The Ordinary Me is Worshipped as a Deity by the Extraordinary Them-Chapter 96

After Ophelia made that statement, Su Li’s gaze grew colder. He focused his attention on the green liquid in his teacup and said calmly, “No matter how much you want to move against the Pope right now, we cannot accommodate your wishes.”

When that overly sharp gaze was cast upon him, Su Li raised his chin and looked coldly at Ophelia.

“There’s one thing you shouldn’t misunderstand. In the current situation, although everyone still wants to target the Mercenary City as a major premise, this targeting has been naturally delayed from the moment the current situation was formed.”

Su Li looked at Ophelia, this Grand Princess… no, perhaps using Prince would be more appropriate now.

The messenger who came earlier had reminded him of this.

Prince – in the Western world, it was mostly used to refer to a country’s direct heir.

Even when referring to Willard before, they had simply used the word “heir” rather than the formal title of Prince.

Ophelia’s current mindset was very obvious.

In her view, as long as she dealt with the Pope and took the throne, she would become the most noble person in this world.

Not only would she no longer be restricted or questioned, but everyone would have to obey her commands.

What were the ordinary residents who believed in God in her eyes?

Without doubt, the word “ignorant masses” was enough to describe them. Ophelia wouldn’t care about what those who believed in God wanted to get from their faith. She only cared about how much tax they would pay to Amikbi and how much benefit they would provide to support her as the soon-to-be queen.

Commoners? Nobles?

Was Ophelia really someone who didn’t understand their value?

Probably not.

Ophelia was purely the type of person who only wanted to enjoy tangible benefits and power but was unwilling to bear the responsibilities that should come with them.

She didn’t even deign to pretend to show concern for the nation and its people.

It wasn’t that she didn’t understand – she simply didn’t care.

Su Li was grateful that he had previously anticipated what might happen to Sadina City after she took the throne and had deliberately allied with the Dark Church to delay Ophelia’s ascension.

Otherwise now, Ophelia wouldn’t choose to communicate with him about when to move against the Pope.

She would only need to have everyone who must obey the king’s orders directly force the Pope towards the inn’s location when she wanted to take action. After that, everything would develop as Ophelia had anticipated.

Using Su Li to drive the people around him was too simple.

As long as those around Su Li didn’t want him to die, they would definitely take action when he faced danger. And once they took action, that would mean falling into Ophelia’s trap…

The exchanges between “collaborators” continued endlessly. Calculations and schemes involved every place that would be overlooked if one wasn’t careful. If one couldn’t get the initiative, then everyone in Ophelia’s eyes would only become tools.

Su Li’s gaze was clear. Even when he saw Ophelia coldly laugh and say, “So you mean that since I can no longer threaten you, you don’t want to obey anymore?”

He could coldly respond, “Cooperation doesn’t mean training dogs.” Su Li showed no sign of yielding, “And I don’t have any intention of falling out with you in the short term.”

“What I want to say is just that we can’t move against the Pope so early.”

Ophelia crossed her arms, leaned back in her chair creating some distance, and the chair made a harsh sound as it scraped against the floor.

She said, “You’d better give me a reason that can convince me.”

Su Li laughed instead.

“A reason?” Su Li laughed out loud, “Is ‘we can’t win’ reason enough?”

“For you, we are the external support you brought in with sufficient strength.” Su Li gestured towards Egbert who was sitting at another table.

After Egbert nodded slightly, Su Li continued, “Before this, you may have thought that Eg was already one of the top powerhouses in this world. While he may not be able to defeat the Pope single-handedly, at least when joined with others, he wouldn’t be at a disadvantage.”

Ophelia nodded matter-of-factly. “That’s right, that’s what I thought.”

“But that’s wrong.” Su Li shook his head.

“And you forgot the most important point.”

“When top powerhouses really want to fight, what needs to be considered is definitely not just a draw or victory and defeat between them.”

“You completely ignored the destruction they might cause during the battle.”

If they really started a war with the Pope without adequate preparation, then everything in this city would become ruins.

What use were ruins?

What was the point of being king over a pile of garbage?

Don’t forget, every city has a Church of Light.

The Church of Light isn’t just a faction – to some degree, it’s also a general-purpose building that symbolizes religion, present in every city except Sadina City.

Usually silent, but once war breaks out, the people living inside can be mobilized as combat power at any time.

