CHAPTER 1503: CHAPTER 1503: METHODS FOR ANGELS TO MAINTAIN REASON

The entire core revolves around the four words He Ao mentioned: ’Maintain humanity’.

Of course, these words are easy to say, but not so simple to put into practice.

If a person is exceptionally attractive, even if they are not aware of it themselves, those around them will remind them.

If a person has a prestigious status, they don’t need to be aware of it themselves, as those around them and the environment will remind them that they are a ’noble person’.

Similarly, after becoming an angel, even if they are not self-aware of being an angel, the people around them will constantly remind them of their angelic status.

Even if they deliberately emphasize not to be treated differently, the attitude of those around them, their friends, subordinates, and colleagues will inevitably be different from that towards ordinary people.

This is a change in relevant social relationships that inevitably occurs when a person’s strength and status change.

And these changes in social relationships, in turn, constantly remind them: ’You are no longer a mortal.’

This isn’t something angels can solve by merely believing they are human; their living environment and the people around them will continuously remind them of their non-human nature.

If everyone around expects and recognizes the same thing about a person, that person will naturally align themselves with that collective perception.

Especially when this ’perception’ is an objective fact.

Even angels with firm willpower are inevitably influenced by this invisible perception.

In the short term, this influence may seem insignificant to their consciousness, but over a long period, it is enough to incline their self-perception towards being an ’angel’.

A pure angel lacks reason, something He Ao can clearly feel.

A pure angel is more like the embodiment of some kind of mad, distorted world rule.

Just as the ’Memory Inheritor’ inherently leans towards chaotic and out-of-control fate.

The angels understand this very well, but mortals do not.

In a sense, an angel with reason is more like someone who controls Angel Power, rather than an angel.

Thus, a perception inclined towards ’angel’ causes the inherent madness of the angel to prevail, pushing the angel rapidly towards madness.

From this perspective, the essence of an angel’s descent into madness is the loss of self-awareness.

When angels consider themselves as the embodiment of mad rules, as ’Messengers of God’, they completely lose themselves, assimilated by their Talent Sequences, becoming mad angels.

The way to prevent oneself from becoming maddened is to ’enhance humanity’, to enhance self-awareness as a human.

To achieve this, one must first step away from an angelic environment, not live in a place where everyone knows they are an angel.

Of course, this is very difficult to implement, considering that even angels might have some friends or partners.

However, angels can reduce the number of people who know they are an angel, trying to let as few people as possible know their angelic identity.

Meanwhile, as evidenced by He Ao’s experiences in the Copy World, ’playing roles’ and ’changing lives’ can actually be a great help to angels.

Therefore, angels can completely detach themselves from their environments of growth, establishing new social relationships with strangers under a new identity, relying on the surrounding perception of them as ’human’ to strengthen self-awareness.

Thus, the angels of the Federation mostly live in seclusion.

He Ao estimates that they all have one or two ’ordinary person’ disguise identities, and the big cities they live in provide opportunities to quickly change identities and seek out new unfamiliar environments.

Of course, this ’humanity’ maintenance only slows down the onset of madness.

As time goes on, angels will become increasingly aware of their angelic identity.

Especially when they see friends and companions from the past passing away due to their long lifespans, their awareness of not being human intensifies.

He Ao is gradually realizing that angels are not actually ’immortal’.

Heading towards madness is an angel’s destiny and marks the end of an angel’s life.

From this perspective, angels need to live within human societies. Leaving this social environment, losing their self-anchoring, they will be quickly devoured by madness.

In a sense, human society acts as a ’longevity tonic’ for angels in a mystical sense.

This may also be one of the reasons why the angels of the Federation protect the Federation.

Of course, there are likely other reasons, but He Ao hasn’t found any clues yet.

Strictly speaking, He Ao’s role-playing in the Copy World should be much more effective than a typical angel changing identities.

After all, he genuinely integrates into the life of the character role in the Copy World, and his self-awareness remains that of a mortal.

Just now, He Ao was testing the effect of maintaining his reason through interaction with ordinary people.

It has an effect, but not a strong one, far from what he experienced during Copy World tasks.

Perhaps creating a new identity is what he needs to achieve more noticeable effects.

He Ao estimates that if he also adopts an identity in reality, after going through three more Copy Worlds, he might be able to completely suppress his madness.

At that time, he may start considering the matter of promotion.

