Chapter 254: Ice Age

Over there, Tang Erda is chatting with Fang Xiaoxiao.

Tang Erda, who has been the head of the Heresy Bureau, is always wary of suspicious NPCs like Fang Xiaoxiao, or monsters for that matter, and her words can't help but be a bit tortured.

"How did you know we went to the observatory, and saw another Fang Xiaoxiao?" Tang Erda interrogated condescendingly, "I get the feeling you're pretty good at being dug up."

Fang Xiaoxiao didn't seem surprised that Tang Erda was interrogating him, just smiled miserably, "Because it's not the first time I've been dug out, they monsters not only test alien humans, but also how we humans react to our in-group counterparts."

"In the early days when we were thrown in the ice chasm, these monsters hadn't filled the snow to bury us."

"They want to do a project on how humans can survive in a Jedi environment with limited resources, and they tell us that within three days they will gradually fill the snow into the ice chasm, and those who can grab the resources to escape during that time they will release, and those who can't will be permanently frozen."

He closed his eyes with difficulty as he spoke, tears slipping down his face, "In order to mislead these monsters about humans, so that they would kill each other in a simulation of humans, tending towards extinction, we simulated a realistic grab for resources and brutalised each other."

Fang Xiaoxiao took a deep breath, his hands trembling as he took a sip of hot water, and Tang Erda noticed that his teeth were full of congealed blood stains, as if he had torn into his prey.

"We ...... concentrated our resources on the youngest members of the team, let them escape and three days later, we were buried by snow-filling."

Fang Xiaoxiao's melancholic expression finally snapped into a grimace as he spoke, like a wounded beast making a sound from its throat, roaring hoarsely and sadly.

"We thought that was the end of their experiments! But we didn't expect that they had marked the young members of the team who had left, had been monitoring the young members' movements, and then when the young members couldn't control their emotions and turned back to save us, the monsters took up a new research interest and they misdirected them to dig another ice rift!!!"

Fang Xiaoxiao shivers all over.

"The ...... group set up control controls where they had two monsters morph into the appearance of these young crew members who escaped to dig this ice chasm of ours, while luring those young crew members to dig another ice chasm filled with monsters that morphed into our appearance... ..."

"They want to know in whether human victors are more likely to believe that the losers they save are of their own kind, or whether human losers are more likely to believe that the victors who save them are of their own kind ......"

Tang Erda opened his mouth as he looked at Fang Xiaoxiao's numb expression and couldn't help but lighten his tone, "So ...... what's the test result?"

Fang Xiaoxiao's face was expressionless, except for an ugly, stiff smile at the corner of his mouth, and tears continued to flow from his vacant eyes.

"We identified the [victors] after we were dug out, but the children did not identify the [losers] they rescued, and after they lived with the monsters they rescued for two months and had sex with two of them, the two children were brought before us to reveal the results."

"These kids went crazy, they poured fuel on themselves, burned and then jumped into the strong acid and killed themselves."

"I know that one of the humanoid monsters they simulated to trick these children was Fang Xiaoxiao."

Tang Erda remained silent for a moment and continued, "How can you be sure that we who come to dig you up are not monsters?"

Fang Xiaoxiao moved her eyes dully for a moment and muttered, "You can't be monsters, because these monsters only mimic humans that have already appeared, there is no way to simulate brand new humans, and I have never seen you in Antarctica."

"And they've tested that we have the ability to tell if the [people] digging us up are one of a kind and won't make a second or third effort at such things, and even if they come to dig us up, it's usually in protoplasmic form, they don't turn into people anymore."

Bai Liu, who was carrying out the excavation work, waved his hand and gestured for Tang Erda to come over.

Tang Erda fixed his eyes on Fang Xiaoxiao who was sitting motionless on the sled for a long time. Even though he knew that this graduate student was just an NPC, he finally patted him on the shoulder with some reluctance: "...... You rest here and don't run around. "

After that, he trotted over to Bai Liu and reported truthfully what Fang Xiaoxiao had just said to him.

Mu Sicheng couldn't stop the goose bumps on his body and rubbed his arms furiously.

