Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 670 - 283. Desire for Change

Chapter 670: 283. Desire for Change

Caramel Snail’s eyes flashed with a green light, but after a few seconds of flickering, they returned to their original color. His will seemed to have overcome some kind of existence, and he persistently asked,

"Why is it that they are supposedly protecting people, but instead make them suffer more?"

Click.

Li Aozi put down the camera. While waiting for the film to develop, he looked up and gazed at Caramel Snail.

He saw the confusion in the other’s eyes and knew exactly where this confusion stemmed from in the other’s heart.

"You should actually know it yourself."

Li Aozi said,

"This kind of world is not a world where people can live."

............

The long journey was a bit too arduous for the second-hand bicycle, problems kept cropping up along the way.

Fortunately, with Igor’s abilities, she earned a lot of travel funds along the way and also learned maintenance skills.

"You think The Church’s ideas are good? Hmph, maybe, but that is not a life meant for mortals."

As Xia Beiluo was fixing the spokes of the bicycle, she immediately looked up in confusion when she heard Igor say this,

"Huh? What does that mean?"

Igor Cui leaned against the roadside railing, looked up at the sky, and lazily said,

"Mortals have emotions and desires, they have warmth, they grow old and become ugly, they are kind and gentle, and they can also be cruel and ruthless. But The Church does not acknowledge these things."

"You must understand, you live on a planet that manipulates souls and masters spiritual body techniques. Therefore, the dead themselves are a resource."

"The Church wants people to be clean and blank like ghosts, to obediently follow their plans. This way, although the world would be very dull, the population and the number of spiritual bodies must strictly match, not too many, not too few, and the technology of spiritual energy should gradually progress."

"So..." Xia Beiluo seemed to understand a bit, "So The Church intentionally controls the population and spiritual bodies?"

"You’re not that dumb."

Igor put his hands behind his head,

"Guess why The Church wants to do this?"

"...Because they want people to live better?"

"Wrong, it’s because they believe people can live better under such conditions. They are like aloof parents who refuse to communicate with you and hope to erase your individuality, dismantle your independent will, and stifle your imagination using their supposedly absolutely correct experience, turning you into a so-called ’righteous and happy child,’ living a peaceful life—that’s The Church."

Igor explained,

"They don’t want you to have joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. They want to turn you into a pure life machine to build their Terrestrial Divine Kingdom, to please the mysterious triad they worship. But do the gods above care about these things? To the gods, even if we, their creations, are utterly destroyed, they wouldn’t be much saddened."

"But doesn’t The Church say... that gods love humanity?" Xia Beiluo hesitantly said. "If gods don’t love us, why did they create us?"

"Do you love the can or the meat inside? Would you meticulously love every can produced from a production line?"

Igor asked,

"You enjoy the taste when you consume the can, but you certainly don’t love the existence of the can itself."

Xia Beiluo opened her mouth, Igor always managed to use these strange metaphors to dismantle her conventional thinking.

"Igor, since you also know that The Church’s existence is necessary," Xia Beiluo asked, "then why do you spread rock music, what is it for?"

"For what? To liberate people from this oppressive world, to let them truly live by their own strength rather than divine charity."

Igor stood up, walked to the bicycle, was silent for a moment, and said,

"You should understand a fact, children only grow up when they are away from their parents."

"But I haven’t heard of children needing to kill their parents to grow up." Xia Beiluo retorted, "You’re too extreme, Cui, your ideas are too idealistic."

Igor looked at her and said,

"Aren’t you? Without your parents, you suddenly stood on your own, a mature and sensible girl."

"It’s different!" Xia Beiluo bit her lip. "If growing up means losing something important, then I’d rather stay in swaddling forever."

"It’s exactly because of this cowardly mentality that people have been trapped in The Church’s cage, damn it!"

Igor confronted her head-on,

"You rigid and unlucky folks always give away your strength bit by bit, getting used to relying on The Church’s power. You never consider how amazing the outside world is! How romantic the starry sky is! When The Church says the outside universe is dangerous, you don’t even dare to look up."

"How do you know the sky above is beautiful?" Xia Beiluo countered bluntly. "The Church has various cases, histories, and ancient relics to tell us that the universe is full of dangers. Isn’t it enough to live contentedly in one corner?"

"Of course I know."

