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Chapter 599 - 596: ’Try a Little Harder... Just a Little.

Chapter 599: Chapter 596: ’Try a Little Harder... Just a Little.

Su Ming’an raised his hand, brushing off Dawn’s hand.

As he moved, bone powder cascaded down like falling snow, dusting his form.

——All of these were the remains of Yasa Acto.

In life, they might have shone like the sun, experiencing a grand Prosperous Era and a splendid existence, leading the trends of the world, looking down upon the masses from the summit of the City-States, or commanding soldiers in the fire of resistance——but none of that could outweigh the fact that they are now dead.

Whether it was the death of their bodies or the extinction of their souls, humanity inevitably marches towards its end. Back in Pulaya, Su Ming’an had come to understand that "eternal life" was an impossible feat.

Even the most dazzling, the most righteous of leaders would meet with death; only through generational inheritance could the civilization of a race be sustained for a long time.

Whether Yasa Acto’s death was due to Dawn’s instigation or his own will, Su Ming’an could no longer be sure. All he could now see were the ashes of this Doctor.

He turned his head, beholding the high piles of bone mountains, a sight so staggering it left one at a loss for words, countless human skeletons buried here, all originating from one person.

"Yasa Acto..." He murmured the name again, softly.

He began to regret that he could only inhabit a body that could no longer converse with him. Apart from situations like Su Rin’s generational shifts, he found it difficult to communicate with the original owners of the bodies he inhabited.

Had Yasa still been alive, he might have delved into the Doctor’s philosophy.

He brushed off the bone fragments from his body, these cold bones looking quite frightful.

"Although these bones all come from ’the father,’ you are different," said Dawn.

In its eyes, a clear reflection of Su Ming’an seated in the wheelchair.

"In the current observation, you are quite suitable. I hope you can become an unspoiling [Dawn] type persona in my eyes——over my long years, to help construct this ideal ’State of Measurement’," it said.

It operated the wheelchair, slowly pulling him away from the white mountain of bones, leaving the pitiful man who was howling and wailing.

"It seems the statement I made earlier wasn’t wrong," said Su Ming’an, looking at that man.

"Which one?" Dawn seemed somewhat pleased, "Is it the one where you acknowledged me?"

"No," said Su Ming’an, "it’s the one I made in the chariot."

"..." Dawn pondered for a moment but showed no anger.

An AI doesn’t harbour emotions of anger, it merely automatically analyzes and infers from his language, that is its program, or one could say, its instinct.

"Dawn, may I ask you a question?" seeing no emotional ripples from Dawn, Su Ming’an ventured.

"Of course," Dawn nodded.

"What exactly is the concept of Ta Wei?" Su Ming’an inquired.

Upon hearing this, a faint spark of electric light flashed in Dawn’s eyes:

"Ta Wei is our greatest enemy——it is more chaotic, more obscure, more dangerous... As long as humanity has faith, it will be tempted and invaded by Ta Wei, making you feel ’somehow, this is the right thing to do.’ Once you acknowledge the concepts Ta Wei instills in you, even if it’s just a slight acceptance of their words, you will gradually come to fully embrace Ta Wei..."

"Instill? How does Ta Wei instill concepts in people?" Su Ming’an asked.

"It’s like a whisper suddenly sounding in the ears of humanity, or a conversation with your soul," Dawn said. "At present, Ta Wei’s methods of infiltrating our world aren’t particularly forceful. They can’t take over our world through direct force; they can only psychologically influence humans by whispering, conversing with people’s souls, inducing humans to slaughter each other..."

Su Ming’an’s heart skipped a beat unexpectedly.

This narration about ’Ta Wei’ by Dawn felt all too familiar, almost like déjà vu.

Ta Wei can’t seize a world through direct force, only infiltrate and tempt humanity from a psychological level...

—Isn’t this precisely the behavior of today’s Organizers?

They didn’t directly take over Zhai Xing, nor caused everyone to die or become slaves instantly; instead, they established the world game with what seemed like extremely fair Rules, using individuals with special identities to divide them.

He felt a chill all over his body.

