As soon as the Iron Golem Captain finished speaking, everyone's attention shifted to him.
Among all the beings present, aside from the Iron Golem Captain, everyone else had come here after thinking of Xu Yuan while their consciousness was fading.
It could be understood that they had enough faith in Xu Yuan. After witnessing Xu Yuan's disappearance with their own eyes, even with weakened consciousness, they still thought of him subconsciously.
Because of that, their minds formed some kind of connection with Xu Yuan, allowing them to enter the inner world.
Simply put, they had come here relying on the strong faith they held toward Xu Yuan.
Among them, Mustard, the King Pillagers, the Blue Demon, and Barbecue Sauce had unquestionable faith in Xu Yuan. After all, Xu Yuan had deeply influenced the four of them.
But Stephen was harder to judge. He had only met Xu Yuan when he entered the jungle area together with Notch, and that was all. He barely had any interaction with Xu Yuan.
Although Stephen genuinely admired Xu Yuan, when it came to faith, it definitely wasn't as deep as Mustard and the others.
As for the Iron Golem Captain, who had remained silent until now, it was even more so.
The Iron Golem Captain only awakened his consciousness after the Tyrant HIM and Village HIM joined forces, and after hearing Yicheng talk about how the Void treated iron golems.
Although he had awakened and no longer served the Void, he didn't intend to join Xu Yuan either.
Naturally, if a war came after the trial grounds ended, he would stand on Xu Yuan's side and fight for freedom. But once everything was over, he wouldn't continue following Xu Yuan.
He only wanted to lay down his armor and return to a quiet life, leading the other iron golems to truly experience the meaning of life, to do things they themselves wanted to do.
When he saw Xu Yuan use his life to ensure the safety of all beings and disappear into the world, the iron golems were deeply shaken, just like everyone else. From the bottom of his heart, he felt that only Xu Yuan deserved the title of Creator God.
But being moved and having faith were two different things.
Naturally, the Iron Golem Captain did have faith in Xu Yuan, but it was definitely not as strong as anyone else present.
It was already somewhat of a stretch for Stephen to arrive here together with Mustard and the others, let alone the Iron Golem Captain.
Because of that, the reason he could appear here alongside them became rather intriguing.
———
At this moment, seeing everyone's eyes focused on him, the Iron Golem Captain couldn't help but feel a bit flustered.
He steadied himself, took a deep breath, then looked at everyone and said, "This is hard to explain clearly in a short time… I'll introduce myself first."
After saying that, he paused briefly, then slowly spoke, "My name is Greenie. I'm a zombie."
The moment he finished speaking, Entity 303 thought he had misheard and said in confusion, "What?? What the hell did you just say???"
"Dude, are you crazy or am I crazy? I just heard an iron golem say he's a zombie??????"
Hearing Entity 303's complaint, Rookie couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing. But after laughing, he seemed to realize something. He turned to Xu Yuan, thought for a moment, then asked, "Previous life?"
Among everyone present, aside from Xu Yuan, Rookie had the most grasp over the information of this world.
So after hearing what the Iron Golem Captain said, while joking, he immediately caught onto the key point. Still, he wasn't entirely sure, so he asked Xu Yuan.
Hearing Rookie's question, Xu Yuan nodded.
"To be precise, he has always been a zombie. It's just that D attached his soul to the body of an iron golem."
After saying that, Xu Yuan paused, then looked at everyone and continued explaining, "The original surface world where the real HIM existed disappeared when Notch rewrote the current surface world."
"As that surface world vanished, those beings also fell into the void."
"That void is actually the inner world we're in right now."
"After falling into the void, their physical bodies dissipated, but their souls still remained."
"I think their state was similar to mine after I disappeared in the surface world, before you gathered my soul."
At this point, Xu Yuan looked at Notch.
"When they were recalling memories related to me earlier, you were able to see those gathered traces of presence, right?"
After seeing Notch nod, Xu Yuan continued, "You're not even at your peak right now, yet you can still sense those traces and consciousness. Let alone when you were at full strength."
"So it's reasonable to assume that back then, you could not only sense them, but also gather them together."
"And because of that, D and J, who obtained half of your power, also had that ability."
"They could sense those souls and gather them for their own use."
After saying that, Xu Yuan looked at Greenie.
"That's why I said he has always been a zombie."
As soon as Xu Yuan finished, Greenie nodded vigorously.
"Before coming here, I always thought I was an iron golem. But after entering the inner world, a set of memories suddenly appeared in my mind, memories of me being a zombie…"
"As those memories surfaced, I finally understood who I am, where I came from, what I've done… and what friends I once had…"
"I finally realized that all those differently colored consciousnesses and hierarchical concepts in my mind before were all fake."
"It was those implanted concepts that made me forget who I was, made me give up resisting, trying to trap me forever in a cage of fear, to be used by D."
The amount of information in Xu Yuan and Greenie's words was overwhelming. It was the first time everyone had come into contact with this, and they were so shocked that they couldn't speak for a while.
After a long silence, Notch's low voice broke the stillness.
At this moment, Notch seemed like a completely different person. His expression was cold as ice, and the warmth in his eyes had been replaced by a sharp chill.
"He must have known all along that those souls were the beings from before…"
At this point, Notch let out a helpless cold snort.
"He committed so many evil acts, yet the inner world didn't completely abandon him. Instead, it gave him another chance."
"He could sense those souls. He had a way to save those beings. But he didn't do it. Instead, he kept tormenting those souls, trampling them underfoot for his own use."
"He toyed with their lives. He wouldn't even spare their souls."
"He doesn't deserve to be human."
"And what does that make me, the one who gave him that power?"