"Tell me why."
Speaking with a tone of patient disgust, Joshua frowned and asked the only awake woman in the Sibiya team: "Why did you kill those ordinary people?"
- Of course, it is to consume the enemy's vitality.
The warrior can guess the opponent's answer without the other party answering... This is not something difficult to understand, especially for him who has experienced countless battlefields. Small-scale local wars in modern warfare may also pay attention to morality and human rights, and they will not massacre civilians. However, in a real world war, nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons, and unlimited bombardment will all take turns to fight, striving to destroy the entire enemy country. The environment turned into scorched earth
At that time, who cared whether the civilians were human beings, innocent or not? Under the nuclear flames, even thousand-year-old monuments would be destroyed, and the number of lives was as meaningless as dust. This is true even on Earth where civilization and human rights are highly developed, let alone a different world that seems abnormal.
Joshua had no intention of getting involved in this matter at first.
The battle between the soul puppets and the Xibeiya people seemed fierce, but in his eyes it was just a trivial fight. Joshua knew from the beginning that this battle would at best result in the loss of some ordinary soul puppets, and the main combat effectiveness of both sides was not A powerful means of killing. Although the light arrow is as unavoidable as light, its energy level can only kill some ordinary people. It can at most pierce the outer armor of some low-level puppets and will never destroy their core. The white shield It can also block the attacks of most super puppets. Coupled with the powerful old man, the Siberian team can leave at any time if they want.
Since there will be no serious consequences, Joshua is naturally not interested in taking action. He wants to actually see how the soul puppet loads the super unit, and how ordinary people who hold the authority of steel fight... fight The result was indeed not what he expected. The Siberian team was unable to break through the soul puppets' defense line, so they planned to retreat, and the super puppets were unable to prevent the opponent's retreat.
But just when Joshua was about to follow up later and ask the retreating Sibiya people about the situation, he saw countless light arrows shooting out of the white shield and falling like rain.
The light could not be stopped, so in an instant, thousands of Siberian people died, and they fell down one after another, like an invisible sickle cutting through a crop.
Joshua's speed is no faster than light. When he observes the light, everyone is dead and he cannot stop it.
Angry
certainly.
Joshua has never taken action against a defenseless weakling, let alone massacre - yes, of course he can understand the other party's behavior. The moment the other party takes action, he understands the reason for the other party's action, but it is precisely because of understanding that he I don’t like it, that’s why I hate it.
"To... consume the power of this plantation..."
The woman spoke, her voice still trembling, as if she had not yet escaped from the shock of the terrifying realm: "This time... we can't... get nothing during the attack. We must accomplish something before we can go back, otherwise it will be a waste of military resources. …Killing them will keep these puppets busy for a while and reduce the supply of the plantation…”
Her words were stilted, but became smoother and smoother. After the woman answered Joshua's question, she immediately closed her mouth and lowered her head, not daring to look into those shining silver eyes.
After receiving the expected answer, Joshua did not become more angry or have any other reaction. He just said calmly: "In order to prevent the enemy from getting supplies, we have to massacre the local civilians... This Is that your explanation?"
He has heard many such reasons.
Joshua did not use the local world language contained in the Steel Python Siberia's Fragments of Steel. He still spoke the common language of Mycroft, but because of the spiritual resonance, the other party could clearly understand what he meant. Just after Joshua finished speaking, the woman kneeling on the ground shook her head vigorously. She seemed to want to stand up and argue, but in the end she retorted softly: "No, they are not civilians, they are just production tools for those puppets! If you don’t kill them, they will still continuously produce resources for those puppets to use!”
In order to weaken this plantation, killing these zombie-like 'things' is the simplest and most effective way. It is more convenient and more effective than destroying those puppets - the woman originally wanted to say this, but she did not kill them in the end. Say it.
"The soul puppets treat them as livestock and raise crops, and you also treat them as living parts and as the enemy's resource reserves."
Looking at the woman kneeling on the ground and the six unconscious people around her, Joshua turned his head and said indifferently: "In a sense, the difference between you is really not that big."
"This is different... Moreover, they are not human at all."
