Chapter 379: Imitating the Ugly
Merck...Who is Merck?
At the other end of Virtual Realm No. 178, the scavenger Kyle felt that his life was slipping away rapidly, and vaguely heard a name.
The voice seemed to come from the void, ringing in the depths of his soul.
Kyle no longer had time to worry about so many things.
The toxins of the "Rust Disease" had already invaded his internal organs, and he could feel his flesh and blood becoming stiff and decayed piece by piece, like rusted metal. The cold hand of death was strangling his throat, making it impossible for him to breathe!
Just as his consciousness was about to sink into darkness, a warm and holy white light suddenly descended from the sky without warning and completely enveloped his broken body.
Before Kyle could be surprised, he found himself immersed in warm spring water, and his consciousness, which seemed to have sunk to the bottom of the sea, gradually floated up.
The pain that penetrated deep into the bone marrow was fading at an incredible speed.
He saw that the rusty and decayed tissues on his body were peeling off bit by bit under the power of the Holy Light, revealing healthy and vibrant new flesh!
Unbelievable——
He was supposed to be dead, but he's still alive?!
Then, the grand and majestic voice gradually became clearer, telling him the sacred gospel from another world and guiding him to master a supreme power called "source power".
Kyle was confused, but he understood a few words.
Although it was an unfamiliar language, its ripples resonated in his heart...
"I am Merck, your savior."
"From now on, you are my 'Apostle', my first divine messenger on earth."
"Feel this power, control it, and then... act for me."
Regardless, it’s a good deal.
Kyle stumbled out of the garbage dump with ecstasy of surviving the disaster but also deep doubt about this mysterious power.
He breathed in the air filled with toxic smoke, but was surprised to find that the smog, which was enough to make ordinary gray people feel stinging, had no effect on him.
His "filtering gills" composed of countless fine folds seemed to be strengthened by the milky white light!
Kyle set out on the journey back to the settlement.
He had walked this road countless times, but never could he see it so clearly as he did today. He could even see the mottled graffiti and stains on the walls, and the screws scattered in the corners.
He saw those skinny scavengers like him, fighting for a few pieces of useless scrap metal. Skinny children were waiting for an opportunity beside them, ready to rush in and snatch the last bit of stuff from the losers.
Most of these "grays" living at the bottom of society cannot afford expensive protective clothing and gas masks.
They could only wrap their mouths and noses with tattered cloth and allow the toxins to corrode their skin, which should have been as tough as leather.
Many people had spots of "rust disease" on their bodies, just like him before. However, due to the endurance and adaptability that the Grays had cultivated over a long period of time, most of them had acquired the ability to be slightly immune to toxins.
When Kyle walked to the gate of the settlement surrounded by wire mesh, several fully armed guards were leaning against the door, watching the people coming and going with indifference.
Their equipment is far better than that of the scavengers outside, and they even wear old-fashioned gas masks on their faces that can filter out most toxins.
An old man who wanted to go into the city to beg for some food was ruthlessly pushed to the ground with the butts of his guns.
"Get out of here! Don't bring your plague in here!"
The guard's voice was cold and impatient, and then harsh laughter sounded from all around, chasing the stumbling old man into the shadows under the dust.
His hungry child was waiting there eagerly, and finally that expectant sight was covered with a layer of gray fog.
Kyle walked by with his head down, not daring to look at the unfortunate old man or the guard's eyes.
In the wasteland, compassion is the cheapest and most expensive luxury.
Only by being cautious and humble can you survive.
The further you go through the gate, the more different the scene becomes.
The outermost area is a slum built with containers and abandoned pipes, which is also his narrow and cozy home. As for the relatively clean central area, it is the territory directly ruled by the ruler of the settlement, "Iron Hand".
It's brightly lit there, and there's a lot of noise coming from the fortress, which was converted from the wreckage of a huge steam engine. It's said that some delicious canned food is also produced there.
Kyle could even see through the window that Iron Hand and his cronies were sitting around a campfire, enjoying precious delicacies and clean distilled water.
That was the "tax" that he and other low-level scavengers earned and paid from the ruins with their lives.
Thanks to these taxes, they can live like they did before the end of the world, and even enjoy luxuries that they never had before the end of the world.
Everything outside seemed to have nothing to do with them.
