In the end, the Pope's "promotion" did not fully agree to Russell's invitation.
This is considered normal.
It would be better to say...if he defected to Russell immediately,
Instead, Russell would doubt his sincerity.
That was an obsession that lasted for more than a hundred years.
He used the highest level "divine device" to brainwash himself, and transformed himself into a digital life similar to a monkey-faced eagle. How could someone who had distorted his life to such an extent believe Russell just because of his words?
Can there be a better way to solve everything and put your plans on hold immediately?
Even Russell himself did not expect to make the Pope an immediate friend.
What he really wants to do is to tell the other party the secrets...the knowledge about the "Twilight Egg", about the "Dragon", and about the "Grey Dome".
This is knowledge that His Holiness the Pope did not understand before confirming his "salvation plan".
He knows many secrets, but whether it is "spiritual relatives", "original psychic energy", "twilight", or "the elves' plans", he only knows part of it. Just because every link is a little wrong, these mistakes accumulate
After getting up, the feasibility of his plan was even lower than that of the elves.
Russell didn't have to do anything at all.
He doesn't need to defeat the opponent, nor does he need to kidnap or extort him. He doesn't need to yell and talk... He just needs to calmly and clearly fill in the missing part of the opponent's truth, and he can directly dismantle "His Holiness the Pope" so far.
all efforts made.
Because the truth itself has power.
Your Excellency the Pope indeed has extraordinary self-confidence and courage - he always prioritizes using the technology he has just completed on himself instead of looking for consumables for experiments. Without enough self-confidence and courage, he would never
It may be done.
And from this behavior alone, Russell could taste the underlying behavioral logic of "promotion" and his character.
——This old pope should actually be a lonely person.
He first invented the divine descending device, not because he wanted to use this technology to fight against mages. It was because he realized that there seemed to be something wrong with the "god" the church believed in.
"Father Andrew" back then could be said to be quite strong. He was not even a bishop at that time, just an ordinary priest. And he even dared to raise the topic of "exploring the nature of the power of the Holy Order", using the bones of saints and
Dead souls are used as materials to modify human personality and will——
The church at that time was not yet called the Cyber Church, nor did it have the ultimate goal of "cyber eternal life." They were really an old-school church group that tended to be conservative.
Andrew's behavior is no longer "touching a taboo" in the ordinary sense. It can even be said that he was lucky enough to survive. The fact that he was able to tinker with this technology alone means that he is probably a friend.
None, and even the final test product could only be used by himself. After this thing was made, he went directly to the Pope at the time... This shows that he has no emotional intelligence at all.
This is obviously because Andrew is very simple - he believes that this is the truth about the power of Holy Order, and he feels that his research is completely correct, so he has no fear and does not even find a backer or agent.
In order to prevent anyone from interfering with it or stealing his research, Andrew didn't even leave any backup, and went straight to the highest-level person in charge.
That is to say, the popes of that generation were enlightened enough, and the pressure from the mages at that time was strong enough, otherwise Andrew would never be alive today.
Later, after the death of the Pope, Andrew, as a hero, became the Pope. But he never let go after more than a hundred years - this was not because he had a strong enough desire for power, but because he did not.
Allow the church to be distorted in the slightest.
Changing the Pope is a very normal situation, and the consequences of changing the Pope
The recent changes in attitudes and operational strategies are also very reasonable.
Because the Cyber Church has always been an organization, it is normal for it to constantly adjust to the changes of the times. Even if it is
When he was the Pope, it was normal for his personality and methods to continue to change as time changed.
However, Andrew did not allow anything to change.
He even used the divine descending device he invented to brainwash himself to maintain the purity of his stance and keep the Cyber Church unchanged for hundreds of years.
He has an urgent desire to change the world, and he has a superior enough talent... But he did not use this ability to climb up and become an elf. Instead, he conducted long experiments and research alone, and finally achieved results.
After that, there was still no one around him.
This is precisely because of his suspicion.
