The villains are redeemed, and the heroines cry and beg for forgiveness.

The buildings here are different from those in the slums; they don't have as many defensive needs or functions, and instead emphasize aesthetics and comfort.

Perhaps to express their hostility towards Starstone Technology, the buildings here don't have much of a technological feel, but rather present a sense of antiquity, with many even being wooden structures.

"Come in, but it's best if you come in alone; the others can wander around."

The voice came.

Gu Ran walked towards the source of the sound, which was the grand building at the very center of the central hub.

"Don't follow me!"

Gu Ran stopped the others from following him.

After thinking for a moment, Gu Ran said, "You should follow Teacher Wu Wang and listen to his arrangements."

After giving his instructions, Gu Ran continued walking forward.

He didn't speed up; having more time would give him more time to think.

"Leng Ran! I'll go with you!"

Just then, Xue Xiling jogged up to catch up.

Gu Ran immediately turned around and scolded, "What are you doing here?! I told you to follow Teacher Wu Wang, why didn't you?!"

Xue Xiling's face was full of grievance: "I... I just wanted to help you. If I were there, you would have one more helper no matter what you face ahead."

Gu Ran paused for a moment, then said, "No need. There will be greater danger if you follow me."

"I'm not afraid of danger!" Xue Xiling said immediately, "As long as it can help you!"

"If she wants to come in, then let her come in. Although it might not be of any use, if we refuse her, she probably won't give up."

The voice said again.

"Gu Ran, doesn't this voice sound familiar?" Xue Xiling suddenly asked curiously.

familiar?

It seems somewhat familiar...

Could this person be someone I know?

"Actually, verifying your own ideas is a very simple thing. You just need to come in and take a look, and you'll know. Do you not even have that much courage anymore?" the voice said.

Gu Ran remained silent and continued walking towards the central building, with Xue Xiling immediately following beside him.

This time, Gu Ran tacitly approved of Xue Xiling's actions.

"I'd like to see who you really are."

Once Gu Ran made up his mind, his steps didn't falter or falter at all, and he quickly approached the central building.

The main gate of the central building is a large red gate of unknown material, but it looks very grand and imposing, making Gu Ran appear incredibly small in front of it.

As Gu Ran approached, the door opened automatically.

Inside the gate was an empty hall, with only one person and one object standing at the very back.

The person had their back to Gu Ran and the others, so they couldn't see clearly for a moment, but the object was something Gu Ran was extremely familiar with.

Triangular crystal pyramid!

There's also a triangular crystal pyramid here!

"I'm here. That battle with the beast tide before, you actually put it on purpose for me to see, didn't you?" Gu Ran said as he walked in, speaking in a nonchalant tone.

"So what exactly do you want to say to me? What do you want to tell me?"

"Go ahead."

The person who had their back to Gu Ran slowly turned around and gave Gu Ran a faint smile.

But this turn of the head struck everyone, both inside and outside the screen, like a thunderbolt!

"Gu Ran!?"

"He's Gu Ran!?"

"No, that's not right. He's not Gu Ran. Isn't Gu Ran the person in front of him? But how come he looks exactly like Gu Ran?"

"Is this an illusion? Or a prank?"

Some people tried to guess, but it didn't sound very plausible.

......

At this moment, Xue Xiling, who was behind Gu Ran, suddenly fainted.

"Don't worry, she just fainted temporarily because she was about to see my face." The "Gu Ran" on the other end said calmly, "She is a person within the rules. She shouldn't have seen my face. So when she was about to see my face, she couldn't withstand the power of the rules and fainted in time. This is actually a kind of protection for her, or rather, it's good for everyone."

Looking at the familiar face, Gu Ran said, "Who exactly are you? With your strength, you have no need to use such petty tricks to disturb my mind. Moreover, I don't see any intention of toying with me. So you just happen to look exactly like me?"

Gu Ran smiled and said, "No, I'm several hundred years older than you. It shouldn't be that I look exactly like you, but rather that you look exactly like me."

"Then am I you?! Or are you me?!" Gu Ran asked directly, staring intently at him.

"You are you, and I am me. You are not me, and I am not you. This world cannot allow two completely identical people to exist." "Gu Ran" continued looking at the triangular crystal cone, "It's just that in a certain way, we—"

Gu Ran was surprised to see that the other person had suddenly fallen silent.

"Damn rules, is this something that can't be mentioned?" Gu Ran suddenly said, somewhat annoyed.

143. Tyrant: ****** 4k

Gu Ran looked at the other person in silence.

rule?

Who made the rules? What rules?

What was he trying to say? And what was he silenced about?

Various thoughts flashed through Gu Ran's mind as she waited for the other party's explanation.

“We haven’t had much time together, so I’ll try to keep it brief.” He turned to look at Gu Ran. “What will posterity say about me?”

Gu Ran noticed the way the other person asked the question: "Do you have any evaluation of me?" instead of "How would you evaluate me?" These two ways of asking the question have different meanings.

"Why do you ask that? Aren't you sure how future generations will evaluate you?" Gu Ran asked calmly.

He smiled faintly: "I'm not sure if future generations will remember me. Logically speaking, they shouldn't."

“There are almost no records of you in later generations. There are only some information about you that are passed down orally, and the evaluation of you is not very good. They call you a tyrant.” Gu Ran thought for a moment and did not hide anything.

