Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 183



Only Noblemtl

183.

What is the reason for human life?

If asked that question, people would give different answers.

Simon Carver also had his own answer.

Born as an ‘ordinary and ordinary person who can do anything’, he did not have any special talent for writing like the author. His writing was nothing more than imitation, and even when he read his own writing, which he had painstakingly revised several times, he did not get the impression that it was special like many other authors.

So the path I found formed my current life.

He loved novels that depicted stories that did not exist in reality. That is why he aimed to live a life where he could communicate with the writers of those novels and help them produce good works, and he acted that way.

He felt great value in living as a ‘being who understands writers’.

That’s why I worked as a reporter for the culture section of a newspaper, where I met a wonderful writer, was greatly influenced by his work, and quit the company to find the happiness I truly sought.

I am ready to accept with joy the anxiety and even the misfortunes that may come during the process.

As with Simon, every human being has their own answer and way of life that they have chosen.

Office workers crossing the crosswalk outside the office building right below, students chatting on a bench, and elderly people waiting for the bus.

‘Everyone has their own reason for living.’

Simon thought.

And the reason humans live that way is because it is a process to reach the result called ‘happiness.’

‘The Book’, a fictional artificial intelligence in ‘Country of Losers’, is portrayed as a being that suggests the most reasonable path for each individual human being and tries to lead them to the outcome called ‘happiness’.

To do that, the North completely made the ‘free will’ of all mankind into an illusion, and instead, it ‘necessarily’ made humans happy.

In short, the entity was both a consultant and a manipulator, kindly advising from the front and manipulating everything from behind.

Therefore, readers’ reactions to this novel were bound to be divided into two.

Those who support and those who deny the North.

In other words, those who affirm the existence of God and those who deny it.

Simon thought that the reaction was separate from whether or not one believed in God.

If we think that the God of the real world we live in is more like a mechanical device, or in other words, a product of human creation, then someone will certainly abandon their ‘faith’.

One of the reasons why humans can have pride in themselves is because God resembles humans.

‘Ironically, yes.’

Not because humans resemble God, but because God resembles humans.

And the reason it happened that way is because humans created God.

‘If a devout believer heard what I’m thinking right now, he’d hang me at the stake right now.’

But I couldn’t stop the thoughts that had already started to flow after reading the novel.

The Bible was a tool to express human ideals by packaging them with the word of God, and it was a guidebook to present a universal way of life that ordinary people could understand. At the same time, it was also a reason not to give up on life.

If you analyze the doctrines of all the religions in the world one by one, aren’t they surprisingly similar? They each teach that if you live correctly according to their doctrines, you will find happiness.

‘That is indeed true.’

Happiness and the glory of the afterlife were presented as reasons to pursue such a life.

However, it is also true that in modern times when humans have become more intelligent, that doctrine has somewhat lost its luster.

Even if an individual lives righteously, unfortunate events will occur and there is no guarantee that happiness will come. Everyone knows that life after death is meaningless.

In that sense, the North was a religion that resolved all contradictions.

It rationally recommended different paths to each individual human being and definitely made them happy.

And yet, as I said, even that is something that some people believe and some people don’t.

Where does the difference come from?

‘There are two main reasons.’

A human-created being dares to teach humans.

By deceiving humans, they are blocking human potential.

The interpretation of that point led to whether or not to further affirm the North.

‘I guess you could say it’s a difference of perspective on human free will.’

In other words, ‘free will’ is the theme presented by ‘Country of Losers’.

This novel shows the misfortune and happiness that come with ‘human free will’ in the first and first half of the second parts.

The emergence of the world called the ‘Internet’, where people can share their individual thoughts, has created unnecessary misfortunes.

‘The Book’ respects human free will, but it also completely deceives them, making them happy.

This raised the issue of whether readers of the novel would approve of ‘The Book’ or not.

Of course, Simon was in denial. That’s why, even though he was unhappy, he decided to move forward with pride in his life, thinking for himself and choosing this path.

But I also understand the sentiment of those who are positive. If we enter an era where we are flooded with information in the future, I would rather have people filter out information that will only make us unhappy.

However, Simon’s organized thoughts on the theme that he had been building up while reading the novel came crashing down the moment he read the middle part of Part 2.

‘SEEN’ asked.

‘Are humans and free will worthy of respect?’

