Rust - Chapter 854



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RUST -854

As expected, when I tried to stab the werewolf’s skull with a knife instead of a Nuclipse, it was quite stiff.

Tsk-

A dagger stolen from the cannibals. It was mainly used by the Virginia remnants, and Maru clicked his tongue as he dismembered the wolf’s head.

‘The feeling is dead. It’s dead.’

In the past, I would have been able to cleanly disassemble it with just a butcher’s knife, but when I upgraded my Eclipse and recently only carried the New Eclipse, it seemed like my tactic had died down a lot.

In an instant, the werewolf head lid was opened and the rebooted auxiliary AI was confused by Maru’s muttering about whether the feeling was dead or not.

A small self-destruct chip appeared in Maru’s eyes, which had opened the frontal lobe cleanly, regardless of whether the artificial intelligence had made a calculation error or not.

It looked like two grains of rice were stuck to a transparent bead in the middle. At the moment when the transparent bead in the center suddenly turned a deep purple, Maru removed the werewolf’s head with a tap of the tip of his knife and fled the scene, taking it with him.

Phong – Purple smoke rose with a small sound. Even though I had avoided it by more than 10m, I could see that the chemical, biological, and radiological equipment built into the helmet was activated, which was not normal.

[Is it poison?]

[Analysis results confirmed that it contains a lethal melting component.]

It was a kind of melting poison that melted cells. This was what melted the werewolf’s brain last time. Maru’s eyebrows rose slightly.

If they were producing such a special type of poison, there had to be a production facility or research facility running.

I had already expected that the Virginia remnants were running a secret research lab or production facility. I was just waiting for them to get caught, and now this opportunity has come.

‘The kids are doing well. Very well.’

Mungkul-

Maru took a deep breath, startled by the small death rising from his toes in response to the small killing.

Hehehehe-

Hehehehe-

Huuuup-haaah-

A breathing technique I saw on TV one day.

Rama merci? Ram merci? I thought it was called breathing.

Was it the Dalai Lama meditation breathing technique?

It didn’t seem to be that way, but it worked anyway.

Maru let out a deep breath as the rising death turned into black particles and disappeared.

‘This is it.’

It almost all flew away in one room. It seemed like I had to use a lot of care to control it.

[Contact the airship. Tell them to stand by for the information extractor.]

[———-]

The auxiliary AI that had rebooted in that small burst of death went out again. The freezer of the special preservation container that was meant to contain the werewolf’s brain also went out.

[Sigh- Ahh-]

I feel angry for a moment, but at the same time, I feel something···.

Mungkul-

Hehehehe-

Hehehehe-

Huuuup- haaaa-

It was Maru who kept the werewolf’s head fresh(?) through his breathing.

‧

Kim Yang spoke in a serious voice to Maru’s lament that he had finally arrived on the private airship after many twists and turns.

[In times like that, being alone is the best.]

“······.”

[Right? If someone gets angry, it’ll be a disaster. Don’t have video conferences today and eat meat. Instead of just meat, eat some Korean beef. Get some rest.]

“···I get it.”

In that sense, it was good that a pro-Sacred Kingdom government was established in Korea. First of all, it was Ms. Kim who seriously said that she could forgive everything, even if it was just Hanwoo and Kim.

The reason it’s called gim and not kimchi is because kimchi is already grown from Korean cabbage seeds and is good at making kimchi, so it’s okay.

But she was worried about Maru’s table, saying that there was no sea and the situation was not conducive to cultivating seaweed.

The Holy Kingdom was making a decent, if not sweet, profit from the intermediary trade of selling the Empire’s modular nuclear power plants to Korea.

The empire also had a market called Korea, which was good because it could sell raw materials, materials, parts, and equipment, and import semiconductors and other essential items that were lacking.

Not getting involved is not getting involved, and if you can suck up to it economically, it is natural to do so. It is also true that thanks to the Holy Kingdom’s intermediary trade, it helped both Korea and the Empire overcome crises in their own way.

In any case, the Holy Kingdom was the only one that could operate a large airship on a regular and systematic basis.

