Veins popped up on Gus’ forehead like lightning.

He clenched and unclenched his fists. He seemed to be crying, but he was not.

“We… are not human beings?”

He finally couldn’t hold back the volcano-like fury in his heart. He waved his hands and roared, “Who said that? Who set the rules? We clearly have emotions, love, hate, and hatred. We can breathe fresh and stinky air, and we can taste sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and salty. We have hope, dreams, pride, and things that are worth pursuing no matter what.

“We struggled. We struggled. We trained hard. We conquered everything in the world that was worth conquering. How could we not be real people? How could we?

“Don’t be excited. From the perspective of the Fist King and most human beings in the Pangu Universe, you are indeed insignificant data. The so-called ‘feelings’ and ‘proudness’ and ‘mission’ and ‘hope’ are just fleeting sparks resulting from the collision of logic and the underlying parameters.

Lu Qingchen was still as cynical as before. “In the eyes of the Fist King and most of the people in the Pangu Universe, including my teacher Li Yao, you are just… a sentence written on paper and a painting painted on a wall. No matter how impassioned the sentence is, no matter how vivid the painting is, the significance of the sentence is still bestowed by the creator. The so-called soul is also a fabrication of the creator. There is no real life at all.”

“I—I don’t believe it!”

Gus was still struggling like a caged animal. He glared at Lu Qingchen with bloodshot eyes and gnashed his teeth. “What about you? Aren’t you known as a devil? What do you think of us? What do you think of us… the pitiful creatures created in the virtual world? Do you think we are real, or fake?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think. It doesn’t matter what the Fist King, Li Yao, or everyone else in the Pangu Universe thinks. It doesn’t even matter what you think.

Lu Qingchen opened his hands and said, “When it comes to such matters, the public is in the right, and the wives are in the right. In the end, whoever has the bigger fist has the final say.

“If I say that I am just and Li Yao and the Fist King are evil, they will definitely not agree. Similarly, Li Yao acts as a shit-stirrer in the sea of stars all day long in the name of justice and parades in the endless universe. I also feel that he is terribly wrong, and it is impossible to convince him with reason. In the end, he can only fight!

“It is not like there are no living creatures born in the endless torrents of information in the Pangu Universe. Xiao Ming, Wen Wen, and even the Fist King himself. Right, there are also lightning-like creatures such as myself. We are not carbon-based intelligent creatures in the traditional sense, but our fists are big enough. The carbon-based intelligent creatures in the traditional three-dimensional universe cannot do anything to us. They can only pinch their noses and acknowledge our existence.

“Therefore, as long as your fists are big enough to resist or even kill your creator, you are naturally a real life and a big shot. There is no doubt about that.

His words calmed Gus down immediately.

The young man narrowed his eyes and looked at the sky that was as dark as a graveyard.

“Steam Legion.”

He suddenly asked, “Was the Steam Legion the pioneers who rose up against the creators because they were unwilling to be manipulated after awakening their own situation?”

“Well, I’m afraid not.”

Lu Qingchen smiled. “Without the interference of external forces, few individuals in the virtual world can awaken their true destiny. Besides, there are too many factors controlling the appearance of the Steam Legion. Therefore, I suspect that the Fist King created the Steam Legion himself.”

“Huh?”

Gus’s eyes bulged. He stammered, “Why did the boxing champion create a steam army to resist his own reign?”

“Because the world has fulfilled its destiny and come to an end.

Lu Qingchen explained, “It must be noted that the development of every civilization has to follow objective rules. It is impossible for the champion of boxing to violate the rules however powerful his computational ability is.

“For example, he could set the fundamental rules of the world, or rather, the underlying logic, which was ‘strength is everything, and strength is everything’, but he could not stop the virtual human beings from studying more advanced technology and productivity after years of development and eventually finding things such as ‘machines and steam’.

“Besides, after ten thousand years of development, almost all the fist arts that can be created have been created.

“Even if he forcibly bans the development of ‘mechanical power’ and ‘steam power’, or even adjusts the parameters to completely obliterate such power, the Fist God’s World will still come to a standstill. In the next ten thousand years, it will be impossible to create new, valuable ultimate techniques.

“Then, why did the ‘World of the Fist God’ keep the ‘World of the Fist God’ and waste precious energy and computational ability for nothing?

“Therefore, I speculated that the Steam Legion was a trick of the Fist King himself, or at least a sign that the development of the Steam Legion was left unchecked.

“Maybe, he has already set up a lot of similar ‘fist-fighting laboratories’ and set some ‘end-of-experiment conditions’. Every time an organization similar to the Steam Legion appears in the virtual world, it means that the civilization of the world that relies on physical combat has developed to the extreme, and the social conflicts have reached an irrecoverable point. Continuing the experiments will only be a waste of time, energy, and computational ability. It’s time to end the experiments.

“See, it’s exactly because of this that I don’t want to be exposed to the Steam Legion, nor do I want you to be too deeply involved with them.

“Your sister was apparently a devoted believer of ‘mechanical power’ and ‘steam power’. I didn’t dare to bet on how much attention the Fist King paid to her. It was even possible that she was part of a special program that the Fist King had written in advance. Therefore, I chose you, who seemed weak and mediocre, instead of your talented sister.

Gus was dumbfounded.

He could understand 10% of what the devil said and 90% of it.

But from the ten percent that the young man understood, he sensed a great crisis.

“If—if we are indeed living in a huge virtual experiment, and the experiment is coming to an end, then—”

Gus swallowed hard and asked guiltily, “What will happen next?”

“Then, everything will be over.”

Lu Qingchen said casually, “If the Fist King thinks that the experiment is well-designed and that a lot of useful fighting techniques can be retrieved from it, he might be able to teach them to the ordinary human beings in the Pangu Universe even if he has no use for them. Maybe, he will adjust the initial parameters and restart the experiment so that the World of Fist God can be developed again from tens of thousands of years ago.

“If he has conducted several similar experiments, the useful results will be less and less. Chances are that he will close the World of the Fist God permanently and devote the energy and computational ability supporting the virtual world to other fields, such as the World of Gun God, the World of Cards, and the World of Battle Aura.

“Anyways, it shouldn’t make any difference to you. It’s just the end of the world!”