Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 350 - 269: Defeating Magic with Magic

Chapter 350: Chapter 269: Defeating Magic with Magic

Accompanied by Unit 37’s narrative, Duan Mingyuan encountered a serious issue.

The rewriting technology was a convenience brought to the cybernetically enhanced individuals by the brain-computer interface. If we turn back the clock by twenty years, this technology was widely promoted on various planets, and even the doctors believed that this technology would completely solve over ninety percent of psychological diseases.

Everything was flourishing. People of that era were immersed in all the conveniences brought by the brain-computer interface, eagerly imagining their future lives, until the first generation of cybernetically enhanced individuals blew up the research institute. After killing the researchers, they destroyed most of the materials related to the brain-computer interface.

They were regarded as failed products and also sounded the alarm for everyone paying attention to the brain-computer interface.

Afterward, Duan Mingyuan learned that the first generation of cybernetically enhanced individuals received help from the Shanqi Commerce Association and hid in the Star Zones outside the influence of the Universe Company. In return, the cybernetically enhanced individuals, turned Specters, became an important strategic partner of the Chamber of Commerce.

But at the same time, Duan Mingyuan noticed a loophole.

If every cybernetically enhanced individual with a brain-computer interface could undergo thought rewriting, then why didn’t the company’s research institutions brainwash them in the first place?

The brainwashing brought about by thought rewriting is even more solid than religion and cultism. It can fundamentally change a person’s memory and cognition, turning them into completely different individuals.

Theoretically, the company could have completely rewritten the thoughts of the cybernetically enhanced individuals, turning them into loyal servants of the company, who would execute any command without hesitation, even at the cost of sacrificing their selves.

Jiuyue had downloaded many dramas with such themes.

Twenty years prior, some scriptwriters had written their concerns about the brain-computer interface into their works. They believed that if even memories and thoughts could be rewritten, humans would no longer have any sense of security. This meant that everything you see, everything you know, and even your life goals for the future might be programmed.

The future brought about by this technology is the complete eradication of human free will, turning individuals into machines that follow arrangements and orders.

However, movies with this kind of theme never made it to the big screen. Jiuyue also downloaded them from some unknown "banned film website."

The reason was that it was not conducive to the promotion of brain-computer technology.

Then the question arises, why did this group of cybernetically enhanced individuals, who had such a spirit of resistance and blew up the lab for their freedom, suddenly become emotionless killing machines, willing to sacrifice everything to carry out their tasks?

Unit 37 looked at Duan Mingyuan, waiting for the sergeant to provide an explanation.

In her cognition, the sergeant was the most outstanding senior from the academy, who left the Star Zone due to mission assignments after graduation, and only returned among them for this task.

To hide the fact that they were cybernetically enhanced individuals, the brain-computer interface on the back of their necks had also been removed.

This was really too inconvenient.

If the sergeant still had his brain-computer interface, they wouldn’t have to sit here guessing each other’s intentions through conversation. A simple upload of consciousness would suffice to fully understand each other’s thoughts.

The communication between cybernetically enhanced individuals is much more efficient than that of humans.

Perhaps it was because he had been dormant in human society for too long that even someone with a will as strong as the sergeant had been assimilated.

Unit 37 thought for a moment, then asked, "Is it because of that Fox Demon that came with you? I heard it’s a unique creature from Blue Star."

If the sergeant still had the brain-computer interface, he could send a packaged account of his dormant period on Blue Star to her. That way, she would understand all of his experiences after leaving the Star Zone in less than a second, thus better understanding the current predicament of the sergeant.

At that moment, Duan Mingyuan’s brows were tightly knit.

He tried to understand the cybernetically enhanced individuals—their way.

Thus, he obtained 37 different memories from Unit 37.

In a life span of less than 25 years, Unit 37 had become 37 completely different persons, and he only then realized that this number seemed to represent the number of memory rewrites.

Her first memory rewrite occurred when she was six years old.

The target for assassination was a famous philanthropist in a certain Star Zone. The employers found that the philanthropist’s enterprise had created a lot of trouble for them. So the Specters made full use of the six-year-old’s age and the philanthropist’s benevolence to turn Unit 37 into an orphan who had lost her parents in an attack by the Cosmic Pirates.

The philanthropist took in the six-year-old Unit 37, showing her great care. He always said she reminded him of his daughter who had died in the war, which was why he resolutely embarked on philanthropy. His life’s goal was to ensure that his Star Zone would no longer be the sacrificial victim of other powers’ struggles.

All of this was taken for granted.

