Mini World Game Console-Chapter 746 - 747 "I, I Like Ren Suo
"Let's proceed with this character setup."
Having watched the second live broadcast of "Door of Truth," Ren Suo had a clear plan for the Gatekeeper's upgrade path.
In the game, even though Ren Suo had already reached the level of a Fourth-Stage Cultivator with the help of Thinking Cards and Reaction Cards, his enemies were a complete team of three Fourth-Stage Cultivators and three Third-turn Cultivators. Moreover, he couldn't be too ruthless, as he had to maintain a constant state of combat to acquire combat memories. As a result, he had to focus almost all his attention on the battle, leaving no time to observe his enemies' expressions.
It was only now, watching the live broadcast, that he could see the Seekers' morale collapse due to the lies he'd concocted and the prowess he'd displayed. This confirmed that the persona he had prepared for the Gatekeeper was very effective.
Incidentally, after comparing himself with Dong Chengling, Qiao Muyi, and Bai Ji, Ren Suo realized his own reaction and thinking abilities were far inferior to those of typical Fourth-Stage Cultivators. Only his communication skills were comparable to Dong Chengling's.
Normally, when a Cultivator advanced, almost all aspects were enhanced. Apart from one's worldview, which couldn't be changed, most attributes could be further developed and elevated.
This was actually quite normal. It was like an elementary school student who had never learned arithmetic operations; naturally, they couldn't compare to a college student whose brain was being bombarded by augmented matrices while performing Taylor series expansions. The previous Ren Suo was like that unlearned elementary school student. Even after becoming a Fourth-Stage Cultivator, he was merely a physically grown-up elementary school student whose brain still lacked agility.
The previous Ren Suo had little exposure to instruction, fought rarely, and even slacked off on Healing duties, naturally becoming the disgrace among Fourth-Stage Cultivators.
If only I had been smarter before. Then, after using three Thinking Cards, I should now possess the thinking abilities of a Fifth-turn Cultivator. All this extra effort I'm making now is because of my past foolishness.
After spending three seconds critically assessing his past self, Ren Suo put the thought behind him—spending more than three seconds on his past self was a waste of life.
His gaze returned to the screen. These comments of praise made Ren Suo feel that his plan was a resounding success:
'Just fight. Why bring up others' dark pasts?'
'Fake trash talk advises you to be kind; real trash talk makes people withdraw completely.'
'Everything is arranged by the Door of Truth!'
If one word could summarize the Gatekeeper, it would be—Omniscient and Omnipotent.
Or rather, limited Omniscience and Omnipotence.
Whether in the first battle against the Earth Spirit or the second against the Hunters, the Gatekeeper maintained an air of effortless dominance, crushing them. However, his actual power wasn't completely overwhelming. Instead, he relied on intelligence and trash talk to suppress the Seekers' morale, coupled with certain ability counters, to create the illusion that 'I can take on ten.'
Creating such a persona was useful. After all, this battle took place on Earth, where information spread rapidly through the media. Most Seekers would quickly learn about the Gatekeeper.
Once Seekers formed the subjective impression that they couldn't defeat the Gatekeeper, and then suffered even a minor defeat at his hands in actual combat, they would quickly become passive. Even if their Desire for knowledge burned fiercely, it wouldn't help—the Seekers were still rational and wouldn't succumb to a 'loss of self-control.'
Moreover, this was a natural side effect, as Ren Suo planned to make good use of the Mystic Tavern's information sources to formulate detailed strategies for each trial. The Gatekeeper would inevitably expose the Seekers' scars with an 'Omniscient' air, inflicting mental damage to weaken their combat power.
For example, this time Ren Suo learned from the tavern owner that Kadell was plagued by a 'nightmare' every night. By exploiting this weakness for a precise Counterattack and to build mystique, Kadell naturally began to slack off.
As for the Demolition Genius's explosion, it was a pleasant surprise that helped Ren Suo further shape the Gatekeeper's persona.
And just moments ago, the burning spire of Notre Dame Cathedral had to be blocked. Even if Ren Suo hadn't blocked it, the Seekers wouldn't have died. Instead, if it created an opening in the roof, they could have flown up and fired down on the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper, however, couldn't leave the ground if he was to protect the Door of Truth, and that would have spelled his doom.
Now, by using an ice curtain to block the burning spire, he thwarted their idea of shooting from the ceiling and further reinforced the Gatekeeper's 'Omniscient and Omnipotent' persona, killing two birds with one stone.
There was also a minor issue: the fire caused by the explosion continued to spread during the Gatekeeper's battle. By the end of the live broadcast, Notre Dame Cathedral was already engulfed in flames. Hopefully, Paris's firefighters would arrive quickly. Although, by this time, night should have already fallen in Paris, and who knew if the famously romantic French firefighters would be willing to work overtime.
