Overturned Tower

Another inspiration for this book is "Animal Rhapsody" and "Kit Kat Taxi".Some old board gamers may know that although Shadowrun is a cyber theme, it is a typical Western fantasy world of trolls, elves, and orcs.In order to maintain the gameplay, many things were not discussed.Because this rule is also a cognitive alienation from classic fantasy rules-such as DND and WOD.

At this time, "Animal Rhapsody" and "Kit Kat Taxi" gave me another inspiration: if you want to dig deeper into the core of humanity, then highlighting "humanity" itself is a correct strategy.Just as if you want sweetness, you need to add some salt. Naturally, the way to highlight human nature can also be done by strengthening the "beast nature".

I was still thinking about a very important question, that is, the core of the cyberpunk theme must be tragedy.

Space opera and cyberpunk can be said to run counter to each other.It can be said that if civilian manned spaceflight is developed first, the world will enter space opera; if virtual reality is developed first, the world will enter cyberpunk.And space opera is outward, conquering, positive, expansive, and romantic; cyberpunk is inward, introspective, and self-cancelling.

Of these two themes, one heralds "war and conquest" in geopolitics, and the other is "influence and rewriting" in ideology.This is the unavoidable normal state of the world that has emerged since the Cold War era.

Therefore, it can be said that cyberpunk is almost impossible not to be a tragedy.Even if the creation of themes in the system is completed and a happy ending is achieved—even if the Huangban Tower is blown up, so what?

There are still so many companies.People are still people like that.

On a larger scale, the bombed Arbanta may be a harbinger of resistance to the fire.It may signal the possibility of future change...but only possibility.Readers who have watched an excellent TV series like "Age of Awakening" may realize that the plot of Cyberpunk 2077 is closer to the end of "The Lost One" than the real "Awakened One" and "Tinder". A Strike" and "The Release and Satisfaction of Violent Desires".

There is always tragedy at the end of comedy.In a cyberpunk world, even if people get enlightened, and by almost impossible means, they succeed in rebelling against the company-but so what?

The fuse that induces the contradictions in the cyberpunk society is the limited resources and the expansion of the population.

With the further depletion of overall resources, the operation of the new allocation method will still lead to new turmoil.

If the ultimate problem of "resources" cannot be solved, if human beings cannot go out of the planet, then in the distant future, the very distant future, there will still be new tragedies that will inevitably come.

But the setting of "spiritual relatives" gave me another idea.A setting that can make a reasonable transition from "cyberpunk" to "space opera", a plot that can truly give people in the cyberpunk world "possibility"-let's not list it for now.When you finish this testimonial, you can turn back to this paragraph.

Of course, the tragic nature of the cyberpunk theme remains unchanged.

Because in that case, the essence of this book is actually no longer cyberpunk.So I call it "cyber fantasy" as a distinction.

The inspiration for the first volume of this book comes from a song by YOASOBI called "Ultramarine".The lyrics of this song, I think, are very suitable for Russell, so they are also very suitable as the theme of the prologue.

And the science popularization about the card "LL-Ensemble Blue Zhigeng" in Yu-Gi-Oh. When I was in the color of glaze, I felt a considerable degree of shock.

This shock flowed out into words and became the main story of this volume.

Because I thought to myself, I have to shock you too.Think of it as a science popularization of useless bean knowledge.

As for the inspiration for the second volume, it is "Purple and Black" in the collection of fantasy short stories "Purple and Black" written by fantasy master KJ Parker.

There is such a passage in it, let me repeat it roughly based on my impression: "Reserve the purple ink exclusively for the use of the emperor and officials, so that you can tell the authenticity of the documents you receive at a glance. This idea itself has no meaning. problem, but someone in the logistics department discovered that all officials can be effectively manipulated in this way-just don’t give enough purple ink to officials who don’t like them or who have different political opinions. What’s the quality of the purple ink? Or the excuse that the ship carrying purple ink sank in the sea. In this case, they have the right to do nothing, because they cannot sign legally binding documents that are recognized by other people-documents written in purple ink. "

Of course, this in itself has nothing to do with the story of the second volume.But this interesting idea gave me another inspiration... I will continue to retell it at the end of the second volume.

The testimonials at the end of each volume will describe the inspiration and creative thinking of this volume.As a discussion and sharing with everyone.

That's about it for the small talk.

I believe that there are very few readers who have the patience to see this.

But I am grateful to all the readers who can read it calmly.Since we can see this, it must be because we also have a resonance.

