Chapter 1876

NO. 493: Constant Self-Healing

Although Aomo Lindun's teenage years had a very impressive part-time résumé, that obviously did not include the circus and the zoo.

But it's just a minor problem.

Because the more paths there are, the easier it is to draw analogies.

Just as many renowned game developers come from subtle professional cross‑overs, and their past industry insight remains applicable here, the demon likewise gained considerable knowledge by pursuing and nurturing an interest in monsters, applying it to certain games, certain cards, and even certain humans.

Without doubt, although the above premises are built on a rather extreme situation, when it actually occurs, the boundaries between humans, beasts, and monsters become just as vague and all‑encompassing, ambiguous and unclear.

Desire is a common trait of living beings.

The difference in mastering desire also serves as the measure defining those three, and this is precisely the key that makes the analogy work.

Thus, even if these cult leaders display a firm, unyielding refusal toward the technology brought by the Star‑Eating Zero, he pays it no heed.

After all, beforehand he had only taken a three‑minute stroll through the dark zone before being surrounded by the opposition.

What does that mean? It means an extremely high priority.

It means an astonishing expectation.

Even if the substance of that expectation is hostility, resentment and aversion, it does not in the least prevent Aomo from feeling reassured thereby.

Because he let go of appearances.

In human interactions, all love and hate are confined by the shackles of appearance; anger and joy often find no source in mere venting. Only 'caring' itself is visible to the eye, a testament to the interaction that you cannot easily shake off at any moment, and it also serves as a weather‑cock guiding your thoughts, emotions, and stance.

That is enough.

Corresponding to that demonic maxim, the technology he provides will always be effective.

Even if the cult's leaders mostly voiced their stance from the start—an attitude of disbelief and refusal to use it—the Star‑Eating Zero can still be anticipated, can still look ahead to the future.

How long will we have to wait?

How long can they hold out?

Straining to maintain a fragile parity with the Seven Great Demon Kings, they must follow orders under the gaze of those who are wary, contemptuous, scornful, or fearful; as time passes in an activity that shows no change and yields no feedback, how long can they endure?

A little bit of putting oneself in another's shoes is enough to feel that suffocating pressure.

Although all of that may be just deserts, the point of empathizing is not the cause but the situation itself.

Once immersed in that situation where the cult has collapsed, the grassroots are gone, only high‑end talent remains yet resources are desperately lacking, and allies harbor ulterior motives, wrapping malice in crude packaging—you can realize how urgent they are. You can also realize how timely the technology that Aomo offers as the Star‑Eating Zero is, a veritable 'lifesaving straw'.

Drinking poison to quench thirst? Kind of interesting. jpg

——Someone might spout such yin‑yang nonsense, but it's meaningless.

Because this is indeed just a matter of time.

Especially since Aomo has reached a consensus of judgment with the teams of the main digital world, and the organizations led by the Royal Knights, Heaven's Pole, and the Ten Fighters are assigning personnel to carry out the sealing plan, even if the Seven Great Demon Kings could luckily escape in such a grouped assault, they could not maintain a peaceful mind.

They too will be anxious—eager to speed up their preparations, eager to press the accelerator on everything—and in this process, can they continue to maintain that delicate balance with the remnants of the Beast Cult?

The dice have been cast, cause and effect are already set; only the time spent in this process is a variable he cannot guarantee, after all many details remain unclear, yet he has no leisure to untangle every doubt… Upon thinking this, he involuntarily turns his head to see his colleagues still as active as on the first day of the holiday.

One by one, those wearing swim trunks and swimsuits mingling among the horse‑ear students are not so conspicuous, thanks to their decent looks and decent figures; indeed, they can all be said to be pleasing to the eye.

Thus, when individual intimate interactions occur among them, it is actually the horse girls whose gazes burn, exchanging intense looks with each other, prompting one to recall certain passages in those weird writings.

Romances between trainers and trainers… are generally not easy blessings to come by.

But……

All in all, it's fine; Aomo silently picks up his coffee cup, using its bitterness to wash away the sticky feeling that flits unconsciously through his mind.

Although the direction and degree could be called going south while aiming north, compared to lamenting the world's disparities and the lack of communion in joy and sorrow, he now feels this amounts to each having their own worries, like giving an open‑world game the achievement of 'characters having their own lives,' thereby reducing a sense of alienation.

This is important; it can be called necessary mental guidance.

Because recently, with intense reliance on Gilbaris's power, Aomo Lindun occasionally has some inappropriate thoughts.

It feels like the body is truly a burden, like being weary of all social interaction, and even noticing the petty conflicts and disputes that are commonplace and that he has long habitually ignored, then surging with the urge to eradicate them completely… These impulses that pop up unbidden in the mind are like a signal, a reminder that he is overusing his cards, or that his spirit is beginning to lose balance.

He needs to add some weight to his humanity, needs a modicum of the tangible life feeling that carbon‑based beings possess.

It sounds somewhat abstract, but the actual practice is quite down‑to‑earth:

Adjusting one's mindset, eating, drinking, playing, and even some adult‑style nightlife… from mental recalibration and sensory stimulation to correct oneself, the way to regain genuine human feeling is to strive to be human; this may sound like pointless literature, but it is a realm that certain monster‑users find hard to reach.

Especially those beast‑ified monster‑users.

Indeed, they don't care about balance either; their aesthetic heads straight for the extreme where the more beast‑like, the more beautiful they find it—but still, that saying——

For success, for survival, one must still be somewhat human.

When you reach the point where you can no longer understand humanity, you are no longer worthy of sharing a table with humans, whether the intent is praise or blame.

You may consider yourself superior and despise humanity as this small, primitive life form, but when you and your organization fall into a disadvantaged group, you had better think again.

Pure thought cannot solve problems, but it can give you direction for action.

Then, go do it.

Go to restrain those digital beasts that despise you, upgrading from household traitors to time‑bombs planted in the home, becoming a dangerous double‑edged sword.

Aomo expects them to have a restraining effect, but he also knows that once they understand that technology, their targets will not be limited to the demon king's army; they could also encompass the digital beasts of the main world and his own powerful Duìyou.

That is why it is called a double‑edged sword, and why its existence must be communicated to the front lines so they can prepare.

Although it's not expected to happen that quickly, one must not overlook the potential of monster collectives, nor the convenience inherent in that environment—everything is data, and mastering coding technology amounts to mastering a channel for parsing the world—such a digital world easily produces operations that look like green‑skin stuff but are essentially no different from those of a programmer.

Although Aomo has prepared the patience needed for waiting, he also cannot ignore the objective factor that 'it might happen soon, or even super soon.'

In any case, just telling them to pay attention and be on guard is nothing more than passing a word to the Xiangyu siblings.

As for him himself, who temporarily set aside the Gilbaris card in the absence of any situation, he simply put his coffee cup back on the table, raised his hand and waved, responding to the greetings of those few horse girls approaching from afar.

The summer training camp is like a beach vacation, but the central 'two‑person three‑leg' event makes a beach vacation rather unlikely.

At least until the last half month arrives, the training schedule arranged to reach the ideal stage will be relatively tight.

That's not bad, Aomo thought.

Looking at these horse girls full of energy and vigor, even their swimsuits being sexy, cute, lovely, and sprightly to the point that posting pictures would hardly pass review, the sense of alienation that lingers in the demon's heart likewise shrinks further.

(This chapter ends)