Section Sixty-One: Questions and Answers, Record

She is very shrewd. She founded the Battle of the Western Plains team, and when it was first established, it seemed to have about ten people. Before that, she had apparently been in three or four other teams, though she had not done anything especially notable at the time.

After founding the team, she began buying up at high prices any route that could lead the next scenario into the battlefield. They seem to have a saying that ordinary scenarios bring in too little; the battlefield is where the real fun is.

My allies and I have fought members of the Battle of the Western Plains team several times before. Their ordinary members are merely average; we could only manage a draw with them... and they also seem to be rather poor. A team leader I know once killed several of their underlings, and the drops in universal points were very small, with terrible equipment.

But when it comes to large-scale engagements, their Blood Rain... as you know, it can play a very powerful role. And they are also extremely efficient when it comes to killing bosses.

Like the famous empresses of history—Wu Zetian, Catherine the Great—she now makes no secret of her fondness for all manner of men. Heh. Some even say she is trying to collect every type imaginable, including women who resemble men.

Of course, no matter the type, one grows tired of them after long enough. Charles is the one she has recently grown tired of. The position of deputy leader in the Battle of the Western Plains team has nothing to do with ability; it is merely a mark of the one presently in favor.

Hearing these gleeful, malicious words, Wang Luo raised his next question. How have these men, worn out by her, ever taken revenge on her?

I really don’t know about that. Lank shrugged. Many people, even after she grows tired of them, still seem utterly infatuated with her—they remain in the Battle of the Western Plains team, waiting for her to come back to her senses. Of course, there are also deserters like Charles. But there have also been those who, after defecting, defected back to the Battle of the Western Plains team again. You were right not to trust Charles.

By ordinary human nature, things should not have developed this way. There must be some reason... but no one knows it?

Lank felt this was not really a question for him. But since this was part of the mission, he answered anyway. Perhaps it is some kind of restrictive item. The penalty for leaving the Battle of the Western Plains is not severe; their team skill enhancement lies in finance, not in restraining the team.

Lust is a steel knife that scrapes to the bone—for men and women alike. Wang Luo rubbed the bridge of his nose. A person’s energy is finite. If too much is spent on this sort of thing... she has taken in so many men; has their involvement ever caused her any trouble?

I’m not sure. She wins on every battlefield, but not every victory is overwhelming. There have also been a few times when her opponents were only a hair’s breadth away from defeating her.

Could the reason include her indulgence? Could it include conflicts between the instruments of her pleasure? Could it include dispersed attention?

...You are right. It is not impossible.

She should have other hidden cards. Wang Luo spoke as if to himself. That Blood Rain is only a combat skill. She must have other means, strategies, or items to reconcile the inevitable conflicts among her subordinates. Wait... since she wins every time, why don’t you cooperate with her?

Because the Battle of the Western Plains team has a reputation for never letting other teams profit from them. As Lank said this, his face twitched several times. They like to keep all the spoils for themselves. If you want to cooperate with them, you must turn over most of the gains; some teams, even without formally cooperating, merely follow behind them to share in the benefits. But once they discover it, they will use every possible means to suppress it.

That kind of thing would lower the win rate, wouldn’t it? Wang Luo began jotting down something on the paper.

At present, the points of suspicion are these: 1. Blood Rain, as an offensive means whose effects are not fully understood; 2. a harem-in-reverse indulgence in pleasure; 3. a manner of conduct that forbids other teams from sharing in the profits.

Why, in this age, would those men accept the practice of sharing with other men? The nature of male creatures is to be combative, to contend with their own kind during their period of desire. In the space, with the bodies of contractors having generally been strengthened, the difficulty of mating has greatly decreased, and the value of the opposite sex has consequently fallen. Even if she is beautiful beyond measure, what ability could she have to make a man like Charles follow her?

Right. After writing all this, Wang Luo looked up. Has she taken in so many men and never been pregnant?

Lank shook his head. No. On that, I can be certain. Never.

Then are there women who have given birth to children in the space?

No, none. I have never even heard of such a thing.

Wang Luo nodded and continued writing on the paper. Sexual indulgence not aimed at reproduction is rather like a baby clutching an empty milk bottle—or like drinking seawater to quench one’s thirst.

So-called hollow satisfaction. Would someone who has goals to support his spirit... or at least a trace of reason... do such a thing? Perhaps she was profoundly deprived before entering the space, and thus needed to make up for it?

Wang Luo raised his head and asked the next question. Has she always been a woman?

This... Lank paused for quite a while. By the time I knew her, she already was. If not a woman, then what else could she be?

A man. Wang Luo raised his right index finger toward the sky. A man who is extremely lacking in certain things. In a world where there are thirty million more unmarried men of marriageable age than unmarried women of marriageable age, such deprivation is inevitable.

After gaining great power, one seeks solace, psychological fulfillment, and a false sense of existence through sex change and inversion. Even in real life, there are quite a few such people; nothing surprising about it.

Ignoring Lank’s gaping mouth, Wang Luo wrote on. Of course, this is only a conjecture. It has little value. If more conclusive evidence appears, there would still be an opportunity to make use of it—for now, though, we need not worry about it.

The important thing is: what psychological weakness does this person have? From the present circumstances, what conclusions can be drawn?

Whether she uses hollow pleasure or a multitude of loves to fill her heart, it all shows that she is mentally weak; forbidding other teams from benefiting from her actions shows her greed.

But did she evade the trap laid last time, which was aimed at greed, because she was clever enough to see through it? Or because of luck?

The question is whether that luck is her own, whether it arose because some of her actions happened to satisfy the requirements of the scenario, or whether it is simply a skill.

In battle, she should be putting rationality first. Otherwise, she would have already died. Then, is there a strategy that can give her illusions? An opportunity to indulge herself to the fullest, to be foolish? To fully stir up her shallow and petty desires?

No... my train of thought seems to have gone a little off course. The matter may not be as I imagine it to be. And even if my judgment is correct, psychological attacks directed at a single person are not reliable.

Analyzing one person is far more difficult than analyzing a crowd. The more people there are, the more the overall direction and pattern of thought tends toward stability; but in isolated individuals, the possibility of variables is far too great.