I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 500 - 500 499. The first consciousness upload begins_1

Chapter 500: 499. The first consciousness upload begins_1 Chapter 500: 499. The first consciousness upload begins_1 Lu Ban wasn’t sure what the incubation chamber was used for, but a strong premonition told him that he would definitely find something there.

He glanced at Shuangxin, the researcher who was normally composed and calm; now her eyes were scattered, and she didn’t know what to do.

“You go find the Singer and tell them what’s happening, I’ll take a look in the incubation chamber,”

Lu Ban said.

“…It’s useless now, let’s just leave it be,”

Shuangxin ignored Lu Ban.

“Whatever we do now is futile. Humans can’t defeat the bug swarm; we can only wait here for them to devour us and become part of their swarm. Maybe it’s precisely because of us defectives dragging our feet that humanity has not yet completely left this place. Whatever talk of home, of cradle, it’s all a scam.”

Her mentality had changed, and despite her reluctance to admit it, Shuangxin’s heart was in conflict.

On one hand, as a human, years of cognition told her that she was human and should struggle for the sake of everyone suffering from Crystal Disease.

On the other hand, what she saw before her eyes told Shuangxin that they were the dregs of humanity, a burden to humankind, the unevolved and soon-to-be-eliminated humans.

By human instinct, she refused to acknowledge those bug swarms as true humans, yet everything indicated that they were the rightful humans, and she was merely a struggling, breathless waste.

Originally, patients with Crystal Disease had a very hard time resisting the bug swarm, unable to match them in combat power, and now even the last bit of faith that supported them, the righteousness of saving humanity, was gone.

They were the ones who were evil, they were the ones who should be driven out, they were the ones who needed to be eradicated.

Under such an impact, the more resolute people were before, the more likely they were to lose their sanity.

To put it simply, Shuangxin had given up.

Since she couldn’t beat them or escape them, and she was on the side without reason,

why bother fighting? Just resign to it and that’s the end of it.

Perhaps because of the collapse of her mindset, or perhaps because of the Pollution carried by these past histories, Shuangxin’s sanity had been stimulated and may have greatly diminished.

Anxiety, despair, and depression were common symptoms that arose as a result.

Seeing this, Lu Ban knew that words alone were not enough to convince her.

So, he made a decisive move, his right hand manifesting a silver pen, “Testament,” and he approached Shuangxin.

“What are you going to do?”

Shuangxin, unaware of what was happening, couldn’t see the pen in Lu Ban’s hand; she only saw Lu Ban’s hand gently touch her forehead.

Then he wrote two words.

[Calm].

Shuangxin immediately felt the agitation and anxiety surrounding her heart disappear.

Although she still didn’t know what to do, at least now she didn’t have time to have erratic thoughts.

“You go back and find the Singer and the others, I’ll go to the incubation chamber, understand? If you understand, blink your eyes.”

Lu Ban, touching Shuangxin’s head, bent down, eyes level, and spoke to her like one would to a kindergarten student.

Shuangxin nodded her head.

“It seems you didn’t understand.”

Lu Ban was ready to write more words.

“I got it!”

Shuangxin pushed away Lu Ban’s hand and stood up.

She rubbed her eyes, feeling completely drained as if she had just run tens of kilometers in the desert, nearly collapsing.

“Can you walk?”

Lu Ban looked at her still trembling legs.

“No problem.”

Shuangxin forced herself to calm down as best as she could, taking two deep breaths.

Then she took steps towards the ruins outside, one step at a time.

Seeing this, Lu Ban didn’t stop either and headed over to the hatchery, while sorting through the current situation.

There are now three forces in the Wasteland.

One is the insect swarm, which is the new humanity transformed from the old, with vast numbers that may have embarked on interstellar or even Foreign Domain expeditions, the ones left on this planet are moving to devour the humans afflicted with the Crystal disease.

Another is the humans with the Crystal disease, who have been struggling to survive since those disasters, with civilization regressing, facing the precarious situation of scarcity of resources in the desert and the transit of the insect swarm.

Lastly are the robots, inheriting the thoughts of the old era, always watching over humanity in the midst of the desert.

This was the first time Lu Ban encountered such a situation.

He didn’t know how humanity should be defined, whether the species that dominated this world would count as the mainstay of civilization.

The principles Lu Ban followed were simple: he values cultural recognition. If cultures, values, goals, ideals, and pursuits can be mutually recognized, they are companions.

If in a world, a species with eight legs support each other, are friendly to people, are positive, and treat the world and other creatures with kindness, then Lu Ban wouldn’t mind becoming friends with them.

However, if a species in a world that looks more or less like humans wanted to procreate with Lu Ban upon seeing him, and also tried various ways to eat him, then, sorry, that’s not humanity.

Obviously, the insect swarm that once tried to eat him was not considered a companion by Lu Ban.

The main structure of the hatchery was located underground.

The aboveground part had been almost completely destroyed, with signs of damage far more severe than elsewhere, as if swept by floods or storms.

Lu Ban descended the stairs to see the downstairs area in a complete mess, as if gnawed upon by dogs.

Thankfully, the hatchery was still mostly intact.

It was a spacious room, circular in shape, with grey-white walls and floors.

In the middle of the ground, there were pits and depressions, as if struck by something.

Lu Ban looked around, and all the equipment here had been completely destroyed, except for a computer in a corner.

He followed suit and booted up the computer.

Most of the data inside was unreadable, and Lu Ban only found a few videos.

The name of the videos was “Experiment Records.”

He opened one of them.

The screen was pitch black for a few seconds, then the scene of the hatchery appeared.

In the center, a woman lay.

The woman appeared to be in her early twenties, with delicate features. She hadn’t been injected with an anesthetic, lying on the bed with her eyes open, full of expectation.

The woman’s hair had been cut short, and she was wearing a helmet on her head that was connected to cables. Beside her, there was a metallic container that looked like a safe.

“Initiating the first consciousness upload,”

a voice said from the side.

With a certain starting noise, Lu Ban saw the lights on the helmet light up.

The next moment, the woman’s body began to convulse, only restrained to the bed by straps. The shaking of her body made the entire bed tremble slightly, her fingers twisted, and her toes stretched out as much as possible, as if she was being electrocuted.

Then, the box beside her snapped open.

A twisted, filthy, mud-like monster slowly crawled out from the box.

The creature had many eye-like things on its body, scanning its surroundings.

Then, all of the eyes turned to look at the girl.

The monster slowly, bit by bit, crawled onto the convulsing girl.