SOTOPIA: Artificial Pseudo-God

Steven took his eyes off Rosa.

"Does it hurt?" he asked.

Rosa started to organize her clothes.Hearing Steven's question, she turned her head slightly and asked, "Do you mean the body or the mind?"

"All."

"More than one of my colleagues has died at their hands." Rosa seemed to answer the question out of question. "In addition, besides Moskevich, there are two more 'Inspectors' who have been taken away—we need 'multiple insurance'."

Steven took a deep breath of the disinfectant-smelling air.He thought he understood Moskevich enough, whether it was the fear of losing his freedom, the uneasiness of life being threatened, or his determination to voluntarily step into a crisis under the arrangement of others.Moskevich wasn't all for him, and it wasn't all for himself.

"It's not just you and him suffering from such pain," Rosa reminded.Her pale and slender fingers trembled slightly, making Steven clearly realize that she was only in her late twenties. "We are all afraid of death, of failure, of disillusionment. I have my husband, Mrs. Reynolds has her relatives, and colleagues who have been killed and are in danger. This is no different from what you have faced. We Not a hero, and don't want to be a hero, but we can't let ourselves choose to escape."

—Wherever you are, war follows you everywhere.

This sad thought lingered in Steven's mind.He knew that Moskevich did not do it out of loyalty to Sotopia, but a motive that could not have been simpler to relate to him.Gotta admit, Steven was even a little happy about it.He looked at the ceiling and smiled wryly: "You don't need to persuade or comfort me. I'm afraid I know that feeling better than you, little girl. The war has taught me a lot, and this is just another war. If you put me in That position, I would have made the same choice, but I couldn't have let him go willingly, that's two different things."

Rosa shrugged and smiled helplessly. "Need a hug? For the sake of my face," she asked.

Steven chose to decline: "It will feel weird." He looked into Rosa's eyes and said, "I think you will continue to restrict my actions."

"No way, almost all of us are around here now. What's more, you are far from recovering."

"But I need to make sure you get Moskevich — and the rest of the hostages — back safely."

Steven noticed Rosa didn't answer the question right away.

After a moment of silence, Rosa responded: "I don't intend to hide the risks of this operation."

"I just hope you can get him out - I beg you to."

"Attacking the enemy's lair is the core of the plan. The only problem is the final result." Rosa suddenly found that he was not good at dealing with a man who fully expressed his thoughts. "Even if he comes back, I don't know if your relationship will be the same as before."

"That's our business." Steven replied calmly. "But before that, I want you to do me a favor."

All is calm as usual in the open seas of the Gulf of Mexico.

Alexander changed the vehicle to Ishija Hayabusa halfway, and continued to fly towards his base camp.

And when Moskevich woke up, he found that one of his hands was handcuffed to the horizontal bar next to him, and he was shaking with the bumps of the helicopter, and half a circle of red marks had been worn on his wrist.The GPS terminal hidden in the body has not been found and taken out, and everything is still going according to plan.

Alexander was sitting opposite him, looking at the "guest" who had just woken up with a half-smile.Alexander's forearm and wrist were bandaged.Perhaps he had used painkillers, but he didn't look in pain, and even had a relaxed expression on his face.

This made Moskevich inexplicably unhappy.

"Where is this?" After a long silence, Moskevich asked.He found that his voice was quieter than he had imagined—perhaps because the helicopter propeller was too noisy.

Alexander smiled and replied, "High seas. We'll be landing on a cruise ship soon."

- cruise ship.

Moskevich chewed the word silently.This has already hinted at many things: such as the financial resources of the organization behind Alexander, the approximate location of their base, and the next possible action of the opponent.

Faced with such a situation, Moskevich did not intend to take the initiative to initiate a dialogue. After all, the more behaviors, the more flaws, and he did not want to take this risk.

But Alexander obviously didn't think so.Compared with the "insighter" who was held hostage, this dangerous man who looked like an ordinary man in his 40s was too talkative: "Do you want to hear my story?"

"No." Moskevich replied decisively.His face was expressionless, his eyes wary.

"Okay, then I won't talk about it." But within a few seconds, Alexander spoke again: "Then I'll tell you something else. For example, after I disappeared from Los Angeles—"

Moskevich's attitude was still tough, and he didn't even wait for the other party to finish speaking: "I'm not interested."

Alexander couldn't help laughing: "You always ignore my desire to talk."

"Your talk will not do me any good."

"Why not?" Alexander asked with a smile.

"You threatened me with a gun, took me to this unknown place, and hoped that I would be grateful to Dade?"

"At least some of the mysteries in your mind can be solved. By the way, you can also see two rare 'kinds' - although I am not so interested in them."

"Why are you the only one working so hard on me? I don't understand the value."

"Because the only 'insight' I have had direct contact with is you."

Moskevich glanced at him, but said nothing.

Alexander sighed: "It's like the old days repeat themselves." He was quick to add: "But this time it won't happen again."