He does not believe that others can inherit the Cyber Church and make it better. After all, someone who has only lived for a few decades will definitely not be as wise and experienced as someone who has lived for more than a hundred years.
And this kind of arrogance and self-confidence is actually not fundamentally different from that of an elf...it's just that his body is not that of an elf.
He is like an ascetic.
Wearing thin linen, he walked barefoot in the desert with the hot wind blowing. He was happy to see the skin and flesh all over his body split open and the flesh and blood dried up. He regarded this as a perfect sublimation of himself. He regarded the pain he endured as
for sacredness.
Just as he has ruled the highest-level organization on the Seven Islands for more than a hundred years, he has not been corrupted or degenerated at all... These serious work without a day off for more than a hundred years is his penance.
The self-torture made him stronger and unwilling to search for "the deeper truth."
His pride and suspicion made him unwilling to cooperate with anyone, so he did not have any comrades.
"——From this perspective, rather than saying that you are pursuing the path to salvation, it would be better to say that you just 'want to walk on the path to salvation.'"
After telling those secrets, while the Pope was silent and thinking, Russell revealed all his psychological analysis of the Pope: "Because you don't want to think too much. You just want to do it...you regard sacrifice as
To be holy, consider asceticism itself a reward.
"You don't want the best outcome for everyone. You just want to complete a sacred self-sacrifice... From this point of view, you have never been a qualified pope from the beginning. You are still the same person as before.
Father Andrew is the saint who pursues the path of salvation and wears the crown of the Savior."
"...You may be right."
After being silent for a long time, "Zhang Sheng" slowly nodded.
He frowned and looked solemn: "But I have to verify whether what you said is correct... [Egg of Dusk]. Even if everything you said is correct, it does not mean that there is nothing hidden in your words.
.
"Sometimes, you don't need lies to deceive people. It's just that the truth without certain key information is more deceptive. Not to mention...your identity prevents me from completely trusting you."
There was a strong hesitation in the Pope's words.
But when Russell heard it, he just smiled.
Because he knew that His Holiness the Pope had been shaken.
He didn't even hide his plan, but said it all calmly: "You can say this, which means you will eventually come to our side.
"Because what you are pursuing is the sacred path of self-sacrifice. You have also sought the truth, but you stopped after seeking this step... Why? Because until here, you only need to complete the sacrifice to save the world.
, so you don't need other truths.
"The [Cyber Immortality] plan puts all human spirits into machines one by one, digitizing them, causing people to lose their bodies, and therefore their emotions and personalities, so that dreams can no longer be tracked; and it also gathers all human spiritual energy,
To reassemble the god on earth, to obtain the original spiritual energy like a perpetual motion machine, to propel the dragon boat to the universe.
"But have you ever considered? After digitization, will the human souls stored in the disk really not be affected by dreams? After everyone's dreams go offline, will the polluted ancient gods sealed in the dream world be affected?
Rebirth?
"Have the elves really not considered your plan? Even if you survive the twilight crisis, how can you ensure that humans can still find
And arrive at the new planet safely? Even if we arrive at the new planet, how can we rebuild our home and revive civilization? Will we really be safe after leaving the earth? Will there be new crises in the universe? Will the elves?
Fall? Will there be a war between elves? Will the disk storing the human spirit be corrupted? Will the pieced-together new god be controlled? Will it also be contaminated by dreams? "
Russell mentioned so many loopholes in one breath, and then looked at the old man.
He said calmly: "You may have considered it, but you ignored it.
"——Because you are afraid. You are afraid that if you continue to search for the truth, you will be in despair after finding all the truth. Because you are afraid that you will not be able to change all the mistakes and overcome all the crises with your own strength. But you don't
You are willing to believe others...so your search for the truth suddenly stops at this moment.
"This is not bravery, Your Holiness. This is cowardice.
"This is an act of escape - the great wisdom gained from ascetic practice cannot purify the world. You are just using external pain to cover up your inner confusion."
"...Maybe."