After checking for new information on the intranet, Ren Suo returned to the living room. He saw his clone doing housework while playing on his phone. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
Linking minds with the clone, Ren Suo saw the content on the phone:
Zhao Huo@All Want: 'How on earth will you teach me those awesome Martial Arts Magic? (dog head) If you need to join the national Cultivator system, I can recommend you. If you need money, I can give it! (sand sculpture panda) Is that an awakened spell by any chance? (dog head)'
Xiao Suo: 'It's not an awakened spell, and I can't teach you.'
Zhao Huo@All Want: 'Why? (sand sculpture panda)'
Xiao Suo: 'I am a martial arts enthusiast; those are Spells I've researched on my own. If I taught them to a bad person, I would be making a mistake.'
Zhao Huo@All Want: 'But I'm not a bad person! (dog head)'
Xiao Suo: 'Why? Just because you often post emoticons doesn't mean you're not a bad person, right?'
Zhao Huo@All Want: '…So, what do you want?'
Xiao Suo: 'Your Moments are full of anime stuff; that doesn't seem like something a good person would post.'
Zhao Huo@All Want: 'That's ancient discrimination! (spraying blood)'
Xiao Suo: 'Oh? So that post in your Moments with a blonde, large-chested female character and the comment 'awsl'—isn't that disgustingly suggestive?'
Zhao Huo@All Want: 'That character is the Secretary, from a very good anime! It's called... right, doesn't that sound interesting?'
Xiao Suo: 'A little interesting, I'll check it out.'
「Half an hour later.」
Xiao Suo: 'Wow, the Secretary really is cute!'
Zhao Huo@All Want: 'Right? Right?'
What followed was the classic story of an innocent martial arts girl being lured into the otaku world by an anime fanboy.
According to the 'Zhao Huo Strategy,' this was the fastest way for a stranger to build rapport with Zhao Huo—let him indulge in the joy of recommending his favorite works.
Ren Suo disconnected the Mind Link with his clone, letting it continue sweeping and doing housework while pretending to be an innocent girl chatting with Zhao Huo—just like back in middle school, when he'd pretended to be a naive girl online to catfish his deskmate on QQ.
Then Ren Suo returned to his bedroom to continue writing a document—the 'Gu Yueyan Strategy.'
In Ren Suo's encrypted folder, there were already several completed documents: 'Dong Chengling Strategy V2.1,' 'Qiao Muyi Strategy V8.2,' 'Luna Strategy,' 'Ren Xingmei Strategy V5.9,' 'Lin Xianyu Strategy V3.5,' 'Little Jiu Strategy,' 'Bai Ji Strategy,' 'Li Dan Strategy,' 'Yu Kuangtu Strategy,' 'Ren's Father Strategy V1.2,' and 'Ren's Mother Strategy V9.9D.'
The targets of these strategies were all people Ren Suo knew well. These strategies were preparations for the future, in case Ren Suo suddenly had a need, made a particular choice, or had to deal with certain consequences. At the same time, they were also useful to Ren Suo in the present.
After Ren Suo finished 'Gu Yueyan Strategy V1.1,' and reviewed all the other strategies, he opened an Excel document to confirm the timeline.
After triple-checking everything, Ren Suo officially began his operation. He created new QQ and WeChat accounts with the nickname… 'Xiao Ren.'
Her persona was a freshman at Heavenly Lotus Academy.
Then… let's begin!
…
…
「Heavenly Lotus Academy, Girls' Dormitory.」
Ren Xingmei, Gu Yueyan, Lin Xianyu, and Qin Lian were gathered together, watching the 'Door of Truth' live stream.
Lin Xianyu, reluctant to finish her pork jerky all at once, sucked on it as she asked, "This Gatekeeper seems pretty strong. Could it be that no one in the Fairy Palace can beat him?"
Ren Xingmei replied, "Ren Han should be able to beat him, right? Didn't Ren Han want to come down and fight him a few days ago?"
"Wishful thinking is one thing, but this Gatekeeper is good at exposing people's shortcomings," Lin Xianyu said with a hint of envy. "It must be great to know so much gossip."
Gu Yueyan asked, "What will happen after this Door of Truth trial is completed? Will the world's Spiritual Energy concentration rise further?"
Qin Lian nodded, saying, "Very likely, since this is Ren Naiser's live stream. Generally, anything Ren Naiser supports tends to be greatly beneficial to Transcendents."
Watching the second spark ignite on the Door of Truth in the stream, Lin Xianyu asked, "So the Door of Truth requires eight more trials? The Gatekeeper has to fight eight more times? Is he going to thrash every powerhouse one by one next?"
Gu Yueyan became interested too. "If that's the case, could we rank the Fourth-Stage Cultivators? Now that Changsheng and Yun Wangshu, two Fourth-Level Earth Spirit Hermits, have appeared in the Mysterious Country, and the Wizard Council's Hunter Squad has three Fourth-Stage Cultivators, isn't it the Federation's turn next?"
