After listening to the other party's words, X's face revealed a hint of mockery.
"All assigned by the system now, currency almost completely abolished by Sun Jack, what's the point of seeking compensation? Sun Jack is really something, destroying capital as if it was such an easy thing to accomplish."
Hearing this, the Priest lifted the Red Book in his hand to his chest and gestured a sickle towards X, "No matter what you say, I see a person, not a Puppet of capital. When God strips capital from you, you are no longer a spokesperson for capital, comrade."
X looked at the Priest as if he were looking at a lunatic, feeling there was no longer any need to talk too much and simply turned to leave. "It's the end of the world, stop with the nonsense; survival is what matters most."
At this moment, the Priest gazed again over the entire Metropolis, covered in a blanket of white snow, seemingly unchanged from before, yet he perceived something different in it.
He saw the resurgence of a traditional Metropolis spectacle in the distant high-rises, a suicidal leap from them. Under such pressure, suicides were indeed common.
Yet there was no one live streaming it anymore, and there were now people beside those contemplating the jump, talking them down. With the words of these persuaders, the would-be suicides were successfully coaxed away.
Sometimes, people who want to take their own lives don't truly wish to die; they just need an excuse to keep living. The Metropolis of old never offered any excuse, but now, there was one.
In the dispersing crowd, he spotted Old Six, who had also witnessed everything that just happened, and he too was no longer live streaming.
The Priest smiled towards him, "Do you know what the Metropolis reminds me of now? It's like the primitive tribes of old."
"In that original society before the birth of currency or private property, altruism was self-benefit—this is what true socialism is. Say thanks to Sun Jack for me."
Old Six slid his hand inside his clothing and scratched, looking at the other with a speechless expression. "Bro, you're one of the upper echelons, didn't you see the battle reports? The Poet almost scared the shit out of us, and here you are, happy to be out and about in a situation like this?"
"I saw it, I know how dire the situation is, but I'm even happier to see that people finally have the right to be kind, that kindness is no longer synonymous with weakness. If it were still the old Metropolis, whether it's destroyed or not, the difference isn't really that big."
Old Six heard this and shrugged slightly, "You're still so radical. No wonder aside from Sun Jack, not many people are willing to chat with you. By the way, have you seen Tapai?"
The Priest nodded, "Looking for her? I know where she is now, I'll take you there. She'd disappeared for a while, and I was worried something had happened to her, so I made sure my followers kept an eye out for her."
Led by the Priest, Old Six arrived at the door of a warehouse. When the door opened, Old Six saw Tapai, or more precisely, Tapai lying in a pool of blood with an opened skull. Tapai was dead!?
Seeing this scene, both men sharply inhaled and hurried forward,
"Don't call BCPD, Tapai isn't dead, she's uploaded herself," the Priest stopped Old Six, who was holding a port in his hands, after inspecting the body.
"Uploaded? Why?" Old Six, full of astonishment.
The Priest, looking at Tapai's corpse, slowly shook his head, "I don't know. What's certain is, she felt her physical body limited her abilities."
"What difference does it make if it doesn't limit her? Does she think she can take on the rogue AI herself? With others' technology so much more advanced than hers, everything she does would be like an amateur's futile effort, wouldn't it?"
The Priest pondered. "I'm not sure, but with such an obvious flaw, I believe Tapai must have taken this into account,"
Old Six looked at the corpse in front of him and immediately faced a dilemma. "Damn it, should I tell Bro about this? Wait, does he already know? Is this just part of their two-person play?"
While the two of them were pondering where Tapai had gone, a woman holding fresh flowers walked into the nearby metro entrance. She had once been a puppet of the Holy Grail People within the Matrix, but now she had fully integrated into the entire Metropolis.
Half an hour later, accompanied by a crowd surging out like a tide, she arrived in front of the cultivation vessel that housed a damaged brain—it was Linda Linda.
She wasn't the only one mourning; around the cultivation vessel, the floor was covered with fresh flowers, and many people looked solemnly at Linda Linda within it.
The Matrix was moved as she observed the people. She really hadn't expected that so many would recognize Linda Linda and come to pay tribute.
Just then, a man beside her suddenly began to sob, telling the others, "She was truly a good girl, do you know that? I'm a Mercenary nobody cares about, but she was the only one who offered me warmth. She was different from others; her light… it had warmth."
"Yes, you're right!" said a woman with a Mohawk, standing up. "No one had ever cared whether I was in pain or about to give up, but she noticed and comforted me, she hugged and kissed me! I'm about to go to the front line, and if I don't say it now, I might never get the chance."
Encouraged by their words, others began to speak at once and texts of encouragement appeared on Linda Linda's cultivation vessel. Some even drew a sensual bikini on Linda Linda's brain through the glass.
"Enough!" The Matrix angrily flung her bouquet of flowers, interrupting the clients' confessions.
"You don't really care about Linda Linda; you just want to screw her! If you really cared for her, when she was having such a tough time, why was Sun Jack the only one who truly helped her?"
The clients looked at one another, and finally, a chubby man stepped forward with a troubled expression, "Back then in the Metropolis, we were barely surviving ourselves, how could we help her?"
"Now, without debts for prosthetic bodies, no mortgages or car loans, and no longer having to struggle for tomorrow's meal, do we finally have the means to help others."
"Yes, if she really couldn't make it now, we would definitely have helped her, but sadly, she has ended up like this."
"Excuses, get lost! All of you, get lost! A bunch of disgusting people!"
Completely unwilling to listen, the Matrix, on the verge of passing out from anger, waved her flowers vigorously, trying to drive them away.
Seeing this scene, the others retreated, laid down their flowers, and left. When the last person was leaving, he spoke up one last time. "We did go to her, but we also really loved her."
"Otherwise, when a woman is left without big breasts, a beautiful face, or a capable B, what do you think is the reason so many people come to remember her?"
"We do have hearts, but in the Metropolis of the past, we couldn't show them because that would mean showing weakness. It's only now that we have the freedom to care about others."
After driving everyone away, the Matrix began to clean up the various graffiti on the cultivation vessel and rearranged the scattered bouquets on the ground.
"Keep fighting, Linda Linda, hold on, you'll wake up, you will."