Amsterdam was particularly quiet in the early morning. Apart from a few birds foraging in the snow, there wasn't a single pedestrian in sight. The overnight snowfall covered the messy footprints on the Sea Cucumber Street. In the underground clubhouse at number 1037, Howard frowned, staring at the television screen in front of him.
He turned his head and saw that the partygoers, who had been out all night and should have been asleep, were all awake, holding their breath and deep in thought, just like him.
The clubhouse was eerily quiet; you could even faintly hear the chirping of birds on the ground.
Howard, following the second leader's train of thought, kept asking himself: Who am I? Where did I come from? What am I doing here?
His head ached a little, his back felt cold, and he felt as if his nerves were crawling out of his spine, stretching out like spider silk into the dark corners of the distance.
He heard a voice say: Don't listen to her, you are the Children of Gaia!
Then I heard another voice say: Cut it off, and you will be free!
Howard's heart leaped into his throat. He wondered why such a strange voice had appeared in his mind, and where it came from.
He carefully examined the two thoughts and found that they did not seem to be his own. However, he was certain that no one around him was using their Mental Power to influence him at the moment. Moreover, the people in this club were all elites of the organization, and no one's Mental Power was strong enough to influence so many people at the same time without being detected.
Could such contradictory thoughts be hidden deep within my own consciousness? And where do they come from?
For some reason, Howard suddenly thought of Huang Liang. This China man he had personally trained always possessed something unfathomable about him. The Second Leader had chosen him and sent him to North America; he wondered how the mission was going. Was Huang Liang hearing those same voices now?
The television blared back on, abruptly pulling Howard back to reality. Startled, he snapped back to his senses, severing the distant mental connection.
He heard a sharp "clang" like a bowstring snapping, which made his head buzz. However, an unprecedented sense of ease suddenly swept over him, causing him to collapse and sit up limply.
"Our minds are always filled with various missions, and our shoulders are always burdened with various responsibilities. Our lives seem inseparable from these, and it seems that we are destined to do various things, which become the various shackles in our destiny, preventing us from being free."
But comrades, have you ever thought about this: if we don't even know where we come from or what we're here to do, then what mission do we have?
Selina's language wasn't grand or impassioned, but it possessed an irresistible charm.
"The ultimate mission of the Children of Gaia is to destroy humanity. But why do we want to destroy humanity?"
If our only goal is survival, we could simply and quietly take over human bodies. If the Earth is insufficient to support our evolution and development, we could simply leave and let humanity fend for itself. So why do we choose to destroy humanity?
If parasitism is a fact, what benefit would the parasite gain from eliminating the Parasites?
"We just mentioned that Parasitic Consciousness is essentially nothing—no matter, no image, no memory, no thought, nothing at all. Since it has nothing, it's as if it doesn't exist. So what about us Parasites? Haven't you ever wondered if Parasites might not even exist in this world?"
I'm not saying Mr. Lester is wrong. I'm just saying that perhaps we can look at the problem from a different angle—your body hasn't changed, your memories haven't changed, the people around you haven't changed, everything shows that you are still the same person you were before. The only thing that has changed is your self-perception. You suddenly believe that you are not from Earth anymore, that you belong to the ' Children of Gaia '!
Isn't this suddenness a bit too abrupt?
So, can we assume that there's something wrong with your own mental state, that someone has influenced your original thoughts and changed your cognition, rather than a new consciousness replacing your original one?
Mei Yiqiu, who was sitting at his desk listening attentively, suddenly chuckled, and the pipe he had been smoking fell out of his mouth.
"Could it be that these so-called Parasites are just a group of mentally ill people, and the Earth has been on edge for years because of them, even almost causing a world war? Of course, if it's an infectious disease... then it's indeed quite serious... hahaha..."
The professor laughed for a while, then suddenly his face darkened, turning sorrowful. " Selina, Selina! Why are you doing this? The net is already woven, the bait already cast, there was no need to do this! Don't you know how much you're making me worry...?"
Vancouver at night is shrouded in a hazy glow, draping the city in a veil that conceals its bustling prosperity. This is Vancouver's unique charm—brilliant yet gentle, unlike the flamboyance of New York or the intense intensity of Montreal.
The traffic that was normally flowing through the streets of Vancouver came to a standstill, and the pedestrians disappeared, all gathering in front of the large screens in the squares and shopping malls.
Qingmu squeezed to the edge of the crowd and stared at the screen for a while.
He knew, of course, that Selina was wrong; the Parasites truly existed. Otherwise, what were the shadows he saw in Xia Wenyuan and Old Wolf's dreams?
Those Awakened naturally know of the existence of consciousness and spirit.
However, he doesn't deny that from another perspective, from the perspective of Earth science, Selina's statement isn't wrong either. Nothingness has any reason to exist, and viewing Parasitic Consciousness invasion as a mental problem is not unreasonable; at least in terms of outcome, they are the same. The only difference is that, theoretically, mental problems can be repaired and reversed, while it's unknown whether one can revert to their original state after successful parasitism.
From the gentle, wind-like spiritual energy emanating from the large television screen, Qingmu understood that the focus of Selina's speech wasn't on what she said, but on the spirit she conveyed through her actions. Her audience wasn't all of humanity, but primarily her "comrades."
Qingmu took out his phone, opened a video app, plugged in his earphones, and left the crowd.
He had to get to Professor Dickinson's house as soon as possible, but to his dismay, he couldn't hail a taxi on the street.
Dickinson sat motionless on the sofa, a half-smile on her face, as if listening to an old friend reminisce.
Selina's speech continued:
"... Whether you are human or Parasites, my friends, comrades, have you ever thought about where every thought you have comes from, how every choice you make is made? Have you ever felt lost or regretful? Have you ever had the feeling that everything is not what you want, that someone in the dark is controlling your thoughts and influencing your consciousness?"
When will we achieve true freedom?
I don't want to go on and on about the value of freedom, which is something universally acknowledged. I just want to say that true freedom lies first and foremost in our ability to truly decide our own thoughts and control our own ideas. If we can't even control our thoughts, then our souls are not free, and our consciousness is not truly our own. We are merely one tentacle of an octopus, and in the distant void, a giant octopus brain controls us.
As a human being, whether you are a human being on Earth or Children of Gaia in your perception, you should sever this tentacle and achieve independence in consciousness and soul...
Dickinson touched the lump on her neck, laughed self-deprecatingly, and muttered to herself, "Am I not a tentacle myself?"
As Selina's spiritual energy grew stronger, Dickinson said uneasily into the void, "Won't she... she'll get hurt like this? This... this is practically suicide!"
A voice in his head answered him, "By spreading her spirit throughout the world, she will truly be one with the world! She was a great person, and her name will be etched in human history."
As they spoke, Selina continued her speech. Just as Saladin said that humanity would remember her name, Selina uttered a slogan that would have a profound impact on human civilization, so much so that tens of thousands of years later, when humanity ventured out of the Milky Way and scattered the seeds of civilization throughout the universe, it still inspired people:
"Freedom for mortals!"
At the same time, the door to the Dickinson house was pushed open...