“So, what impact did activating this ability have on me?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Hehehe…” Woody replied with a smile, “First of all, the ‘cage’ you used to lock people up in your mind palace has disappeared, hasn't it?”

“Oh… that…” Feng Bujue said, “I had the ‘key’ to the ‘cage’ from the beginning, so it wouldn't have made a difference even if it hadn't disappeared.”

“Hehe… how could it be the same?” Woody continued, “Being able to find and master the ‘key’ is because your spirit is strong; but the disappearance of the ‘cage’ itself… indicates the awakening of your ability.” He paused, “Also… don't take it for granted that you're unharmed after the cage disappears; normal people's bodies and minds have limits. If Gu Chen and Qi Zhi hadn't strengthened your spiritual body, even you… would have been in danger of a mental breakdown.”

“Hmm…” Feng Bujue thought for a moment, “No wonder you said they ‘put in a lot of effort’.” He murmured thoughtfully, “Actually, I've thought about this too… Logically speaking, just the fact that I can ‘feel the Earth's rotation at all times’ is enough to drive a person crazy. But… I quickly adapted to that perception.” He paused for half a second, then added, “In fact, not only did I adapt, but I also felt like I was handling it with ease, so… I did all sorts of experiments.”

“Oh?” Woody raised the corner of his mouth and asked, “For example?”

“Take ‘perception’ for example…” Feng Bujue said, “In addition to the Earth's movement, I can also feel various physiological phenomena in my body, such as blood flowing in my blood vessels, air entering my lungs, and the digestive process of food in my stomach, and so on.”

“I know that,” Woody replied.

“And on this basis,” Feng Bujue continued, “I also tried to perceive more external and specific things—such as the flow of air, the flow of water, the flow of blood in other people's bodies, other people's breathing, other people's heartbeats, and so on.”

“Hehehe… any gains?” Woody asked.

“Combined with my trained detective skills…” Feng Bujue said, “I can now basically tell one hundred percent whether a person is lying or not.” After saying this, he paused for half a second and added, “Oh, of course, I'm talking about humans in the general sense; specially trained agents or guys like you are not within this scope.”

After hearing this, Woody smiled and said, "Hehe… your attempts are based on ‘practical application,’ which is good, but… precisely because of this, your training method is skewed."

“What do you mean?” Feng Bujue asked.

“It's very simple,” Woody replied, “From the perspective of training your ability… since what you want to train is ‘perception,’ then you only need to focus on the ‘perception’ itself; there is no need to combine it with your already skilled observation and reasoning abilities.”

“I understand…” Feng Bujue understood very quickly, “To use fitness as a metaphor… I don't need to consider what the muscles I train will be used for, I just need to train.”

“That's right,” Woody continued, “Now that you know the truth about your ability, you need to pay attention in the future; if you want to practice ‘perception,’ don't think too much… and don't use it with ‘purpose,’ that's the right way.”

At this point, he seemed to have remembered something from the past, and after a few seconds of pause, he smiled and said, "Hehehe… speaking of which, someone once gave me such advice too…"

“Oh? You also have days when you receive guidance?” Feng Bujue became interested as soon as he heard this, because Woody rarely mentioned his own affairs.

“Hehehe… that's right, I wasn't born in hell either.” Woody continued, “When I first became a devil, a senior told me… aside from some extreme examples, in most cases, people like ‘us’ are slower at cultivating skills or improving our abilities than those idiots.” He paused, “God is fair… he gave us excellent minds, and we are also accustomed to using our ‘minds’ to solve problems; but in the matter of cultivation, sometimes ‘not thinking about anything’ makes it easier to improve.”

“Hmm…” Brother Jue nodded in agreement, deeply agreeing; although he hasn't cultivated anything yet, he can understand what the other party meant.

“You know Gu Chen, right?” Woody continued, “When he was young, he was a monster-like existence; ordinary geniuses were just ordinary people compared to him. But… his spiritual ability level did not improve for a long time; and the reason? Naturally, it's not because he didn't have enough talent, but because… he lacked the motivation to become stronger.”

