Post-Apocalyptic Survival Modpack

Chapter 90, Section 89: The moment people start thinking, the end of the world arrives.

"What do you mean?"

Ryder couldn't help but ask, "I don't quite understand. What is this 'cognitive apocalypse' you're talking about?"

What is all this stuff?

Clearly, Ryder hadn't quite grasped the situation, but Oswald had his own insights. He stepped forward and said, "What I mean is that all the current chaos is essentially just because of one doomsday, and there has only ever been one doomsday."

"am I right?"

Wang Ji nodded: "That's right, that's my guess."

Ryder was still a little confused and asked again, "What?"

Wang Ji: "It's something that keeps everyone awake at night, something that prevents their consciousness from going to sleep."

"It lurks in everyone's cognition, nourishes people's cognition, and constantly manifests the 'doomsday' scene that people generally understand."

"That's why I call it 'Cognitive Doomsday'."

"It makes it seem like there are many kinds of apocalypses coming one after another."

In fact, all these apocalypses originate from the same thing, which is the entity that continuously gives Wang Ji apocalypse points, the root of all apocalypse.

"All the disasters we are currently experiencing are merely a consequence of the 'cognitive apocalypse'."

"what?"

Ryder looked confused, his mind went blank for a moment before he came to his senses and said, "Let me think... In other words, the inability to sleep is just a side effect of the anomaly."

"There's something called 'cognitive apocalypse,' which resides within everyone's cognition, constantly absorbing their knowledge. This is why consciousness cannot be interrupted even after the body has gone into hibernation... Is that right?"

Wang Ji nodded.

"What kind of monster is this?!"

Ryder couldn't help but clench his fists. He desperately wanted to fight that monster, but he also felt powerless.

Because he didn't even know where the enemy was.

The target cannot be selected.

I'm not afraid of a strong enemy, I'm afraid of an enemy whose health bar isn't showing.

"Yes, a monster."

Oswald pondered the word and said, "There is a monster, a monster called Doomsday, that parasitizes human cognition."

"As long as people are alive, the doomsday scenario in their minds will continue to become reality."

Isn't this unsolvable?

Ryder was taken aback. After a moment of blankness, something else occurred to him, and he immediately said, "What about erasing memories? What if everyone forgets the concept of 'doomsday'? Wouldn't the cognitive apocalypse then become ineffective?"

"The so-called doomsday prophecies, such as the calamities of the dead, the great flood, and the final judgment of God, are nothing but literary creations, the charlatans of those 'high priests' and 'prophets' of the old era."

"If the thing parasitizing human cognition manifests the apocalypse through people's perceptions, then wouldn't it be fine if we simply erased all information and concepts about 'the apocalypse' from human cognition?"

“The idea is good,” Oswald praised, then added, “but it’s naive and one-sided.”

"You can prevent people from knowing something, or you can make them forget something."

"But you can't stop human thought."

"As long as a person can move and feel the world, they will inevitably need to think."

"The moment people start thinking, the end of the world begins."

"The so-called doomsday is essentially people's prediction of the worst-case scenario, an exaggerated fantasy about existing things and disasters."

“You can erase the fantasy concept of a ‘great flood,’ but you can’t stop people from looking up at the sky and thinking, ‘What would it be like if it rained continuously?’ or ‘What would it be like if there were no day or no night?’”

"Similar incidents can never be completely prevented."

"Curiosity is the unstoppable source of human progress."

Ryder: "What if we insist on stopping them?"

Oswald shook his head: "Then civilization and destruction are no different."

"Everyone is just a puppet or machine with a pre-programmed schedule. Their thoughts and cognition are all predetermined. They are not allowed to have any thoughts outside of executing orders, they are not allowed to think, and they are not allowed to update their cognition. They are just empty shells that are alive but can only wander in the same place and cannot make progress."

"It's still an empty shell that can't hibernate, more like a machine than a machine itself." "Even if someone breaks through the blockade and awakens the ability to think and the curiosity, it will only bring about the end of the world."

"The final result is still destruction, which is meaningless."

Ryder fell silent.

Wang Ji also fell silent.

This really does seem to be a dead end, a glaringly obvious dead end. Even if you figure out the underlying logic of this apocalypse, it's still a dead end that you can't deal with.

"any idea?"

—Actually, yes.

As Oswald just mentioned, as long as there are people alive, the end of the world will continue to come.

Then just let humanity go extinct.

But that was the purpose of the apocalypse in the first place. Once humanity is extinct, the apocalypse will no longer be necessary, and it will win no matter what.

The second, more 'conservative' approach is to turn everyone in the world, including Wang Ji, into machines that are not allowed to think and can only execute orders.

That would be worse than just dying.

And it's not even guaranteed to work. At best, doing this will only delay the process of realizing the end of the world, rather than make it disappear.

Even if people become machines, they will still be alive. As long as they are alive, the apocalypse of cognition will not disappear; it will just lie dormant for the time being.

"It's a headache."

Wang Ji was somewhat troubled.

The most annoying thing is that you can't select anything even if the health bar isn't displayed.

Even for him, the only way to interfere with the apocalypse is to use cognitive points to distort the arrival of the next apocalypse.

If he doesn't do that, then the apocalypse will happen on its own, just like before.

Sometimes it's a module from his list, such as Zombie Plague or Fungal Infection.

Sometimes it's a prophetic doomsday that already exists in this world, like the undead calamity, which wasn't manifested from the mod list but rather a local literary feature.

Anything that is thought to be capable of destroying the world will be manifested and become a reality.

"That…"

Ryder began to think again.

He said, "Then, what if everyone became like me?"

“I know it’s wrong to do this, and it involves a lot of moral and ethical difficulties, but you see, I’ve escaped that cognitive apocalypse, haven’t I?”

"And I look exactly the same as before."

"From another perspective, it's like... like the original me got an incurable disease, and then chose to create an artificial human just like the original me, inheriting 'my' memories, to continue living in my place. Isn't that another way of living?"

"Since all of humanity is now afflicted with a terminal illness, why not create an era of artificial humans, let them live on in our place, and pass on civilization..."

"I've already said it, it's pointless."

Oswald interrupted Ryder's idea, saying, "That's not realistic."

"That would be tantamount to causing all of humanity to commit suicide, and the so-called 'era of artificial humans' would only be a living grave of a civilization that cannot develop, a fleeting bubble that would burst at the slightest touch."

"These extreme methods are not appropriate."

Ryder said helplessly, "This won't work, that won't work, so what should we do?"

"do not know."

Although Oswald consistently denied these proposals, he couldn't answer them when asked.

The two of them looked at Wang Ji simultaneously.

Wang Ji remained silent, unsure of what to do.

Is this thing really that difficult?
This isn't very fun.

(End of this chapter)