Ember Gun

  Chapter 586 Origin

  Stepping into the realm of nothingness, after a brief period of darkness, Lorenzo stepped on the solid ground again and appeared in this new columnar space.

Looking at the surroundings, Lorenzo felt a strange feeling in his heart. Unlike the previous run-down, it seems that this is the time when the sanctuary in the memory of the Secret Keeper was the most prosperous. You can see that the containers on the well wall are full. , There seemed to be something squirming in the pink liquid, and the green indicator lights lit up one by one, spreading to the upper and lower ends.

The giant disk in front of you is also safely stored, and the blue floating light walks on it, and the mechanical arm that hangs down from under the dome is also slowly moving, it is free from the shackles of the disk, on the well Wandering between, it seems to be checking the condition of the container.

  Lorenzo seemed to have never left. He came here again. It was a bit unexpected, but think about it, the scene that can deeply penetrate into the soul of the Secret Guardian is the only thing left here.

   "Personality is awakening."

A cold voice sounded, the cover of the disc in front of him opened, and amidst the white air, an old man sat up between the stagnant water and the cable, which was different from what Lorenzo saw in reality. At this moment, the guardian His image is not the poor brain tissue yet, but he is not much stronger at the moment compared to it.

Most of the body has been replaced by metal machinery, the back of the skull has been replaced by a translucent container, and the chest cavity has been completely opened. Lorenzo can even see the machinery operating under flesh and blood. The limbs have also been transformed into metal prostheses. To ensure basic life support, a series of digestive organs have become incomprehensible to Lorenzo.

  Liquids of different colors rushed through the pipes of different thicknesses, and a slight electric current passed through. On the old face, the electronic eyes lit up with dim light, and then turned and moved.

  The old man coughed violently and vomited out all the accumulation in his throat.

  "Is this reality, or..."

   From the electronic sound, the old man does not seem to have the ability to speak, and the ability to communicate is all the responsibility of the machine.

   "[Gap], at least that's how we call it here."

   Lorenzo responded.

   "Is that so?"

  The old man bowed his body, there was a glimmer of light in the electronic eyes, and he seemed to be thinking.

   "The madman Roger is back, and Adren."

  The electronic sound was distorted, and it seemed that the old man knew what was happening outside, which made Lorenzo feel puzzled.

  "Do you know what happened outside?"

  "It's just rough information. Although the shelter is extremely dilapidated, there are still some facilities that can be used, such as external observation, otherwise I can't lead you in."

  The old man said slowly.

   "It's a pity that I am too old, and all the equipment is damaged. I can barely survive. If you are not a sublimator, I really don't know how to communicate with you."

   "Have you guessed that something like this would happen?"

  If this is true, Lorenzo has to admire the determination and decisiveness of the old man. He just regards himself as a living recorder, waiting for the arrival of ascendants like Lorenzo.

   "I have been alive for too long. I have seen a lot of outrageous things. It is not difficult to guess that."

  The old man’s voice was a little hoarse, and the electronic sound became distorted.

  "Wait for your question, please let me slow down first. In order to ensure that I will not collapse, I have taken a lot of measures. This brain has been rigid for too long, and I need to make it move again."

  Speaking and stretched out the mechanical arm, the metal finger tapped the glass skull lightly, the tapping made the fluid in it vibrate slightly, and even the brain tissue shook.

   "Do you know what we want to ask?"

  Watson appeared beside Lorenzo, and she and Lorenzo entered [Gap] simultaneously.

"certainly."

  The electronic eye has no expression at all, but Lorenzo still feels a certain emotion from the cold machinery and dim light.

   "Every group of people who arrive here, whether they are men or women, good people or bad people, will ask me the same questions, and this is why I live so far."

  The gears turned rapidly, the white gas was permeated, and the cables broke one by one. The old man slowly stood up from the training room, with dripping water on his body, and slowly walked down, showing the rugged metal body to his heart's content.

   "Although it is illusory, it feels really good to stand up again."

