When the sun crested the horizon and light poured into the center of Azula, the entire city bloomed like a blossom brushed by a miracle, shyly unfurling in the dawn.
Traffic thickened along the highways, swarms of drones began filling the sky, and people of every race embarked on another peaceful, happy day.
Annan's car remained parked not far from the Holy Spirit Building. By now, the Red Hats had cleared away every trace of the incident. The suspect had been apprehended, the corpse hauled away, and the victim transferred to a hospital for psychological counseling.
Perhaps the orc sorcerer's misfortune would become neighborhood gossip for the next few days, but before long, the swift, demanding pace of their busy lives would drown out this jarring discord.
Yaxiu and Annan had watched the entire Red Hat enforcement operation in silence. When the first beam of sunlight pierced the car window, it struck Yaxiu's face like a slap.
The cult leader spoke slowly. "Is this the 'reality' you showed to Harvey and Igola?"
"More or less," Annan replied. "I carefully selected a few missions that felt just right to strike a chord with you all."
"Your real target was that blond man?"
"That's right. Just an ordinary assassination. Under normal circumstances, I never would have taken it. Even if my methods were completely legal, the Book of Gospel would still lower my agency's rating. But it doesn't matter anymore. After bringing you three in, the agency's hands are already filthy beyond repair. I might as well throw caution to the wind."
"What was your plan from the start?"
Annan raised three fingers. "Identify the target, find a proxy, and have that proxy take care of the target."
"And how do you manipulate the proxy?"
"Everyone has desires," Annan said. "The Book of Gospel doesn't demand that you suppress them. It merely helps you cloak your actions in lies. Whenever you vent your desires, you inevitably infringe on someone else's interests. Yet beneath that veil of lies, you don't realize you're hurting others, nor do you realize others are hurting you.
"The web of relationships woven by Gospel is as delicate as it is fragile.
"All I had to do was pull back the curtain of lies, and what followed was nothing more than the natural collision of desires."
Yaxiu asked, "In other words, you can destroy anyone's life whenever you want?"
"It depends. Some people are harder than others. And didn't I just say? Doing this lowers an agency's rating. Anyone with genuine ambitions wouldn't touch jobs like this," Annan said. "Besides, not everyone has flaws to exploit. The people on the List of the Unconnected, for instance, don't have any social ties you could rupture.
"Outsiders like you three, who only arrived in Gospel a few days ago, are just little gnats that haven't been caught in this web yet.
"But as long as you live in Gospel, as long as you interact with others, and as long as you have desires to vent, you'll eventually become hopelessly tangled in this network.
"You'll use the Book of Gospel to quietly hurt others, and others will use the Book of Gospel to quietly hurt you.
"Truth be told, if you remain completely ignorant, you'll live very happily. Your life will be set to easy mode. Gospel will weave a curtain of lies for you at every turn, hiding the filth of reality so you can embrace the happiness of your dreams. You can enjoy your peace, vent an impure impulse now and then, and live a thoroughly delightful life."
The Purple Moth gazed at the stream of speeding traffic outside and murmured softly, "Thanks to such an ingenious social system, Gospel has minimized the meaningless internal friction of society. With the leaderboards providing constant motivation, productivity surges forward, while happiness indicators like public safety, resident satisfaction, and living standards never drop.
"Sounds pretty wonderful, doesn't it?"
Annan flicked her amethyst earring and glanced sideways at Yaxiu. "Do you like our Gospel?"
Yaxiu asked, "What did Harvey and Igola think?"
"Neither gave a straight answer. But Mr. Harvey seemed rather furious, while Mr. Bojin was so overjoyed he could hardly contain himself."
"Naturally. Harvey despises having his life controlled by anyone, and Igola always thinks he can use rules to control everyone else..."
Annan asked, "And what about you, Yaxiu? Do you despise this system, or do you want to exploit it?"
"I'm not so naive as to pass judgment on a social structure that has maintained stability and prosperity in Gospel Country for centuries based solely on your words," Yaxiu replied. "Though you certainly achieved your goal."
"Oh?"
"I'll do everything in my power to obtain the divine wish." Yaxiu looked up toward the inverted city hanging overhead. "Not to change anything, but simply to hold enough leverage so that I won't be changed by it."