[When eating meat, always eat ssam with it. It would be nice to eat them together.]

“Okay. I’ll eat it well with perilla leaves, lettuce, green onions, and onions.”

[You must take Mind Training to level up your Stealth Tech.]

“······.”

“Am I a game character?” Maru’s expression changed strangely.

[You know, you know. You go in like a shadow, you gather your will to live, and you get hit in one room – don’t just let it pass, but take this opportunity to control your mind and leave. That’s the real deal.]

Kim Yang shook her head as if reading Maru’s thoughts, ‘Isn’t that what I used to do?’

[In the past, you would just go and do it in one go! and then do it in one gulp. Now, there are times when you have to just go and do it in one gulp without doing it in one go, so it’s different.]

“Okay… let’s say it’s different.”

[It’s different. It’s different.]

Maru answered, the corners of his lips going up without him realizing it, at the serious look on Kim Yang’s face.

“Okay, okay.”

As she said, it seemed necessary to practice stabilizing myself so that mixed emotions would not come out. Perhaps it was just fate that no accidents had occurred since it had turned into a garden of death.

Maru sent the information extracted from the werewolf. If he gets mad and dies while looking at it, communication will be cut off and the airship will stop, so he decided to receive a summary of the contents separately later.

[Okay, I’ll tell you to organize it well and send it to me. Don’t worry about this and just take care of yourself.]

‧

Certainly, the mind is a strange thing.

It’s been a while since the living world turned into a black garden that embraces death, but when I wasn’t thinking about it, I didn’t feel it was particularly dangerous. But after experiencing it once, I guess I’m still worried?

After confirming that the AI ​​was stopped, a reboot system was created, and technology was added that would allow it to restart by simply powering it back on even if it was completely disabled, but it was difficult to introduce it to the entire military.

The effect of the explosion as the Garden of Death unfolded was similar to an EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse), but it was not an EMP.

Because it was similar, the damage could be reduced to some extent with EMP countermeasures, but because it was not an EMP, there were also parts where the damage accumulated and could not be recovered.

Starting with the 12th stronghold in Sector B, Canada, and clearing out the surrounding 11th stronghold and the strongholds in Sector C, the equipment was repeatedly exposed to the Garden of Death, rapidly aging.

The same goes for assistive AI. Electronic personalities that have reached artificial consciousness, not just simple AI, have even made mistakes in their repeated death experiences.

A fundamental experience different from a power outage. Even if the artificial self is protected by a backup, what happens if the semiconductor used for the backup itself deteriorates?

The assistant AI’s computational power continued to decline, and eventually computational errors began to occur. Symptoms similar to dementia or mental confusion in humans occurred.

Oh my. It’s amazing that the program has achieved artificial personality, and now it’s showing symptoms similar to diseases that humans suffer from.

The research team, including Na Ju-yeon, were sensitive to everything that started from Maru. This included the ability called the Garden of Death. This was because the effects and aftereffects of that ability were beyond all common sense and science.

“What is the mind?”

Na Ju-yeon had the ability to ‘make medicine’. She was also an existence outside of common sense, but the existence that made even those outside of common sense stick out their tongues was Maru.

“That’s what I thought. The mind is an illusion. All emotions are essentially biochemical reactions, so I thought I could create the mind through drugs.”

It certainly was.

As she thought, in the past, the United States of America also developed something called ‘gay gas.’ A gas that turns a non-gay person into a gay person. It is possible under the premise that biochemical compounds can change a person’s sexual preferences.

In fact, not only her, but many other scientists, the military, and even the business and political worlds were interested in research on manipulating the human mind and emotions.

Scientists, because of the joy of being able to master the mystery of humanity. The military, because of the need to weaponize humanity itself and create weapons that can neutralize humanity.

The business world wants to win elections by gaining favor with the political world while creating new markets through the commercialization of emotions.

What if there were drugs that enhanced humans, drugs that allowed us to transcend our human limitations? If we transcended our natural human nature, would we still be human?

What if the human mind and emotions are not human? What is the point of a mind injected with a syringe and emotions synthesized through chemical reactions?

