Infinite Stream Metaverse

Chapter 318 Who is the inner ghost
San Francisco, Forgotten Cemetery.

There are the bones of monsters and the ruins of mechas.

In the evening, in a secret camp, Laoster stood among a group of devout believers, followed them in a circle, side by side for a while, lined up for a while, and held various weird ceremonies... The alchemist frowned head.

Religion is really stupid.

Lost thought to himself.

At this moment, the leader stopped slowly, stood still, and began to chant the monster's prayer loudly:

"We are brothers and sisters of monsters."

"We welcome the angel from the sea with open arms."

"Sacred and mystical beings rescue the suffering human beings and drive out the demons in our hearts."

"You are messengers of mercy, on a mission to forgive humanity and liberate us from the defilement of our homeland."

"You have mighty power, and you stir up raging waves, covering the vast sky."

He said one sentence, and the disciples followed him.

Suppressing the resentment and discomfort in his heart, Lauster followed a group of believers and chanted aloud:
"Oh, monster king, please guide us to that piece of underwater paradise, and let all those who oppose your supreme rule bow their heads and surrender."

"Please subdue the false prophets and tyrannical monarchs of mankind, who fear everything beyond comprehension. You are not the source of suffering, but the true savior."

"We sincerely kneel down to thank you for your boundless protection, and raise our hands to express our sincere admiration and praise."

"Let the blue blood of the archangel wash away the sins of mankind, and we will return to the world we once were and start a new life."

The prayer of the monster was finished, and the ceremony was finally over.

Laust lifted his hood and took off his robe, walked through the crowd to find the leader just now, and asked:
"Has the plan been successfully implemented?"

"Oh, great monster angel."

The leader looked the alchemist up and down, and said:

"As you wish, our brothers and sisters hidden inside the PPDC have inserted memory chips into the mecha, and I believe the results will come soon."

Roster nodded.

That's why he obviously hates religion, despises these so-called "monster believers", and still wants to get involved with them-alchemists never dreamed that these monster cults could develop believers into PPDC.

Laust just casually showed his Sith alchemy skills, and frightened the group of monster believers into the ground and shouted miracles. The alchemist took advantage of the opportunity to express his position, and quickly mixed into the monster believers logically. Promoted to "God Envoy".

So far, it seems that everything is going according to plan and going very smoothly... The alchemist nodded in satisfaction.

Then he lowered his head and took out his mobile phone to send a group text message:
"Reincarnation, gather for a meeting."

…………

Recalling that scene, Zofia still has lingering fears.

Or in order to alleviate the hardship and frustration caused by the long training, the driver led the students to visit the training mecha "Eden Assassin", and allowed the two students with the best synaesthesia matching progress to enter it for operation.

Definitely not Zofia, because she's currently the slowest synaesthesia match.Zofia is the one with the strongest fighting ability and the most proficient driving control among all the students.

But she doesn't want to open up to people.

So Zofia could only watch outside the training mecha, watching the other two students enter the cockpit at the head of the mecha and try to control this behemoth for the first time.

At that time, a controller at the Lawson Command Center gave instructions to the training mecha:
"'Eden Assassin', move your right hand."

After a very short reaction time, the Mech Hunter raised its right hand.

The mecha technicians and engineers onlookers applauded the pair of trainees.

"Very well. Now raise your left hand."

"Eden Assassin" raised his left hand as he said.

"Take a step forward with your right foot."

no response.

"'Eden Assassin', please take a right foot."

Still no response.

"Huo Yaqi? Doris?"

the controller asked suspiciously.

"Oh my god!"

Huo Yaqi suddenly shouted.

Then Doris started shouting too.

Suddenly, the two fell silent at the same time.

"What happened?"

The driver who was the instructor asked anxiously.

"I don't know," said the controller. "We don't have feedback from 'Assassins of Eden.'"

"Can't receive any feedback? All feedback? Why..."

