Synth

Chapter 49: Synth

"Even so, I still find it hard to believe..."

Qin Xia looked at Braun, sizing him up.

"A synth, a Stone Man."

"Helping humanity build a glorious space civilization, creating astonishingly advanced technologies that now seem like black boxes."

"A survivor of such a race, now working as a pilot and bodyguard for a mad slave owner on Nuceria?"

"I actually thought you might be a 30K version of Zoba Yang... How could a Stone Man not even be able to fly a plane properly?"

"..."

Hearing Qin Xia's praise and amazement about the Stone Men, Braun felt quite pleased.

As for being the Patriarch of the Tal House's bodyguard...

The Stone Man tapped his skull. "Part of it is because of the Butcher's Nails. That thing is used to control me... Speaking of which, the Theme World staff who invented it back then probably never imagined that people in later generations would embed it into the heads of baseline humans."

"What do you mean by Theme World?" Qin Xia caught a word in Braun's speech that puzzled him.

"Nuceria was a theme park over nineteen thousand years ago," Braun replied matter-of-factly. "This world itself is a playground. That star system used to be managed by an entertainment company called Nuceria."

"The company hired a large number of employees, then genetically modified them, enhanced them, allowing them to accept more cruel and horrific things, to role-play as gladiators from ancient Roman culture, or nobles living lives of debauchery every day. One of Rome's iconic cultural elements was the oppression of slaves, or something similar."

"I fully agree with your praise and admiration for the Stone Man race, but if you think that I, or my compatriots whose whereabouts are unknown, are scientists or administrators... then you're mistaken. We were simply created as non-baseline employees to play certain roles in the amusement park alongside baseline human employees."

"..."

Hearing this, Qin Xia stared at Braun in astonishment, not interrupting, and continued to listen.

Braun continued.

"Some tourists would play as slave owners, deriving pleasure from abusing employees, while some tourists would play as slaves, deriving pleasure from being abused by employees."

"There were also PvP modes where you could play as generals quelling slave revolts, or as slaves rising up against nobles."

"And after a game that could be described as utterly horrific, the baseline human employees would be anesthetized by a drug, and then undergo memory erasure with the cooperation of another drug."

"..."

Listening to what Braun said, Qin Xia felt as if he had transmigrated again.

Because the entertainment company, theme park world, role-playing, and games that Braun spoke of were completely out of place with the current state of this world called Nuceria.

After all, Nuceria had transformed from a playground, a place where tourists could freely leave and return to normal life regardless of whether they played slaves or nobles, into a living hell from which no one could escape.

Sitting in this extremely advanced aircraft, Qin Xia felt like he had become a cruel, insane tourist from tens of thousands of years ago when humanity was at its peak, visiting this world for entertainment.

"Later, Nuceria Prime, which is this world."

"The northern hemisphere of this world was packaged and sold by the company to another company. That other company opened a desert nomadic tribal culture amusement park in the northern hemisphere."

"So, it's best not to go to the northern hemisphere. There are giant desert worms and such there."

"However, the High Knights often capture people and throw them into the worms' bellies for amusement. Being careful yourself won't help with that."

"As for the subsequent Warp storm that crippled the FTL travel system, leading to the decline of civilization... that's a long story. We're almost at Desia's arena. I'll tell you more next time I pick you up or drop you off."

"..."

Braun was clearly a chatterbox.

He wouldn't have his own natural personality like baseline humans. Perhaps the humans who created him had programmed such a personality for him.

And then made Braun act as a commentator or guide for the theme park world...

Qin Xia could guess these things.

Braun's next words pulled him back to reality, back to the cruel, hellish Nuceria.

"Regardless of how it was in the past, this place has changed now."

"Like other human worlds after the Warp storm destroyed the FTL travel system, this place has become decadent, ignorant, dark, and cruel."

"The security forces of the amusement park back then, because they possessed the most and strongest military power, declared themselves nobles and enslaved other humans. Both former company employees and tourists were enslaved by them."

"Over time, even the people of Nuceria themselves forgot how civilized they once were."

"..."

Qin Xia couldn't help but interrupt, "Wait... a place for tourists to engage in bizarre entertainment activities doesn't seem very civilized either, does it?"

"If you put it that way, it's true," Braun nodded in agreement. "But I was designed to serve humans, just like the Stone Man race. I don't make any moral value judgments about human entertainment. Even though the company's complaint department became slaves enslaved by security personnel over ten thousand years ago, I still have to maintain this initial setting."

Qin Xia didn't reply, digesting what he had heard.

He had actually pondered why this place, Nuceria, was in such a state.

He had also considered the possibility that Nuceria might have once been... a theme park.

Because the homeworld of another Primarch who landed there was also suspected to have been a theme park during humanity's peak era, and that was Fenris, where Leman Russ was now.

A Nordic, Viking culture theme park.

However, this was also a conjecture, a suspicion.

It was only regarding Nuceria that Qin Xia had confirmed it through the words of this Stone Man beside him.

Of course, it wasn't impossible that this talkative Stone Man was spouting nonsense.

After thinking for a moment, Qin Xia decided to ask about something more important in this hellish Nuceria.

"Why would a Stone Man like you serve specific nobles? It's not just because of the Butcher's Nails, is it?" Qin Xia asked.

"Of course not," Braun shook his head. "The ancestors of the House of Tal were once enslaved. Their ancestors, guided by my kin, found some powerful weapons and equipment from nearly twenty thousand years ago. Then they overthrew the slave owners, but became slave owners themselves."

"I've been the steward of the House of Tal since then, serving generation after generation of patriarchs. Now it's this Patriarch of the Tal House's turn."

"I have to say, this current Tarkos is very similar to his ancestors in many ways. Both pity slaves and hate nobles and authority."

"However... I think the current Tarkos's hatred for nobles stems more from his childhood and youth experiences."

"..."

Seeing that Braun was about to go off-topic again, Qin Xia steered the conversation back on track. "What about your kin?"

"They disappeared. One day they just vanished, without a trace," Braun said. "At the time, they were worshipped as gods, and then one day they were gone. I was the only one left on Nuceria."

"Did you kill them?" Qin Xia suddenly asked.

"If I had that ability, I would have turned Nuceria back into the amusement park it once was long ago," Braun replied dismissively. "I am indeed good at combat, but my kin, who played gladiators, generals, and soldiers a long time ago, were even better at fighting. If they were here, even if we were all controlled by the Butcher's Nails, we could have found a way together to turn Nuceria back into the amusement park it once was."

"Now that the Warp storm has dissipated, the storm that turned the human race into scattered, barbaric, and ignorant nations across the galaxy will no longer affect faster-than-light travel. If Nuceria were to become the amusement park it once was, new tourists would definitely come."

"..."

"Impossible."

Qin Xia interrupted Braun once again.

"This damned place is now a hell where a group of slave owners, using relics from the peak era of the human race, enslave and slaughter civilians everywhere. Under normal circumstances, civilians could never overthrow the slave owners."

"Besides, what you call an amusement park wasn't an amusement park at all. It was just the previous hell for eccentric tourists to seek thrills."

Hearing Qin Xia speak these cruel words, Braun showed no reaction. It was clear he was well aware of all of this, but he was still mentally immersed in the past.

"You are right."

Braun nodded gently.

This Stone Man had many implants that didn't match his original limbs. It seemed that not only Nuceria had changed over these tens of thousands of years, but he had too.

"But the previous hell was my home."