They neither envy the prosperous past nor want to go back at all.
Why?
Kyle's fists clenched unconsciously.
Why can Tie Shou and his men live a life of luxury while other scavengers have to starve outside and die of disease or rot like maggots?
Of course, his power was too weak, so he could only endure the injustice and swallow all his complaints.
He did not tell anyone about his legendary experience of surviving the disaster. He was afraid of being caught and sliced into pieces, so he hid in his leaky "home".
At this time, he calmed down and saw his brother lying on the bed, dying.
A strong urge surged from his heart, and he began to follow the mysterious whisper in his mind and try to use the power that appeared out of thin air in his body.
He stretched out his reborn hands, no longer covered with rust, and following the guidance of the voice in his mind, he channeled the "source power" in his body to his fingertips.
"Holy Light... I beg you, please take away the pain of my loved ones."
A ball of soft light really appeared, and with a strong breath of life, it slowly enveloped his sleeping brother.
Under Kyle's gaze, a miracle happened again!
When he saw that his brother had also recovered and weakly opened his eyes, the last trace of doubt in Kyle's heart was completely replaced by fanatical gratitude.
He knelt on the ground, facing the empty wall, expressed gratitude to the god from outside the realm, and swore a blood oath, vowing to spend the rest of his life being loyal to the great god named "Merk".
As if sensing his piety, Merck responded to his prayer and gave guidance for the next step:
"coal."
"That is not only the fuel you rely on for survival, but also contains pure source power. If you want to become stronger, get more coke that carries resentment."
"I will teach you how to harness this power and guide you to become stronger. All you have to do is pay me tribute regularly."
Kyle was filled with gratitude and excitement.
"Praise the Lord!"
Of course, in addition to gratitude, his own greed also quietly grew in his heart.
He longed for more power.
He wanted to let those who had pushed him and his brother into such a desperate situation also taste the despair of struggling helplessly in the abyss!
…
Kyle was not the only one who was extremely excited. Merck, who was standing on the other side of the virtual world, was also very excited. On that expressionless face, a look of ecstasy from the bottom of his heart finally appeared again.
He succeeded!
The spiritual frequency of the "Messenger of God" is synchronizing with them, and in this process, the virtual realm is gradually becoming stable!
"Speed up the experiment!" Merck ordered excitedly, "Let our chess pieces run faster on the chessboard!"
The magicians in the Mage Tower began to mobilize the source power, accelerating the flow of time on the other side of the virtual world, dragging the sluggish progress bar backwards.
The "Messenger of God" is clumsy. After all, he is just a lowly scavenger. Even if he possesses extraordinary powers, he can only carefully explore his own path in the wasteland.
This was undoubtedly a "junk time" for the researchers in the Mage Tower, but for Kyle, it was completely different.
Kyle returned to the ruins he was familiar with, but this time, his identity had changed from prey to hunter.
He began to consciously seek out the scavenger gangs that had bullied and robbed him. He stopped hiding and showed up.
When the scavengers, as usual, brandished rusty iron pipes and daggers and tried to snatch the clean-looking clothes on him, Kyle showed a grim smile on his face, and on behalf of the gods, he brought down the wrath of punishment on these hyenas.
"Source power" can be used for more than just healing.
Can also be used to kill!
The power that had healed his body shot out from his fingertips, no longer warm and gentle, but turned into a spark that was powerful enough to melt steel!
The scream didn't even have time to sound before it was swallowed up by the instantaneous high temperature.
After killing the scavengers, Kyle stole the coal from them, which the voice behind the void told him was the so-called "ghost coke".
The moment he touched the coke, he was surprised to find that these coal mines stained with blood and violence seemed to contain more and purer power than those coal mines directly mined from the ruins!
A crazy idea quietly grew in his mind.
He began to consciously hunt down the predators that were rampant in the wasteland.
He snatched the wraith charcoal from their hands, absorbing its power, and becoming stronger in the process.
Of course, there are only a limited number of guys at the top of the food chain, and he can't always find the overbearing ones.
Therefore, he would occasionally attack scavengers who were not so hateful, and the standard of attack depended on his mood.
This standard can be because some blind guy snatched the garbage picked up by the children, or because some rude kid spat in his back.
