From the Abyss of Stars

091. Pseudo-humans

 

The Counterfeit Society— Phylolith, is a cruel and unscrupulous monster.

 

It often roams the boundary universe between Narrative 11 "United Company" and Narrative 12 "Temple of Annihilation."

 

Narratives are universes controlled by hegemonic civilizations, with their space and time fully mastered by these civilizations, following independent rules. Each narrative spans hundreds of billions of galaxies.

 

Li Aozi, or even Azure Star, is just a small planet under such a grand narrative.

 

Monsters like the Society are different. Mortals can only understand the Society as "civilization devourers," knowing little else.

 

Li Aozi didn’t know much about Phylolith either.

 

He only knew that its power and mobility far surpassed human understanding, and its mysterious transcendent presence was extraordinarily lofty. As a cosmic lifeform that feeds on civilizations, it troubles even narratives.

 

There is no way to eliminate or stop its predation, only to persuade it to leave.

 

But, compared to its god-like status in civilization... people feel more fear than respect for its infiltration methods.

 

As its name "Counterfeit" suggests, when it infiltrates a narrative, it sends its "citizens"— its cells— into various civilizations. They adapt, choose, eat some of the civilization's beings, replace them, and continue to act, eventually devouring the entire civilization.

 

The basic citizens of the Counterfeit Society are called "pseudo-humans."

 

Pseudo-humans are terrifying creatures that approach humans, eat them, and replace their identities, disguising themselves as humans to continue living, contacting other humans, and then eating them.

 

"The Abyss has gone mad... they were initially just anti-human, now they're against the entire cosmic civilization!"

 

Li Aozi looked at the pseudo-human corpse on the ground. Besides the face, which was entirely different, the rest was almost identical to him, sending chills down his spine.

 

Initially, no one paid attention to these pseudo-humans, thinking they were just a group of "doppelganger" tales. Most pseudo-humans encountered early on were not very strong, and not worth worrying about.

 

But for NPCs, these creatures were not too difficult to deal with; for players, they were terrifying.

 

Because pseudo-humans could replace players.

 

Once they killed a player, they could fool the system's panel information and infiltrate the crowd disguised as players.

 

The intelligence level of pseudo-humans was terrifying, with deep learning capabilities comparable to AI. Some pseudo-humans, mimicking emotional fluctuations, could blend into any circle without detection.

 

Players often discovered, after chatting for a while about what to eat after logging off, that the person they were talking to suddenly grinned and said:

 

"I'll eat you."

 

Players had to constantly maintain out-of-game contact to avoid the risk of pseudo-humans infiltrating their teams. Later on, players horrifyingly realized that pseudo-humans could master their jargon, thought strategies, and action paths, even simulating the tone and habits of replaced players.

 

Except for being unable to resurrect, they were almost indistinguishable from players.

 

Due to the hyper-realistic immersion of Star Abyss, internal communication and friends could only be made through in-game phone terminals— which pseudo-humans could confiscate.

 

Players had to rely on out-of-game voice channels to communicate with teammates, but over 70% of players played with random teams.

 

This led to players always sticking together, and those who left the team were suspected of being replaced by pseudo-humans.

 

Once a chain of suspicion formed, trust never returned to its original state.

 

Players broke down faster than NPCs; normal tasks became impossible, and many left the game with deep psychological scars.

 

By the time of version 2.5, players faced even greater pressure— pseudo-humans could now fully replicate players' skills and tactics.

 

Additionally, since NPC templates ignored version level restrictions, pseudo-humans' levels were generally higher than players'.

 

When pseudo-humans infiltrated a team, players often first blamed and suspected each other, leading to infighting and self-destruction, only to be eventually killed by the far stronger pseudo-humans who replaced them.

 

At this point, players couldn't progress in the game, and Azure Star collapsed due to the pseudo-human invasion, with no one trusting each other anymore, and the basic team cooperation of civilization disintegrated.

 

Thus, the solo advantage of the 【Dominion】 path started to show.

 

After version 2.5, Star Abyss urgently added exclusive guild and team voice functions to prevent pseudo-human persecution.

 

"Pseudo-humans..."

 

Li Aozi gripped the hilt.

 

The Cosmic Charter and major narratives explicitly prohibited researching the Society's "citizens," as it could lead to the destruction of entire civilizations.

 

No one knew where these monsters came from, but everyone followed the principle of "destroy on sight," like immediately isolating a virus carrier.

