss that suddenly appeared... A lava hundreds of meters high rushed up, scattering the crowd, and the burning torches fell to the ground... The strange thing was that Ke Lan's ears were filled with the loud noise of the sky collapsing and the earth splitting, but he could clearly hear the crackling sound of the burning torches.
The entire torch was burning, not only the head wrapped with guncotton, but also the wooden handle. Rather than a torch, it looked more like a piece of firewood, a piece of firewood that was about to turn to ashes.
A blurry figure stumbled over. Although Ke Lan couldn't see his face clearly, he could feel his emotions... There was no sadness or joy, and no fear at all. He had only one thought in his mind: pick up the torch, and then keep going.
The figure bent down and picked up the entire burning torch. The flames licked his palms, turning his skin and muscles into charred charcoal... But he seemed to feel no pain. He raised the torch high above his head and chased after the others who had already gone far away.
The torch was soon extinguished, and the man was buried by the cracked rocks, never to return to life again... But when Ke Lan looked into the distance, he found that in this world that was heading towards destruction, the number of torches had not decreased at all... In fact, it had become more.
More people joined the team, holding torches high and marching in silence.
The crackling sounds of burning gathered together, seemingly able to cover up the deafening explosion. Time seemed to freeze at this moment, the burning meteorites were frozen in mid-air, the magma rising into the sky solidified into a bright pillar of heaven, only the torches were still dancing, making clear crackling sounds.
There was no road under these people's feet, and there was no place in front of them that could be used as a target... The people leading the way kept changing, but the direction of the entire team never changed.
They seemed to be marching towards the end of the world.
Someone died every second, but someone joined them every second... Ke Lan took a lot of effort to see clearly that the new figures were actually crawling out from the cracks in the earth. They started on all fours, and slowly began to straighten their upper bodies, walking hunched over like monkeys, and occasionally using their hands to support the ground. In the end, they finally stood up completely and walked upright like humans.
Some of them picked up torches dropped by their predecessors, while others pulled off branches from dead trees and bushes, lit them with the flames that were everywhere, and then couldn't wait to join the main force.
…
When Ke Lan struggled out of the illusion, he found that he was completely soaked with sweat. The spare clothes he had just put on not long ago were soaked with sweat and stuck heavy to his body.
The ball of light had disappeared, but Ke Lan found that he had an invisible connection with this space. With a thought, several people instantly appeared on the steps in different postures.
The ragged Ivan was still running. There were many bloody cuts on his face caused by branches and bushes, and even one of his eye sockets was torn. However, he did not use his hands to protect his face. Instead, he tightly covered the damaged mechanical prosthesis. Ke Lan noticed that many of the slots on the prosthesis used to embed stalagmite fragments were broken. Thanks to Ivan's fingers blocking them, the stalagmite fragments did not fall out.
On the other side, Asano Akira's condition was not much better. He held the knife with both hands and was making a chopping motion...but the sword that he valued so much was covered with large and small gaps, and a crack spread across the middle of the blade. If this crack extended another half an inch, the knife would be broken into two pieces.
