Chapter 24: A World That Isn't Much Good 7500
The heavy rain gradually subsided, and the dark clouds slowly dispersed. A rare freshness surged through the air, which had been cleansed of all dust by the downpour. It was dusk now, and one could see the dim yellow sunlight disappearing at the edge of the horizon, along with the faintly visible stars emerging in the deep blue sky.
The people of Siberia had not seen such a pure sky in a very long time.
On the muddy ground, Joshua was gripping the core puppet, which had been reduced to a mere torso. The puppet's massive hand loosened its grip slightly, careful not to accidentally crush this precious specimen.
A soul puppet with self-awareness—in other words, something that could be called an 'intelligent life form.' Joshua had considered this possibility from the start, after all, the source of soul cores was the souls of ordinary people, and soul puppets inherently possessed the potential to become intelligent life.
But Joshua hadn't expected that there would happen to be one among the Hunter army. According to his estimation, such beings should be among the upper echelons of soul puppets, responsible for issuing orders and assessing situations—why would they personally descend into battle?
However, such matters were none of Joshua's concern. He wasn't interested in the social structure of soul puppets; he only needed to search their data. In that regard, having a soul wasn't a bad thing—it was even better, because there was no need to waste effort decoding anything.
Silver light flickered in his hand once more. Joshua used Steel Force to forcibly connect with the core puppet's soul, beginning to establish an information link bridge, preparing to search the depths of its mind for information.
At this point, the warrior had gained a deeper understanding of the power he held. Through the 'information link' ability of Steel Force, he had become increasingly skilled at soul-searching and memory retrieval. Moreover, as he gradually came to understand the relationship between Steel Particles and superpowers, Joshua had roughly figured out how so-called 'authority' was used by ordinary people.
If, as Joshua imagined, the source of Steel Particles was the fragmented remains of Steel Serpents after a world shattered, then these world fragments would undoubtedly be attracted to other worlds. The particles, swept along with the magic tide across countless worlds, would be intercepted by the souls of living beings within them, then absorbed, turning an ordinary person into a superhuman.
But what if this world was a low-magic world, where no one had souls? Actually, this wasn't a major issue, because souls were merely the best interceptors, not the only ones. Apart from souls, the physical bodies of intelligent life, as life forms derived from Steel Force, could naturally also absorb Steel Particles—just with a lower probability.
However, the result of absorbing Steel Particles through the body would create a situation like in the Siberia World, where Steel Particles lodged themselves in some physical organ. If that organ were removed, the superpower would naturally disappear. But because of the presence of Steel Particles, superhumans who originally had no souls would rapidly develop souls to control this power. The particles would gradually transfer to the soul, eventually merging completely.
Once a soul was generated, everything could enter a virtuous cycle. With the birth and death of souls, the world's energy concentration would rapidly increase, and this increased concentration would in turn accelerate the rate of soul generation. More souls could intercept more Steel Particles, allowing the world to absorb the authority of other destroyed worlds more quickly, growing stronger and larger.
This was a perfect virtuous cycle. Ordinary people would gain transcendent power, and eventually, the entire race would be born with souls. The world's authority would increase, and energy concentration would grow... Although it was all built on the destruction of other worlds, the facts were indeed so. Joshua even speculated that this was the origin of transcendent power in some worlds.
As for the essence of authority, it was actually the manifestation of some transcendent ability. Ordinary people without magic power or battle qi could only use their own life force and physical strength to drive it. Once they had a soul, they could use spiritual power to drive it... As for those who already had transcendent abilities, when they gained superpowers, they only needed to use magic power and battle qi, because the essence of magic and battle qi was actually the aggregation of many authorities—the former was extremely primitive, while the latter had become an orderly system that could be trained and continuously advanced.
Joshua's Steel Force was precisely advanced through the condensation of life force and battle qi. His power itself was the greatest superpower, an aggregation of multiple most powerful authorities. If the strongest superpower an ordinary person could obtain was E to S rank, then he was at least SSS, or even beyond classification.
The 'information link bridge' was established. Ignoring the struggles of the core puppet in his hand, Joshua forcibly shattered its mental barrier and entered the depths of its soul.
Soon, he had browsed through the life of this core puppet.
"...It was only just created not long ago?"
