The cunning Abraham was no longer easily fooled, but the kind-hearted Duoxia was never difficult to deceive.
In the year 4513 of Norton, with His Majesty Regent Duoxia relinquishing his power, he quietly disappeared from the Holy Lord Holy See.
No one knows why this regent, who had persisted in the struggle for a thousand years, suddenly resigned or disappeared without a trace.
Compared to this overwhelming public opinion, the sudden addition of a research department to the Pale Holy See's ranks seems rather insignificant.
Not many people, whether inside or outside the community, paid any attention.
Of course, it is also a top-secret project and is not disclosed to the public at all.
This research department isn't researching anything else; it's specifically dedicated to studying the intelligence of Aberration.
Its sole original purpose was to investigate and prove whether Aberration possess intelligence!
Significant progress was made in the first two years.
Theories on Aberration have been rapidly developed. By observing the movement paths and behaviors of Star System Aberration, as well as a series of individual actions, they have almost confirmed that these terrifying life forms do indeed possess some kind of advanced intelligence.
Its behavior manifests itself in its domestication-like behavior towards humans and its cooperative behavior and interactions with its own kind.
This result left the researchers utterly devastated.
These things were already overwhelming for the Human Federation with their instinctive intrusion, and now that they have developed advanced intelligence, isn't this just adding insult to injury?
Their ability to be domesticated and interact with other cats is so sophisticated that their intelligence rivals that of ordinary cats and dogs, which is undoubtedly terrifying.
Panic gripped the research institute; some even committed suicide by shooting themselves in their rooms.
In such a desperate atmosphere, the head of the research institute, the one who held supreme power, Regent Duoxia, defied all opposition and directed the institute to make in-depth contacts.
It issued two targets.
First, try to contact those Star System Aberration to see if they possess genuine, communicative intelligence.
Second, if it possesses true wisdom, try to communicate with it and attempt peace.
This decision was met with strong resistance from the institute's staff.
Who doesn't know how ferocious the Aberration? Who doesn't know how many armies struggle to resist the Aberration on the front lines?
Even the Aberration scattered like these are difficult to resist; how could one possibly get close enough to make contact?
Putting everything else aside, just in terms of size, they are no bigger than ants compared to those Star System Aberration!
And in this world, who would care about the needs and interactions of ants?
Such an idea is simply wishful thinking.
The research institute refused to comply and vowed to resist Duoxia's unwarranted actions. Some researchers even claimed that he was simply grasping at straws in desperation, plunging the already struggling Human Federation into an endless Hell!
Unfortunately, no matter how much they protested, Regent Duoxia seemed to have gone mad and insisted on having people conduct a close inspection.
In Norton 4517, under the iron fist of Regent Duoxia, the Institute was forced to establish close observers.
Those who had previously questioned the Regent's will were all honored to be selected as close observers of the Aberration, participating in the first batch of observation and contact experiments.
How are such brutal and inhumane methods any different from those of the Popes of the Holy Lord Empire in the past?
Under such violent coercion, in the winter of 2017, the first research team from Norton set out.
Thanks to the Anchor technology for space jumps, they only need to set the corresponding Anchor to instantly teleport to those Star System Aberration. This allows them to bypass the endless stream of smaller Aberration and directly contact the Star System Aberration. The only side effect is that they may die on the spot too easily.
Their mission was not to communicate directly with the so-called Star System Aberration, but to place survey instruments to survey the structure of suspected neural pathways.
All thoughts and emotions in this world are, in fact, the flow of matter. For example, human thoughts and emotions all benefit from the movement and reception of neurotransmitters.
Even that bastard Norton, without a body, had no thoughts or emotions. What appeared to be supreme thought was in reality no different from death.
Even such a deity cannot escape the shackles of needing to solidify a physical body to unleash his bestial nature, let alone these Aberration who are far inferior to Norton.
This can be said to be the fundamental structural truth of the world, and the basic logic that no life can change.
Therefore, to truly confirm whether these Aberration have developed thoughts and emotions, we only need to examine whether they possess the conditions necessary for the development of thoughts and emotions.
Thus began a great exploration in the name of sacrifice.
Since the winter of Norton 4517, wave after wave of warships have set sail again, using space jumps to set predetermined Anchor, so as to instantly appear on the bodies of those Star System Aberration and explore their internal structures.
The Star System Aberration is Sixth Stage life form, devoid of consciousness and even unable to contract its Pressure. If such a human warship were to fly over it, it would be crushed into dust, resulting in the destruction of the ship and the loss of all life. Only a meager amount of information obtained from a single, insignificant moment could be transmitted back.
