The nexus of the new island of Lisbon.

Inside the Forest of the Edge Library.

The old Diego Flores trembled as he held the steaming glass, his pale lips taking a sip along the rim of the glass, and only after the hot water flowed down his throat into his stomach and the warmth had slightly driven away the oppressive feeling brought to him by [the miracle of the world], he looked ahead again.

The man in the black clerical uniform stood there, with an indifferent expression on his face, as if the world was irrelevant. In his left hand, he gently held a black quaint book, which exuded traces of time. He flipped the pages with gentle movements, reading intently.

He stood there, like a traveler walking on the edge of time, his gaze calm and profound.

The amber eyes revealed a kind of otherworldly indifference, as if he could glimpse some kind of existence while reading.

Xu was aware of the gaze of old Flores, and the first sword-wielder in the kingdom of heaven, who had been obsessed with books, raised his head to look at the other party.

When the old man came into contact with St. Valentine's eyes, he subconsciously shuddered, a certain horror - this horror stemmed from his fear of the concrete miracle of a specific idea, a certain fear of poetic existence.

"Looks like you're almost rested."

St. Valentine noticed the shiver and strange light that flashed in the depths of the old man's pupils, the kind of eyes he knew all too well, the kind of gaze that looked like a monster.

He didn't care about that.

The First Sword Bearer of Heaven continued to speak his words.

"Who is Pedro Iberia?"

When he heard the name Pedro Iberia, the elder Flores' hands holding the cup couldn't help but tremble.

His already tired expression collapsed instantly, the depths of his eyes irrepressibly revealed sadness, and the liquid in the cup shook slightly, as if recording the waves in his heart.

Old Flores' fingers gripped the cup tightly, but the trembling force made his hand tremble slightly.

The name was like an electric current running through his body, evoking memories buried deep in his heart, and he couldn't contain the weight of grief.

"Where did you hear the name Pedro Iberia?" Old Flores looked at the man in front of him with a sad expression.

"From the Silverhand royal family, the lock in their minds is too thick, and the lock is surrounded by a dense defense with bells, and without triggering a large-scale chain reaction, I can only slightly pluck [the thread of Kloto] (Κλωθ, the spinner of fate) from it. The source point of the line, I got a name - Pedro Iberia. St. Valentine's expression was calm and he spoke of the appalling deeds.

Just a simple peep can trace back to the origin with thousands of [lines of relationships] and go straight to the essence.

"That lock is tricky, and in order to avoid detection, I can only pull out another related line along the line of origin, and the result of this line is you."

St. Valentine said what he meant directly, and he turned to old Flores and continued, "Tell me about Pedro Iberia and I will help you avoid the contamination of the locks." However, this approach requires the cooperation of others. ”

"Will you cooperate with me?"

The first sword-wielder in the kingdom of heaven asked in a solemn tone to old Flores.

Old Flores' lips were slightly open, he had wanted to refuse.

However, when the man's name flashed in his mind, as well as remorse, sadness, and self-reproach for the past, the words of rejection were like a hard stone stuck in his throat. He felt the contradictions and entanglements in his heart, as if he was fighting against the shadows of the past.

Eventually, old Flores' lips trembled slightly, and he agreed.

"Pedro Iberia, this is an orphan brought back from a lost monastery by an old hunter who once adopted him from a lost convent, and the hunter brought the orphan back to Iberia, and gave the child the surname Iberia, a topic that can never be avoided until he is spoken of - the topic of [electronic passage].

As you know, Iberia is one of the few countries with high welfare and extraordinary benefits, and the [Hunting Agency] is in charge of domestic affairs, and hunters play a very important role in the life of the people.

And the roots of all of this stem from [the electronic channel].

Relying on the [electronic channel], Iberia was the first coastal country to complete social reforms within the central government; Due to the endless supply of energy [electronic channels], a comprehensive social security system has been implemented in China for a long time, and they cover many fields such as medical care, unemployment, and pensions; Congress also provides comprehensive health care services, ensuring that all Iberian citizens have access to high-quality medical care, regardless of economic status; Education reform has long been in full swing, with the state providing free or low-cost education, including basic and tertiary education.

These are only the impact at the national level, at the individual level, labor rights and interests have also been fully protected, including wages, working hours, working conditions, etc., we have a huge confidence to ensure that citizens can get reasonable treatment at work; At the household level, social benefits such as childcare allowances, maternity leave and care services have been widely available, which can fully support a family's life and the development of children.

And all of this is based on [electronic channels].

Pedro does not hate the high welfare society, he once said that the citizens of no country will refuse the temptation of a high welfare society, and the whitewashed too good, based on the reality of the future exploitation, will never be able to match the happiness that can be accessed on this shore.

The yearning for a better life is the yearning for reality, not the ethereal conceptual bubble that is about to be religiousized.

Yet, even with this, Pedro Iberia questions the very foundations of all this happiness, and he is challenging the happiness of the entire Iberian citizenry, of the society shaped by the transcendent. ”

"The pursuit of truth is never a beautiful thing, even if the words are conclusive, even if you know the truth, but..."

Old Flores stretched out his faint eyes and stared at the first sword-bearer in the kingdom of heaven.

“··· In the face of ignorance, even if it is the kingdom of heaven, it can only be silent. ”

"And what about the kid?"

"Despite the rhetoric of our civilization in advocating noble goals and idealism, in the face of reality, all our actions seem to be motivated by the pursuit of the comforts of life as individuals or as a group of human beings.

Although we understand that smoking is harmful to the body, we prefer to develop non-carcinogenic cigarettes rather than quit smoking. Internal combustion engines pollute the atmosphere, and while the best solution is to stop using them, we prefer to create engines that don't pollute the air.

