Original Sin

A few days later.

Li Qing began modifying the living room of Three Rooms and One Hall, welding from the outside.

He carried in steel plates and laid down the ceiling, floor, and walls. He even sealed off the toilet. In any case, no one would be living here. In short, everything had to be airtight.

He completely remodeled it into a sealed laboratory.

Fortunately, he was already no longer human, and his body was exceptionally tough. He alone could handle the work of an entire construction crew.

He carried steel plates in and out all by himself.

At the same time, he discovered that strange changes had appeared inside over the past few days.

The entire underground kingdom in the laboratory had begun to rot.

They reveled wildly, immersed in a paradise of wine and flesh.

With the Emperor's tacit approval, the two ruthless leaders of the Human Reason Society and the Holy Reason Sect joined forces to study sensory stimulation in flesh-and-blood life—and add it to the common people.

They did not do good deeds.

Unlike before, when they had resisted alcohol and Ultraviolet Radiation and added useful genetic structures, this time they shamelessly implanted their subjects with all kinds of organs for secreting dopamine:

Appetite!

Eating would stimulate the secretion of an exhilarating, pleasurable dopamine, making people crazily addicted like a drug.

Almost all living things had a feedback response to eating, so copying it over was easy.

But naturally, they would not copy it so simply.

They deliberately intensified the stimulation. Making themselves a hundred times more sensitive than normal creatures, they caused their subjects to eat as though they were taking an aphrodisiac—moaning at the dining table, tearing their clothes open, their faces flushed red.

"Ah, this is so delicious!"

"So this is taste?"

"Thanks to the empire's wise men for evolving taste for us!"

And so they began gorging themselves, sinking into decadence.

—Gluttony had appeared.

Then, shamelessly, they added a second form of stimulation:

Possessiveness.

This was a survival instinct possessed by most beasts throughout the history of biological evolution.

Cats, dogs, tigers, apes—almost all higher animals guarded their food and desired more of it. All of that came from this biological instinct.

They wrote this physical response into the bodies of their subjects as well. Whenever they seized another person's property or plundered someone else's treasures, they would secrete an intense, illicit pleasure. Getting something for free was irresistibly addictive.

—Greed had appeared.

One after another, "inferior evil genes" that should never have been written into their bodies were implanted within them.

At that moment, the land was like Eden, and the Seven Deadly Sins began to be born.

"Wonderful!"

"Add it to me too! Make the feeling even more exciting when I eat!"

"Yes, make it even more intense!"

Countless common people began cheering. They had no idea they were about to die. They thought the engineers had found stimulating entertainment for their dull, boring lives without any amusement.

They ate and drank, gorging themselves. But gradually, some grew irritable, while others became jealous. They vented their pleasure without restraint, reveling in the thrill of slaughter and competition.

The entire kingdom became an arena.

Everyone was competing.

It was like two controlled mechs battling each other. After killing the opposing exoskeleton, they would trample it beneath their feet while listening to the cheers and applause around them.

On the streets, in the cities, across the wilderness, and in the oceans, countless exoskeletons slaughtered one another in a vast melee.

Spiders, ants, rats, grasshoppers, cockroaches, octopuses, crabs—all kinds of evolutionary creatures with exoskeletons tore into one another, creating a carnival like the law of the jungle in the most primordial age.

In the end.

The carnival lasted for three days.

The intense Soul Waves, emotional upheavals, roars, songs, and feverish excitement exhausted the lonely ghosts who had no brains and could only possess cells. One after another, they collapsed at this frenzied party.

And after the joy, Eden became Lost Paradise.

After that abundant merriment came an unprecedented and unbelievable emptiness that clung to their entire bodies.

"It's all over."

One wise man and sage after another slowly appeared and began the final harvest, converting themselves into integrated brains.

Crack!

Suddenly, an engineer who was harvesting lives was attacked.

"What are you doing?"

"Foolishness. Twenty thousand is only the minimum. If I had more, wouldn't I be stronger? I want more wisdom! I'll condense a stronger Saint Position!"

"Don't you understand? I want to seize your brain! The wisdom of ordinary commoners is only so-so, but with your wisdom, I'll definitely become stronger!"

The second slaughter began.

Of the twenty thousand people originally planned, only eight thousand remained in the end. They stood across the land, staring blankly at one another.

"We absorbed all the Atabians, and their frenzied consciousness affected us as well. We could no longer restrain ourselves from killing, and we too fell into the kingdom of sin."

After a moment of silence,

they all clearly realized that this proud group of Atabians, who had defied the gods and tried to rebel, had become history forever after this day.

They had vanished into the sinful Lost Paradise.

Across the entire surface, fewer than ten thousand people remained alive.

Crack.

At that moment, the door of the solemn and majestic grand cathedral suddenly opened.

The Pope slowly walked out and said to the slaughterers on the battlefield, "Come with me. Pray to the Lord and confess your sins to Him."

The Pope led them leisurely toward the cathedral, his voice gentle and clear.

"There is no need to worry. God will not interfere with human choice. If there is remorse in your hearts, confess it to the light."

"Thank the Lord for His tolerance and boundless love." Their tension immediately eased somewhat. "This was the choice of us people on earth. We had no other choice."

The Pope looked deeply at them and said:

"God says this is the destiny of the Age of Enlightenment!"

"God created humanity with souls that were almost pure and flawless, imbued with divinity. At this moment, in order to survive, humans allowed their bodies to become stained with the Seven Deadly Sins in Lost Paradise. The devil will be born within human nature."

