Dialogue

A miracle appeared, and a new god was born.

The new church on the ground began spreading its doctrine and launched a counterattack.

The two great churches began carving up the entire world, triggering an unprecedented bloodbath.

The common people even began defecting, feeling that the emperor was more trustworthy. After all, under His Majesty's guidance, he had indeed saved them time and again, while the Outer Gods kept exterminating them.

Large numbers of Atabians began to awaken.

And high above the ground—

This newly born god, all white bones and rattling limbs, swayed as he struggled to support his body.

It was like a patient who had been paralyzed for decades suddenly being able to climb out of bed and walk during rehabilitation.

Li Qing sat on the other side of the glass, looking at the withered skeleton that was the same size and build as himself. He could not shake the feeling that a nameless skeleton soldier from a Western fantasy world had appeared in reality.

Before, they had imprisoned Ning Guochang.

Now, they had imprisoned a skeleton monster.

But how could Li Qing be afraid?

To put it simply, they had created a person—a person who walked all over the streets, someone like the old lady next door or Susannie.

Could he break through tempered glass?

No.

There were limits to humanity.

In the current situation, Li Qing was indeed terrified.

If outsiders saw this scene, they might mistake him for some perverted killer who had imprisoned someone in a movie, playing out a twisted captivity fantasy. They would be so frightened that they would wet themselves and call the police, while he would be unable to explain himself.

For the time being, he had no other worries.

"Should I call you the Suffering God, Mebius?" the Outer God's voice came from beyond the heavens.

A person on the ground had passed himself off as a god, while the Evil God beyond the heavens of the Crystal Wall World showed neither anger nor joy. He seemed aloof and cold, as though he did not belong to the mortal world, and simply said:

"Mortal, you are completely insane. This is beyond what your civilization can currently achieve. You should know that once you have such a massive body, you will have to worry about its lifespan."

This giant would eventually die of old age.

The one before him was clearly malnourished, a disabled person with congenital genetic defects who found even walking difficult. They simply could not manufacture a complete human being.

The human organism was extraordinarily delicate and fragile. The slightest missing genetic fragments could result in all kinds of disabilities—hemophilia, albinism, bodily deformities. How enormous were the missing fragments in this human experimental subject? Perhaps he would soon die as his genetic-defect disease slowly destroyed him.

"Yes, I've already gone mad. I can feel it now. After implanting myself into this giant shell, I have only six days left to live."

Mebius, the Great Emperor of Atabia, sensed the vast Outer God beyond the Crystal Wall World and answered frankly.

He sat upon the Neuron Throne, his lower body already embedded within the giant. He and the giant had become one; when the giant died, he would die as well.

That was the price.

This was different from those fish. It was the enormous price of controlling this mech.

He sat in the neural wheelchair of the Emperor's Seat, his voice calm. "As long as I can evolve this shell, I can extend my lifespan. I'll evolve madly as before. As long as I'm fast enough, I can outrun death! Perhaps I'll die on the road, but I have my dignity. I refuse to let a god arrange my destiny for me!"

His voice carried an anger that rose straight from his bones. After all, no one liked having their life arranged for them.

"You're being too reckless."

The voice came from beyond the heavens, vast and rolling, without joy or sorrow.

"You should know that this is only one choice!" he said helplessly, spreading his hands.

He seemed like a dialectical philosopher, always maintaining the gentle bearing of a scholar on the surface, yet somehow resembling a kind psychopath who had gone on a killing spree. "In the end, this is merely forced evolution in the face of death. How is evolving through this shell any different from evolving through the repeated extinctions of civilizations before?"

Building this giant had indeed been no easy task for him.

Their technological capabilities, developing normally, were far from sufficient. All they could do was copy what they saw.

They had frantically simplified the "Giant God Gene Blueprint," using the spine as the center and forcibly shaping a person.

At present, there were no eyes, ears, mouth, nose, internal organs, heart, or blood vessels—none of those hyper-precise organs.

It was merely a humanoid mass of flesh composed of [skeleton] + [muscle], possessing only the outer form.

But that was already enough!

No technology could reach the heavens in a single step.

When Nuwa created humanity, she first shaped rough clay figures before carving their forms and features.

He was doing the same.

