The reason Xu Yuan didn't spell it out so directly was actually because he had already more or less guessed the overall storyline about Notch and those two friends of his in the Void.
At the end of the day, the biggest person responsible for how things turned out now should be the prank-loving friend Notch talked about.
Of course, that doesn't mean the others bear no responsibility at all. For things to reach the current situation, everyone involved definitely carries responsibility they can't escape.
But if you really trace it back to the source, the origin of all the tragedy must be that friend who loved pulling pranks.
Before talking with Notch, Xu Yuan had always believed that neither of the two in the Void were good people.
However, through his conversation with Notch, Xu Yuan realized that he might have misunderstood.
The one who truly had a problem seemed to be only the prank-loving friend, while the other one didn't have any major issues in terms of mindset. His biggest problem was excessive indulgence.
When Notch described his two friends, he portrayed the more steady one as a kind of "mom guy."
And during his conversation with Xu Yuan, Notch himself already came across as a "mom guy."
So what about the "mom guy" spoken of by this "mom guy" Notch?
That alone was enough to infer that this friend was boundlessly indulgent toward the prank-loving friend.
This kind of indulgence caused the pranks to escalate continuously, eventually leading to serious consequences.
If he had stepped in to stop things or guide them in time, maybe the situation wouldn't have developed to where it is now. Therefore, although he can't be blamed entirely, he does still need to bear a certain amount of responsibility.
But at the end of the day, he isn't truly an evil person. At most, he could only be considered someone who enabled wrongdoing.
The prank-loving friend, however, was a different matter altogether.
From the story Notch told, that prank-loving friend actually lacked empathy.
The fact that he loved pranks so much and enjoyed messing with others showed that he liked building his own happiness on other people's fear, sadness, and other negative emotions.
This showed that he didn't know how to put himself in others' shoes at all, and that he was extremely selfish.
Just as Xu Yuan said, the reason someone like this didn't cause major disasters in the real world wasn't because he understood right and wrong or knew moderation, but because the real world is constrained by laws.
There is a term called "threshold," which refers to a limit value.
For example, everyone has a so-called "laughing point" or "crying point."
As long as you encounter a stimulus that reaches your threshold, you will laugh or cry.
But this threshold doesn't stay fixed forever.
For instance, if you're someone with a very low laughing point, and someone tells you jokes every single day, your threshold will gradually rise.
Once your threshold rises, those jokes that used to make you laugh will no longer move you.
That prank-loving friend of Notch had already pulled many pranks in the real world, so his threshold was actually quite high.
Many ordinary pranks could no longer satisfy him, but because of legal constraints, he couldn't break through that threshold.
Because he knew very well that if he crossed it, he'd probably end up wearing silver handcuffs.
That was why he still had some sense of restraint.
But after entering the world created by Notch, he was no longer bound, and he became someone standing at the very top of that world.
He would have no more scruples and could completely release his true nature.
He would break through his threshold again and again, and once that threshold was pushed to a certain extreme, what he did would no longer be pranks.
This also explained why, back then, all the living beings of that world rose up in rebellion against him.
———
At this moment, after hearing Xu Yuan's words, Notch pondered for a while before responding.
"A monster without empathy, once it loses its restraints… if it has sufficiently powerful abilities, it might become an existence that slaughters everything…"
After saying this, Notch paused, as if he had thought of something.
"Liking pranks… is also a manifestation of having no empathy…"
As he thought this, an image suddenly appeared in Notch's mind.
In the image, two blurry figures were arguing about something in front of him.
"You're the one who usually interacts with those living beings the most. What exactly did you do?!"
"Isn't it perfectly normal that they want to overthrow us?! Living beings develop consciousness, and players are inherently unwilling to be ruled. Isn't this something bound to happen?!"
———
("I said it before, we shouldn't interact with those living beings. Even if we do, we shouldn't show our strength. If they don't know our authority and power, there won't be so many problems!"
"We are the creators of this world. We are the gods of this world. Why should we hide it?! Doesn't everyone hope to be favored by the gods and protected by the gods?!")
———
("There's no point in continuing to argue. What matters is how we solve this problem. Maybe we can sit down and properly talk with their leader?"
"Negotiate? They're already challenging our authority, and we're supposed to go negotiate with them? As those who rule this world, we need enough deterrence. Otherwise, they'll keep challenging our authority!")
———
Although Notch still couldn't clearly see the two figures, he could tell from their voices that they were his two friends.
Judging from the environment in the image, it didn't seem like the real world. It appeared to be scenery from inside the game world.
Thinking of this, Notch tried hard to recall more details, and unsurprisingly, the headache arrived right on cue.
Seeing this, Notch had no choice but to stop. He let out a long sigh and muttered to himself, "Why did I suddenly think of these things?…"
Notch felt somewhat confused. After hearing Xu Yuan's words just now, he had felt a sense of familiarity, as if he'd experienced it before.
When he connected it to the idea that liking pranks meant lacking empathy, this image appeared in his mind.
This indicated that the image was likely connected to what he had just been thinking about.
After all, Notch had experienced things like this several times before.
Notch tried to link these two matters together, but his mind felt like a bowl of thick paste, and he couldn't connect them no matter what.
The conversation between the two friends in his memory contained far too much information.
The world shown in the image seemed very similar to the current world.
And their identities appeared to be the gods of that world.
And for some unknown reason, the living beings of that world seemed to want to overthrow their rule.
[T/N: I have started doing another fanfic— "Frieren: A Journey of the Demon King". It is a quite relaxing and humorous read, give it a go. Have a great read~]