Chapter 1396: The Old Days Return (12)

Jessica woke up from a daze, feeling a chill on her cheeks. She reached out and wiped away the tears with her sleeve, trying her best not to look at the concerned gazes of the other three.

"Damn it, don't look at me like that, as if I'm some helpless little girl. You damn men, don't treat me like a weakling, don't try to manipulate me again!" Jessica shouted, but soon she covered her face again, parting her fingers to reveal her eyes, and said, "Never mind, I don't mean you guys, I mean that damn sadist, the Purple Man."

"It's okay," Laili gently put his arm around her shoulder and said, "You are a victim; breaking down and crying is normal. We completely understand, and you don't need to hide it."

Jessica's expression became dazed again, as if she had remembered something. Quill asked curiously, "Did you see him?"

"You mean that black sun?" Jessica pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, and said, "If you mean those illusions seen as if sleeping and dreaming, yes, I saw it."

【The source-changing app that has been running stably for many years, comparable to the old version of the book-chasing artifact, is used by all old bookworms.】

"What did he say?"

"He didn't say anything. He doesn't seem to be able to speak," Jessica shook her head, somewhat lost, and said, "But I instinctively felt that he could be trusted, so I told him my story, about..."

Jessica took a deep breath, seemingly still unable to say this sentence well; this was once the pain buried deepest in her heart.

"About me being kidnapped, being abused mentally and physically, and everything about experiencing the apocalypse... I said a lot, babbling like a soccer mom praising her child. Oh god, it's a good thing he can't speak, otherwise how could he endure my complaining?"

Jessica covered her face, as if blaming herself, and said, "He's a bit like a tree hole in the traditional sense. Fine, that's what I think. I hope he doesn't feel offended."

"But I can tell a demon god my secrets, instead of my parents, right? Because my good and bad have nothing to do with a god. He might not have listened at all, nor does he care, but my parents can't. If they knew about my experiences, they would be very sad, so I can't tell them."

"Didn't you try praying to God before?" Quill asked, "Isn't the principle the same?"

"Actually, I did," Jessica swallowed and said, "During the process of being controlled, I would occasionally wake up, but I knew I couldn't move, so I said in my heart, God, please come save me."

"But I knew God wouldn't come. If he really loved me, he wouldn't let me fall into this state. But I'm actually very easy to fool. If he let me see something with wings and a halo descend, even if it were just an illusion of my trauma, I would be willing to tell him everything."

"Perhaps that black sun is just a god using illusions to fob off humans, but even so, I'm willing. After all, for the first ten-plus years of my life, people didn't even have the slightest bit of patience to fob me off."

Jessica wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand and said, "Thank you guys for letting me find a way to vent. Although I know this doesn't help the current situation, I might have wasted this opportunity."

"No, Jessica," Laili looked into her eyes and said, "Being able to give up your negative, self-destructive mindset is the greatest help to us. You don't even realize how strong you are."

Jessica hugged the gun in her hands tightly, but Laili shook his head and said, "You don't need a gun at all. I told you to use your fists."

"You should try it, girl," Quill tilted his chin at Jessica and said, "Punch him in the face, or somewhere else, and you'll know how much capability you have."

Laili stood up, loosened his wrists and ankles, and beckoned to Jessica. Jessica was still unwilling to put down the gun, but after hesitating for a long time, she threw the gun aside and began to loosen her wrists.

Jessica punched Laili, but not in the face, but in the chest. She didn't use her full strength, nor did she fly, but Laili still flew out directly.

Of course, if Laili had fought back, he should have been able to make Jessica fly out too, but since it was to test strength, he didn't fight back.

When Laili climbed up from the ground, he patted the dust off his body, coughed hard twice, and said, "Oh god, if you had used your fists earlier, there wouldn't have been so much trouble. You have more strength than Kingpin, and you can fly."

Jessica muttered a few words and sat back by the campfire, saying, "Maybe it's just that you're too light. You should eat more."

"My muscle and bone density are dozens of times that of an ordinary person. You just hit me with about the same force as a light punch that would send a truck flying."

"Actually, I knew I had this strength a long time ago," Jessica lowered her head and said, "But please believe me, I didn't use it before, not because I didn't want to, but because the influence of that damn control freak remained in my brain."

"He wanted me to forget my strength so I couldn't resist him. So before, I had strength but couldn't use it. But it's much better now. People always say that venting can reduce stress, I think so."

"Perhaps, this is also a kind of blessing on another level," Quill climbed up from the ground, rubbing his somewhat painful forehead, and said, "He gave us three truths, gave you comfort, and is even a bit understanding, isn't he?"

"I always feel we shouldn't make fun of him like this," Xu Shangqi also stood up, then knelt down to extinguish the campfire. Laili helped him on the side.