Bai Liu thought for a moment, then smiled a smile that sent chills down Mu Sicheng's spine: "Looks like it's a bit more complicated and interesting than we thought, I think I know what Mr Edmond is up to, but I'll have to check with Muke and see if he's found anything like the old professor's diary to back up my suspicions. I'll see if he's found anything in the old professor's diary to back up my suspicions."

Mu Sicheng was a bit confused: "So, are we still digging?"

"Dig." Bai Liu ordered dryly, smiling lightly, "Dig it all up and bring it back to Tarzan Station, and we'll all come together and face off to see who the monster really is."

Mu Sicheng: "!!!"

Edmond Observatory.

Muke and Liu Jiayi went through almost all the books and materials of the entire Observatory, one by one according to their names, leaving some light reading to Liu Jiayi and some specialist deep reading to Muke, who then handed them over to Liu Jiayi to consolidate the information after translation.

The good thing is that the graduate students live here at the Edmond Observatory and there are a number of primers in the dormitories that make it a little easier for Muke to look at the data from these experiments and to have a toolkit that he can look up.

"Mainly specialist books on meteorology and biology, and quite a few sociology books." Muke rummages through the bookcase he dragged out of Edmond's cabin, flicking through it quickly, skimming the contents briefly, mainly for the annotations.

Then he suddenly paused, pondered for a moment and then spoke: "It seems that this Professor Edmond is very unhappy with the politics and authorities of Country A, to write such words in their country's book on recent history praising the emancipation of human rights."

Liu Jiayi leans over and reads out, "-The parallel exploitation of labour is the primary human right of capital. (Note 1)."

Muke flipped through again, "It's here too, written next to the account of the Bachata War, a campaign waged by A on the basis of the other side's private development of biological and chemical weapons."

Liu Jiayi reads word for word: "-Order without freedom and freedom without order are equally destructive (note 2)."

Muke continued to search all over the Observatory and found in a criminal records file in the archives a private fax record between Edmond and the Tarzan Observatory, wrapped with a yellow forbidden seal reading: [Copy of Edmond's evidence of treason].

Muke and Liu Jiayi looked at each other and tore into each other without hesitation.

The fax records inside are arranged by date and are very straightforward.

1 October.

You are right, my friend, I have tested these corpses and it is true that it, or they, cannot be used in any scientific research, they are ethically wrong, spiritually contaminated and go against my basic ethical code as a human scientist.

I can see why it was sealed here, it really shouldn't be out there, and I will try to convince the "robbers" who took your boxes to return the three boxes to you unscathed (well, maybe not unscathed).

You have done a dangerous and great thing, and in a hundred years you should be honoured by all mankind with a jie fang (Edmond's spelling here) tablet! (Last time you talked to me, your warrior's honour roll was called the jie fang monument, right?)

Congratulations on your founding!

7 October.

I'm sorry that I may not be able to return your boxes for a while.

It's a bit strange to say that this is the first time I've been forced to implement my own research on my own.

The feeling now is that there is no sense of taste or warmth, I will suddenly and comically fall down when walking down the road, I have a little problem with balance because the cerebellum has been modified (but before the modification, falling down was something I used to do as an old guy) Other than that, it's fine, it feels like I'm turning into a small warm whale, maybe I should go down to the sea and have a face to face kiss with a real small warm whale now?

After all, I'm no longer afraid of the cold and I'm no longer human, so being a whale in the deep sea might be a good option for me.

Hey, I rather like the way they rub against the rocks when they're molting and itching, exactly the same as when I, an old man, can't reach back and scratch my back and rub against the wardrobe.

Don't worry about the case, they still need me for research and I can always think of a way to return it to you.

17 October.

Oh my God, am I scaring you guys?

The boy named Xiaoxiao Fang, who I remembered from his meteorology studies and whose thesis I had previously supervised, was bawling his eyes out as he hugged my broken leg.

I have to say it was a really bad paper, the images didn't even have units in many places and the formatting of the literature citations was so wrong that I don't know how this kid got into grad school and made it to Antarctica (no offense to the kid's supervisor).

