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Chapter 153: The Torn Apocalypse
🕑 Added 2025-01-12 12:45:52 +0000 UTCAs "Ned Stark" lookalike calmly told the story, Josh finally understood what kind of world the other man came from and learned his name—Errol Partridge.
Errol Partridge's world was also called Earth. However, unlike Josh's previous life and the Marvel Universe he now called home, that Earth's 21st century followed a path of destruction—World War III, a nuclear war.
After the war, the remaining humans formed a new, powerful organization called the Tetragrammaton Council.
The ideology of the Tetragrammaton Council was extreme. They blamed all human wars on human emotions.
As a result, the Council developed a special drug called Prozium II to suppress emotions, forcing all humans under their control to eliminate their emotions.
Possession of cultural or artistic objects capable of stimulating human emotions was considered a serious crime—punishable by life imprisonment at best, execution at worst.
For this reason, Partridge referred to his world as "hell.
Even Josh thought it was worse than hell.
No emotions? That would mean no watching beautiful women dance, no movies, and no fun!
How outrageous!
As a youth determined to fight against evil and oppression, Josh felt it was his responsibility to help Partridge change this world.
After Partridge finished speaking, Josh finally remembered what kind of world this was.
It was from a dystopian movie released in 2002 in Josh's former life called Equilibrium.
Due to its metaphorical theme, it had been banned in Josh's past life's country.
Although the plot was a bit hazy in his memory, Josh clearly remembered two things.
First, the Tetragrammaton Council maintained its rule by creating an elite enforcement force—the Grammaton Clerics.
The key was that each member of this squad mastered a powerful fighting skill called the Gun Kata.
This movie was the first to propose a complete Gun Kata concept system.
However, unlike bending bullets with wrist flicks, Gun Kata combined martial arts, marksmanship, swordsmanship, and statistics into a formidable fighting skill.
The second thing Josh remembered was the main character of this world. It was Ba—er, no, it was Christian Bale.
In his stylish cleric uniform and elegant fighting moves, he was the definition of cool.
As for Partridge, he was also a member of the Clerics, serving as Bale's partner and deputy. Unfortunately, after regaining his emotions and violating the "emotional crimes", he was shot dead by the protagonist at the beginning of the movie. His death was the catalyst for the protagonist's emotional awakening.
It was quite a tragic story.
From their conversation, it was clear that Partridge had already regained his emotions. Without the trading system, he probably wouldn't have survived much longer.
"You're incredibly lucky," Josh said, smiling mischievously at Partridge.
"Lucky? Are you saying you have a way to change all that?" Partridge asked skeptically, more in disbelief than hope.
Looking at Josh's surroundings on the screen, which seemed plain and outdated, and at Josh himself, who appeared to be nothing more than an unusually fit man, Partridge doubted that this so-called trading partner could hold much surprise for him.
"I know what you're worried about. The reason you can't fight the Council is simple—the Clerics are just too powerful in combat. But have you ever heard the phrase 'strength overcomes skill'?" Josh asked with a smile.
"Strength overcomes skill? What do you mean by that?" Partridge looked confused.
"Take a look at this. This is a potion called Beast Transformation Serum. It contains enhanced dinosaur genes. When injected, it transforms a person into a powerful half-human, half-dinosaur warrior for a few hours. These warriors gain incredible strength, speed, and reflexes that can crush any human. Bullets have trouble penetrating their hardened scales, and their recuperative powers are outstanding. Best of all, anyone can use them. Imagine thousands of warriors fortified with this serum. Would you still fear the clerics?" Josh presented the serum and grinned as he handed it to Partridge.
Josh wasn't entirely sure that the Beast Warriors could win a one-on-one fight against Clerics skilled in the Gun Kata. After all, the techniques shown in the movie were rather exaggerated, and there might be a few individuals capable of taking down Beast Warriors with ease.
But Josh was confident that with enough Beast Warriors, Partridge could overthrow the Tetragrammaton Council.
The reason was simple—numbers.
Training a Cleric was extremely difficult. It required years of study in mathematics, statistics, and probability, as well as intense physical training. Most Clerics were selected and trained from a young age.
As a result, the number of Clerics was very small. Even with a population of millions under Council's rule, there were only a few hundred official Clerics, and including trainees and reserves, the total barely reached a thousand.
The Beast Transformation Serum, on the other hand, had no such limitations, except for its time limit. While Josh carefully controlled its distribution, it was already being mass-produced. As long as Yuri's dinosaurs didn't become extinct, the supply of the serum wouldn't run out.
Even if the dinosaurs did disappear, the serum could still be produced by replacing the dinosaur genes with those of common animals, although the effects might be slightly reduced.
With enough people on Partridge's side, they could overwhelm the Clerics by sheer numbers.
"So what do you want in return?" Partridge asked, clearly tempted. If the serum was as powerful as Josh claimed, the Clerics would no longer be a threat.
"Simple. I want the complete Gun Kata training method and a lot of wealth," Josh replied.
While training people in the Gun Kata was difficult, its potential value was undeniable.
The Beast Transformation Serum was effective, but it was also very noticeable and could attract unwanted attention. For example, in America, even though Bucky had been captured for six months, the Strategic Science Reserve was still relentlessly searching for traces of Vito in beast form.
Besides, the serum was very inconvenient to carry, and tighter security protocols in the future would make it even harder to smuggle across borders. If the serum were lost, it could cause considerable problems.
In comparison, an elite assassination team trained from ordinary humans would draw less attention and be easier to conceal.
"Wealth? What kind of wealth?" Partridge asked, confused by the term.
Due to the strict control of the Council and the emotional suppression it enforced, their society used a system of rations instead of money or personal wealth.
"Gold, silver, rare metals, precious gems—things like that," Josh explained with a shrug. "I'm not short of those things, but more is always better. I can also provide large amounts of food and clean drinking water. If your people want a better place to live, I can offer migration services to two intact worlds. On those worlds, however, you'll have to abide by local laws. Normally, their rulers are quite lenient."
The title The Torn Apocalypse wasn't chosen at random. After a nuclear war, the world was heavily polluted. About 80% of the Earth was covered in nuclear fallout, and uncontaminated land and water were incredibly scarce and tightly controlled by the Council. (TL/N: Hoo~ 4th Wall Break)
This scarcity of basic resources like food and water was a major reason why the resistance couldn't fight back effectively. Without enough to eat or drink, how could they muster the strength to rebel?
Fortunately, Josh had plenty of these resources.
After World War II ended, his cans of dinosaur meat were piling up. If not for a less advanced world like Game of Thrones as a dumping ground, he might have shut down production long ago.