Before departure, Unit 37’s superiors had overwritten the philanthropist’s deceased daughter’s personality and memories, and even the appearance was the most matching one.

Everything was so meticulously picked, so professional.

If viewed from the perspective of an onlooker, the assassins’ methods were like works of art. To approach their target, they designed a tailored package for their prey, precisely hitting their vulnerabilities.

Therefore, up until the moment the dagger pierced his throat, the philanthropist could not understand why Unit 37 would do such a thing.

Within the first set of memories that had long been overwritten, Duan Mingyuan found some traces of emotional upheaval. On the night she assassinated the philanthropist, Unit 37 had also wavered for a moment. When her hands were stained red with blood, there were whispers of panic, unrest, and even a bit of regret.

But these negative emotions did not last long.

As Unit 37 had just said, cybernetically enhanced individuals never harbor any psychological trauma. After being retrieved by the Specters, thought rewriting was immediately carried out.

They excised that segment of memory, and so for Unit 37, her last six months were always spent in school, and it was because of this operation that the Specters saw the potential in Unit 37, gradually shaping her into what she is today.

Over the next twenty years, she became someone else’s student, lover, first girlfriend; regardless of how her identity changed, there was only one common goal—kill the target, or someone closely associated with the target.

In the subsequent missions, 37 no longer harbored any negative emotions.

A killing machine in the truest sense.

Just a moment ago, the killing machine before Duan Mingyuan extended an invitation, inviting him to return to the embrace of the Specters, to become a killing machine as exceptional as she was.

This was a technology that the half-mechanical cyborgs had originally detested, yet it was now widely utilized internally; each member of the Specters possessed over twenty sets of memories, their lives an endless cycle of becoming different characters.

Amidst their constantly changing identities and memories, only one thing remained unchanged.

—Their faith in the Mechanical Pioneer.

The half-mechanical cyborgs believed that in the virtual digitalized world, there existed a pioneer who could resolve their confusion and guide them to a bright future.

Succinctly put, a mutated form of religion and deity.

The identity of half-mechanical cyborgs prevented them from embracing traditional religious beliefs, giving birth to this omnipotent pioneer in the digitalized world.

The pioneer was a product of the social state of the half-mechanical cyborgs at the time; after blowing up the lab and escaping the star zone where the company was located, the cyborgs found themselves lost about the future.

Lost about their own identities.

And lost after finally achieving their ideals of transformation and truly embracing freedom.

They had freed themselves from the shackles of the company.

But what next?

Under such societal currents, the half-mechanical cyborgs desperately needed a real leader.

They turned their gaze to the virtual digitalized world, filled with countless unknowns, where the unknown brought hope to them at that time.

The half-mechanical cyborgs found solace in the existence of the Mechanical Pioneer, yet as time passed, history proved time and again that when beliefs evolve to a certain extent, they invariably transform into power structures.

Now, the Mechanical Pioneer had become a tool for the Specters to brainwash their subordinates.

They propagated the theory of atonement, believing that half-mechanical cyborgs were aberrant fusions of machinery and flesh, having killed their creators, they were inherently burdened with sin; only by becoming a member of the Specters and loyally executing the missions the organization handed out could they atone.

The reason being that the current leader of the Specters was the only being capable of hearing the whispers of the Mechanical Pioneer—he was the Angel Envoy, conveying the guidance of the Pioneer to them.

A result that was both unexpected and reasonable.

On this issue, their half-human bloodline played a role.

The Angel Envoy, the Archbishop in the church, they all used the same rhetoric—in Duan Mingyuan’s view, the only difference between them was the skin they wore.

One was a version of science, the other of esoteric knowledge.

By now, Duan Mingyuan also understood what he was up against—a die-hard adherent to the organization, a loyal believer with 37 instances of overwritten memory, a killing machine trusted by the organization.

In the face of faith, an excellent former senior was utterly insignificant.

Duan Mingyuan didn’t doubt for a second that if the next order from the command center was to eliminate him, 37 would wield the knife against him after expressing regret and an apology.

He quickly realized that convincing 37 through reason was impossible; he had only two options before him.

To perform the 38th memory overwrite on her, but that would be too heavy a burden.

He was merely an ordinary Mage, how could he bear the lives of others?

Therefore, only one option remained.

"Do you want to know the reason?"

He asked.

nodded almost immediately, listening intently.

"Because I have found it."

This thought suddenly emerged after he learned about the faith of the half-mechanical cyborgs.

For half-mechanical cyborgs, the Pioneer was their god.

But who decreed that a god couldn’t truly descend into reality?

"The Mechanical Pioneer is here, among us."