But given that the enemies in the Copy World are getting stronger, he’s unsure if his strength, if it remains at the angel level, would be enough to successfully withstand three Copy Worlds.

Moreover, he has to deal with not only his tendency towards madness but also the Super Memory after promoting to angel status and the split caused by the presence of the Miracle Scholar identity within himself.

He Ao pulled back his thoughts, tossed the disposable bowl from his finished cold noodles into the nearby trash can, wiped his mouth, put his hands in his pockets, and slowly strolled forward.

The air between Heaven and Earth was getting colder.

Theoretically, it was already April, the weather across the Northern Hemisphere should be warming up, but Mote City seemed to be facing a ’spring chill’.

He Ao extended his hand, catching the faintly visible ice crystals from the sky.

Mote City’s high latitude meant that a cold snap with snow in April wasn’t too unusual.

The snow wasn’t heavy at all. After a brief contemplation, He Ao put away his phone and continued to stroll forward.

Children were running back and forth on the street, and as the weather turned colder, many once again donned their coats.

Vendors stood by the roadside, selling toys shaped like ’K’.

This was a toy that had recently become popular in the Western Lands, with a simple origin: the spread of the ’K’ faith throughout the Main World.

Belief itself has some peculiar aspects.

According to He Ao’s understanding of angelic humanity and madness, ’K’, as a deity belief, should constantly remind him of his ’non-human’ awareness, pushing him closer to madness.

But in fact, the belief in ’K’ hasn’t had a significant impact on He Ao’s reason.

Though the existence of ’K’ constantly reminds He Ao of his own ’non-human’ status, his level of madness hasn’t significantly increased due to reminders from ’K’.

It seems that the awareness of believing in a deity, while also being a ’non-human’ understanding, doesn’t significantly affect He Ao’s humanity.

He Ao is unsure of the underlying principles, but he reckons it might involve deeper Mysticism Knowledge, and perhaps it’s of a high-level that would pollute mortals upon contact.

This is already an area He Ao has yet to explore.

Clearing his thoughts, He Ao continued quietly walking down the street.

He didn’t use his powers to hide his presence, but walked forward like an ordinary person.

The understanding of the Divine Being made him ponder the next level for angels, ’Usurper God’.

He Ao had known about the term ’Usurper God’ for a while; Nell’s [Arrogant Person] Character Card had abilities labeled as ’Usurper God’.

System ability names are not randomly chosen.

The meaning of ’Usurper God’ in Arrogant Person, in some sense, implies a mortal usurping a divine position, gaining Divine Power and status.

So, does the true, hierarchical ’Usurper God’ convey a similar meaning?

He Ao previously had some doubts since Nell’s situation was special, connecting as a mortal with the deceased War God and fortuitously acquiring the power to usurp a deity.

But can the Divine Being in reality truly be ’usurped’?

The answer that Di Man told him was yes!

As an Angel bearing the Divine Being’s curse, Di Man actually managed to control the power from the Divine Being, although he clearly did not control it well, and was obviously driven to madness under the guidance of this Divine Power.

But this told He Ao that the Divine Power can indeed be ’usurped’.

Perhaps this is the reason why those above Angels, referred to as ’Usurper Gods’, are called so.

Of course, to become above an Angel, it should not be a simple matter of just usurping the Divine Being.

Those whom He Ao has seen and understood as above Angels, whether it be the Tuning Master or Star Shadow, are in very stable states, rather than possessing the distorted power formed by the weak controlling the strong, similar to Di Man.

The true ’Usurper God’, their own power is stable, just like mortals using mortal power and Angels using Angel Power.

From this, He Ao suspects that there might be a corresponding Talent Sequence for the ’Usurper God’ level, requiring some special method for promotion.

Of course, throughout the process of Usurper God promotion or maintaining their state, there is a high probability that they still need to ’usurp’ the Divine Being.

It’s just not known what methods are used or what effects need to be achieved to satisfy it.

This line of thinking makes this level rather terrifying, as it inevitably offends the Divine Being, with a danger level far surpassing an Angel’s.

But having reached this point, He Ao perhaps has no other choice.

Because of matters related to promotion, his own level of madness is actually much higher than other Angels, significantly shortening his ’lifespan’ compared to other Angels.

Of course, the good news is that he might not live to become mad.

Judging by the state of the Divine Being eyeing the Main World, once the coordinates of the Main World are firmly established by them, the condition of the entire Main World will likely not fare well.

