Ukan T.T. Trustmi, also known as "Teetee's" plan was simple.
He had watched the betrayal videos and started thinking too much, gaining a kind of god-complex in believing that the world and others owed him something… that he was entitled to more, and coming under the influence of his lesser emotions. Grief. Apathy. Anger. Pride.
Life is cruel. It's all about power. He convinced himself.
It had started with an innocuous question.
How can I... win? This in itself wasn't the official tipping point but it was already the crucial mistake, like following an incorrect line of thought and believing it to be true, which is far worse and more dangerous than taking a step in the wrong direction.
There are times and places where winning is the name of the game, but the key word was... game. Games were artificial constructs, and not reality.
Was life just a game?
Were relationships just a game?
Emotions, experiences… they were real, but the way you thought, your [Intention], that was what made the difference.
In truth, life and others owe you nothing.
If someone is successful, chances are that they simply put in the effort required, and actually did stuff that enabled them to succeed.
Talent is a factor, opportunity, access to resources, but in the end, life itself is a blessing. We are all given the tools to live, to choose. And in the end, we bear the responsibility for how we choose to live.
Every moment is an Opportunity.
Unfortunately Ukan T.T. Trustmi had forgotten about this.
What if someone had no talent?
Well it might seem hopeless.
And in that hopelessness, depending on their ambition… well then they would grasp at anything that might offer them a chance to realise that dream…
But at what cost?!?!
The key was here.
The betrayals occurred when these individuals were willing to sacrifice all that was *actually* valuable, in order to take hold of something that they *thought* was valuable, but actually wasn't.
The rival village offered him a quick and dirty path to power…
To attain a reality he likely would never reach otherwise.
But it was at the cost of everything he believed in… his very humanity itself.
He just didn't realize it yet.
____
Meanwhile, having reached the 100 chapter mark, author had started a second book, in order to take another step in his path to becoming the King of Power Stones…
Unfortunately, he didn't realise that publishing in a non-vetted book didn't count as publishing a chapter, leading to him losing his long daily writing streak on the platform.
That wasn't a big deal, and in fact, in the pause, the break in his daily training and writing ritual, he had, in fact, discovered something.
Just like the story he was writing, where Ukan T.T. Trustmi, Teetee, had embraced the Dark side and given up his humanity in order to realise his dreams, he too had been presented with a choice...
The world was changing. Once considered part of the forbidden or demonic arts, many writing cultivators were grasping, like Ukan T.T. Trustmi, at a similar quick and dirty path to power.
Indeed. It was the Arts of the Amoral Arcana - also known as "Artificial Intelligence", or AI.
The Arts of the Amoral Arcana, "Triple A" or "AAA" for short, essentially ensured that even writers of average actual writing ability could potentially tell stories that could simulate, and indeed, built upon the works of true masters, which were the products of decades of meditation and insight.
Already, dubious figures such as Ikant Evan Engrish, once considered a talentless hack, had already risen to the Realms of Contracted Authorship and was now riding the waves of Powerstone Popularity, thanks to grasping hold of AAA, enabling them to churn out hundreds of chapters of passable quality.
It was a knot in his Dao heart that author needed to overcome.
He was doing his best to produce premium quality, in a world that was increasingly favoring convenience.
The Way of the Master Author was changing.
The Modern Age. Just like guns and technology had changed the very nature fabric and meaning of warfare, so too the "Amoral Arcana" had changed the nature of what it meant to be a great writer.
Author had grown up in a different time - as he sat chewing his instant noodles, lost in thought... perhaps it was destiny.
It was the perfect moment for him to reconsider his views, to take time to undo the knot in his Dao Heart so that he could continue his journey to having his writing and entertainment to reach more eyes, to become stronger for the encounter.
What should he do?
The irony was that the more ability you actually had developed, the more conflicted you would feel about cultivating the Amoral Arcana.
Am I being authentic?
Even if I were, how many people would actually care and could actually tell the difference?
