Chapter 380: The Price of Freedom
"They're here!"
Andrew looked panicked and shouted such words.
who are they?
Su Xia guessed that it was most likely from the Left Eye Group, but he didn't have the energy to investigate further.
Now is a tense moment for the whole city, and such a sudden explosion will definitely attract the attention of the mechanical race.
"Walk!"
Su Xia grabbed Andrew, turned into a shadow, and disappeared into the ruins of the garage.
There is no time to care about anything else now, the best thing to do is to leave!
The 155mm guided artillery shell that just hit the villa is a special type of self-propelled artillery with extremely high accuracy and an effective range of more than 40 kilometers.
Su Xia was in no mood to look for the enemy within a radius of dozens of kilometers. The mechanical tribe might come to him before he found the enemy.
Although he already had an anti-position device, he really didn't want to go through another bloody battle.
While running, Su Xia carefully sensed Andrew's whole body.
"Idiot, there's a positioning device installed in your leg by someone else, can't you feel it?" Su Xia yelled.
"ah?"
Andrew's face turned pale, and he subconsciously wanted to look at his legs.
But now he was being carried by Su Xia, and the speed was also very fast. His spine was under great pressure, as if a thousand-pound rock was pressing in front of him, and he couldn't lower his head at all.
The next moment, Su Xia raised her hand, and with a "swish" sound, a ring-shaped tracking device broke through Andrew's calf, leaving fresh blood.
“That’s it!”
Su Xia squeezed it hard, wanting to burst it, but after thinking it over, she didn't do it and just threw it on the side of the road.
Throw it here to attract enemy fire.
Actually, this was also his mistake.
He had sensed that there was metal in the fat man's legs before, but found that it was cylindrical in shape and thought it was alloy leg bones, so he didn't pay much attention to it.
It was indeed an alloy leg bone. Andrew had been seriously injured in an explosion in his early years, and his leg bones were shattered, so he had to replace them with metal bones. However, an additional circular tracking device was installed on the top of this metal bone.
This thing is well-made and integrated with the skeleton. Even Su Xia was almost fooled by it.
"hiss……"
Andrew was shaking with pain. After all, it was like having a piece of his bone taken off while he was still alive, and large pieces of flesh and skin were broken.
Su Xia was too lazy to listen to his wailing and directly gave him an injection of healing potion to help his wounds heal.
At this moment, another explosion occurred not far behind them.
“Boom—”
The coordinates of the explosion were exactly where Su Xia had just discarded the positioning device.
Apparently, the other side had been monitoring Andrew's position in real time through the device. When they found that he had moved, they knew that he was not killed, so they fired the second shell.
This time, Su Xia carefully sensed the direction from which the shell came.
It's coming from the suburbs in the northwest!
The other side did not dare to set up self-propelled artillery in the urban area. After all, there were too many people and too many eyes. They only dared to place it in an uninhabited area in the suburbs.
This artillery with high accuracy and long range is the perfect tool for carrying out decapitation operations.
"The situation is extremely tense right now. If you dare to use this thing, it means that the other party really wants to kill you."
Su Xia sensed that the explosion of the shell just now had successfully destroyed the positioning device.
On the other party's device display, the signal belonging to Andrew probably disappeared.
Next, they might send people to check, or they might just run away. After all, the mechanical people will soon be attracted by the sound of the artillery and block the entire area.
"Remember, you owe me your life."
Su Xia burst into speed, moving quickly with Andrew into the sparsely populated suburbs. After getting away from the area of the previous explosion, they found an old, empty house and entered through the window.
He left Andrew in the house, then stood by the window, waiting quietly.
"vomit……"
In the room, Andrew's face turned pale. He held his stomach and lay in the corner, retching. He felt nauseous and unwell all over.
This is the negative impact of high-speed movement. Ding Can and Tiezi had the same reaction last time.
After a long while, he stopped retching and sat on the ground, feeling a little more comfortable.
"Have you finished vomiting?"
Su Xia casually picked up a piece of iron, twisted it into the shape of a chair, and then sat on the chair.
He crossed his legs and said to Andrew as if he was interrogating a prisoner: "I have a few questions next. Please answer them carefully."
"Yes, sir, you ask."
Andrew nodded repeatedly, not daring to object.
His life is now in Su Xia's hands, and he even owes Su Xia a life.
"The first question is about the two shells just now." Su Xia said slowly, "Can you confirm who the other party is?"
"Yes, I can."
