Chapter 443 Trading
“So what is your purpose? To blow up Tianfu City?” Sun Hang asked.

The blurry figure – or rather, Chimera No. 17 slowly shook his head: “No, they are of no importance to me… I can destroy them, or I can let them live… I don’t care about the life or death of any human being at all.”

“Is your purpose to seek… revenge on me?” Sun Hang couldn’t help but frowned.

If his self-sacrifice could save the entire Tianfu City or the entire Shuzhou…

If it were Lao Wang, Yang Qi, Zhong Ling and others who had to make this choice, they would have sacrificed themselves without hesitation… Even if it were Fukada Miki, she would have chosen to sacrifice as well – her willingness to participate in this operation meant that she was ready to sacrifice herself. Being able to exchange her life for so many things, this deal was definitely a good deal.

But… none of them are qualified to make this deal.

The only qualified person is Sun Hang, who is “afraid of death”.

Sun Hang hesitated.

He didn’t want to be a hero, not at all.

This doesn’t mean that he is a coward, he just feels it is not cost-effective.

He likes this world very much, but the prerequisite is that he can feel this world… If even he himself does not exist, then no matter how beautiful the remaining world is, what does it have to do with him?

Sun Hang knew that this idea might be criticized as selfish by many people, but this was his true thought.

“Trade your life for a city, will you?” Chimera No. 17 said slowly.

Sun Hang did not answer.

“You hesitated.” Chimera No. 17’s tone was half-smile, “You see, you never considered humans as your own kind from the beginning, so you think it’s not worth sacrificing for them, right?… Just like humans themselves, they won’t rush into a burning forest to save a group of ants that are about to be devoured by the wildfire.”

“Your statement is a bit far-fetched.” Sun Hang curled his lips, “In fact, if you ask many people this question, many people will not agree to change.”

If we were to exchange it for the destruction of the entire world, perhaps more people would agree. But if it was just Tianfu City… If Tianfu City was destroyed, the worst that could happen was that we could just move to another place… The remaining territory of the Xiazhou Federation was still quite vast, and there were many cities that were more prosperous than Tianfu City…

“You’re right.” Chimera No. 17 nodded. “Then, back to the original question, do you want to change?”

“No.” Sun Hang shook his head firmly, “But I don’t intend to let you destroy Tianfu City… As long as I kill you, won’t all the problems be solved?”

“As long as you kill me…if you can do it, I can also promise you that I will not destroy Tianfu City.” Chimera No. 17 said.

“Isn’t that nonsense? If I kill you, how can you destroy Tianfu City?”

“As long as I want, I can make the ‘pupa’ explode anytime now. Not only Tianfu City, but most of Shuzhou will be razed to the ground.” Chimera No. 17 said calmly.

“Do you think this is a threat?” Sun Hang asked, staring at the blurry shadow.

“No, I’m just stating the facts.” Chimera No. 17 said, “Before I was hatched, I really wanted to seek revenge on you, but now, I realize that I was wrong.”

“wrong?”

“I can’t kill you, and you can’t kill me.” said Chimera No. 17.

“why?”

“Guess who the shadow that just disappeared was?”

“Yes…” Sun Hang widened his eyes slightly.

“Just keep the answer in your heart and don’t say it out loud.”

“So what is the relationship between you and that shadow?”

“There is a saying in human beings, ‘Take the essence and discard the dross’, and I am the dross that has been separated.”

“Then… that shadow, is he the remaining ‘essence’?” Sun Hang asked.

“No, the essence was left in the research institute.” Chimera No. 17 shook his head.

“…Anna?”

“Don’t mention this name again.” Chimera No. 17’s tone was filled with hatred. “She and I have been opposites since we appeared in this world, just like water and fire cannot coexist… If she appears in front of me, I will lose even the last bit of my sanity.”

Chimera No. 17 paused and continued, “I can only stay sane here… because the me here is the me who has just been separated, and has not yet been tortured by the endless pain and hatred and fallen into madness. You can regard this place as the only… ‘pure land’ in my heart.”

“Now that the essence and the dregs have been separated out…what is left?” Sun Hang asked cautiously.

He was extremely curious about the answer, but was worried that the truth would attract the attention of the three apes, causing the memory of this conversation to be completely erased.

The closer we get to the truth, the stronger this worry becomes.

“The rest are ‘people’.” Chimera 17 replied.

“people……?”

“Do you still remember what the most important research project of the Nameless Island Research Institute is?”

“Primary…human embryo.” Sun Hang took a deep breath.

Human embryo.

If we remove those memetic fragments that belong to the monster…what’s left is just an ordinary human being.

As for whether this person is really ordinary…that’s another matter.

“So…you and Anna were actually separated from that ‘person’?”

“Yes.” Chimera No. 17 said, “Those people in white coats extracted the most perfect memes from the embryo and implanted them into a clone. As for the embryo with only inferior memes left, it was supposed to be ‘decontaminated’… but for some reason, he escaped and stripped those inferior memes from his body in this room.”

Sun Hang slowed down his breathing and listened to Chimera No. 17 quietly. “So, if you want to kill me, you must…give up one-third of your ‘soul’.” Chimera No. 17 said, “I do want to make a deal with you, but it’s not a life in exchange for a city, but a third of your soul in exchange for my demise.”

“Are you really so determined to die?” Sun Hang asked doubtfully.

Chimera 17 is indeed a great threat to the human world, but if it can stay in this “pure land” forever…

“I know what you’re thinking. I can’t keep my consciousness here forever.” Chimera No. 17 sighed, “This is a sealed memory, but it will be consumed… Haven’t you noticed that changes have begun to occur here?”

