Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 389 "The Pope"

This reminded Ke Lan of Catholicism in the old era.

In the Middle Ages, this was the era when Catholicism had the strongest control over the entire continent of Europe.At that time, the church represented the supreme authority. The church not only had the power to crown the emperor, but also had the qualifications to pronounce heresy. Everything they did, even if it was launching wars, burning, killing, and looting, could be crowned with a high-sounding reputation. The reason-this is the will of "God", and the church is just the agent of "God" in the world.

In that ignorant era, very few people doubted the existence of "God". Even if they did, they would be labeled as "heretical" 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 it does not exist, who is the mouth of the so-called "God-given will"?
For most religions, "God" is actually just a symbol, and those who call themselves "God's agents" are the ones who really hold power.

They created a fictional idol, but announced to the world that this world was created by this fictional idol... Now it seems that it is simply a big joke.

Although for the "Sick Village Sect", the "great god" they believe in and worship is real, but in Ke Lan's view, this wall of flesh and blood called God can only be regarded as a puppet , a puppet with "incubating ability"... Recalling what happened before, Ke Lan always felt that there were unreasonable places everywhere, and the most unreasonable place was the Wall of Flesh itself.

The Wall of Flesh can't speak, can't communicate with people, and it's hard for Ke Lan to even determine whether it has a complete self-awareness—an existence like this, no matter how powerful it is, can't survive in a short period of time by relying on strength alone. In just a few decades, he became the "great god" in the minds of the residents of the sick village.

From the day the word "God" was born, it should be a lofty existence that is difficult for ordinary people to touch-and a visible and tangible thing, no matter how much people fear it, it is impossible to place it in the above such a high position.

All of this is the result of human manipulation. Without the deliberate guidance of someone with a heart, even after 100 years, the "Sick Village Sect" may not necessarily be born in this isolated and suspended prison.

Ke Lan even suspects that the Wall of Flesh is not "wild", but also manufactured, just like people in the old era used clay and marble to shape statues of gods that did not exist in reality...

It's just that the only difference is...it's alive.

Someone pushed it out as an "idol" on the bright side, while its creator was hidden behind a wall - behind the wall is a pun, which means that this person puts his identity and means Hiding behind such a symbol as the "Wall of Flesh", also refers to himself, perhaps hiding in this space behind the Wall of Flesh.

This area obviously has a very special meaning to the heretic sects, otherwise, they would not have stopped chasing after Ke Lan crossed the Wall of Flesh.

As for the space behind the wall, the hatchery only occupies a very small part...

"Excellent speculation." A strange voice suddenly exploded in Ke Lan's head, "I have to admit that you almost guessed most of the truth, and as for some deviations in details, it is not harmful. "

"Who are you?" Ke Lan was startled by the voice, raised the ax in his hand, and looked around vigilantly.

"I am the man behind the scenes you guessed, the real controller of this 'sick village'." The voice said again.

"Can you read my mind?" Ke Lan secretly thought something bad, if this is the case, wouldn't he be "completely transparent" to this person?Then in front of this person, his secret will be invisible... He couldn't help feeling a kind of fear that had never appeared before.

He felt as if he was strapped to a dissecting table, a sharp circular saw cut open the skull along the eyebrows, and the steaming brain was lifted out by a pair of sterile gloved hands and placed in a On the table filled with electrodes.

The precise laser cutting machine was operating stably and quickly, cutting his body into countless slices not even a millimeter thick, and his brain was connected to a biological computer. All his thinking Human body, consciousness, and memory are like the data stored in the disk, which are decrypted one by one for people to browse at will.

"It's interesting what you're imagining, but there's absolutely no need for them to."

"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? Do you want to resist my prying by stopping thinking?" There seemed to be a hint of sarcasm in that voice, "But what you get rid of are just distracting thoughts. As long as your brain is still functioning, it is impossible to stop thinking." down."

"Instead of doing this kind of useless work, you might as well chat with me." The other party said suddenly.

"Chat? You can see clearly what's going on in my head, so what's there to talk about?" Ke Lan asked back.

"Although I can read your past memories and spy on your current thinking, I can't predict the thoughts that have not yet been born in your brain. The future is uncertain... just like the famous 'Schrödinger's Like cats, they remain unknowable until they are observed."

"..." Ke Lan really wanted to refute him, but found that he couldn't find anything to refute.

"Go forward 270 meters, turn left, enter the third airtight door from the right, go straight 100 meters, go through the fire exit, and you will come to me."

"A trap?" This was Ke Lan's first reaction, but he quickly vetoed the idea - since the other party can understand his own thinking, why use traps to deal with him...

Ke Lan was a little sad to find that if this voice wanted to be his enemy, he had no chance of winning at all.

……

Following the route the other party told him, Ke Lan walked all the way to the end of the fire escape. In front of him was a thick airtight door. The paint on the door had completely peeled off, and the exposed alloy surface covered this A layer of off-white oxide layer—this door is not covered by those meat films, and it looks particularly conspicuous amidst a large area of ​​dark red tones.

Ke Lan took a deep breath, grabbed the valve on the airtight door, and turned it hard.

