Witch, Fireball and the Evil God of Steam-Chapter 741 - 111: The Spliced Entity

The prejudices in people's hearts are like a great mountain.

You see, it's not always me who does the bad things.

As darkness completely enveloped the cabin, Ethan heard Little Dark's voice in his ear, sometimes distant, sometimes close, as if fully merged with the darkness.

When the people trapped in the darkness realized their current situation, the cabin experienced the first wave of chaos. Their common sense could not explain the anomaly before them — the dining room lights were clearly on, yet they could not dispel the darkness surrounding them. When they looked up, they could only see a faint trace of the chandelier, and in less than a minute, even that last glimmer of light was swallowed by the darkness.

All current information about the Pioneer after its misfortune comes from Du Ya's last phone call. He revealed to his family the harrowing days after the starship was swept into a black hole. At one point, he believed that it was not a black hole that swallowed them, but some kind of living creature, so massive that it exceeded human common sense and imagination, and was absolutely not the black hole as they understood it.

However, combined with Du Ya's mental state and tone during the call, the committee considered the living darkness to be a delusion of his.

Afterward, they didn't want Du Ya's children to spread the matter.

So Du Ya's daughter was sent to a mental health center for long-term treatment. The mental health center corrected her thinking, using "science" to convince her that her father perished the day the Pioneer lost contact, and the subsequent phone call was entirely a hallucination born of her extreme grief.

But Du Ya's daughter was an anomaly.

She outwardly surrendered to the mental health center and the committee, yet recorded her thoughts on an inconspicuous chip. This chip would be passed on to Du Li when he grew up. By then, he could choose to continue investigating or seal the secret away forever.

Judging from the result, Du Li chose the latter.

And now, Ethan understood the reason the committee was eager to cover up the incident.

The Pioneer was not swept into a black hole. They originally had plenty of time to avoid the disaster, but at the most critical moment, the captain they had carefully selected issued the wrong order — he actively ordered the crew to steer the Pioneer into that unknown darkness.

Ethan was still uncertain whether this decision was due to the Democratic Assembly's resolution or some higher-level influence sensed by Merlin.

As for the captain's personal will?

Little Dark said these people have empty minds, their behaviors are pure, they have been stripped of personal thought to enable them to obey commands in major decisions, even at the cost of their lives.

"Let's go to the central control room and have a look."

After standing in the darkness for a long while, Zhuang Xiao suggested.

Her mood was somewhat subtle; ultimately, no one on this starship survived. They died in fear and despair. Logically, she should feel scared like the others on the ship, stemming from human beings' innate fear of darkness and the unknown. But considering the suspect was only a few steps away from her, Zhuang Xiao suddenly felt less afraid.

This seemed to become a new way of dispelling fear.

In the pitch-black space, the killer wandered within the cabin, his footsteps tolling a death knell for everyone on board.

In such a desperate situation, as long as you initiate a team-up invite to the killer himself, you no longer have to worry about him finishing you off with a face card.

This was exactly Zhuang Xiao's mood at the moment, not afraid at all, but rather filled with a sense of security.

"I'll go with you all."

Buoyed by the drink, Du Ya also extended a team-up invitation to Ethan, "I know the layout of this ship. Even in the dark, I can find the central control room."

Of course, not everyone was as composed as Zhuang Xiao and Du Ya. When the cabin first went dark, Lindong fearfully clung to Ethan's arm, trembling as she said, "Don't go too far from me, I'm afraid of the dark."

A few hours ago, she was the white-haired girl who had held "darkness" tightly to her chest with an iron grip; now, she was the most afraid of the dark, causing Ethan to take a deep breath, about to say something, then stopping.

All he could smell was snow cherries and Lindong's shampoo.

Teacher, as long as you're happy.

This makeshift team embarked on an adventure to the central control room, but Ethan firmly believed that this adventure party's lineup was significantly flawed, like a brainchild of novices who've never played games before, even worse than AI—he was at the very front, Lindong holding his right arm, resting her head on his shoulder, while the black cat had its two paws on his neck, its whole body hanging off his back, Zhuang Xiao simply hid in a position further behind, and Du Ya, who claimed to lead the way, somehow found a pipe wrench and walked alongside Zhuang Xiao.

