Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 997: Make decisions with emotions?

It was a picture that people living on the Mirror Star Continent could never imagine: in the dark blue space of the starry sea, countless silver-white metal cabinets were arranged in an array in an orderly manner, from the ground to the sky, forming a majestic matrix. Electronic optical cables similar to starlight tracks passed through the sky and the earth, coldly and precisely dividing the matrix into hexagonal units of equal area. The lines of light kept wandering, outlining, and connecting, and finally even included the entire starry sea, forming an extremely large optical network barrier.

Translucent blue crystals floated inside the barrier, like tiny planets that formed a great star cluster in the vast universe, and even the outer ring was surrounded by the same thin star ring. But what they released was not soft and bright starlight, but a series of blurred image data, sometimes it was a sage on a high tower writing furiously, sometimes it was a farmer kneeling in the field praying, and sometimes it was mortals raising weapons to kill each other...

Each scene flickers and switches to the next before people can see clearly, so it is difficult to judge when and where these scenes happened. Thousands of scenes of image data, accompanied by a huge amount of information, rush to the audience, as if to drown them in a strange and distant world, and completely lose themselves.

Everything seen with the naked eye is incredible, as if it is some kind of rule or boundary used by the gods to constrain the world, but emotionally, people who have witnessed this scene are more willing to believe that it is actually a huge creation barrier. Each of its units is at least as big as a house, and the chaotic data flow on the surface is refreshing at a speed that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Sometimes garbled or missing data will appear, and then it will be quickly filled with new data. People feel that they are in an extremely huge data torrent all the time, and feel a kind of almost desperate insignificance and irrepressible awe from the bottom of their hearts.

The control center fell silent.

At this moment, it seemed as if even breathing could not be heard. Linger raised his head and stared at this huge and sophisticated creation barrier in a daze, deeply attracted by the solemnity and coldness reflected in it. The young man who had been a pastor for six years soon realized that what he was witnessing was actually the fantasy of religious people about God. They often imagined that He was a spokesperson for justice, an executor of justice, and the manifestation of the will of believers, responding to everyone's requests equally, and giving everyone salvation and judgment equally. It seemed that apart from this, He would not have his own joys, anger, likes and dislikes.

But isn’t this concept the purest form of numbers? Only numbers—or, in other words, only a certain digital way of thinking—can treat everyone equally. Zero is zero, one is one, and there will never be the slightest compromise or deviation.

Is this the digital god I am about to see?

The next moment after this thought came to his mind, the young man suddenly felt a palpitation. He could not care to continue to admire the magnificent appearance of this creation barrier, but instinctively turned his head and looked at the tower that had turned into scattered light spots in the sky and passively activated the control center.

It should carry the most data, so even though the characters 0 and 1 are constantly being peeled off from the surface, it still maintains a phantom afterimage, but as the river flows, it is gradually becoming thinner, so that the scene inside can be seen.

Under the grand creation barrier, in the ocean of floating starlight, there was a tide of data. The sky was filled with scattered light points, and a petite human figure was quietly sleeping in the center of the illusion of the light tower, as if she had not noticed that the seal of the outside world had been lifted. She looked about the same size as Metien, with a slender figure and a slightly frail figure. Her even and gentle breathing while she was sleeping created ripples in the dark blue sea, and when it fell into the ears, it actually gave people a strange sense of security, as if they couldn't help but want to protect her.

As the starlight gradually dispersed, the girl's reflection became clearer. Not only Ling Ge, but everyone else noticed her presence and looked up at the same time. With the dim light, everyone saw her appearance and was shocked because it seemed far from the goddess they imagined.

Her long silver-gray hair fell to her waist, and her neat bangs were neatly combed in front of her forehead. It looked like a very well-behaved and serious hairstyle. Only a bunch of hair fell on each side of her temples, which was slightly swaying in the gradually spreading tide of dim light, like two shining star tracks. On her delicate doll-like face was a white nose and thin pale lips. Her eyes were tightly closed in sleep, adding a sense of mystery to her lonely temperament. Only the pair of thin eyebrows above her eyes, as flat as a straight sword and slightly sharp, allowed people to imagine her personality and the tone of her voice from this small detail.