The selfishness of human nature makes us more focused on immediate gains, and the arrogant belief as if we are the creators of the world, believing that all resources should serve us, never really sees or deliberately chooses to ignore possible future crises and harm to other lives.

Although the above description may seem like an environmental guardian preaching, in the face of this ignorance, humanity seems to be caught in a dilemma: if we look at the world and treat the world with the lofty ideals we proclaim, then it is equivalent to giving up the current interests; And being too attached to the "comfort" created by the current civilization is doomed to possible "perdition" in the future.

The reality is that our choices seem to favor the latter.

Unless there is a direct threat of disaster that jeopardizes a comfortable life, we don't want to start thinking about it in earnest.

This means that humanity has never been able to win this battle against ignorance. ”

"Pedro Iberia, the madman in the eyes of the world, is trying to challenge the Iberian order, and all the ideas he puts forward against [the electronic channel] will only become a sensitive taboo subject."

"There is a gap in status in every existing large society, which is the embodiment of the order of this society, and the balance maintained by the current society, but some balance points are very steep and unstable, and some balance points are relatively flat and can be stable for a long time; There are sensitivities in any startling initial condition, and early differences in each ancestor individual can have a huge impact on a social system—this corresponds to the "initial conditionality sensitivity" in chaos theory, where small changes can lead to large differences in the future evolution of the system.

The steeper the equilibrium point of the social system, the easier it is to slip from the current equilibrium point, so it always requires a lot of effort to maintain it, and at the same time further shape the steepness of this equilibrium point; The more flat the equilibrium of the social system, the easier it is to remain in its current state, and the less force it needs to maintain, while further shaping the equilibrium of this equilibrium. Public systems require a great deal of power to maintain certain equilibrium states, i.e., the ability of interactions and rules within the system to produce self-adjustment and self-organization.

The state needs to control boundary conditions with extraordinary tightness and maintain a large amount of energy input, and as the energy of the system increases, the input energy demand increases rapidly.

With [the electronic channel], Iberia easily balances this point, but Pedro wants to pry this point, he wants to upset the current social balance.

The problem that needs to be overcome to introduce radical change is the dependence of society on the path and on the current welfare system. ”

"These things are not something that Pedro can easily change, and when he shows hostility towards [the electron channel], he is destined to become the rock that is constantly washed away against the current."

"For this, he lost the name Iberia that he was proud of, from the genius Pedro Iberia, who was praised by everyone in the eyes of the world, to the betrayer of humanity, Pedro Miguesette, who was spurned by everyone."

"Do you know the meaning of the name Miguel Set?"

"It was the name of an alien race called Miguel Set, a race that was jokingly called the 'fooled fools' by the Iberian Academy of Sciences—"

Old Flores' voice became hoarse unconsciously.

Like a beast that roared in anger, his voice contained deep unwillingness.

The old man's chest seemed to be ignited by the flames of anger, and every breath was filled with struggle and unease.

The bloodshot eyes were like windows, revealing unfathomable rage.

It's a kind of anger that has been precipitated for a long time, a fire buried deep in the heart.

The flames of memory are stirring out in the memories of the past.

And when the old man mentioned the name [Pedro] many times, as if some abnormal mutation had been triggered, the whole room suddenly became extremely depressed.

A suffocating viscous sensation fills every inch of space.

The surrounding atmosphere is like the deep sea, silent and unsettling, as if it hides endless dark secrets.

Strange dark blue bubbles suddenly appeared, and then shattered into countless tiny particles.

Each bubble reflects an eerie deep glow that makes people feel an indescribable fear.

And in the luster, thousands of black lines suddenly emerged, disorderly and frantically extending in all directions. These lines are intertwined, as if they are tentacles in the abyss, with endless evil.

In this eerie luster, a thread quietly appeared, followed by two, then thousands, ten thousands·······

Tens of millions of threads stretch outward from nothingness. These lines are intertwined and intertwined, forming a complex and unknowable web.

Dense bells hung from each thread, making a faint and eerie jingling sound. And the source of all these threads actually came from a quaint lock, which was quietly suspended in the air, and the lines at the lock mouth extended outward like countless tentacles.

"Thou... When··· Quiet··· Mo—'

"Thou... When··· Silence··· Mo—'

In this dark corner, there was a sudden and terrifying murmur, as if oozing from the dreams of the dead, and an ancient and terrifying strange spell echoed in the air.

The murmur was not the language of any living being, but an incomprehensible muffled chant, like the gates of hell opened, containing an unknowable abyss and dead silence.

Each syllable is filled with an indescribable horror that seems to summon something abominable from the shadows.

This strange murmur penetrated into people's hearts, making people's reason involuntarily begin to sway, and cognition gradually collapsed under the shroud of this dark sound.

Each syllable is like a rusty dagger, piercing into the heart and inspiring the deepest fears.

In this resounding murmur, as if echoes from the dark abyss could be heard, the souls of the dead were awakened, and the sleeping nightmares were awakened again.

When—

A crisp tapping sounded.

All the visions came to a sudden break.

St. Valentine tapped the floor with the black umbrella in his hand, and behind him floated an angel representing the wrath of heaven.

"Cut off."

The deep voice of the first sword-wielder in the kingdom of heaven rang out.

Then, the cutting blade named [Atropos] (τροπο, the terminator of fate) began to cut through the dense thread, and [Cassirer] flew over to Old Flores and extended his hand.

And the old Flores, who was entwined in the lines, took the initiative to reach out his hand and shook the rescue hand of the wrath of heaven.

Puff –

When old Flores took the initiative to cooperate with the rescue, it meant that the contamination of the lock could no longer prevent the [Atroposian Scissors] from being removed.

Qiang –

The blade slashed, and the blockade broke.

…………

(End of chapter)