MC Creative Mode: Wholesale Perpetual Motion Machine

Chapter 241 What is the goal?

He reached out and gently tapped his companion Yan Chi's head, saying under the other's questioning gaze, "The four of us have known each other and protected this city for almost two years now, for roughly the same reasons."

"When I first became a knight, I was actually very confused. My initial motivation for fighting was just because of my admiration... my admiration for that guy. At first, I even backed down because I couldn't bear the pain of fighting. It wasn't until I experienced one thing after another that I gradually found what I really wanted to protect."

"It is because we have clear goals and people and things we want to protect that our will becomes firm."

"Because I want to protect them, and I want to see the people I know continue to live peacefully, I can endure the pain of battle, the fear of dying at any moment, and accept that I might be completely forgotten as if I never existed."

"Fighting itself has never been our goal; fighting monsters is merely a means to achieve our objective."

"But what about you?" Hailan pointed at Fang Zheng. "Do you really have a purpose in fighting? What is it that you want to protect?"

"What do I want to protect? What is my purpose?" Fang Zheng shrugged, seemingly indifferent. "Nothing. Is there anything worth protecting?"

"If Kyubey is right, then this world has no meaning. There is no birth, no death, no existence, and no extinction; everything simply exists in parallel."

"Goals? What's so important? As long as the fighting feels exhilarating and enjoyable, isn't that enough?"

"Is that so..." Hailan shook her head gently, with a hint of a sigh: "Is this really enough?"

"You're still a child, yet you have none of the emotions that someone your age should have. You don't care about your body at all, treating it like building blocks, parts, or a puppet."

"You don't even care about your own spirit or your own personality, treating them like files that can be deleted or modified at will."

A complex emotion, difficult to describe, flashed in Hailan's eyes.

He raised his hand, covered his palm with the Kamen Rider armor, and awkwardly pressed it onto his head, activating its energy.

A flash of azure light disappeared in his eyes, and his expression instantly turned cold, as if his entire soul had been frozen.

Almost all emotions were suppressed, leaving only extreme calmness.

In this state, he can clear his mind and concentrate all his thoughts on the battle, thus greatly enhancing his combat power.

However, just moments later, the azure light dissipated, and the extreme indifference shattered. He took a deep breath, and his expression returned to normal, but a hint of barely concealed panic lurked deep in his eyes.

He tapped his head and said again, "These are the techniques you forced us to learn during the battle just now. I admit, your fighting talent is beyond my imagination. You've only been a Kamen Rider for two years, and I never thought I could do this."

"Indeed, this state allows one to unleash combat power far exceeding normal levels, and one is almost never prone to making any oversights or mistakes due to emotional fluctuations."

"But for us, these are just techniques we need to use in battle. After the battle, we are still ourselves as usual."

Hailan paused for a moment, then pointed to Fang Zheng's chest and said, "But what about you?"

"What's wrong with me?" Fang Zheng tilted his head and asked curiously.

Hailan's tone turned serious: "I can see that even now, you are constantly using this technique to suppress your personality and calm any emotional fluctuations."

“During the fight just now, we did learn your technique of cutting off our senses and not feeling pain. It’s a very convenient technique.”

"But you...you haven't cut off your sense of pain, have you!"

“Yes, that’s right.” Fang Zheng nodded matter-of-factly: “Because I’ve found that completely severing the body’s senses makes you feel dull, and controlling it is like manipulating a puppet. Retaining a little pain is quite useful in combat.”

Hailan frowned: "That's the problem. Just to maintain a little sensitivity in combat, you allow yourself to clearly feel the pain even when you're shattered, torn to pieces, and reduced to a cloud of blood mist." "And that's not all. When the mind is highly focused, the sensitivity of the senses increases. I can sense that you not only didn't suppress any pain, but you deliberately increased the sensitivity of your senses."

Hailan pointed to the gem in the center of her transformation belt and said, "Intense pain can cause drastic emotional fluctuations, and our energy core's energy output will also change when our emotions fluctuate."

“And you!” he emphasized. “Not only did you not suppress the pain, but you also amplified the fear you felt when you felt pain, in order to exchange it for an explosive output of energy when your emotions fluctuated.”

“This is simply… simply…” Hailan frowned, struggling to find the right words: “To torture yourself with the most terrible cruelty in order to force out your greatest potential. What… what do you take your own soul, your own heart for?”

"What's so strange about that?" Fang Zheng looked at him with a questioning gaze, his tone flat: "Isn't this quite common? Whether it's ordinary people exercising or protagonists in movies and anime cultivating to achieve their goals, don't they all use training to torture themselves in order to unleash their potential? Isn't this just replacing training with torture? Don't the ascetics in novels often do the same thing?"

"Anyway, emotions can be manipulated at will. What's a little pain and fear? Just cover it up with greater excitement and fighting spirit, right?"

"You!" Hailan found it hard to describe her feelings at that moment.

Looking at Fang Zheng's figure, he seemed to see a mind trapped and constantly tormented by madness, and an automated torture device fueled by pain surrounding that mind.

Finally, he shook his head and sighed, "Do you really find pleasure in fighting? Or do you fight and find pleasure in fighting because you want to?"

Recalling the desperate battle not long ago, Hailan sighed again: "Today, you can forcibly trap us in order to enjoy the battle, and even force us with death, forcing yourself to move forward."

"And tomorrow? Who will you choose to fight? Who will you choose to pressure?"

"Our fight has always revolved around the goal of protecting the city, and we have always had our bottom line."

"But what about you? Where exactly is your bottom line? Today you're willing to almost kill us strangers for the sake of fighting, but what about tomorrow?"

"What will your spirit and your personality gradually become if you keep fighting and pushing yourself?"

"Today, you can amplify your pain and intensify your fear as much as possible in order to fight."

"What about tomorrow? If you determine that your excitement and pleasure in battle are also affecting your combat performance, will you abandon them without hesitation during the battle?"

"Your memories, your emotions, your family and friends, everything about you..."

"In the heat of battle, what is it about yourself that you absolutely cannot give up?"

"Do you want to fight, or do you feel you should want to fight, and that's why you keep fighting?"

"You are practically stripping away everything about yourself as a human being, turning into Sisyphus from mythology, who neither eats nor drinks and is forever pushing a boulder."

"Ultimately, do you really think you're alive?"

"Is fighting the only goal you've set for yourself?"

Do you truly have even the slightest bit of love for the world and for everything in it?

Fang Zheng listened to all this, but simply shrugged without understanding anything: "I don't understand any of what you're saying."

"If I had to give an answer, there would probably only be one..." Fang Zheng said with a smile, "I want to become the person I want to be."

After a moment of silence, Hailan shook her head, turned around, and left with the other three.

(End of this chapter)