What surprised people the most was her clothes and decorations. Obviously, they were not the style of the Mirror Star World, and they might not even be the style of any intelligent creature. Because for all creatures that use clothes to cover their bodies, their functions are nothing more than keeping warm, covering up shame, or deriving aesthetic meanings. However, the dress of the girl in front of him seemed to show another quality that was completely different from life, which was precise, efficient, and contained a fantasy style brought about by the development of science and technology.

The alloy armor, with sky blue and pure white as the main colors, reflected the cold luster of metal in the dim light of the sea of ​​stars, but it was so thin that it seemed like nothing, and only covered the key parts such as the chest, lower abdomen, waist and thighs. As for the rest of the body, it was completely exposed. The skin looked like it had not seen the sun for a long time, with a weak and pale skin. Her hands and feet were wearing huge metal hand armor and foot armor respectively. There were three faint blue light circles floating upwards at her wrists and knees, from large to small, interlocking, continuously releasing waves of visible data streams, as if resonating with this magnificent control center and exchanging some strange information.

Behind her were six wing-shaped floating devices, with wings, interfaces, slots and even gun muzzles. They looked like some kind of easy-to-control firepower system. At this moment, they were connected end to end, circling each other and rotating continuously, forming a structure similar to the sun's corona. But Ling had no doubt that as long as the director showed the intention to attack, the six unknown wing-shaped floating devices would quickly turn around and aim their gun muzzles at the enemy, weaving a terrifying firepower network, just like... just like the groups of mechanical soldiers under the Witch Society.

"Oh my god, the floating cannon!" Ling Ge heard Alice's whisper from the side: "Oh my god, the mecha girl!"

The young man did not quite understand what the word "machine girl" meant, but he felt that it was very appropriate to describe the girl in front of him, because she was indeed not a living being, but gave people a feeling of indifference and coldness, which was exactly the characteristic of machines: they had no emotional tendencies of their own and acted completely in accordance with the orders of the user.

So, is this a humanoid machine?
Just as Ling Ge was thinking this, the sleeping girl suddenly opened her eyes, and the entire sophisticated and magnificent creation barrier stopped for a moment, and then resumed operation at a faster and more efficient state, as if their existence was closely related to the state of the girl, or in other words, she was the core of this creation barrier: the silver-white metal cabinet rumbled, the electronic optical cables climbed like snakes, the image data in the dark blue crystal was refreshed at an astonishing frequency, and countless network units lit up and went out one by one, causing the entire space to fall into a state of uncertainty, as if the strict matrix was expanding...

Her golden eyes, which were as bright as stars but without any emotion, ignored all the changes caused by her, and reflected every surprised or doubtful face of the visitors on the ground. Her eyes were extremely cold, and when she looked at people, it was no different from looking at the air. If it was said to be arrogant, it was a bit biased, because not only to these people in front of her, I am afraid that she had the same attitude towards everyone, and even everything in the world.

She did not open her mouth, but an extremely familiar, cold and rigid voice rang in everyone's ears, and then spread across the boundless sea of ​​data, like a tide, like an echo, like a declaration from God, mighty and mighty -

【Welcome to: The Control Center of the Holy Temple of the Origin of the Universe. 】

【PLAYER. 】

……

Go forward, passing the ruins of steel and forest, the dense basswood, the wild grass, the fountain dried up on the barren hill, the square was submerged in grass leaves, the huge shopping mall had long been deserted, the electronic screens hanging on the shopping mall building fell off due to disrepair, and half of the glass windows were smashed, revealing the empty interior, like countless pairs of eyes that had lost their eyeballs.

Moving forward, he stopped in front of the headquarters building of the Game Command Company, and watched the door in front of him slowly open to both sides, revealing an empty lobby and reception desk. Is this the hard work of his mother? It is also the glimmer of hope she saw in her ignorance, which brought the possibility of creating the world. Unfortunately, He would not want to see such a bleak scene. And what kind of scene did Themis in the heaven see?