The massive puppet let out a hum. Joshua scanned through its memories, which spanned only thirty-one days, and couldn't help but feel a sense of understanding: "No wonder it behaved just like an ordinary soul puppet—it hadn't had time to develop a unique 'personality' or 'self.'"
This core puppet was born in a large industrial base at the World Center, created simultaneously with the other Hunter army units, inherently endowed with the mission to command the entire army. Its soul core was specially made, with a capacity dozens of times greater than other soul puppets, which was why it could handle the army's command work. Additionally, its spiritual power was about a hundred times that of ordinary puppets. Even if dozens of superhumans combined their strength, they would be crushed by it in pure mental attacks.
Even now, this puppet was still resisting Joshua's invasion... But what was a mere hundred times an ordinary person's spiritual power against this warrior? Such struggles were as feeble as mosquitoes and ants. Joshua patiently smoothed away its resistance and continued analyzing its soul.
He was searching for the source of the puppet's self-awareness, his spiritual power scanning every detail in its information database.
Then, not long after, Joshua heard a mechanized voice.
"Loading 'Overlord' authority. Loading 'Believer' data packet."
Accompanied by what sounded like the noisy metallic collision of a large industrial base in production, a soul puppet's calm, flat voice rang out: "Congratulations, designation Alpha-7739. You will become the core of the Second Hunter Army, granted primary management authority."
"Praise the Creator, praise the Time Pusher, praise our Sovereign."
And the owner of the memory, the newly created core puppet, designation Alpha-7739, repeated the devout prayer in the same flat, emotionless tone.
"Praise the Creator, praise the Time Pusher, praise our Sovereign."
This was the origin of self-awareness.
"...Faith?"
Joshua severed the mental connection with the core puppet. The puppet's massive head showed no change in expression, but the black-haired youth who had emerged from the cockpit on the puppet's back wore a look of bewilderment. Joshua's two bodies turned together to look at the battered core puppet, which no longer resisted, their eyes full of confusion.
"Soul puppets actually have faith?"
Because of this unexpectedly shocking information, Joshua didn't hesitate to deepen his link with the puppet's soul—he wanted to see what place, what existence, was directly connected to this core puppet!
Far away, at the center of the Siberia World, Information Processing Hub 0-003.
Inside the massive trapezoidal steel structure, not even half a soul puppet walked. This entire giant steel construct, fifty-five meters tall, was a colossal puppet consciousness aggregate formed from over seven thousand soul cores.
Hub 0-003 was responsible for puppet deployment, mobilization, personnel integration, and engineering planning for all puppet gardens in the world's southwestern region. It reported directly to the High Hub, occupying the third tier of the entire soul puppet hierarchy. It had the authority to directly mobilize fifteen large industrial bases and over fifty agricultural and mining gardens without reporting. More than three hundred insect-shaped micro-machines handled its daily maintenance and dust cleaning.
The information hub was nearly indestructible. With energy, even without maintenance, thanks to its robust foundational structure, Hub 0-003 could operate continuously for over seven hundred years, until necessary parts aged and failed. But now, a strange, low rumble suddenly came from the hub's core, which should never malfunction. Along with this rumble, a faint vibration began to shake the entire hub's structure, growing increasingly intense.
Crack, crunch, bang! Inside the hub, some precision instruments were damaged by the violent vibrations, sending parts flying. The micro-machines performing internal maintenance all stopped operating, their surfaces flickering with blue-green electrical light, as if their internal energy systems had gone out of control.
Outside the information hub, countless busy soul puppets stopped in their tracks as the command wave suddenly vanished... But an instant later, frantic alarms blared in their receivers!
"High-risk information contamination! High-risk soul contamination! An external soul is invading the information hub! Contamination level rising rapidly, about to breach the firewall. Recommendation: Hub 0-003 initiate self-destruction. Recommendation: Hub 0-003 initiate self-destruction—Self-destruct countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1—"
The moment the urgent alarm began, the observation devices of all nearby soul puppets suddenly went dark, then, under some force, restarted... But even after restarting, they still couldn't see the external environment—only blackness. And in this pitch-black screen, a pair of silver-glowing eyes gradually emerged from the void, as if about to replace the puppets' own vision.
