Abyssal Wanderer.

Initially, when infected with the original Dionysus virus, Baptiste heard voices in his head.

Among them was his own father, a man who always wore a serious expression, scorned popular culture, and could never see his son's artistic talent. He spoke little and never affirmed himself—but his shrewd social experience helped him escape the police's pursuit on several occasions.

Then there are the lovers who willingly dedicate themselves to him, constantly professing their love and using their talents to teach him techniques for editing motion graphics, painting, and composing music. They also encourage him to continue pursuing the true love that only exists in ancient stories.

Then there are the Apollo Bio employees you've only met once, who will whisper in your ear a lot about genes, memes, cybernetics, and communication. But at the same time, they'll contemptuously call you just a pawn used in experiments, a consumable for the company to develop new technologies.

Besides these, there were his childhood friends, classmates from the talent incubation center, and even many people he didn't know...

Their voices chattered incessantly in Baptiste's mind, sometimes even arguing and debating with each other, while also telling him that this was what was known as dissociative identity disorder: his thoughts were constantly diverging, and his original personality could not restrain those thoughts like an ordinary person.

He is becoming a schizophrenic in a broad sense, his behavior is becoming unpredictable, he appears emotional and extreme, and he is unable to effectively control his behavior.

Then, following the instructions, he injected himself with the Primal Apollo Virus.

Then, the voices could no longer seize the steering wheel; instead, they directly controlled his actions.

But they became wiser, and even more... incomprehensible, because of it.

The previously scattered thoughts were brought together again, only to diverge once more. The voices within the mind began to whisper in one's ear the trajectories of the stars, the composition of the atmosphere, the sequence of genes…

Perhaps "whispering" isn't quite right, because their communication no longer uses human language, but rather a self-created symbol system based on mathematics—Baptiste could only understand the final conclusion; as for their reasoning process, it was like a human programmer dissecting a computer program's data at the mechanical language level—completely incomprehensible.

But as long as you do as they say, things will naturally succeed.

However, if you ignore their advice and insist on your own ideas, things will most likely fail.

If we go a step further and relinquish control of our own bodies, simply watching them operate like a passenger, then things can be done both quickly and well.

Especially when accessing the network via a brain-computer interface, the countless voices in the mind can process multiple projects in parallel. Utilizing the World Wide Web or even the dark web, its efficiency is amplified hundreds or thousands of times.

Furthermore, the state that Baptiste experienced when he relinquished control of his body was, in his perception, a tranquility beyond imagination.

If I had to put it into words, Baptiste felt that the Christian heaven, the Buddhist enlightenment, the Taoist unity of heaven and man, and the Hindu unity of Brahman and Atman were roughly the same feeling.

Baptiste called that state "selflessness".

In that state, if one is not careful and becomes immersed in it, one's ego will melt into it and disappear without a trace.

Ordinary people might easily succumb to this temptation—just like Wang Ying's colleagues.

But Baptiste is different.

What he sought was never inner peace, but rather passionate love and unforgettable pain.

Other infected individuals who are currently able to maintain their self-awareness are mostly refusing inner peace due to guilt or remorse.

But this is only temporary.

Baptiste knew that those intense emotions were fleeting, and that one day he would be unable to maintain that passion.

At that time, the one who will truly become superhuman will not be himself, but "them" in his mind...

It was only then that Baptiste understood this reality—complete superhumanization meant the demise of self-awareness.

Baptiste could not accept this result.

After all, how empty would those superhuman intellectual achievements be if there were no "me" to experience them...

The voices in his head gave an affirmative answer to this guess.

Even if those voices are countless times smarter than me, I am still my own master at this moment.

As long as I ask "them" questions, "they" will answer everything they know—and given the level of my intelligence, it could be said that "they" are omniscient and omnipotent.

For example, "they" even answered how to maintain self-awareness and how to reduce "their" influence.

And that method is...

"Jim Ritter, the only one who has awakened self-awareness, is your last hope."

The mortician before him said this.