After receiving the permission card at the front desk, I walked into the sightseeing elevator and entered the command to go to the 100th floor. In the sweet electronic synthesis sound, I quietly watched the city ruins sinking under my feet, as if they were going to fall into the abyss that could not be seen by the naked eye. The war that took place here destroyed too many things. I wonder if the man named Tumi felt that the desires of mortals were so terrible that they could destroy the creation of God after seeing this scene? It should be no, otherwise, he would not have been so persistent in seeking power from the young royal powers. The elevator stopped, and there was a long corridor behind it. It was so dark that you could hear the ghosts wandering here, whispering trivially. The man came from Linwell City. It is said that the floating ruins on the outskirts of the city were once filled with cries because of Napoleon's slaughter of princes and nobles. Did he hear the wailing here? In the hollow echoing footsteps, while thinking about these endless questions, she came to the door of the control center. She did not need to use the game console to unlock the permissions like Alice did, but just said lightly -

"Themis of the Celestial Realm."

"I'm here to keep my appointment."

Then, the door opened, and she saw the magnificent and sophisticated creation barrier inside, and was amazed at her mother's amazing hand in setting up this barrier. It was so spectacular. The only pity was that it seemed meaningless, because memories were only for remembrance, not to prevent people from making the same mistakes again.

There was no one else in the control center.

Only the silver-haired girl who had awakened was quietly waiting for her arrival in the illusion of the data light tower.

"You are eleven minutes and fifty-seven seconds early, Tiantis." She said in a cold voice, "Judgment is: not necessary for now. You can intervene after I finish talking to them."

"It doesn't matter. I'll just wait." Tiantis didn't care at all. "It's better to come early than late. I have been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. If it were you, Themis of the Celestial Realm, you would definitely understand me, right?"

She looked deeply at the silver-haired girl, but the latter did not respond. She just closed her eyes silently, as if she was focusing on the other Holy Temple in Heaven and the conversation with those travelers.

But Tiantis knew that she was just running away.

Avoiding the past that you don't know how to face.

Who made those who were once close to each other go astray in the end? It seems that being enemies is the fate of everyone in this world.

"I once said that if Alice was by my side when she woke up, she would definitely agree with what I did."

The Reality Witch murmured, as if she was just talking to herself. Although she knew very well that Themis of the Heavenly Realm would definitely be able to hear her words, this kind of self-talk seemed to have a hint of concealing something: "But you don't seem to agree. You want her to find the answer herself, so you put her next to Mr. Lingge, but didn't tell her the truth. But what is your answer, Themis of the Heavenly Realm? Are you still hesitating and don't know how to make a choice, so you hope to find the answer from her choice?"

She looked at the petite girl with her eyes closed. In the endless stream of data, everything seemed so cold. Metal cabinets, electronic optical cables, imaging crystals, and all things that were not understood by the emotions of living beings together made up the appearance of this barrier. However, these were actually reflections of the girl's own heart.

She feels that numbers and machines do not need to have emotions, only in this way can they make fair judgments.

I am a number, a machine, an observer who must follow my mother's wishes and make fair decisions.

"But..." Tiantis said softly: "Mother gave you and us emotions, so she must hope that we can make decisions based on our emotions, right?"

If not, why give them emotions?
Therefore, after that incident, Tiantis never thought it was the fault of the young queens, because they made their choices based on the feelings, pity or sadness, given to them by their mothers. Aren't those who made promises with solemn oaths, deceived their feelings, and finally betrayed these feelings the ones who made mistakes?
If it was just emotional betrayal, it wouldn't be a big deal, but what if the person who betrayed the emotions also had the power to destroy the world?
All living things are controlled by emotions, and desire is also a kind of emotion, and the strongest one. The power used for desire will eventually lead the world to a destructive future. If you want to avoid this outcome, you must either deprive living beings of their emotions or deprive them of their power.

But in this world, there are very few people like Themis in heaven who voluntarily give up their emotions. In most cases, they are greedy and want everything. They want to have the best of both worlds.

That's not reality, it's just a false fantasy.

"You have already restrained your power, so there is no need to restrain your emotions, Celestial Themis. I hope you can make choices based on your emotions like a real living being."

Tiantis looked deeply at the girl: "As long as you don't betray your own or others' feelings."

The girl said nothing and was as quiet as if she was asleep.

Give me some meow