But just as these silver eyes were about to fully manifest, Hub 0-003 completed its self-destruction. With a low hum, the reactor directly beneath the hub completely overloaded. A blinding flash of electrical sparks flashed through both the interior and exterior of the building, burning all equipment in its path. At the hub's core, energy lightning flickered everywhere, chaotic energy streams twisting and thrashing through the air. Inside the core processor, all seven thousand soul cores disintegrated and destroyed themselves in the surging energy chaos. The internal temperature of the building instantly exceeded three hundred degrees, becoming like a furnace.
All storage devices and servers were physically destroyed. The fragile precision equipment, without protection, was instantly rendered useless by the lightning overload and three-hundred-degree heat. No opportunity for exploitation remained. Meanwhile, other information hubs received this news. They all temporarily closed their external information access and began reinforcing their firewalls.
At the other end of the world, Joshua, who had just gotten some leads only to completely lose contact, frowned in displeasure.
"What kind of mental barrier firewall is this, so powerful?" His tone carried a hint of confusion: "Could it be that soul puppet technology has truly reached a level I can't breach?"
"No matter how I link, it's just a black screen... It seems soul puppet technology is indeed stronger than I imagined."
By this time, War Chariot and the others had slowly crossed the swampy area still carrying residual charge and arrived at a position behind Joshua. They looked apprehensive but still approached cautiously. Just as the three were about to navigate a complex section of swamp, the giant puppet and the black-haired youth turned their heads simultaneously. They spoke in an electronic voice with a reverberating echo: "War Chariot, does the Resistance have any information about the puppets' 'faith'?"
"Faith... what is that?"
Seeing the bewildered faces of War Chariot and the others, Joshua felt that asking them would probably yield nothing. Continuing to search the core puppet's soul was also pointless—the link with the distant location seemed to have been severed. Joshua couldn't continue probing for information through the information track, and even if the link were still active, it wouldn't help. The firewall was too strong; he couldn't break through anytime soon.
"Believer data packet, and that prayer..."
Ignoring the somewhat panicked War Chariot behind him, Joshua murmured to himself: "If I'm not mistaken, a naturally special soul core structure, combined with the granting of limited authority, can create a soul puppet with partial self-will. And once the puppet has a soul, it gets loaded with a data packet called 'Believer' to cultivate faith in some existence."
"Creator, Time Pusher, Sovereign. Hearing these titles, could it be..."
The warrior pondered for a few seconds, his brow deeply furrowed. He said in a low voice: "Behind these soul puppets, is there a deity who created the 'puppets'?"
But why? Even Joshua, who wasn't particularly interested in becoming a god, knew that for a deity to receive faith and gain spiritual support to resist divinity, the believers themselves must have firm will and complete souls. The firmer the will and faith, the purer the support provided. The more complete and powerful the soul, the greater the quantity.
The soul puppets' faith was a data packet implanted into their underlying programs. This firmness undoubtedly surpassed that of most people. But their souls... to be honest, Joshua felt they couldn't even be called complete—barely existing at best. No matter how pure such quantity was, it couldn't provide much help.
Moreover, if faith was truly needed, why not design some 'faith gardens'? Just like 'planting gardens,' 'industrial gardens,' and 'mining gardens' that specifically harvest food, industrial products, and raw materials, a 'faith garden' could brainwash ordinary Siberians and superhumans, keeping this brainwashed group in a daze, supported and used as faith batteries to provide large amounts of faith. This design, no matter how one thought about it, was better than spending dozens of souls to create a flawed self-aware puppet to provide faith.
"No, perhaps such gardens do exist; I just haven't seen them."
Temporarily setting aside this doubt about the inconsistency, Joshua felt that continuing to ponder this was pointless. For now, the situation in the Siberia World was becoming more interesting and more complex. Thinking this, the warrior couldn't help but snort, unsure whether it was from interest or displeasure.
Siberians and soul puppets, superhumans and the Resistance, the destruction of the previous civilization, the origin and end of the war, puppets with self-awareness and faith, the spiral tower at the World Center, the possibly hidden deity behind the scenes... and most importantly, the Steel Serpent driven out of the world.
