boyutpedia Chapter 17 [Purification Protocol, the Dawn of the Death Trial]
Chapter 17 [Purification Protocol, the Dawn of the Death Trial]
The year Anthill was approximately 1650.
The long stalemate that lasted for a century eroded every desire for victory within the Kaz civilization.
In the core laboratory deepest in the Nest City, the same simulation calculations have been repeated billions of times.
Every physical means of destruction that the Kaz civilization could conceive was used to attack the plague samples repeatedly in the simulated environment.
The result remained consistent: failure.
Although the plague was chaotic and disorderly, it had no vital point, or rather, it was both potentially vital and not vital at every turn.
It's like a clump of quicksand.
The more force you use to strike it, the faster it will recombine after it disperses, and it may even devour the energy from your attack.
Time is the one thing the Kaz civilization has in abundance.
But after a century of research, facing an enemy that cannot be destroyed by physical means and has no stable weaknesses, even Kaz's massive computing power began to feel lost.
"The initial direction may have been deviated."
On a certain day in the year 1650 of the Anthill Era, after the ninety-seven millionth failed simulation, the wise king Kaz finally came to a conclusion.
The core building blocks do not refer to the physical structure of the plague, but rather to a mechanism.
It was only since the birth of the Kaz civilization that they realized that the means of war were not limited to mindless destruction.
Even talent has failed him in this area.
In the real world, even the Creator has a tough time.
"Cough..." Xu Ye leaned back in the rattan chair, almost curled up in a ball.
The effects of the "Mental Frost Spores" are waning; the cool sensation that once felt like a savior is now only barely enough to suppress the severe abdominal pain to a tolerable level.
Vitality is being drained by cancer cells at an unprecedented rate.
He was extremely anxious.
There have been countless impulses to send down a divine oracle once again, to directly instill the complete concept of "inducing apoptosis" into them.
But I forced myself to hold back.
That's not enlightenment, that's suppression.
The growth of a civilization must go through such growing pains, and it must rely on its own wisdom to see through the fog.
What he brings down can only be a road sign, not the destination.
"Hang in there..."
Katz's revelation plunged the entire civilization into brief chaos because it contradicted previous research.
"Abandon searching for structural weaknesses and instead analyze its...inner mechanisms?" A core of a Perceptor responsible for simulation calculations seemed to malfunction; the King's words left it somewhat bewildered.
In the logic of the Katz civilization, self-destruction is a non-existent concept; their instinct is to build, maintain, and optimize, making everything tend towards stability.
Trying to understand a tactic that induces the enemy to commit suicide is like asking a computer to understand what "Zen" is.
However, the king's will was unshakeable.
"Stop focusing on how to kill the plague," Wise King Kaz ordered all research units. "Go and analyze its rampant proliferation process!"
The forced shift in research direction cost the frontline sample collection team dearly.
They had no choice but to get close and observe the various states of the plague as it spread.
Countless people were assimilated as a result, but massive amounts of raw data were also continuously transmitted back to the Nest City.
After years of accumulating data, the pattern finally emerged.
The research team identified a most frequent and core underlying impulse: "replication, proliferation, and expansion".
The existence of the plague is to fulfill this most fundamental desire.
Just as they had thoroughly researched and understood the situation, the one who could end the chaos was born.
A newly born, young perceiver whose thinking has not yet been completely solidified by inherent logic, its code name is Zero.
Zero did not participate in mainstream blocking research.
It devoted all its computing power to repeatedly replaying the two shattered apocalypses.
The tower, after its core building blocks were removed, "disintegrated on its own".
The chain, once the link is broken, is "peaceful breakage".
"They all followed a... hidden instruction."
"An instruction to make them abandon their own structure."
Zero had a bold idea. Bypassing its direct superior, and acting as an ordinary researcher, it submitted a report to Katz containing only one question:
"Could we... send a reverse command to the plague? A signal to let it end itself?"
The moment the question was submitted, the collective consciousness network of the Kaz civilization crashed for 0.01 seconds.
Correct!
It's not a blockage!
It's not about confrontation!
It's... deception!
It's inducement!
Like the tower in the oracle, let it dismantle itself!
Katz immediately elevated this hypothesis to the highest priority for civilization and personally named it.
Purification Protocol
Its core objective is to develop a special unit.
This unit will be able to release signals that simulate or hijack the plague, inducing its cells to activate the forgotten, ancient mechanism hidden deep within the genes of all life—programmed death.
In the year 1680 of the Anthill Era, on the border of the Nest City, in a small gray area contaminated by the plague.
This is a forbidden zone for mortals, a clear dividing line between the Kaz civilization and that chaotic flesh and blood.
Three oddly shaped units were carefully transported here.
Their main body is a huge, constantly humming tuning fork-like structure, with its surface engraved with intricate and dazzling special patterns.
They are the first generation of executors of the [Purification Protocol], the Apoptosis Judges.
Surrounding him were ten Decomposer guards, these loyal warriors who would use their own bodies to buy time for this experiment that would determine the fate of civilization.
Conflict broke out.
The newly developed apoptosis judge is extremely unstable; the waves it releases are sometimes strong and sometimes weak, making it impossible to form a continuous and effective coverage.
"Activate the 'Wave of Death'!" the commander ordered.
As expected, the three Apoptotic Judges simultaneously increased their power to the limit. The instant the wave covered the area, the affected Plague flesh and blood slammed down, directly devouring and assimilating the two outer Decomposer guards.
After initially sensing the wave that was attempting to interfere with its internal mechanisms, the Wilderness Plague seemed to have been greatly provoked, and a Red Warmth was ready to explode against them.
On the carpet of flesh and blood, countless scarlet tentacles shot into the sky and lashed out at the experimental team.
"Warning! Guardian units 'Gengqi' and 'Xinjiu' have lost contact! The energy output of Judgement Unit 3 is unstable!"
The onslaught of flesh and blood was not contained, and a second wave of attacks followed, easily tearing apart the defense line formed by the remaining eight Decomposers.
Two more guards were swept into the sea of blood.
The third guard is about to be devoured, and the judge, on whom high hopes were placed, finally fulfills his due expectations.
The fleshy tentacles stopped moving just millimeters away from it.
Under the watchful eyes of the surviving guard, and indeed the entire Kaz civilization, that raging flesh began to disintegrate from the inside out.
Its complex organic structure decomposed and peeled away layer by layer, eventually turning into harmless dust and returning to the land of Anthill.
The experiment was a success.