Mini World Game Console-Chapter 769 - 770: The Essence of Emotions, The Cost of Truth
「March 19, Tuesday.」
The day the combat training field was open, Ren Suo finally reappeared within everyone's sight.
In fact, most people only saw Ren Suo on this day and on the days he was at the school infirmary, so it naturally didn't stir much emotion in them. However, there were still those who were happy, such as Zhang Yamo.
She was a female student who had been caringly treated by Ren Suo after getting injured during the last combat training. When she took the initiative to greet Ren Suo, he immediately reacted, taking 0.2 seconds to search his mind for her memory and affectionately call out her name.
This showed that the drawbacks of selling emotions were not significant for Ren Suo. After he significantly enhanced his thinking through the Thinking Card, both his memory and recall abilities had greatly improved. He could still promptly recall a mere passerby like Zhang Yamo after selling his emotions, and he managed to disguise it so flawlessly that the female student blushed and her heart raced.
Ren Suo had completely figured out what 'selling emotions' meant.
First, whether Ren Suo sold emotions or not had nothing to do with others. Even if he sold Zhao Huo's emotions, Zhao Huo wouldn't courteously reintroduce himself upon seeing him but would approach him with two dark circles under his eyes and ask, "If someone chops you into four pieces, can you reconnect them if it's done quickly enough?"
Ren Suo really wanted to crack open his skull to see what was inside it. You, a dignified Third-turn Cultivator, actually have dark circles under your eyes. You got lost in wild thoughts last night, the long night passing without sleep. That shouldn't cause dark circles, right? Did you engage in some physically exhausting labor last night?
Ren Suo needed to reassess just how beastly Zhao Huo was. He hadn't anticipated how much Zhao Huo would be stirred by Xiao Suo's ambiguous comment.
Moreover, Zhao Huo's thought processes were astounding. Why would he consider the premise of being chopped into four parts by Xiao Suo's Cross Gang Wind?
But Ren Suo admired his decision-making. He considered defeat before victory—a very correct mode of thinking, truly worthy of a man capable of maintaining a harem.
However, this also showed that selling Zhao Huo's emotions did not turn Zhao Huo into a stranger to Ren Suo.
This had its disadvantages as well as advantages. The advantage, of course, was being able to quickly redevelop emotions. The downside was that Ren Suo couldn't use selling emotions to completely sever ties with others.
Whether in the past or now, Ren Suo endorsed one idea: life is limited; being tactful does not mean getting along well with people you dislike but choosing to only be around those you do like.
And while friendships might be superficial, easy for Ren Suo to fake and hard to detect, love and familial affection weren't things Ren Suo could just claim to fake.
Because selling emotions was actually akin to selling Ren Suo's soul, essence, Mark, or some other muddled, abstract term. After all, Ren Suo was currently Earth's only emotion seller, with no precedents to learn from.
And Ren Suo, he preferred to call the part of the emotions he lost—
Life.
If every person was a library, and a person's life was a life of writing books, then each book therein would record what they experienced, whom they saw, and what emotions they felt.
All the paths they had walked, the people they met, the books they read, were all hidden in the library, making up unique individuals.
Unimportant memories, pasts that are no longer needed, are like rotting, damaged books, eventually cleared away.
Only those books that are well-maintained, cherished, and often revisited stay continuously in the library.
There are Readers in the library. Some people are energetic and thoughtful, so they have many Readers in their library, such as popular, charismatic people—life's winners. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
Some people are less thoughtful and not interested in social interactions, so their library has fewer Readers, like homebodies or hermits.
Some people focus on academic studies, so most of their Readers are sifting through the Knowledge in their library. Others who are more interested in social interactions naturally have Readers who often revisit those friends' biographies.
And all important Knowledge, all important people, have a dedicated obsessive fan as a Reader.
Obsessive fans may read other books, but they will frequently revisit their favorite book, treating it like the Red Mansion, interpreting each paragraph and sentence with hundreds of meanings, even wishing they could tip the author an alliance leader's worth daily and support the library to properly maintain that book.
What selling emotions meant was dragging that obsessive Fan out to be eliminated.
Take Zhao Huo as an example.
After Ren Suo dragged Zhao Huo's obsessive Fan out and obliterated them, no more Readers would specifically look for the book "Zhao Huo Is No Mere Pond Dweller."
Unless Ren Suo saw Zhao Huo and specifically recalled him, other Readers wouldn't revisit this book.
What consequences would this bring?
When Ren Suo saw someone in the group chat posting funny anime pictures, no obsessive Fan of Zhao Huo would pop up to remind Ren Suo, "Hey, Zhao Huo really likes this kind of stuff, hurry and pick up your phone to share it!"
When Ren Suo saw people clashing with weapons in the combat training field, no obsessive Fan of Zhao Huo would pop up to remind Ren Suo, "Hey, you and Zhao Huo also wrestled like that at the comic convention that time! Hurry and take a photo to send to him, asking, 'Does this ugly loser being pinned down look like you?'"
When Ren Suo met Zhao Huo, no obsessive Fan of Zhao Huo would pop up to remind Ren Suo, "Zhao Huo has already worn that anime Painful Clothing with the little girl design fourteen times! Hurry up and call the police!"
That obsessive Fan who could deeply analyze Zhao Huo's every personality trait, every word, every glance, who could automatically connect everything in life to Zhao Huo—that Fan had already been obliterated, gone.
As long as Ren Suo didn't meet Zhao Huo again, the book "Zhao Huo Is No Mere Pond Dweller" would soon rot, decay, and finally become mere dross, disappearing completely from his library.
