Chapter 779: Transcending Hatred
To be fair, the city of light depicted by the Tree of Wisdom was indeed attractive in some aspects.
It was especially attractive to those who lived at the bottom of Dragon City, such as those who lacked cultivation potential and resources, did not see any hope, or suffered from post-traumatic syndrome and were on the verge of mental breakdown after years of war.
On one side was the ugly and painful reality.
On the other side was the beautiful and bright illusion.
If someone chose the latter, Meng Chao would not be surprised. He did not have the right to criticize the weakness of others either.
The problem was that in the entire Dragon City… No, perhaps in the entire Other World, no one knew better than Meng Chao how fragile and short-lived this beautiful and bright illusion was.
If Dragon City really took the path that the Tree of Wisdom had described, they would have no way of withstanding the flames of war that were about to erupt in the Other World.
Dragon City might be destroyed even earlier than in his previous life, and the destruction would be even more humiliating.
No matter how exquisite and colorful the soap bubble under the sun was, it was still just a soap bubble. It absolutely could not serve as the strongest castle of human civilization.
Realizing this, the fire of destruction that originated from the end of the world immediately burned down the paradise that the Tree of Wisdom had planted deep in Meng Chao’s brain, exposing the ruins under the sea of flowers and the Green Tide once again.
The overly beautiful fairy tales were like inferior drinks with too many colors and artificial flavors that were difficult to swallow. Instead, it stimulated Meng Chao’s brain to become more and more clear-headed, instantly piercing through the countless loopholes hidden in the “facts” that the Tree of Wisdom had stated.
“Wait…”
Meng Chao’s gaze returned to the sharpness of a razor, and his voice became as cold as an icicle again. He stared at the other party as if he wanted to pierce through the young girl’s image that was created by the Green Tide and see through the true face hidden in the Tree of Wisdom’s depths. “So, in actuality, half, or even more than half of your soul is human. Everything you’ve done is for the sake of human beings, and you want to create a brand-new and better civilization with us?
“Even so, how do you explain the continuous invasion of monsters in Dragon City over the past decades?”
The young girl’s face, which had been created by the Green Tide, appeared slightly stunned.
For a moment, it revealed an expression that absolutely did not look human.
It retreated slightly, trying to avoid Meng Chao’s gaze for dissection.
It realized that it had lost its composure and instantly broke into a sincere, friendly, and even slightly wronged smile.
“Those monsters were not under my control.”
The Tree of Wisdom explained, “Although I have the ability to expand the neural network, allowing the carbon-based creatures in the network to share their senses, emotions, and parts of their memories, and on a certain level, transmit commands to them, the ability is not unlimited.
“Whether it’s the scope of my expansion or the ‘terminals’ that I can connect to, which is the number of carbon-based creatures, there is a limit. Moreover, the higher the intelligence of the carbon-based creature, the stronger its self-awareness is. The less easy it is for me to control them, the less the number I can control.
“I believe that this is something that is very easy to understand, right? Commanding a squad that consists of dozens of soldiers is not the same as commanding an army. Commanding an army that is close to you and commanding another army that is thousands of miles away is also not the same. Commanding a simple infantry division is a completely different concept from commanding a combined rapid attack group that has tanks, airships, runic machinery, biochemical beasts, and superhumans…
“Although humans have given me the name ‘monster mastermind’, I cannot precisely command every monster in Monster Mountain Range the same way a queen bee commands every worker bee… No, if the scale of the bee swarm is increased by 10,000 times, and the distance of the worker bee patrol is also increased by 10,000 times, I think that no matter how powerful the queen bee is, her head will be as big as a big dipper, and her thoughts would be in a whirl.
“Basically, my area of control is only limited to a small area in the Hidden Mist Domain, which is the area near the sinkhole that you mentioned.
“For monsters that are beyond this area, I can at most detect their senses, but I can’t control their thoughts.
“Once these monsters leave the Hidden Mist Domain, my connection with them will completely be cut off. I won’t be able to sense their existence at all, and I won’t be able to stop their actions.”
Meng Chao thought about the credibility of those words.
They did sound reasonable.
Whether it was through the neural network or the wireless information network, there were three problems in controlling a large number of terminals remotely.
Firstly, the “central processor” at the core of the network would be affected. Its computing power was definitely limited. Once there were too many terminals that required precise control, and the instructions, as well as feedback given, were too complicated, it would be very easy for the central processor to overload or even explode.
Secondly, the instructions would be easily delayed, distorted, and distorted in the process of long-distance transmission. The information returned by the terminal would also have a certain degree of loss.
Thirdly, the larger and more complex the network, the easier it was to be interfered with.
The human wireless information network in a foreign world with a complicated spirit magnetic environment would often be paralyzed by interference.
Was there any difference in the monster mastermind’s neural network?
Therefore, the Tree of Wisdom was probably telling the truth when it said that it could not control all the monsters precisely.