First, he would cover the enormous human skeleton with muscle and shape it. Then, on this flesh-and-mud doll, he would slowly evolve detailed meridians, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, billions of blood vessels, and the five viscera and six bowels, opening the visual and auditory nerves.

Li Qing barely spoke.

But the emperor on the other side kept adapting to the enormous body while speaking.

"For now, this is only the framework of a god."

His lower body seemed like the roots of a great tree, sunk into the Neuron Throne. "O god, the more I analyze the Gene Script, the more I marvel at the sheer power of divine life."

The Great Emperor of Atabia faced the chaotic Evil God beyond the wall and said coldly:

"According to the endless calculations of us Atabians, your gods have lifespans of at least three hundred years, boundless strength, and the ability to continue evolving yourselves. You are still far from reaching your peak, and you possess all kinds of mysterious superpowers!"

"From the perspective of humanity, your abilities in every respect truly qualify you as gods beyond imagination."

Li Qing frowned.

Is he talking about us humans?

But he soon realized the reason.

The genetic structural blueprint they had obtained belonged to the superhuman Ning Guochang, the Zombie Lord.

A lifespan of at least three hundred years was true. That individual had indeed been expelled from the ranks of humanity. What they had built according to Ning Guochang's blueprint was not a human at all, but an "extraterrestrial life-form"!

"At the same time, we discovered that a god's Energy Level is far too vast! It contains an astonishing and unfathomably deep power!"

The Great Emperor of Atabia said, "Our energy is only enough to build this skeleton."

Even building a skeleton this large had consumed the resources of an entire nation.

And most of those resources had come from the shelves behind Ning Guochang's room.

The cup noodles in tubs, the bagged instant noodles, the sausages, and the hot dogs had all been devoured by the Atabians, who tore open their packaging.

Otherwise, with their impoverished world, the combined strength of the entire nation would not have been enough to build even this giant skeleton.

"But how could we possibly stop here?"

The Great Emperor of Atabia's voice was gentle, as though he were confiding in a friend. He said happily, "We want to build a god of our own. How could we stop at a skeletal framework? We want to create a complete true god!"

"Could it be?" Li Qing revealed a trace of surprise.

"Yes! That's right!! As an Outer God, you are too powerful, so you cannot easily descend into our world! You can only watch helplessly as we give birth to a true god. This will display the greatest wisdom and courage of us Atabians!"

He suddenly laughed again.

"We will steal the authority of the gods, beginning by first stealing the gods' food!"

Like a newborn infant, he controlled the enormous exoskeleton as it turned and staggered toward the huge shelf behind him.

The bagged instant noodles and sausages had all been opened long ago and used as energy to develop their civilization.

But they could not open the sealed packaging of the canned meat and fruit. Their backward Atabians simply lacked the ability.

But at this moment, the Atabian sages' eyes immediately burned with fervor.

Previously, the Atabians had exhausted every means to open the cans and bottled mineral water, yet had failed. They had been forced to marvel at the terrifying power and profound foundation of the gods, who could open Divine Food with ease.

But now—

They possessed the power of a god as well!

They possessed this incomparably mighty, incomparably grand divine power.

The Great Emperor of Atabia controlled the body as it slowly approached. Even his usually calm heart was somewhat agitated, as though he could sense truth just before him, about to lift a corner of the mysterious laws governing the world of the gods.

What was the world of the gods like?

What structure did their food possess?

What abilities did it contain?

Could various gene sequences be analyzed from the food?

Could they use it to glimpse the environment of the world beyond, where the gods dwelled?

He grabbed a can of beef and slowly pulled.

Crack!

The bone broke, fissures appearing across it.

Splurt!

A large amount of muscle tore apart, blood and flesh bursting outward.

With the genetic engineering of humans forcibly simplified, this human was like someone suffering from osteoporosis, muscular atrophy, and severe hemophilia all at once. Merely surviving in this world was already a miracle.

Li Qing fell silent.

You were born with such an imposing aura.

Every Atabian city cheered for you.

The All Living Beings on the ground chanted your divine name.

And then you turned around and opened a can in front of me?

The cans Ning Guochang left behind should not have expired, right?

Although Li Qing complained inwardly, he also somewhat understood this unpredictable emperor. As expected, most geniuses were eccentric madmen. Otherwise, they would never have created something as insane as the Tower of Babel.