"Crack-squeak-"

Accompanied by the tooth-piercing rubbing sound, the airtight door was slowly pushed open by him.

Behind the door is a circular hall. Many mechanical arms of different specifications hang down from the top of the hall, but now these mechanical arms have also been wrapped in meat membranes, which look like the limbs of biochemical monsters .

In the center of the hall, there is a conical "mountain of meat", and on top of the "mountain of meat", there is a human body.

To be precise, it is half.

It was a bloated male whose upper body was covered with clear polymer tubes that extended below the floor.His lower body was integrated with this huge meat mountain more than ten meters high, and the traces left by the surgical sutures could be vaguely seen on the waist and abdomen.

Ke Lan shifted his gaze to his face.

This man has only half a face.

The part below the root of the nose has disappeared, a large amount of hyperplastic tissue has filled the space under the facial bone, and many blood vessels, nerves and fascia that should not appear in normal humans tightly wrap the rear spine , extending to the depths of the skull, beyond Ke Lan's 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, the actual controller of the Sick Village... …Of course, I don't mind if you call me by another name, 'Chiron'."

"The Pope...Chiron?" Ke Lan suddenly had a very strange feeling, "Wait...Chiron, is that the centaur Chiron in ancient Greek mythology? The one who later became a Sagittarius?"

"Exactly, that's where my name comes from."

"The Pope...the fifth card of the Major Arcana, the god represented by the Pope...is exactly 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 is the first time he has seen the real body of a member of the Undead Membership Association.

"It used to be." Chiron said, "but I made a mistake, a very serious mistake. Because of this incident, I was removed from the Undead Crew Club and banished to this tailor-made for me. In prison."

"A prison tailored for you?" Ke Lan was stunned, "The purpose of this space station is not..."

"You're right, but that's just one of the purposes...Although I was exiled here, I'm still working for the Ark, so as to make up for my mistakes and atone for my crimes."

"..." Ke Lan looked up at Chiron, he was a little surprised and speechless.

"Mann is right to tell you that the experimental project has not been discontinued, it has just been changed, and I have taken over... This space station is not just my prison, nor is it just a shelter for those miners , it is still a research institute that is not subject to the laws of the Ark...it has never been abandoned...it has been functioning since it was built."

"Then, those miners..."

"That's right, they are all experimental subjects. In essence, they are the same as Akira Asano, they all--" At this point, Chiron's voice suddenly interrupted, and he continued after a few seconds, "It seems , you are not the only uninvited guest who came here today."

"It's not just me?" Ke Lan was startled, and turned around quickly, only to find a figure quietly walking out of the fire exit he had passed through earlier.

It was the missionary of the remaining heretic sect!

"Ha." Chiron let out a dry laugh, "It's really interesting, the only two people can meet here."

"The only two people?" Ke Lan repeated Chiron's words with some doubts, then turned to point the fire ax in his hand at the missionary, and asked, "Who are you? How did you get in? "

"Who am I... Good question." A strange smile appeared on the face of the missionary, "But I don't want to answer your question, if you want to know the answer, you can ask this pile of rotten meat, he may will tell you."

But before Ke Lan could speak, the missionary continued on his own: "You shouldn't be hostile to me, you and I are the same kind, and you are the only one in this world."

The first half of the sentence he spoke was in Chinese, while the second half... was the language of the Alpha civilization!

Ke Lan couldn't help holding his breath.

"You guessed it right again." Chiron's voice sounded in Ke Lan's consciousness, "He is the founder of that heretical sect... He and you are the only ones 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 mountain of meat with disgust, "Don't use the term 'human' to describe me... I am no longer that kind of ignorant The lower creatures of the..."

As he was talking, he suddenly looked at Ke Lan: "Don't you think this guy is hypocritical? It has clearly abandoned its human form, but it still uses this disgusting word to define our kind A more excellent existence, what is this? Could it be that it is jealous of us? Hahahaha..."

His tone was craziest, he laughed loudly, even bent down, lying on the ground, pounding the floor hard with his fists—"Hahahahaha...Ke Lan, as you can imagine, a Caterpillars that failed to transform into butterflies, using the word 'bug' to describe humans... Hahahaha... This is really ridiculous."

"... To be honest, I can't understand where your joke is." Ke Lan thought for a while, and then said seriously.

"Could it be, do you still think you are human?" The man stopped laughing, looked at Ke Lan, and asked in surprise.

"I'm not a human being, what else can I be? A monster?" Ke Lan asked back.

"How could you be a monster? Just like you and me, we are 'gods'! Besides 'gods'... what other existence 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 these four things...' Zhao Wendao, Xi Xi Death is enough', some people spend their lives just to touch the truth for a moment, and if you become a 'god,' then you will have these things forever."

"You're crazy, and you're crazy." Ke Lan said.

"Desire, this is desire! Desire is the instinct of living beings. Without desire, the existence of life is meaningless!" The man pointed his finger at Chiron, and continued to say to Ke Lan, "The existence of the Undead Crew Club is human desire. They are the products of human beings... It's just that their desires are small and dirty, they are like rats in the sewer, and the ultimate goal of life is nothing but a piece of rotten moldy cheese!"

(End of this chapter)