Volume 8: A Trip to the Sick Village Chapter 383 "Pope"
This made Ke Lan think of the Catholicism of the old era.
The Middle Ages was the era when Catholicism had the strongest control over the entire European continent. In that era, the church represented the supreme authority. It had the power to crown emperors and the qualification to pronounce heresy. Everything they did, even launching wars, burning, killing and looting, could be justified with a high-sounding reason - this was the will granted by "God", and the church was just "God's" agent on earth.
In that ignorant era, few people would doubt the existence of "God". Even if there were, they would be labeled as "heretics" by the church and sentenced to death.
But as the wheel of history rolls forward, more and more people realize that God does not exist at all... Since he does not exist, then who can say the so-called "will granted by God"?
For most religions, "God" is actually just a symbol, and those who call themselves "God's agents" are the ones who truly hold power.
They created a fictional idol, but announced to the world that this world was created by this fictional idol... Now it seems like a huge joke.
Although the "great god" that the "Sick Village Sect" believes in and worships is real, in Ke Lan's view, this wall of flesh and blood called God can only be regarded as a puppet, a puppet with "hatching ability"... Thinking back to what happened before, Ke Lan always felt that there were unreasonable things everywhere, and the most unreasonable thing was the wall of flesh and blood itself.
The wall of flesh and blood cannot speak and cannot communicate with people. Ke Lan is even unsure whether it has a complete self-awareness. For an existence like this, no matter how powerful it is, it is impossible for it to become the "great god" in the eyes of the residents of the sick village by strength alone in just a few decades.
From the day the word "God" was born, it should be a being that is high above and difficult for mortals to reach - and a visible and tangible thing, no matter how much people revere it, it is impossible to place it in such a high position.
All of this is the result of human manipulation. Without the deliberate guidance of someone with ulterior motives, even after a hundred years, the "Sick Village Sect" would not necessarily be born in this isolated suspended prison.
Ke Lan even suspected that the wall of flesh and blood was not "wild" but was also made, just like the people of the old era used mud and marble to create statues of gods that did not exist in reality...
The only difference is... it's alive.
Someone pushed it out as an "idol" in public, while its creator was hiding behind the wall - the word "behind the wall" is a pun, referring to both the person hiding his identity and means behind a symbol of the "wall of flesh and blood", and the person himself, perhaps hiding in the space behind the wall of flesh and blood.
This area obviously has a very special meaning to the people of the heretic sect, otherwise, they would not have stopped chasing Ke Lan after he crossed the Wall of Flesh and Blood.
The hatchery only occupies a small part of the space behind the wall...
"Very interesting speculation." A strange voice suddenly exploded in Ke Lan's head, "I have to admit that you almost guessed most of the truth correctly. As for the deviations in some details, they are not a big deal."
"Who are you?" Ke Lan was startled by the voice. He raised the axe in his hand and looked around vigilantly.
"I am the mastermind you guessed, the real controller of this 'sick village'." The voice said again.
"You can read my mind?" Ke Lan thought to himself. If that was true, wouldn't he be "completely transparent" to this person? In front of this person, his secrets would be exposed... He couldn't help but feel a fear he had never felt before.
He felt as if he was tied to a dissecting table, a sharp circular saw cut open his skull along his eyebrows, and his steaming brain was taken out by a pair of hands in sterile gloves and placed on a table full of electrodes.
The precision laser cutting machine operated steadily and quickly, slicing his body into countless slices less than a millimeter thick. His brain was connected to a biological computer. All his thoughts, consciousness, and memories were decrypted one by one like data stored on a disk for people to browse at will.
"It's funny the image you created, but they didn't have to do it."
"Even these things can be spied on?!" Ke Lan gritted his teeth unwillingly. He simply stopped thinking about anything, closed his eyes, and forced himself into a state similar to meditation.
"Oh? You want to stop thinking to resist my spying?" The voice seemed to carry a hint of sarcasm. "But you are only getting rid of distracting thoughts. As long as your brain is still working, it is impossible to stop thinking."
"Instead of doing this kind of useless work, you might as well chat with me." The other party suddenly said.
"Chat? You can see clearly what I'm thinking, so what is there to chat about?" Ke Lan asked back.
"Although I can read your past memories and peek into your current thoughts, I cannot predict the thoughts that have not yet been born in your brain. Things in the future are uncertain... Just like the famous 'Schrödinger's cat', it will always be unknowable before it is observed."
"..." Ke Lan wanted to refute him, but found that she couldn't find any ground for refutation.
"Go forward 272 meters, turn left, enter the third airtight door from the right, then go straight for another 100 meters, pass through the fire escape, and you will be in front of me."
"A trap?" This was Ke Lan's first reaction, but he quickly rejected this idea - since the other party could see through his thoughts, why would he use a trap to deal with him...
Ke Lan found out with some sadness that if this voice wanted to be against him, he would have no chance of winning.
…
Following the route the other party told him, Ke Lan walked to the end of the fire escape. In front of him was a heavy airtight door. The paint on the door had completely peeled off, and the exposed alloy surface was covered with a layer of gray-white oxide layer. This door was not covered by those flesh membranes, and it looked particularly conspicuous in the large dark red hue.
Ke Lan took a deep breath, grabbed the valve on the airtight door, and turned it hard.
“Gah—squeak—”
With a teeth-grinding friction sound, he slowly pushed open the airtight door.
Behind the door is a circular hall with many robotic arms of different sizes hanging from the ceiling. However, these robotic arms are now wrapped in flesh membranes and look like the limbs of biochemical monsters.