Su Li’s left hand on the table slightly clenched into a fist as he coldly stated. “You haven’t considered at all what kind of citizens you’ll face after this city suffers massive destruction. You also haven’t thought about what kind of boost to divine authority it will give when people from the Church appear as saviors after the ruins emerge to rescue the citizens.”

Su Li had no interest in telling others how to be a ruler.

But he had to consider what would happen after the war.

As long as one still lived in this world, as long as the obsession with retiring in peace never ceased, then Su Li must consider human hearts.

Throughout history, whether benevolent or tyrannical rulers, regardless of what kind of ruler they were, as long as they could sit in that position, without doubt they were all kings.

But the problem was that tyrants completely lacked the sense of responsibility to enable ordinary people to retire peacefully.

In Ophelia’s mind, she didn’t even view exploitation as exploitation. The notion that the lower classes should serve her had deeply penetrated noble hearts during those years when mercenaries served as slaves.

A leopard can’t change its spots.

Even though the Mercenary Alliance had existed for decades, wasn’t Ophelia as Grand Princess still shaped by her environment into this kind of monster?

If you don’t put the most likely terrible outcomes directly in her face, without historical lessons recorded, there would be no concept of these possibilities in Ophelia’s mind.

At least now, Ophelia frowned and blurted out, “There’s something wrong with you, isn’t there?”

“You don’t understand this world at all.”

“Why is might makes right truly might makes right? Of course it’s because strength itself represents authority and rules. As long as I, or the people around me, or the people I control, have the ability to kill the Pope, then everyone will voluntarily bow their heads to me.”

Su Li looked at her in disbelief.

“Is your head filled with water?!”

“The Pope’s strength is so much higher than yours, have you ever thought of giving up resisting him?”

“Not at all!”

Su Li was just short of pointing at Ophelia’s nose as he scolded. “You should understand this point from your own experience.”

“If might truly makes right, then when you allied with the Church to attack Sadina City, why did the people inside still resist? Faced with an almost certainly losing battle, why didn’t they just lie down and surrender, opening the city gates wide?”

“After all, the weak should submit to the strong.”

Ophelia also felt something was wrong, her brows furrowing tighter.

Just need one more push, Su Li thought.

All the previous bursts of anger that had some deliberate performative elements were instantly smoothed away.

Su Li looked at Ophelia, corners of his mouth turned down, weariness between his brows, and said softly, “It’s precisely because people’s consciousness still contains things they’re unwilling to face, that they will exhaust all their efforts to avoid facing those things.”

Talking about having to face things even if you don’t want to…

If you already don’t want to do something but still have to do it, that can only mean that what you’re currently unwilling to do has something even more unwilling behind it.

To evoke resonance in Ophelia, there was no need to try to make her empathize.

The environment and class she lived in had long since solidified this Grand Princess with noble thinking. What could truly change her wasn’t telling her what to do – that was still a form of mental manipulation, a lack of freedom.

Therefore, what could truly change Ophelia’s consciousness was only to enlighten her, to let her generate awareness herself.

The air was silent for a long time.

But Su Li’s state of mind remained as peaceful as ever.

When purposefully trying to guide others, Su Li would always put himself in an extremely calm position. Only this way could he see clearly.

Only this way could he see clearly when Ophelia clenched her fists at her sides.

“Simply put, you still don’t want me to kill ‘father king’, and you want to delay the time to target the Pope.”

When she said this, her voice was still sharp, but her tone no longer contained the previous constant acidity.

“Isn’t it better to let the king wake up? Let the king know that his severe injuries were done by the Pope, and also let the king know that the child he truly intended to inherit his position isn’t his child…”

Most importantly, Su Li looked at Ophelia, and after a moment said, “Don’t you look forward to letting your mother see with her own eyes you sitting in that position that shouldn’t have been yours?”

The next moment, everything that had been calmed erupted instantly.

“What do you know?!” Ophelia slammed both hands on the table and stood up abruptly. Her gaze like knives stared directly at Su Li who had again picked up his teacup with both hands.

In her vision, the youth’s figure was more suited to appear at noble young masters’ banquets, playing a main role, rather than this type who could so easily see through people’s hearts…

Monster.

Yet Ophelia didn’t feel fear, because this monster was so weak.

So weak that he could be killed at will.