Igor Cui took off his sunglasses, pointed to a nearby guitar case, and said,

"Because it comes from that Starry Abyss."

"...What?" Xia Beiluo was bewildered. "What does that mean?"

"This guitar is called ’Soul Casino,’ a creation of an institution. It was crafted from the body fragments of monstrous beings that fought with deities."

Igor Cui guided Xia Beiluo forward to touch the guitar case,

"This guitar comes from an existence named Perjalai of the Outer Society. It not only plays inspiring tunes, but more importantly, it can bring wealth luck."

"What? That, that can’t be possible?" Xia Beiluo was shocked.

"There’s a price." Igor said calmly, "Each time you play, it consumes part of your soul, and the way it brings wealth luck is by taking a portion of your soul as a stake for gambling."

"The better the gambling result, the more prosperous your wealth luck. Conversely, the worse the result, the worse your wealth luck becomes."

"But even so, this is beyond The Church’s imagination. This is the strength of the Outer Society; the strength of each Outer Society is different."

"...According to The Church, in the Star Realm, deities and the Outer Society are still fighting." Xia Beiluo looked up at Igor. "So does that mean, such treasures still bear traces of divinity..."

"Hmm, more or less as you thought." Igor nodded. "One can guess just with a toe—the cosmos is exciting in many places. If we only stay on this planet, afraid of those deities and societies, then we are bound to be left behind."

"Igor, I think I understand your goal now..."

Xia Beiluo stood up and said solemnly,

"There are probably many aliens possessing such strength. If we don’t strive to step into the Star Realm, eventually, we will be overrun by powerful Star Realm beings."

"But if we venture into the cosmos and find ourselves surrounded by enemies, what should we do?"

"I don’t know."

Igor said frankly,

"All I can say is: I don’t seek war, what the future holds—ha, only heaven knows."

"But even so... you still want to resist The Church?"

"No, you are wrong, I am not resisting The Church, but this world that uses divinity to hijack humanity."

Igor said,

"I have witnessed The Church’s soldiers blocking the Desolate Sea, their bodies piling up like mountains—and I also crawled out from those ceremonial tombs. I understand their ideals, and then The Church used this pretext to expand its power everywhere."

"After some time, I retired from the Redemption Army and was assigned to the boiler room to heat water. That repetitive and monotonous job was like this world, everyone has their fixed roles, predetermined destinies—I couldn’t help but start thinking, is living such a life meaningful at all?"

"So I went to the Bishop’s District, where everything was orderly, peaceful, and serene. But even in such meticulously planned church cities, you could see poverty-stricken homeless people and pet dogs dining on steak—God loves all, but some are loved more, in this world, there is no equality. If you want to rise, you must follow the pathway they give you, monotonously struggling and fighting."

Xia Beiluo quieted down, listening to Igor recount his experiences. But then Igor suddenly changed his tone and asked,

"Do you know how The Church’s rules were made?"

Before Xia Beiluo could speak, Igor explained,

"Let me give you an example—initially, The Church forbade drinking raw water because of people’s low education level, maybe to prevent parasites. But later, it became a religious taboo."

"A few hundred years later, they saw drinking raw water as a phenomenon of being possessed by demons."

"Later still, they even launched wars against everyone who drank raw water, calling them demons and bad seeds? Is this what the gods wanted to see? Was this The Church’s original purpose?"

"From the mental realm to the secular. The Church always adheres to its baseline, but it is just a baseline—if they stay still forever, when disaster finally strikes, how will people fight back? People already trained into submission by The Church will be nothing but lambs waiting to be slaughtered."

"I’ll tell you why I fight—The Church has turned from an organization for enlightening people into a tool for serving a select few. It extracts blood and nutrients from the Ziluo People to feed a small top tier of church personnel."

"They betrayed their noble initial ideals and became slaves to desire and pleasure. This is not The Church I want to liberate people from such a church and return them to their rightful path."

"Xia Beiluo, I am not resisting The Church itself, I am waging war against stagnation and regression. This world must be vast, not just with our lone planet—yes, we need the rebellious spirit."

"That is the damn meaning of rock’s existence—if possible, I’d hope that you all would one day forever not need rock."

"When I strum the strings, a flame ignites in my chest, and where the song reaches, people shout the same cry—’CHANGE!’ I remember clearly, that’s the voice they told me."

"Remember, kid, never compromise with the world."