The old man lowered his head as he said, and saw that his lower body was empty. Lorenzo's expression was a bit weird. If you think about it carefully, judging from the current judgment, the Secret Keeper is also a man. When encountering this kind of thing, it is always a little uncomfortable... …

   Before Lorenzo continued his **** whimsy, the Secret Keeper couldn’t help but laughed, making Lorenzo a little at a loss.

"Probably a long, long time ago, at that time, I had not been'optimized' to be like this, and still had a relatively simple excretion function. The liquid can then be mixed with metal particles and spray out like a water jet, killing several enemies by peeing casually."

  The electronic eyes turned back and forth, and there was a feeling of joy.

  Lorenzo's expression was a bit stiff. Although he couldn't understand the water jet, from the point of view of the enemy peeing, it was definitely not a serious matter. The personality of the secret guard was a little different from what he expected.

   "I feel that I am a little different from what you imagined? As an old monster who sticks to secrets, I should be constipated, speaking strange things that I don't understand, calm and prudent?"

  Slightly bright electronic eyes pressed against Lorenzo, looking directly at the faint blue light, Lorenzo nodded.

  "This is not good. If you live too long, you will inevitably have some psychological problems. People should be more optimistic."

  The old man laughed louder, he stepped back and leaned on the edge of the training room.

   "But I really miss it. I can't remember how constipation feels."

  This is too optimistic.

Lorenzo had thought about the unwillingness and grief on the face of the Secret Guardian, telling himself the hatred and expectations of the past. As a result, this guy did not feel the slightest sense of mystery. Judging from his eager look, if he was really not caught Demolition, he will definitely show Lorenzo what a waterjet is.

  The brain tissue soaked in the nutrient solution suddenly flashed before my eyes, losing all of its parts, leaving only a head that was difficult to survive.

  The smile that Lorenzo had just emerged froze, watching the old man's self-entertainment, he was mixed for a while.

   "Are the two guys still fighting? It's really endless. I remember they have been fighting for a long time, it must have been for centuries."

  The old man sighed for a while.

   "Do you know them?" Lorenzo asked.

   "It's more than acquaintance, and one of them was brought up by me."

The old man said very bad things easily, which really made Lorenzo feel a little uncomfortable. There is a kind of you who joined the decisive battle to save the world. As a result, you are surrounded by a poet who plays the accordion. You kill the enemy and he does it for you. Soundtrack.

  This feels ridiculous.

"Roger Cruz, I used to be a child raised in a shelter. After all, we all felt a little bored in the long time. Some keepers suggested that if you want to raise a few children for fun, I feel that I am idle as well. I also agreed. When these children grow up, they can help maintain the shelter."

  The old man recalled as he spoke, no matter what problems Lorenzo and the others had.

  "We just picked a few stored embryos and hatched, and then Roger Cruz was born, without parents, completely artificially bred, just like livestock, we made a large number at a time, and he was just one of them.

  That is a very smart child. I regretted giving birth to him for a long time. Oh, maybe that means, don’t get me wrong.

  Different from other children, those children regard us metal monsters that can live for a long time as gods. He doesn't have these feelings. Roger Cruz is curious about everything, learning knowledge and honing skills.

  Of course the worst thing is that he is very outside the world outside the shelter, that is a child who will "question". "

  Speaking of this, the old man's expression was a little low, and Lorenzo just wanted to say something comforting, only to hear him say viciously.

   "Bad son, I knew I shouldn't have given birth to him a long time ago. It's better to smash the embryo together."

  Lorenzo frowned slightly, his expression twitching.

"Yes, Adren Levien, another **** **** is called by this name, but it's a pity that I can't smash his embryo. He is a human being, he is from the outside world... In fact, I I never thought that someone would come here at that time."

  The old man said to himself, regardless of Lorenzo's intentions. In fact, Lorenzo was still willing to listen to the old man's memoirs. He was curious about everything in the past, like a hungry beggar.

   "Wait, I have to answer your questions."

  He then remembered his original function.

   "Sorry, sorry, I haven't used my brain for too long, thinking a bit strange."

