This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 582.2: This Is Necessary Sacrifice

In a room of pure white.

Tragic scenes unfolded, each confined within palm-sized screens, pieced together into a half-curved wall.

Seated at the center, the old man quietly watched the hell playing out. At last, his placid face turned into a faint sigh.

Even knowing that was the necessary sacrifice on the road to utopia, even knowing those people were nothing but penned livestock...

Still, at the sight of such misery, he felt a flicker of pity.

Even the Spirit Interference Device could not achieve 100% brainwashing. Na Fruit had things it couldn’t penetrate, how much more so a technology still in its infancy.

Frequency Band 03 made 99% eat the 1%. If those 99% woke up, at least half would be crushed by their memories.

In the end, he had asked the Mutant Humans to come and clear the field. It was to spare the subjects pain after the experiment’s end.

That was his greatest mercy for those who gave their lives for glorious evolution.

But to his shock, those heartless ones, who stopped at nothing, had altered the device’s frequency.

That was cruelty worse than death.

"As I thought, I still need to cultivate my temperament..." Sensing the flare of wrath in himself, Luo Qian lowered his gaze and muttered to himself.

Earlier, using Zhao Tiangan’s body to meet those children, he hadn’t resisted toying with them at their bewildered expressions.

That should not have been.

Among the Archbishops of the Torch Church, he was one of the older, having entered the Sanctuary over ten years ago. However, his cultivation was the shallowest.

Here, cultivation meant not techniques or scriptures, but tempering and transcending one’s own heart.

Man could not evolve alone. It was like trying to step on one’s own foot to rise into the sky.

Even if science gave man wings, he could not think like birds born with them.

No doubt, man was above birds on the chain of life. He needn’t become one. But as civilization plateaued, man’s limits showed when his feet left the soil.

Perhaps such a species deserved only civilization within light-years.

Human nature, more basic than methods or systems, underpinned human civilization.

It wasn’t precursor tech to warp drives, nor solved any material problem. But it ensured man returned what he never deserved.

How else to explain that after reaching the stars, uniting from division, mankind lost it all within three years after a long period of prosperity?

The Torch Project had offered one explanation. The collapse of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee had offered another.

Humans always lived in uncertainty. Once sensing a threat, they struck first.

Only rarely, by luck, did they gamble right and win a bright future. History called it greatness or miracles.

That was exactly because it was rare.

The church, born of Project Torch’s inspiration, offered a solution.

For humanity to ascend into a new dimension, it had to think from beyond humanity. Becoming a Complete Human was but a crude phrasing. Their true aim was to become gods.

Humans could not live in the heavens, but gods could.

For that, Archbishops had to cast aside all human traits, gazing on mankind from outside. That was why every Archbishop entered the Sanctuary.

Only beyond gravity’s pull could they gain true divinity! Otherwise, they would become like the first Mutant Humans. They might be changed species, but they were still thinking as men, still standing as men. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

The result was obvious.

Mutant Humans borne of this carried no human legacy, only replaying the path of primitive society.

They ended up either slain or insane.

Luo Qian often lamented. Even without flesh, he could not cut away humanity fully.

Perhaps he had entered the Sanctuary too old, his old thoughts etched like rot into circuits.

He often envied that child, the chosen Apostle.

Blank as paper, he was the perfect god.

"Forgive me, the Executioner squad failed... New Alliance forces seized our facility and fired Frequency Band 05 through the Spirit Interference Device."

"The influence on the test subjects... was lifted."

The voice interrupted Luo Qian’s musings.

He flicked his finger. A pale blue window appeared, showing a robed figure kneeling in the dark, head bowed, in the basement under Pinecone Ranch’s church.

The hood hid his face.

Luo Qian could not see his eyes, but sensed the shame beneath.

Until the Executioners intervened, the experiment had been going well. Their foes were simply too powerful.

But overall, the experiment succeeded.

It wasn’t perfect, but close.

Not wanting loyal children to wallow, he spoke gently, "It’s alright, my children. A small mistake is nothing. We already have the data we need. Pinecone Ranch’s experiment is over. Take the data and retreat through the passage below you. At its end, someone will meet you.”

"The Qi Tribe will handle the cleanup."

The Apostle who spoke earlier answered, head still bowed, "Yes, Archbishop."

Luo Qian smiled in approval.

But then, his brow furrowed. Something felt off.

Archbishop...

Yes, it was his title. But usually only outsiders or lesser Apostles called him that.

The proper title was Pathfinder.

Even those close to the core might call him that in private, but not in formal ranks.

It wasn’t enough to anger him, only a slight unease.

To probe out the real reason, he mumbled, "My child, lift your head. Let me see your eyes."

The Apostle hesitated, then obeyed, raising his face.

The eyes looked normal. It was full of confusion, as any man’s.

But... It was too staged.

They weren’t the eyes of humans! They were the eyes of something wearing human skin.

At last, Luo Qian saw what was wrong.

Piercing the act, his cloudy pupils filled with killing intent. His gnarled hand stretched toward the screen.

He would tear it apart!

At that moment, the figure in the screen flinched, fleeing backward into the tunnel.

The image shook like an earthquake. The man ran desperately, but still only within the thin screen.

Luo Qian didn’t know how that being had infiltrated his memory partitions, but if it thought to escape, it was naive.

Smiling cruelly, he murmured, "You can’t escape."

The next second, the screen vanished with a snap.

His hand clutched the air. His face froze, then darkened with anger.

"Tsk!"

He had been tricked.

Zhao Tiangan’s corpse had been abandoned, but the enemy had hijacked its defunct cranial port.

They had even retrieved the body under such conditions... He had truly underestimated them.

He tapped the communications interface, meaning to warn the four Apostles in the settlement. Unfortunately for him, each name was marked with a broken signal icon.

His expression of surprise transformed into one of gravity.

After seizing the interference device, the enemy hadn’t shut it down, but amplified it. The jamming reached beyond the estate.

No wonder they lifted Frequency Band 03 so quickly.

Now, no one could reach those four Apostles. He could only pray they were clever enough to flee.

The one comfort for him was... if he couldn’t reach them, neither could the New Alliance reach the soldiers.

For a time, at least, the children were safe.

Even so, Luo Qian could not feel relief.

Closing his eyes, he sighed, "Difficult indeed..."

...

On the bridge of the Heart of Steel.

Zhao Tiangan’s corpse lay cold on a stretcher.

When the Viper transport plane returned, it had carried the body to the New Alliance’s frontier base, then another Viper delivered it here on Chu Guang’s orders.

Now, a blank-faced android knelt beside it, finger stuck in its nose, eyes streaming pale blue code.

The android trembled before closing its eyes. From the nose of the corpse came a wisp of smoke, as if something had burned.

Eclipse’s eyes opened again. The light in its eyes were gone, and it withdrew its finger.

Frost, waiting anxiously, rushed to ask, "How was it?"

Eclipse glanced at it, then at Chu Guang.

Its tone was flat as it spoke. "Under the basement... A passage to the outside. The Apostles should be there."

"Thank you, much appreciated!" Chu Guang nodded, then ordered Little Seven to update the players’ terminals.

The device jammed local signals, but the other world’s forum remained unaffected.

His bug-savvy fools had someone watching offline, to get intelligence through even when their communication channels were cut.

Playing with smart people was a joy indeed.

"You’re welcome! It’s our honor to serve you," Frost beamed, jumping in before Eclipse. "Whatever you need, trouble us as you please!"

Eclipse said nothing, only staring at its right hand, eyes full of confusion.

"Strange..." it muttered.

How had that man seen through it?