Chapter 667 — The Beginning of the Defiance Plan

All along, Gao Yang had been rather fascinated by the old Gondor Empire's vast "Defiance Plan." In a sense, the plan could no longer be described merely as vast—it could even be called great.

It was a plan by which humanity, having confirmed the existence of gods and the reality that transcendent power ruled the world, actively sought to survive by opposing the gods. In the modern age, a thousand years later, human civilization had declined, and every race beyond humanity seemed mired in the same slough. In this era Gao Yang had seen too much ossification, backwardness, benightedness, and decay—yet stray sparks of the Defiance Plan still endured amid that dark chaos. Even if only a glimmer, a trace, it proved one thing to Gao Yang:

That the humans of this world, in their very bones, carried the seeds of rebellion and survival.

But when he probed more carefully, thought more deeply, Gao Yang found the Defiance Plan riddled with too many doubts. This vast undertaking seemed, from first to last, to revolve around "defying the gods." Yet though its ultimate aim appeared to be resisting the tide of demons, was it truly only so that humanity might live through that tide?

The Gondor Empire had attempted to oppose the gods with such resolve, and even after the tide of demons ended and a new nation arose, Defiers like Ophelia still carried on the old empire's research. And the focus of that research seemed to have shifted entirely to the pure analysis of gods; resisting the demon tide… had instead become something like a byproduct of the whole series of projects.

And setting all those doubts aside, with a living, breathing Defier like Ophelia before him, Gao Yang could hardly resist trying to pry those ancient secrets from the lips of the one "personally involved." After all… gossip is one of humanity's natural instincts—and becoming a satellite spirit changes nothing.

"The Defiance Plan… I had thought you would at least wait until the situation was fully settled before discussing these matters with me," Ophelia said with a faint smile. "The fields this topic touches on are not something that can be explained in a few words."

"Just a casual chat, to satisfy my own curiosity," Gao Yang said. "You needn't answer all my questions. If you feel certain secrets must be kept, then we can keep them until both sides have built a little more trust. It's only a casual conversation, after all."

Ophelia sat in the high-backed chair beside Gao Yang's desk, her head slightly turned; her cheek seemed bathed in a layer of faint holy light. "Rest assured, I am quite willing to tell you about such matters. Defiers never refuse a fellow traveler. Beyond the necessary secrecy from the public, our cause is not something that must be hidden from all eyes."

Gao Yang nodded. "Good. I already know the Defiance Plan is in fact divided into many project groups, and that Kamael's 'Divine Scourge' project is only one of them. I'm curious how many there are in total, and which part you are specifically in charge of?"

Ophelia pondered a moment. "How many projects exactly… that, I'm afraid, I truly cannot tell you. Not because I wish to be secretive, but because… the gods might hear."

Gao Yang frowned. "The gods might hear?"

"I'm not sure you can grasp knowledge this abstract, so I can only tell you plainly what I know: some projects… the Defiers have gone too far, wandering into the chaotic realm between the mortal world and the world of the gods. There, when you come to know the god, the god comes to know you. We have taken certain safety measures to ensure we can misdirect the gods' gaze, to make them look elsewhere while our research proceeds. But if they are mentioned at an inopportune moment—especially if they are mentioned by a Defier's lips—those misdirections would likely be pierced through at once…"

"The gods possess some conceptual trait, such that in certain specific fields, merely mentioning the relevant knowledge draws their attention?"

"…You have an exceptional capacity for understanding," Ophelia said, glancing at Gao Yang with a touch of surprise. "That is a sincere compliment."

"Having been through a brush with death, I've come into contact with some secret knowledge, more or less," Gao Yang said. "So since the gods possess such a trait, how on earth do you manage to research projects that cannot even be mentioned?"

"…Not even this can be mentioned," Ophelia said with a helpless shake of her head. It was the first time Gao Yang had seen such an expression on her face. "The safety measures set in place back then have all failed now. I cannot discuss anything relating to them with you in the real world. In a sense, these secret projects are already 'deadlocked' at the boundary of the divine realm. I am sorry—I have yet to find a way to break the deadlock."

"…That's all right. Not everything can be forced," Gao Yang said with a breath. "Then tell me about the projects you're in charge of—pick the ones you can talk about."

"Studying the nature of the gods and their many laws, and trying to find flaws in them—that is my primary task," Ophelia said with a nod. "Beyond that, I also manage several Defiance bases, including that Defiance Fortress you know of."

"Several bases…" Gao Yang suddenly lifted his eyelids, his face showing surprise. "There are many more bases like the Defiance Fortress?"

"A plan this dangerous—how could all its projects be kept in one place?" Ophelia said evenly. "The Defiance Fortress you know of is only one among many bases. Only, as far as I know, the Defiance Fortress is indeed the largest and earliest-built of them all. It connects to the place where Giant Deer Amon fell; our first projects began there, and it is for that reason that it alone has earned the name 'Defiance.'"

Gao Yang could not resist pressing further. "Then the other Defiance bases…"

Ophelia's next answer put all his notions to rest for the moment: "In the Gondor wasteland."

"…All right," Gao Yang said with a sigh. "That's a target we cannot deal with for now."

Ophelia looked at Gao Yang. "Regarding the Defiance Plan—is there anything else you wish to know?"

Gao Yang thought, lightly tapping the tabletop before him with his fingers. "Is the goal of the Defiance Plan simply to resist the demon tide? To resist the demon tide, you must defy the gods? Or to put it another way… why must the gods be opposed for humanity to survive? Is it because only by stealing the gods' power can humans resist the demon tide, or is it because the gods themselves are what caused the demon tide?"

This was precisely the question Gao Yang had been turning over in his mind of late: for the Defiers, what was the original reason and the driving force for opposing the gods?

As a former atheist, and with the habits of thought from his previous life, he had not felt anything amiss about the Defiance Plan when he first learned of it. To him, mortals trying to break free of the gods' shackles was something "inherently right": pursuing freedom, striking down the demons and monsters, the gods oppressing the world—wasn't that simply how it was?

Yet the longer he lived in this world, the more he felt a dissonance in the worldview of the locals:

What exactly was the relationship between gods and mortals? They did indeed control the source of divine arts, control mortals' faith, and might even have created the "mind brand" to ensure mortals' belief in them—but beyond that, had they ever truly meddled in the workings of the mortal world?