Ophelia snorted coldly. She grabbed the cup that had been knocked askew by her forceful table slam and forcefully thrust it back into the tray holding the teapot.

Then she left in anger.

But Su Li laughed softly, until the sound echoed throughout the inn’s great hall, then the laughter stopped abruptly.

Only then did Egbert dare to come over and ask, “Lord Su Li didn’t have to say that last sentence, right?”

Ophelia wasn’t the type who couldn’t understand Su Li’s unspoken implications.

Therefore when Su Li said those last provocative words, it seemed full of a death-seeking quality.

“But I needed her to leave carrying that anger,” Su Li raised his eyes to look at Egbert, “Because only this way, after the rational considerations are washed over by anger, will what I guided her to do be etched into Ophelia’s mind as ‘even if not for her good, it won’t make her current situation worse.'”

Ophelia couldn’t have thoughts of trusting him.

Su Li had been deliberately avoiding this point because Ophelia needed to face the Pope with a “weak and helpless” posture.

Just on this point of trust, Su Li only needed to ask, “If I said that somewhere there’s a pit dug, and tomorrow the Pope will jump in and bury himself, would you believe it?”

Egbert nodded without any hesitation, the raven actively nuzzled Su Li’s face, and Lan Zhe directly said, “This kind of thing would seem a bit incredible happening to others, but when it comes to you, it feels normal.”

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Roy also nodded. “Whether before in Sadina City or now in the Inner City, I haven’t found anything outside your expectations.”

Without doubt, everyone’s trust in Su Li was maxed out.

Would Ophelia trust him like this? If Su Li intentionally guided her, the result would be beyond doubt.

But it wouldn’t work – if Ophelia showed even the slightest hint of having someone to rely on, then that seemingly quiet Pope would only strangle Ophelia in the cradle.

If she died, then the biggest impact on the current situation would be that Su Li and the others would completely lose their source of intelligence from within the palace.

When would the Pope control the palace, when would he control the nobles – they would know nothing.

No information meant that the hundred thousand troops hanging over Sadina City’s head could drop their blade at any time.

The most important goals now, besides having Ophelia intentionally delay confrontation with the Pope, were to find a way to wake up the king, and to let the king understand the truth.

Of course, Su Li told everyone, “Additionally, we need to cooperate with Mavis one more time.”

****

[The nobles killed by the Dark Church, it turns out these truths were hidden behind the scenes.]

[Shocking, is it the decline of morality or the extinction of rules? It turns out this is how nobles view common people.]

[What did our faith over those years bring to us and to the gods we believed in?]

[In the books read by 80% of Inner City nobles, it turns out these things were also written.]

[Under the gossip in the mouths of the wandering poets, it turns out there were these truths.]

“What… are all these?” Lan Zhe confusedly took a booklet and walked to Su Li’s side where he was writing something, asking with a puzzled face.

Su Li didn’t want to say anything at all – basic operations, basic clickbait operations. Can’t help it, who made humans have genes for gossip deeply carved in their nature.

Su Li coughed once then told Lan Zhe. “You can treat these things as enlightenment of wisdom, rain upon the soul, or perhaps scrolls of worldly truth.”

“As long as you want, you can use any words to describe these things.” Su Li put down his pen and looked at Lan Zhe.

But his gaze couldn’t even persist for three seconds before involuntarily moving away.

Lan Zhe: ??

Until Lan Zhe, head full of question marks, took that strange booklet and read on.

Su Li’s gaze was in a wandering state, occasionally glancing at Lan Zhe’s expressions, finding him constantly cycling from “mouth agape in shock” to “brows furrowed in confusion” to “eyes wide in sudden realization.”

In just a few short minutes, Su Li witnessed that expression changes might also be carved into human DNA.

But he also reconfirmed that in an era where information impact wasn’t obvious, using methods of mass information impact combined with positive guidance was like a dimensional reduction strike on ordinary people’s cognition in another world.

Because observers couldn’t prove that what was written in those booklets was false.

Even if absolute concepts of false versus true don’t exist in the world, when handbooks use information impact methods to force-feed information into people’s minds, what they’ll think about is only left with…

“So it can be like this/It can be interpreted from this angle/Never thought there could be this kind of operation.”

And so on, endlessly.

However, seeing Lan Zhe’s expressions change so obviously, Su Li suddenly became curious why Egbert had such a strange expression before.