This time they drove the snowmobile and dragged me through the snow chained to my neck, it was just punishment for another attempt to steal the box, or just a daily test of my organism's ability to withstand it, after all I was now the most successful transformation and a criminal, there was no more exciting subject for this group to experiment on than me - it was a tradition in our country.

Although my limbs ended up rolling off my body like a rusty pencil, it was painless because it was cold and stiff enough to make the boy stop crying over me.

The look on his face as he howled loudly while chasing my scattered legs and feet really made me sad. He called me teacher, God, and I swear that was the happiest thing I've heard in a month.

It's been a long time since anyone called me teacher after I was branded a criminal.

Don't worry about me, I'll figure out what to do about the box, the fax contact is still relatively discreet, the paper material makes these idiots think I won't be so bold, I'll let you know if there's any progress.

17 December.

It seems they found out I was faxing you guys in secret, so I had to suspend it for two months.

Well, perhaps I was too arrogant and underestimated the intelligence of this group, the fax was indeed not safe.

This may be the last time I maintain the human will to send you a fax, my friends, so please allow me, an old bone, to ramble on and on about my life, and I hope you won't get bored of me, after all, I really can't find anyone else to talk to.

I came to Antarctica thirty-three years ago, before it was called Edmond Observatory, I don't remember what it was called, but it wasn't as well known as Edmond.

The man who put me on the icebreaker Polaris was a veteran of the Peninsular War (although he wasn't old at that time, he looked really old at that time and I always teased him about it).

He was one of the few friends I had.

After all, a nerd like me couldn't really find a second person willing to talk to me in those adventurous gold rush days.

Fifteen years after I arrived in Antarctica, he left me forever because of the disabilities and hardships of life brought on by the war, and then gave me back every penny of the money I sent him (he insisted it was a loan) each year to live on before he died.

The doctor told me that he had voluntarily given up treatment because after the war he was always tormented by pain and dreamed of all those blood colours, which is normal for many soldiers.

But I know it's not such a simple reason; my friend died because of another war.

The only reason he entered the war was to end it.

He was taught, deceived, used by public opinion and politics to go to war with justice and friendliness, thinking that every knife he stabbed and every shot he fired was to save more ordinary people held hostage and hurt by war.

But then he was deeply conscious that the people he had killed were as innocent as he was, and it pained him so much that the only thing that could convince him to continue was the slogan of the time - let this be the last war we experience, let us end this chaotic and unfair world.

He thought this was the end, but wars were being waged incessantly, and the day seemed to never come when the world he had hoped to see would come.

It was not until the war fifteen years ago, a brutal war of aggression initiated by a country he trusted, that he was utterly destroyed and knew that he had been doing something unjust all along.

It was disgusting, filthy, the ugliest thing like all the things he hated.

He was just a politician's whitewashed executioner who couldn't allow himself to live like that, so he told me that he couldn't last any longer.

I didn't know how to reply to him, I had always just read and the only brave thing I had ever done in my life was to run away from everything to come to Antarctica.

Many people in Antarctica came out and held a protest against the war in the bitter cold (note 3), and I stood in the crowd, my hands shaking as I held the [no war] display sign, looking up at the approaching polar night, the cold snow almost burying me.

All we could do seemed to be to protest, which of course ultimately did not help.

As I was going through his last letter, I read what he wrote to me: [It must be nice in Antarctica, although it is bitterly cold, cold and never sunny, but there must be no war there, it is pure land, I hope you will not bring your remembrance of me, of an ugly war criminal, to this pure land to pollute it].

But it wasn't really like that; the Antarctic was as cold as he thought it would be, but not as pure as he thought it would be.

Everyone who comes to this clean land has grand ideals of wanting to save humanity and alleviate the global crisis.

We have carefully recorded data, marked the skins of whales and the anklets of penguins, determined year after year that the numbers of these creatures have fallen to less than 50 per cent of their original numbers as they have aged, watched with concern as a thousand feet of glacier has been wiped out of the sea in an hour, and bellowed at every meeting like a scheduled alarm clock at the top of the political echelon. --Harsh climate, global warming, human crisis.

And they always listen to it carelessly and sleepily, and in the next TV picture, righteously pull it out to raise the flag, while continuing to ambitiously plot a war that could pollute on a large scale.

