above the sky

- I want to look up at the blue sky.

- I want to look at the stars.

- I want to touch the clouds.

——I want to catch the wind with my hands.

One desire after another is churning, and one desire after another is shouting.

Different people, different wishes, different desires and hesitations.

With sorrow, with anger, with hope, with determination.

All the emotions resonate with Ian, he is empathizing with all the emotions at this moment, the indescribable complex longing is so similar to him.

Imprisoned on this land, surrounded by souls bound by gravity, those countries that clearly have powerful technology but do not want to take a step, but wage wars against other countries... Each of them makes him again and again. Sadness and anger.

but……

'He' can't be seen.

The blond hair turned into dull gray, the strong man with sky blue eyes turned into an old man, but he still couldn't open the door to the outside world. The Sequoia Base was like a cage, locking him in this comfortable place. The underground space that is gradually decaying.

Yes, it's cozy and comfortable here.

Yes, he's in a high position here.

Yes, he has great power and reverence from the people.

Yes, he has reached the pinnacle of life - he can do anything.

Except what he wants to do.

and……

He was dying.

[After I die, is it okay to send my body out of the ruins? ]

[Great Elder... Your body itself is our most important heritage. What should you do if a mutant creature from the outside devoured your body and obtained the blood key? If nothing else, your attached brain will definitely be recycled]

The corpse itself is also property. This is a fact that is no longer normal. The body of the Sequoias needs special treatment before they can be buried, because the various nano-vaccines, special immune viruses and photosynthetic bacteria in their bodies are all from the previous era. Once the technology that survives in the period is revealed to the outside world, although it is not an ecological disaster, it will definitely have adverse effects.

And the attached brain that inherits the memory needs to be removed after death to upload the memory.

But for the Sequoia people, taking off the attached brain is equivalent to taking off half of their soul. What do they want with that mutilated body?

[Ok, I see……]

No one could hear the faint despair in the elder's tone.

and decidedly.

So, two years later, the automatic production line was suddenly damaged by an accident.

Immediately afterwards, the ecological park restraint lock was destroyed.

The two abnormal crises caused everyone in the entire Sequoia base to be devastated. The automatic production line is okay. After all, there are skills in the brain. Whether it is remanufacturing or repairing, it is not difficult. At most, it is a waste of time.

But the ecological park was destroyed, and the alien creatures in it were mixed, enough to create a second-level ecological crisis here!

While dealing with this huge turmoil, no one noticed that some extremely confidential genetic samples were taken from the laboratory deep in the eco-park.

Then, as if bad things weren't enough, one after another, some Sequoias went missing.

They disappeared suddenly and silently one night, which made everyone extremely nervous, thinking that it was the aliens in the ecological park and the individuals who were left behind, and now they were attacking them.

Armoured members of the escort patrol day and night, but people continue to disappear.

Until one day, a person was discovered by the guards during the process of leaving, but this person has lost his will, his spirit has been completely disordered, and he is talking a mess of words, as if he is completely crazy.

After detailed medical tests, everyone was shocked to discover that the attached brain behind the person's brain stem had mutated. This semi-psychic slug, which was supposed to be extremely stable, actually began to devour the human brain and attempted to replace it.

There is a source behind all of this. After careful investigation, the Sequoia people found in horror that all the missing people disappeared at the other end of the h-55 underwater channel, that is, the source of the viewing river, the cooling channel of the power group a small tributary.

In the water purification plant there, there are hills of corpses and a small biological laboratory that has been established for a long time.

Among them, many instruments are of the highest secret level and only exist in the pre-epoch laboratory that requires a key card to pass, and there is only one person who can open the laboratory without application.

That is their leader, the elder Sequoia.

[what are you doing? ! Madara Quinson, why are you doing this! ? ]

[eternal life]

[Are you crazy? ! This is not immortality at all, you just turn yourself into an echo, even if you can really burn your soul into the psychic network of the brain and become a mirror... You will also become a collection of wills with the brain, not You now! ]

[I do not care]

[Wh... what? ]

[I said, I don't care]

——I don’t care if I’m human, I don’t care if it violates morality, I don’t care if it will destroy the ecological balance of Sequoia Base.

- I don't care about you, and I don't care about myself.

——Life, soul, memory, self, these things are all shit, they are all garbage, they only produce despair and pain, can the Hive Network carry the complete me? It's ridiculous, so what if you can't? Only you bored idiots are bothered by the little things, and it's no wonder you're still in this catacomb.