He grabbed the horizontal bar in the helicopter cabin and stood up—the space was limited, he could only bow slightly—and extended his other hand to Moskevich who was sitting across from him.The hand slid from Moskevich's pale cheek to the side of the neck, caressing the skin behind the young man's ear almost intimately; the fingers went through the end of the hair and rolled down slightly, forcing Moskevich to raise his head, making his The neck is further exposed, like a bird that has no defense against predators.

And this undoubtedly aroused an indescribable discomfort in the other party's heart.

Threats implied by gentle movements are no different from provocations.Moskevich, who was strangled around the neck, made no secret of his disgust.He wanted to break free from the opponent's control, but his body, which was not yet fully awake, restricted his movements.He raised his free-moving hand and tried to grasp Alexander's wrist resting on his neck, but the person sitting next to him firmly grasped the forearm.

"Relax, kid." Alexander finally let go. "Or would you rather hear me mention the man in the attic?"

Moskevich stopped all struggling almost immediately.

Steven has indeed become his Achilles' heel, he admits it, although others may not know it.But that didn't cheer him up, especially in such a dangerous environment.

Alexander's penchant for conversation repelled Moskevich as much as his real identity, especially when he spoke of the state of mind of others in a playful tone: "I can guess how you feel about him. You are too trapped by Sotopia." So long that you can’t normally understand what’s happening to you, including your emotions.”

"……To shut up."

"Chicken complex? But I'm afraid it's not the same. You don't need the processed 'maternal love', and what you want from that man is not family affection, but instinctive self-satisfaction."

"To shut up."

"Even if you think you are rational and restrained, it is easy to destroy your psychological defenses. People's emotional needs are fluid. Once these chains are cut off—for example, precise and appropriate threats, it is only a matter of time before the spirit collapses."

"Damn it, when will you be quiet?"

"You can choose to ignore me." Alexander said with a smile. "We're almost there anyway."

The jolt of the helicopter landing on the deck reminded Moskevich of what had happened on the road two years earlier.But this time, no one is going to put him behind him and say "it's my job".

—Steven should still be alive.He must be safe with Rosa and Maynard and the damn crew around.

Moskevich thought wildly, and let Alexander uncuff him himself.

They jumped out of the helicopter.Alexander walked in front, embracing the Latino man who was walking towards him.

"Welcome to my 'Yugiri'." The strange man's English was very poor, and his thick accent made his sentences more difficult to understand.He probably knew this too, so he quickly lost interest in Moskevich's introduction of the cruise ship. After a few polite words that were probably greetings, he turned to Alexander and said something quickly in Spanish.

After a while, when the Latino man waved his hand to signal the armed men in front of him to follow him, Alexander walked briskly to Moskevich, patted him on the shoulder, and signaled Moskevich to follow him to the upper deck of the cruise ship. Building Move: "Come on, let me show you the secret of 'Babel'."

This time, Moskevich was not restrained in any way—no cold shackles, no bandits with their arms clamped, not even a weapon pointed at him.But unlike when he was held hostage, he did not resist. Instead, he quietly followed Alexander, watching this unreasonable fanatic with cold eyes, and listening to him talking to himself without knowing the truth or falsehood.

"In fact, I am not the head of the 'Tower of Babel', but the head of one of its several components," he said.

Moskovich frowned: "Tower of Babel?"

Alexander smiled: "Look, you haven't completely lost interest in the status quo." He observed the details of Moskevich's expression, and was satisfied with the other's unconscious reaction. "As you can guess, Sotopia has few sincere allies and many organizations that oppose it. The Tower of Babel is such a loose - but exceptionally strong alliance."

"However, your cooperative relationship is also fragile." Moskevich said bluntly.

Alexander did not deny: "Yes, we all have our own motives, but there is no harm in cooperation for the time being. For example, the Mexican rich man just now, the owner of the Yugiri, just hopes to maintain the economic monopoly by confronting Sotopia. He's one of our big sponsors -- one of them."

"Self-serving capitalist," Moskevich turned his head, looking directly into Alexander's eyes. "And crazy militants."

"You're right." Alexander looked composed, and Moskevich couldn't tell whether it was arrogance or calm.

He led Moskevich through the long and narrow corridor inside the building, gradually approaching the middle and lower floors of the cruise ship.What appeared in front of them was a solid and heavy airtight door.And when the door slowly opened, the scene inside made Moskevich subconsciously hold his breath.

To put it bluntly, it is a huge computing center driven by both the human brain and the computer—surrounding the empty nutrient tank filled with transparent liquid, surrounded by servers arranged like incubators, and some of the machines that have not yet been activated are still running. Cover with plastic sheeting.The criss-cross wiring and the countless jumping lights on the console are all located in Moskevich's knowledge blind spot.

Almost in an instant, the intuition and instinctive calculation of fear had told him the answer.

"Spider web (cobweb). If the experiment is successful, it will become the heart of the world." Alexander stood in front of Moskevich, his back turned to the too harsh lights in the room, and his calm eyes looked extremely terrifying in the interlacing of light and dark . "I said it not long ago. What we need is your brains. To be precise, 'your' brains."