"Boom—"

The "Eden Assassin" suddenly leaned forward, punched in the air, and punched again. Just two punches smashed the thick concrete wall, and cracked concrete slabs and steel fragments fell down like raindrops.

Although this is a training mecha with its weapon system removed, the limbs and torso of the mecha itself are also weapons, which can still cause enough damage.

"What's going on here?" the driver yelled.

Huo Yaqi and Doris are not making trouble, something must have happened, something must have happened very wrong.

"Make it stop!" he said to the controller.

"No!" the controller said: "The fail-safe system has been changed."

"Who did it? Changed to what?"

"A certain pilot, I don't know. Oops!"

The "Eden Assassin" turned around suddenly, ran a few steps, and then punched Lawson's command center brazenly.

"boom!"

The steel beam twisted into a ball in an instant, the bulletproof glass shattered, and an extremely huge steel fist sank deeply into it.

……

"marshal!"

A man in military uniform with a Chinese face walked into the office.

"Please sit down, General Quan."

Pantecost said.

The visitor sat down on the sofa meticulously.

"Tell me, what's going on?"

Pantecost asked in a deep voice.

"We replayed the synaesthesia synchronous screen of the training mech afterwards, and saw that two trainees thought they were fighting a level-three monster 'Avenger', and the location and scene were in Jakarta. According to statistics afterwards, a total of five people died on the spot. Including two cadets and three controllers in the command center."

General Quan replied seriously.

"Did the simulation training scene reappear?"

Pantecost first asked about this possibility.

General Quan shook his head:
"We have never arranged simulation training for level three monsters for our students."

"Huo Yaqi and Doris, have they experienced monster attacks?"

Pantecost asked again.

Pantecost recalled the first time he loved to sync Raleigh Beckett with his adopted daughter Mako Mori.

At that time, Raleigh recalled the battle with the monster "Scythehead", in which he lost his brother.His flood of memories triggers Mako Mori's, and she, too, sinks into the memory and believes it: she's reminded of the monster that attacked Tokyo and killed her parents.

That sync accident nearly went horribly wrong - Mako Mori nearly fired the Dangerous Wanderer's plasma cannon inside the Shattered Dome.

"No."

However, General Quan shook his head and denied:
"Joiace is from Rio de Janeiro and Doris is from Johannesburg, and neither of them has ever been to any city that has been attacked by monsters."

"So it wasn't caused by their memories."

"Yeah, that scene was like mock training, but more...real."

"Then this accident was not an accident."

"I don't think it was an accident."

General Quan said with certainty:

"It was vandalism, and murder."

"There must be moles and spies among us... You have sealed the Shattered Vault, General Quan?"

Pantecost asked.

"Yes, Marshal, as soon as the accident happened, I ordered the entire Shattered Vault to be sealed off."

General Quan replied.

"very good."

Pantecost nodded and asked:

"Before Huo Yaqi and Doris entered the 'Eden Assassin', who else entered the head control cabin of that training mech?"

"All the students went in and visited."

"You mean, the new students are very suspicious?"

"The possibility of mech maintenance personnel is not ruled out."

"Is there any news from the outside world?"

"Yes, the video footage of the mech 'Eden Assassin' out of control destroying the Shattered Dome base appeared on the Internet, and the cult organization War Demon God declared responsibility for the incident."

"boom!"

Pantecost slammed his fist on the table.

"All personnel in the Broken Dome base will be screened one by one! Re-examine everyone's files, including past experiences and family circumstances, and assess their psychological status."

"Yes, Marshal."

……

K-Science Lab.

Fu Qinghai was sitting in front of the computer, using a search engine to search for relevant information about "Monster Believers"—in fact, he had quietly inserted an artificial intelligence chip into the case.

"Demystified Monster Worship".

Kelly Kellyski, ZNN reporter.

Fu Qinghai found an interview video from a few years ago.

