Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 952 "Werewolf"
Ke Lan kept it short and told everyone about his experiences in the Hive and what he heard from the Hive's owner. At first, Hound and the others would often ask questions, but as Ke Lan continued to talk, the frequency of their questions became less and less, until finally, they were completely in a state of staring with their mouths open, but unable to say a word.
The silence lasted for several minutes until Ke Lan finished telling everything. Leighton reached out and touched his head, muttering, "Too much information. I feel like my brain has crashed..."
"I also have a feeling... like I'm listening to a story." Chi Hanfeng nodded in agreement. "If all this is true... then the Hive Civilization and the Alpha Civilization... aren't they just us from another parallel world? The reason they disappeared is because the 'culprit' is actually us, the uninvited guests from another time and space?"
"Well... that's not the case." Hound shook his head. "It was the Alphas who brought us to this time and space, so I think they should have been prepared for this. After all, according to the description of the hive master, the Alphas are completely hopeless and will sooner or later become that guy's food."
"But this plot... still feels so fantastic." Ivan sighed. He was lying flat on a folding stretcher at this time. Several engineering staff who came down with Layton were helping him repair his damaged cyborg prosthesis and filling it with spare stalagmite fragments.
"What do you think?" Ivan turned his head and asked the engineering officer who was tightening the screws.
It was a girl with neat short hair and a lot of oil stains on her fair cheeks. She was stunned for a moment, then shook her head: "I... I don't know."
Ke Lan did not shy away from the "outsiders" who came down from the Yaguna Tor, including Major General Alexander of the Zero Fleet and the Ghost Owl - it was impossible to keep the next action secret from everyone, and if he wanted to get the unconditional support of these people, he had to explain all the reasons clearly.
At the beginning, Ke Lan did not mention the "forbidden knowledge" that might cause erosion, but he also explained the reason - the term "cognition and pollution" was gradually accepted by everyone after he gave the example of the "meme contagion" incident.
"So, there must be quite a few people in the Undead Crew who have been corrupted and completely degenerated into that... uh, it should be okay to mention Him..." Major General Alexander suddenly paused in the middle of his speech and looked at Ke Lan with an inquiring look.
"Based on the information we have so far, mentioning Him in conversation should not lead to erosion, whether using 'God', 'Him', 'that existence' or any other synonyms. I think it is probably because humans do not have a concrete concept of Him in their imagination, so they are not impressed." Ke Lan replied.
"Indeed, when it comes to gods, the first thing that comes to my mind is either the Jade Emperor of the East or Jehovah of the West, or at least Shiva from India or Odin from Northern Europe..." The Hound echoed, "But if you insist on asking me what the real 'God' should look like, then I can't tell you... After all, those gods 'created' by humans are all based on humans using themselves as a template, with some 'local cultural elements' added to them. To put it bluntly, if you take those so-called 'Gods' apart and look at them, they are actually things that exist on Earth."
"Indeed, it is the most difficult to create something that does not exist in reality, because it is beyond the scope of human imagination. To put it bluntly, the Jade Emperor is an emperor with 'superpowers' and a palace built in the sky. The gods in the West are even more mediocre, especially those in Norse mythology, who are almost no different from humans. Even Cthulhu, who is known to be indescribable, is actually just a large octopus monster with wings." Ke Lan said, "The most bizarre appearance is the angel image in the Old Testament of the Bible, but if these 'angels' are broken down into many small parts, you will find that they are just fantasy creatures stacked with elements that can be seen everywhere in reality, such as eyeballs, wings, and human or animal organs. But what exactly does the existence that polluted the entire Alpha civilization look like? I'm afraid that with our imagination, we can't think of it at all."
"That's good. I was worried that if I mentioned that existence a few more times, I would become a monster." Major General Alexander nodded. "In that case, when I mention Him, I will automatically imagine Him as Jehovah."
Like Ivan, Major General Alexander is of Russian descent. Most Russians believe in Orthodox Christianity, so when the word "God" is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is the image of Jehovah.
"Those corrupted members of the Undead Crew should have lost their will. Even if they still have the ability to think, their 'instincts' will make them commit themselves to sacrificing the entire human civilization to that existence... I understand it this way, and there should be no problem, right?" Major General Alexander continued the topic that had just been interrupted.
"It should be like this. Those people in the Undead Crew who still retain their self-awareness have been fighting against those who have been corrupted, so the Ark has not fallen yet... But I think the remaining people will not be able to hold on for much longer." Ke Lan said.
"There's one thing I don't quite understand." Ghost Owl raised his hand. After noticing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, his expression became a little stiff. "Since someone in the Undead Crew... uh, someone betrayed humans, why didn't the other members deal with the betrayer?"
"Because we don't know who the betrayers are." Ke Lan sighed, "Although the Undead Crew has only about twenty people, the internal relationships are complicated. No one can fully trust each other, and their own status is absolutely confidential to the outside world... A power organization, even if all the rules and constraints are perfect when it is established, will gradually become bloated and full of "filth" after a long time. Not to mention that each member of the Undead Crew has lived for hundreds of years or even longer... People will change, not to mention that there is an external factor of "erosion" that will affect human will."
"It sounds a bit like Werewolf." An engineering officer whispered, "No one in this crew meeting knows whether the other party is a good guy or a werewolf..."