If he remained blissfully ignorant, Yaxiu could have gone on living foolishly and contentedly in Gospel Country. But now that he had seen the celestial net woven by Gospel, he could no longer passively accept his fate.
Thinking it over carefully, although the social systems of Blood Moon Country and Gospel Country differed in countless ways, both were designed to solve the very same problem: when productivity developed to immense heights, how could a society reduce the internal friction grinding between its gears?
When basic labor was all it took for anyone to secure enough goods to survive, the traditional family structure would naturally disintegrate. Human beings were inherently selfish, and sacrifice ran contrary to nature. In the past, when resources had been scarce, people had no choice but to band together and weather hardships as a family just to survive. Because productive labor consumed nearly all their time, their desires had no chance to break free.
Once productivity reached a certain threshold, two problems inevitably emerged: people had more leisure time and pursued grander lifestyles, and people could sustain themselves with very little effort, rendering them independent of others.
If these two issues were left unaddressed, societal development would stall, birth rates would plummet, and conflicts of race, class, and region would grow increasingly volatile, squandering society's energy in pointless internal friction.
Blood Moon Country and Gospel Country had each provided drastically different answers.
Blood Moon Country had chosen to stomp on the gas and barrel forward without hesitation. Rather than waiting for the family unit to dissolve naturally, it abolished the family preemptively. Everyone was an orphan, starting life entirely alone. It then promoted rampant consumerism, banned all forms of discrimination by force, and relied on mechanisms like the Blood Moon Trial, sugar, and mud and tea cafes to channel and vent the populace's rage, while childbearing was resolved simply by paying cash for offspring.
Blood Moon's societal progress did not rely on commoners in the slightest. Exceptional commoners could ascend to the two Blood Moon races through normal channels, entering research institutes and the church to contribute their talent and light. All other commoners were merely fuel, a whole society sustaining a small handful of long-lived beings.
Gospel Country, on the other hand, chose to conceal its contradictions. If society were a chaotic game of total randomness, the Book of Gospel was the game's sole solution. It regulated everyone's desires, masked every conflict, and enveloped everyone in a happy world behind an intricate curtain of lies.
By leveraging the Gospel lists to spur ambition, everyone had something to strive for. People accustomed to life on easy mode willingly listened to the guidance of the Gospel when it came to childbirth, employment, and education, ensuring that society remained in a perpetual, virtuous cycle.
Comparing Blood Moon with Gospel made Yaxiu realize what a terrifying miracle the gods had bestowed upon these countries... No, it should be called a divine miracle!
The Blood Moon Sovereign had created the sustainable drain of the Blood Moon Ascension System, solving none of society's contradictions and instead using them to mask the exploitation carried out by the two Blood Moon races, relying solely on a small elite to drive progress.
The Omniscient Weaver used the absolute authority of the Book of Gospel to suppress and veil every social tension, turning an educated populace into compliant sheep whose work, reproduction, and consumption were all calculated down to the smallest detail by the Book of Gospel!
Compared to earth-shattering, destructive power, this top-down miracle that dictated every person's fate made one feel truly insignificant.
"I'm glad you're finally standing on the same side as me," Annan said with a smile. "As expected, rather than tempting you with vague promises of gain, nothing works quite like a cold, hard threat to make you willingly join my plan."
Yaxiu glanced at her. "Milady, is it really wise for you to stoke our greed like this? Leaving myself aside, men like Igola never learned what it means to share; they only know how to take everything for themselves. Or do you really place that much faith in the Contract?"
"The only point of a contract is to be broken. But what replaces a contract isn't necessarily hatred—it could very well be an alliance."
Annan extended her hand toward Yaxiu. "Let us work together in absolute sincerity, harboring our own secret motives."
Yaxiu looked at her intently, then took her hand.
"By the way, you promised that once I finished the mission, you'd top up my game account..."
"Ten thousand copper coins."
"That won't do! Ten thousand copper coins will only cover the battle pass and the monthly card. I still need the premium monthly pass, the beginner discount bundle, the limited-time bundle, and the battle pass level pack. Otherwise, I'll never hit level one thousand..."
Chapter 273