091. Pseudo-humans

  The terfeit Society— Phylolith, is a cruel and unscrupulous monster.

  It often roams the boundary universe between Narrative 11 "United pany" and Narrative 12 "Temple of Annihition."

  Narratives are universes trolled by hegemonic civilizations, with their spad time fully mastered by these civilizations, following indepe rules. Eaarrative spans hundreds of billions of gaxies.

  Li Aozi, or even Azure Star, is just a small p under such a grand narrative.

  Monsters like the Society are different. Mortals only uand the Society as "civilization devourers," knowing little else.

  Li Aozi didn’t know much about Phylolith either.

  He only khat its power and mobility far surpassed human uanding, and its mysterious transdent presence was extraordinarily lofty. As a ic lifeform that feeds on civilizations, it troubles even narratives.

  There is no way to eliminate or stop its predation, only to persuade it to leave.

  But, pared to its god-like status in civilization... people feel more fear than respect for its infiltratiohods.

  As its name "terfeit" suggests, when it infiltrates a narrative, it sends its "citizens"— its cells— into various civilizations. They adapt, choose, eat some of the civilization's beings, repce them, and tio act, eventually dev the entire civilization.

  The basic citizens of the terfeit Society are called "pseudo-humans."

  Pseudo-humans are terrifying creatures that approach humahem, and repce their identities, disguising themselves as humans to tinue living, tag other humans, and theing them.

  "The Abyss has gone mad... they were initially just anti-human, now they're against the entire ic civilization!"

  Li Aozi looked at the pseudo-human corpse on the ground. Besides the face, which was entirely different, the rest was almost identical to him, sending chills down his spine.

  Initially, no one paid attention to these pseudo-humans, thinking they were just a group of "doppelgaales. Most pseudo-humans entered early on were not very strong, and not worth w about.

  But for NPCs, these creatures were not too difficult to deal with; for pyers, they were terrifying.

  Because pseudo-humans could repce pyers.

  Ohey killed a pyer, they could fool the system's panel information and infiltrate the crowd disguised as pyers.

  The intelligence level of pseudo-humans was terrifying, with deep learning capabilities parable to AI. Some pseudo-humans, mimig emotional fluctuations, could blend into any circle without dete.

  Pyers often discovered, after chatting for a while about what to eat after logging off, that the person they were talking to suddenly grinned and said:

  "I'll eat you."

  Pyers had to stantly maintain out-of-game tact to avoid the risk of pseudo-humans infiltrating their teams. Later on, pyers horrifyingly realized that pseudo-humans could master their jargon, thought strategies, and a paths, even simuting the tone and habits of repced pyers.

  Except for being uo resurrect, they were almost indistinguishable from pyers.

  Due to the hyper-realistic immersion of Star Abyss, internal unication and friends could only be made through in-game phoerminals— which pseudo-humans could fiscate.

  Pyers had to rely on out-of-game voice els to unicate with teammates, but over 70% of pyers pyed with random teams.

  This led to pyers always stig together, and those who left the team were suspected of being repced by pseudo-humans.

  Once a of suspi formed, trust never returo its inal state.

  Pyers broke down faster than NPormal tasks became impossible, and mahe game with deep psychological scars.

  By the time of version 2.5, pyers faced eveer pressure— pseudo-humans could now fully replicate pyers' skills and tactics.

  Additionally, sinPC temptes ignored version level restris, pseudo-humans' levels were generally higher than pyers'.

  When pseudo-humans infiltrated a team, pyers often first bmed and suspected each other, leading to infighting and self-destru, only to be eventually killed by the far stronger pseudo-humans who repced them.

  At this point, pyers couldn't progress in the game, and Azure Star colpsed due to the pseudo-human invasion, with no orusting each other anymore, and the basic team cooperation of civilization disied.

  Thus, the solo advantage of the 【Dominion】 path started to show.

  After version 2.5, Star Abyss urgently added exclusive guild and team voice funs to prevent pseudo-human persecution.

  "Pseudo-humans..."

  Li Aozi gripped the hilt.

  The ic Charter and major narratives explicitly prohibited researg the Society's "citizens," as it could lead to the destru of entire civilizations.

  No one knew where these monsters came from, but everyone followed the principle of "destroy on sight," like immediately isoting a virus carrier.