Sun Hang suddenly realized that the angular rocks on the distant coast had now turned into a large number of irregular black polygons, and the forest surrounding the residential area had turned into a patchwork of light and dark, with a variety of yellow-green tones as the main color…

It would be even more perfect if these scenes were accompanied by the smell of a burnt graphics card.

“Due to the defects of the meme, my memory will continue to fade and blur. Repeated recollection will not only fail to strengthen the impression, but will make me forget everything faster… It won’t be long before this ‘pure land’ will completely turn into nothingness, and I…”

“It will also fall completely into madness.” Sun Hang helped it say the second half of the sentence.

“Yes.” Chimera No. 17 said, “To be alive… or to say, to have consciousness existing in this world is like a torture to me… I just want to destroy myself now. If I can’t destroy myself, then I can only destroy everything I see.”

“If you want to commit suicide, why don’t you go find those powerful monsters?” Sun Hang asked, “I don’t know where other primary monsters are, but I heard that there is a primary monster lurking in the deepest part of the Amazon rainforest in South America. Maybe you can try to find it.”

“Even if my body is destroyed, I will be reborn in an endless cycle.”

Sun Hang felt that this statement was very familiar, and he suddenly remembered that Anna seemed to have said something similar to him.

“Is it because of… me?”

“Yes, the only solution is for you to give up one third of your soul, so that I can return to complete silence.” Chimera No. 17 said.

“What is a soul? Is it a special kind of meme?” Sun Hang was a little confused. “If I give up one-third of my soul, will it have any effect on me?”

“I can’t answer your questions because I don’t know the answers either.” Chimera No. 17 said, “In the past hundred years, I have been to many places, including human kingdoms and places abandoned by humans, which they call ‘occupied areas’. I have come into contact with many people and strange creatures… The only way I have found is this.”

“But the problem is, I don’t even know what the soul is, how can I give it up… and I have to give up exactly one third of it?” Sun Hang spread his hands and said, “You said you found a way, so this method must at least have an operating procedure, right?”

“That thing can help you do that.”

“Which thing?”

“The thing that sealed your memory and has been preventing you from regaining it.”

“You mean… three monkeys?” When mentioning the three monkeys, Sun Hang’s inner vigilance was slightly relieved.

Although Sun Hang hated the three apes, from another perspective, he also trusted the three apes.

He initially suspected that Chimera No. 17 was trying to trick him into doing something “dangerous”, but if the three monkeys were to handle it, then even if Chimera No. 17 wanted to do something, it would probably not succeed – for Chimera and Anna, the three monkeys were not only unable to kill them completely, but the difference in strength was definitely at the level of a dimensionality reduction attack.

Even if we take a step back, the three monkeys will at least not harm themselves.

Not only that, it also has to find ways to protect itself.

If this thing hadn’t been preventing Sun Hang from finding the truth, it would have been an invincible life-saving trump card.

“If you don’t want to, I can add another bargaining chip to this deal.” Chimera No. 17 said slowly.

“What chips?”

“Eternal night.”

“what?”

“If you agree to the exchange, I can help you dispel the eternal night.”

……

……

Forty kilometers away from the Chimera 17 cocoon is the super-large aerial combat platform “Garuda”.

“It has been one hour and seven minutes since Sun Hang and his team lost contact.” Song Yarong pressed the “F5” button on the keyboard again and again, refreshing the real-time monitoring screen of the drone. “Yang Qi… do you think they were swallowed up by Chimera ?”

“It’s normal to lose the signal. The cocoon of Chimera 17 is a top-level signal barrier.” Yang Qi sat on the chair and said expressionlessly, “We should trust them… Don’t worry, just keep waiting.”

Yang Qi has been sitting like this without moving for more than half an hour – she knows better than anyone on Garuda that the success or failure of the entire plan now depends on those who enter Chimera No. 17. As for them, the only thing they can do is wait.

“Don’t be anxious… How can I not be anxious?” Song Yarong grabbed the water cup next to her and was about to drink it when she found that the cup was empty. Only a circle of brown coffee marks remained on the wall of the cup. “Have you ever thought about what to do if they fail?”

“I haven’t thought about it, and there’s no need to think about it.” Yang Qi exhaled and said lightly, “There is no backup plan for the insecticide plan. We can only go all out.”

“Then I think we can write our last words and upload them to the server of Tianshu Tower now.” Song Yarong covered her face and said pessimistically, “Although I spend money lavishly, I have saved a lot of money in the past few years… I have to tell my parents my bank card password… In addition, I have to donate some money to an orphanage, or help build a Hope Primary School… Uh, do you think it’s useful to accumulate good deeds when you are about to die?”

Song Yarong kept muttering to herself, but her hands did not move. She neither took out her cell phone to call her parents, nor turned on her computer to write a so-called suicide note.

Her parents live in Tianfu City. Even if she tells them the bank card password, they will not have the chance to enjoy their daughter’s savings.

“Tell me, if Chimera 17 suddenly explodes now…” Song Yarong turned to look at Yang Qi, “Will I have time to take a photo with my phone and post it on WeChat Moments?”

As if in response to her question, a shrill alarm suddenly sounded in the bridge of Garuda!
“A high-intensity energy reaction has been detected on Chimera 17!!”

“How high?!” Yang Qi supported herself on the armrests of the chair with both hands and stood up suddenly.

“It has… has exceeded the upper limit of the device’s monitoring…”

(End of this chapter)