Soul of Burning Steel

"Tell me why."

Speaking in a patiently disgusted tone, Joshua frowned and asked the only woman who was awake in the Siberian team: "Why did you kill those ordinary people?"

——Of course it was to consume the enemy's vitality.

The soldier can guess the opponent's answer without the other party answering... This is not a difficult thing to understand, especially for him who has experienced countless battlefields. Small-scale local wars in modern warfare may also pay attention to morality and human rights, and they will not kill each other's civilians, but when it comes to world wars, nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons, and unlimited bombardment will not all be used in turn. The environment turned into scorched earth?

At that time, who cares whether civilians are human or not, innocent or not, under the flames of nuclear, even the thousand-year-old monuments will be wiped out, and the number of lives is as meaningless as dust. This is true of the earth where civilization and human rights are highly developed, not to mention a different world that looks abnormal.

Joshua didn't intend to intervene in this matter at first.

The battle between the soul puppets and the Siberians seemed fierce, but in his eyes, it was purely petty. Joshua knew from the very beginning that this battle would at most damage some ordinary soul puppets. A powerful lethal means, although the light arrow is as unavoidable as light, but the energy level can kill some ordinary people, it can pierce the outer armor of some low-level puppets at most, and it is absolutely impossible to destroy their cores, while the white shield It can also block the attacks of most super puppets, and with that powerful old man, the Siberian team can leave whenever they want.

Since there will be no serious consequences, Joshua is naturally not interested in making a move. He wants to actually see how the soul puppet loads the super power unit, and how ordinary people who hold the authority of steel fight... Fight The result was indeed not what he expected. The Siberian team couldn't break through the defense line of the soul puppets, so they planned to retreat, and the super puppets couldn't stop the opponent's retreat.

But just when Joshua was going to follow up later and ask the retreating Siberians about the situation, he saw countless arrows of light shoot out from the white shield, falling like rain.

Light cannot be stopped, so in an instant, thousands of Siberians died, and they fell one after another, like an invisible sickle slashing across a piece of crops.

Joshua's speed is not faster than light. When he observed the light, people were already dead, and he couldn't stop it.

angry?

certainly.

Joshua has never shot at an unarmed and weak person, let alone slaughtered—yes, of course he can understand the opponent's behavior. The moment the opponent makes a move, he understands the reason for the opponent's attack, but it is precisely because of his understanding that he I don't like it, so I hate it.

"In order to...consume the power of this plantation..."

The woman spoke, her voice was still trembling, as if she hadn't escaped from the shock of the Terrifying Domain: "This time... attack, we can't... get nothing, we have to finish something before we can go back, otherwise it will be a waste of troops. medium resources... kill them, these puppets will be busy for a while, and can also reduce the supply of the plantation..."

Her words faltered, but then became more and more fluent. After the woman answered Joshua's question, she immediately closed her mouth, her head drooping, not daring to look into those shining silver eyes.

And after getting the answer that was expected, Joshua didn't get any more angry, nor did he respond in any other way. He just said flatly: "In order to prevent the enemy from getting supplies, the local civilians have to be massacred... Is this your explanation?"

He has heard many reasons for this.

Joshua did not use the local world language contained in the steel python Siberian steel fragments, he still spoke the common language of Mycroft, but because of the spiritual resonance, the other party could clearly understand his meaning. And just after Joshua finished speaking, the woman kneeling on the ground shook her head vigorously, she seemed to want to get up to argue, but in the end she retorted softly: "No, they are not civilians, they are just the production tools of those puppets! If you don't kill them, they will still continuously produce resources for those puppets to use!"

In order to weaken this plantation, killing these walking corpse-like 'things' is the simplest and most effective method, which is more convenient and effective than destroying those puppets—the woman originally wanted to say this, but in the end she still did not It speaks out.

"Soul puppets treat them as livestock and crops, and you also treat them as living parts and resource reserves for the enemy."

Looking at the woman kneeling on the ground and the six people around who were still in a coma, Joshua turned his head and said indifferently: "In a sense, there is really not much difference between you."

"It's different...and besides, they're not human at all."

