Chapter 783 - The Grim Reality
Chapter 783: The Grim Reality
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was unknown whether it was because of Meng Chao’s interrogation or because of Lu Siya’s attack.
The Tree of Wisdom’s bark cracked, revealing the vines that were wriggling like internal organs. Even these vines were withering and rotting at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Meng Chao threw out his last attack coldly.
“Also, you’ve been hiding a problem from the beginning.
“From the beginning to the end, you’ve been talking about how you copied the emotions and desires of human beings into the bodies of the monsters through the neural network, opened their minds, and turned them into spirit beasts.
“But how do you explain that the monsters possess the characteristics of different species and even the characteristics of animals and plants at the same time?
“Many of the monsters are a combination of reptiles and mammals. Some of the monsters have the bodies of birds and the tails of arthropods. All kinds of evolutions that nature could never have produced are forcibly pieced together in a simple and crude way on the bodies of the monsters.
“If there is no ‘genetic factory’or ‘biochemical modulation research center’ for mass production, how do you explain the birth of these monsters?
“Why do you always avoid talking about the ‘genetic factory’? Is that your biggest secret and the monster mastermind’s real home?”
Meng Chao’s question was as sharp as the Golden Tooth Blood Soul Saber.
The “miniature” Tree of Wisdom in front of him and the illusion it created were cut into pieces.
Amidst the Tree of Wisdom’s screams, Meng Chao broke away from the entanglement of the last nerve bundle.
The ground beneath his feet seemed to vanish like the world around him.
He was enveloped by the feeling of weightlessness as he fell, but he was caught by someone in half a second.
“Meng Chao, you’re awake!” It was Lu Siya’s surprised and happy voice.
Meng Chao blinked hard and looked around. He found that he had returned to the center of Peach Blossom Town.
The Tree of Wisdom, which was surrounded by the twin towers and was hundreds of meters tall, was really twisting, struggling, roaring, and wailing in the raging flames.
The flames burned brighter and brighter, and gradually licked the crown of the tree.
Countless fruits and branches withered, turning into specks of fire and falling down like flowers.
The townspeople and monsters who had inhaled too much hallucinogenic pollen seemed to have fallen from a beautiful dream into a nightmare. They were hysterical and began to bawl their fangs and claws.
Meng Chao found that he had been caught by Lu Siya in the position of a princess.
He hurriedly climbed down from her arms, calmed himself down, and asked, “What happened just now?”
“We did it!”
Lu Siya’s face was beaming with joy, “Just now, you were completely swallowed by a flower that bloomed at the end of a vine that the wisdom tree stuck out. You were lifted into the air by it, as if you were sleeping in a giant cocoon. No matter how much I shouted, you couldn’t hear me.
“Fortunately, the Tree of Wisdom seemed to have consumed too much of your mind. As expected, your attention was diverted. We succeeded in fixing crystal bombs and a large amount of flammable substances on its root system, burning it to ashes.
“Its ability to create illusions has been greatly weakened. Look, the entire illusion is beginning to collapse.
“Its ability to control its mind has been greatly weakened, too. Many members of the exploration team have woken up from their dreams and regained their consciousness!”
Meng Chao looked in the direction that Lu Siya was pointing at. As he expected, the entire peach blossom town seemed to be sitting on an erupting volcano. It was shaking more and more violently.
The overly bright sky, the town covered in a sea of flowers and green tides, and the beautiful silhouettes of the surrounding mountains and rivers gradually faded and blurred.
The illusion was collapsing.
They were about to see the true face of this world clearly.
“How is it? You should have been mentally attacked by the monster mastermind just now. What kind of flowery words did it use to bewitch you?” Lu Siya looked at Meng Chao with concern.
Meng Chao hesitated for a moment. “Uh…”
“Did it say that it actually doesn’t want to destroy mankind, but wants to save mankind instead?”
Lu Siya said, “Did it also say that Dragon City is controlled by the nine mega corporations today and is destined to be destroyed? Only by destroying the mega corporations will Dragon City have a future?
“Then, it will tell you that most of the people in the world are now deceived, deceived, and enslaved by the mega corporations. Only you are not.
“It thinks that you are different from the rest of the world. You are concerned about the country and the people. You are selfless. You don’t have yourself in your heart at all. You are the only one who can wake up when everyone is drunk on you. In short, only you are qualified to be its partner, or even a part of it. Together with it, we can create a brand-new civilization that is carefree and perfect.”
Meng Chao’s eyes and mouth widened inch by inch. Finally, he could not help but stammer, “How do you know?”
“It’s my fault that I fell into the illusion a few days earlier than you. I’ve been hearing this nonsense for a long time.”