His fame grew like a snowball, spreading among the desperate scavengers at the bottom of society.
They didn't think there was anything wrong with what he did, and they would do the same if they were in the same situation.
The gray men struggling in the ruins regarded him as the "spirit of vengeance" descended from the sky, and gathered under his command.
Finally, after accumulating enough strength, Kyle launched a rebellion.
He led thousands of fanatical scavengers who supported him and rushed to the center of the settlement - the fortress of "Iron Hand" like an unstoppable torrent.
In the sparsely populated wasteland, this was an overwhelming force that could overwhelm the poor guards in a matter of minutes.
Then, a leader was born who was more brutal and smarter than the Iron Hand.
His name is "God's Messenger" and he serves "The Great Merc".
Time behind the virtual world is still passing. The "messenger of God" standing at the top of the food chain begins to implement harsh teachings in the settlement. In the name of the god he believes in, "The Great Merc", he confiscates the property of all scavengers, and takes everything including people and things as the property of the "church", and then lets the scavengers supervise each other.
He knew very well how he succeeded. His extraordinary powers were only one aspect of his success. More importantly, it was the lack of order in the slums that allowed powerful people like him to take advantage of the situation.
Such things must never happen again in the settlements under his command. The world does not need another savior who declares war on the wasteland.
He began to select servants among his believers who had the potential to sense the "source power", and took the initiative to grant them power on behalf of the foreign gods in the void. He appointed them as "Ruins Shepherds" and sent them to more distant wastelands to spread the holy gospel of the "Savior".
A massive holy war began.
A "God's messenger" who is far more brutal and ten times more absurd than the thugs declares that he will declare war on the thugs in the entire wasteland and establish a kingdom of God without violence and death.
Although this sounds absurd, it is simply wonderful for those scavengers struggling in the wasteland...
…
Merck was successful, and so was Kyle.
At least, that's how it started.
In the cruel "Steam Skeleton City" of Virtual Realm No. 178, there is no more tempting power than the power comparable to that of gods.
Coincidentally, the person he enlightened was a "ghost" whose ambition was no less than his own.
This vengeful spirit will soon assimilate other vengeful spirits.
Time flowed faster and faster, and the snowball of resentment rolled across the wilderness at an incredible speed.
A new cult called "Redemption Ark" grew rapidly under the leadership of "God's Messenger" Kyle, attracting countless desperate scavengers.
They quickly grew stronger, using the flesh and blood of their believers and the holy light bestowed by God to conquer and annex the surrounding tribes, large and small, with the most brutal means, and then used false promises and a bright future to deceive those fools in the distance.
The initial success made Merck in the observation room extremely excited.
He almost regarded Colin's paper as a golden rule, and believed that he had completely mastered the ultimate secret of virtual interference!
This is too easy!
“Not enough!”
Through the virtual lens, Merck greedily watched the rapidly expanding theocracy and constantly issued new instructions to his "messenger of God" Kyle.
"Kyle, you don't have enough followers. You shouldn't just be greedy for the present enjoyment. There are more poor people in this ruin waiting for you to save!"
“Release their potential! Let them embrace your kingdom of God with their bodies and minds until this filthy wasteland is completely purified!”
Kyle believed firmly in Merck's teachings.
Just as he learned from history, it is people's endless pursuit of material things that has led the world to the abyss of decline.
Now, he sees a better option.
Why not lead his people to embrace more advanced spiritualist ideas?
This is the most beneficial choice both for civilization and for him personally!
Even greater ambitions grew in Kyle's body. He not only wanted to be the king of this land, but also the god of this land!
While Merck's wizard tower was accelerating the passage of time in the virtual world, Kyle was also actively discovering more extraordinary people to join his "Savior Army".
On the one hand, the huge advantages brought by the source force did accelerate the end of chaos in the wasteland, allowing the "Ark of Redemption" to expand its sphere of influence at an unprecedented rate, and even brought about a short but incredible prosperity.
On the other hand, it also gave rise to new and more terrifying chaos, laying the hidden danger of disintegration for this huge and bloated organization.
Those selected "ruin shepherds" who also possessed extraordinary powers soon became dissatisfied with the worship of the lower-class believers and their illusory spiritual sustenance.
They began to desire more, more practical things - such as wealth, slaves, and power to do whatever they wanted!