The group walked through the empty corridors of the cabin. Ethan felt like a shield, sure that if someone attacked along the way, he'd absorb all the damage.

Guys, I'm a mage.

What genius puts a damage-dealing mage in the front line to take hits?

This mother hen protecting its chicks kind of adventure team continued all the way to the door of the central control room. Upon entering, Zhuang Xiao even exaggeratedly let out a long breath.

Inside, the atmosphere was unsurprisingly in stark contrast to the team's lighthearted harmony. When they arrived, the captain had already fallen into a deep coma. The crew mentioned the captain's unusual behavior when he gave orders earlier; his eyes burst with white light, bright as if he'd swallowed a flashlight.

"This is normal. The shadow elements are clashing with the residual energy inside him. He will wake up soon."

Ethan heard Little Dark's voice again in the darkness. The sound seemed far away, yet omnipresent.

He was certain that the black cat on his neck hadn't spoken.

This suddenly reminded him of the famous grandfather paradox.

If measured from the dimension of time, they intruded into the past, the starship disaster happened hundreds of years ago, then, in the same spacetime could there be two Little Darks, or even... two of him?

In those works involving spacetime theories, when oneself from two different spacetimes meets, bad events often occur.

"You mentioned someone knocked you out, causing you to forget many things."

This time, the voice speaking was very close to Ethan, coming from right behind him. The black cat's paws exerted a little more force and finally climbed onto Ethan's shoulder. Her beautiful heterochromatic eyes scrutinized everything happening in the captain's cabin, "Then, let's start from here."

The black cat gradually merged with the whispers in the dark.

"Suppose you were here at that time, what would you do?"

The white radiance mentioned by the crew.

And that fatal but erroneous decision.

The answer almost immediately flashed in Ethan's mind.

"It seems you've never changed on this matter."

The cat's voice became very soft, she leaped forward gently into the darkness, slowly walking over to the unconscious captain's side, raised her paw, and placed it on the captain's forehead.

This was their method.

Skipping the complex reasoning process to reach the result directly.

In an instant, countless images flashed through Ethan's mind, narrating the captain's life.

An outstanding life, only with persistent effort and struggle, could the captain be entrusted with heavy responsibilities by the Democratic Assembly, giving the people of the City of Truth hope in him.

Those were unfamiliar yet familiar memories, viewing the city from the captain's perspective, from establishment to prosperity, witnessing the rise of the "Consensus Obelisk," witnessing the formation of the Democratic Assembly, and the confusion and despair brought when the "Apocalypse Theory" quietly spread in the city.

Their world is doomed, and before that, they need to find a new home.

Countless thoughts intermingled, yet it did not exist independently.

A ray of light shone into Ethan's heart, allowing him to see many dark corners.

Long-forgotten memories began to revive.

In these memories, he became the captain, became a detective, became an engineer, a lawyer, different lives, different experiences, and different perspectives, carefully filling in details for the City of Truth; in these episode of memories, every street became real, no longer a vague outline.

But he never lived these lives.

The reason he knows about them is merely because these intruders piqued his interest.

Whether they are willing or not, he can open their minds, enter their thoughts, where they are without hiding and lying.

This is why he can so intricately construct a city in a "dream," when needed, those fragments stored in the subconscious played their role.

As for the state of those whose memories were being peeped at, it has become somewhat forgotten.

Not forgotten, but he had never cared about their emotions or mental state.

These revived memories gradually converged into a lake like a stream, and Ethan stood by the lake, gazing down at the reflections flashing continuously on the surface of the lake, each shadow represented a complete life.

And gradually, the shadows hidden deeper in the lake started to emerge.

That was the story before the captain became the captain, or more accurately, before becoming "human."

Every life among these reflections started from the same point.

There, suspended in mid-air was a white orb of light, with a voice like mechanical synthesis, sounding cold and emotionless.

"You have flesh, you have bones, and all the human body tissues you need, now, piece them together."

The white orb of light was conversing with a figure kneeling before it.

And those "humans" had also witnessed this scene happening.

Not as a complete human, but as an eyeball and brain stored in a vessel.

"One thing is still missing."

The figure kneeling before the white orb of light humbly requested, "A soul."

"No, they don't need souls."