“Are you talking about frustration?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Hehehe… frustration is also part of it, but the key issue is actually the lack of a sense of crisis…” Woody's tone revealed a hint of helplessness when he said this, “You can understand, right? Other people can only beat their opponents with Dali Jingang Zhang (a powerful palm technique), but we can deal with it with a set of Luohan Fist, because people like us… can use our intelligence to display the power of the Luohan Fist like a Jianglong Shiba Zhang (Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms). So… we've always been using Luohan Fist.”

“Ah… I deeply understand,” Feng Bujue clearly understood.

“In summary…” Woody shook his head and continued, “Using existing conditions, combined with one's own wisdom, to solve the difficulties in front of you, and enjoying the whole process… this is the problem with people like us.” He spread his hands and smiled, “In comparison, people with simpler personalities and minds… don't have this shortcoming. Although, under completely equal conditions, they will often lose to more talented people, but that doesn't matter… because they will gain motivation from failure, and then use the most direct method they know to become stronger, without thinking about anything else.”

“Hmm… when the road ahead is limited, or even only has one path… you can actually walk faster,” Feng Bujue said with emotion.

“Hehehe… and what you need to learn now is to ‘ignore some roads’ and ‘speed up on the right path.’” Woody continued.

“Hehe… I'll try my best.” Feng Bujue chuckled twice, and then turned the topic back to the part he hadn't finished just now, “Okay, I roughly know the direction of ‘perception’ training, next I'll tell you about my attempts to ‘see through the operating rules of things’…”

He paused for a few seconds, thought for a moment, and then said: “At first, even for some relatively simple things, I had to concentrate and observe for a while before I could analyze their rules; and when faced with those more complex things that were beyond my scope of knowledge, I had to open them or disassemble them before I could understand them. But… these days, after repeated attempts and practice, my level is almost at the point where—staring for five minutes, I can disassemble and reassemble a smartphone.”

“Hehe… not bad,” Woody smiled, “Using precision machinery to train this part of your ability is indeed a good idea.”

“I feel like you're about to say ‘but,’ right?” Feng Bujue guessed very accurately.

“Hehehe… but, it's also wrong to only focus on practicing one type of thing,” Woody said as expected, “It's not that the more complex the things you observe, the higher the training intensity for your ability… ‘Ability’ is not a science question, there is no need to follow that kind of thinking. There are many substances in this world, ‘seeing complexity from simplicity’ is what is called ‘enlightenment’.”

“Then… should I try to observe something simple from today onwards?” Feng Bujue asked.

Before he could finish speaking, Woody had already smiled maliciously, “Actually… ‘there is nothing simple in this world,’ when you can comprehend this sentence, your ability will not be far from the ‘Bing’ level.” He licked his lips, “As for what you should observe from now on, my suggestion is animals, plants, ecosystems… after you have become familiar with these, you can almost start working towards returning to the original state, for example, observing ‘a drop of water,’ ‘a lump of excrement’… these are all excellent exercises.”

“Why don't you give me a selfie, it will be useful when I reach the realm of returning to the original state.” Brother Jue's complaints also came as soon as he said them, almost without thinking.

“Hehehe… do you believe that I can transform into a giant pile of excrement and wrestle with you,” Woody continued.

“Hmm…” Faced with this very powerful intimidation, Feng Bujue thought for two seconds, “I admit defeat…” He decisively chose to admit defeat.

“Hehe… okay, let's stop joking here.” Woody said, “That's about it for the ability part, further information, it's more appropriate to tell you after you have been promoted to the Bing level.” He pushed his glasses with his middle finger and continued, “So… finally, let's finish telling you about ‘this’.”

What he was talking about was undoubtedly the Atari crown in the package in his hand.

“Ah… it all started with this.” Feng Bujue said, “But you still haven't told me what this thing has to do with the Candidate Game.”

“Hehehe… this thing is actually one of the game props of the previous Candidate Game.” Woody explained smoothly, “In addition to the ‘Crown,’ there are also three props: the ‘Philosopher's Stone,’ the ‘Amulet,’ and the ‘Holy Grail’… and the person who collects these four-piece sets can get…”

“…‘Holy Sword,’ right?” Feng Bujue directly took over the other party's words, “I know this, Atari's ‘Swordquest’ event in the 80s, I already knew its origin when you asked me to get the ‘Crown’ on the Yggdrasil a few days ago.” He wondered, “Speaking of… that event back then was aborted because the company went bankrupt, right? Did you recreate it in the Candidate Game?”