Click on the video:

"Hello, audience friends, I'm Kelly Kelly, this is the border of the San Francisco quarantine area. The first monster 'invader' finally fell in this place, when the Magnesium Air Force dispatched multiple troops to jointly attack , and used tactical nuclear weapons for the first time on the mainland of Magnesium.”

A white man in a shirt and no tie stands in the middle of the ruins, holding a microphone and talking to the camera. The camera slowly pulls in behind him as he introduces.

San Francisco's forgotten cemetery.

Fu Qinghai recognized it.

"The area near the borders of the Governance Zone has become homeless, full of disaffected and rebels. Today the Church of the Wormhole holds daily religious services, one of the best known local sects of monster worshipers today. one."

"Yes, you heard that right. Monsters come out of wormholes to harm the world and destroy civilization, but they still have no shortage of fanatical admirers. Maybe you will never believe it, but there are indeed people here who worship alien monsters!"

"We tried to interview several church leaders, but none of them wanted to be on camera. They called the monsters kings, saying they were world lords on the other side of the wormhole."

"The number of members of the Wormhole Church has been increasing steadily every year, but there was a sudden drop in 2023, when only two monster attacks occurred that year. At that time, people thought that the monsters seemed to stop there, but last year's facts proved this. The guess was completely wrong. The number of monster attacks became more and more frequent, and the number of members of the Wormhole Church also soared."

"As you can see now, many people gathered here for the 'Sunset Ceremony,' commemorating the moment when the last nuclear bomb was dropped on the 'Invaders,' as that moment marked the first death of an alien invader by human hands."

"Everyone look at the scene. Robert, turn the camera over there. The viewers in front of the TV don't want to miss this scene - we see hundreds of people holding candles on the way to the border of the quarantine area, and they say prayers over and over again. Wen. They believe that monsters are messengers sent by God or the universe to remind us that human beings have severely damaged the earth’s environment and are not qualified to continue living on this planet.”

"The Pacific Rim Joint Military Defense Force doesn't take the Wormhole Church seriously. They declined my interview request, but I can tell you that PPDC is always paying attention to any religious ceremony of the church. Maybe the activities of the Wormhole Church can provide them with some clues." , guess the target of the monster's next attack."

"San Francisco is definitely where Monster feels most at home."

"Click", the video ends.

"Um……"

Fu Qinghai frowned and meditated with his chin in one hand.

Sometimes he feels:
I can neither understand the people on the other side of the ocean, nor the government on the other side of the ocean.

Why do people worship monsters?

Stockholm Syndrome?

Why should the government let it go?

Just because of the so-called freedom?

"Since the first monster invasion, there have been people who thought they were God's messengers to punish human sin. Slowly, these people found each other, and found an organized religion that taught such ideas."

A voice came from behind Fu Qinghai.

It's Dr. Herman.

"They built temples, sang hymns, pledged devotion, held ceremonies inside dead monsters. Most of these religions, no matter how self-deceiving and obnoxious, were not dangerous. They would take medicine made from some of the monster's body parts. Drugs. Some even commit suicide with an elaborate tea party brewed from dehydrated monster bodily fluids."

"The 'God of War Demons' is different, they are violent extremists, they have always wanted to destroy the PPDC, they have launched several attacks, trying to destroy the mech hunters, or assassinate the pilots and scientists, but never before It can lead to serious consequences like the accident just now.

Dr. Herman explained to Fu Qinghai.

Fu Qinghai pulled out the chip calmly, shrugged and said:
"It's... unreasonable, unbelievable."

"What's unimaginable about this? Isn't it the Christian theory of original sin? Everyone is born sinful."

Dr. Newton's voice cuts in:
"The Huns invaded Europe thousands of years ago, and the Mongols invaded Europe hundreds of years ago. European Christians still worshiped the invaders, thinking that the invaders were heavenly soldiers sent by God to help them drive away the Ottoman pagans. Calling them 'God's Whip', that's how ridiculous religion is."

Dr. Newton is a native of Magnesia, and he usually dresses like a hippie. Naturally, he doesn't have a good look at old Europe and Christianity.Of course, for Chinese people, hippies and beats are not good things either.

