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Chapter 355 - Chapter 355: Mustard’s Question!!

Hearing Xu Yuan's words, Mustard froze.

He recalled for a moment. It seemed indeed he had never personally seen such a scene.

"No… but…"

Mustard was about to continue speaking, but Xu Yuan cut him off.

Xu Yuan turned to look at the Pillager King and asked.

"Are you certain that you and those around you have never, without reason, plundered villages?"

The Pillager King did not even need to think. He nodded firmly and said, "Those villages of villagers who haven't awakened consciousness are basically just piles of junk."

"The villagers who have awakened consciousness are basically all in the Villager Kingdom."

"Plundrering villages of villagers who haven't awakened consciousness is completely meaningless."

"And the location of the Villager Kingdom, we don't even know."

Hearing the Pillager King's words, Xu Yuan nodded, then turned to look at the Blue Demon and said.

"As a zombie, under what circumstances would you want to infect a villager?"

Hearing Xu Yuan's words, the Blue Demon scratched his head in confusion, unable to utter a word for a long time.

"Uh…"

The Blue Demon really couldn't think of any reason. After all, what benefit could he get from infecting villagers?

If you said zombies fighting players, that was at least understandable, at least when players die, they drop some equipment, right?

But infecting villagers, what good does that do? The Blue Demon truly couldn't think of anything.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan waved his hand at him, then turned to everyone and said, "Since you all feel so puzzled."

"Let me tell you where your hatred actually comes from."

After saying that, Xu Yuan pointed up at the sky.

"Your hostile relationships don't come from yourselves, but from outside this game world."

"All of your hostility exists only to serve the settings of this game world."

"And those settings are man-made."

"In other words, your hatred is baseless, forced onto you by people outside this world."

Hearing this, everyone was a little dazed.

"People outside the world?…"

"The ones who created this game, right?"

"So what you're saying is, our real enemies are actually the people who created this game?"

"Cluck Cluck Cluck Cluck!…"

Hearing their words, Xu Yuan sighed.

It seemed they still hadn't fully understood.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan continued.

"That's right, those settings did indeed cause you to lose a lot."

"But when those people first set them, they had no idea this world would give rise to conscious beings."

"A game naturally needs some settings, just as a world naturally needs some rules."

"What I want to say is this, once you began awakening consciousness, those man-made settings already lost their meaning."

"What they restrict are only the numbers inside the game."

"You are no longer villagers, chickens, drowned, Pillagerss within the game…"

"The moment you awakened consciousness, you became brand new individuals, new lives."

"Your life, your enemies, should no longer be assigned to you by others, but chosen by yourselves."

Saying this, Xu Yuan looked at everyone and asked.

"Will you continue to follow that setting, and walk the life others planned for you?"

"Or step onto an entirely new road, one you plan yourself, choosing your own place and the identity you play?"

"The choice is in your own hands."

There's a saying, 'If you have never suffered another's pain, don't persuade them to be kind.'

Xu Yuan naturally understood the truth of this saying. If it were the real world, with two camps hostile for a long time, Xu Yuan could never play peacemaker under the excuse of "world peace."

Trying to get both sides to put down hatred.

That kind of talk, in the real world, would indeed be far too naïve, far too hollow, far too saint-like.

Because in the real world, the hatred between hostile camps cannot simply be reduced to the current grudges of the opposing sides. Usually that kind of hatred stretches back far, traceable to the distant past.

Maybe it came from a tragic war in history, leaving behind irreconcilable enmity. Or perhaps from differences in culture or faith, creating deep divides.

Yet no matter the reason, that hatred has only grown stronger over the river of years, becoming an uncrossable chasm.

In every clash, both sides spilled endless blood and paid terrible prices, yet could never dissolve that resentment.

Therefore, to think one could dissolve such hatred with empty words is impossible.

But this game world is not the same.

In this game world, the hatred and hostility between camps were preset by the game's creators.

And those hostile relationships served only the in-game data.

It's obvious, the beings here who have awakened consciousness are no longer game data.

Yet they still continue carrying this baseless hatred.

This hatred spreads across the entire game world, affecting the fate of countless lives.

Lives lose families and homes in the flames of war, are forced into endless conflict, forced to wander.

If they continue carrying this hatred, then built atop endless blood and sacrifice, it will only grow more and more complicated.

With the washing of generations of blood and lives, this baseless hatred will eventually turn real, becoming an uncrossable chasm.

