Chapter 152: Chapter 151: God’s Doll
THUD! Shen Feng, clad in his Nanomechanical Armor, landed with a heavy impact. He immediately noticed a number trimmed into the lawn on the ground.
10,000.
All around them was sunshine and a gentle breeze, along with the smell of soil and plants.
They had finally broken through countless obstacles to reach the very top of the entire mega-structure.
The ten thousandth floor!
Unlike what they had expected, this was no longer a barren world of metal. Instead, there was soil, grass, buildings, and people.
The breeze was gentle, the sun was bright—everything seemed just as it was before the apocalypse.
THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD...
A continuous stream of Construction Machines under the control of Shen Feng and Jingwei surged out, landing on the ground.
The place they had just emerged from was a massive well opening, a hundred meters wide, with stone steps built around its perimeter.
And where they were now was the center of a city.
The city was filled with skyscrapers, an endless flow of traffic, and people hurrying to and fro.
There were men and women, all handsome and beautiful, dressed in modern, avant-garde fashion. The buildings were clearly of modern architecture.
Everything here was like a city Shen Feng had once visited—no, it was like the world before the Gray Tide apocalypse.
Looking around, he could even see airplanes flying across the sky. They were surrounded by large department stores, from which pop songs were playing.
It was as if this was how things were always meant to be.
Seeing Shen Feng and the Construction Machines continuously climbing out of the well and landing on the ground, the pedestrians in the city screamed and began to scatter in panic.
"Monsters are climbing out of the wishing well!"
"Oh my God! Isn’t that supposed to be a fountain?"
"Doesn’t this lead underground? The government must be conducting some damned secret experiment!"
"Heavens, are those robots? Is... is this a movie shoot?"
"..."
The surrounding crowd screamed in terror. By now, the number of Construction Machines under Shen Feng’s control had reached a million, and they continued to pour out of the exit, spreading out like a tide.
At the same time, police sirens blared. A hundred police cars sped in from all directions of the central plaza, surrounding Shen Feng and the Construction Machines. They aimed their guns and shouted through their megaphones:
"Drop your weapons and get on the ground! Do it now or face the consequences! The police will shoot to kill anyone who resists!"
But the expressions on the police officers’ faces were all terrified; they had clearly never seen strange things like Construction Machines before.
They could actually transform, and into those strange warrior shapes, no less! And they seemed to be holding bladed weapons!
The crucial question was, where did these things come from? There were so many of them, and more were still climbing up nonstop.
It was as if Evil Ghosts were crawling out of Hell!
Jingwei’s voice, full of bewilderment, came from Shen Feng’s chest:
"Holy shit, what’s going on? Has the surface of this world been functioning normally this whole time, with only the levels below being Hell? If that’s the case... if that’s the case..."
A cold smile appeared on Shen Feng’s face, but he showed no surprise at all. He said:
"It seems our friend is quite the performer. A third-rate extra with an insatiable desire for the spotlight. But this kind of shoddy acting can be seen through in a heartbeat..."
He then strode forward and said in a loud voice:
"Come on out. Stop playing god. Since you love games so much, I’ll play along, my dear... Mr. Arthur Seldon."
As he spoke, the Construction Machines under his control transformed into Tang Armor Warriors wielding longswords. In a flash, they rushed the police officers and swung their blades, decapitating them.
CLANG... With a sound of metal striking metal, sparks flew from the severed necks of the decapitated "people," revealing the silvery-gray glint of metal.
They were all Construction Machines.
"Hahahahahahahaha—"
The police, the pedestrians—everyone present burst into laughter. Then, the entire "city" before them began to melt and liquefy like wax!
Skyscrapers and asphalt roads quickly softened and began to flow. The moving cars, along with their drivers, melted as well, merging into a silvery-gray tide.
Soon, the entire city was gone, replaced by a vast, silvery-gray ocean. Only the massive exit from which Shen Feng and his forces had emerged remained, still towering in its place.
But now, what had looked like stone steps had also turned into a metal structure.