——I can’t see it, although it’s a pity, but at least that new life can leave here with an immortal body and an immortal soul.

- Then, look at the stars.

The fleshy white cocoon wrapped in fluorescent crystal clusters and living metal is stirring, as if it wants to reach out and cross the ruins in the deepest depths of the ground, cross the layers of rock formations and the tumultuous sea.

It wants to reach out and touch, touch the real wind, touch the clouds in the sky.

To touch the stars above the sky above the sky.

It is its desire, and it is the desire of the one who created it, and even all those who have become part of it.

Although those who did not say it, although they did not really think about it, those who said "don't want to leave the base" in their mouths have the most sincere wishes in their hearts.

——Even apes look up at the stars, let alone people?

Intense emotions, whether it was despair or enlightenment, hit Ian's heart.

Was that a candid statement, or an angry rant? I don't know, the phantoms of the past swept through my mind, bringing violent emotional shocks.

It also resonated with the young man from the bottom of his heart.

[We are the same kind...we are the same...]

A voice sounded, with sincere emotions: [We all long for the distance, longing to see those things that we can't see normally...]

[The ruins are the cage, the lifespan is the cage, the morality is the cage, the body is also the cage, isn’t the sky also the cage? ]

[We have to break free from the cage and break the shackles... We are the same... I can know that you are the same person as me...]

The invisible worm nest will protrude its own psionic energy and flesh and blood tentacles, and rush towards Ian who is standing there, like a hug.

From the shredded flesh-and-blood humanoids, there is a filamentous structure like nerves and blood vessels extending out, stretching forward with a spore-like texture, trying to climb on the boy's face.

[Let us unite...we shall be one, one immortal one...]

[Let's break free from the cage together...]

But these tentacle spores were cut off by a long sword without a blade.

Ian raised the sword silently, and he was obviously still immersed in the mental shock created by the will of the hive - it is a very special psionic technique, which relies on empathy and resonance to activate, as long as there is a slight similarity in thinking, It will gradually start to erode from it.

No, it's not erosion and it's not parasitic.

but contribution.

The will of the hive shares everything with Ian, it is not an attack, there is no hostility, as long as they have the same mood and the same resonance, they are one, they are one will... If Ian's spirit is strong enough, If the influence of other soul fragments can be excluded, he can become a hive.

Become a true Hive Will.

But he still raised the sword, and the light golden sword light cut off all the tentacles and the beginning of a path of destiny.

"Cough cough..."

The boy raised his head, panting a little embarrassedly, staring at the white giant cocoon in front of him, coughing out bloody breath.

There, a huge brain is wailing silently, it can't figure out why, the life in front of it is so similar to it, they have the same dream, they have the same desire, it is even ashamed, because the soul of the young man in front of it is The madness in the depths can even outweigh its thousand-year-old persistence.

So why?

The answer is actually quite simple.

"We do have similarities, but we are different."

His eyes are like stars, and Ian's body is surrounded by a turquoise source quality halo. There is no anger, no sympathy, and no mockery in his eyes, only a hint of compassion.

The boy raised his sword solemnly, and the inscriptions on the iron sword of Chongyuan lighted up one by one. The light golden light shone with a unique light under the radiant light of silver, blue and green.

Ian took a deep breath, as if he was communicating his will to the hive in front of him, and as if he was talking to himself.

"Because I know the truth, I know what the future will look like, and I'm the one who lives in the 'future'," he said.

He said: "A thousand years from now, humans are still repeating boring wars, circling back and forth under the sun, and enjoying it."

He said: "I'm not longing. I'm believing. I don't want to touch the stars, I have to find the stars."

He said: "The Will of the Hive, no matter who you are, who is a fragment or a new life - whether you believe it or not, I don't care, I will tell you."

"There are no stars outside."

"Our world is wrapped in the heavenly prison of prisoners. The sky is pitch black. There is no guidance, there is no heaven and distance, and there is no brilliance to be excited about. The starry sky you imagined did not exist from the beginning."

- I know this, and you don't, you just imagine.

- You may be confused, you may be at a loss.

— and I have decided, determined, still to go, still to climb.

Saying this, Ian laughed instead, and he showed a heartfelt, very happy, but enough to be crazy smile: "But so what? I don't care about these things, regardless of the outside world. Cosmic monsters or warp natural disasters, only boring idiots would care about these details."

"I will definitely find the truth and go to the sky."

"That's what makes us different."