Because sacrifice is real. Every single life lost only deepens that hatred one more layer.

It was precisely because Xu Yuan saw through this point that he had to make them understand.

Right now their hatred is only the hatred of this one generation, after all, everyone hasn't been awakened for very long.

Though indeed they had lost a lot, those blood debts belong only to their generation.

Just as Mustard said, Xu Yuan truly had not experienced what they had.

So Xu Yuan couldn't make the choice for them. He couldn't utter those grand, hypocritical words telling them to put down their hatred.

Because they really had bled and wept, and what they lost could never be recovered.

All Xu Yuan could do was tell them the truth.

Whether to let the blood debts continue on, or to face reality, everything still had to be decided by themselves.

Because this was their own future road. The choice was in their own hands.

Hearing Xu Yuan's words, Mustard, the Blue Demon, Barbecue Sauce, and the Pillager King all wore heavy expressions.

Xu Yuan's words undoubtedly shattered their understanding, reshaping their worldview.

"So everything we lost, was just because of this 'hatred' others forced onto us???"

"So you mean, in this world there never existed enemies in the true sense?"

"A world without enemies… what would that even be like?"

"Cluck Cluck Cluck Cluck Cluck… (Why is it every time you can say things that leave me not knowing what to do…)"

Barbecue Sauce and the Blue Demon, though it was also their first time hearing Xu Yuan speak about hostile relationships, had known him longer than Mustard and the Pillager King.

Xu Yuan had already had talks with them before, breaking their understanding.

Besides, Barbecue Sauce and the Blue Demon had always been walking unusual paths.

Unlike Mustard and the Pillager King, who upon awakening consciousness were already in group living situations.

So while Barbecue Sauce and the Blue Demon did feel the hostility between camps, it didn't strike as deeply.

But Mustard and the Pillager King were different.

They were both truly at the very center of this hostile storm, the two core figures.

And now Xu Yuan suddenly told them that all the hatred was baseless, and all the sacrifices meaningless.

Naturally they found it hard to accept.

At this moment, the Pillager King was still in shock, while Mustard was doing a little better.

Though he had just absorbed so much that overturned his understanding, Mustard's thinking wasn't thrown into chaos.

He thought for a moment, then looked at Xu Yuan and asked.

"I want to ask you a few questions."

"Mm." Xu Yuan nodded, signaling him to speak.

"The first question."

"How can I verify the truth of what you just said?"

"From the moment you built this transaction chain, your position and ours were no longer equal."

"You control the chain, so you control our resources."

"This transaction chain ultimately benefits only you. Because in the end, you would surely find a way to make this chain public, whether through force, or trying to persuade us."

"Though you made this transaction chain public earlier than I expected, your actions now are undoubtedly an attempt to persuade us."

"Doesn't this prove that your attempt to persuade us has a purpose?"

"Winning people over with words is far easier than suppressing them with force."

Mustard was not the kind to believe everything he hears, so he naturally looked at problems in a more complex way.

Thus he couldn't fully believe Xu Yuan.

And his analysis wasn't wrong either. While Xu Yuan built the trade network and gained resources, his ultimate goal was also to bring villagers and Pillagerss under one banner.

But to say Xu Yuan fabricated these facts just to win them over, that was truly wronging him.

Mustard's reasoning was, winning them over was the goal, persuasion only incidental.

But the reality was, persuasion was the goal, winning them over only incidental.

Though Mustard's words carried some hostility toward Xu Yuan, Xu Yuan didn't mind. On the contrary, he actually admired Mustard's reaction.

Mustard's words proved he had his own independent thinking, not the type to just drift with the tide.

Such a person has strong awareness of the bigger picture.

All Xu Yuan needed was to make Mustard realize he had no hostility or selfish motives, and Mustard would then trust him unconditionally.

"There are plenty of players in this Trial Grounds. You can just ask around what the preset hostile camps and relationships are in the game."

"If this were a lie, it would be far too easy to expose. You might think I'm trying to win you over."

"But I also want to ask a question."

"Usually it's only when both sides are equal in strength, or when the weaker side wants to bring in the stronger side, that the word 'win over' applies."

"In this Trial Grounds, the only villager is you. Though you've formed a team, it's just a handful of animals."

"Even the one you trust most, Barbecue Sauce, was sent to you by me."

"The equipment and resources you hold still pass through my hands."

"Besides, the most important ones for building the transaction chain, you and the Pillager King, are already standing right in front of me."

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