That protagonist is trash; I could do better!

On the way back to the settlement, Hall had already explained his purpose: to gain knowledge, and that travel was for the purpose of seeking more knowledge.

While Hall was reading, Rick picked up the chessboard from the ground and started playing chess against himself.

After a period of dull and tedious time, Rick broke the silence with a heavy and labored voice while playing chess with himself: "Holl, it's about time you told me your true purpose for approaching humans. I don't deny that you have goodwill towards humans, but you must also have ulterior motives towards them."

Hall was still reading a book about humanity's investigation into alien races, and casually replied, "Rick, do you know the origin of this war and how long it lasted?"

"I have no idea what those gods are thinking."

Do you want to know?

"If we could know the cause of this war, we could end this absurd war!"

Hall snapped the book in his hand shut, then picked up another and flipped through it: "There exists an omniscient and omnipotent power in this world, a conceptual device that symbolizes absolute dominion over the world, called the [Star Cup]. As long as you obtain the Star Cup, not to mention gods, even reshaping this planet is no problem."

Rick was taken aback: "Is that some ancient legend?"

Hall continued, "The Star Grail only reveals itself to the strongest beings, and there are ten God-type beings, who are the strongest race."

"The Winged Race and its creator, the God of War Artesius."

"The forest spirits and their creator, the forest god Kainas."

"The goblin race and its creator, Okan, the god of forging."

"These are the three most active forces at present."

"There are also gods who choose to be bystanders."

"However, only the last remaining god will be recognized as the strongest, and that is the cause of this war."

"..."

Rick clenched his fists, trembling, and growled, "You mean that in order to seize this absolute dominion, all the gods and all their followers would wage war and turn this planet into hell?"

"Isn't this reason sufficient?"

boom!

Rick slammed his fist on the wooden plank beside him, venting his rage with a frantic roar: "What a joke! All for a baseless legend! How many people have died on this planet so far? How many races have been wiped out by stray bullets of war!"

After a while, Rick clutched his chest, his eyes regaining their coldness.

Hall then said, "Rick, I told you that humans are the greatest race, didn't I?"

"Ah, I did say that."

"In this world, only humans evolved naturally."

“That’s also why humans are the weakest.” Rick took a deep breath to control his emotions.

"Have you ever wondered where the divine beings that created their followers and dragged the world into war came from?"

Rick's eyes turned serious. Although he couldn't explain it clearly, he had actually heard a little about the existence of so-called gods and had witnessed miracles when he was a child.

It belonged to him alone, born from his prayers, and it was impossible to determine whether it was real or just a dream.

"The only way to end this war is to obtain the Star Grail, but only the divine race is qualified to seize the Star Grail. Humans who are not protected by the gods and do not have a host spirit in their bodies are destined to be cannon fodder in this war."

“What are you trying to say?” Rick looked up at Hall, his deep eyes reflecting Hall’s appearance. He could sense that there was another deeper meaning in Hall’s words.

Hall smiled strangely: "It's simple. Gods are born from prayers. Since there are no gods to protect humanity, then humanity will create them."

Are you serious?

"Humans, who were not created by any god, have more diverse beliefs, and precisely because they are the weak, they know the value of survival more than anyone else, and their prayers for the world are stronger than those of any other race."

Hall's piercing gaze was like a sharp sword piercing Rick's heart: "Rick, join forces with me to end this war, elevate humanity to the highest throne, and win this war."

Rick lowered his head, his reaction indifferent: "You want to involve humanity in the war for the Star Cup. Putting aside whether humanity has the power you're talking about, how is this any different from their behavior?"

Hall said decisively, "This is the ironclad rule of this world, a principle that even the Star Cup acknowledges. If you want to overturn this ironclad rule, the only way is to obtain the Star Cup and set the rules yourself."

Rick asked, "What do you want me to do? What do you want humanity to do?"

"Do nothing, just like now, do everything you can to escape, do everything you can to escape to a safe place, and survive in this world as a weakling."

"A safe place? Is there still a safe place in this world? You saw it when you came back, right? Even the moon in the sky was hit by stray bullets, and you can see the craters on the moon with your own eyes."

Hall smiled confidently and said, "If we don't have it, we'll just create it ourselves."

Chapter 241 Mech Seed

The sky was filled with black and gray, and the darkness beneath the blood-red sky made it impossible to distinguish between day and night.

On the desolate plain, two figures ran at high speed. Hall and Rick each rode a beast that looked like a dinosaur, about the size of a horse. Its thick lower limbs ensured speed and endurance, while its upper limbs were weak. Its beak resembled that of a parrot, and it had curved ram horns on its head.

Its name is Hard-beaked Beast, a wild beast tamed by humans in this world. It serves a similar purpose to a horse, but is even faster and has better endurance. It showed no signs of fatigue after riding for an entire afternoon.

“There are signs of magical damage nearby, so it shouldn’t be far.” Rick pulled out a map from his pocket to examine it; this map was the one he had obtained from the information about the crashed airship.

The coordinates of a forest elf city that has been destroyed are recorded above.

The desolate plains are riddled with potholes, as if they had been washed by a meteorite shower. Inside the potholes, one can see vertical rock formations that look like they were made by humans, which are traces left by mass destruction magic.

