[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer":3,"chapter-cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-chapter-975":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Cyberpunk: Cross-dimensional Science and Engineering",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},1152616,1495,"Chapter 969 - 22: Vicious Cycle","cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-chapter-975",975,"\u003Cp>The nature of war has changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the past life, before the outbreak of total war, Lille never thought about this issue—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, as someone outside the military organization, few people considered this issue, because nobody would deliberately think of the most lethal weapons of humanity as a routine means of warfare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the beginning of a war, it’s usually small-scale armed conflicts, border frictions... things seemingly irrelevant to oneself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, organizations with such weapons are few; no one would provoke them from the start.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So the main reason is that before the heavens were pierced, no one knew what the world would be like after that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the Cyberpunk World is different: nuclear bombs have been used here many times as an ultimate option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the Second Corporate War, the Su Federation flattened the Middle East; Lille had never been there, but in memory, the world’s description of it was:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vast deserts melted by high temperatures, the explosion’s reach so wide that the sands fused into a crystallized glass covering the Middle Eastern land, this piece of the most beautiful crystal creation humanity’s industry could produce with machinery unable to endure the massive radiation, together sealing the treasures beneath, the precious oil, forever.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the Fourth War, both Arasaka and Military Technology were more cautious with the use of nuclear bombs—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meaning they preferred releasing them one by one, not that they would debate for humanity’s future before each use.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even so, it created the current scenario where the average radiation level of the sea, sky, land, the entire Earth, has increased multiple times since World War II.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So if a weapon was placed in front, Hansen would certainly think he’d want to use it; if it was really powerful, he’d strive to make it a conventional weapon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, he imagined this scenario:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...Doesn’t that mean if someone mastered this technology, people would only need to mine in shafts, manufacture components in factories and assemble them, place these weapons in launch silos, we...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We would only need to sit in offices sipping wine, laughing and talking, press a button, and wait for the opponent to be completely destroyed?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lille deeply gazed at Hansen—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the past life, there was a long period like this, where people worked overtime, the victory in war not determined on the battlefield but in factories, shafts... in all production-related places.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Initially, the army had some significance, soon people would realize this issue: the greater role of the army was to maintain the base’s order, if no need to maintain order, they might as well go down the mine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There’s no need to dispatch troops to occupy any place because if one’s side fell into disadvantage, directly launching missiles to destroy target locations and prevent the opponent from gaining benefits would be the inevitable choice!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who wouldn’t lose? Who wouldn’t suffer setbacks? Who knows if a brief setback will become a series of disadvantages ultimately evolving into complete defeat?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Company employees like to obliterate traces, love destroying evidence of their failures, Hansen could even imagine the Commander unhesitatingly applying to use such weapons to avoid punishment, and the higher-ups would gladly agree...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who would gamble? Everyone fears failure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Based on this logic, war becomes extremely pure: both sides only fight for the complete destruction of each other, or rather produce.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the mutual assured destruction war, people march forward with songs, strive to produce things that can destroy themselves, strive to destroy humanity’s future, still thinking it’s preparing for victory, for the future...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When in reality, it’s taking the south route to the north.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hansen shivered all over as if falling into an icy cave—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because sometimes the most extreme hypothesis can illuminate the truth, this irrational powerful weapon suddenly revealed the truth to him:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This truth is about their current world!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He used to be the Military Technology Commander, his thinking shaped by the company, the company’s thinking is like this! Monopoly, or direct destruction to reduce total supplies to raise prices, to achieve profit, to pursue profit growth, to pursue \"social development\"!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the true rulers of this world are the companies, or those who truly hold power!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under such rule, as long as there is such a weapon, everyone’s thinking inevitably leads to the ultimate destruction conclusion...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But without such a weapon, this thinking has long been deeply rooted, who can guarantee they won’t head toward such a conclusion?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps this is the true reality: this world has always been slipping toward an internal destruction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not only him, Ryan and Perares quickly realized the problem too, their faces changed again and again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire command room fell into silence instantly...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only the sound of V and Jack eating hamburgers was left beside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, V still frowned, leaned to Lille’s ear, saying: \"Why does this thing... feel kind of wicked to me?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lille glanced at V.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Lille: It shows that although your mind doesn’t turn quickly, your feeling is still very sharp.