The only woman who woke up had mixed gray and white hair. She looked about twenty years old. The blue color was her original hair color, while the white hair was actually the gray hair that grew out from overwork. For Joshua, she was tired but quite energetic. The tough woman couldn't help but retort: ​​"They have no intelligence at all - let alone souls, or even abilities! They are not the same creatures as us!"

Hearing the other party's straightforward answer, Joshua couldn't help turning his head. His eyes widened slightly in his youthful body, as if he had just started to look seriously at the group of Siberians in front of him.

"...You can refute me from the perspective that this is war. You can refute me from the perspective of interests and values. You can refute me from the perspective of the unequal power between the enemy and us...I have thought of many kinds of answers, strength, camp, Necessary tasks, even simply looking down on them, thinking that the other party is an inferior person-every kind of answer can solve my problem, after all, this is just my personal likes and dislikes, I just simply don't like it civilians."

The huge puppet body slowly took a step forward. It picked up the carbon-based boy's body and put it back on his shoulders. From above, a surprised voice came to the woman's ears: "But You didn't. You chose to refute me from the perspective of species, and you took it for granted."

A burly soul puppet with silvery eyes flashing. Under the blessing of the power of steel, Joshua can clearly analyze the essence of any life. He has tested the unnamed mechanic and those garden children before. We also tested those ordinary farmers in the breeding area.

But now, he checked the woman in front of him, and the result was not surprising at all.

They are all the same creature, exactly, 100% of the same species.

"Only you can't say this...Only you can't kill people like this."

Anyone can do it, whether it is a soul puppet, a six-legged hippopotamus, or even a plant demonized by high-purity magic power, or even a warrior from another world. You are the only ones in Siberia who can’t say that and do this. You are all people who were once enslaved by soul puppets, and you are all oppressed on the same front...but you don’t treat each other as the same kind.

——He waited for twenty years from the breeding area to the garden area, but what he waited for was people like you. ①

Thinking of the unknown mechanic, Joshua sighed softly. He ignored the woman, and the soldiers who had already removed all the defense puppets around them just stood there quietly, waiting.

"ah……"

"Head hurts……"

"How is this going……"

In this way, while waiting silently, gradually, those comatose members of the Siberia team who were impacted by Joshua's terrifying field gradually came to their senses. They were a little confused at first, but then quickly recalled the last In that memory, the only woman who was awake was taking care of them, and they also turned their eyes to Joshua. At first, there was a trace of resentment in the eyes of some team members, but then they saw the souls around them. Most of the puppets were crumpled into pieces, and recalling the terrifying power, they immediately shuddered and calmed down a lot.

"What's going on...why that little... that compatriot will be with the soul puppet?!"

"Looking at the shape, it looks a bit like a Snova-type super puppet, but it has been specially modified...it is very burly and powerful.

"It's so powerful! Although I didn't perceive superpowers, that soul is so huge that I can't see the depth at all... It was his words that stunned us all just now? Such a powerful soul is rare even for a dominion-level puppet, right? "

"That puppet, could it be controlled by him... There are records in the military that this kind of power user who can control the puppet, the last Central Jihad was initiated by this power user..."

Joshua sensed a wave of faint but very clear soul fluctuations. He glanced at the group that didn't change their expressions, who seemed to have just woken up, and immediately understood: soul communication. The relay and the coordinator are both sober women. It's no wonder that the other party can be sober in the shock field and can refute Joshua's words. Her soul quality is dozens of times that of ordinary people, and she can completely serve as the entire team the coordinator.

"Did he wake up on his own? Now there are very few compatriots who wake up on their own. The ideological imprint of those soul puppets is getting stricter from generation to generation. It has been more than ten years since they have heard of people who have awakened on their own."

"It should be that he attacked us and the soul puppet just now, and was even angry about those things... If he didn't wake up spontaneously, how could he not know these things?"

"Okay, don't talk too much, let's see his reaction... Such a young self-awakened person may be able to control puppets. If he can join us, it will definitely greatly strengthen the strength of the army."

