Marlos was initially very shocked. He raised his hands and retreated into the house, shouting, "No! I can give you whatever you want, and there are police patrolling around here all day, you can't..."
"The police won't be coming." Kent pointed at the gun with his finger. Marlos glanced in the direction he pointed, and his pupils shrank. It was the standard equipment of the police. Could this bastard have killed a cop and taken his gun?
"I ask, you answer." Kent said, "Who are you?"
"Me? I..." Marlos momentarily didn't know how to answer because the question was too strange. Kent had been here once before, and at that time, he knew he was a Congressman. Whether he was here for money or murder, this question had no meaning.
But Kent stared at him intently. He had a premonition, a very strong premonition, that he had found the right person. This guy was the Old Berg he was looking for.
Unfortunately, he wasn't Batman; he couldn't point out the specifics of the other's words and actions. He just had a vague feeling, and that clearly couldn't serve as evidence.
Kent took a deep breath. The situation was too complex now. If he couldn't find critical evidence to expose the other, the other certainly wouldn't show his true face. If he intended to keep up the facade, and Kent fired, Kent would be the one to suffer.
Because, to outsiders, Marlos was a Congressman. If Kent shot him, he'd absolutely become a criminal that everyone would want to get rid of; after all, not that many people would believe in theories like evil spirits' possession, and Kent couldn't produce any decent evidence to prove the existence of ghosts.
And even if he killed Marlos, the evil spirit wouldn't die with him, bullets couldn't kill ghosts, and it could entirely find a new body.
Kent's purpose in coming here wasn't to kill the body of the evil spirit but to force it to reveal itself. Because now, a group of ghosts was with him, and as long as Old Berg revealed himself, he could kill him with the power of the ghosts.
So how exactly could he force Old Berg to reveal himself?
Kent had to start thinking: what would Batman do?
He must be very experienced in this aspect, because those he faced were a bunch of madmen wearing human skins. To defeat such people, shooting them was no good; he had to attack them mentally.
At this moment, Kent understood Batman more. Facing these cunning monsters every day, even a super brain might not be enough.
Kent forced himself to calm down, quickly went through everything from start to finish, and then discovered there was still one unsolvable riddle: since it was Old Berg who altered the rules of the Psychic_Battlefield, why did he run?
He must have changed the rules in a direction favorable to himself, shaping the Heaven he desired, so why didn't he lie in his Heaven and enjoy it, instead of coming out to become a Congressman?
As the saying goes, being a Congressman isn't an easy job; you can't say it's a job of little rest, but daily work and socializing can't be lacking. Compared to the Psychic_Battlefield, which he didn't have to worry about survival and completely matched Old Berg's ideal Heaven, the real world had no appeal at all. But he still came, which proved there must be a problem there.
Kent didn't know what the problem was there, but he knew it must be something painful for Old Berg. And whether it was the problem he thought, asking would tell.
"You don't need to pretend anymore." Kent said, "Berg, I know who you are, and I know what you've done; I just didn't expect you'd come here. What, you couldn't stand that setup yourself?"
Kent sneered and looked into Marlos's eyes, saying, "The ancestors of the Bold family killed the Flying Angel family, framed the Beast Tamer, and stole the Circus from their hands, all to build the Heaven you all dreamed of. But what was the result? You circled around so much, finally achieved your dream, and now you find it's just a pile of crap. Even you couldn't take it anymore, so like a coward, you abandoned your so-called Heaven and ran here."
"I have to say, hiring you all as clowns by the Circus was the perfect choice. Everything the Burger family did from start to finish was just for a laugh, with its massacres and black magic practices; after several generations, the dream was finally realized, only to produce a joke. I must thank you all; this is the funniest joke I've heard recently."
"Enough!" Marlos's face darkened, and he stared at Kent with a murderous expression. Kent knew he had guessed right.
Old Berg went to great lengths to create a spiritual world that perfectly aligns with the doctrine, but ultimately he ended up in Siv City as a council member. The reason could be very simple: even he couldn't stand it anymore.
Indeed, even though he is the sect leader, with all the Believers centering around him, and he doesn't have to follow the doctrine to have a bunch of children, just the attributes of the world he constructed were already unbearable for him.
For example, in the Psychic_Battlefield, there are no beverages like tea and coffee, no industrial drinks like cola, and definitely no alcohol. There are no modern foods, not even some modern, legal, harmless seasonings. So while you can taste the flavor of food, it just can't be delicious.