"But a game of Werewolf only takes a few dozen minutes at most, and that group of people have been competing for hundreds of years. Don't express your shallow thoughts aloud. If the captain and the others hear them, they will definitely laugh at you." The fellow from the engineering department nudged him with his elbow and reminded him in a low voice.
"There's nothing to laugh at. You're right, these guys are just playing a real-life version of Werewolf that could decide the fate of human civilization...it's just that every night has been Christmas Eve for the past few hundred years." Although they were quite far apart, Ke Lan still heard their conversation.
"But Christmas Eve is almost over," Ivan added.
"No, I'm afraid it's over." The Hound shook his head. "The attack of the black fleet on Yaguna Tor means that the balance within the Undead Crew has been broken. Those 'werewolf' may have taken control... In addition, there is another piece of news that deserves your attention: when Yaguna Tor arrived at the forbidden waters where the underwater city is located, we had a brief contact with the garrison on the floating platform. The communication between them and the Ark was completely cut off, and they could not receive any orders from the Ark at all... I think that at that time, the Ark, or the Undead Crew, might have been fighting fiercely."
"Who do you think will win?" Chi Hanfeng glanced at the hound and asked.
"I'm more optimistic about the 'werewolf' side." The Hound curled his lips and sighed, "According to Ke Lan and the owner of the nest, the members of the Undead Crew are just like the Alphas. They have all been corrupted, so sooner or later they will all turn into monsters... In other words, even if the 'good guys' win, these 'good guys' will eventually turn into 'werewolf'. The only difference is how soon the Ark will be destroyed."
"So what should we do now?" Layton stood up and looked back at Yaguna Kator. "There are still 30,000 people on Yaguna Kator. I've done some statistics and the male to female ratio is about 7 to 3. More than 75% of the people are of childbearing age. Although this number is not enough compared to the number of people in the entire human civilization, it should be enough as a 'spark'."
The implication of Layton's words was clear enough. Move the original energy from the top of the Tower of Babel to Yaguna Tor, and then start working on it with the more than 30,000 people on the ship. As for the lives of those on the Ark, just ignore them... Although the supplies on Yaguna Tor are currently scarce, as long as you can master the technologies left by the Alpha civilization, you can completely reclaim and plant in the "ecological zone" on the ship, and it will not be difficult to be self-sufficient.
"I also think that returning to the Ark now is too risky." Admiral Alexander sighed, "Although in terms of combat effectiveness, the fleets belonging to the Ark are not good enough in front of Yaguna Kator, not to mention that you, Ke Lan, now have the power left by the Alpha civilization... But those corrupted people are the source of risk. If they directly announce the forbidden knowledge on the battlefield, I am afraid that even these 30,000 people will..."
"We can't defend against this kind of 'sneak attack'," the Hound advised. "Even if you cover everyone's eyes and plug their ears, it will be useless... Besides, if those corrupted people are desperate and directly sacrifice themselves to attract the attention of that existence, then we won't even have a chance to escape... That would really be a waste of our capital."
"I know that the best choice now is to take away the legacy left by the Alpha civilization in the Tower of Babel, and then drive the Yaguna Tor and take these 30,000 people away from Alpha Star... But in my subconscious, there has always been a voice telling me to return to the Ark." Ke Lan said.
"Your subconscious...you..." Major General Alexander looked at Ke Lan strangely, with a barely perceptible worry in his eyes.
"Have you also been corrupted?" The Hound spoke without so much hesitation, "The voice in your subconscious mind might be asking you to go back and die."
"No, I'm sure that the voice came from the part of the personality that The Fool left in my head." Ke Lan shook his head and said, "This is part of the plan set by The Fool. I must return to the Ark and continue his plan."
"That was the Fool's plan, not yours! In my opinion, that Fool probably didn't expect things to turn out like this." The Hound spoke faster and more seriously, "We obviously have a more reliable plan now, why should we take unnecessary risks? Isn't it better to just slip away? If the Fool were alive now, he would definitely modify the plan according to the changing situation!"
"I think what the old dog said makes sense." Layton nodded. "Plans are dead, but people are alive. If we go back now, we will simply walk into a trap. What do you think, General?"
Leighton turned his head and looked at Major General Alexander. Among all the people present, except Ke Lan, Major General Alexander was probably the one with the most say. After all, most of those 30,000 people were his subordinates.
"I..." Major General Alexander hesitated for a few seconds before he said solemnly, "The object of my loyalty is human civilization."
His answer seemed irrelevant, but in fact he made his meaning very clear - he was loyal to human civilization, not the Ark, and certainly not to the undead crew... Between the two options of preserving the spark of human civilization and returning to the Ark to save people, he would undoubtedly choose the former.
At this time, Ke Lan suddenly showed a bitter smile: "Old dog, you said something wrong... The development of things did not exceed the Fool's expectations. He had already thought of the current situation. Just now, a new memory fragment was unlocked in my mind, which gave me a reason to return to the Ark."
"What's the reason?"
"If we don't 'deal with' all the eroded people on the Ark, even if we flee to the ends of the earth, that being can still locate us through their cognition and memory." Ke Lan said, "If erosion is compared to the cancer of human civilization, then these eroded individuals are equivalent to mutated cancer cells one after another... As long as even one cancer cell survives, the cancer will recur sooner or later."
