Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 959: The Prophet's Past
But in just five minutes, all the blood-stained eyes were extinguished, and accompanied by the sound of footsteps, the clown walked out of the darkness - Soap and Noir noticed that although the smell of blood in the air was so strong that it almost made people vomit, the clown's body was very clean, without even a speck of blood on it.
"Just now...what was that thing?" Soap asked immediately.
"It seems to be a mutant rat living in the pipe." The Joker said, "This kind of thing is very common in this place."
"Mutated rats living in pipes?" Soap repeated these words. "In other words, the monsters in the underground mazes in those folk stories are real?"
"Yes." The Joker nodded. "Part of the maze is connected to the experimental site of the institute. Occasionally, experimental creatures that escape from their restraints will enter the maze. Although the undead crew members have the ability to control the Ark, they can find these escaped creatures and kill them at any time. But perhaps for the purpose of observation, they did not do so."
"The purpose of observation?" Soap's cheek twitched twice. "What do you mean?"
"This underground maze itself can be regarded as a huge testing ground, and it is a high-quality testing ground that can simulate food shortages, harsh environments, and complex terrain and ecosystems. These creatures are placed in it, and the survival of the fittest allows them to evolve and mutate on their own. This is much more efficient than in an artificially set ecological box." The Joker said, "In addition, the protective partitions in the areas near the main reactor and the maze have been secretly removed. Under the influence of the reactor, the radiation concentration in those areas will remain at a very high level... Creatures that can survive in such an environment will have more tenacious vitality and will also show mutations that cannot be observed in the laboratory."
In the biological laboratory of the institute, the research team would often use radiation lamps to irradiate the experimental organisms, or feed them feed mixed with radioactive substances to induce mutations in these experimental organisms. However, this experimental method was very inefficient, so much so that later researchers would often "release" large numbers of experimental organisms directly into high-radiation areas in the wilderness. The mission that Thirty-Three had carried out in the Prism Basin was such an experiment.
But most people could never imagine that the research institute and the undead crew would be so crazy - they directly ignored the safety of the Ark's residents and transformed the underground maze sandwiched within the Ark's structural layer into a large mutation test site.
"That means... we will encounter more monsters next ?" Soap bit his back teeth hard, supported himself on the ground with his hands and stood up. He directed his tactical means to the depths of the pipe - there were a lot of bloodstains on the ground and the walls of the pipe that had not yet dried, but there was no sight of the corpses of the mutant rats that the Joker mentioned.
"Huh? Where are the bodies of those monsters? Are they not dead? Did they run away again?!" Soap raised the muzzle of the gun vigilantly and aimed it at the depths of the pipe.
"They have become nutrients." The clown whispered, "Although compared to humans, these rats cannot provide spiritual nourishment, but their flesh and blood have enough energy to make up for the consumption along the way."
"Soul-level supply?" Noir looked up at the clown, "Can you tell us what this means?"
"In fact, the four soldiers I killed are not dead." The Joker said, "Absorbing their flesh and blood is only secondary. My main goal is to absorb their souls."
"Soul? Are you kidding?" Soap narrowed his eyes. "Do humans really have that kind of thing? To be honest... I don't believe it. Even though I've seen so many weird things, I still don't believe there is such a thing as a soul in this world. This is too superstitious. When a person dies, he is dead. There is no difference between the body and the soul!"
"Soul... is just an adjective that I tried to find in the human vocabulary to be as appropriate as possible. You can also understand it as thinking or consciousness... But after thinking about it, I still think that the word soul is closest to that meaning." said the clown.
"Aren't thoughts and consciousness the electricity generated in the human brain?" Noir said immediately. "In theory, after brain death, all human thoughts and consciousness will immediately dissipate. Even if there is such a thing as a soul, the soul and the body cannot be separated - the body is the carrier of the soul, and the soul without the carrier cannot exist independently."
"After thousands of years of human research, there are still many mysteries in the field of the brain that have not been solved." The Joker seemed to become very patient and explained in detail, "If you have ever met someone who survived the experimental project, you will find that human thought power can actually be materialized and concrete... If the power of thought is strong enough, it can even be said that 'wishes come true'... Of course, in my opinion, the only one who can truly 'wishes come true' is probably that person."
"What are you talking about? Why don't I understand you at all?" Soap interrupted, "Don't discuss things like souls and bodies. I only care about one thing. You said that the four soldiers were not dead. Isn't this pure nonsense? I watched them die with my own eyes."
"Their souls, or rather, their consciousness... have merged with mine." The Joker said, "You can think of it as the intelligence dealer nicknamed the Joker who is talking to you, or you can think of it as the shared consciousness of the five of us communicating with you. It's just that in this shared consciousness, the original Joker occupies a dominant position."
After listening to the clown's explanation, although Soap was still a little confused, he felt a chill... Absorbing other people's souls and merging them into one, this sounds like something that demons in myths do.
"Why are you doing this? Can you give us a reason?" Noir asked again, "I suspect that you brought the two of us with you because you planned to use us as backup 'nutrients'... Am I right?"
"I would do that if I had to," the Joker said truthfully, "but not now."
"What's the point of absorbing souls? Absorbing flesh and blood can at least allow your body to gain energy...but what about souls? What use is this thing to you?"