After hearing the fluctuation of the soul of the woman, the last calm fluctuation appeared: "Look at the situation and let us know what is the purpose of this young compatriot."

The soul fluctuation is over. In reality, the white-haired old man who suppressed all the melee puppets with his own strength and blocked the super-powered storm puppets by himself stepped forward. He glanced carefully at the boy sitting on the puppet's shoulders, His eyes were involuntarily attracted by the huge steel body, and after he realized it, he coughed and prepared to speak: "Excuse me..."

"Your identities."

Joshua's voice interrupted his words. The soldier seemed unwilling to talk too much about other issues. He asked directly: "Your purpose, the general situation of this world, the relationship between the breeding area, the garden area and the plantation, who made the soul puppets, What exactly is going on in this situation now, do you have historical documents?"

A series of questions were uttered by him fluently and clearly. Under the spiritual resonance, even if everyone present could not understand the common language of Mycroft, they could understand the meaning of the other party. It can be said that he responded very well, he was just slightly taken aback, and then began to answer Joshua's question without any nonsense without any hesitation.

"We are the Fifth Battalion from the Rebel Army. Our purpose is to go to the Garden District and save all our compatriots."

His tone was not fast, but he was not slow, and his words were strong and clear. The old man continued like this: "I don't know the situation in this world, anyway, isn't it like this? The breeding area and the garden area are all part of this plantation... but There are also 'harvesting gardens' that specialize in mining minerals and other gardens for various functions without farming."

"As for now... what is history?"

The old man's answer was decent, but he got stuck at the end. He seemed to really not understand what the word 'history' meant, so he seemed a little embarrassed. However, Joshua could see that the old man still had something in his heart. He seemed to be thankful that the soldiers were not interested in their superpowers. Otherwise, it would be really troublesome to make up a nonsense answer when the time came.

But for Joshua, why should he ask about this kind of matter? At the same moment when he pulled the seven-member team down from the air, the soldiers had roughly figured out the superpowers of all the people present, and even knew their mutual names through soul communication.

The old man at the head has a kind of self-strengthening superpower, which can store energy at ordinary times, and burst out when needed, making himself invincible. His name is 'Chariot'.

And that timid girl hiding behind the old man is the maintainer of the white shield. She possesses a rare energy wall-type superpower, which can withstand any type of impact below a certain energy level. Her title is 'Iron Wall'.

The thin boy and the long-haired woman standing together have the abilities of 'floating' and 'condensing light arrows' respectively. One of them is responsible for the team's transportation operations, and the other is responsible for large-scale cleaning and long-range attacks. Their titles are 'Pegasus' and 'Magic Arrow' respectively. It was the magic arrow that killed those Siberians. At this time, she didn't seem to react at all, as if she just had a headache because of the impact caused by Joshua.

As for the other two men, one looked very weak and seemed to be overloaded, while the other was responsible for supporting each other, with a very low sense of presence. The authority of steel held by these two people is very simple, but extremely pure. One is the 'explosion' that can cause a violent explosion through contact, and the other is the 'invisible' that can be optically manipulated and made invisible. Joshua guessed that it was the cooperation of these two people that was able to blast the black city wall outside the breeding area without being stopped by the soul puppets.

The last member is a tired woman who doesn't seem to have any ability, but the ability itself is the "amplified soul". Her responsibilities have been clearly revealed in the soul communication, that is, as the core of the team, responsible for soul communication, and releasing the ideological stamp for the "compatriots"... Her name is "Unlocker".

This Siberia team is completely called by their abilities. It seems that there is no name at all, but it is true when you think about it carefully. The name is just a code name. As a power user with different abilities, the ability name itself is a sufficiently eye-catching and unique code name.

"Explain what the Resistance is."

Joshua continued to ask, the old man and other members of the rebel army seemed a little overwhelmed, but because of the disparity in strength and Joshua's unapproachable attitude, they decided to answer honestly: "The rebel army... It is the army against the soul puppets..."

Through the narration of the white-haired old man and other people's supplements, Joshua quickly understood what kind of organization the Resistance Army was.