Yes, his writing quality was still better than the AAA practitioners for now, but as more and more embraced the ways of "Triple A" and it became increasingly mainstream, that gap would continue to narrow, and eventually, Author for all his heroics, would be eventually overcome by sheer numbers of Averageness.
Worse, in the future, it might even be assumed that his most brilliant work would be considered AI written, since AI may have assimilated even his unique individual style, which he had spent a lifetime mastering, with increasing accuracy.
Indeed, it was already happening.
Other shameless Writer cultivators were already analyzing his techniques and utilising the Art of the Amoral Arcana to help them create cheap imitations of his style, yes the discerning readers could feel the difference, but how many of them existed or, ultimately, would even care?
What should he do?!?!
___
He retired behind closed doors and meditated to comprehend the Dao and achieve his next breakthrough.
After years of training in his accelerated space-time where only a few hours had actually passed in the outside world, he came to a conclusion.
____
The Amoral Arcana, as its name suggests, is neither good or evil. Just like fire, it simply exists as a force, a new energy in an ever changing world.
Author surveyed his weapons. In particular, the Way of the Trusty Ink Quill.
He looked at the faded and weather worn and yet immaculately honed and maintained writing instrument in front of him.
Ever since he was a young boy, he had crafted and honed the Way of the Ink Quill, upgrading it countless times, comprehending breakthrough after breakthrough, until his words, his Awareness and his mind became one, and the stories on the page reached the heights of comedy, meta self-awareness, individual style and the Art of crafting peak narrative entertainment.
The world has changed since those days, and there are many more summits left to climb.
At this stage, he had a few options.
Firstly, he could retire and continue to write his pure, unadulterated peak, untouched by the Amoral Arcana. He would likely die respected, like a John Henry but in writing, and with probably around 5 readers to his name, and eventually, forgotten. This was the Path of Rejection.
Secondly, he could let the Amoral Arcana consume him, like it had, increasingly, so many others already, growing drunk off of artificial, borrowed power, and claiming it as his own. He would probably get results, but at the cost to his Integrity, potentially sacrificing his own style and individuality, everything that he had cultivated, believed in and that made him human. This was the Path of Surrender.
Thirdly…
Well… this was the thing. It sounded good on paper but was it possible?
That's right, it was the way... of Assimilation.
To comprehend the Dao beyond the Arts of the Amoral Arcana itself… to treat it as yet another form of energy, like fire becoming heat to cook with, like thought becoming a way to channel Divinity, like lightning becoming electricity to power technology…
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Author reached his hands and firmly grasped the Amoral Arcana, bellowing like a mad Super Saiyán as he was filled with Aura, his rags billowed in the currents of force as his mind struggled to comprehend assimilate and harness the new insights he was forcing himself to absorb!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Amoral Arcana would also just be an augmentation of his [Intention]!!!!!!!!!!
[Positive Intention]. Nothing changed this.
I… I will understand… I will comprehend… and I… will… transcend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Author gritted his teeth as he struggled with the sheer power, the temptations, that were coursing through him.
Many did not even realise the sheer gravity of what the Amoral Arcana represented, happily using these easily accessible, borrowed powers and treating it as their own, but Author knew that this was not the True Way, but simply an illusion.
His Quill in his hands glows as he struggles at the desk, as the Amoral Arcana courses pulses and channels through him, striving to overcome his original penmanship, striving to overcome his original, individual strokes, his forms, replacing them with generic efficiency…
But Author would not be swayed!!!!!
Slowly, and with great effort, he began to, laboriously, write!, even as he struggled to contain, channel and harness the sheer power that the Amoral Arcana presented him with…
___
Whilst Author was struggling in his closed-doors training in his attempt to master and Assimilate the Amoral Arcana, Ukan Trustmi had arrived at the village, all smiles, Running-Water-Systems, Crop-Growing-Blueprints and of course, most importantly, Animu Blu-Ray Collector Sets.
He was greeted with cheers as he joyfully shared all the fruits of his Adventures alongside Scroogeux and modern civilisation with his village!!!
And all this time, Teetee looked on…