27 Evolution
The Federation is at odds with the future
They were piled up in a staggered manner, with their legs overlapping, forming facial features according to their original shape. However, due to the constant movement, the facial features were constantly distorted.
Kong Wei used the hook on the front of the folding pole to hook the ground sportswear and dragged the body out.
Yan Xunzhi could no longer look directly at the bulge on her body... If nothing unexpected happened, there should be long worms connected from head to tail underneath...
She's not afraid of bugs, but she didn't say she likes them either... She silently shifted her gaze to the sky. Ah! What a sunny day! It's so... hot!
Facing the sun, her face was burned and she lowered her head without saying a word.
Kong Wei had already picked up the name tag from the corpse and turned it over to read the words engraved on the back. "A57874, Xu Yan... Yeah! He's the deputy commander of the Northwest Region."
"Is it higher than your position?" Yan Xunzhi was not very familiar with their military ranks.
Kong Wei pondered for a moment, "High. This is the deputy commander of the Northwest Region. He might be specially sent for a reinforcement mission."
But he still died here.
It was a pity for Yan Xunzhi. He had reached such a high altitude, yet he still died on the ground. His body was devoured by worms, who relied on the protective power of the ground-based activity suit to reproduce...
But Kong Wei drew his knife, poked her head with the tip, and gestured at her waist, "Have you never thought about this? Bugs have such tiny brains. Even if they hadn't been wiped out on the ground, they wouldn't be arranged like this to form such a seemingly human shape."
Yan Xunzhi didn't know what she was going to do, but he felt a little nervous for no reason, always feeling that she was not capable of doing anything good.
He used both his ears and eyes to listen to her while closely following her blade with his eyes.
Sure enough, she raised it high, as if she wanted to split the corpse in half!
Yan Xunzhi rushed over and grabbed her wrist, "What are you doing!"
With the added bonus of the exoskeleton, the difference in strength between the two was not much. But Yan Xunzhi rushed over suddenly, and was caught off guard. He was shocked so much that his palms went numb, and he almost lost his grip on Kong Wei's wrist, and she slashed him with the knife.
Kong Wei was also puzzled, "What are you doing?"
He folded his hand, cleverly releasing the force, and readjusted his grip on the knife.
"She's an officer, and we need to collect her body!" Yan Xunzhi asked anxiously, "You don't want to chop her up, do you?"
Kong Wei suddenly smiled after hearing her words, "Collecting corpses? You've been in the military area for quite some time. Besides those displayed in the memorial hall, have you ever seen the corpses of deceased officers being collected?"
Never. Back when they were in school, Shu Chi had secretly told her that the remains in the memorial weren't real ones. They'd been left on the ground somewhere long ago, impossible to find. Those were just re-examinations of the bodies found by the federal government for display.
"But...it's written in the textbook..." Yan Xunzhi hesitated, "The land is so vast, it's normal that we can't find the body. Now that we've found it..."
If they were found, they would let the deceased rest in peace. Even if she didn't believe in ghosts and gods, or reincarnation, since there were such beliefs in the world, she had to show some minimum respect.
Besides, isn't this a federal requirement?
Kong Wei sneered, "Who said we found it?"
Yan Xunzhi uttered, "No..."
Seeing the little sentry about to hug her across her waist to stop her, the tug-of-war was actually a bit funny. She pulled her back and interrupted, "Don't take it too seriously. Since the founding of the Federation, the corpses collected have all been used for experiments. That's what it means to let the dead rest in peace."
This requirement was initially made because ground radiation could not be confirmed and the impact of the ground on humans was unknown.
But humans had not been underground for long at that time, and those who died on the ground had a sense of belonging to the ground, like leaves returning to their roots, and were willing to be buried there rather than return to the dark underground.
Collecting the corpses is just a high-sounding pretext to let people on the ground bring back the bones.
It wasn't officers who were worthy of burial, but those who reached officer level and above were inherently exceptional. In the early days, before rank divisions, studying how they died on the ground was far more valuable than studying how a rookie soldier, unfamiliar with the terrain, died due to common sense errors.
Yan Xunzhi didn't expect this answer, but after changing his mind, he wasn't surprised.
The Federation's protectionism is collective, and what they seek is the continued reproduction of humanity.
Everyone is a tool to be used, but everyone's flesh and blood will eventually be twisted into the bloody benefits of the collective operation of mankind, which will continue endlessly.
From this perspective, it seemed that whether he died on the ground and was dissected or the body was taken back, it made little difference. She then let go of Kong Wei and looked down, avoiding the corpse.
I was at a loss for words as to what to think. I racked my brains for a long time, but in the end, I could only silently say, "Have a good journey."
But Kong Wei suddenly changed the subject and asked, "Have you ever thought about it?"
"Huh?" Yan Xunzhi couldn't keep up with the out-of-touch officer at all. He racked his brain for a long time before remembering what she had just said. He said honestly, "I haven't thought about it."
Kong Wei was slightly surprised, "Why?"
Yan Xunzhi wanted to scratch his head, raised his hand, touched his helmet, and put it down awkwardly. "There's no reason... Maybe it was a long time ago, when I was still in school, when people from the surface came to spread propaganda. At that time, they said that if humans stayed underground forever, then in a thousand years, we would be nothing more than intelligent insects underground."
