Chapter 369: Chapter 359: Where Is Home?
When the group arrived at the campsite outside the station, Lin Qing was immediately surrounded by the concerned gazes of her teammates.
"Nothing happened to you, right?"
"Why did you sleep for so long?"
Everyone was bombarding her with questions. Although they were making a fuss, if anything had indeed gone wrong with her, or if she had been subjected to any unjust treatment, the members of the Fire Line Band clearly wouldn’t stand idly by.
"No, no," Lin Qing replied embarrassed, "I probably just hadn’t touched a bed in so long that I accidentally overslept."
"As long as you’re okay," Uncle Li glanced meaningfully at Chen Xuan and the others, "May we interrogate the Evangelicals now?"
Chen Xuan gestured with his finger, and Wang Baihu and Jiang Siqi immediately brought Ma Kang over. "Of course, but my people need to participate too."
"Are you sure?" Uncle Li raised an eyebrow, "Young man, this process might not be that easy."
"Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing," Chen Xuan looked nonchalantly at Ma Kang, "Besides, he might cooperate."
...
The so-called interrogation room was actually a repair tent, filled with dismantled weapons and motorcycle parts, and even a small furnace and an automatic forging station. Several familiar faces had already gathered inside, such as Huang Gou, who had taken them to their target location the previous evening, and the mechanic Liu Yi.
Especially the latter, who was bare-chested, revealing a solid build. He repeatedly placed two metal tongs into the furnace, ensuring the tips remained red-hot, and it was obvious what they were for.
Ma Kang was pressed onto an iron chair, his hands and feet tethered with rope. As soon as Wang Baihu tore the tape off his mouth, he immediately shouted, "What are you going to do to me? I’m over fifty years old; I can’t endure your torture! Ask what you want; I never refused to answer!"
Clang.
The mechanic’s tongs fell to the ground.
The Fire Line Band members looked at each other.
Only Chen Xuan was not surprised, "See, I told you, he’s not some diehard fanatic."
Uncle Li suspiciously stared at him, "Your name is Ma Kang, right?"
"Yes!"
"When did you join the Evangelical Association?"
"I’ve never joined the Evangelical Association."
This answer took everyone by surprise.
"Don’t try to fool us," Chen Xuan frowned, "Weren’t you the one who posed as an enlightened sage, leading a large group of followers to hold a sky-gazing party?"
"That’s a different matter. I am an Evangelical, but that doesn’t conflict with not having joined the Evangelical Association," Ma Kang sighed, "You outsiders have too many misunderstandings about Evangelicals!"
Lin Qing sneered, "You’re not going to say that those Evangelicals sneaking into the subway station to sabotage are acting on their own, are you?"
"Even if they aren’t acting on their own, it still has nothing to do with the Evangelical Association. Anyone willing to embrace the nano-living body can claim to be an Evangelical, and since the situation in each settlement varies, it’s natural for some militant factions to emerge," he said with a hint of sarcasm, "Think about it, the Evangelical Association is a superpower organization that can wrestle with the Dimensional Limit Mechanism. If they wanted to overthrow the Jiang City refuge platforms, you guys wouldn’t even survive until the next day!"
"But you were an Ability User for the Mechanism, does that mean you willingly defected?" Chen Xuan ignored his sarcasm, "I thought you were recruited."
"I... my situation is rather special," Ma Kang hesitated for a while before replying, "At first, I infiltrated as an internal agent for the Mechanism within the Evangelicals. That was about thirty years ago..."
He intentionally approached a member of the Evangelical Association, a man named Will Naki.
As a senior agent with an ability score exceeding 150, Ma Kang was quite valued within the Mechanism. It was precisely because of this that he was entrusted with a critical mission: to infiltrate the Evangelical Association and gather secret intelligence on their development of nano-living body weapons.
This mission was codenamed "Morning Star," and reportedly involved up to fifty participants. However, the identities of the agents were completely confidential, and their targets varied.
"Wait a minute, was the nano-bug disaster caused by the Evangelical Association?" Chen Xuan couldn’t help but interrupt.
"Isn’t that common knowledge?... Nanobugs are a technology researched by the Mechanism, but it was the Evangelical Association that weaponized them," Ma Kang gave him a peculiar look, "Of course... some also believe it’s a dirty bomb, and if the Evangelical Association gains the upper hand, the Mechanism will eventually release it too. I don’t deny that."
"Ahem... he’s from the countryside, it’s normal for him to be unaware of some things," Lin Qing stepped up to explain for Chen Xuan, "Now you know, the Evangelical Association’s two trump cards are the global nuclear arsenal and nano-living bodies... but the latter has also backfired on them."
This is probably another major turning point in the historical shift, Chen Xuan thought.
In Lin Qing’s original future, the nano-bug disaster was entirely the result of the Mechanism’s misuse of this technology, with no relation to the Evangelical Association.
The seemingly divergent courses of history both witnessed the emergence of such a destructive entity as the nano-living body... this can’t be a coincidence, can it?
"There isn’t much to say about the contact process... I gradually gained Will’s trust." Ma Kang continued, "But I discovered their attitude towards the nano-living bodies was very strange. Rather than treating them as weapons, they... worshiped them as gods."
The ultimate goal of the Evangelical Association in creating these nano-living bodies was to make them the rulers of the world. We humans, however, were clinging to the gods’... gods’..."
He mumbled for a long time without finishing the sentence.
"Devotees?" Lin Qing offered.
"If they were devotees... all conflicts would have been avoided long ago," Ma Kang suddenly seemed somewhat dejected, "We are parasites depending on the gods."
"Uh... parasites?" Everyone was shocked.
This reaction seemed to provoke him, he stiffened his neck and shouted loudly, "What’s wrong with that? The Celestial Patrol itself is evidence! No matter what measures humans exhaust, it’s impossible to destroy the Celestial Patrol. Since it can’t be defeated, coexistence is the only choice!"
"Come on, you’re not thinking straight for your age," Huang Gou suppressed his frustration and said, "The nano-living bodies view us as prey; any encounter ends either in death or injury. How can there be any talk of coexistence?"
"That’s right, my whole family died at the hands of the nano-living bodies." Uncle Li said with a serious expression, "They refuse to communicate, are incomprehensible, and would never share the same sky with humans."
"What if I told you, they don’t actually have to die?" Ma Kang countered.
Uncle Li’s expression changed, "What do you mean?"
"As long as people regard nano-living bodies as gods, sincerely submitting to them, they might open their arms to us and accept us into their domain."
"That’s right... that’s more like the Evangelicals I know." The veins on Uncle Li’s forehead bulged, he walked to the furnace and pulled out another red-hot pair of tongs, "You can start praying now, and let’s see if those living gods will come to save you."
Chen Xuan stepped forward and stopped him with a hand.
"Kid, get out of the way!" He glared and shouted.
Chen Xuan’s gaze remained fixed on Ma Kang, "This isn’t your summarized ’oracle,’ is it?"
He nodded, seemingly ignoring the red-hot tongs, "Of course not, it’s the result of the Evangelical Association’s research."
Ma Kang closed his eyes, as if time had traveled back to that afternoon many years ago.
He walked on a steel net corridor, passed through one security door after another, and entered the basement of the laboratory.
There was a persistent bloody smell in the air, thick like an old soup.
To avoid stepping on the bones on the ground, he had to tiptoe and hop within the limited space.
In the midst of the clusters of bones stood a metal pillar, about ten meters thick and entirely silver-white.
Will Naki leaned against the pillar, caressing its surface with a rapturous expression, "Look, Kang, this is our destiny."
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