Additionally, no books other than the Doctrine are allowed, no novels, no magazines, not even those world classics. Moreover, no artistic creation is allowed; at most, one can sing hymns.
There are also no modern entertainment devices. Even when Old Berg was young, there were radios and black-and-white TVs, cinemas and videotapes, but there is nothing in the Psychic_Battlefield, no modern facilities.
So, in this spiritual world entirely constructed by the Church's rules, all people can do is gather to chat, and even the topics of conversation are very limited: praising God, praising the sect leader, and praising this kind of Church life.
And since children cannot be born in the Psychic_Battlefield, they can't even spend time raising and educating children. Apart from participating in Church activities, they just sit idly.
If one is born in such an environment, it might be barely tolerable, but who is Old Berg? He used to be a star performer in the Circus, traveling around with them, visiting every big city, witnessing the decadence of the Upper-class, and coming into contact with the most advanced modern equipment.
The saying goes, "From frugality to luxury is easy, from luxury to frugality is hard." He still thought he was a pure Believer, and in the real world, unable to completely isolate from modern society, he created such an ideal country in the Psychic_Battlefield only to find out: this so-called ideal country was pure jail.
At least in jail, one gets to watch TV and read newspapers. After experiencing the entertainment methods of an information-explosive modern society, no one could accept such a primitive way of life again.
What's more, the people in the Psychic_Battlefield are unchanging; it's just the same people coming and going. This kind of performative social interaction, no matter how interesting, quickly becomes tedious. So wasn't Old Berg continuously running out?
"What do you understand!" said Marlos through clenched teeth, "You don't understand what modern society has brought upon us, sufferings, hunger, Death, things that should not happen!"
Kent didn't quite understand what he meant. Marlos looked at him and said, "I know, you're from the big city, probably born into a wealthy family. You've never been to the lower neighborhoods, you don't know what it's like there, how much people suffer, and you simply don't care."
"Those homeless, those addicts, those prostitutes and their children, they blindly wander into this advanced society, it's practically suicide. The rich took everything from them. For the sake of that illusory dream of a metropolis, they offered everything they've got to those bastards in the office buildings. They abandoned their hometowns, gave up their once simple lives just to become a piece of fuel in the rich's fireplace. I am saving them!"
"What's wrong with small-town life? What's wrong with Church life? There are no gunfights here, no homeless, no one will freeze or starve to death; everyone lives in a warm big family. They won't be misled by unethical media to go to those places that eat people without spitting out bones. They can peacefully spend their lives in the small town!"
"If you hadn't said it like that, I wouldn't find you so ridiculous," Kent said, looking at Marlos, "If you didn't have this entire theory, I would only think you were spouting whimsical ideas, occasionally having a stupid notion that made the situation what it is now. Unfortunately, you are systematically foolish."
"You call this secure, but I prefer to call it stable backwardness and poverty. One key point you fundamentally get wrong is: the rich depriving the poor of everything is not confined to cities and countryside. It's not like the wealthy in big cities only exploit the poor of those cities, and hiding in the countryside doesn't make this harm irrelevant to you."
"Let me give you an example, Kansas's farms are countryside enough, right? Farmers are tied to their land for life, living the so-called secure rural life you speak of. But, do you know how much the grain buyers, agricultural machinery companies, and seed companies take from them? At least 85%."
"Grain buyers sign long-term contracts, specifying the crops to grow, and if the market for the crops turns bad, they tear up the contract, forcing the signing of new, lower-priced contracts. If you don't sign, all the crops will rot in the field. Agricultural machinery companies sell each piece of equipment at exorbitant prices, adding all sorts of locks to ensure you can never repair them yourself, forcing you to buy expensive parts and pay for labor. Seed companies modify the genes of seeds, and without paying enough, you won't get good seeds; even the Agricultural Protection Association sets a bunch of industry standards for farmers. Failing to meet those standards, you can't sell a single wheat grain."
"The farmer's life is very stable because they don't have much cash on hand. After a year's hard work, the money they get must immediately be invested in the next year's production; in bad times, the whole family may have only 20 US Dollars left, eating bean puree for three months straight. They lead a secure religious life because they have no other choice, struggling in poverty, finding solace in religion. But if they had money, the warm waters of Hawaii and the beauty of the Alps would provide them more comfort."
"Pushing people into the mire of big cities and trapping people in the poverty of small towns is the same. You are no different from the unethical media you mentioned, luring people to big cities."