Speaking of which, that night when Su Li told everyone in the darkness that they needed to contact Mavis again, Lan Zhe and Roy didn’t even ask questions before going to find her in the night.

So when Su Li woke up after sleeping, the first thing he saw was Mavis standing by his bed full of resentment.

Su Li: ……………………

However, there was no pressure in subsequent cooperation negotiations.

Su Li only needed to tell Mavis what he wanted to achieve, and what kind of scene it would let Mavis see afterward.

Therefore Su Li just needed to give the reason. “When people face authority, they usually produce two extremes. One, absolute trust; two, absolute questioning.”

“What the Church of Light carved into the public’s cognitive concepts before was absolute trust. Whatever they did represented correctness, whatever they said represented orthodox theory.”

“After these two overlap, no one will understand why dark elementalists need to be excluded, because their minds have already been carved with the inherent concept that dark elementalists deserve death. Just like how people with nothing better to do won’t question why the natural law of sunrise and sunset happens to be this law.”

Then tell Mavis the possibilities after events occur.

“When changing people’s inherent concepts, showing questioning may seem rash, but it will be incredibly effective.”

Just like Su Li’s last words to Ophelia earlier, Su Li only needed to tell Mavis about the scene he wanted to see but couldn’t accurately describe in words.

“After there are people who question faith, don’t you want to see what kind of resistance actions people will take against those things that aren’t trusted?”

Mavis laughed loudly then and said, “Your behavior is just like pushing everyone in this world towards a fire pit.”

Mavis stated firmly. “Because even you can’t be certain that what you’re doing is definitely correct.”

Su Li smiled, knowing this meant cooperation was achieved.

So before discussing specific details of cooperation with Mavis, Su Li only needed to look up at Mavis and say, “In the world of adults, there has never been absolute correctness.”

“For all questions’ answers and results, in individuals there may only be one. But in groups, the answers and results that people can arrive at must be relative results that everyone is willing to accept after discussion and debate.”

“You want to see the confrontation between human rights and divine authority, I want to see the birth of human rights awareness, so what we do is our ‘relative correctness’ after negotiation.”

“How frightening, how frightening, how frightening, how frightening, how frightening…” Mavis repeated like a machine, “You’re just like replacing divine responsibility with human form, playing with the world in your palm.”

But Su Li just smiled and told Mavis how to continue with the next operations.

For example, using the previous talk of destroyed noble relics to spread niche authority.

......

“Godfrey Keats once said, the value of God’s existence is that when people are in darkness, even if there’s no light in the world, they can light a candle in their hearts. But if the world is already full of light, then the value of God’s existence would only overshadow the candles lit by human hands.”

“Didn’t really understand…but who is Godfrey Keats?”

“Heard he’s a wandering poet that many nobles particularly worship. Those nobles who were mysteriously destroyed by the Dark Church recently suffered that unwarranted disaster because of Sir Godfrey.”

“Then isn’t Godfrey a villain?”

“Those words of yours are wrong. It’s not because Godfrey is a bad person that those nobles suffered destruction. Rather, it’s because Godfrey was brilliant enough that the Dark Church feared what kind of glory the people influenced by him would achieve in later days.”

“Otherwise why would they randomly massacre others?”

“Isn’t that because the people of the Dark Church are sick?”

“Why would you think that? The people of the Dark Church are also people, they must have certain purposes driving them to do things. The news spreading now is that compared to fearing the Church of Light, the Dark Church actually dreads Godfrey’s brilliance more. After all, the Dark Church and Church of Light have fought for thousands of years without either side completely falling.”

“That’s true…”

“So, I’ll secretly tell you, I just feel the Dark Church people are clearly afraid of Godfrey, scared that people influenced by Godfrey will truly destroy the Dark Church in a meaningful way.”

“In any case, Godfrey Keats was highly respected in those nobles’ eyes. So many nobles massacred, so many noble lords who would rather die than expose information – just thinking about it, his brilliance must rival the sun and moon.”

“Really want to see in person what kind of bearing a wandering poet respected by so many nobles has.”

Mavis said the last sentence in a coy voice.

Then couldn’t control herself and collapsed laughing on the table.

She wiped tears from the corners of her eyes and looked at Su Li with his somewhat bewildered expression and said, “So who exactly is this Godfrey?”