I sincerely say that I am working full-time and have a mortgage, and as a fantasy author, I am writing such a subject across borders, a subject that is both sci-fi and unit drama, double niche subject... If you say , this is not with some kind of ideal factor in it, so it must be that my brain is flooded.

I don't think it's shameful to show off your ideals, just like Zilu Mengniu.Now that Internet literature is commercialized, I still hope that the creators of Internet literature have literary ideals.

To put it bluntly... How many young people are still willing to engage in literary creation in modern times?Will they still survive?Are those engaged in this business young people with literary ideals, or are they depressed and unsatisfactory sour talents?

When the literary masters of the previous generation abandon their pens due to aging, who should take over the future literature of this country?

How can something that even young people in this country are unwilling to watch become an international and historic classic of the times?

When I was young, I admired Liu Wenyang, and regretted his untimely death.The stories written by young creators are difficult for mature creators with life background to write, and they should be an indispensable part of the entire field of literary creation.

We should not separate Internet literature from literature, but we should not do nothing and let the vast majority of Internet literature directly become "historical" and "classic" ancient literature. It is falsely seeking to "de-entertain" Internet literature.This is the same folly as Uncle's "de-Two-dimensionalization".

Compared with the works of more than ten or twenty years ago, "Lord of the Mysteries", "Sword of Dawn", "Long Night", "Death on Mars", "Afterglow" and other excellent online works of the new generation , has been able to take into account both literature and entertainment.Readers also prefer stories that touch people's hearts and have a complex humanistic core, which is an optimization of the market.

This must be a process of gradual change and gradual evolution.

Its end will not be in the hands of the previous generation of authors, nor will it be in the hands of my generation.It keeps getting better, and we're on the way.

With the development of Internet literature, classics such as "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" will be born from Internet literature one day.And all we can do is to construct such soil and wait for such flowers to bloom.

My creative strength is far from being able to compare with these excellent authors above, so I have to boldly show off my ideals here-but then again, having ideals to show off is better than having nothing to say and no dreams to sell .

Tomorrow will be on the shelves, at least updates of more than [-] words!

I hope everyone can make a first order and support Amao.

Hope we can see you tomorrow.

——May you always be happy.

Chapter 33 The Secret That Turned the World Upside Down

"look familiar?"

The barber tilted his head and asked in an interested tone, "Why, have you heard of me?"

"Oh, that's not true. I was just thinking..."

Tovatus crossed his arms and looked up at the barber, thinking for a while: "Is your soul relative a blue songbird?"

"You can call it a blue song robin, or you can call it a little blue-headed magpie."

The barber smiled, and let go of his right hand that was on the shoulder of Paradise Bird.

He took two steps forward and walked in parallel with Tovatus: "I'm a mixed race."

"That's it."

Torvatos nodded.

The two walked in silently.

It is completely different from the calm gesture shown on the face of the "barber".

Russell's heartbeat began to accelerate violently... He could even hear his own heartbeat directly, and the blood vessels in his neck could feel the vibration.

He never expected... the leader of the veil of ignorance is actually the elf boy who was kidnapped by the veil of ignorance in the Hive nightclub.

What Tovatus said before came to Russell's mind:

"—This matter ends here. You don't have to track down the person who kidnapped me here."

"—Would you like to come with me? No longer will you work mediocrely for the Tianen Group until you die, but you will be able to touch the truth and something more sublime."

At that time, Russell thought that Tovatus was going to dig himself into Taoyuan Trading Company.

He thought to himself, since they are also the seven giants, what is the difference between working in Taoyuan Commercial Bank and working in Tianen Group?

One monopolizes the real estate and hotel industries, tourism and outdoor sports industries, while the other monopolizes entertainment, media, and culture...

He didn't think it would be any different.It would be better to work in Tianen Group, at least you can see lovely young girls every day at work in the park.

...Thinking about it now, luckily I wasn't fooled at the time.Otherwise, he should have been half-abducted and half-robbed into the veil of ignorance by now.

Many things suddenly became reasonable.

No wonder, as a director, Tovatus was kidnapped so easily, and the Taoyuan Commercial Bank didn't send anyone to rescue him, and didn't even find out that he had been kidnapped—until it finally turned into a trivial matter , and even now no one mentions it.

Because Tovatus was not kidnapped at all, but he himself was kidnapped!

So obviously the previous "iron mask" could talk to the inferior, but when Russell entered the inside of the iron mask, he found that it was just a message.My avatar is not in it at all.