  The old man’s speech is fast, but the specific expression is that the dim light on his body is constantly on and off, and the electronic sound carries a little electric sound.

   "Let me think about it, when did I start?

By the way, let me talk about a few premises. You are all sublimers. I must have a certain understanding of the unspeakable. This ghost is crazy and disorderly, faithfully implementing the essence of'life' and plundering. And continuation.

It spreads in the form of erosion and carries out memetic pollution, which has led to the disappearance of many things in human history...It is not that it destroyed, but that those things were contaminated by the unspeakable. We humans have carried out for the sake of safety. Castration of the self.

  So even in the history that I know, there are loopholes and vacancies, maybe I remembered it, but for safety, I probably accepted the antimemetic influence and forgot all the contaminated parts.

  Nothing is absolutely true.

  Nothing is absolutely correct. "

  The old man paused while speaking.

  “There may also be other physiological reasons. I think you have also seen it. Now I should be just a group of brain tissue. With human technology, if I want to save it until now, some problems will inevitably occur.”

   "Then, it is the beginning of everything."

  Lorenzo and Watson stared at the old man, paying attention to his words.

"The war between mankind and the unspeakable has lasted for centuries. It is also in the long war. We have gradually learned the nature of the unspeakable. In order to suppress its corrosiveness, we have developed antimemetic weapons to combat this. Disorderly monsters are exiled cognitively.

The    Sanctuary also appeared during that time period. At that time, it was still a war fortress with the serial number six, which is here.

On the surface here, we used an antimemetic weapon called [Final Echoes] to severely damage the unspeakable, but we are also deeply injured. Antimeme is not only erasing the unspeakable, but also erasing it. Except us humans ourselves.

  That should be the first time in human history. At least in my cognition, this should be the first time in history.

In fact, there is no [Final Echo], and the history of human civilization is almost broken. At that time, the unspeakable destroyed most of human civilization, and its erosion polluted one library after another. We can only remove those civilizations. The treasure burned down, forgotten and then forgotten.

Then at Fort 13 we carried out a'dimensionality reduction plan', using Fort 13 as a bait, where there are tens of thousands of people, deliberately exposed to the eyes of the unspeakable, but because it is forbidden to protect from metal , If it wants to invade it, it must require the intervention of entities. "

  "You made the emptiness will possess the entity, and there you released the [Final Echo], forcing it to sleep, and thus imprisoning the unspeakable."

  This is the story told by the pioneer, and Lorenzo retells it at this moment.

  The old man nodded, affirming Lorenzo's story, but then he said.

  "Yes, the crisis of the Unspeakable was temporarily controlled. Although it fell into a long sleep, the dream still surrounds it, covering the entire...Western world, I remember what you call it.

  Fort No.6, as the only remaining war fortress, became a sanctuary. After collecting all human knowledge and technology, we closed ourselves and began the era of revival. "

"The surviving people began the reconstruction of civilization on the ground, but the unspeakable soon revealed its ability. The ban on alloys and antimeme cannot completely suppress it, and there is still power leaking out. Under the influence, more and more people turned into monsters, and finally caused disputes and wars. The first attempt to revive failed, but fortunately we still have many opportunities."

  The old man said and looked at the container on the wall of the well. They were densely packed and endless.

  "Those are all artificial embryos. After regular cultivation, the shelter can continue to produce tens of thousands of healthy humans, filling the world population when necessary, and the newly born humans will use the knowledge of the shelter to become the second batch of revivalists.

  The revivalists are led and guided by country builders who carry knowledge. After they leave the shelter, they will be antimemetic to erase all cognitions related to the shelter, so as to protect the existence of the shelter.

  But unfortunately, after centuries of wars, most of the buildings on the surface have been destroyed and the infrastructure is gone. We seem to be starting from scratch. "

  His voice lowered, and then rose again. Judging from his excited posture, he could start farming with his hoe.

  "But this is not important, at least we have a chance to start again.

