In the living room, Jacks and others were interrogating the mayor, the magician Toffler, who had woken up.
The old mayor was tied to a chair and the spell material package had been taken away. He looked surprisingly calm.
Jacks sat on the sofa, spread his legs, and said to the old mayor:
"Mr. Mayor, I have something to talk to you about."
"Say it."
"Are the two scarecrows that Chabron encountered made by binding the souls of the previous townspeople?"
"The soul of one scarecrow comes from the carpenter John's son - he was chosen for last year's festival. The soul of the other scarecrow comes from another stranger you didn't know 10 years ago."
"Scarecrow obeys your orders?"
"Not necessarily. They will only participate in work to ensure that normal order in the town is maintained, such as hunting unwilling victims or attacking criminals."
“How many people are needed for the ritual of making a scarecrow?”
"Nearly 30 people, plus me and Warlock Follett, two spellcasters. Civilians without spellcasting abilities can also participate in it, but the ritual will draw on their lifespan to inject activity into the scarecrow, so every year we will replace it with different townspeople.
Participate in the ceremony.”
"If they knew they were killing people, would they still lose their lifespan?"
"certainly."
"How many scarecrows are there in total?"
"There are only 5 left now. There were many scarecrows before, but we sacrificed them to other planes according to the requirements in the holy book."
"Other planes? Where did you sacrifice the scarecrow!?"
"The outer plane [Shura Field] floating in the star realm, the outer plane of endless war, seems to be quite close to the [Nine Hells]."
"Damn, it sounds exactly like what Chabarron said: It's like someone is using the entire town in the dark to conduct an experiment or use it as a production base to harvest results regularly. The next question - where does your magic power come from?"
"A warlock contract from the Holy Book."
"Which alien being signed a sorcery contract with you?"
"I don't know and I don't care. I speculate that it may be the [God of Machines] - because there are some descriptions of the God of Machines in the Holy Book."
"However, the God of Machinery should prefer metal structures rather than scarecrows. He is not an evil god or a demon lord, but a righteous god who is recognized in the kingdom and can legally preach. He should not do such a thing.
You know that, right?"
"I know, I am also acting in accordance with the law."
"Where is the law?"
"The Book is the Law."
"Why do you, and the rest of the town, obey the orders in the book?"
When hearing this question, Toffler was silent for a while, and then gave his answer:
"I'm the mayor. If I don't follow the rules, what will other people think of me?"
Jacks straightened up and almost shouted angrily:
"What does that mean? So why should anyone else comply?"
Toffler replied calmly:
"Of course because if he or she doesn't follow the rules, he or she will be ostracized and punished by others, including me."
What is all this? Jax was almost angry.
The silver-haired young lady An Luo on the side immediately pointed out the fallacy of Toffler's logic:
"Is this a circular argument? What the mayor is saying is that everyone who obeys the laws in the book is because they are worried that if they don't comply, others will exclude and punish them? Even if everyone may not like the above content in their heart?
"
Toffler nodded:
"That's probably the case. In life, you always have to accept things you don't like."
Everyone fell into thinking. This was very close to the hypothesis An Luo proposed last night——
The extent to which a person is affected by the anomaly rules [3-075-b] depends on the extent to which he or she—
Submit to external public opinion, agree with the fanatical atmosphere of the group, care about the attitudes and feelings of others, identify with the collective of Fengxi Town, long for the recognition of others, fear group violence, be able to read the collective atmosphere ("not gay"), and abide by the universal rules
, recognize social norms, respect traditions and customs, value order and stability over subjective moral judgments, and view ethical standards in the world based on popularity rather than rational inference..."
The more orderly and law-abiding you are, the stronger your sense of collective identity you have with Fengxi Town, and the more you accept universally recognized moral and ethical standards and social norms without hesitation, the easier it will be for abnormal rules to distort value judgments and moral and ethical foundations.
Therefore, Mayor Toffler and Police Officer Follett were both deeply corrupted by the anomalous effect.
There is no doubt that strangers are less easily influenced than true natives.
Jakes, the former world's top adventurer, and Matru, the former [company] field agent, have traveled all over the country and are not affected.
On the other hand, An Luo, although intelligent, is relatively more "obedient", "well-behaved" and "submissive", is the most affected among the five people, but the degree of corruption is still less than that of the locals.
This is why there are no beggars in Windless Town.
Those who live in isolation will be ostracized and killed, while strangers can only remain silent.
"Dong dong dong"
At this moment, in the corner of the living room, the iron box with the iron book locked in it began to shake!
The Book of Activation in it is struggling against the cage that binds itself!
Warrior Jax asked everyone to retreat, summoned weapons and armor enchanted with the summoning spell, and carefully opened the box.
After escaping from the prison that imprisoned him, the iron book floated in the air and did not attack rashly.
It "opens itself" and shows the contents of the page to everyone in the living room——
Black ink slowly emerged on the white paper, as if someone had written on it:
"Stranger, we can negotiate."
-------------
In the northern part of the starry sky, the eagle flies.
This countryside where the four winds gather together is the manifest area of the [Wind Elemental Plane], where the never-ending wind blows across the rugged solid rocks.
A figure in black robes is sitting on the rock, and the sun is rising behind him.
The roaring air waves were unable to lift his robes at all, and he was facing the light, his face hidden in the shadows under his hood.
In front of him was a miniature toy stage, and next to it was a book with a black metal cover.
On the toy stage, lifelike puppets perform dramas one after another on the stage without anyone controlling them.
Every time the stage ends and opens, the curtain closes and opens, the scenery changes, and new puppets appear -
In the first act, the setting turned into a beautiful living room, with two large puppets and two small puppets sitting one by one, staring at another broken old puppet tied to a chair.
In the second act, the setting changed into a small room, and the blond boy puppet faced the white-gold book model and danced various ritual postures with simple joints.
In the third act, the setting is a wide street, and puppets march in groups, holding short sticks and kitchen knives. The crooked scarecrow puppet walks in front.
The owner of the toy watched the puppet's performance without saying a word, and just opened the iron book on the side.
The man in black robe picked up the quill and slowly wrote on the white paper in the iron book in front of him:
"Stranger, we can negotiate."
·
(Next update, 7 o'clock tomorrow morning, finale (fake)!)