Yes, that was the only way the voices in his head told him.

Jim Ritter was the only successful person in the Apollo Bio-Superman program.

By combining John Otto's genes with his residual mental model, the only suitable candidate who can perfectly adapt to the original Apollo virus and Dionysus virus—the two viruses they are currently using are the complete versions that he reverse-engineered and improved at the zombie research center back then.

Logically speaking, he should be a textbook example of a perfect superhuman... if Janus didn't exist.

Janus approved of Nyx's technological approach, and thus modified the iris and Pegasus into components of the original brain-computer interface, giving Nyx a chance to fulfill his last wish.

However, because He did not approve of Nyx's evolutionary philosophy, after Nyx disappeared, even the remnants of the Second Will were tampered with by Him, granting the successor a free will that should not have been awakened.

Even a hundred years later, Jim Ritter, the sole heir to the Second Will, will still be under the watchful eye of the First Deep One.

The voices in Baptiste's mind told him all sorts of historical secrets—he didn't even know where those voices got them from.

But in any case...

“That’s right, he is our last hope… Those who were infected with the Dionysus virus through the Thracian Club incident were able to perfectly maintain their personalities. And that meme entity named Icarus, even though there is an order of magnitude difference between the number of its constituents and the incarnation of fear, it has always been able to hold its own against it.”

Baptiste said through the loudspeaker:

"But all of this is predicated on the absolute certainty that he must not be allowed to ascend to Depth 7 of the Orpheus Path! If he were to ascend to Depth 7, he would gain the power of life and death over all 'Supermen'—to completely seal off the Second Will. This is Janus's reason for creating the Orpheus Path!"

He wasn't saying this to Jiang Zhou, but to the draftsmen who were still hesitating.

"After you leave Olympus Corporation, do you still plan to find yourself an unassailable powerful figure?"

His tone was very persuasive.

On the other side, Jiang Zhou's heart skipped a beat after hearing the other party's words.

So that's how it happened?
Moreover, judging from what the other party said, it's not that there can't be a depth of 7 in the Orpheus path, but rather that Jim Ritter cannot be a depth of 7 in the Orpheus path.

In other words, only Jim is special.

At the time, there were 67 controllable factors in the Nord resettlement area, but he chose it anyway.

Is this just a coincidence? Or is it also part of Janus's plan...?

As Jiang Zhou recalled his reasons for choosing Jim, the image of Hecate flashed through his mind.

No… I chose Jim Reiter because of Hecate’s suggestion.

What exactly did Hecate want...?

"Let me make this clear first..."

At this moment, the draftsman who had been silent finally spoke.

At this moment, the topological state of the opponent's representation is not very optimistic.

"If in the end I find out that all of this was just a pipe dream, then you can forget about surviving on your so-called 'superhuman intelligence' with that dead head of yours," the draftsman said, tilting his head slightly.

Then, he turned to look at Jiang Zhou and said:

"As for you... there's still hope if you leave the Nord resettlement area with the emcee and the others. My only goal now is to stop Jim's promotion, and if possible, I don't want to lay a hand on you."

That being said, the sensors on the Chainbreaker Modified Armor detected that the enemy's core was continuously outputting energy.

Jiang Zhou shook his head.

"By doing this, you are cutting off the livelihoods of millions of people in the entire Nord resettlement area."

However, it must be said that if everything Baptiste said is true, then evolving all of humanity into superhumans capable of retaining self-awareness seems like a good plan.

If it weren't for the current situation, I might have seriously considered its feasibility.

But all of this must not come at the cost of the millions of people in the Nord resettlement area.

Moreover, whether what Baptiste said is true is still debatable.

Jiang Zhou felt that something was off.

For example, would Janus really give up a technology that could enhance the intelligence of all humankind without any side effects?

They even had to design a special upgrade path just to block the second last wish.

There must be some undiscovered danger hidden within.

"is it?"

The draftsman sighed.

“If possible, I wouldn’t want to do this... but now, millions of people here are blocking my way to survival.”