"Is Angel Zack going to get beaten up again?"
"There might even be some secret Supernatural Organizations!"
"By the way, has Yu Kuangtu reached the fourth transformation yet? Maybe he's next!"
Qin Lian blushed slightly. "Not yet, he's still in seclusion."
Lin Xianyu, with pork jerky in her mouth, said, "Then tell him to stay in seclusion a bit longer and avoid this Gatekeeper. Otherwise, if he runs into him and gets his dark past exposed, he's done for!"
Qin Lian laughed. "What dark history could he possibly have?"
"Like, maybe he used to have a crush on someone..."
"That's normal, isn't it? Young people have crushes. I used to have a thing for a handsome upperclassman myself."
"But what if *he* also had a thing for that handsome upperclassman?"
*Pfft.*
The four of them burst into laughter. Qin Lian covered her mouth and laughed, "If he really liked male idols, wouldn't Doctor Ren become my love rival?"
Ren Xingmei's and Gu Yueyan's expressions stiffened instantly.
Lin Xianyu laughed heartily. "Does Big Brother Ren count as a male idol too? Ah, I mean, if your Bro Yu likes male idols, wouldn't Teacher Bai be in more danger?"
"Teacher Bai is rather cold, but Doctor Ren is different. He's very approachable and popular. And compared to before, he's changed a lot. He takes care of his appearance, coordinates his Clothing, and he was really gentle and considerate when he was Healing classmates at the combat training field the other day. Many people were smitten," Qin Lian said.
"Several girls in our class have started liking him. After all, compared to the unapproachable Teacher Bai, the 'within reach' Doctor Ren seems easier to win over," Qin Lian chuckled.
The other three went "Oh?" exchanged glances, and then Lin Xianyu quickly turned her head, unable to resist grabbing the last piece of pork jerky.
After chatting for a while longer, Qin Lian and Ren Xingmei got up to leave. On the way back to their dorm, Ren Xingmei said to Qin Lian in a joking tone, "You'd better keep a close eye on Yu Kuangtu, or he might fall for someone else, you know."
Qin Lian was momentarily taken aback, then chuckled. "Are you saying your brother could actually steal him away?"
"Well..." Ren Xingmei shrugged, glanced at the night sky, and added, "It's my brother we're talking about..."
After all, he had a track record.
Ren Xingmei and Qin Lian parted ways, and Ren Xingmei returned to her dorm. It was already past the midnight curfew, but Ren Xingmei wasn't fazed in the slightest. She easily scaled the walls and climbed onto the roof to reach the second floor—a feat well within the Physical Condition of a Second Stage Cultivator.
After showering and drying her hair, Ren Xingmei lay on her bed and picked up her phone. She noticed a new friend request on WeChat.
'Friend Request: Xiao Ren'
'Gender: Female'
'Location: Lotus River'
'Note: Are you Doctor Ren's sister? I'm a freshman at Heavenly Lotus Academy, can we chat?'
"Hm?"
Meanwhile, Gu Yueyan and Lin Xianyu were also in bed, ready to sleep.
Lin Xianyu, naturally, had to play on her phone for another half hour before she'd even consider sleeping. At this moment, she received a new friend request on QQ:
'Friend Request: Xiao Ren'
'Note: Are you a friend of Doctor Ren? I'm a freshman at Heavenly Lotus Academy. Can I talk to you to learn a bit about Doctor Ren?'
Lin Xianyu immediately accepted the request.
'You are now friends. Start chatting!'
Salted Fish Never Loses: 'Why do you want to know about Ren Suo?'
Xiao Ren: 'Ah? Um... I just want to know a bit more about him.'
Salted Fish Never Loses: 'Why? If you don't tell me why, I won't tell you.'
Xiao Ren: 'It's just...'
The other party is typing...
Xiao Ren: 'I... I like Ren Suo.'
Salted Fish Never Loses: 'What do you like about him?'
Xiao Ren: 'I think he's very gentle and handsome, so I want to learn more about him... I saw that you and Class Monitor Gu seem to hang out with Doctor Ren often, so I looked for your QQ to see if I could...'
Salted Fish Never Loses: 'But you're too late (resigned panda).'
Xiao Ren: 'Ah? Too late? Does he already have someone he likes?'
Salted Fish Never Loses: 'He's not fresh goods anymore. He's already rotten and stinky. You should give up.'
Reading this reply, even with his current enhanced thinking ability, Ren Suo felt an indescribable shock.
What does that even mean? Is that even supposed to make sense? You've completely derailed my train of thought!
Ren Suo opened the 'Lin Xianyu Strategy V3.5' document and updated it to V3.6.