The only woman who was awake had green and white hair. She looked to be in her twenties. Green was her original hair color, but white was the white hair that actually grew due to overwork. To Joshua, she was tired, but very energetic. The strong woman couldn't help but retort: "They have no intelligence at all - let alone souls, or even abilities! They are not the same kind of creatures as us!"
After hearing the other party's confident answer, Joshua couldn't help but turn his head. The young man's eyes widened slightly, as if he had just begun to take a serious look at the group of Sibiya people in front of him.
"... You can refute me from the perspective of war. You can refute me from the perspective of interests and values. You can refute me from the inequality of power between the enemy and us... I have thought of many answers, strength, camp, necessary task, or even simply looking down on the other person, thinking that the other person is an inferior person - every answer can answer my question. After all, this is just my personal likes and dislikes. I just simply can't stand you killing civilians who have no power to resist. "
The huge puppet body slowly took a step forward. It picked up the carbon-based young body and put it back on its shoulders. A voice with a hint of surprise came from above and reached the female ears: "But You didn't. You chose to refute me from the perspective of species, and it's so natural."
The burly soul puppet, with silver light flashing in its eyes. With the blessing of the power of steel, Joshua can clearly analyze the essence of any life. He has tested the nameless technicians and those garden children before. Naturally, Ordinary farmers in the breeding areas have also been tested.
Now, he checked the woman in front of him, and the result was not surprising at all.
They are all the same creature, exactly, 100% of the same species.
"You are the only one who cannot say this... Only you cannot kill people like this."
Anyone can do it, whether it is a soul puppet, a six-legged hippopotamus, or even a plant that has been demonized by high-purity magic power, or even a warrior from another world. Only the Sibiya people cannot say this yourself. If you do this, you are all people who have been enslaved by the soul puppets, and you are all oppressed on the same front... but you do not regard each other as the same kind.
—He has been waiting for twenty years from the breeding area to the garden area, but what he is waiting for is people like you. ①
Thinking of the unknown technician, Joshua sighed softly. He ignored the woman. The warrior who had eliminated all the defensive puppets around him stood quietly, waiting.
"ah… "
"Head hurts… "
"How is this going… "
In this way, while waiting silently, gradually, the comatose members of the Siberia team who were shocked by Joshua's terrifying field gradually came to their senses. They were a little confused at first, but then they quickly recalled the last scene. In that memory, the only awake woman was taking care of them, and they also turned their attention to Joshua. At first, some team members had a trace of resentment in their eyes, but then, they saw the soul puppets around them. Most of them were crushed into pieces, and recalling the terrifying power, they immediately shuddered and felt much calmer.
"What's going on... Why is that little... compatriot going to be with the soul puppet?!"
"Looking at the shape, it looks a bit like a Snova-type super puppet, but after special modification... it is very tall and powerful.
"So powerful! Although I don't sense superpowers, the soul is so huge that I can't see the depth at all... Was it his words that stunned us all just now? Such a powerful soul is rare even for a ruler-level puppet, right?"
"Is that puppet controlled by him? There are records in the military of such superpowers who can control puppets. The last Central Holy War was spearheaded by such superpowers..."
Joshua sensed waves of faint but very clear soul fluctuations. He glanced at the group of calm-faced teams who seemed to have just woken up, and immediately understood: soul communication. The relay and coordinator are both sober women. It’s no wonder that the other party can wake up in the terrifying field and can refute Joshua’s words. Her soul quality is dozens of times that of ordinary people, and she can serve as the entire team. coordinator.
"Did he wake up on his own? Nowadays, there are very few compatriots who wake up on their own. The ideological stamps of those soul puppets are becoming more and more strict with each generation. It has been more than ten years since we heard of anyone who woke up on his own."
"Probably, he just attacked us and the soul puppets together, and was even angry about those things... If he didn't wake up on his own, how could he not know these things?"
"Okay, don't talk too much, let's see his reaction... Such a young autonomous awakener may also be able to control puppets. If he can join us, it will definitely greatly strengthen the strength of the army."
After hearing the fluctuation in the soul of that woman, the last calm fluctuation emerged: "Let's take a look at the situation and let us know what the purpose of this young compatriot is."