“Hehe… that's right,” Woody continued, “And… we will still use these things in this Candidate Game.”

“Oh~” Feng Bujue's eyes rolled, “So that's why you asked me to help you get the crown…” He pondered for another two seconds, “But… why don't you just go and snatch it yourself? For you, a teleport, take it and leave… wouldn't it be done? Why bother so much and let me do this?”

“Hmph… it's not that simple,” Woody sneered, “According to what you said, there is almost nothing in this world that I can't solve with ‘a teleport,’ if there is… use two.”

“So… you are also restricted?” Feng Bujue finally probed this question step by step.

“Hehehe…” Woody also keenly noticed this, “You don't need to ask so cautiously, I will tell you what I can tell you; you can't pry out what I can't let you know from my mouth no matter what…”

Brother Jue curled his lips: “Okay~ okay~ then tell me.”

Woody continued: “In our universe, there is something called ‘Karma’; it is a kind of power in the dark, created by a supreme being.

“‘Karma’ is not a tangible substance, but a concept; it transcends time and space, is omnipresent, and is constantly affecting everything tangible or intangible in the entire universe.

“Whether it is you humans, us devils, or even some beings called ‘Gods’… will be restricted by ‘Karma.’ Our every move will accumulate or eliminate some ‘Karma.’ If you don't pay attention, you will attract irreversible destruction.”

“Hmm…” Feng Bujue thought for a few seconds, “Sounds a bit like ‘cause and effect’.”

“It's a bit like it, but it's not quite the same,” Woody replied, “However, I can only reveal a broad concept to you, and I can't tell you the details… because the act of ‘expounding the characteristics of Karma’ itself will also cause great changes in the Karma on my body.”

“In short, it is this power that prevents you demons and ghosts from acting recklessly in the world, right?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Hehehe… there are naturally those who act recklessly,” Woody smiled, “But the more you do that, the more Karma you accumulate, and the faster you die…” He tilted his head, “And those who are more well-behaved… are like us, making ‘deals’ with humans to achieve our goals.”

“Then… what about the guys in Heaven?” Feng Bujue asked.

“They used to make deals too,” Woody said, “Before the thirteenth century, they had been providing believers with power, wealth, and the right to war… to expand their religious territory.”

“Then why did it stop later?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Hehehe…” Woody did not answer this question, just smiled without saying a word.

And Brother Jue also read some dangerous information from this burst of laughter and did not continue to ask…

“Ahem…” Two seconds later, Feng Bujue cleared his throat and instead said, “That… I have one last question…”

“Okay, I know what you want to ask.” Woody didn't wait for him to ask, and preempted, “I said, ‘Thriller Paradise’ is an experimental product, so it is different from the previous ‘Candidate Games’; the concept I advocate is—since humans are progressing and changing, we, who call ourselves gods and demons… should also adapt to the trend. That kind of game of ‘you die or I live’ is no longer suitable for the current era. Therefore, Thriller Paradise is a selection that ‘does not require the winner to kill all competitors’.” As he spoke, he stood up from the bench, “But… not everyone agrees with my opinion.”

At this time, Woody put away his usual wretched smile, leaving Brother Jue with a back view, and said solemnly: "Feng Bujue, I hope you can win… your victory symbolizes my success, the success of the experiment. And your failure… is not just your personal failure, but in a sense, it is also the failure of all mankind.

"That ‘gamble’ outside the game is not just a betting game with a few treasures… its result will also determine who will control the right to speak in the Candidate Game in many centuries to come.

"You can also imagine… our (Four Oddballs) ‘experiment’ to completely break the established model of the past must be under tremendous pressure from all sides. If in the end, the candidate bet by the forces on the side of ‘Heaven’ or the ‘Four Horsemen’ wins…”

“I understand.” This time, Feng Bujue interrupted Woody.

At this moment, Brother Jue also stood up.

He had a smile on his face, looked at the other person's back, and said in a calm tone… one sentence: “Don't worry, I will win.”