“But that wasn’t the case. The mind that created it had a problem.”

Ironically, it was Maru, who was not affected by her medicine, who told her that. The one who paradoxically made her realize the imperfection of medicine because the medicine did not work.

So she was able to see the current situation, the collapse of the assistant AI that had been repeating deaths, from a different perspective.

“If AI has a mind, I think we have to admit that that mind can have problems.”

“So what are you trying to say? Since AI has developed feelings, are you saying we should create AI without personalities like in the old days? Or are you saying we should install something like an antivirus program just in case something goes wrong?”

“No. I’m talking about the need for a broader shift in perspective.”

“It’s so frustrating. Seriously. Can’t you summarize it in a simple way so I can understand it?”

Despite Kim Yang’s uncomfortable response, Na Ju-yeon continued talking calmly.

“We have been thinking of the end as a change in the environment.”

We thought of things like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and weather that broke record highs and lows as the end.

I thought that the spread of the mutant virus and the resulting rampant mutated monsters, cannibals and vampires, would also mean the end.

But the real end was the end of the laws. The end of the laws that had made it possible to understand and analyze phenomena up to that point.

Physical phenomena that cannot be explained by physics. Chemical agents that cannot be analyzed by chemistry. Even life forms that cannot be understood by biology.

And death, which was manifested in a reality that could not be explained by the existing concept of death. A situation that could not be understood by existing science was occurring.

It was clearly the end of the old world.

“I thought I was prepared for the apocalypse. But it wasn’t. We’ve already entered the apocalypse and are facing a new world.”

“······.”

“······.”

“······.”

It’s not that people with powers were created to prepare for the end of the world, but rather that people with powers were created because the old world was coming to an end.

The idea that cannibals and vampires were not born to fight against the apocalypse, but rather because the existing world and values ​​had entered the apocalypse.

The approach is that mutant viruses have caused the extinction of existing life forms, and that the mutant life forms cannot be explained using the existing classification method, and should not be explained at all.

Na Ju-yeon emphasized a change in thinking.

“In a world where the heart filled with life can tangibly tangibly tangibly tangibly tangibly tangibly tangibly kill the heart… it is perhaps only natural that death that has acquired substance can do so.”

“······.”

“······.”

“······.”

Silence fell on Na Ju-yeon’s argument that we must change our thinking not to avoid the end, but to adapt and survive in the new world.

‧

‧

‧

Kujik-

The sound of flesh and bone breaking. Maru frowned slightly as he cut off the werewolf’s neck. The dagger he swung lightly cleanly cut through the neck bone.

Swish swish-

Maru’s expression as he swung his knife in the air, shaking off the blood, was somehow serious. It wasn’t the kind of feeling that could be simply dismissed as someone who was good at cutting meat.

When I was told that I was good at working at World Livestock, I thought that I was just good at seeing the texture of meat and cutting it well. But looking back now, it wasn’t something that could be simply dismissed.

When I ran away from Seoul, and while escaping from Korea, I fought in hand-to-hand combat several times.

I’ve fought mutants that have turned into zombies, I’ve fought elite personnel, I’ve fought special ability users, I’ve fought cannibals, I’ve fought a variety of enemies.

What saved Maru each time was his unique senses and his swordsmanship that defied common sense. His senses that sensed and warned of danger, and his unique swordsmanship.

Memories of fighting with cheap swords and rose swords. Slicing the side of a yacht with a Bowie knife. Slicing a helicopter with a single sword, and later even splitting the top of a building.

Swish swish- Maru swung the knife in the air and carefully examined the blade.

It was just a blade that was neither special nor strange. However, the feeling when cutting was different. No matter how much I cut the neck along the grain, the rough feeling at first had now become smooth.

‘You’ll know if you keep using it. By the way, it’s been a while since I sent you the extracted information. It’s taking a while to organize it.’

As Maru placed the werewolf’s severed head into a container for preservation, a robot waiting far away retrieved the container.

After a while, Kim Yang’s face appeared on the HUD.

[How are you feeling?]

Miss Kim, who asked if I was okay, seemed somehow serious.