In order to avoid another demise, we realize that although the influence of the unspeakable is wide, it still has certain limitations, that is, the place you call the Eastern world is on the verge of the influence of the unspeakable, another group The revivalists were sent to the past, and they also carried antimemetic technology to form a new civilization there, to see if they could escape the influence of the unspeakable.

  In fact, we also thought about whether we should shift all the revival focus to the Eastern world... Maybe we did, too. Anyway, there is no record of this period in my memory, and it was probably erased by antimemetics. "

  The old man seemed a little confused, but soon relieved, dealing with antimemetic and erosion all day long, he got used to the confusion of memory very early.

  "This kind of thing does not need to be too entangled, because of various reasons, my memory seems to have been deleted and deleted, anyway, if I forget, I don’t have to worry too much.

  After all, all this is related to antimemetic things. This kind of power has always been deceiving the enemy while also deceiving its own people. According to records, things have been easily isolated since then.

do you remember? The unspeakable are sublimated by human beings due to certain ‘factors’, just as demons emerge from the alienation of human beings. "

  The old man’s emotions changed greatly. Lorenzo didn't know if it was his personality, or that the long years had turned him into a ridiculous lunatic. At this moment, his words seemed a little sad and depressed.

"We were wrong. We overlooked one thing from the beginning. The unspeakable is sublimated from human beings. From the very beginning, human beings have a vague connection with them. No matter where we escape, this connection is always None of them were cut off.

  It's like...

Just like it has eroded'all mankind' from the very beginning, we cannot destroy ourselves, so we can only keep imprisoning the unspeakable. Its dreams make people go crazy, but it will also give it nourishment and make it fall asleep. .

  We are of the same origin.

  It’s like..."

   "Requiem."

  Lorenzo suddenly knew everything. He looked at the Secret Guardian, slowly speaking about the terrible conjecture.

  "This is not just imprisonment, but also sacrifice. One after another human beings fell into madness, offering sacrifices to this nameless **** to sing the lullaby of requiem."

   "Yes, all we can do is to continuously reduce the connection between ourselves and the unspeakable, which is to use antimemetic weapons.

But in the previous war, all the weapons stored were used in Fort No. 13. It was also because of the influence of these antimemes that the unspeakable were able to fall into sleep...or the human beings lost their recognition. Knowing that when mankind remembers its true content again, erosion will reopen the channel and wake it up, and now its dreams are constantly emerging, trying to make mankind remember it again. "

  "The war has made you lose technology and materials. You can't continue to weaken the connection, and it is following instinct hunting, and sooner or later it will break through the cage due to hunger." Lorenzo said.

"Yes, this is why there are still people in the Western world, and the frequency of the appearance of demons is so high. The unspeakable people need sacrifices." The old man sadly said, "The war is still going on, but our defeat is determined. All the efforts made by him are only to perpetuate the existence of human beings, and to postpone the efforts on the day of failure as much as possible."

  "We sent the country builders, who led the second batch of revivalists to rebuild civilization, but they were destroyed again and again under the impact of dreams.

All of this is not meaningless. Every time we fail, we will accumulate some. Although very few, this is also our cornerstone. With countless deaths, this accumulation becomes more and more magnificent, until one day a new civilization Standing on the ruins.

  Until the new human being stands in the darkness of despair.

  Until there are human beings that can not only resist such darkness, but also counterattack.

  Until... Pursuing like you, following a few words of history, find here. "

  The cold electronic eyes mirrored Lorenzo's figure. Lorenzo lowered his head, not knowing what he was thinking, and then he asked the old man.

  "Why did the builders start a war? Is it to kill more humans to offer sacrifices to the unspeakable?"

   "No, the unspeakable is essentially spread through erosion, and in the war, we almost cut off all the information that may recognize the unspeakable.

Burning books and forgetting history, we reduced its dimensions to a fixed form, turned the entire fortress into a cage, and imprisoned it forever. Although its dreams still sound in the dark, humans cannot bear it. With such'information', they will be alienated into monsters and become bloodthirsty and crazy, but in this way they will be killed by other humans, once again isolating the'road'.