"I actually think he wouldn't mind. It's very magical that in many faiths, the sense of existence of gods is always so strong," Jessica shook her head and expressed her view. She continued, "It's as if these gods are desperately hoping to occupy an important position in the hearts of believers. He uses various means to demand piety from believers."

"They endlessly demand that believers view the god as another high-and-mighty individual, weakening the self as much as possible to give everything for him. Those complex sacrificial rituals and long-winded prayer vocabularies are all to extinguish personality and make people tame."

"But I always feel that the black sun wants us to focus on ourselves. He wants us to have faith, but faith in our own faith," Jessica opened her mouth, seemingly not knowing how to explain, but she still said based on an intuition, "Not viewing him as another high-and-mighty object, not generating reverence for him, but turning him into a part of the self, and then having faith in a certain trait of our own."

"Perhaps I will choose 'relief'," Jessica stroked her chest and said, "If I believe I can relieve my own emotions, perhaps I can have more strength. I think this is what he hopes to see."

"But I still don't quite understand, what good does this do him?" Jessica frowned in confusion, as if asking and answering herself, "Will he need our strength at some point? Will he come to harvest the results one day?"

"I think he might be enjoying the process," Quill sighed softly and said, "You might find it incredible, but we have no way to understand the thoughts of demon gods. Their angle of looking at the world is different from ours."

"Weak intelligent life seeks gains and losses, but perhaps higher existences have long abandoned these. They are like silent observers, whose original intention is to observe the changes in the world, us, and everyone's changes."

"Like cultivation?"

"Like cultivation."

"I think you describe him as too heartless," Xu Shangqi raised an opposing opinion. He clenched his hand into a fist, coughed twice, and said, "Didn't you feel any emotional fluctuations when he was telling the story of this universe?"

"'Emotional fluctuations'? Listen to your wording. Look here, besides you, who else would use this word? I really don't understand these." Quill shrugged and fed the cookies he took from the store to Rocket Raccoon.

Laili was also blank-faced. Xu Shangqi frowned and said, "Could it be that only I felt it? The black sun really doesn't like that damn Avengers, but at most, it's contempt for them. He dislikes Mar-Vell even more; you can feel a very subtle annoyance toward him."

"You mean, he has humanity?" Laili asked, frowning.

Xu Shangqi nodded and said, "Inevitably. He is not just a Q&A machine and a wishing pool. He must have wisdom and emotion, and his own likes and dislikes."

"But we didn't feel it. Could this be your patent?"

Xu Shangqi curled his lips and said, "Regardless, I have quite a resonance with him. I used to hear that Captain Marvel was a hero."

Xu Shangqi naturally referred to the *Captain Marvel* movie. He didn't have a deep impression of this movie; perhaps it wasn't to his taste when he watched it, but Captain Marvel should indeed be a superhero, not a monster who implicated the entire universe to satisfy his own desire for destruction.

"Do you think this could be a kind of... hint from him?" Jessica noticed something more subtle. She tilted her head slightly and said, "He might not be completely without demands for a return?"

"Whether this is the return he demands, we definitely have to deal with Mar-Vell. I can only say, if this can make him happy, then it's killing many birds with one stone. I hope he can be a bit happier; maybe next time I have any troubles, I can use him as a tree hole," Laili raised an eyebrow and said.

"So, we are considered kin of this Ancient One? No tentacles, no tumors, and we didn't even gain any powerful strength, just like this?" Jessica said.

Several people walked along the sewer toward the exit. Laili shook his head and said, "This is best. Ever since I worked at the Sanctum Sanctorum for a while, I've been a thorough atheist. You have no idea how stupid, annoying, and difficult to communicate with that group of demon gods are."

"If there really were such a god pointing fingers above my head, I might really be unable to resist punching him. It's quite good as it is now."

"Our topic has returned to the starting point. Since you didn't gain powerful strength, how are you going to deal with Mar-Vell and the Avengers?"

"Knowledge and truth are the most powerful strength," Laili said. "From this story, we know several weaknesses of the Avengers."

Laili continued to explain, "First, we know that this kind of madness cannot pollute machines, so Laili can build robots to deal with them; second, there are survivors on Earth, who should be a group of robots, and we can unite with them to fight against the Avengers; third, they are planning to invade other universes, perhaps we can find a way to interfere with their decisions."

"Not let them invade other universes?"

"Let them invade the universe we want them to invade."

"But no universe should be..."

Xu Shangqi suddenly stopped. He stared wide-eyed at Laili. Laili spread his hands, smiled, and said.

"There must be a universe that welcomes them... the membership gift for this quarter hasn't been settled yet." ===== CHAPTER 1397 =====