Gamers Are Fierce

"..."

Viper fell silent for a moment, collecting himself after the shock he had just experienced, and then slowly said, "Do you think it's so easy to pollute a dragon?

Even though the Mirage Dragon has been trapped for a thousand years, suffering from pollution by demonic qi, it has become extremely feeble and can only maintain its sanity with the help of the Moon God Crown.

But after all, a dragon is a dragon. Without making greater sacrifices, how can one hope to control it?

If there were another way, we wouldn't want to do this.

Unfortunately, there's an urgency to the situation and no more time to prepare.

After all, it has been hundreds of years since anyone has seen a true dragon. No one is clear about their characteristics; we can only follow the ancient texts passed down to us and perform the ritual track step by step..."

"Who says so? I have seen one," Li Ang said with conviction. "I was served by a dragon abroad before I became a player."

Viper looked puzzled. "Huh?"

"A 'one-stop' funeral service." Li Ang elaborated, "I was invited to the Nordics to act as the ambassador for the new era of European funeral culture experience and spent three days enjoying the Nordic funeral customs, only to find out that their funerary culture is not so different from ours.

A song begins, a cloth is laid, the whole village waits to dine; those who go are carried off, followed by a stretch of white. Lift the coffin, bury with earth, as friends and relatives break into cries.

In the end, even a couplet was put up: 'Lamentations and sobbing clog the throat, tears flood the rivers and oceans abound,' with the horizontal inscription: 'Alas, died too late.'"

Are you doing a stand-up comedy routine?

Viper barely managed to suppress the urge to retort.

Stay calm, stay calm.

Actually, according to the texts left by the Kuiyang Sect, they had a backup plan.

Even if the combination of Ji Jiu and Zhi Jue with the Resentful Demon hadn't worked out as planned—failing to take the Palace Lantern to the lowest levels of the Demon Prison to open the Misty Territory's gate that held the Mirage Dragon—they could still break through the barrier of that gate by expanding the ritual track. This expansion would require Viper and the other two individuals overseeing the ritual track to also sacrifice themselves as part of it. Such a sacrifice would enhance the ritual track's power and, consequently, complete the pollution of the Moon God Crown.

However, if they were to do so, the Datura organization would need to send additional people to the bottom of the Demon Prison and make even greater sacrifices to gain control of the Mirage Dragon.

Even ants covet life; as a player with a grand future, Viper surely did not wish to die here. No matter what, he must secure the Palace Lantern.

With these thoughts in mind, he turned to look at Li Ang, who was examining a long pole, and said in a deep voice, "Your reluctance to cooperate must be because the organization previously rejected your opinion."

Li Ang turned around to look at Viper.

Viper continued slowly, "Dragons can be vast or minuscule, can ascend or hide; when large, they create clouds and mist, when small, they conceal their forms; they soar in the cosmos when they rise, and lurk within the waves when they hide. Now that spring deepens, dragons are in tune with the times.

"As an aberrant type of dragon, the Mirage Dragon's Misty Territory can extend over tens of thousands of miles. Combined with a special Formation that channels the mist, it can cover most civilized areas on Earth.

"In other words, to possess the Mirage Dragon is to possess the future.

"Like other secret organizations, Datura is not a monolith; there are many factions within it. A sizeable portion of its members only wish to use the Mirage Dragon to maintain their own status.

"They feared the shock that the slaughter game brought, feared the danger and death it entailed.

"And they feared even more the millions of Transcendents who would possess great power unto themselves as a result of the slaughter game."

Viper paused for a moment, then continued, "They, or rather, the elite represented by Datura, are not actually afraid of the power wielded by Transcendents—statistically speaking, the Elite Class has a greater likelihood of becoming high-level players.

"What they fear is the collapse of the old social order represented by the players."

Viper looked seriously at Ji Jiu and said, "I've seen your file, including your psychological assessment and policy orientation test. It seems like you, much like those from Whale Song, have an extreme distrust of capital.

"I want to ask you a question: Why, since the nineteenth century, have capital and capitalists not perished, but instead continued to thrive robustly? Why haven't they been overthrown or replaced?"

"Hmm."

Li Ang pondered for a moment before answering, "No society will perish before it fully utilizes all its productive forces; likewise, new and higher production relations will not emerge until the material conditions for their existence have maturely developed within the womb of the old society."

"A conservative answer," Viper nodded, then slowly said, "Capitalism still has room to develop productive forces, and it can extend its life by adjusting production relations, including local adjustments.

"Among these, the two main tools capital uses to maintain the social form are hedonism and consumerism.

"Through marketing and brainwashing, capital distorts concepts such as 'beauty,' 'freedom,' and 'individuality,' tying them to material goods. This strategy spawns consumer needs and impulses, which in turn deplete produced wealth, complete the cycle of exploitation, and realize the perfect closed loop of consumerism.

"In superhero fiction before the slaughter game, Transcendents emerged from ordinary people. Regardless of whether they could move heaven and earth or reshape mountains and seas, as long as they didn't completely detach from human society, they couldn't escape the consumerism loop created by prolonged capital brainwashing.

"Traditional Transcendents needed bigger houses, better cars, a nicer living environment, and a higher social status.

"In short, Transcendents in superhero fiction were still human and unable to survive outside of human society. Even with special powers, they could not completely isolate themselves from capitalist consumption.

"They would use superhuman powers to achieve class mobility, enter the upper class, and cooperate with the established Elite Class or share power.

"And the established elites could fully transform themselves into the Superhuman Class step by step, through means such as marriage alliances or bribery.

"In this process, the original social form would not undergo earth-shaking changes. Those at the top would remain at the top, their advantage merely shifting from purely economic to a combination of economic power and personal combat strength."

Viper paused, then pointed at himself. "But, the slaughter game is different from traditional superhero fiction. The script tasks, occurring every two to three weeks, mean that Transcendents born from the slaughter game are rapidly replaced.

"They possess a heightened sense of crisis, and their demand for consumerism and hedonism plummets to almost nothing.

"This means that for Transcendents of the slaughter game, the existence of capital isn't that valuable.

"They don't need bigger houses, better cars, a nicer living environment, or a higher social status; in the face of script tasks every two to three weeks, their primary consideration is their own survival.

"Their fervent pursuit of power means that the existing social order becomes an obstacle rather than an aid in front of Transcendents—for the sake of power, Transcendents can take any measure.

"As the slaughter game progresses, the power held by Transcendents grows ever more immense, and the current social form will eventually collapse.

"Such a direction of future development is utterly unacceptable to the elite class represented by Datura.

"They might tolerate a portion of the lower class sharing power with them through superhuman powers, but they cannot accept Transcendents completely destroying the social order, including the bases of their own power."