Both inside and outside, not about right and wrong, just about their tenure and personal interests.

I can guarantee that none of these guys can name the rise in average global temperatures last year.

You, my friend, are probably tired of reading and thinking that I am a really long-winded old man, but allow me to wearily, wearily continue to ramble on.

I was born in a country known for its individual freedom and democracy, as if everyone's freedom of action could be respected.

Making sacrifices for the group is what individual heroes need to do; most people just need to spend their lives chasing their own self-interested achievements.

But my friend, I know as well as you do beyond any doubt that man continues as a species, as a group, and that no species can pursue freedom in isolation, and that freedom will be meaningless when the group does not exist.

We are the only "heroes" who can't.

The group values we seek are not recognised in society in any way, like the lone whale that strays from the herd and sees an impending volcanic eruption, a tsunami, but can only warn the other whales of impending disaster with a strange frequency that they do not understand and do not care to heed the admonitions of us strange whales.

They are going after a sea fish in front of them, a clump of krill, volcanoes and tsunamis don't matter to them, it's a matter for the heroes.

It was as if I were living in Sarto (note 4), a land of absurdity, entertainment to death, narrow-mindedness and disintegration.

The Observatory's funding faced the possibility of another budget cut last year simply because our current leaders don't believe in global warming and the greenhouse effect.

Many times I was in a trance that what I was doing was not some great work of saving humanity, but just a product of political gamesmanship - just like my friend.

I envy you, my friends, you are not alone in this fight, your community knows the responsibility you have taken on and has not shied away from sharing it with you.

You are not [heroes], but [vanguards].

Every young man at Tarzan Station who asked me for guidance had a bright and shining country in his eyes, how beautiful, the snow in Antarctica was not even that pure, reminded me of my friend who sent me on board after watching Titanic, he was smiling and waving, yelling, don't hit the iceberg, watch out for my Ruth on the boat, his eyes were that shining too.

Species eventually go extinct, and so do humans, my friend, and I am sure you and I are beyond any doubt that this is the destiny of all living things, just as humans eventually die.

But it is for us to decide when (when), where (where) and how (how) we will perish.

I would like to see a future where we die hugging each other from the cold in the freezing cold, or where the last two people on earth plunge their spears into each other's hearts in a devastated wasteland, fighting over their prey.

Forgive me, my friends, for having chosen you in the midst of my despair, for having done to you what the arrogant God has done to mankind.

The corpse contains energy that can turn the world upside down. It is as if it was created for my desires and wishes, and when particleized it can have unprecedented meteorological and biological impact, and rather than let it fall into the hands of others, I will write the endgame.

For the first time I have used my knowledge in such a sinister way to turn the globe cold and extinguish the human race.

I might actually be crazy.

Still, I hid a margin for my madness by researching creatures that could adapt to this situation and then selecting you, adding your genes to their mix and letting them test you to see if you could be the ones to continue the Starfire.

Feel free to resent me, my friends, and I took up my rifle as smoulderingly as if I had raised a vodka, and drove those in the house who had been paralysed by my obedience for two months into the ice and snow, ordering them not to take any clothing or food with them.

It's funny, but despite all the inhumane torture I had to endure, my request for the freedom to defend myself with a gun was respected up to this point. In the eyes of the guards, asking for a gun was no big deal, after all they didn't think I, a weak scientist, had the courage to resist, so they granted me the freedom to defend myself.

This is perhaps the only good thing that freedom has brought me, although it has broken the rules of Antarctica.

I held my gun, and the creatures I had taught crouched next to me in the snow, waiting quietly with me for these humans to report to the snow and die as cold as I thought they would.

And I now return to my room to write this fax for you, to put the final nail in the coffin of this ghastly plot that I have been planning since August 10.

Soon, the creatures will reach your territory ......

(Addendum: I made sauerkraut the way you did, but it failed, God, your dish making is really harder than a biochemistry experiment, it was going to be ready for you to make a strategic winter reserve, but I don't recommend you take the two vats of sauerkraut for safety reasons.)

Your friend - Edmond.