"So I just thought, these long insects might have been humans tens of millions of years ago. They simply chose the path of becoming insects, and then gave birth to more powerful humans. We see that they have only a tiny bit of intelligence, but they look at the people of the past, and the people of the future look at us, perhaps they are just insects too."
Kong Wei was silent for a while, and Yan Xunzhi was a little nervous.
Did she say anything wrong?
"That makes sense." To Yan Xunzhi's surprise, she actually agreed with this idea. "So you're from the ground faction?"
Yan Xunzhi affirmed, "Of course! I'm not a ground person, so why would I have wanted to beg you to go to the ground so badly in the first place!"
Kong Wei let out a long "oh".
Dao temporarily switched hands, holding the folding lever in his right hand. He used the front hook to pick up the zipper and unzipped her ground-based activewear. "There are many different kinds of thinking, and you're right, but it has nothing to do with today. Since we're ground-based, it's good to see the future direction in advance."
"Come here."
She pointed to a spot to the side. It was slightly higher up, and the view was clearer.
Yan Xunzhi didn't want to see the scene more clearly...but he couldn't protest and could only stand still.
Under the ground-moving suit, long worms surged, clinging to the bones. They devoured the flesh and blood completely, as if growing new flesh and blood, maintaining the corpse's superficial human form.
The long knife cut through the bones like mud. The corpse had been hollowed out by long-term erosion, and the bones were already brittle. With one cut, it broke into two pieces immediately.
Yan Xunzhi couldn't stand the disgusting sight of the liquid splashing, and couldn't help but take a few steps back.
Out of curiosity, he stretched his head to take a look, and was surprised to see that the long worms that made up his lower body collapsed instantly, crawling around in disorder, and could no longer maintain his previous appearance.
"This..." Something was vague in her mind for a moment, but there seemed to be a layer of gauze floating on it, and she couldn't see it clearly.
"Insects don't have brains that big, so they can't evolve into more complex intelligence. This is the result of thousands of experiments conducted by the Federation. It's what we see every day, and it's a fact." Kong Wei extended the folding pole and hooked it around her head. "But the world's spirit is evolving, and insects must keep up."
When she was dragged closer, she shook. Yan Xunzhi saw layers of long worms in the gaps between the worms, which finally extended to a bright blue spot deep in her head.
"A guide with powerful mental strength becomes their external brain."
They are connected and in contact, sharing the brain through body conduction.
Yan Xunzhi was a little dumbfounded, "...Oh my god!"
In this way, insects with only a tiny brain and unable to develop complex intelligence, through mutual transmission, at this moment possess the most complex brain known to date and obtain the most complex intelligence.
It's just that the time is too short and the insects' initial intelligence is too low, so even if they are originally ground creatures, they can only live in ground protective suits.
Because the disparity was so great, even though the guide was dead and corroded, his remaining mental energy still crushed the worms. Without exception, they suffered a mental assault, unable to distinguish between their own mental energy and the guide's own remnants. They fumbled, their brains operating in a daze, cobbling together a humanoid form.
If the link is cut, they will still be worms with the lowest level of intelligence, and can only crawl aimlessly on the ground to survive.
But this is only short-lived.
What if time is long enough? The insects will survive the fittest, and since they share brains, which is equivalent to sharing thoughts, some of them will eventually evolve.
Continue to evolve until it synchronizes with the brain.
And then what? And then what will they become…?
Kong Wei smiled and said, "How would I know? I haven't lived that long."
Yan Xunzhi was a bit shocked, and it took him a while to come back to his senses. "So this is... the future direction of evolution on Earth? Absorbing the spiritual energy of humans who died on Earth and evolving again?"
Kong Wei shook his head, "No. Mental strength is not equal to IQ. Human mental strength is not the top level. Second evolution is not about this aspect."
Yan Xunzhi didn't understand, "What is that?"
Kong Wei glanced at her and suddenly realized that this was her first official appearance on the ground.
She had dealt with the foreign object before it even came out of the ground. Yan Xunzhi had never encountered any foreign objects on the ground.
So when she told Ning Yue about this, she immediately understood it, but when she told anyone else around her, everyone was shocked, terrified, and incredulous.
Only Yan Xunzhi was far more confused than all of this, with two big words on his face: So?
She couldn't help but laugh. "Didn't I say that? The Federation, and even the entire underground, has always believed that in order to adapt to the living environment and reduce radiation and environmental impact, the evolutionary direction of alien creatures on the surface is to continuously enhance their physical functions at the cost of reducing or even losing their mental capacity. This has been the evolutionary trend for nearly a hundred years."
"The natural humans we captured from the surface eventually became zombies in various simulation environments, losing their minds, going mad, or becoming numb. They are the branch closest to us, and the Federation has always believed that the future they are heading towards is the future we will be heading towards."
Kong Wei gently lifted the head and said, "Because of this result, the underground faction rose, and the surface faction gave up the guides and gradually increased the number of sentries. Everyone thought this was the general trend."
After being split into two parts, the distance between them was not far. Some of the long worms crawling around touched the upper half, and instantly they were like being electrified, quietly and steadily joining the body's circulation.
“But the world is moving in the opposite direction.”
【Author’s words】
Kipper: Huh? So?
Kong Wei: ...
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