Fu Qinghai agreed with Dr. Newton's opinion.

It's a pity that he couldn't find any clues about the monster cult organization "God of War Demons" from the Internet.

Then the three chatted about other things, and then continued to carry out research on monsters step by step.

Until a Chinese man in military uniform walked into the laboratory.

"Dr. Fu Shan, please come with me."

The other party said politely.

Fu Qinghai turned his head and looked, oh, Zhang Jin.

The second familiar face besides Jing Tian.

"Okay, General Quan."

Fu Qinghai put down his work and left with this man.

……

Today's training content is dagger fighting and monster knowledge: including the anatomy and structure of monsters in the past, biological weapons and so on.

Fu Qinghai can fully memorize these superficial knowledge with just a glance, but after all, not everyone has the brains of Mordoke.

The trainees returned to the dormitory exhausted.

However, the atmosphere is a little weird.

Everyone is clearly preoccupied.

"They think the ones doing the damage are among us."

A student broke the silent atmosphere:

"I think they might be right."

"I do not believe."

A boy said angrily:

"I haven't done it, and I don't think the murderer is among you. Why would someone do such a thing?"

"Heart is under the kyte."

A girl replied lightly:
"Everyone has their own secrets, and with the right timing, anything can happen."

After speaking, she glanced at Zofia, meaning something.

Zofia sat silently on her bed, quietly listening to the discussions of the students around her.

Although each of her courses is close to full marks, but the level of synaesthesia synchronization has repeatedly failed. Zofia has changed a full six synchronization partners, but she is still unwilling to let go of her heart and reveal her heart, which makes other students very special. curious.

If things continue like this, this beautiful girl will be eliminated by the Hunter Academy sooner or later, and her desire to become a mecha hunter is so strong that almost everyone knows it.

"Maybe."

A student spread his hands helplessly and said:

"Maybe the bad guys are among us, maybe the real culprits can easily frame us. But we don't even know why they suspect us. All we know so far is that they're questioning everyone in the Shattered Vault."

"All of us have entered the head control compartment of the training mech. Two people at a time. Everyone has time to commit crimes. Have you seen any strange behaviors by others?"

A student asked seriously.

"Please, stop trying to be a detective, okay? What can a group of us cadets do in the control cabin?"

Another student asked back.

"Although I don't know you well yet, I don't think anyone will go all the way to Hunter Academy just to install a bug in the training mecha. If I were to sabotage it, I would definitely wait for one that could cause a huge uproar. The timing, not the current situation."

"Indeed." Someone echoed, "That's more reasonable."

"Everyone……"

A student from Wa country spoke up.

Everyone looked at him in surprise, because this shy boy rarely spoke.

"The killer could be among us," he said, "and we probably wouldn't even know it. My dad works for Interpol, and he said there were gangsters who knew how to use the Pons bridging device to turn people into zombies— — No, not zombies, that's not the right word. It's some kind of instruction that is put into people's brains, and then those people forget about it."

"Zombie? Are you serious?"

A student asked incredulously.

"My father never joked about such incidents. In short, if you suddenly have some weird ideas, or your memory suddenly fragments..."

His voice gradually faded.

"Then you might be a zombie."

Someone helped him to add what he hadn't finished.

The more Zofia heard it, the more miraculous she felt.

Synaesthesia technology and Pons bridge device still have this effect?

Why does it sound so much like Order 66 in Star Wars?

Zofia didn't care about the group of brats anymore, and under their suspicious eyes, she got up and left the dormitory alone.

Zofia felt that this matter was no small matter, and she had to tell Fu Qinghai immediately, so that he could make an accurate judgment.

However, when Zofia came to the K-science laboratory, she was told by two other doctors:

Dr. Fu Shan has been taken away by General Quan.

…………

　Thank you, the little tractor driver, the great sage who rules Mars, and the two book friends for their rewards.

　
(End of this chapter)