Su Li looked helpless, “Haven’t you seen with your own eyes how this character was created from nothing?”

Without doubt, Godfrey was a completely non-existent person.

And the purpose of creating this person from nothing was to coordinate with previously used marketing tactics.

Large-scale force-feeding of information, when people can’t distinguish true from false and fall into a state of consciousness confusion, suddenly there appears someone representing authority…

Then people will instinctively draw close to the sturdy tree rooted in that sea of chaotic information flow.

Authority is born in this kind of situation.

So, the actions of the Dark Church people weren’t naturally sick, but had various principles of action.

Then, the reason those destroyed nobles were targeted was because they hid something like a treasure – Sir Godfrey.

After that, without them needing to intervene, the public would also produce a new question.

Why did the Dark Church people definitely want to kill Godfrey?

At this time they only needed someone to propose, “Of course it’s because Godfrey doesn’t believe in God.”

Then countless questions would emerge.

Why doesn’t he believe in God? Why would someone who doesn’t believe in God be so praised by many nobles? Why would he be hunted by the Dark Church? Is the Pope of Light’s arrival in this city also related to Godfrey?

Is it to protect or destroy?

What was the reason Godfrey caused the Dark Church’s dread?

Was it what everyone guessed before, that Godfrey would cause the Dark Church’s destruction?

Then is the Church of Light that has fought with the Dark Church for thousands of years also afraid of that gentleman?

Is the Pope’s arrival in this city really to save the king…

All the confusion that had never been discovered before in consciousness would spread like radiation at unimaginable speed.

In the information age, creating gods is the easiest thing, but dragging gods down from their pedestals is equally effective.

However, the current goal isn’t to achieve that kind of achievement so quickly, after all one can imagine these messages will be widely suppressed by people from the Church afterwards.

Su Li’s purpose in creating this method wasn’t really to shape a vague setting into an incredibly great figure.

Besides doing this for the awakening of people’s wisdom, he had two other implications.

That “can’t win” he told Ophelia wasn’t purely to state the destruction a battle would cause to the city.

That was stating a fact.

And this fact was proven by the raven.

Unless the raven also participated in this dispute, all other people on the surface, even if united, might not be able to defeat the Pope who was acting to this extent.

Who would believe that in the raven’s eyes, the Pope was stronger than Xiao Zuo?

Additionally, Su Li needed to create the information that someone was targeting the Church of Light before the king woke up.

After Ophelia knew that the king’s death was worth less than the value his survival and awakening would bring, she would definitely try to find a way to wake the king.

So now this public opinion field created around the wandering poet Sir Godfrey would become Ophelia’s means of diverting the Pope’s attention before having the king wake up.

When the awakened king knew there was a third force targeting the Church, and his child wasn’t his child but the Pope’s child, then even if the cuckolded king wanted to weigh the balance between country and Church, he would definitely have the thought that this was the only chance to kill the Pope.

After all, at this time, even if the Pope really died, it would only become…

The king will say: “This was all done by third-party forces, it has nothing to do with me.”

Ophelia wanted the Pope to die, but didn’t consider the additional consequences that would follow the Pope’s death.

Mavis wanted this city to become increasingly chaotic, coldly observing the turbulence in people’s hearts.

To prevent these two troublemakers from directly collapsing the game board, Su Li somehow managed to build a Western-style mansion on a three-legged table.

Su Li also told Mavis, who was sitting by the window letting two different colored strands of hair flutter in the wind, “Now that the situation has become like this, you should at least consider how to conduct yourself in the days to come.”

The Pope of Light would certainly question how his undercover agents suddenly developed a purpose targeting “Godfrey Keats.”

Who is Godfrey Keats? Why did Mavis target him?

The Pope would certainly summon Mavis to ask, but what answers could Mavis provide?

Su Li didn’t want to say that he understood crazy people.

But the fact was, Su Li knew what Mavis would do.

Can undercover agents really be trusted completely just because they’ve been brainwashed?

Not necessarily.

What leverage did the Pope have over Mavis? Su Li wasn’t sure.

However, Su Li admitted he was a hypocrite.

Even though Mavis had destroyed the Tross family, who had nothing to do with this conflict that involved countless people, Su Li didn’t hate her.

Someone who had never been in control of their own fate, and someone like him who had no choice in the matter but inexplicably transmigrated to another world…

They had some similarities, after all.