Chapter 136 The Matter of Choice

At this point, Feng Bujue finally understood the truth of this world.

It was precisely because of this "understanding" that he felt Pieta's sorrow even more deeply.

At the same time, Brother Jue also understood... why "Destiny," who had always played the role of observer in other multi-universes, would directly issue a "destroy" mission this time.

"Looks like... I did misunderstand." Feng Bujue said, turning over and dragging his injured legs towards the motionless Pieta, "My real mission is not to 'destroy' you, but... to help you 'liberate' yourself."

Speaking of this, Brother Jue shook his head and sighed, "Alas... anyway, from the objective result, there doesn't seem to be much difference between these two things."

"But... my liberation means humanity's relapse into confusion." Pieta continued, "Whether they regard me as a leader or an enemy... the humans in this space-time need me. If I am destroyed, the wheels of history will regress... When humans regain control of their own destiny, they will once again step into an abyss full of unknowns and chaos."

"Heh... perhaps." Hearing this, Feng Bujue smiled noncommittally and casually replied.

"Sounds like... you don't seem to care?" Pieta questioned.

"Of course I don't care." Feng Bujue replied, "In fact, I hope you don't care either... Unfortunately, you are burdened with the original directive of 'guiding humanity and making correct judgments for them,' so... you inevitably fall into paradoxes and experience failures over and over again..."

Brother Jue paused, then said with a smile that was not quite a smile, "If there's anything I can teach you... it's that the best attitude towards the human species is—to let them be."

"Because you are already beyond saving?" Pieta followed Brother Jue's line of thought.

"Yes." Feng Bujue put away his smile and replied solemnly, "We are beyond saving." He unknowingly raised his voice, "Just like you said, humans are imperfect... As long as our species still exists, we will not stop making mistakes, and we will repeat the same mistakes over and over again."

As Feng Bujue spoke, he had already crawled to Pieta's side and used the [Energy Gauntlet] to control the other party to lie on the ground as well, bringing his head close to him.

"To put it bluntly... humanity itself is a 'paradox'." Brother Jue continued, "Our lives are short, but our personalities are fickle; we will believe in absurd and ridiculous stories, and we will easily waver or betray; our nature is greedy, evil, and stupid, but we are unwilling to succumb to our nature... From the entire race to each individual, humanity is full of contradictions. However... after so many years, we have not perished because of this contradiction; on the contrary, it is this endless self-conflict that drives us forward."

"I... cannot understand." Pieta replied.

"It doesn't matter." Feng Bujue said, "Just like I can't fully understand you... You are burdened with a 'responsibility' set by humans that is not completely unreasonable, but you yourself are an existence that bases all thinking on the foundation of 'reasonableness.' If I were an AI, I'm afraid I would have crashed long ago in this logical cycle."

Having said this, Feng Bujue had already pressed his right hand, wearing the [Energy Gauntlet], on Pieta's head.

"Then... from your human perspective..." Pieta's tone was still calm even on the verge of death, "Where will humanity go in the future after I am destroyed?"

"Hehe... I don't know." Feng Bujue spoke the truth, "You see, that's the most interesting part..." He paused slightly and smiled, "The future of humanity, even gods cannot predict."

"Alright." Pieta said黯然, "Then, I will use a phrase commonly used by you humans as my last words—good luck to you all."

As the words fell, Feng Bujue also activated the special effect of the [Energy Gauntlet].

In the blink of an eye, Pieta's body turned into blurred pixel fragments and disintegrated rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the end, it, like the previous fragments... scattered into the air like dust.

[Current mission completed, main quest all completed]

[You have completed this scenario, automatic teleportation in 60 seconds]

At this moment, the system prompt rang out.

Feng Bujue finally breathed a sigh of relief, turned over again, and collapsed on the ground.

"Huff... this guy is really ruthless." He looked down at his legs and muttered to himself, "If the laser hadn't burned the wounds, the bleeding effect alone would have been enough to make me suffer."

After finishing this sentence, Brother Jue looked around again, and after confirming that there were no more plots or items to collect, he turned into white light and left the scenario.

However, five seconds after he teleported, another light appeared...

It was a red light, and a woman's figure walked out of the light.

She was wearing a one-piece tight leather suit, and the black leather outlined her seductive curves, making the skin on her face and neck appear even whiter.

"I have to take back what I said earlier..."

In this virtual dimension, Twenty-Three's main body could appear directly, so she no longer needed to use the body of the ptA7 mass-produced robot produced by Pieta.

"Looks like... you're not so 'behind the times' after all."

As she spoke, Twenty-Three raised her right hand, turned her palm upwards, and slowly made a fist.

As her slender fingers slowly closed, the shattered pixel fragments that had been transformed from Pieta gathered together again, forming a pixel ball about two meters in diameter in mid-air.

"Fortunately, I didn't rush to leave..." Twenty-Three stared at the sphere, her eyes filled with flowing light, "Just staying a few more hours, I harvested such a powerful computing module..." Saying this, she seemed to have thought of something and couldn't help but smile, "Heh... it seems I owe Feng Bujue another favor."

After a moment, the flowing light in Twenty-Three's eyes dimmed, and the pixel ball floating in front of her gradually shrank...

"Hmm... data accumulated through dozens of timeline restarts..." At this time, Twenty-Three had already begun to compress and screen Pieta's "legacy," "Heh..." She shrugged and smiled, "Sure enough... let's not... After all, I'm not the same type of AI as it, and my observation of humans is already sufficient..."

As her voice fell, the volume of the pixel ball suddenly decreased, shrinking to the size of an apple in two seconds.

*Crunch-*

Then, Twenty-Three really took the final "product" and took a bite, just like eating an apple.

"Ah... as always, it's disgusting." She tilted her head and muttered as she ate, "So... where to go next..."