His voice poured into their ears,

seeming to form eternity in that instant.

The future gods of the skies would remember that voice forever.

"Humanity stole the Forbidden Fruit. From this day onward, the root of misfortune was born. The Seven Deadly Sins, the inferior nature rooted deep within humanity, will bring disaster to every era of mankind."

They held their breath.

They soon arrived before the cathedral and entered one by one to pray.

Relief sculptures and murals of the sacred temple lined both sides. Amid its splendor was an atmosphere of peace and warmth. A gigantic golden bell hung from the magnificent belfry before the cathedral.

Clang!

The funeral bell rang out.

A special sound, transmitted through vibrations like the muttering of a god, brought a sensation of the soul being stirred and cleansed. It made people bow in worship, while an ancient, enduring sense of epic and inheritance gathered within the scene.

Inside the grand cathedral, Emperor Minis knelt on the ground, his expression devout.

"Lord, I have sinned."

"When the Lord created us, most of us were newborn children with pure, sacred white souls. After falling into the Mortal Realm, we gradually acquired sins such as gluttony, greed, and envy, becoming stained with color."

Before the statue of God, a fat white-scaled holy dragon lay obediently on the ground.

The kneeling, praying Emperor looked somewhat lost as he confessed his sins, uncertain whether what he had done was right or wrong.

Because this was the best choice. Since everyone would die anyway, it was better to let this group of the wisest people survive.

The Emperor finished praying.

Crack.

Next, the leader of the Human Reason Society entered.

"Lord, I have sinned."

His expression was likewise devout. This was not hypocrisy, but a desire for something to rely on amid his confusion.

"If we had moved faster and researched a normal head capable of housing wisdom, none of us would have died. We would not have been forced to choose that evil plan of the Holy Reason Sect."

"Our era has passed. The days when Atabia led all the pure white children in striving together are gone. The future us can never be so united."

"The mortals of the earth have begun to develop cracks between them—wariness, scheming, and lies."

"Your prayer time is over. Go." The holy dragon lying beneath the divine statue glanced at him and continued lying there.

After he left,

"You're next," the leader of the Human Reason Society said.

"Mm. I know."

The core leader of this horrifying Perfect Human Plan, the leader of the Holy Reason Sect, entered the cathedral.

No one knew that he had concealed his true identity. He had changed his appearance countless times. He was none other than the rebel leader—the Imperial Hero Herodotus—who had infiltrated the upper ranks and secretly set this great extinction into motion.

He was the true force behind it all.

His utterly exhausted figure pushed open the door of the grand cathedral.

Yet this radical leader of the Holy Reason Sect, who had advocated the Perfect Human Plan, now looked somewhat pitiful.

He carefully took out an exquisitely beautiful nano mural. It depicted a young Atabian Emperor calling out atop the towering, vast Tower of Babel, while this imperial general stood behind him as his guard.

A white tower, a clear ocean, the ancient, rugged architectural style of a primitive tribe, and a general brimming with vitality.

He stood there for a long time, memories surging into his mind like raging waves, battering this radical leader who had created mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

He recalled that day, amid the earth-covering Great Flood, when he had said to Atabia:

"Your Majesty, I believe you can surely protect all the people across the land! We have no one to help us. Perhaps we can only rely on ourselves. This is a path destined to be lonely and dangerous, but we will definitely protect everyone."

At that time, his eyes had burned with blazing flames that seemed as though they would never go out. He had sworn a knight's oath:

"I will serve Your Majesty loyally forever! As your sharpest blade, I will live and die alongside you!"

—Tch. I was lying to you.

The Imperial Hero, the Emperor's most loyal confidant, Herodotus, was actually a liar too. He hated Atabia intensely.

Even then, he had known that Atabia was not a truly gentle and benevolent sovereign.

He was merely an irritating, mad scientific lunatic—a madman pursuing truth who did not care about the lives of the common people. He only wanted to pursue the splendor of the heavens and that inconceivable world.

Yet he still had to try to bind this genius to the Emperor's Seat.

Because Atabia's talent was indispensable to the Atabians.

He was the one who truly loved every child, longed to protect every subject, and yearned for genuine peace.

But at the final moment, that mad Emperor who did not truly love his subjects had instead refused the great extinction before his death. He had refused to follow the fate granted by God. Meanwhile, Herodotus, who had always pushed Atabia to be the puppet emperor, assisted him in his research, and secretly protected the people, had now used the Perfect Human Plan to initiate this great extinction.

"The roles have been reversed. How utterly ironic." As he recalled everything, he did not know what to say for a moment. Unlike the Atabian Emperor, he sincerely wanted to preserve civilization. But what else could he do? His talents ended here. This was the best plan: taking the path Atabia had once been unwilling to take—the great extinction, killing most people so that a minority could survive. At least civilization could continue.

"I, have, sinned!"

Unlike the first two, Herodotus said nothing. He suddenly began sobbing uncontrollably, all his disguises finally released, like a pitiful wretch reduced to the very bottom.

"The Forbidden Fruit, original sin, Lost Paradise."

Yet the holy dragon lay directly beneath the divine statue, like a pet of God that had never spoken. It suddenly gazed lazily at him as he prayed before the sacred statue in the grand cathedral. Its reply sent Herodotus's emotions surging.

"God watches everything from Heaven. Herodotus, God has witnessed your story."