The Siberia World, hidden at the center of the Void Great Maelstrom, held more and more secrets. Joshua couldn't help but have a premonition—he felt that all of this was connected. The expulsion of the Steel Serpent Siberia was definitely not an accidental event without reason, but a premeditated, deliberate action. And the being who accomplished this feat was likely the one who created the current situation in the Siberia World.
—How interesting. Whether people or puppets, individuals or civilizations, this world entrusted to me keeps exceeding my imagination time and time again.
Behind Joshua, the trio of War Chariot was carefully observing the entire battlefield.
As bystanders to this battle, they hadn't been attacked at all, at most some fright. Neither the earthquake swamp nor the storm and lightning had reached their position, whether by Joshua's deliberate design or not. Now, War Chariot surveyed the scene before him and couldn't help but let out a soft breath.
As far as the eye could see, there were only puppet remains.
Puppets buried in the earth, shattered by the tremors. Puppets toppled into the water, scorched by lightning. Puppets stuck in the swamp, unable to move, their soul cores extinguished. Puppets with hardly any remains left, pulverized into powder by the giant iron fist... Within several thousand meters, the land was a mess, thoroughly ravaged. Dirty oil mixed with muddy water surged through the cracks in the soil, and a foul metallic smell could be detected.
In just ten minutes, an entire ten-thousand-strong Hunter army had been completely annihilated, leaving only the half-broken puppet in the other's hand. And War Chariot knew this wasn't even the limit, because when the torrential rain fell and thunder roared, he had seen gales surging in the surrounding atmosphere, the outlines of over a dozen tornadoes forming in the gloomy sky. But for some reason, Joshua hadn't continued creating tornadoes, instead using the next ability.
Speaking of abilities. War Chariot couldn't help but look up at the back of the giant puppet. On the continuously rotating steel ring, six gems were gleaming brilliantly. The six colors—silver, cyan, white, gold, red, black—rotated in a regular pattern. Powerful energy surged through the air, creating various colored energy particles that drifted away.
If one gem meant a superpower as powerful as those before, then these six gems were priceless treasures, representing the power to completely destroy the Hunter army, to completely destroy the Resistance. The giant puppet and the youth before him were dangerous individuals capable of annihilating the entire Resistance single-handedly!
Moreover, the other party seemed very displeased with their massacre of labor puppets.
But what could be done... The old man, who had entered his later years and had basically experienced the entire rise and fall of the Resistance, couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
Unlike those ordinary, ignorant young superhumans, War Chariot naturally knew that the labor puppets working outside the bases were the parents of these superhumans!
This matter had become clear around the time the first baby was born in the Resistance. When everyone saw the woman with a swollen belly, originally suspected of having a malignant disease, give birth to an infant in agony, all the smarter members of the Resistance roughly understood how life came into this world... And when they discovered that the labor puppets in the planting gardens also produced young, the middle and upper ranks of the Resistance basically knew their own origins.
At first, the earliest Resistance members had thought about rescuing some labor puppets from the gardens. But these ordinary people had long been brainwashed into mindless, willless meat puppets. Rescuing them would not only kill them but also drain the resource reserves of all other superhumans. Realizing their powerlessness, and to prevent other superhumans from recklessly trying to rescue labor puppets after learning the truth—which would cause internal unrest in the Resistance—the leader deliberately drew a clear line between superhumans and ordinary people, only rescuing superhuman children.
As for the later massacres, they were just to accomplish goals. Over so many years, the vast majority of superhumans had long stopped seeing ordinary Siberians as people. They genuinely believed they were a different species from the laborers, killing them with a clear conscience. Some even found that such massacres relieved stress and grew to enjoy the act.
Truly... tragic.
"What's wrong, War Chariot? You look terrible."
Suddenly hearing an unfamiliar young voice, the old man was startled. But he was, after all, a battle-hardened Resistance member, so he managed to turn around with relative composure and speak in a tone tinged with awe: "Puppeteer... I'm a bit unwell."
At some point, Joshua's humanoid puppet had come to the side of the trio. Ignoring Detonator, who was too nervous to speak, and Invisible, who was looking around as if admiring the scenery, only War Chariot had enough mental fortitude to dare speak to the youth who had single-handedly annihilated the entire Hunter army.