The soul fluctuation ended. In reality, the white-haired old man who had suppressed all the melee puppets by himself and blocked the storm super puppet by himself walked forward. He glanced at the young man sitting on the puppet's shoulder carefully, and then His eyes were involuntarily attracted to the huge steel body. After he reacted, he coughed and prepared to speak: "Excuse me..."
"Your identities."
Joshua's voice interrupted his words. The soldier seemed unwilling to talk too much about other issues. He asked directly: "Your purpose, the general situation of this world, the relationship between the breeding area, the garden area and the plantation, who made the soul puppet, What exactly is this situation happening now, and do you have any historical documents?”
A series of questions were spoken fluently and clearly by him. Under the mental resonance, even if everyone present could not understand Mycroft's common language, they could all understand each other's meaning. In this regard, the white-haired old man headed by It can be said that he responded very well. He was just slightly stunned, and then he started to answer Joshua's questions without any hesitation and without any nonsense.
"We are the fifth brigade from the resistance. Our purpose is to go to the Garden District and save all our compatriots."
His tone was not fast, but not slow either. He spoke forcefully and clearly. The old man continued like this: "I don't know the situation in this world, but that's it anyway? The breeding area and the garden area are both part of this plantation... But there are also A 'gathering garden' that does not cultivate, but specializes in mining minerals and a garden for various other tasks."
"As for now...what is history?"
The old man's answer was appropriate, but he got stuck at the end. He seemed to really not understand what the word 'history' meant, so he seemed a little embarrassed. However, Joshua could tell that the old man still had something to say. He seemed to be rejoicing that the warriors were not interested in their superpowers. Otherwise, he would have to make up an answer when the time came, which would be really troublesome.
But for Joshua, why should he ask about this kind of thing? At the same moment when he pulled the seven-man team down from the air, the warrior had roughly understood the superpowers of everyone present, and even the names they called each other were known through soul communication.
The old man headed by him has a kind of self-reinforcement super power. He can store energy at ordinary times and explode it when needed, making himself indestructible. His name is "Chariot".
And the timid girl hiding behind the old man is the maintainer of the white shield. She has a rare energy barrier type superpower that can withstand any type of impact at a certain energy level. Her nickname is 'Iron Wall'.
The thin boy and the long-haired woman standing together have the abilities of 'floating' and 'condensing light arrows' respectively. One of them is responsible for the team's transportation operations, and the other is responsible for large-scale cleaning and long-range attacks. Their names are 'Pegasus' and 'Magic Arrow' respectively. It was the magic arrow that killed those Siboya people. At this time, she didn't seem to have any reaction. She seemed to have a headache just because of the impact caused by Joshua.
As for the other two men, one looked very weak and seemed to be overloaded with abilities, while the other was responsible for supporting the other man and had a very low sense of presence. The powers of steel held by these two people are extremely simple, but extremely pure. One is the 'blast' that can cause violent explosions through contact, and the other is the 'invisible' that can be optically manipulated and become invisible. Joshua guessed that it was the cooperation of these two people that could blast the black wall outside the breeding area without being stopped by the soul puppet.
The last one is a tired woman who doesn't seem to have any abilities, but her ability itself is 'amplified soul'. Her responsibilities have been clearly revealed in the soul communication, that is, as the core of the team, she is responsible for soul communication, and also removes the mental seals for 'compatriots'... Her title is 'Unlocker'.
This Sibiya team refers to each other entirely by their abilities. It seems that they have no names at all, but if you think about it carefully, it is true. The name is just a code name. As superpowers with different abilities, the ability name itself is a sufficiently eye-catching and unique code name.
"Explain what the Resistance is."
Joshua continued to ask. The old man and other members of the resistance seemed a little at a loss. However, because of the huge disparity in strength and Joshua's inaccessible attitude, they decided to answer honestly: "The resistance... is Resist the army of soul puppets..."
Through the white-haired old man's narration and the supplements from others, Joshua quickly understood what kind of organization the Resistance Army was.