The strange and oppressive atmosphere in this underground room affected him constantly, like cold water flowing through his chest.

What was the relationship between the Organizers and Ta Wei? Or rather... could the Organizers be a concept of Ta Wei?

He gradually became aware of the seriousness of the situation. From the First World to the Ninth World, people’s understanding of worlds and dimensions increased step by step. Increasingly secretive concepts began to subtly reflect out of the instances. The first five worlds were relatively simple narrative worlds, until the Sixth World’s ’World Dream’ theory, the Seventh world’s ’Deity Succession’ theory, the NPC Awakening concept, or the Eighth World’s ’World Reincarnation’ theory, Little Ai’s words about "giving up the source to trade with the Organizers"... and the ’Ta Wei’ concept of the Ninth World, they all hinted more and more deeply at something.

—As if telling humanity that some secrets needed to be unearthed quickly, for their time was running out.

He remembered the blood-red light in Noel’s eyes.

So, was Noel invaded by Ta Wei because he heard the secret whispers, and he recognized the concepts within these whispers, which is why he was invaded?

"Do all humans who hear the Whispering get invaded?" Su Ming’an asked.

"As I just said, the moment you, even slightly, as little as it might be, approve of Ta Wei’s whispering, you will be influenced," Dawn said. "This influence isn’t forceful brainwashing or hypnosis, but an influence based on your own concepts. As long as you harbor even a slight bias towards the thoughts of Ta Wei, you will gradually truly lean towards Ta Wei."

Su Ming’an furrowed his brow slightly.

He understood—this was akin to a "right of recognition."

As long as you "recognize" Ta Wei’s whispers, like handing over a permit, Ta Wei could cross a certain threshold, beginning to directly influence you.

This method of invasion was much subtler and gentler than a SAN value drop; it wouldn’t create illusions, but would subtly change your thoughts—yet if your thoughts changed, if you became completely different from your previous thought pattern—is that still the same person?

Just like the concept of the ’Ship of Theseus’ suggested by Plutarch in the 1st century—if a ship has its parts, deck, rudder, and even the crew and captain replaced—is it still the same ship?

If Noel also became a completely different person from before...

Su Ming’an dared not think further.

He even began to consider whether he should rewind time immediately to prevent Noel from being tempted by the whispering.

But he didn’t know when Noel succumbed to temptation; if Noel had been tempted during the three days before his stay in Central City, it was already too late for him to intervene.

At the moment, the team chat was very quiet, Lu was grinding Contribution Value with the battle group. Luna was investigating the Roseblood case with Hawk Hound. Yamada Machiichi was collecting clues in The Fringe, searching for key NPCs. Lv Shu... it seemed Lv Shu had just been kicked out of his job by the boss; he was now unemployed, commonly referred to as a drifter, and it was uncertain whether he would resort to selling roasted sweet potatoes.

The players in the world channel had also taken a break; since Su Ming’an had voluntarily returned to Central City, removing the red alert, some expressed regret that in the end, no one received the reward.

[Kercha (Unaffiliated): Since Su Ming’an returned on his own, why wouldn’t he let others mooch a reward?]

This message was sent an hour ago.

Of course, this person was berated brutally, with a stream of expletives led by Lv Shu flooding the channel: "nmsl, wr your nn, are you a giant baby," "wcnm, your dear mother is missing," "cnm’s bitch, always needing others to help, why don’t you go suckle" and other similar phrases were common, almost causing Lv Shu to exhaust his five opportunities to speak.

But Noel, who usually liked to chat in the team channel, hadn’t sent a single message so far.

According to Su Ming’an’s understanding of Noel, this second-ranked Player who advocated "embracing high dimensions" and "embracing the New World" had a very high degree of acceptance of ideas coming from other world layers.

A high degree of acceptance signifies ease of infiltration and invasion, which signifies danger.

Noel had spoken these words to him during the human self-rescue meeting, on top of the Ferris wheel, and they were still etched in his memory.

...

[Su Ming’an, humanity is on the brink of destruction, our future is bleak.]