Everything around them—the soil, the flowers, the city, the mountains—all of it vanished.
All that remained was a sky-blotting tide of gray metal.
"You... are good! Worthy of being the hero I’ve chosen..." An impossibly colossal face, hundreds of meters wide, emerged from the Gray Tide. It spoke with a mocking smile, "I’m just a little curious. How exactly did you find me out?"
It was the face of Arthur Seldon!
Shen Feng scoffed. The Construction Machines around him also began to merge and transform, melting and flowing like wax to envelop his body.
Soon, Shen Feng too disappeared into a silvery-gray tide formed from a Nanomechanical Cluster.
The tide of the Nanomechanical Cluster, formed from a million Construction Machines, was not as vast as the Gray Tide controlled by Arthur Seldon, but it still stretched for several thousand meters. Coiled next to the entrance, it took the shape of Shen Feng’s face under his control.
His face was half again as large as Arthur Seldon’s.
He wouldn’t be outdone, at least not in appearance.
"So it really is you." Shen Feng’s face wore a contemptuous smile. "An amateur creator like you could only come up with the simplest of stories. The descendant of Arthur Seldon, the legend of saving the world... it’s laughable... And that Mike was just a clumsy imitation of Smith from The Matrix... Are you a die-hard fan of the Wachowski siblings or something?"
Arthur Seldon didn’t get angry at Shen Feng’s taunts. Instead, he just laughed and said:
"Is that so? Still, you’re the first person to discover the truth of it all. I’ve played this game many times. Almost every time, a warrior, a hero, a Savior breaks through all the hardships, makes countless sacrifices, and reaches this place."
"Many of these poor souls actually believed this was a real city, that human civilization had already recovered, and that they were just pitiful wretches forgotten underground."
"A few of them went mad on the spot and started killing people. Others were stronger; they accepted it all and even tried to integrate into society... Of course, in the end, they all discovered that it was just a joke of mine. They are nothing but God’s puppets."
"That Mike, he was actually an unexpected development. A newly added character, you could say. He was about to die, but I gave him a little push at the end, just enough of a chance to add some twists and turns to the story. After all, conflict is what makes things interesting, isn’t it?"
"As for you..."
Arthur Seldon spoke endlessly. When he got to Shen Feng, his tone changed instantly, as if filled with admiration and emotion:
"You are, by far, the best character I have encountered in all these years. You fit all the criteria of a hero: intelligent and cunning, kind yet ruthless, and you’ve even had your own miraculous encounters... Tsk, tsk. When I first discovered you through the tendrils of the mega-structure, you have no idea how excited I was. Your appearance has made my life interesting. After all, even the life of a god can be dull and tedious at times..."
"Rest assured, I won’t kill you. You will be my finest acquisition, the crown jewel of my collection." Arthur Seldon spoke with the floodgates open, like someone who had kept too many secrets bottled up for too long and was finally getting a chance to show off.
The Gray Tide under his control surged, and one by one, Hibernation Pods were pushed forward. The tide then set them upright, revealing what was inside.
There were over a hundred Hibernation Pods in total, and inside each one, a person slept.
Arthur Seldon said, gloating a little:
"Look. These are all the collectibles I’ve gathered over the years. Every one of them a hero! Each of them broke through innumerable dangers to reach the ten thousandth floor, to arrive before me. But they all have one thing in common: they all called themselves the Salvation Army, and they all firmly believed their Commander, their so-called Savior, would come here to rescue them, to save the world."
"But according to my analysis, their so-called Savior is long dead. Hahaha, swallowed and broken down by the Gray Tide, becoming a part of the mega-structure."
Although these people were asleep, most of their faces were twisted in pain, as if experiencing torment in their dreams, or perhaps because they had never forgotten their original purpose.
Shen Feng’s gaze swept over the sleeping members of the Salvation Army.
Men and women. Yellow skin, white skin, black skin. Young, middle-aged, and old. All kinds of people.
’You’ve suffered enough, everyone.’
’I’m here now.’