This is an organization that has existed for about a hundred years. At the beginning, it was just a small organization formed by a few lucky people with superpowers who obtained themselves and escaped from the garden to resist the soul puppets who came to capture them. Brigade. But later, as more and more superpowers gathered, generally a single 'garden', that is, the gathering place of soul puppets, no longer had enough strength to destroy them, and these superpowers even went to attack them in turn. Garden', rescue the children in the garden area, remove their mental seals, and let them join you.
So far, the resistance has grown to a large scale. According to the white-haired old man, there are hundreds of teams like them, and there are tens of thousands of scattered superpowers. A few decades ago, they even He also launched a holy war against the tower at the center of the world. But not all superpowers have enough combat power. In addition, the slightly larger Soul Puppet Garden can gather nearly 10,000 combat puppets. They often unite together and send armies to wipe out the resistance, so they have not stopped yet. In one place, they kept moving, avoiding the annihilation of the puppet army, and obtaining resources and population supplies by attacking smaller plantations along the way.
As for the process...no need to say more. Just look at those numb Siberian people whose lives were cut off like grass. These rebels only recognize those children with extraordinary abilities as their compatriots. They do not have enough power to unlock the ideological stamps for ordinary people, nor do they have enough Food is given to these worthless guys. Every time they break through a soul puppet garden, the first thing they do is to destroy the soul puppets, the second thing is to rescue the superpowers, and the last thing they do is to plunder all the supplies, kill all the livestock and Sibiya people who are too late to take away, and then... Let the fire reduce the garden to ashes.
It's just like the primitive nomads in ancient times.
"This..." He didn't know what to call Joshua. The white-haired old man could only judge by his appearance: "This 'puppet master', what is your purpose now?"
"You are so powerful that you can even defeat the soul puppets in the entire plantation by yourself, so why didn't you leave before?"
The entire Xibeya team seems to rarely communicate with others, speaks bluntly and doesn't know how to hide it. If they didn't have soul communication to coordinate with each other, they might have discussed topics about warriors in front of Joshua. The old man asked simply and directly, with a hint of curiosity. Joshua did not answer immediately. He turned back and glanced at the messy farmland around him, as well as the remains of countless puppets and the corpses of Xibeiya people. The soldier said softly: "Originally, I planned to see what was wrong with this world."
"But now it seems that the world's problems may not be big... On the contrary, the spirit of the entire civilization, and even the civilization itself, has completely rotted away and no longer exists."
Joshua's young body sat on the puppet's shoulders. He looked down at the remains of the soul puppet and said, "You are not human."
He turned his head again and looked at the Sibiya people who fell in the dirt and were killed by light arrows: "You are not human."
Finally, Joshua turned back. He looked at the seven-member team of Siberia who was confused and began to be a little scared with complicated eyes that he didn't know whether it was indifference or sympathy.
"You are not human."
===No charge for the following===
I found that many readers have misunderstood what I meant, so I will explain it here.
What Joshua means by this is that whether they are soul puppets, Sibiya ordinary people, or Sibiya superpowers, as civilized individuals, soul puppets can build planting areas and repair the world in a desolate world, but they have no humanity. and wisdom, act rigidly according to orders and rules, and have no future. Superpowers are wise, but like the ancient nomadic names, they are not productive, make no contribution to civilization, and even arrogantly tear apart the boundaries between themselves and ordinary people, while ordinary people The Hyborians are even more unintelligent, and their freedom of thought is blocked. These three are torn and broken, and they are not complete intelligent and civilized individuals.
There must be a huge problem with the Hyborian civilization itself, which is why it appears like this, causing great confusion among the individuals who carry the civilization. That's why Joshua said "You are not a human being", "You are not a human being", "You guys" They are not human beings"... This is not a sentiment at all, but a fact. I originally planned to talk about it in the next chapter, but there is no time, so I will explain it first.
①It means that the unknown mechanic moved from the breeding area to the garden area because he gained his soul from mental work. I am afraid that some readers will not understand the metaphor.
God knows why there was a quarrel in the last chapter. It was obviously a very simple question. Joshua has personal preferences, and naturally has his own opinions and action patterns. What's the fuss about it.
(End of chapter)