[Even if we escape this round of the game, endless reincarnation awaits us.]

[You and I both have "special identities given by the Organizers," we are the most suited for evolution.]

[Throughout its history, humanity has always been adept at breaking the old and embracing the new. Even if some revolutions are so rapid they seem like tearing the heavens and the earth apart. But after traversing the long river of time and looking back, those things that seemed to bring extensive destruction... often turn out to be the beginning of a new era.]

[Since resistance is futile, better to go with the flow. As long as we can turn what is passively suffered into our own, in the end, the beneficiaries will still be us...]

...

As Su Ming’an recalled Noel’s words, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

During that time at the end of the Fifth World... had Noel already seen this much?

He realized that Noel’s ideology closely matched that of the Hawk Hound leader Kaskining Feiluo—it was the philosophy of those who sided with Ta Wei, clearly the result of being influenced by Ta Wei.

Wait a minute.

The invasion and infiltration of Ta Wei...did it really only begin in the Ninth World?

Su Ming’an abruptly recalled those who, like traitors, would always drag their feet and even advocated siding with the Organizers no matter what.

He had previously thought it was a survivorship bias, that humanity had a lot of fools who couldn’t see clearly and were stupid enough to this extent, thinking the Organizers would grant them evolutionary gifts and favors.

...But now, was that really their own, independent thought?

Or was it that these people... had already been...

He was covered in cold sweat.

He had previously thought the City of Measurement was a sieve invaded by Ta Wei, and he had even mockingly thought how careless Yasa Acto had been as the ruler of a city-state, with its residents all infiltrated and himself teaching students in Central City with a clear conscience.

But now it seemed... if the Main God World had become like the City of Measurement,

Wasn’t he also an oblivious Yasa Acto?

Cold sweat soaked his back, and he suddenly coughed up blood.

The eerie pressure from the wall’s blood runes, the icy feeling of being covered in ashes... these negative emotions continuously oppressed him, and the future he had always upheld seemed somewhat bleak.

"Cough, cough cough..."

He coughed up blood, his vision blurred as if a layer of cloth had been draped over everything.

What should he do?

Having realized this... what should he do now?

If the Perfect Pass could "redeem" Zhai Xing, could it redeem the parts taken by Ta Wei? Did its redemption cover "all the negative impacts brought by the World Game"?

If not...

Then what was he redeeming in the end with his success? Was it a battered Ship of Theseus, every part of it replaced? Or a planet riddled with holes, filled with humans admiring Ta Wei?

— What did he truly love, the planet itself? Or the vivid and diverse humans who once lived on it?

A ship that can sail the seas for hundreds of years, thanks to uninterrupted replacements of its parts. As soon as a plank rots, it gets replaced, and so on, until all its parts are no longer the original ones.

But the question is, is the resulting ship the original Ship of Theseus, or an entirely different ship? If it’s not the original ship, then at what point did it cease to be the original? And if you were to use the old parts taken from the Ship of Theseus to rebuild a new ship, which of the two is the real Ship of Theseus?

He slowly, ever so slowly, lifted his head.

Before him, the gentle-faced Dawn was looking at him, those simulated eyes filled with innumerable tenderness.

After making eye contact with Dawn for a moment, Su Ming’an suddenly let go of his clenched hand.

...He had figured it out.

At this moment, he had an epiphany.

What he loved were not those humans. What he loved was a will that knew there was no chance but refused to give up, determined to try for the best outcome to the very end.

How humanity would change, and whether they were still themselves in the end, he didn’t care so much. As long as those people were still alive, as long as his planet was still there, as long as he did his best, then everything was worth it.

Of course, if he could fight a little more before that, fight just a bit more to keep all of humanity intact, not letting them change their minds for Ta Wei, that would be even better.

As long as that ship didn’t sink, it remained.

And himself, arriving at the other shore on that ship, would be content.

But he hoped this route would be a little smoother, that a few more crew members would survive, so with the ability he possessed, he would try his best to achieve that little bit more.

Just a little bit more.

Try harder... just a little bit more.

...

[Countdown: 3 hours]

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