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>V is a street kid, growing up in Night City indicates she fully understands this logic, understands after this logic, no one would be regarded as human, the ultimate outcome is risking lives to manufacture things that destroy humanity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s normal for humans to feel repulsed or even fearful; if there’s only fanaticism, it shows that antisocial sentiment runs deep, clutching destructive weapons and feeling invincible, ultimately destined to rule the world, just like the corporations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perares muttered, \"It’s Pandora’s Box...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lille shook his head, \"This world had opened Pandora’s Box long ago.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Precisely because humans instinctively repulse from such weapons, from this logic and thinking, in Lille’s past life, humanity experienced a period of peace because someone could see the critical point.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s precisely because everyone is afraid, because they have never witnessed the madness unleashed, they fear the ultimate destruction, and hence maintain restraint.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This restraint is what it looks like when Pandora’s Box is not opened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this world, there’s already no such thing as restraint; if there’s profit to be made, weapons will fall upon people’s heads, Pandora’s Box has long been opened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ryan wiped his sweat, took a sip of the drink beside him: \"Damn it, I kind of understand now those scientists who stubbornly chose to defect rather than develop weapons...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unfortunately, they’re all dead.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lille shrugged, \"This joke isn’t funny, we have to create such weapons, without a doubt.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It’s a vicious cycle!\" Perares hadn’t quite come to terms, \"We’ve already seen the crux of the problem, yet we still... we still have to create these weapons, we still have to... still have to take the first step...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet we have absolutely no intention of destroying the world, we even...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even want to save the world, make it a better place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s Perares’s genuine thought, but at this moment it became even more conflicted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His legs gave way, and he fell onto the chair beside him, his mind already envisioning the future human society leveled by these weapons, eternally living on the wasteland.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lille also sighed in his heart: In his past life, the post-war world, some sociologists even believed this was a phase of human society—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This phase being terrifying weapons utterly tearing apart the so-called prosperous human society, like Revelation awakening humanity from millennia of continuous progress.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They believed the next phase of human society is utter fragmentation, the greatness forged by collective strength vanishes, and people are finally forced to enhance themselves, surviving in ultraminiature units or even alone amidst the ruins cast by past glory...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Until one day they can transcend this hell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other words, the societal phase before reaching the stars may not be global unification and prosperity, but decay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking of this, Lille looked at the Illuminati, \"What do you think?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Illuminati: I also see destruction.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Illuminati: Actually, before you brought out this weapon, while in the European Union, I had simulated thousands upon thousands of times...]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Illuminati: Yes, no matter what, destruction seems inevitable, so I’ve always been envisioning endings beyond destruction.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Illuminati: So, the decline of the European Union is also inevitable, your... failure, so far, I believe the probability is quite high.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Illuminati: Even if you succeed, the probability of facing destruction in the future remains considerable.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Illuminati: That’s my conclusion.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Illuminati: Of course, perhaps destruction is indeed the next inevitable phase of human society, after all, an important societal link is to sustain the weak, among them exist naturally disabled, mentally ill, antisocial, intellectually lacking, myopic groups that significantly hinder progress.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Struggling on the wasteland can effectively filter these people, completely removing the burden of sustaining the weak on social efficiency, while using the perilous environment created by the previous era to force the true strong to embark on the path of true evolution.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Illuminati: But after all, this is just my view, your invention might become a crucial invention in ultimate destruction but might also, as you surpassed my calculations, bring me a new future.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Illuminati: So what do you intend to do?]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lille sighed internally but showed no hesitation externally: \"I promise you, I absolutely do not want such a future... but you also know, this is a vicious cycle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who would want themselves to be destroyed? But anyone could promote that outcome.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After speaking, he paused, his voice more resolute:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No matter what, this isn’t a... democratic resolution meeting, we must create these weapons—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We must create these weapons to destroy all corporations, all current order controllers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is my decision.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Lille finished speaking, the command room was silent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I hope this remains an insurance method forever.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this Lille did not say aloud, only kept it hidden in his heart.\u003C\u002Fp>",1614,"2026-06-03T12:33:38.571Z","2026-06-03T12:33:48.023Z",1,"novelbin.me","28f595c282741ce90081f6844e7315a73f4f71869622ebd5def0b66c160e0a38","cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-chapter-976","cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-chapter-974",1068,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fcyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-cover.jpg"]