Andrew replied: “It must be the group I’m in, you should know, the Left Eye Group.”
Su Xia asked: "Are you 100% sure?"
Andrew replied: "Since there is a tracking device on my leg, it must be true. They know I ran away and are worried that I will leak secrets, so they want to destroy me."
"Destroy? That's an interesting word." Su Xia said.
"Yes, I am also one of the products of the Left Eye Group, so the word 'destruction' is very appropriate. We all use it this way internally, and we are used to it."
“What product?”
"Artificial man."
"Um……"
Su Xia looked at Andrew and observed carefully, and from the character description that popped up in front of her, she saw part of Andrew's life experience.
As an artificial human, Andrew has few genetic defects and has shown excellent IQ and physical fitness since childhood.
As a result, he turned such a good body into the frail and obese middle-aged man he is today.
"Where did you grow up?" Su Xia asked him.
"On the other side of the sea, on another continent, in the underground living area of a group branch." Andrew explained truthfully.
"Being trained by the group since childhood?"
"Yes, yes, the group will educate us." Andrew said, "When I was a child, I didn't know what the outside world was like. I was with many cloned children of the same age. We wore the same white clothes, were managed together, ate together, participated in activities together, and received education together..."
Andrew described a strange place.
In his words, it is probably a "breeding factory" where the top management needs to make the children in the factory become what they want them to be.
As he grew up, his friends would disappear one after another, as if they had gone somewhere else.
When he was thirteen years old, he was fortunately selected and left the underground factory.
"After that, they started to train me in another direction, gradually letting me take over some low-level tasks." Andrew narrated slowly, "That was also the first time I saw the outside world. It was a little different from what I imagined."
The education he received in his childhood made him develop complex emotions towards the group, including curiosity, dependence, and awe.
Many people have even become like machines, blindly carrying out the orders given to them by the group, without caring whether the orders are good or bad.
Because, in their worldview - except for the people in the group, other human beings in the world are not of the same race as them and have nothing to do with them.
The outside world is a different world to them.
Even if the world is destroyed, as long as the group is still there, it will be enough.
Many people have become alternative death warriors, just like the security guards Su Xia saw in the landfill.
Their minds are confined in the cage created for them by the group. If they leave the group, they have no idea what they want to do, or... what kind of person they want to become?
In their minds, they have no outlook on life or values of their own.
Andrew was lucky.
His intelligence made him stand out, and he was gradually assigned to do more business that required flexible handling.
"I was sent here when I was 25 years old. Since then, I have been traveling back and forth between the two continents for more than ten years. I have gradually become what I am now," Andrew said.
"It seems that you are doing well." Su Xia said.
"Alas, maybe I have been more tactful since I was a child, so I am suitable for doing this kind of external affairs. I always thought that after so many years of loyalty, the group headquarters had been assured of me, but I didn't expect..."
Andrew looked at his calf. The wound on his leg had not healed yet.
Before today, he would never have imagined that he had a tracking device on him.
He was injured seven years ago, which means that during these seven years, his movements have been under surveillance by the headquarters .
Fortunately, he has been careful and cautious during these seven years and has not done anything out of line.
Until today, when he was about to run away, he was targeted by the headquarters and became a substandard product that needed to be destroyed.
"Alas, people like me may look glamorous on the outside, but in reality they are deprived of freedom for life and are always an additional product tied to the group."
After experiencing the life and death situation just now, Andrew seemed to have become more open-minded and told Su Xia everything he knew.
Anyway, he can't go back now, and his life and death in the future all depend on Su Xia.
He continued, "I have been subtracting from myself all my life, and I don't even dare to have a family, just so that one day I can be free, leave the group, and then change my appearance, truly integrate into this world, and get rid of all the burdens."
Su Xia said: "Freedom has a price."
"Yes, Master Mask, you see it very clearly."
"Tell me about your group's main business."
"good……"
Andrew paused, hugged his calf, his eyes were empty for a moment, as if he was recalling something.
After a moment, he said, "Master Mask, you must be aware of a business that extracts things that can prolong a person's life from living people."
"Can you really live a long life?" Su Xia asked.
This is a question he has always wanted to know. After all, even the game's built-in system cannot give an accurate description.
This world follows many basic laws of life. If the elderly here can extend their lifespan by absorbing the life substances of the young, then can the elderly over on Earth do the same?
Andrew shook his head and said, “Of course not, it’s just to cheat those stupid rich people.”
Su Xia was stunned for a moment and asked, "No effect?"