Initially, under the strong pressure of His Majesty Duoxia, the Human Federation still employed genuine Church knights and actual warships.
After figuring out the pattern, they began to use space jumps only to deploy detection equipment, instead of sending personnel to make unnecessary sacrifices.
This significantly reduced the resistance the operation faced, allowing it to proceed smoothly.
Over a century, the Human Federation launched countless probes, each of which only transmitted very superficial results. However, despite the long duration and the unreliable spatial jumps, the probe still yielded results.
A result that defies belief for all scientific researchers.
This so-called Star System Aberration with advanced intelligence is entirely composed of flesh and blood tissue, lacking any regular or organized internal structure. It has no system resembling blood vessels, nerves, or a brain; its entirety is simply a pure, still-living mass of flesh and blood.
It's more like a piece of living meat made up of countless cells!
According to modern understanding, it is similar to Tai Sui, an aggregate composed of various bacteria.
Moreover, regardless of size, even those small Aberration that look bizarre and resemble various strange life Aberration, they all share the same internal structure as the large Aberration!
This is extremely, absolutely, utterly abnormal!
This abnormality is not limited to the so-called large Aberration; even the small Aberration are equally abnormal.
Because it lacks the biological tissues that a living organism should have, such as bones, muscle groups, nervous system, and ligaments, it is merely a lump of living flesh. How could such a lump of living flesh possibly rush towards you frantically and kill you by various means?
Putting aside other things, the tentacles commonly found on those Aberration require a sophisticated muscle and nervous system to control in order to have the ability to roll and invade!
For example, the tentacles of a common octopus have a complex nervous system that controls its complex muscles.
A lump of rotten flesh without nerves and muscle tissue, a living mass of flesh, according to realistic theory, even if it could be born, it would only lie limp on the ground, motionless, like a dead thing, and then truly rot.
How could it possibly possess the insatiable instinct to ravage, to writhe its uncontrollable body, and to kill humans?
Besides, those Star System Aberration are even more bizarre. How could such a simple mass of flesh possibly develop advanced intelligence? Let alone develop advanced intelligence, they shouldn't even be able to move the tentacles on their bodies!
What's even more unsettling is that, while studying the small Aberration they captured or killed, they discovered something even more terrifying.
These things shouldn't even have the concept of life and death!
Because surviving small Aberration are essentially living flesh, and the corpses of killed small Aberration, after research, shouldn't even be called corpses, since the cells in the undamaged parts of their bodies are still alive. Only the areas where they were hit suffered some tissue damage and death due to the gunshot wound. Therefore, apart from some tissue damage and death in the hit areas, these killed Aberration are essentially the same as living Aberration —still alive.
However, these dead Aberration were truly dead, lying motionless on the experimental table, a stark contrast to the Aberration that were imprisoned but still wriggling nearby.
Biologically speaking, they are not dead. Because they do not need any organs to survive, nor do they need any tissue systems to move. Except for the area hit, they are still active and should be able to move.
But in the sense of being hit, they died, so now they lie motionless on the lab table.
What the hell does that mean?
Conceptual death?
This is way too rough!
This result nearly drove the research institute to madness.
"What the hell are these things? They shouldn't be able to move on their own! So why have they turned into such a hideous and terrifying erosion?"
"Damn it, these things are definitely being controlled by something! They're not dead at all; their flesh and blood are still alive, they should be wriggling! But why are they conceptually dead?"
"Those Star System Aberration couldn't possibly possess intelligence! They're just a lump of rotten flesh!"
"Why haven't we studied these small and large Aberration before? How could our Human Federation have made such a huge oversight? Shouldn't studying hostile targets be the most basic skill in combat? Why, after a thousand years Aberration struggle, has no one noticed that something is wrong?"
"No... no... no!!!! I understand, no! Your Majesty, I am so devout, I am so loyal!!!"
"Bang!"
With a gunshot, blood and brain tissue splattered in the laboratory.
Another researcher committed suicide by shooting himself; his body lay face up on the table in the research laboratory.
His eyes were wide open, filled with unbelievable despair and extreme pain from betrayal.
Following his suicide, top-secret personnel waiting in a special area outside the laboratory immediately entered the research room and dragged the still-warm body out of the laboratory.
They don't participate in the experiments, or even observe them, so they cannot understand the suffering of these researchers.
One by one, the speculations and research results were sent by secret agents to the top-secret department, into the hands of Duoxia.
The agonizing screams and desperate gunshots echoed continuously throughout the experiment.
After all, no devout believer can tolerate the Lord's betrayal...