"Tyrant? Interesting. It seems they've chosen to continue developing Starstone Technology, is that right?" The "Tyrant" closed his eyes, his expression somehow looking somewhat forlorn. "So be it. My path was wrong to begin with, and continuing down this path won't lead to anything good."

"Why weren't you remembered by history?" Gu Ran asked curiously. "And why did you prohibit the development of Star Stone Technology? Star Stone Technology played a significant role in yesterday's battle against the beast tide in the city. You must know that, right? And the fact that they can use Star Stone Cannons is because you tacitly approved their development of related Star Stone Technology, isn't it?"

The "tyrant" opened his eyes again, and those eyes, which looked exactly like Gu Ran's, showed a hint of weariness.

"This was a struggle, and also an experiment, and the result of the experiment was that I failed."

“Developing Starstone technology is humanity accelerating its own destruction! So I must stop humanity’s self-destruction. At that moment, an idea popped into my head: if Starstone technology were to stop forever, no, I should say all of humanity’s technology were to stop forever, then would humanity be able to continue forever?”

For the continuation of humanity? Is developing Starstone technology simply humanity accelerating its own destruction?

The other person's words made Gu Ran secretly alarmed.

Gu Ran couldn't help but continue asking, "Why do you say that? Why do you think developing Star Stone Technology is humanity destroying itself? What do you know? What are you doing?"

The tyrant said wistfully, "Do you understand 'Yuan' now? ************"

The following words were then silenced.

“Alright, it seems you don’t know yet.” The “Tyrant” gave a bitter smile. “Although I have tried my best to isolate this world from the Great World, it is still part of the Great World and will be affected by its rules to some extent. Even if I say some things, you won’t hear them because it’s not time for you to hear them yet.”

The tyrant's words left Gu Ran increasingly confused. He continued to ask, "Why? What is this great world you speak of? What is this world? And when will I be able to hear those words that I can't hear now?"

Gu Ran had too many questions in her mind, and she asked a series of questions in a short time.

"The Great World is my own name for the world you live in. It's a name I use to distinguish it from the real world. This world is a simulated world that I created to verify my ideas and to wait for you. Everything in it is just a simulation of data."

The "tyrant" continued, "Although this world is a simulation, the data is extremely close to real data, so the simulation results can be basically trusted."

"A simulated world? You're simulating... the success rate of humanity resisting the beast tide without relying on Star Stone technology?" Gu Ran was already surprised countless times. He felt that he had learned more secrets today than in the previous ten years combined.

The "Tyrant" nodded: "That's right. For thousands of years, the ferocious beast tide has been the greatest threat to mankind. I originally thought about how to successfully resist the ferocious beast tide without relying on the achievements of Star Stone Technology, but no matter how many times I experimented, I failed. If we don't rely on any Star Stone Technology, the casualties among mankind will be too great. Just a few ferocious beast tides can kill most of the people, basically declaring the extinction of mankind."

“Every time I have to save the day, but I can’t protect humanity forever. No one can escape the judgment of time, and I am no exception. After I disappear, humanity may continue down the old path of developing Star Stone Technology.”

"Later I had to change my mind, which was to develop and use Star Stone technology in a limited way, such as Star Stone Cannons... The introduction of Star Stone Cannons greatly reduced the cost for humans to kill elite-level ferocious beasts, without allowing humans to completely defeat the ferocious beasts and cause human populations to expand, thus achieving a balance."

Speaking of the Star Stone Cannon, Gu Ran thought of the "Gunners" who operated the Star Stone Cannon and asked, "Gunners are one of the means by which you restrict the development of Star Stone technology, right? The power they use is very special, so the output of Gunners is more than that of ordinary martial arts experts, but not by much. Therefore, humanity's attention will be focused on the profession of Gunners. At that time, they may want to continuously train more Gunners instead of continuing to develop Star Stone technology."

"Tyrant" agreed, "You're right. And you should have sensed it too, right? The power that the Gunner uses is a variant, or a lower-powered version, of the psychic power you're currently using. This power allows the Gunner to be more sensitive to the surrounding environment to a certain extent, and can also attach power to an object and then influence it, that is, change the trajectory of the cannonball. This power will make the Gunner more powerful than the Star Stone Cannon, because the Star Stone Cannon is an inanimate object. Without the Gunner's use, the Star Stone Cannon can't hit elite-level ferocious beasts at all."

"This is the method I came up with that allows us to take advantage of the development of Starstone Technology, but without letting it develop too much. However, the results of so many simulations have all proven the error of my idea. Once humanity starts to rely on Starstone Technology, it will be impossible to stop."

After saying that, the "tyrant" gave a self-deprecating smile.

"But I am a person who is unwilling to admit defeat, so in the end I wanted to force the development of Starstone Technology to stop. But as you know, before I could attack other major cities, I 'disappeared' and I didn't even leave a single written record in the future."

Gu Ran thought for a moment, then asked with some doubt, "Wait a minute, do you mean you were already able to simulate it when you were in the Great World? I thought you gained this ability after you left the Great World and became like this."

The "Tyrant" looked at Gu Ran and smiled, "I have indeed been able to simulate it for a long time. This ability does not actually belong to me, but to another 'us'. As for what it is, you will know if you have been to the Merfolk."