"Safety."

Rick took out the needle tray and nodded to Hall after seeing that the needles showed no signs of trembling.

The two continued riding their beaked beasts through the treacherous battlefield, finally spotting a small black dot on the horizon—the city of the forest elves, a vast and mysterious forest.

Hall narrowed his eyes, his demonic eyes gleaming faintly as he probed the elves' reactions. So far, he had been following the original storyline and had arrived at this city of forest elves, his purpose naturally being the lone machine-type Shiro.

Hall's idea cannot be accomplished by relying solely on human strength; therefore, the power of the world's number one race, the Hugger Race, must be borrowed.

The Machine Race is a very special race. Although they possess great power, their existence is quite contradictory. They can be understood as inorganic life forms, and they will not react unless actively attacked.

However, this highly intelligent race, which is theoretically incapable of making any mistakes, abandoned a machine race used to analyze human emotions.

They are not living beings; they lack the survival instincts, desires, emotions, and values ​​of living beings.

This irrational contradiction itself demonstrates that this race is far from being as carefree as it appears on the surface.

Upon arriving at the entrance, one is greeted by a passageway entwined with countless thick vines, resembling an entrance to another realm, deep and eerie.

Because of the nature of the Forest Elves, humans know almost nothing about them, and any information related to them is extremely valuable.

An abandoned forest elf city can not only gather a lot of intelligence, but also find all kinds of resources that humans need.

The two traveled unimpeded deep into the forest city and arrived at a beautiful garden. The ground was covered with brightly colored flowers, and a soft glow fell from the sky, shining through the translucent petals, creating a dreamlike scene. Anyone would be amazed by this unique and pure beauty.

"and many more!"

Rick called out to Hall in a low voice, his gaze not on the beautiful flower field at all, but fixed on a young girl standing in the center of the field.

Sure enough, it's here.

Hall looked at her with great interest. If it weren't for her striking deep purple hair, one might not have noticed her at first glance, given her height, standing in the flower field.

The young girl was covered only by a small amount of strange armor. The exposed joints of her shoulders had a sci-fi aesthetic mechanical shape, connected to a pair of mechanical wings. Her waist was equipped with a tail-like device, the end of which was a crystal that emitted a faint light.

Rick shook his head at Hall, not flustered. He knew the characteristics of the machine race very well. Even though the goblins considered them an untouchable and dangerous race, as long as they were not attacked, they were no different from roadside rocks.

The young girl, a machine-type creature, turned her head to stare at the two who had suddenly barged in, her pupils filled with countless tiny halos of light.

"[Analysis]: There was no hostile action."

"The race is determined to be either human or unknown."

"[Execution], parsing begins."

boom!

Petals fluttered down, and the body of the young girl from the Mecha race vanished from her spot at a speed that even Hall's Mystic Eyes could hardly detect. The next second, she was already in front of Rick, pinning him down. Looking down at Rick, her shallow voice was devoid of emotion: "Brother, I can't hold back anymore."

what! ?

Rick was stunned, feeling as if he had been hit by a twenty-ton behemoth and then slept for ten years, only to wake up and be told the truth, his mind being subjected to an unparalleled shock.

He subconsciously glanced at Hall beside him, only to find Hall with his arms crossed, making no attempt to hide his spectator attitude.

Rick asked, trembling with fear, "What do you want to do?"

The young girl from the machine race calmly said, "[Speculation] The target did not produce a specific physiological response and cannot proceed to the next step."

"I had no idea you machine races had such a perverse interest in spying on other people's physiological reactions," Rick replied speechlessly.

"【Negative】, This machine has severed its connection with the connector."

"Alone? What business does a lone Mech have with us?"

"【Explanation】: This machine was originally designed as a parser and was tasked with parsing a language unique to humans called the Heart. However, due to frequent theoretical errors during the parsing process, this machine was rendered obsolete."

"[Speculation]: If one engages in skin-to-skin contact and reproductive acts, perhaps one can understand the language of the heart."

"[Error] This machine does not possess human female organs."

Hall, standing to the side, said sarcastically, "In other words, you want something from Rick."

The young girl of the machine race looked at Hall and nodded indifferently: "[Affirmative]".

"Little girl of the Machine race, let me tell you a truth: you must give something in order to gain something. Equivalent exchange is an eternal truth of this world."

"【affim】."

Pressed to the ground by the machine gun, Rick sensed something was wrong and turned to Hall, hissing, "Hey, Hall! What do you want to do!"

Hall shrugged: "The process of equivalent exchange is called a transaction, Rick. For the sake of the future of all mankind, please bear with it."

"What kind of horrible joke is this?"

Hall's expression turned serious, his frivolous attitude vanished, and he said in a deep voice, "The power of the Machine Race, even just one of them, can change the current predicament facing humanity."

Rick was speechless, lowering his gaze and tacitly agreeing with Hall's actions.

"[Question], the conditions of the transaction."

"I want to talk to the connector."

Rick's eyes widened suddenly, staring at Hall in disbelief. Did he want to talk to a machine?! Why? What did he want to do?

wrong.

Rick finally understood where the unease he had felt along the way came from; from the very beginning, Hall had acted as if it had all been premeditated.