Chapter 140: Social Darwinism |
The moment the Title was activated.
Something cold and greasy slipped into Ming Po's brain.
It brought a bone-chilling cold, like olive oil or sesame oil dripping down his spine, making his breath catch for a second.
It was like pushing open a door radiating light into a world of darkness!
That cold, greasy "oil" instantly overflowed from his brain, pouring down to fill Ming Po's entire spine.
Immediately after, it flowed from his spine into his limbs and bones!
Ming Po's muscles instantly bulged. He felt an endless surge of power flow into him, and his control over this strength synchronized with the upgrade. It was a massive strength that could easily crush a chair, yet it left him with no feeling of it being "out of control."
Even his brain and thoughts became incredibly clear in an instant—like the difference between staying awake in a daze for several nights and waking up refreshed after a good sleep.
Even his sense of reliance and comfort toward the Madman Title itself vanished with it.
Instead, in that instant, his entire state of mind abruptly became tranquil.
That feeling—
It was like putting on high-powered noise-canceling headphones, only to realize that the surroundings had always been filled with noise he had never even noticed.
Or like being in a completely lightless darkroom, only to realize that normally, even with closed eyes, what one saw was not pure black.
Ming Po's mind suddenly became normal. Or rather, it wasn't until this moment that he truly realized he had been abnormal before.
This equally enhanced cognitive ability made Ming Po suddenly recall something—
He clearly remembered that his personality as a child wasn't that irritable.
That was a very, very long time ago.
It was before he had met Ai Shiping for the first time.
When Ming Po was little, he used to take Time Key out to play because his personality back then genuinely was good. Even ignorant little kids liked playing with him—after all, children's intuition was the sharpest. They could see through the acts of adults with excellent acting skills at a glance.
But—
Since when did he start to change?
Complicated emotions flowed through Ming Po's heart.
But he didn't waste time.
Because he only had three minutes—only within these three minutes could his Luck match Gao Song's, canceling out Gao Song's luck.
Without the blessing of Luck, as long as he failed to deduce the complete answer with absolute precision—as long as he was forced to enter the guessing stage, Ming Po would inevitably guess wrong.
"Then let me take a guess, Mr. Gao Song."
Ming Po, whose entire body seemed a size larger, looked at Gao Song and spoke slowly, like a god pronouncing a mortal's sins. "You are not the kind of person who is too cowardly to participate in a Promotion."
The moment he heard this, Gao Song's expression turned ugly.
"I did ignore a lot of details before—I have to say, the Mistletoe Title, coupled with the Luck prefix, is indeed something. As long as the opponent's Luck attribute is suppressed by you, they will definitely overlook the information you need them to overlook."
Ming Po spoke slowly, "Of course, I know that what you say might not necessarily be the truth.
"However, 'what' you choose to say is inherently tied to your subconscious. For example—
"Although Deceivers of the World possess god-like authority to reverse time and space at will, under special circumstances, it only takes a single bullet to kill them. So logically speaking, whether an organization of Deceivers of the World is ancient or not doesn't directly affect how powerful it is.
"Assuming all the Time Gold level Deceivers of the World globally formed a new organization, this brand-new organization with a history of one hour would still be stronger than all currently existing ancient organizations.
"The Noble Blood Society is a survivor of the old era, and it is indeed very powerful, because it has a leader who 'passed the final test'."
Speaking up to here, Ming Po paused for a moment.
He remembered a vision that had once surfaced in his mind.
His past self—when he was still "Wei Gu Qiong Chen"—seemed to have fallen during that final test.
According to this logic, the Noble Blood Society was indeed powerful. Because even at Ming Po's absolute peak in the past, he couldn't contend with it.
But—
Just because an organization was as ancient as it, didn't mean it was just as powerful.
"After the end of World War II, Deceivers of the World were once on the verge of extinction, dropping to single digits at their lowest. It wasn't until the year two thousand that the Game of Deception slowly began to revive. Divine Comedy is a new organization born during that revival movement, while Noble Blood was a Deceiver of the World organization that already existed before that.
"This is why you emphasize that the older a Deceiver of the World organization is, the more powerful it is—and it's also the reason you repeatedly emphasized the long history of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
"This is because, in your subconscious, you believe that Noble Blood is ancient and powerful; the Chinese Chamber of Commerce is ancient, so it must also be powerful; and since you are part of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, you are also powerful."
The corners of Ming Po's mouth curled up slightly. "Your sense of superiority comes from this. But it's a pity—you are too smart.
"So, you can't fool yourself. You actually know in your heart that the Noble Blood Society is far more powerful than the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. It is precisely because of this that you lost your composure when I showed contempt for you. Because you know I am telling the truth."
This was just like how Kakuzu and the First Hokage were from the same era, but even if they had fought, it didn't mean they were on the same level.
"You unconsciously said 'the strong' and 'powerful' many times. And apart from you, Little Fan is the same. He also cares a lot about whether someone is 'powerful' or 'the strong', not just in the game just now, but in his everyday life too.
"Or—I think the reason he always chooses to run away normally is because the opponent is 'too strong'.