Thinking about it now, since that person has done such a thing, there is no reason for him to flee in a hurry in fear of Russell's intrusion technology.

The answer is obvious, he has never been inside the mask.

So delphinium couldn't find any traces and couldn't intercept his "jumping out", which was perfectly normal.

From the very beginning, there was no one who "remotely entered this mask through network means"!

Although everyone present at the time thought that the real kidnapper was talking to the inferior from a distance through the monitoring and microphone functions of the iron mask.But in fact, the person who really spoke was "Tovatus" himself under the mask, and the iron mask only played the role of changing the voice!

This is from the inertial thinking formed by the two "games" that the inferiors participated in before.

After the "caged bird" game, the veil of ignorance did not play the next game with the underdog.

This shows that in the original plan of the Discord, this third game "caged bird" should have been the last game.

But for this purpose, he even took the risk of being killed by the inferior.

Without Russell's participation, Tovatus would either have watched the inferior man jump out of the window holding the delphinium that had turned into a vegetative, and was blown to death in the building; or he would have been killed by the inferior to protect the delphinium from becoming a vegetative .

In the end, the inferior can only stand up and bear all the responsibilities.

The reason why the veil of ignorance does not directly attack the inferior is also found...

It is probably not a secret among the elves that Tovatus is the leader of the Veil of Ignorance.

Because of Kamalthy's "fate", the inferior must die because of his fate.

In other words, the inferior cannot be killed by them, but should commit suicide... If the veil of ignorance really kills the inferior, then I am afraid that Kamalthe will turn against Tovatus.Because it means the end of his destiny... In this case, Kamalthe will either find another "opposite marriage", or end his own life to reset this damn destiny.

So what the veil of ignorance is doing is trying to find a way to drive the inferior man insane without killing him.

This immature child who seems to be only seven or eight years old, with unconcealed malice, step by step away from the moral foundation of the inferior.

...but what is he planning?

This obviously cannot be Kamalthe's task.

These elves who also have the "Destiny" are at the same level, not to mention they are not in the same company at all.

In other words, the "discordant" is deliberately targeting the inferior based on his own desire and love.

Plus the "sources of intelligence" on Kamalthee's side.

The veil of ignorance sent meeting invitations to various organizations, and the next day... no, to be precise, that night!

That night, the inferior received this information from Kamalthe!

Uncoded people don't have a chip, and they can't even send emails.If you don't rely on radio, you can only rely on the means of physical delivery.

But the elf is different, the elf is also equipped with a chip.

Just like Russell added that old elf's friend back then... If there is no chip, even if you plug it in with a data cable, you won't be able to see your personal business card at all.

In Delphinium's office, Kamalthe easily repaired the broken plates and glass, which should be some kind of extremely powerful spell.

The elves did not abandon their spells.

Instead, they continued on in the dream world.

But Kamarse was able to inform the inferior of this news, which means that he must also have a chip.

……and many more.

Only then did Russell realize one thing.

The elves should also have chips installed... But now Russell remembered that at least half of the elves were mages from the old era!

After installing the mind protection chip for three years, ordinary people will lose the means to link to the dream world.

But in that case, how did the elves cast spells?

Russell remembered... the old elf called his invention "mind protection chip".And the name of this chip, ordinary people don't know at all... They default to having a chip when they are born, and they don't ask "what is the name of the chip" at all.

"Psychic Protection".What exactly is it defending against?

They were originally mages who gained power in the dream world, why should they implant the same type of chip with ordinary people?

Is it really as "close to the people", "fair" and "leading by example" as they advertise?

Impossible.

Russell would not believe a single word of this kind of propaganda.

The elves must be able to gain some kind of benefit from this chip... otherwise there is no need to put shackles on themselves, especially on "half of their kind".

Because this chip is not a shackle—it's a lifebuoy in the dream world!The effect of mind protection and the effect of preventing the birth of mages are actually the same effect!

Thinking of this, Russell felt his back tense.

If it wasn't for Torvatus being beside him, Russell was so excited that he wanted to punch the open space!

He is about to touch the truth, a big secret that even the head of the deer is not aware of!

For the elves, the greatest value of this chip must not lie in "isolation of the dream world", but "isolation of shadows"!

This is the conclusion drawn by Russell.

Because the lifespan of elves is too long, if they explore the dream world for a long time, they will get injured sooner or later.Will be constantly corroded by shadows.

This is another sense of "life" - the life of the soul.