Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 990: Section 643: Fish and Fisherman (part 2)_2

Chapter 990: Section 643: Fish and Fisherman (part 2)_2

Sostak No.3 and Jason were sensible enough not to express any opinions while Malin and Mrs. Martha were talking. It was only after she walked through the teleportation portal that Sostak No.3 finally shared his thoughts: "Can they really be considered human?"

"If you can be considered human, then of course they can too," Malin replied.

Then he noticed the intense joy on Sostak No.3’s face. "I can be considered human too?!"

"...Yes, though I’ve never seen an AI as petty as you," Malin chuckled.

Although slightly annoyed, Sostak No.3 was still elated to be recognized as human. Without saying another word about being a pet, his face lit with joy, he and Jason picked up their fishing rods and continued fishing.

"Sir, do you truly believe they qualify as human? They’re Machine Souls," Mr. Meng asked, his face showing a mix of hesitation and confusion as he looked at Malin.

"Machine Souls—that’s how you refer to AI, right? In my opinion, they indeed qualify as human. They have souls named ’self.’ Normal AIs are unlike humans because they lack self-awareness, but Sostak No.3 and Jason do... They are like the Orcs; no matter how they came into this world, as long as they possess normal intelligence, they are human. They are the native inhabitants of this planet under our feet, whereas Chaos is not. Chaos can only bring destruction."

In Malin’s eyes, humanity had reached such a precarious point that clinging to outdated notions of nations and races was stubborn and ludicrous.

The priority was to unite all available forces and disable Chaos, obliterating or paralyzing it. Anyone who dared provoke internal conflict under such circumstances would swiftly receive a high-speed cremation experience, courtesy of Malin.

"...Yes, Sir, you are absolutely right," Mr. Meng nodded in agreement before turning his gaze toward his daughter.

Meng Quyi sat at the bow of the boat, singing songs with her War Witch companions.

Malin leaned against the railing of the boat, listening to the passionate melody of war songs, his eyes scanning the Thanans aboard.

Do my fellow countrymen truly understand who they are? Do they know they arose from a small tribe by the Yellow River, evolving into East Asia’s most resilient people, the first to break free of the bonds of gravity?

We are proud, for we are the Hua Xia people who took the mountains as oars and sailed across the land... Yet all of this has long since been obliterated by destruction.

"With mountains as oars, sailing for a thousand years, igniting the smoke of times past, within the span of a single bloom," Malin murmured, recalling a half-forgotten song in his mind.

His singing gradually drew the attention of Sostak No.3 and Jason. The two AIs gazed at Malin, with Jason’s face showing deep nostalgia.

"Mr. Zhang used to sing that song the most often before he went into eternal slumber," Jason remarked wistfully. "He said it was an old song, but it suited the environment he was in."

Jason’s words caused Malin to stop singing. He nodded and asked, "Could you tell me about the last few years before the Great Destruction?"

"Of course," Sostak No.3 responded immediately.

Jason, the most human-like of the civilian AIs, also nodded in agreement.

"If we’re going to discuss the Great Destruction, then it all begins with the establishment of the Union."

Earth’s Union was founded in 2055. At that time, the world was facing depleting energy resources and worsening environmental conditions. Billions of lives struggled on this planet, with nearly seventy percent of the population living below the extreme poverty line.

Eventually, the East Asian Community, the European Union, and the North American Trade Alliance sat down together. Faced with looming catastrophe, they abandoned rivalry. The horn of a new era sounded as humans started working together, no longer divided by race or skin color. Everyone strove tirelessly, seeking to survive and improve their lives.

It was a glorious era. Humanity built inhabited cities on the Moon, established bases on Mars, and deployed fleets of resource-collecting spacecraft that commuted monthly between near-Earth orbit depots and the asteroid belt.

But... comfort breeds heresy. As human lives began to improve, everything seemed to return to the old paths. An array of beliefs again started dominating the human psyche, with temples springing up even in near-Earth orbit.

It was the best of times and the worst of times. Humans labored to leave the Solar System, yet some clung to the conviction that the entire universe was created by deities.

"You know," Sostak No.3 remarked, "they even tried attributing our existence to their deities. These foolish beings naively believed we were created by their gods. In truth, engineers and scientists created us; they are our true creators."

Sostak No.3’s indifference toward deities was likely a trait unique to AI. Jason, however, was more direct: "Do you realize, Sostak, that in Europe, those believers even credited the very existence of engineers and scientists to their gods? They claimed it was their deities that allowed these people to become engineers and scientists. They believed as long as they turned their lies into truth, their gods would reign over us. After all, that way, we’d be nothing more than toys crafted by their divine creations."

Sostak No.3 smirked with disdain. "So when the Great Destruction neared, those believers thought they were hearing the true divine will, forgetting that the very gods they created were multifaceted beings. They imagined their gods loved humanity, oblivious to the fact that the so-called deities they worshipped brought not blessings but overwhelming destruction."

Malin looked down at an old world map that had appeared before him.

On the Peninsula, a Chaos Evil God supplanted the divine beings once worshipped by underground cults. Its true form descended during the onset of the Great Destruction. The East Asian battlefront sacrificed tens of thousands of soldiers, fighting twisted Chaos Spawns—tragic remnants of life—along the Peninsula border for an entire week. Fortunately, reconnaissance confirmed the Evil God’s sanctuary. Just having arrived in this world and unable to adapt fully, it hid in an underground bunker. A single tungsten rod pierced that bunker, physically annihilating both the Evil God and its minions, resulting in the Peninsula being dragged into another dimension...

In Southeast Asia, local forces were entirely wiped out within seven months. They didn’t even manage to preserve their battle flags, leaving behind only a solitary unit designation in Sostak No.3’s memory banks.

In North America, Nagoth’s Great Demon turned the entire continent into a haven of filth. For three despair-filled years, the North American battlefront fought relentlessly. On the West Coast, seven power-armored armored divisions held the line at San Francisco, evacuating millions of uncontaminated survivors from North America. Meanwhile, in Washington, the National Guard and remaining civilians loaded every embryo from the Northern Gene Bank onto ships, evacuating civilians one vessel at a time. These desperate warriors fought both their former compatriots and their own desires, vanishing without trace by the twenty-ninth month of the Great Destruction.

In Europe... the surviving soldiers fended off assaults while regrouping. From Spain to Austria, everyone moved eastward. Ultimately, a defensive line was held near Moscow, but over five years, Europe lost nearly ninety percent of its population.

For Malin, it was an epoch of unparalleled devastation. People didn’t live to seek better lives but to ensure the survival of civilization’s spark. In this era, cowards and heroes perished side by side.

"Malin, you know," Sostak No.3 remarked, "it’s precisely because of ease and comfort that such terrifying heresies emerged. These so-called deities are nothing but death incarnate. Even now, the so-called gods are merely false idols born of mutation and change."

He chuckled and added, "They themselves are nothing more than puppets in the hands of the new rules."

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