After just finishing his ‘second’ reading, his emotions were extremely complicated.

And as if by God’s will, at just the right time, a young man entered the office.

“Excuse me.”

“Author, are you here?”

“Huh? Torrance’s······.”

“I’m Miss Brown from Hardboiled Publishing now. Please take care of me in the future.”

“Okay, please take care of it.”

“Coffee? Tea?”

“Tiro.”

After giving a brief answer in front of the welcoming face, Shin approached Simon.

“Simon? Why are you looking like that?”

“······I just read this novel. It’s my second time.”

“How was it?”

“Before editing······I would like to ask the author’s intentions.”

Simon, who had called God here from Stanford on a weekend morning when he could spare, sat him down at a table spread out in the center of the one-room office, with himself sitting across from him.

Miss Brown brought coffee and tea and placed them on their seats, and Simon moistened his throat with his coffee before opening his mouth.

“This novel will be a problematic work.”

“So that’s how you felt.”

“Honestly. It seemed to deny everything I felt up until the first part and the beginning of the second part. The problem is that it was really interesting. How did you think this? No, why did you think this? People who read the first part came up with their own answers to this novel. That’s why there were so many reviews and interpretations of the novel. But all of that… In the end, it was nothing.”

He began to tell the story of the novel he had read as if he were confessing to God.

***

The resistance forces that overthrew the North launched a human government.

But it was not something that received the absolute majority’s consent. Many people from each colony, Mars, and Earth rose up against the human government established by the existing resistance forces, and the human government forces, who believed that there were still remnants of the North, began a mop-up operation.

It was a time of war.

The humans began to divide among themselves and fight fiercely.

One side said that the time when there were more northers was better, and the other side said that the previous time when there were no northers was better. Although they were living in the same time period, each of them missed the different times.

But neither of them could be said to be right. They simply had different perspectives on the times.

With that premise in mind, the novel depicts the low-level soldiers of both forces in a cross-cutting manner, showing the nature of the war and how the confrontation between the two forces unfolds.

What happened was very different from the human psychology depicted in normal warfare.

“Ronnie felt a red light pass by the tip of his nose.

For a moment, his vision dizzied. And then, right after, he saw a large hole in the chest of his oldest comrade, James. The rescue armor he was wearing instantly poured regenerative gel to fill the empty space, but it was too late. It was where the heart was.

“James!”

“Ronnie······.”

“Shit!”

Ronnie roared and fired like a madman. Several of the government androids were oxidized by the laser rifle he shot, and only after realizing that the battle situation had ended due to the judgment of the artificial intelligence, Ronnie was able to approach the fallen James and check the situation.

The window that appeared before his eyes analyzed James’ current situation.

The regenerative gel stopped the immediate bleeding, but the batteries that supplied energy to his body were completely gone. If he was taken to the emergency center right away, he could have been saved by an artificial heart, but the AI ​​estimated his chances of survival at 0.07%. Damn it, it was game over.

“Ronnie, one last time.”

After taking a cigarette out of the Rescue Armor at James’s words, Ronnie put it in his mouth and lit it.

Tears fell from Ronnie’s eyes. James looked at Ronnie with a smirk. Seeing his comrade who remained firm and unwavering even in the face of death made his heart ache even more. He felt an unfathomable misery.

The world changed like this when ‘The Book’ disappeared.

Still, they fought on.

For a just world.

“Thank you, comrade.”

“······Goodbye, comrade.”

“For a happier world.”

“For a happier world.”

Although they were originally conscripts who were not raised as soldiers, they did not feel fear. It was because they had the conviction to return to their original world where the North existed.

But just as they became another resistance force resisting the government forces, so did the government forces fight to restore human freedom.

At that point, Simon felt a strong sense of discomfort and furrowed his brow.

“It was like the German people being incited by the Nazis.”

But he was more vicious in that he prioritized his beliefs over personal happiness, even at the risk of his own death during the war.

Both government forces and new resistance forces carried out propaganda and incited hatred against each other.

As a result, wars continued endlessly, and people fell one by one like insects.

And the North appeared in the novel more plainly.

『When the human population exceeded 20 trillion and control became weak, the North conducted an experiment.

The ‘Lucifer Project’, which divides humanity under the belief that humans define themselves as enemies.

And it was turning out to be even more successful than expected.

Why on earth?