"If two blood-related people share the same catchphrases and subconscious thoughts, it highly likely points to their family upbringing."
As Ming Po spoke, he looked down at Gao Fan. "Just like—even though Gao Fan's grandfather was clearly still alive, after his son and daughter-in-law died, he allowed Gao Fan to become an orphan, leaving him to fight his eldest uncle for the family inheritance.
"I'm afraid he is a devout believer in Social Darwinism."
Unlike Gao Song, even when his flaws were hit on the nail, Gao Fan didn't feel anxious or frantic about it.
He just nodded slowly. "Grandpa did—really like to describe the 'power' of an existence to us.
"He didn't care about my disability, nor did he care about my personality. On the contrary, he was satisfied with my humility, and believed that being polite and submissive to the strong was the proper respect.
"But even so—Grandpa said that Gao Song was the child most like him. And Gao Song—"
As Gao Fan spoke, he looked at his silent eldest uncle opposite him. "—was instead the most arrogant and willful person in the family."
"Yes, your grandfather is alive."
Ming Po said meaningfully, "Do you know what this means?
"Your entry into the Noble Blood Society was definitely arranged by your grandfather.
"Just to save ten months of Time Chips, he used his own son and daughter-in-law as tools—ordering his daughter-in-law to bear a child for his other son. This is a tyrannical act of twisting the wills of three people at once—and its purpose was merely for 'profit'.
"The birth of a Pureblood Deceiver was only to create a stepping stone that would allow the Gao family to join the Noble Blood Society. If he operated according to his method, it would save at least ten months of chips while avoiding the possibility of wasting chips on a failed pregnancy. The only price to pay was ignoring the dignity of two sons and one daughter-in-law.
"Such a traditional capitalist move—I can tell that what you're saying is not a lie."
Ming Po's expression gradually grew serious, casting a compassionate gaze toward Gao Song. "Let alone Gao Feng—even you must be furious and resentful about this, right?"
"Don't look at me with those eyes!"
Gao Song reacted as if he'd been electrocuted; his expression instantly contorted and became ferocious.
Yet Ming Po continued to speak plainly, "But after Gao Fan became a Deceiver of the World, in all this time, you never went looking for him—this shows that you yourself actually don't want to join Noble Blood. Or rather—
"You are unwilling to obey your father's arrangements.
"When Gao Fan was born, Gao Feng and his wife were already Deceivers of the World, while you were still a mortal. Yet you only killed them after Gao Fan graduated—this proves one thing: your act of killing them actually freed them from the Game of Deception.
"In other words, you used a 'death tainted with causality' to negate their experience of becoming Deceivers of the World. Now that the old man has turned into a living person, the situation is obviously the same—it's just that two people died, and one lived."
This was the first scenario of becoming a [Paradox], having one's account "banned" after being doxxed.
According to the rules of the Game of Deception, for this kind of account ban where they didn't negate their own motives, as long as a person with no causal relation to the Gao Feng couple killed them in the further past, turning them back into Deceivers of the World—
Then, the Gao Feng couple could instantly retrieve their accounts and merge with their true selves locked within the Anchor Point, thereby resurrecting in the Game of Deception.
"You obtained freedom by sending all the other members of the Gao family out of the game. Then you should have killed your son Gao Fan along with them—or at the very least, you should have turned him into a Paradox and sent him back to the Material Realm.
"The fact that you knew I was once 'Frankenstein' proves you've seen me on the outside. This means you must have been using the effect of the Mistletoe Title to secretly follow Gao Fan for a long time. Yet you never killed him."
Ming Po asked slowly, "Is this love?
"I don't think it is. Just like Gao Fan said, you are the person most like your father—and your father clearly had no 'love' to speak of for you either.
"So I believe it's not that you didn't want to do it, but that you couldn't.
"Therefore, I think—it's not that you 'don't want to Promote', but that you cannot Promote."
Saying this, Ming Po looked at Gao Song's Host, Twenty Faces.
She smiled and nodded at Ming Po, clasping her hands and bowing in salute.
And Ming Po spoke slowly, "For example, the old man forbids you from Promoting.
"She has always referred to you as 'Lord Mistletoe', yet you always call her by her name. If her behavior was just Japanese superficial politeness, then for you, as a Deceiver of the World, to be so impolite to your own Host—this can only mean one thing: you are not afraid of her.
"And Twenty Faces said that when she was still a Deceiver of the World, her organization was in Shanghai."
Ming Po asked the Host Twenty Faces, "You know the Gao family's old man, don't you?"
"Yes."
Twenty Faces replied in a gentle tone, "He was once my leader, and he ordered me to give up the Promotion and voluntarily become a game Host.
"Mr. Gao Feng, Mr. Gao Song, and Miss Fang Taoyao were all Deceivers of the World designated for me to receive. Today, I am still here nursing Mr. Gao Song."
"Besides nursing—there's also monitoring, am I right?"
The corners of Ming Po's mouth turned up slightly as he spoke sarcastically, "And you and the old man shouldn't just be in a captain and team member relationship either, right?"
"Yes."
Twenty Faces affirmed.
Though it was unknown which sentence she was answering.