  This is a perfect closed loop, but it still has some flaws. Just like this shelter, its service life is almost eternal, but not eternal. "

  The old man’s words hit Lorenzo’s heart, and Lorenzo faintly guessed the answer to the question.

   "We human beings are connected with the unspeakable. Although this connection has been extremely weakened with our efforts, it does still exist."

   "The increase in population will deepen the connection, won't it?" Lorenzo asked.

   "Yes, in our time, when there are more species, they need to be controlled. When there are more birds, they will kill them, and when there are more wolves, they will kill wolves.

  In the face of this more terrifying monster, the population needs to be stable within a value, a level that can develop without waking it up. "

   "Then why don't you announce all the knowledge and technology to the world to speed up our development?" Lorenzo did not understand.

   "Because we have already done this."

  The old man slowly opened his hand. Behind him, the containers on the wall of the well burst one by one, the light disappeared continuously, and finally turned into a dim appearance. This is the appearance of a shelter in reality.

  No longer brilliant, dilapidated.

"At the beginning of the design, the shelter was able to support dozens of restarts, but you can see that these containers have long been broken, and we have come back to it many times over the long years. You can’t even imagine it, my child. ."

  The old man looked at this magnificent but long-dead building, where he spent endless time, so long that he could hardly remember what the outside world was like.

"Imagine that there are shocking technologies in your mind that can realize the things in your mind and require basic equipment beyond this era, but your lifespan is so short that you can't live to the day when all this is established. Not to mention the threat of erosion and pollution.

  All we can do is to release knowledge and technology in stages, and when the outside civilization reaches the critical point, we can guide them to the next stage.

  Speeding up development is not a simple matter, not to mention that most of the knowledge has been contaminated and destroyed.

  In fact, there is no knowledge in the shelter. Under the erosion of the years, most of the equipment has been shut down, the database is silent, and even the energy-supplying reactor has cooled down.

  Even I need to cut myself out of my head to reduce resource consumption and live longer. "

  He smiled self-deprecatingly.

"What's more, even if there are any, the country builders who should have led you are already ignorant. They may not recognize these lost technologies. Even the secret guards who originally stood here are the same. Everyone died one by one. Only me is left."

  The excitement calmed down, and the old man’s voice brought a smile to it.

"Of course, the most important thing is that the shelter needs to maintain absolute silence to avoid any possibility of being noticed by the unspeakable. This is an opportunity for mankind to come back again. I cannot push such an opportunity to the gaming table together. I dare not bet."

  Listening to his words, Lorenzo fell into silence.

  It is true that the life span of human beings is so short. In the absence of resources and equipment, they cannot use machinery to survive. The only way to survive is sublimation, and this has the great possibility of awakening the unspeakable.

  Knowledge is cursed, and they carefully record it, burying the secrets of the past forever as much as possible.

  The builders of the country have changed from generation to generation, and the real history has also become blurred and distorted under the influence of the years. Their children may finally think that all this is just vain, and can only implement this ancient order foolishly.

  Like Oscar, like Queen Victoria, like all the ignorance in this world.

  The old man laughed hoarsely.

   "After all, human beings are still too fragile.

We restarted again and again, and the resources in the sanctuary were consumed time and time again. Although we have established a new civilization in the outside world, we have a certain ability to resist the dreams of the unspeakable, but under this consumption, this Everything is just a vicious circle.

  Build tall buildings, collapse, build on rubble, collapse.

  Gradually everyone is desperate. "

  Everything is useless, everything is meaningless.

  "In my memory, this kind of chronic death lasted for a long time. Although no one said it, everyone is aware of the failure of mankind. Today's efforts are only to make ‘human’ exist longer.

  As for stepping into sublimation, becoming a member of the unspeakable?

  Someone also made such a suggestion. We shot the guy directly and put the body into the recycling machine. The water was extracted and injected into the reservoir. The crushed corpse was turned into fertilizer and was irrigated into the cultivation field.