They enslave in the name of "salvation", plunder in the name of "charity", and spread stupidity and ignorance in the name of "education".
A more thorough exploitation than the feudal aristocracy took shape in this advanced but decadent land.
Here, "nobles" are not called nobles, but "saviors", just like the nobles in the tower are not called nobles, but professors or mentors.
While exercising supreme power, they do not need to bear any corresponding feudal obligations. The oppressed "rescued" can only endure silently and pray humbly, praying that these high saviors can have good personal morals and cultivation...
But in the wasteland, this is the rarest thing.
Merck did not deliberately weave the doctrines of the Ark Sect, but inadvertently passed on the model of the Xuebang to his "messenger of God", who then cleverly "localized" it.
At the same time, in order to obtain more "source power" to please the gods and to satisfy their own inflated desires, the "Ark of Redemption" sect began to take more radical and even cruel means to spread the gospel of holy light.
This includes, but is not limited to, treating all non-believers as evil spirits and slaughtering them, as well as actively bringing down human disasters in order to spread salvation.
For example, creating a plague or famine, waiting until the scavengers are dying, then rescuing the survivors and singing praises to the avoidable deaths.
In the end, salvation was achieved by the true god Merck, while how death came was lightly glossed over and buried in the dust.
Merck didn't even seriously teach Kyle how to do it, but the latter understood this ultimate secret without any guidance.
Although they have different colored blood, they have almost completely similar spiritual frequencies, and this may be the reason why they can cooperate so well.
Eventually, a monster more twisted and insane than the wasteland itself was born, greedily devouring everything in its sight.
Just when Merck proudly thought that he would soon achieve ultimate success, and even be more successful than Virtual Realm No. 440, an accident suddenly happened.
The atrocities of the "Redemption Ark" finally made other pragmatic scavenger tribes in the wasteland feel the imminent threat to their survival.
In the face of fear, they united.
These gray men who saw through the hypocrisy of the Kingdom of God finally realized that there has never been any savior in the world and they can only rely on themselves.
They no longer believed in any gods descending from the sky, but only believed in the rusty weapons in their hands and the old-world machines that could be repaired and roar again.
In the darkest hour, a true hero was born.
He was once the most devout believer under the envoy of the "Ark of Redemption", but after witnessing the atrocities of the church with his own eyes, he awakened from the lies about the holy light.
He escaped, with scars all over his body and an indomitable will, and began to run among the surviving tribes.
Under his call, the tribes that were originally hostile and suspicious of each other united for the first time and formed a loose but goal-oriented military organization - the "Wastelander Alliance."
A war centered around "materialism" and "idealism" broke out on the ruins shrouded in gray fog, just like the war they had fought for resources hundreds of years ago, except that this time they were fighting for the little remaining living space.
The wastelanders used the knowledge recovered from the ruins to transform themselves and the roaring steam engines, and used prosthetics to repair their broken bodies to launch a fierce counterattack against the "Ark of Redemption" that had fallen into paranoia and madness.
This time the counterattackers are no longer a mob, but a steel wall forged by the rage of resistance and ravaged by countless storms.
The war quickly spread to the entire wasteland.
The purge began not only on the battlefield, but also outside the battlefield.
After realizing that the extraordinary powers wielded by those "Ruin Shepherds" would only bring slavery and destruction, the Wastelanders finally let go of their already limited sense of shame and began to indiscriminately slaughter and cleanse all the "aliens" who could use extraordinary powers.
They regarded this power as a plague more terrible than "rust" and the whispers in the void as evil spirits like "natural disasters"!
This is something that has never happened in the history of the continent of Oss—for the first time, mortals have raised their butcher knives against the extraordinary beings!
Finally, in a decisive siege, the Wasteland Alliance's army surrounded the holy city of the "Ark of Redemption".
Standing on the wall built of ruins, looking at the dark army composed of steel and anger below, "God's Messenger" Kyle felt fear from the bottom of his heart for the first time.
He staggered back to the temple, closed the door tightly, fell to his knees, and prayed to the sky at the top of his lungs.
"My Lord! Great Merc! Where is your divine power? I beg you to bestow your boundless power upon your servant! Since I am so loyal, please burn all those heretics who blasphemed you for me!"