  By doing this, the Abyss was not only against the outsiders but also the entire Azure Star and the whole of Star Abyss!

  "They don’t even uand what Omega energy is, yet they make pseudo-humans into ons. Snow too, a bizarre psychic treated as an Omega user..."

  Now Li Aozi uood why Assistant Doctor Anna thought the Camity theory was baseless.

  Although he khe essence of Camity... others saw it as the professor not uanding Omega energy, uo distinguish between Omega and psychiergy, even sidering pseudo-humans as Omega users.

  This was due to Azure Star's ck of a transdental knowledge system, a phenomenon called 'metaphysical superstition' in the os.

  Humans, using their shallow knowledge, tried to analyze and expin phenomena outside their stific system, leading to such strange phenomena.

  This wasn’t wrong, just the sadness of an underdeveloped and backward era.

  After killing the pseudo-human, Li Aozi felt dizzy.

  He realized this metaphysical superstition was on on Azure Star.

  How many more pseudo-humaaken as normal transdents, opeering the human world?

  They could act perfectly, be moved to tears, be cold-hearted, show racial prejudice, crack hell jokes, even fight bravely to save you from chaos.

  Then, when you were most moved, seeing them as good friends, they would tear open your chest, take your identity, and bee you.

  He couldn’t help but look at Qiu Ran.

  This try girl, kneeling in fear, yet relieved by his successful enemy kill and their safety.

  Could she be a pseudo-human?

  "Thank goodness..."

  Qiu Ran lowered her shoulders, then picked up the clothes ed around Nomi's head:

  "What now? Li Aozi, we... I... what about Nomi? I'm going crazy, I ’t do anything... what should I do?"

  Li Aozi shook his head.

  No, pseudo-humans weren’t that rampa...

  Li Aozi looked around, finding no other paths.

  Actually, pyer guides didn’t have detailed information about the third floor.

  In the inal plot, pyers just o talk to Assistant Doctor Anna, learn that she inteo first run Abyss Humanitarian for profit before humanitarian aid, a access to the sed floor.

  But now... where was Assistant Doctor Anna?

  Nomi’s dition was dire, still in a near-death state, her health not rec. Some mediight be needed.

  Without thinking, Li Aozi said:

  "Return to the first floor."

  The first floor had a medie ste room and an emergen. They could try their luck there and see if they could save Nomi.

  Nurse Nordley was still alive. He hadn’t killed her immediately, w about ued situations and needing information from her.

  He still hadn’t found room ZX—626, so he could ask her where it was.

  Qiu Ran quickly nodded, following Li Aozi into the elevator and pressing the button for the first floor.

  "Nomi... hang on... Nomi..."

  As she prayed, she suddenly felt uneasy. Qiu Ran looked up, seeing Li Aozi’s eyes on her.

  "...Li Aozi?"

  Qiu Ran uzzled.

  Li Aozi didn’t respond.

  From now o a goal for himself: besides the essential Omega energies for the Blood Demon Stream, he he 【Eye of Truth】 Omega energy.

  Only that Omega energy could see through real pseudo-humans.

  "I overlooked... the harsh enviros of Frost-Pted and Tianhuan in my previous life kept them out of the pseudo-human invasie, makihink there were no pseudo-humans at all."

  Iy, the threat always existed.

  Uhe entire Azure Star was blown up, the pseudo-human crisis couldn’t be pletely solved.

  But pseudo-humans alone weren’t enough to mobilize the Galexy civilization.

  "Abyss Humanitarian must be eradicated. There were no pseudo-human sightings in Frost-Pted in my previous life, probably just this one case... but I ’t be careless. One pseudo-human usually means another supervising it."

  Before the elevator closed, Li Aozi g the fission

  reactor.

  If necessary... be prepared to blow up the entire Abyss Humanitarian.

  From the start, Li Aozi didn’t want to do this. The engineering facilities of Abyss Humanitarian could support many people, with mature greenhouse ecology and assembly line maes— the entire shelter could bee an outpost and military base, or even a prosperous town. Blowing it up would be too great a loss.

  But if another pseudo-human was found, Li Aozi would blow it up without hesitatioroying the entire shelter along with the hidden pseudo-humans.

  FAL