After he finished speaking, he raised one of his thick, bronze-colored heels and stomped his foot hard on the ground.

"Bang!!!"

The sound waves and vibrations struck Jiang Zhou simultaneously. Even though the armor was equipped with noise reduction and shock absorption features, he instantly lost his hearing due to a ruptured eardrum.

Jiang Zhou felt warm liquid flowing from his ear.

Moreover, as the draftsman stomped down, the ground within a fifty-meter radius of the fan-shaped area in front of him shattered violently.

The ground level of the seventh basement level, which is also the ceiling of the eighth basement level, collapsed directly within the impact area.

Jiang Zhou stumbled and almost fell to the next floor—luckily, he immediately activated the vector jet to stabilize himself.

Countless fragments and pipes fell, creating a meteor shower on the eighth basement level.

God knows how many residents on the eighth basement level will be killed if this continues.

Taking advantage of this lull, the draftsman activated the armor's mobility device and flew rapidly in the direction Jim had gone.

"Follow up!"

Jiang Zhou silently recited in his heart.

As the command was given, the electrophoretic patterns on the Chained One's body lit up with a blood-red light, a symbol of Overload Mode—no longer stingy with energy, no longer considering losses, it took off with the momentum of destroying itself.

Top-tier defense, formidable mid-to-long-range attacks, and considerable area-of-effect damage...

Due to his ruptured eardrum, Jiang Zhou could only feel the faint whooshing sound of high-speed flight through bone conduction. In this quiet flight, he couldn't help but ponder his opponent's weaknesses.

However, due to limitations in reflexes, the opponent's close-combat skills are poor.

Thinking this, the Chain-Binder Modified, now in overload mode, had already caught up with the illustrator.

Furthermore, in terms of mobility, the opponent's long-distance movement speed is insufficient.

Thinking this, the Gauss machine gun on the armor began to fire bullets at the enemy.

Perhaps due to the high-speed movement, or perhaps because the Hellfire Fission Reactor's energy was entirely used for propulsion, the enemy did not deploy phase-mode defense this time. Jiang Zhou's bullets clanged and clattered against the enemy's armor.

The fine, needle-like Gauss bullets left sharp marks on the enemy's armor, like a continuous file.

Although these bullets could only cause pitiful damage to the draftsman, their sheer number was overwhelming.

Tens of thousands of fine needles bombarded the weak points of the enemy's armor in succession, and soon caused considerable damage to the enemy's power system.

Furthermore, as the bullets were consumed, the weight of the Chainbound Modified decreased, and its speed increased.

The distance between the two sides has been shortened, and the accuracy and damage of the bullets have become higher.

I've already let you go, do you really want to die?

A message came from the illustrator.

But I have no intention of letting you go, nor that dead head next to you.

Jiang Zhou retorted with equal force.

No matter how the opponent maneuvered, the cartographer was never able to escape his pursuit due to his accurate prediction and aim.

That's not all...

Jiang Zhou thought to himself.

Since it has been confirmed that the opponent cannot activate phase mode while moving at high speed, then...

A tiny flash of light streaked across the rooftop of a building in the distance.

The draftsman, flying in mid-air, felt as if he had been struck in the chest by a heavy hammer, and suddenly lost his balance.

"Boom."

Only then did a faint gunshot rang out, its sound muffled by the distance.

The Heavenly Gods have arrived.

Jiang Zhou pressed his advantage, unleashing the last of his Gauss bullets on the cartographer, pinning him to the ground.

After he ran out of bullets, the two electromagnetic railguns on his shoulders recharged and fired directly at the enemy's head.

Once again, the opponent instantly transformed into a ghost and dodged two tungsten projectiles.

Meanwhile, the panel on the Chainbound Modified showed that after the previous overload flight and the barrage of ammunition, the armor's energy was now severely depleted.

And so, he was forced to make an emergency landing as well.

At this moment, facing the draftsman who had been thoroughly enraged by him, the only weapons he could use were his two armor-piercing daggers. (End of Chapter)