In the center of the hall, there was a conical "meat mountain", and on the top of the "meat mountain" was a human body.
To be precise, half of it.
This is a bloated man, his upper body is full of transparent polymer tubes, these tubes extend to the bottom of the floor. His lower body is integrated with this giant meat mountain that is more than ten meters high, and the traces of surgical sutures can be vaguely seen at the waist and abdomen.
Ke Lan shifted her gaze to his face.
The man only had half a face.
The area below the root of the nose had disappeared, and a large amount of proliferative tissue filled the gap under the facial bones. Many blood vessels, nerves, and fascia that should not appear on normal humans tightly wrapped the spine at the back and extended to the depths of the skull, beyond Ke Lan's field of vision.
"Please allow me to formally introduce myself. As you guessed, my identity is the 'Pope', the 'Pope' of this fictional religion, the creator of the Wall of Flesh and Blood, the actual controller of the Sick Village... Of course, I don't mind you calling me by my other name, 'Chiron'."
"Pope...Chiron?" Ke Lan suddenly had a very strange feeling, "Wait a minute...Chiron, is it the Centaur Chiron in ancient Greek mythology? The one that later became Sagittarius?"
"Exactly, that's how I got my name."
"The Pope... the fifth card of the Major Arcana, the Pope... the god represented happens to be the 'High Priest' Chiron... are you a member of the Undead Crew? The fifth seat... Pope 'Chiron'?!" Ke Lan couldn't help but widen his eyes... This was the first time he saw the true form of a member of the Undead Crew.
"I used to be," Chiron said, "but I made a mistake, a serious mistake. Because of this, I was expelled from the Undead Crew and exiled to this prison built just for me."
"A prison tailor-made for you?" Ke Lan was stunned. "The purpose of building this space station is not..."
"You are right, but this is only one of the purposes... Although I was exiled here, I am still working for the Ark to make up for my mistakes and wash away my sins."
"..." Ke Lan looked up at Chiron, he was so surprised that he couldn't speak.
"Mann is right. The experimental project was not terminated. It was just changed into a new form, and I took over it... This space station is not only my prison, nor is it just a shelter for those miners. It is also a research institute that is not subject to the laws of the Ark... It has never been abandoned... It has been playing a role since it was built."
"Then, those miners..."
"Yes, they are all experimental subjects. In essence, they are the same as Asano Akira, all -" Chiron's voice was suddenly interrupted here. After several seconds, he continued, "It seems that you are not the only uninvited guest here today."
"Not just me?" Ke Lan was startled and turned around quickly, only to find a figure quietly walking out of the fire escape he had passed through before.
It's the remaining missionary of the heretical sect!
"Ha." Chiron laughed dryly. "It's really interesting that we, the only two people here, can meet here."
"Only two people?" Ke Lan repeated Chiron's words with some doubt, then pointed the fire axe in his hand at the missionary and asked, "Who are you? How did you get in?"
"Who am I... Good question." The missionary showed a strange smile on his face, "But I don't want to answer your question. If you want to know the answer, you can ask this pile of rotten meat. Maybe he can tell you."
But before Ke Lan could speak, the missionary continued, "You shouldn't be hostile to me. You and I are of the same kind, and the only one of our kind in the world."
The first half of his sentence was in Chinese, and the second half... was the language of the Alpha civilization!
Ke Lan couldn't help but hold her breath.
"You guessed right again." Chiron's voice sounded in Ke Lan's mind, "He is the founder of that heretical sect... He and you are the only two people among all humans who have mastered the Alpha language."
"I don't like this statement." The founder of the heretical sect frowned and looked at Chiron on the top of the meat mountain with disgust. "Don't use the term 'human' to describe me... I am no longer that ignorant and low-level creature..."
As he was talking, he suddenly looked at Ke Lan: "Don't you think this guy is hypocritical? It has obviously given up its human form, but it still uses this disgusting word to define us who are far better than it. What kind of thing is this? Could it be that it is jealous of us? Hahahaha..."
His tone was extremely crazy. He laughed so loudly that he even bent over, and then he lay on the ground, pounding the floor with his fists - "Hahahahahaha... Ke Lan, can you imagine that a caterpillar that failed to transform into a butterfly uses the word 'bug' to describe humans... Hahahaha... This is really funny."
"...To be honest, I don't understand what's so funny about you." Ke Lan thought for a moment, then said seriously.
"Do you still think you are a human being?" The man stopped laughing, looked at Ke Lan, and asked in surprise.
"I'm not a human, what else can I be? A monster?" Ke Lan asked back.
"How can you be a monster? Like you and me, we are 'Gods'! Apart from 'Gods'...what other beings can possess such power? "
"Sorry, I'm an atheist." Ke Lan said.
"Don't you want to be a 'God'?" The man stared into Ke Lan's eyes. "Eternal life, power, authority, knowledge... No one can refuse to get these four things... 'If I hear the truth in the morning, I can die in the evening'. Some people spend their entire lives just to touch the truth for a moment. If you become a 'God', you will have these things forever."
"You are crazy, and very crazy." Ke Lan said.
"Desire, this is desire! Desire is the instinct of living things. Without desire, life has no meaning!" The man pointed at Chiron and continued to say to Ke Lan, "The existence of the Undead Crew is the product of human desire...but their desires are small and dirty. They are like rats in the sewer. The ultimate goal of their life is nothing more than a piece of rotten and moldy cheese!"