Inside the Mage Tower, Merck looked at the scene with a pale face, not understanding why such a good situation turned out like this.
Everything was fine until a few Void Realm years ago, but those "unbelievers" who were being suppressed suddenly became powerful.
He had given Kyle everything he could.
At this moment, he could only watch helplessly.
"Are these guys crazy?! Rebelling against their savior?! Do they know what they are doing?!"
Merck roared uncontrollably, wishing he could get into that virtual world and show those ugly gray men his strength as a gold-level warrior.
He had no doubt that he would be like a god descending from heaven and sweep those foolish thugs into the garbage dump without leaving a single one behind!
However--
He couldn't get through that door after all.
After all, that is another world, and the interference of source power has its limits.
He can move an unnoticed screw, ignite a prairie fire, and even change the relative speed of time flow between the two worlds, but he cannot prevent the entire building from collapsing, nor can he reverse the time that has already passed.
He could kill a few wastelanders with Kyle's help, but it was impossible to kill all those fearless guys.
Not to mention, as his believers continued to die, the source of power he could mobilize became very small.
The extraordinary beings in this world are too weak after all!
Finally, under the desperate gaze of countless fanatics, the Wastelanders raised their rifles and shot the "Messenger of God" with flashing lights.
With his fall, this ridiculous farce directed by a clumsy imitator finally collapsed amid cheers of victory.
There was total silence in the Mage Tower. The teaching assistants looked at each other, not daring to breathe.
Merck stared at the virtual world, the wand in his hand trembling slightly, wondering how this farce would end.
This hard-won victory allowed all the surviving "Grays" to completely abandon their illusory spiritual beliefs and the so-called "Great Merck".
They regarded the rise and fall of the "Ark of Redemption" as a costly and painful lesson, and erected monuments to the victims.
Gods cannot be trusted, and the evil spirits behind the void are not good either. Only the tools and knowledge in our hands are real and reliable.
They moved more firmly toward the path of "materialism" and began to frantically dig up the remains of the old world, repair those forgotten machines, and continue the research that their predecessors had stagnated due to their arrogance.
Soon they discovered that although fossil fuel resources were exhausted, there was another thing that could provide them with endless energy...
That is the source of "light".
This is the secret they discovered while battling the cultists.
Initially they just wanted to expose the lies about the Holy Light, but they accidentally discovered the essence of sunlight - it was two tiny particles that released a power comparable to that of a star in a chain reaction!
By studying matter, they have a way to bring the light of stars to the earth!
Merck could not understand what kind of magic it was, nor could he see it, because outside the incomprehensible "horizon", there was no "viewpoint" to establish observation. He only saw the flames boiling on the horizon at the moment when a secret believer's faith collapsed.
Merck gradually became desperate.
The world behind Virtual Realm No. 178 is gradually slipping away from his control, and this separation is all-round. The consensus between the two worlds is disintegrating bit by bit.
The Grays have finally moved towards their own history, arriving at a timeline where no one knows the future.
In this timeline, there are no whispers of ancient gods or unpredictable spells, but instead a vast starry universe.
The whole trend of civilization has changed.
As a result, they seem to be getting better, more united, and stronger.
However, this "good" that the Grays love to see seems to have no meaning to Xuebang, who is far away in another world.
In that cold and lonely wizard tower, Merck was horrified to find that the lens image of virtual world No. 178 was becoming fainter and more blurred!
It is like an old photo exposed to acid rain, its edges constantly curling up and blurring under the raindrops of time.
"Quick! Close the magic circle!"
In order to avoid the complete collapse of the virtual world and bring himself greater trouble, Merck issued the final order in a panic.
Before the last channel was cut off, the teaching assistants hurriedly cut off the magic supply, freezing the scene in the virtual world at the last second before the suspected collapse.
The light of the virtual world dimmed instantly.
The lens that once reflected the rise and fall of a civilization eventually turned into a dead gray in a panic.
Although the time of encounter between the two civilizations has not come to an end, the day of separation seems not far away.
"...It's over."
Merck muttered to himself, slumping in his chair in despair.
"Ghost Charcoal" completely became the history of Virtual Realm No. 178. Although it was a matter of time, it happened in his hands.
He completely messed up the task that Professor Alister had given him...
(End of this chapter)
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