"Earlier, when Unlocker repeated my question, I noticed you were the only one who didn't show a dismissive expression."
The warrior said calmly, not paying attention to the old man's slightly changing expression. He continued: "You answered my question very steadily. It's almost unbelievable that you've survived to old age in this apocalyptic situation... You must be a veteran of the Resistance. So, I'd like to ask."
"What do you think of this world?"
Joshua asked, his tone sincere and curious.
"What do I think?"
At first, War Chariot was a bit puzzled why the other would ask such a question. He was about to give a casual answer, but just as he was about to speak, the old man's throat suddenly tightened, and no sound came out... War Chariot took a deep breath, but still couldn't suppress the violent emotions surging up from the depths of his heart.
Sorrow, pain, despair, exhaustion. Just thinking about his decades of life, War Chariot wanted to roar, to lament, to cry. But in the end, none of that happened. This resilient old man just gritted his teeth, forcibly calmed his emotions, and then replied in a flat, unvarying voice: "Not very good."
—Of course.
—How could it be good?
—What's good about this damn, messed-up life?!
—Is there a single thing in this cursed world that I can stand?!
Such cathartic words, War Chariot wouldn't say aloud. The old man's tone was calm, even as his heart churned with turbulent waves, he didn't show the slightest excess emotion: "It's too hard."
—Hard doesn't even begin to cover it. It's hell. Shuttling back and forth in this scorching world, leading a bunch of ignorant newcomers to fight dangerous enemies, plunder food, raid gardens, kill your own kind, watching yourself grow older while the enemies grow stronger... Makes you want to just die and be done with it, to avoid the suffering.
But the old man felt he could bear the negative emotions alone. He didn't need to vent them, to pollute others, to leave psychological scars on the younger generation... Ignorance was bliss. That was enough. Killing was no big deal.
War Chariot closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
We absolutely cannot stop. We cannot stop our plundering and rescue operations. The Resistance cannot fall into internal conflict. Even if we kill our own parents and kin, even if we give up many things, the Resistance must continue moving forward... Because if the current world is despair, then staying put and doing nothing is eternal despair.
We cannot stop. Absolutely not. We must keep resisting, destroy the soul puppet gardens, strengthen our own power... When we're strong enough, we attack the World Center. We must keep advancing, because only ahead lies hope. Hesitation means sinking into the abyss.
This was the tragedy and determination of the weak.
War Chariot opened his eyes and said nothing. He exhaled, and his expression became resolute once more.
He thought the topic was over, but when the old man looked up, he saw a pair of eyes that seemed capable of seeing through the human heart.
"I see. So you do know."
Joshua looked at this incredibly strong old man, whose heart was like true forged steel. He didn't sigh, nor did he praise. He just said in the same flat tone: "It really is a world that isn't much good."
"Take this."
Accompanied by the clattering sound of something detaching, under War Chariot's shocked gaze, the six-colored gems on the giant puppet's back detached from the rotating steel ring at the black-haired youth's casual gesture. The six fist-sized gems gradually shrank in midair, finally condensing into six thumb-sized translucent crystals. At the center of these six crystals, six-colored, flickering Steel Force light was gleaming.
Instinctively catching the six crystals, the moment War Chariot touched them, he felt countless complex pieces of information emerge in his mind. These information rapidly simplified layer by layer, eventually turning into diagrams and explanations that even he could clearly understand... He didn't have time to examine them closely, only realizing that this was probably a method for training the spirit and strengthening one's superpower. Realizing this, the old man looked up in shock, but he didn't see the black-haired youth's figure.
War Chariot quickly turned his head toward the giant puppet. He saw the fifteen-meter-tall giant steel puppet slowly rising into the air under the rotation of the steel ring, then shooting straight into the sky.
Joshua had already left.
Joshua said nothing, and there was no need to say anything.
Since the Siberia Resistance knew what they were doing and what they had chosen, since they had the determination to give up and the resolve to move forward, since they only wanted a hope—
Then he would give them the seeds of the future and hope.
Those superpower units were originally condensed from the flesh and blood of countless superhumans, belonging to their compatriots. He was merely returning them to their rightful owners. The additional superpower training method was just something he casually derived. So it was no big deal.
That was enough.
Enough to change this world that wasn't much good.