Lu Siya sneered, “They even said that the mega corporations and the unparalleled experts have gradually become the malignant tumors that parasitize the civilization and monopolize all the resources. Nonsense. The nine mega corporations have gathered the smartest, strongest, most determined, and most creative elites of Dragon City. Only by concentrating the resources in the hands of the elites like us can they bring out the greatest value and allow the Dragon City civilization to ride the wind and break the waves, advancing in high spirits, and plundering more resources from the outside world. As long as the cake is bigger, all the citizens of Dragon City will get a share of the benefits.
“The astronomical cultivation resources are not allowed to be used rationally by us. Should we give them to those poor people who are weak-willed, mediocre, and have nothing better to do? It’s not just a waste of resources; it’s the biggest crime!
“Such a clumsy attempt to sow discord and such a childish way to divide and use them, I’m afraid only elementary school students will fall for it. Meng Chao, you can’t possibly believe it, right?”
“Well…”
Meng Chao Thought for a moment and said, “No matter how much it talks, I have my own judgment.”
“That’s good. Long Feijun and the others have also gotten rid of the Tree of Wisdom’s influence and realized that they have fallen into an illusion.”
“Yes,” Lu Siya said, “No matter what, let’s work together to break the illusion and tear apart the Tree of Wisdom’s true face first!”
At this moment, hundreds of members of more than ten exploration teams jumped out of the dancing crowd.
Their eyes gradually became clear again, and their auras were as sharp as sabers.
As Lu Siya had discussed with Meng Chao before, such a large-scale illusion that could confuse hundreds of people at the same time was similar to mass hysteria. It had to rely on the resonance of the brain waves of the human beings in order to spread the effect of mass hysteria.
As long as a human was confused by the illusion, his brain waves would be able to add fuel to the illusion and infect more of his companions.
Similarly, as long as a human was the first to regain consciousness and realize the flaws of the illusion, his brain waves would sting and wake up the others, causing the entire illusion to collapse like an avalanche.
Those who were qualified to join the exploration team were all people with unswerving determination.
Even though they were caught off guard by the tree of wisdom, they still realized the problem after sensing the brainwaves released by Meng Chao, Lu Siya, Long Feijun, and the other experts. Therefore, they pushed their brainwaves to the maximum, they echoed with them from afar.
The brainwaves, spirit magnetic fields, and life magnetic fields of countless experts gathered together and burst into an intense resonance. The brainwaves visible to the naked eye turned from ripples into waves, tearing the utopia in front of them into pieces.
Everyone heard a “boom.”
It was as if a translucent, beautiful, but extremely fragile soap bubble had finally burst.
“I escaped!”
Meng Chao felt that the world around him had changed in an instant.
He subconsciously tugged at Lu Siya, confirming that she was also beside him in the real world, and not an illusion created by the wisdom tree.
Just as he stretched out his hand, Lu Siya also stretched out her hand.
Sensing the other party’s temperature, both of them heaved a sigh of relief at the same time.
However…
The scene in front of them shocked them at the same time. It was as if a hole had been drilled through the top of their heads and a scoop of frozen water with ice shards had been poured into it.
The two of them had guessed correctly.
Such a large-scale illusion of a “paradise outside the world” could only be created by relying on reality.
This should be the paradise town in the real world.
Since there were collapsed buildings and charred ruins everywhere, it was like a pile of toppled tombstones.
Unfortunately, the ruins of the town were not covered with a colorful sea of flowers and a vibrant green tide.
There were only clumps of fungus blankets that emitted a fishy smell, like spots growing on the corpses of the town.
The Tree of Wisdom also stood before their eyes.
It was also not as colorful and fruitful as it was in the illusion.
Its true appearance was like countless rotten and smelly poisonous snakes tangled together, with countless human and monster skeletons mixed in.
On the branches that were stiff and twisted like the limbs of demons, there were indeed some round things. When the wind blew, they swayed like wind chimes.
When Meng Chao looked closely, he realized that they were all dried heads.
What was even more terrifying was that what surrounded the ruins of the town was no longer the green mountains and rivers that were filled with the sounds of birds chirping and the fragrance of flowers.
Instead, it was a dark jungle that was shrouded in dense fog.
The towering ancient trees that were baring their fangs and brandishing their claws in the dense fog were like the silhouettes of hungry demons.
There was endless wilderness in all directions. At the end of the jungle was an arc-shaped rock wall that extended all the way to the clouds and fog.
Such a unique terrain made Meng Chao realize that he had really fallen into the depths of the sinkhole.
Just as everyone was bewildered, rustling sounds came from the jungle around him.
Then, pairs of scarlet eyes appeared in the mist, and faces that seemed to have been chopped into 17 or 18 pieces and roughly stitched together. Their facial features were not aligned, and their teeth protruded out of their missing lips.
Even the monsters were scared shitless when they saw these “stitched monsters.” They ran away with their tails between their legs because they had a scarier name than monsters—undead creatures!
Many of the undead creatures were surrounded by blood-patterned flowers and burning phosphorescent flames, along with some ferocious-looking zombies.
Some of the zombies were wearing decaying clothes from Earth!