This is an organization that existed about a hundred years ago. At the beginning, it was just a small organization formed by a few lucky superpowers who had obtained their own powers and escaped from the garden to resist the soul puppets who came to capture them. brigade. But later, as more and more superpowers gathered, generally a single 'garden', that is, the gathering place of soul puppets, no longer had enough strength to destroy them, and these superpowers even went to attack' Garden', rescue the children in the garden area, remove their thought stamps, and let them join you.

So far, the rebel army has reached a considerable scale. According to the white-haired old man, there are hundreds of teams like them, and the number of scattered superpowers is more than ten thousand. A few decades ago, they even A holy war was also waged against the tower at the center of the world. But not all superpowers have enough combat power, plus the slightly larger Soul Puppet Garden can gather nearly ten thousand combat puppets, and they often unite together to send out large armies to wipe out the rebels, so they haven't stopped yet In one place, they kept moving, avoiding the destruction of the puppet army, and obtained resources and population supplies by attacking smaller plantations on the way.

As for the process... there is no need to say more. Just look at those numb Siberians whose lives were cut off like grass. These rebels only recognize children with extraordinary abilities as their compatriots. They don’t have enough power to unlock the ideological seal for ordinary people, and they don’t have enough Food for these worthless fellows. Every time they break through a soul puppet garden, the first thing they do is to destroy the soul puppet, the second is to rescue the superpower, and the last thing is to plunder all the supplies, kill all the livestock and Siberians who are too late to take them away, and then Burn the field to ashes with fire.

It's just like the primitive nomads in ancient times.

"This..." I don't know how to address Joshua, the white-haired old man can only judge by his appearance: "This 'puppet master', what is your purpose now?"

"You are so powerful that you can even defeat the soul puppets of the entire plantation alone, so why didn't you leave before?"

The entire Siberian team seemed to seldom communicate with others. They spoke frankly and did not know how to hide it. If they hadn’t had soul communication to coordinate with each other, they might have discussed the topic of soldiers in front of Joshua. The old man asked a simple and direct question with a touch of curiosity. Joshua didn't answer immediately. He turned his head and glanced at the messy farmland around him, where there were countless remains of puppets and the corpses of Siberians. The soldier said softly: "Originally, I planned to see what's wrong with this world."

"But now it seems that the world's problem may not be that big... On the contrary, the spirit of the entire civilization, even the civilization itself, has completely rotted and ceased to exist."

Joshua's young body was sitting on the puppet's shoulders. He looked down at the puppet's wreckage and said, "You are not human."

He turned his head again and looked at the Siberians who fell in the mud and were killed by the light arrow: "You are not human."

In the end, Joshua turned his head back, and he stared at the inexplicable and frightened Siberian seven-member team with complicated eyes that he didn't know whether it was indifference or sympathy.

"You are not human."

===No payment below===

I found that many readers misunderstood what I meant, so I will explain it here.

Joshua’s words mean that whether it is a soul puppet, an ordinary person in Siberia, or a Siberia superpower, as a civilized individual, they are not complete. Soul puppets can build planting areas in the desolate world and restore the world, but they have no humanity. And wisdom, acting rigidly in accordance with the rules of orders, has no future, superpowers have wisdom, but like the ancient nomadic names, they are not productive, do not contribute to civilization, and even arrogantly tear the boundaries between themselves and ordinary people, while ordinary people The Siberians are even more ignorant, and their freedom of thought is blocked. These three are all torn and broken, and none of them can be regarded as a complete intelligent and civilized individual.

There must have been a huge problem with the Siberian civilization itself, which is why it appeared in this way, causing great confusion in the individuals carrying the civilization, and that's why Joshua said "You are not a human", "You are not a human", "You None of them are human"... This is not emotion at all, but a fact. I originally planned to talk about it in the next chapter, but time is too late, so I will explain it first.

①It means that the unknown technicians were transferred from the breeding area to the garden area because they obtained their souls from mental work. I am afraid that some readers will not understand metaphors.

God knows why there was a quarrel in the last chapter. It is obviously a very simple question. Joshua has personal preferences, and naturally has his own views and action patterns. There is no reason for such arguing.