The two of them spoke in the phrasing of lovers on a date, yet they were not lovers, nor did they have an agreement.
"Congratulations, Mr. Igola." Anfiel pulled out a chair and gracefully sat down across from the Swindler.
"What's there to congratulate about first place on the Scheme Board?"
Rubbing his temples, Igola said, "Now all of Gospel is comparing me to Harvey. I've already heard people in Mengfeila calling 'Rust Crow' and 'Ghost King' the gatekeepers of the apocalypse... Some even say my value is higher. After all, the Angel of Necromancy's legacy can only be inherited by Harvey, but the ritual knowledge I'll master in the future is a core technology anyone can use."
"Speaking of which, does Gospel have a customer complaint hotline? I'd really love to complain about its utter disregard for user experience." Igola let out a sigh, resting his cheek in his palm. "Can a scheme that's been spelled out still be called a scheme? Can a riddle whose answer has been exposed still draw a laugh?"
"Can't it?" Anfiel asked in return.
Igola looked intently at the red-haired girl, the corners of his lips curling slightly. "Of course... it can.
"In my professional career, the sole insight I have gained is that there are simply too many fools in this world for swindlers to ever run out. The only lesson humanity learns from history is that it learns no lessons at all.
"Whether good or bad, reputation itself is a scarce resource; how one wields it depends entirely on the mind. Now that everyone knows I'm a master schemer, they will subconsciously refuse to believe anything I say. With just a slight nudge of that inertia in their thinking, I can lay countless traps for my enemies.
"Even if they know the future schemes, that won't make them wiser; instead, it will only become a mental handicap. As long as I tweak the test questions just a little, these exam candidates who can't extrapolate from examples will still plunge right into my traps as usual—because the essence of deception is not an 'information gap,' but 'desire.'
"'Fuel their desires, grant what they need.'" Igola expressed his heartfelt gratitude. "I'm genuinely so glad I came to Mengfeila, came to Berdette. If not for this journey, I would never have gained such clear enlightenment regarding my path."
Anfiel blinked. "You're very fond of this core tenet of the Dominance Faction?"
"Too narrow. Your perspective is too small." Igola wagged a finger with a chuckle. "This isn't merely the core of the Dominance Faction; it's a summary of the laws of society, even the governing principle of how the world operates.
"Though the social systems of the Blood Moon and Gospel differ like night and day, they both boil down to those two lines: stir up the public's desire, then hand them the tools of production. When you get down to it, isn't the so-called functioning of society just the ruling class deceiving the common people, plundering the value the latter produce? It's just that the deception is glorified as a political platform, and the plunder is concealed within gears of operation too subtle to notice.
"The Void Realm is no different. Sorcerers strive for a lifetime, yet in the end, all their boundless wisdom merely becomes nourishment for the Void Realm... What scythe is sharper than death? Whose harvest is more thorough than the Void Realm's? A swindler like me, who still has to open his mouth, is really only third-rate. True deception requires no speech at all; it endures eternally, and for millennia, countless brilliant minds have thrown themselves into it, one after another.
"The desire cultivated by society is 'a better life'; the desire provoked by the Void Realm is 'greater power.' But at bottom, both deceive living beings using the very same thing." Igola held up a finger. "Namely, 'the future.'
"As long as it's for the sake of the future, anyone will give up everything.
"Rust Crow grasped this, which was why he could triumph at every turn, fooling all living beings and playing Gospel like a toy." Igola brought his palms together with a smile. "Though I'm not yet Rust Crow, watching the Scheme Board has given me more than enough theoretical knowledge. All I lack now is practice."
"I don't doubt for a moment that you can reach the heights shown on the Scheme Board in the future, Mr. Igola," Anfiel said. "However, my congratulations weren't for how much reputation, future knowledge, or tangible rewards the Scheme Board brought you. Rather, with the Scheme Board's explanation, you no longer have to worry about being misunderstood.
"In truth, you're quite grateful to Gospel, aren't you?" Anfiel blinked. "Gospel is the best witness you could ask for."
Igola let his smile fade and looked calmly at Anfiel.
"Did you come to stop me?"
"How could I? I don't have that kind of ability." Anfiel shook her head. "I'm not even a sorcerer.
"However, you won't be seeing Sister Evalin later, and she has many questions she'd like to ask you. So I came to ask on her behalf."
"Fair enough," Igola said. "Coincidentally, I have questions of my own. How about we take turns asking one question each?"
"A fair trade." Anfiel nodded. "Sister Evalin certainly has plenty of questions, but what she wants to know most is how you managed to seize Berdette's highest authority, Mr. Igola."
Without a doubt, Igola's backstab had practically shoved Berdette into a cesspool, leaving them thoroughly covered in muck that could never be washed clean.
For all of Gospel knew that the Dominance Faction was Berdette's core technology.
Now, as long as the Funeral crew escaped, everyone would believe Berdette had harbored them. Even if Evalin tried to clarify, it would be useless.
If she claimed, "Igola seized Berdette's highest authority," and that was verified as true by Gospel, it would be just like Harvey announcing he had found a living girlfriend; everyone's immediate reaction would be, "You must have tricked Gospel (your girlfriend), haven't you?"
The core technology your clan used to rule this city for hundreds of years, and the only mishap in all those centuries just happens to be right now?
Who would believe that!
Even if Gospel verified you were telling the truth, people would spin ten thousand conspiracy theories in their heads to prove you were lying!