 

By doing this, the Abyss was not only against the outsiders but also the entire Azure Star and the whole of Star Abyss!

 

"They don’t even understand what Omega energy is, yet they make pseudo-humans into weapons. Snow too, a bizarre psychic treated as an Omega user..."

 

Now Li Aozi understood why Assistant Doctor Anna thought the Calamity theory was baseless.

 

Although he knew the essence of Calamity... others saw it as the professor not understanding Omega energy, unable to distinguish between Omega and psychic energy, even considering pseudo-humans as Omega users.

 

This was due to Azure Star's lack of a transcendental knowledge system, a phenomenon called 'metaphysical superstition' in the cosmos.

 

Humans, using their shallow knowledge, tried to analyze and explain phenomena outside their scientific system, leading to such strange phenomena.

 

This wasn’t wrong, just the sadness of an underdeveloped and backward era.

 

After killing the pseudo-human, Li Aozi felt dizzy.

 

He realized this metaphysical superstition was common on Azure Star.

 

How many more pseudo-humans were taken as normal transcendents, openly entering the human world?

 

They could act perfectly, be moved to tears, be cold-hearted, show racial prejudice, crack hell jokes, even fight bravely to save you from chaos.

 

Then, when you were most moved, seeing them as good friends, they would tear open your chest, take your identity, and become you.

 

He couldn’t help but look at Qiu Ran.

 

This country girl, kneeling in fear, yet relieved by his successful enemy kill and their safety.

 

Could she be a pseudo-human?

 

"Thank goodness..."

 

Qiu Ran lowered her shoulders, then picked up the clothes wrapped around Nomi's head:

 

"What now? Li Aozi, we... I... what about Nomi? I'm going crazy, I can’t do anything... what should I do?"

 

Li Aozi shook his head.

 

No, pseudo-humans weren’t that rampant yet...

 

Li Aozi looked around, finding no other paths.

 

Actually, player guides didn’t have detailed information about the third floor.

 

In the original plot, players just needed to talk to Assistant Doctor Anna, learn that she intended to first run Abyss Humanitarian for profit before humanitarian aid, and get access to the second floor.

 

But now... where was Assistant Doctor Anna?

 

Nomi’s condition was dire, still in a near-death state, her health not recovering. Some medication might be needed.

 

Without thinking, Li Aozi said:

 

"Return to the first floor."

 

The first floor had a medicine storage room and an emergency room. They could try their luck there and see if they could save Nomi.

 

Nurse Nordley was still alive. He hadn’t killed her immediately, worrying about unexpected situations and needing information from her.

 

He still hadn’t found room ZX—626, so he could ask her where it was.

 

Qiu Ran quickly nodded, following Li Aozi into the elevator and pressing the button for the first floor.

 

"Nomi... hang on... Nomi..."

 

As she prayed, she suddenly felt uneasy. Qiu Ran looked up, seeing Li Aozi’s eyes on her.

 

"...Li Aozi?"

 

Qiu Ran was puzzled.

 

Li Aozi didn’t respond.

 

From now on, he set a goal for himself: besides the essential Omega energies for the Blood Demon Stream, he needed the 【Eye of Truth】 Omega energy.

 

Only that Omega energy could see through real pseudo-humans.

 

"I overlooked... the harsh environments of Frost-Plated and Tianhuan in my previous life kept them out of the pseudo-human invasion range, making me think there were no pseudo-humans at all."

 

In reality, the threat always existed.

 

Unless the entire Azure Star was blown up, the pseudo-human crisis couldn’t be completely solved.

 

But pseudo-humans alone weren’t enough to mobilize the Galexy civilization.

 

"Abyss Humanitarian must be eradicated. There were no pseudo-human sightings in Frost-Plated in my previous life, probably just this one case... but I can’t be careless. One pseudo-human usually means another supervising it."

 

Before the elevator closed, Li Aozi glanced at the fission

 

reactor.

 

If necessary... be prepared to blow up the entire Abyss Humanitarian.

 

From the start, Li Aozi didn’t want to do this. The engineering facilities of Abyss Humanitarian could support many people, with mature greenhouse ecology and assembly line machines— the entire shelter could become an outpost and military base, or even a prosperous town. Blowing it up would be too great a loss.

 

But if another pseudo-human was found, Li Aozi would blow it up without hesitation, destroying the entire shelter along with the hidden pseudo-humans.