The Pope responded simply.
He was silent for a while, then added: "But there's just one thing... It's not that I don't want to trust others.
"The accumulated wisdom of the group may stand above the group. But it may also be the accumulation of more mistakes. The children of your time have not read history. In history, ancient humans made various self-repairs of mistakes.
Behavior is carried out through the law of the jungle and the survival of the fittest.
"Even if time is extended indefinitely, the wisdom of the crowd is by no means the first choice. At best, it can only say, 'This will not be the worst result.' But what we need must be 'the best'
Yes, even just a little bit will cause huge losses. Because there is only one chance for the final trial. This is not like a game. You can load the file even if you choose the wrong one.
"Because of this, I can't trust others. Because I already know clearly that they can't make the best choice. Then I would rather trust myself——"
"But you yourself still can't make the best choice."
"Yes."
"So, you are just deceiving yourself... You have been immersed in the 'dream' for a long time. You sit and watch the world, like a train that has gone off the rails, heading into the abyss."
Russell's eyes were meaningful: "Perhaps you have already been contaminated by fantasy?"
Upon hearing this, the Pope suddenly raised his head and looked directly at Russell.
As if he realized something, his pupils suddenly shrank and he trembled violently.
"Let's change the topic."
Russell chuckled, and his tone gradually became no longer respectful, but became equal to the status of the Pope: "If you keep talking, I may accidentally kill you.
"I don't want you to die here... let's talk about werewolves.
"You just made it very clear that the purpose of the werewolves is to carry out 'iconoclasm,'...I am not talking about the iconoclasm in the news. It is just a warning and warning you issued to the company.
"What you really have to do is arouse a sense of resistance in people's hearts. Companies have tamed humans and made them anesthetized without knowing fear... What you have to do is make people clearly aware that the end is coming.
"But you don't want people to overthrow the company and bring chaos; nor do you want people to break away from the company's rule and start carnival-like autonomy in the coming apocalypse. There is no great righteousness in your behavior... You just
I just hope that people can use their own blood to undermine the authority of the head office and pollute the peace they whitewash.
"What you want is for the church to be the 'savior,' right?"
"…..Absolutely."
The Pope sighed and blurred for a moment.
He finally turned into Lycaon again, sitting in his seat dejectedly: "I thought what I did was right..."
"There is no right or wrong in this world, Lycaon."
Defeat the world's longest-lived man with just words
As a "human being", Russell was not proud at all.
His eyes can even be said to be "gentle".
"Do you really think that the head office knows nothing about the 'Werewolf Project?'" Russell asked rhetorically.
Hearing this, Lycaon raised his head in shock: "You are saying no, it is indeed possible..."
"Yes. Sogo Island is not ruled by a board of directors, but by the Three Sages.
"Then, if the three sages knew about the werewolf plan... what would their attitude be?
"The answer is simple. It's true, but it's not beautiful.
"He makes people seek the truth and distorts the lies that the company has constructed. But it lacks order and will definitely lead to chaos.
"Then the question now is, is it good? If it is good, then it will be supported by the three wise men, and vice versa."
Russell meaningfully said what Alice once said: "You can give them your love, but not your thoughts, because they have their own thoughts; you can protect their bodies, but not their souls.
.Because their souls live in the House of Tomorrow, which is a place you cannot visit even in your dreams.,
"Do you understand? In fact, you are only one step away from the support of the three sages. Because you subconsciously modified their personalities and transformed their memories. Just like you created angels... you don't think
What's wrong with this? It's like you ordering the church to remain pure because you think that the sacrifices you can make, others should also be able to make.
“‘The mistakes of the Werewolf Plan are just like you who only know part of the truth—it’s always just one step away.
"Up to this point, you can get salvation; up to this point, you can feel happy. But just a little bit... you can get victory. But you stopped at the door of victory. After getting comfort, you will not
Go forward again.
"Only a little bit, Your Excellency...do you understand now? Where did you fail, and why did I win?"