"I have been eroded, irreversibly eroded." The Joker said slowly, his voice low and hoarse, like a rough rope net dragged on a rotten wooden deck. Both Noir and Soap felt an inexplicable chill...
"This erosion will manifest itself both physically and spiritually. Physical erosion is a mutation, and I will become what you call a monster... But physical erosion will not be fatal in a short period of time, and it will even give me great power, as you can see."
The clown paused for a moment and continued, "The most troublesome thing is the erosion of my soul. It will gradually change my cognition and make me forget that I am a 'human'. It will transform my thinking into a program without self-awareness. This program will manipulate me to do what I 'should do'... and in the final stage of the erosion, my soul will gradually be assimilated by Him, abandoning this weak body and merging with Him."
Soap and Noir both held their breath, waiting for the Joker to continue.
"If I compare this degree of erosion to a progress bar, when the progress bar reaches the end, I will lose myself and completely abandon my humanity... and become a true 'monster'." The Joker said, "Including Zeus, those people, their souls have been corrupted. Although on the surface they seem to still have reason, they are no longer driven by their original will. They want to sacrifice all human civilization on the Ark to that existence, so they led to this disaster."
"I wanted to stop them, but I was a step too slow. I can only place my hope on another 'person'. As for myself, I can only remedy the current situation as much as possible."
"But my erosion level is also critical. In order to delay time, I have to absorb the souls of those four people..."
"But," Noir said softly, interrupting the clown, "You just said that this kind of 'erosion' is irreversible. If it is irreversible, how can we delay it..."
"If erosion is likened to a progress bar, I can't push the progress back, but I can 'extend' the length of the entire progress bar... By absorbing and integrating souls with low levels of erosion or even those that have never been eroded, I can increase the overall 'quality' of the soul... As of now, I should have three days left to be awake."
"In three days, if the problem is not solved or new means of delay are found, you will 'eat' us, right?" Nouval tried his best to suppress the fear in his heart and asked in the calmest voice possible.
The clown didn't answer, but just nodded silently.
“What will happen if we fail?”
"Everyone will die. Perhaps we will all become his food," the Joker murmured. "Our bodies will work for him until the last moment, until our energy runs out. Our souls will lose their self-awareness, travel through countless dimensions, be drawn to his side, and become one with him."
Noir: "So, in fact, you 'eat' humans, which is no different from Him, except that His appetite is much bigger."
"That's not wrong if you understand it that way." The clown suddenly chuckled with a hint of self-mockery, "After all, I was created based on Him... But the gap between human civilization and that existence is so great that it can no longer be described in words."
"Well, to be honest, your rhetoric just now always feels very familiar to me." Soap said, "It's that thing about the fusion of consciousness and soul... I have participated in many operations to eliminate heretical sects, and I have also come into contact with many of those lunatics. It seems that there is such a thing in their doctrine that the devout can become one with the 'great god' and gain eternal life by dedicating their bodies and souls to the 'great god'... So it seems that the people who bewitched these believers should be like you said, corrupters who have lost their self-will, right?"
"Almost." The clown said, "The prophet of the heretic sect should be considered the individual closest to that existence among humans, except for one other person. However, the more truths he knows and the higher the level of power he comes into contact with, the easier it is for his cognition to be distorted..."
"Do you know the prophet?" Noir asked. "I heard that he was killed by the Field Army in the battle of the Bronze City Ruins."
"I have known him for a long time. He used to be a person who regarded the survival of human civilization as his supreme goal... But not long after, he fell into madness. He killed half of the people guarding him and transformed the other half into puppets. He escaped from the containment facility we arranged for him and hid in the residential area of the Ark..."
"That should be easy to find out, right?" Noir asked doubtfully. "When the prophet appeared, the resident identity registration system on the Ark was already very complete. He doesn't even have a legal identity. Even if he hides in the slums, he should be able to be found, right?"
"Someone in the Undead Crew was also corrupted. Perhaps it was Zeus, or perhaps someone else. With their secret help, the Prophet's whereabouts were wiped out. Thousands of security agents searched various blocks of the Ark for six months, but found nothing... During this period of time, the organization that we later called the 'heretic sect' gradually grew stronger.
"You should all know what happened later."
After the Battle of the Ancient Bronze City Ruins, a lot of information about the heretical sects was released - including the report of the Prophet manipulating a group of Corrosion Seeds to raid the Security Bureau base and then successfully escape from the Ark. In fact, with the control ability of the Ark at that time, the Prophet could have been killed inside the Ark... Even if the number of Corrosion Seeds he manipulated doubled , even if the Security Bureau and the Garrison Corps did not have "active ammunition" that could restrain Corrosion Seeds at that time, the Prophet and those Corrosion Seeds could have been killed alive by heavy firepower and human wave tactics alone, but in the end they still let him escape.
"Before that, I already knew that there were traitors among the Undead Crew... and there was more than one," said the Joker.
"Were you once a member of the Undead Crew?" Soap couldn't help but ask, "In other words, those big shots that General Maginot was referring to...who can be contacted with the 'black card'?"
"I guess so." The Joker nodded. "For some reasons, I had to leave that organization... but I left behind a plan, a plan that basically has no loopholes. As long as the Undead Crew doesn't completely fall apart, this plan will continue to be implemented."
"What's the plan?"