And taking a step back, even if Igola was ninety-nine percent in the wrong, wasn't Evalin at least one percent to blame?
It takes two hands to clap; why didn't Igola go after the other clans?
You Berdettes are definitely at fault too!
What's more, Evalin truly was at fault—if she hadn't attempted to control the sorcerers of the eight great clans, this mess would never have happened.
One way or another, the eight clans were doomed to suffer. The only difference was whether Evalin sucked them dry to the marrow, or Igola hammered them directly into the dirt.
"On my very first day at the manor, I noticed that there were far too many statues, and their varieties were far too comprehensive," Igola said. "Coupled with the fact that I'm also a mind sorcerer, I began to wonder... could these be vessels you use to store mental energy?
"Evalin is only a Two-Winged Sorcerer. Her soul couldn't possibly withstand the mental energy of tens of millions of people. Moreover, with the Dominance Faction passed down in your clan for so long, there was bound to be a mechanism so simple that even a fool could easily operate it.
"The reason there are so many varieties of statues is to accommodate different people, allowing the mental energy of similar individuals to flow into the same statue as much as possible, after which the dregs can be filtered out and purified."
Anfiel nodded. "They say that in the past, most of the statues were peasants in homespun clothes, but now they've largely been replaced by corporate employees in suits."
"Then I asked Gospel where the statue most similar to me was." At this point, Igola looked a bit disgruntled. "I don't know whether there's something wrong with Gospel or with your clan's screening mechanism, but it actually deemed the statue most similar to me to be a Veela paladin."
Anfiel covered her mouth with a chuckle. "I think it fits quite well, actually."
"After that, I ran many experiments beside the statue," Igola said. "Most of them were useless. Mind miracles had no effect on the statue whatsoever, until...
"I used Bei points."
Anfiel let out a soft "Oh." "I see."
"After using Bei points, I—who had been constantly introspecting—discovered that a wisp of my mental energy flowed into the statue," Igola said. "It was an amount so minuscule that it was almost impossible to detect, and my soul energy recovered the very next second. I even suspected it might just be my imagination.
"Then I investigated further and found that whether I spent one Bei point or a hundred, the soul energy I lost was identical. In other words, this mechanism wasn't meant to siphon energy, but to create... a connection.
"The statues are base stations, individuals are terminals, and the medium of connection is Bei points.
"Before that, I wondered why your clan went through the trouble of using a currency like 'Bei points' in the first place. After all, you had no need to issue virtual currency to rake in cash." Igola looked down at his Book of Gospel. "Only at that moment did I realize: 'Bei points' aren't for the public's convenience, but for yours. At the same time, Bei points are your clan's sturdiest safety lock.
"The highest authority is so critical, yet not every clan head through the generations is a genius. How could you ensure that Berdette's authority wouldn't be swindled away by outsiders? It couldn't be a physical object, couldn't be a secret cipher, couldn't be a sorcery spirit... Your ancestors came up with an ingenious answer.
"A virtual currency completely under your clan's control: Bei points.
"The act of 'spending Bei points' is, in itself, a domination miracle!" Igola's voice brimmed with admiration. "The specific mechanics: as long as you can pay the amount of debt owed by a debtor, you can dominate the thought computing power mortgaged by that debtor!
"Every person's price is their debt!
"There is no such thing as 'highest authority' at all. Whoever can throw down the most Bei points in an instant possesses the highest authority. But without question, only the head of the Berdette clan, who possesses virtually unlimited Bei points, has the financial might to dominate all debtors!
"There is also a very fascinating design here: only someone with debt can activate this system. Therefore, if an outsider dares to lay a hand on the dominance system, they must first become a Berdette debtor... practically delivering themselves to your doorstep like takeout.
"However, this design applies equally to the Berdette clan head, meaning the clan head has a price as well." Igola glanced toward the window, as though he could see Evalin in the distance leaning against the railing, gazing out. "Thus, the Berdette clan heads do the exact reverse: they simply incur a debt so immense that no one can afford their price. For example...
"One hundred million."
He paused. "Per minute."
Anfiel tilted her head and asked, "But... you aren't very wealthy either, are you, Mr. Igola?"
"I'm not wealthy, but Evalin was considerate enough to activate Huabei for us, and with an extremely high limit." Igola opened his Book of Gospel. "Coincidentally, exactly one hundred million.
"Though I must say, after hundreds of years, you never made any technical innovations whatsoever. You didn't even have an anti-search mechanism. I took the initiative to borrow through Huabei, spending one Bei point, two Bei points, three Bei points... After making purchases of varying amounts and conducting seven consecutive Searches, I managed to isolate the signal for modifying the credit limit from my own emitted mental fluctuations.
"This was the only technically demanding operation in the entire scheme—I cracked Huabei. Even though my use of Huabei is still logged—after all, this is a financial system computed by Gospel on your behalf, so I couldn't steal money outright—no matter how many Bei points I spend, it won't deplete my credit limit.
"Which means..."
Igola turned his Book of Gospel around to show Anfiel. "Right now, every second, I can borrow a hundred million, and spend a hundred million."
Anfiel looked down to see that Igola's Book of Gospel showed his debt ballooning at high speed every single second. Yet the Swindler himself didn't care in the slightest.
"My sister was beaten fair and square," the red-haired girl sighed. "You've completely seen through Berdette's secret to rule."
"In the dominance system, whoever borrows against their own future is the dominated; but whoever borrows against the future of tens of millions of people is the dominator."
Chapter 412