However, Meng Chao believed that the range and number of monsters it could control might not be as measly as it had described. Moreover, it had other methods, such as creating super-powerful and intelligent beasts—supernatural ent.i.ties—to act as “frontline commanders.” It could indirectly control the beast hordes that way.
“Most of the monsters that invaded Dragon City acted on their own.”
The Tree of Wisdom could not figure out Meng Chao’s thoughts and continued to sincerely explain, “You must know that many monsters have their minds opened because of the pain, hatred, and negative emotions that originated from human beings. They have a natural hostility toward human beings. It can even be said that they are the incarnations of the innocent souls who died tragically in Peach Blossom Town.
“My ability is limited. I can’t completely control and completely destroy these monsters. After many monsters gradually awakened their high intelligence and built more complex races, they all escaped my control and the Hidden Mist Domain to head to the deeper parts of Monster Mountain Range.
“With their high intelligence and large races, they formed a ‘dimension-reducing attack’ on those who were still muddle-headed in Monster Mountain Range. Soon, they established themselves in every corner of Monster Mountain Range and became the rulers of hundreds of millions of monsters. It was something that I didn’t expect, hence I couldn’t stop it.
“In addition, as Dragon City’s civilization gradually grew stronger, you also extended your tentacles to the monster paradise in the depths of the mist outside Dragon City.
“The living s.p.a.ce of both sides overlapped, and both of them felt the threat of survival. Wouldn’t a conflict be the most reasonable thing to occur?
“Don’t misunderstand. I don’t want to accuse the people of Earth of being intruders and say meaningless things like ‘the monsters were just defending their homeland.’
“I’ve said it before. There is no such thing as good or evil and beautiful or ugly in nature.
“In my opinion, the gra.s.s absorbs sunlight, the sheep gnaws the gra.s.s, the wolves devour the sheep, and the tigers tear the wolves apart, while the humans flatten the tiger’s den, kill the tigers, and grind the tiger’s bones into powder to make wine or refine battle sabers… Everything is for survival. There’s no difference, and there’s no right or wrong.
“With this understanding, we can forget the past, transcend hatred, and find a better way to survive with each other, can’t we?”
“It sounds reasonable. In fact, it sounds even better than singing.”
Meng Chao said, “But what about those abnormal superbeasts? From the White Spirit to the Earthquake, from the Demonic Abyss Eye to the Vortex, these abnormal superbeasts that understand the weakness of human nature and know how to target the weakest part of Dragon City are unlikely to be wild, right?”
“Also, they suddenly appeared in Dragon City’s periphery half a year ago. They were highly organized and able to Dragon City from all directions at the same time to coordinate with the beast tide during the chaos in the Lair. Don’t tell me that those aren’t your ‘masterpieces!’”
The Tree of wisdom was silent for a moment.
The young girl that was formed by the Green Tide also lowered her eyelids slightly.
After a while, it finally admitted, “Yes, those exotic superbeasts were indeed created and sent to Dragon City by me.”
“Why?”
Meng Chao said, “Those guys didn’t look like ‘amba.s.sadors of peace!’”
“Because the Dragon City of today has become a replica of the former Peach Blossom Town. It’s a city of sin.”
The Tree of Wisdom frankly said, “Since I’ve absorbed Jin Qianxi’s personality, will, and soul, I’ve also inherited her mission. In addition to rebuilding Peach Blossom Town, I also want to make Dragon City better. At the very least, I want to avoid repeating the mistakes of Earth’s civilization and stepping on the path of destruction again.
“Therefore, after the situation in Peach Blossom Town stabilized, I immediately sent some ‘scouts’, which were the spirit beasts buried in my nerves, to Dragon City to observe and hibernate.
“In the first ten years or so, I didn’t do much. I just watched Dragon City’s social development quietly, just like how I learned from Peach Blossom Town when I was just born.
“I have to admit that after defeating the Blood Alliance’s evil forces, the rulers of Dragon City did much better than the leaders of Peach Blossom Town.
“Perhaps, because the living environment was relatively less harsh, the entire civilization system was relatively larger and more stable. The resources available were also more abundant. The rulers of Dragon City could calmly choose their management methods and tools. The rules of the game that they set were more fair, and the ‘eating manners’ of the strong didn’t have to be so ugly.
“I was very pleased to see that, with Battle G.o.d Lei Zongchao calling the shots, the nine families that ruled Dragon City seemed to have given up a lot of power on the surface and established the Survival Committee, the highest management organization, to lead the progress of all the citizens.
“The group of experts that evolved from the nine gangs to the nine corporations seemed to have become more civilized!
“I was overjoyed. I thought that there were countless people like Jin Qianxi and Lei Zongchao in Dragon City. If we worked together, even if we didn’t have a neural network to share our feelings and emotions, we could make the entire civilization better.”