"No."
Andrew was very sure and explained: "Sir, the extracted substances, such as the so-called 'fetal hormone', 'renal blood hormone', etc., are actually all high-protein liquids and have no longevity effect at all."
"Won't those rich people notice?" Su Xia asked.
"Sir, do you think they really bought the product?" Andrew said seriously, "Many of them actually bought hope. They are going to die of old age anyway, so they might as well give it a try."
"Buy a psychological comfort?"
"Yes."
"I see."
Su Xia probably understood.
Living without spending all your money is probably one of the most painful things in the world.
Many wealthy people are in their eighties or nineties and have one foot in the grave.
But they are not willing to give up. They want to live forever, stand at the top of the world forever, and enjoy the pleasure that power, status and wealth bring them.
After all, who doesn’t want to live a life of luxury forever?
"Most of those people spent the first half of their lives stepping on the heads of the lower class, sucking their marrow out of their bones, and madly exploiting them, constantly gathering the value created by the lower class into their own hands..."
Andrew said: "In the second half of their lives, when they are old, they want to 'suck the marrow out of the bones' in a physical sense, trying to absorb the life of the lower class to prolong their own life."
At the group headquarters, there is special training to teach Andrew and others how to analyze the psychology of this kind of people.
In the words of their group - those people will become vampires twice in their lifetime, once in terms of wealth, and once in terms of flesh and blood.
One of the businesses of their group is to suck the blood of these vampires.
They use the funds, connections, power, etc. provided by these vampires to speed up the research of the group headquarters and the group's expansion around the world.
"I have previously eliminated one of your senior buyers, a manor owner. He is in his sixties, but looks to be in his forties," said Su Xia.
"My lord, it is easy to keep your body young."
"How?"
"The products we sell to them come with some auxiliary liquids, and it is those liquids that actually work and can make them look younger."
Andrew explained: "But they think that what really makes them young is the so-called 'natal hormone', 'cerebrospinal hormone' and the like."
Su Xia asked, "Won't they notice? The top rich people should know a lot of high-end pharmacists."
"Sir, many wealthy people don't believe in medicine." Andrew continued to explain, "They think those medicines have side effects and are poisonous. Therefore, they trust our products more. After all, our products are extracted from the human body. In their opinion, they are 'purely natural', even if they need to be combined with a small amount of auxiliary liquid. It is acceptable."
“I see.”
"Yes, sir, to do this business, you need to have a good understanding of the psychology of the rich."
“Is there any other way to stay young?”
"some."
Andrew answered seriously: "We tell those buyers that if they want the product to work perfectly, they must quit smoking and drinking, get up early and go to bed early, keep exercising, and live a healthy life. Only in this way can the body absorb various longevity substances more perfectly."
Su Xia said: "If you can stick to these healthy habits for a long time, you will look younger than your peers."
"Yes, that's right."
"So this is a scam business that's designed to kill people?"
"Your Excellency, you have summed it up very well."
“…”
If it was just a pure scam of those rich and unkind guys, Su Xia would be happy to see it.
However, in order to make their scam seem real, this group committed kidnappings all over the world, using cruel means to kidnap children, women and others, causing them to have countless blood debts and commit serious crimes.
"Hasn't your behavior been exposed over the years?" Su Xia asked.
"Sir, of course it has been exposed. Otherwise, how could there be so many conspiracy theories? Almost every conspiracy theory has its source."
As we all know, conspiracy theories that are currently circulating have the following characteristics: mysterious organizations, behind-the-scenes culprits, horrific truths, partial true events, etc.
It is difficult to tell whether the legends are true or false, and in the end they often become a joke in the eyes of many people.
When Su Xia came into contact with part of the truth about one of them, he found that this thing could indeed be called a joke.
But too many innocent lives have been lost for this joke.
There are also too many people united around this joke, forming a huge community of interests.
According to Andrew, they have faced the risk of complete exposure several times in recent years, but with the joint efforts of various high-end customers, these risks have been suppressed.
Afterwards, they even funded the production of a number of literary and artistic works to mock those who tried to reveal the truth, such as "Escape from the Clone World", "The Insider", "Assassination of the Leader", etc., many of which won awards.
"Sir, to ordinary people, our group is indeed terrifying, hiding in the darkness like an invisible giant hand, but... you are different. You probably think this is ridiculous." Andrew said.
"how?"
"You are already at the top of the world. With your ability, watching us stir up trouble is like watching children fighting."