And this was the essence of selling emotions.
Even if Ren Suo could preserve the memory of every emotion, the dedicated Reader for each of those emotions was already gone.
The exclusive Readers in the library—they were Ren Suo's Life.
They constituted the Ren Suo of today, not the memories as mere information.
Because any memory not in use would eventually be forgotten. Just like how Ren Suo had read "Ultimate TOEFL Vocabulary Review" a hundred times but now only remembered the first word: abandon.
Although new obsessive Fans of Zhao Huo might appear, a new obsessive Fan and an old one would be reading two different books. Their level and area of obsession would be completely different, the difference akin to an obsessive fan of "Beast Girl Zoo" versus an obsessive fan of "Beast Girl Zoo 2"...
Emotions once lost are impossible to cultivate again.
Selling these emotions, selling those exclusive Readers—was it worth it?
It is.
No pain, no gain.
The absolutely rational Ren Suo soon confirmed one thing: he shouldn't miss the opportunity to embrace a great future because of his fleeting past.
Having obtained the Door of Truth, Ren Suo had an infinite future and could accept infinite emotions.
If past exclusive Readers had left, then he would develop new exclusive Readers.
If the books in the library had rotted, then he would write new books.
If he could obtain the Door of Truth, then even if he lost all his emotions, he could re-cultivate them in the future.
Ren Suo would disguise himself well. Even his choice of girlfriend wouldn't change; after all, with memories, strategies, and existing relationships, he could skip many steps.
Indeed, emotions once lost cannot be re-cultivated.
But compared to the Door of Truth, were these emotions of equal value?
When Bonds turned into shackles, destruction was only a matter of time.
So-called rationality meant not allowing pointless entertainment, useless laziness, and unnecessary emotions to become fetters that slowed one's progress.
Ren Suo recalled the evaluation of him by the four beings—Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Pleasure—during the fifth trial.
Monster.
But compared to the useless person I was in the past, being a monster seems like a better choice.
If the price of grasping Truth was to abandon past emotions, Ren Suo was willing to bear this consequence.
The combat training ended. Today, no one was injured. As a Healing Cultivator, Ren Suo had nothing to do for several hours. However, he took this opportunity to sort out his thoughts and finalize his strategy for the fifth trial.
At that moment, Ren Xingmei, Gu Yueyan, and Lin Xianyu walked over. Gu Yueyan said, "Teacher Dong rescheduled the afternoon class, but the evening class is still on. Are you coming to the cafeteria with us?"
Ren Suo shook his head. The noisy environment of the cafeteria isn't a good place to increase the value of emotions. He'd rather go home and eat some instant noodles that suit his taste.
"Brother~" Ren Xingmei came over and grabbed his left hand. "We haven't seen each other for days! Come eat with us!"
Ren Suo patted her head, then shook his head again. "Not going."
Ren Xingmei felt soothed and content. Gu Yueyan wasn't particularly concerned about these things anyway, so she didn't press further.
Besides, they were all having dinner together tonight, so what was the rush?
Lin Xianyu said nothing, just looked at Ren Suo and licked her lips.
Ren Suo understood instantly. He took out three Kinder Bueno bars from his pocket, which he had kept chilled using "Ice Age" to prevent them from melting, ensuring they could enjoy the snacks at their best.
Seeing Ren Suo take out the snacks, Ren Xingmei happily ate one. Gu Yueyan said, somewhat reluctantly, "It's not good to eat snacks before a meal." But she also noticed the chocolate was cold and knew Ren Suo had used a Spell to keep it chilled, so she quickly ate hers too.
Only Lin Xianyu, while eating, grumbled with some dissatisfaction, "With just this little snack, it'll be hard for me to do things for you."
Ren Suo chuckled. "I didn't ask you to do anything for me."
Lin Xianyu, hiding behind Gu Yueyan, retorted, "Then why are you giving me chocolate?"
Ren Suo spread his hands. "Do I need a reason to treat you all to something? At school, I'm the teacher and you're the students. In society, I'm an adult and you're minors. At home, I'm the big friend and you're the little friends... I'm not treating you to gain some benefit."
Lin Xianyu gave a dry laugh and said no more.
If the Ren Suo of the past had said this, she would have believed him, wouldn't even have asked. But the Ren Suo of now? Not a single punctuation mark in his words could be trusted. Lin Xianyu was absolutely certain Ren Suo was up to some grand conspiracy, which was why he was treating her to snacks. Yes, Ren Suo was very convincing; his actions, words, even his gaze, showed no flaws. If there were any problems, Teacher Dong and Sister Qiao would have noticed long ago. But Lin Xianyu just knew something was off with Ren Suo. Because the Ren Suo of the past was her kind of person. Even when the past Ren Suo was lauded as a diligent Cultivator, a powerful Cultivator, a heroic Cultivator, he still possessed that indelible quality that made Lin Xianyu recognize at all times that Big Brother Ren was a societal parasite, just as lazy as she was! But now, he was no longer like that. He had become one of those profit-driven adults. Joy was no longer his sole guiding principle. Ren Suo... he was no longer her comrade! Though she didn't know what grand conspiracy Ren Suo was plotting, Lin Xianyu decided she would eat the sugar-coating and throw away the cannonball! And every time Lin Xianyu saw Ren Suo, to prevent herself from being deceived by his sugar-coated cannonballs, she would silently repeat in her mind: I hate you, I hate you, I hate you...
