God Is Maggots

Lin Feng put on the VR gear and entered the Three-Body Game, which he had not visited in quite some time.

He appeared on a pyramid platform piled high with snow. There was no terrifying sun, only a moon hanging in the sky, occupying a tenth of it.

Walking to the edge of the pyramid platform, he looked down from the heights and saw vast stretches of snow-white ground.

Lin Feng could not help but shiver. "So cold..."

The VR gear could simulate low temperatures and make players feel cold. Lin Feng's character was still wearing his original clothes, which could not withstand temperatures cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide into dry ice.

If this were not just a game, Lin Feng would probably have frozen to death.

"Remember to dress warmly when you go out. It's the middle of winter now."

A clear, bell-like voice rang out behind Lin Feng, and a coat was draped over his shoulders.

Lin Feng turned around. The person who had put the coat on him was the girl he had spoken with in the game last time. She wore a light Hanfu underneath and a fluffy coat over it, making her look as though she had gained two sizes.

"I thought that after hearing my idea last time, there'd be some major changes in the game."

As Lin Feng put on the coat, he looked beyond the pyramid platform at the endless white snowfield. There was nothing unusual in the sky, either.

When they had parted last time, Lin Feng had assumed the players in the game would try following his idea and modify the sun.

The entire land would be covered in factories. Rockets would launch every day, and vast numbers of Solar Satellites would fill space—so many that even without observation equipment, they would be visible to the naked eye just by looking up.

But now that he had entered the game again, there was none of the spectacular sight he had hoped to see. Everything was still the same.

"You haven't entered the game for a while. I thought you weren't coming back," Liang Gong said.

Lin Feng shrugged. "I've been busy lately. That's what my job is like in reality—when I'm free, I'm really free, but when I'm busy, I'm really busy."

"The people under me are all immature. They never know how to make their own decisions and solve problems—they're always coming to ask me."

Liang Gong shook her head slightly, disagreeing with him.

"Making choices for the group is precisely why leaders exist."

If a leader was unwilling even to make decisions, then why did the group need a leader at all?

Lin Feng scoffed and replied resentfully, "What's so good about being a leader? If you do well, people only think your efforts are a given. If you do badly, they think you're guilty. If you do something that doesn't suit them, they curse you, blame you, and curse your whole family—even when what you did was right in the first place."

"A bunch of cunning bastards. They throw away their own rights along with their problems and dump them on someone else, then put themselves on a pedestal and point fingers at everything. Pah! What a bunch of trash. If they're so capable, why don't they contribute more to humanity? Why act like keyboard warriors?"

Lin Feng thought again of Matsuda, who had demanded compensation and an apology from him, and those people online who stood on their moral high ground and pointed fingers at him. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and he viciously kicked the snow at the edge of the platform over the side.

"Your work in reality seems to have put you under a great deal of pressure."

"Here, have a candied hawthorn. Relax a little."

The girl produced a candied hawthorn from somewhere and offered it to Lin Feng.

Lin Feng did not take the candied hawthorn Liang Gong offered him. Instead, he took another skewer from her hand.

"I want this one that hasn't been bitten."

Liang Gong had no objection. The two found a place to sit and began chatting.

For the most part, Liang Gong listened while Lin Feng vented his resentment.

"Passerby A, do you hate humanity?"

Liang Gong suddenly asked. Having listened to Lin Feng say so much, she felt that his way of thinking was less like a Wallfacer's and more like ETO's.

Yet, to Liang Gong's surprise, Lin Feng shook his head in denial.

"No, I don't hate them. It's simply human nature."

Why would he hate humanity?

I'm human too. Would I have to hate myself as well?

"That's unexpected. After what you just said, I thought you hated humanity deeply," Liang Gong said.

Lin Feng said, "I told you already, it's a species' nature. Humans are inherently selfish, greedy, filthy, arrogant intelligent beings prone to extremes. To satisfy their twisted desires, they would even drive species to extinction."

"You belittle humanity like that, and you don't hate it? I don't understand. I've only heard similar things from people who hope humanity goes extinct as soon as possible."

The girl tilted her head, somewhat baffled. How could he not hate his own race after belittling it like that?

ETO belittled humanity in the same way. Liang Gong felt Lin Feng and ETO were alike, both extremely disappointed in humanity.

Lin Feng only thought Liang Gong was trying to recruit him into ETO.

He shook his head and asked in return, "Even if humans are inherently selfish, greedy, filthy, arrogant intelligent beings prone to extremes, and even if they drive other species to extinction to satisfy their twisted desires, does that alone mean humanity deserves to be destroyed?"

"Why? Who says so? God? The Lord?"

"Heh. If God really existed, it wouldn't care about this kind of crap. Survival of the fittest was written by that bastard—it would love to see things this way."

Liang Gong blinked. Lin Feng's unrestrained words stirred up her memories.

If God truly existed, then it really was a complete bastard. Otherwise, why had it placed the Trisolarans in a hell like the Trisolaran System?

God had never blessed the Trisolaran Civilization, never shown even the slightest love or mercy, allowing the suns to destroy the Trisolaran Civilization again and again.

The Trisolarans did not believe in God, but if there really was one, it must be maggots in shit.

"On that point, I agree. God is maggots."

Rare indeed—at this moment, on this matter, the transparent-minded Trisolarans and the opaque-minded humans reached a consensus.

"Let's not talk about that. If people can't survive without hurting someone, then that's simply their nature."

"By the way, have you considered creating Intelligent AI in the game?"

Lin Feng made the suggestion. The Three-Body Game was highly realistic, and he wanted to see what it would look like if Intelligent AI became widespread within it, triggering an explosive leap in productivity.

"Intelligent AI has a broader range of applications than humans and greater environmental tolerance. With proper planning and design, it could even function normally during low-temperature Chaotic Eras..."

To win the girl over to his proposal, Lin Feng gestured animatedly as he described the bright prospects of widespread Intelligent AI robot use.

But Liang Gong shook her head. "If those robots encounter a Great Rift, they'd be meaningless too. It would just be a waste of resources."

"A Great Rift?"

Lin Feng's movements halted.

Liang Gong explained, "It's when a planet is torn in half by a star's gravity. Aren't there Three Suns in the sky? If two stars are very close together, and the planet beneath our feet passes between them, what do you think would happen?"