Especially for He Ao, this ’friendly character’ who has many times engaged in cordial exchanges with their subordinates, is unlikely to meet a good end.

So, exactly what is in the Main World that makes the Great Being so persistent in wanting to find it?

In contemplation, He Ao halted his steps.

He gazed at the green trees before him, somewhat puzzled.

This was a tall and slender tree, though its trunk was not particularly thick, it was very high, protruding about ten meters above the ground.

The tree bark was mottled, appearing to be quite aged.

But it did not appear in the roadside greenery—actually, no trees were planted in the greenbelts of this bustling street.

This tree was ’planted’ in a ’manhole’ at the edge of the street.

Its lower part was deeply inserted into the manhole, the manhole cover had already shattered, and as He Ao looked down, he saw only the trunk sinking deeply into the manhole and smelled a hint of stink coming out from the manhole.

Was this tree just here?

He Ao gazed at this tree.

Although he had been pondering along the way, not watching the road, he remembered there should have been no obstacles in front of him?

Just at that moment, a small figure, following a small flying toy, suddenly rushed forward.

Going straight towards the shattered manhole cover.

Snap—

The toy struck against the trunk and fell into the manhole.

This figure instinctively stretched out a hand to grab at the toy.

Then, this small figure felt like they were ’floating’ up, their collar lifted as if they were a little chick, causing them to ’fly’ into the air.

Their arms and legs flicked in the air, and then their whole body turned aside with the change of angular momentum.

A gentle young face appeared in their field of view.

This small figure looked down, seeing the deep manhole emitting a stench, only then realizing they almost fell in.

At this moment, they were being held in mid-air by this young figure, avoiding the fate of falling into the manhole.

He looked up at He Ao and chuckled, "Hehe, thank you, brother, thank you, brother."

He Ao looked at the small boy he had picked up, this little guy sure had a sweet mouth.

His gaze swept forward, spotting a young woman looking around anxiously in the crowd.

He said gently, "Go back, and be careful."

He reached out and placed the little boy beside the manhole.

"Hehe." The little boy chuckled and turned to see the young woman behind him.

He looked up and waved at He Ao, "Goodbye brother."

Saying this, he turned around and quickly ran off.

He Ao did not linger his gaze on him but continued to watch the trees before him.

He vaguely felt something was off about this tree, but could not sense any transcendent aura from it.

However, there are too many small weird events in this world, and both the Research Institute and the World Tree have dedicated procedures for them.

He took out his phone, intending to inform Yan Yue, the local Research Institute head, to arrange for someone to handle this.

"Brother." Just then, a soft call came from the side.

He Ao looked down, seeing that same little boy once again.

He had run back, with the young mother who had been searching for him standing behind him.

The little boy looked at He Ao, took a simple ’K’ character metal trinket from his pocket, hesitated a bit, then handed it over, "This is my amulet, Mama says it can protect people, I hope it can protect you too."

Observing the little boy’s action, He Ao glanced at the young mother behind the boy, then looked down at the boy’s firm and hopeful eyes.

He raised his hand and accepted the amulet, "Thank you."

"Thank you, brother." Seeing He Ao accepted the item, a smile appeared on the boy’s face, he turned back to his mother’s side, waving goodbye to He Ao.

Subsequently, their figures vanished into the crowd.

He Ao looked down at the ’K’ character amulet in his hand.

His trend towards reason seemed to grow a little stronger.

He pocketed the amulet and once again looked at his phone.

The sound of a rushing train echoed in the unreal sky; he planned to return to Central Earth immediately.

Director Li was still asleep inside the Trapped Destiny Plate; he got seriously injured from forcefully promoting himself to deal with the Tuning Master, leading to an unstable trend in his reason.

And He Ao suddenly thought, if human society could help Angels stabilize their humanity and reason, placing Li Cheng back into social relationships, with the companionship of former comrades, might aid in stabilizing his reason and hasten his awakening.

Although some of these companions knew Li Cheng had completed his promotion and had an understanding of his Angel state, since he had just promoted and He Ao had kept the news sealed, most people were unaware of this event.

Overall, compared to Li Cheng’s current condition, visits and influences from old friends may help him better stabilize his reason.

He Ao did not know if this method would work, he could only try.

However, he would always monitor Li Cheng’s condition through marking; if Li Cheng showed signs of deterioration, he would immediately take Li Cheng away.

In contemplation, He Ao unlocked his phone’s screen.

Then, several message notifications appeared in his field of view.