  In this regard, I am very fortunate that my colleagues and I have the same views.

   Then there was absolute silence here.

  Until a few centuries ago, a group of guys knocked on the door of the shelter.

  At that time, the asylum was in a state of running out of ammunition and food. Various resources were severely lacking, and there were few artificial embryos left, so it could barely support a restart.

  We wake up from our long sleep, and we don’t know how these guys got here, but think about it, no matter how we erase our existence, there will be some clues in the end.

The visitors were mumbling about miracles and beliefs. They were devoutly almost kowtow. When they saw us, they all burst into tears, and some of them fainted with excitement... We watched them at the time. Just like watching a monkey, it's so funny. "

  The old man was waving his mechanical arm. He seemed to want to paint Lorenzo's expressions at the time, but this guy's face was almost completely covered by metal machinery, and Lorenzo could only see the electronic eyes turning endlessly.

  "They yelled words like **** names and prayed to us for power against demons.

  At that time, we knew that the outside world had become so bad, demons walked on the earth, and humans trembled in the darkness.

  It seems that the country builders have failed again, but it should be so. Time will make any material deteriorate, and the successors of these country builders may almost forget the original mission.

   Then I thought about it for a long time. Since it's already so bad, why not give it a try? "

  The old man made a contemplative action, and he could see that the light band surrounding the brain tissue under the glass shell became brighter. This should be related to his brain activity. It seems that the old man is really thinking hard.

   "I made a bad decision."

  The old man finished thinking, and Lorenzo also guessed what decision he made.

"Anyway, the outside world has become so bad, the shelter is about to collapse, and humanity is about to fail miserably. Why not make the last fight? Actually, it is not the last fight. As long as the door of the shelter is closed, these things are all related to it. I have nothing to do, I will continue to take on my responsibilities and preserve the human fire until I completely disappear in the cold wind.

  I gave them the information about the unspeakable in a way that they could understand, and also gave them some things, but to them, these things are considered black boxes, and I don’t know why.

  But I heard that they also successfully dismantled a few later. Although it is not very clear, it has a simple prototype. It is called ‘alchemy’. "

   "Then...then..."

  The electronic eye stopped turning, staring straight at Lorenzo, the voice sounded.

  "They said it was a revelation from God, and they were waiting for my instructions...oracles."

  Lorenzo walked to the old man, and then he said.

  "You ordered them to go to Fort No. 13, and they did carry out your order.

Using the knowledge gained from the sanctuary, they extracted the secret blood, digging the metal buried deep in the ground to make a spike sword made of holy silver. They defeated the dark age, and thus the Demon Squad was in prison. Build on top. "

  Lorenzo's voice trembled a little, and his fists were clenched. He also couldn't understand what his current mood was like. He just felt calm and deafening.

   "First... Roger Cruz said that Fortress No. 13 should have been forgotten by everyone."

   "Unfortunately, we could not forget it, did we?"

  The old man put away all his fun, he was extremely serious, and told Lorenzo about the past.

  "Since then, hundreds of years have passed. The only few of us feel that the time limit has come. No matter how machinery replaces our bodies, we are still weak human beings, and it is time to welcome death.

So we hatched the embryo and Roger Cruz was born. I see him as our successor, teaching him past knowledge and everything I know, according to my calculations, so that the shelter can still operate For a long time, although it has collapsed in the strict sense, it is still possible to stay on the verge of survival. As long as it lasts for a second, it is a victory for mankind. "

   "Then... one day, someone knocked on the door of the shelter."

  The old man raised his head and looked at the door behind Lorenzo and Watson. At this moment, it was slowly opening. In the dim light, a beam of light poured in through the gap of the door, and the light was so bright that a vague figure appeared.

"He says……"

  The man in the memory carried a sword bag full of spiked swords and passed Lorenzo and Watson. He came to the guardian, and his eyes rolled in a blazing storm like the day that burned the night.

   "I am Adron Levien, the Pope of the Evangelical Church, and the head of the Demon Squad."

  (End of this chapter)