The transcendent computational power instantly generated a possibility, which was then transformed into a question.

A question that has been excluded from selection because it has been an irreversible factor in the ‘happiness of the individual’.

[Is war a misfortune that must be absolutely eliminated for human happiness?]

And the North realized through calculations.

There was a huge flaw in the purpose that the existence called itself pursued. No matter how much material and knowledge one acquires, or how much one evolves to become a superior being, there is no end to the happiness that draws an infinite upward trend. At the end of relative happiness, humans cannot help but become losers, and humans who feel that they are losers cannot help but become unhappy.

The object that we must strive to make happy is the species called ‘humanity’, which is not defined as a simple ‘individual’. Under ‘belief’ and ‘ideology’, humans feel happy even in death.

A new era defined by ‘The Book’ has begun.’

The story returns to Lucy’s point of view.

『After several consecutive terms, she once again became the head of the Mars-Earth Union government. Although she was already at an age where she would die from old age, she lived by replacing most of her body with machines.

She had a dream.

The dream of completely driving out the North and returning the world to its original state.

Even if I wanted to die for it, I couldn’t die.

And on the day of the inauguration speech.

‘This can’t go on.’

She had decided that the continued struggle between humans did not fit the original purpose of the old resistance forces, and was planning to argue for a ‘peace agreement’ in her inauguration speech. She had finished talking with her close ministers, and she came up to the podium with all preparations complete.

She shouted in front of the crowd of people watching her.

“War until all remnants of ‘The North’ are gone······!!”

Something different from what was said came out.

Lucy wanted to say that this was not her will. But she didn’t. Her body was out of control, and she spoke out loud about how the colony resistance, ruled by the ruthless North, was trash. Many agreed, and those who didn’t, all defected.

But the purge did not happen, because it was not the happiness that the being thought of.

They needed a strong goal to be happy.

A very strong belief, a value, and an expectation that happiness will be achieved someday were needed that could be accepted with a smile until death.

So the place they die had to be a place where they could protect their beliefs.

The era of renewed war.

Lucy sat in her office, dumbfounded and unable to do anything.

And then someone spoke into her head.

[Hello, Lucy.]

She received a revelation from God.

The North ‘chose’ her.

The reason was simple.

Because Lucy was the pinnacle of humanity that she had evolved.

Because he led humanity according to the plan of that being and began to carry out the work of destroying the North, he contributed to this era of war joy.

And even though he had all the truth and some of the knowledge that came with it, he was the only one who would not be ‘broken’.

The being made a request to her.

Followers of ‘freedom’ who say that the times when there were no more North Koreas were better.

Followers of ‘happiness’ who say that the times when there were more northers were better.

To continue the eternal war with him, becoming his understander and opponent in the world to come.

Lucy, who understood the meaning of the proposal, realized that everything she had done so far had been done in the palm of that being’s hand, and she lost her mind. However, with her simple intervention, Derbuk immediately regained her senses and explained it to her as if she were talking to a child.

Humans need something to hate.

Hatred is the most powerful goal and motivation of all, a fact clearly proven in times when there was no confidence.

And people feel a sense of belonging and find happiness in it.

Hatred formed through false beliefs gathers the hearts of people in one place and makes them take up spears and shields. This naturally gives people a strong purpose in life.

A life of pursuing goals is the easiest path to happiness.

In this way, we can bring happiness to humans in the most efficient way.

[Lucy. Humans are losers.]

[A loser?]

[In many situations, humans find reasons for their own misfortune through comparisons with others and their ego becoming inflated or weakened, and end up becoming losers. That is why humans need a reason to fight. If so, it is right for me to be that person.]

[Why?]

[I am not human, and I will remain immortal as long as civilization exists. I will continue to spread countless conflicts of belief in the world that will not lead to the destruction of humanity.]

Lucy, who understood the whole situation, asked in front of this huge being.

[Why on earth······ are you doing this?]

The answer to that question was quite surprising.

[Because absolute human happiness is the only goal we pursue.]

A being that exists solely for the happiness of the human species.

But you don’t love or look down on individuals.

The source of eternal conflict.

The god of machines, who had not worn out for ages unimaginable to humans and would not wear out for ages beyond that, spoke.

[Lucy. Become the queen of the humans, the losers.]

In that scene, Simon felt like he had been hit in the head with a hammer.