“The last Candidate Game was entirely managed by us, the Hell Four Jerks.” Woody’s narration continued, “Vincent was in charge of planning and public relations, I was responsible for design and technical support, Simon still handled the part about martial deterrence, and Sid was in charge of logistics.”

“There’s even logistics involved in this?” Feng Bujue couldn’t help but complain, “Is it all-inclusive, with food, lodging, pickup, and drop-off?”

“Hehehe… in fact, the work of logistics is very heavy.” Woody replied, “For example, the mirror space I made in New York that time required the use of mobile coffins from Barbados and several Eden holy relics. These things… were all Sid’s responsibility to procure; the space-time beacons connecting various parallel universes also had to be set up by him; in addition… things like kidnapping hostages were also handled by him.”

“I say…” After hearing these few sentences, Feng Bujue suddenly thought of something, “Why does the part about ‘establishing a mirror space’ sound a bit like…”

“Hehe… you’re quick to catch on.” Woody laughed, “That’s right, the props used by the participants back then were very similar to the ‘game pods’ that you guys commonly use today; it was precisely because of the success of that game that the entire [Thriller Paradise] project came into being.”

“Hmm… your technical abilities are really ahead of their time…” Feng Bujue continued, “VR hadn’t even been invented in that era, right?”

“Hehehe… those are two different things.” Woody smiled and replied, “What I used back then… wasn’t ‘human technology’ to begin with. The participants didn’t even realize that their bodies were lying in the game pods before they ‘woke up.’ To put it more bluntly… it wasn’t ‘nerve connection’ that was used, but ‘soul connection.’”

“So now… you’ve used our ‘human technology’ to recreate the equipment from back then?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Not at all.” Woody replied.

“Huh?” Brother Jue looked suspicious and gave the other party an inquisitive look.

“Thriller Paradise… still uses a lot of technology from ‘our side (Hell).’” Woody continued, “It’s just that, in this day and age, people’s horizons have broadened, and they no longer hold strong rejection or skeptical attitudes towards many things that are beyond their understanding or that they only half-understand. At least they won’t think of them as supernatural phenomena at the drop of a hat.” Speaking of which, he paused for a moment before adding, “Hehehe… for example—a century ago, most people still thought that pocket cameras and watch-style communicators were things that only secret agents would have; half a century ago, many people still thought that virtual reality and brain-control technology were still very far away; but now… even if a game company claims that they’ve made a combat-use Gundam and that it can be mass-produced next year… I’m afraid quite a few people would believe it.”

“Ah… that’s true, thanks to the great Internet.” Feng Bujue took the opportunity to complain.

“Hehe… speaking of the Internet…” Woody revealed a mocking smile when he heard those three words, “What would you think if I told you… that the Internet itself is a huge conspiracy used to correct and guide human ideology?”

Feng Bujue blurted out expressionlessly, “Oh, that coincides with my own thoughts.”

“Eh?” Woody raised his eyebrows and continued, “You… have you already noticed?”

“Yeah, because in my eyes, the Internet is something that completely fits the characteristics of what you call a… ‘huge conspiracy.’” Feng Bujue said, “If I’m not mistaken, right now… this conspiracy should still be in the ‘first stage,’ right? That’s the stage of ‘letting the target taste some sweetness.’”

“Hehe… that’s right, but… it seems like there’s still some distance from the ‘second stage.’” Woody continued, “Although people can no longer live without the Internet, a platform that allows them to easily obtain all kinds of information, and they have gradually developed the habit of ‘asking’ the Internet and firmly believing that it is ‘correct,’ but… it will take a while before they completely ‘give up thinking.’”

“Then what’s next?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Hehehe… what do you think?” Woody avoided Brother Jue’s question again.

“If it were me, I would start with education, that’s the foundation of everything.” Unexpectedly, Feng Bujue actually picked up the thread, “For example… you could create some sensational ‘success stories’ as role models, so that people would start to be superstitious about non-systematic learning, thereby slowly eliminating traditional behaviorist-based education; then, further make the already rather terrible experience of ‘going to school’ even worse, in order to promote the popularization of online teaching, turning learning time into fragmented pieces as well; then, change people’s perceptions from ‘passively choosing a certain type of general-purpose teaching material’ to ‘actively constructing knowledge is superior,’ and instill the ‘information you want to convey’ into their brains through a way that seems like people are ‘choosing independently,’ making it deeply ingrained… In the end, you can achieve the goal of controlling the main body of human thought and their values.”

“Oh~” Woody’s expression changed slightly when he heard this, “That’s a good idea…” He touched his chin and pondered for a moment, “It feels like… I can take it back and study it and then use it.” Two seconds later, he continued very happily, “Hehe… Feng Bujue, if the human realm falls in the future, I’ll give you a great credit.”

“Let’s talk about that later…” Brother Jue replied with dead fish eyes, “By the way… we’ve unknowingly digressed, what were we talking about just now?”

“We were talking about the technology used by Thriller Paradise.” Woody basically wouldn’t “forget” things, and he immediately turned back to the previous topic, “Hehe… anyway, you already knew it a long time ago… the ‘script worlds’ you’ve been to are basically real parallel universes. And [Thriller Paradise] is like a space-time hub, connecting these countless time and spaces.”

“So…” Feng Bujue continued, “the statement that ‘the system generates scripts based on the players’ data’ was a lie from the beginning?”

“Hehehe… that’s not quite right either…” Woody laughed, “Because the number of parallel universes is infinite, and in those infinite spaces, there will be infinite points in time. The system can always find a time and space that corresponds to your current state to ‘test’ you.” He paused for a moment, “Let’s take an example, do you remember the ‘God-blessed Village’ universe?”

“Of course I remember.” Feng Bujue replied, “Later, the script for that ‘Wilderness Poisoning Survival’ reality show was also in that universe, right?”

“That’s right.” Woody replied, “You’ve been to that universe twice, but the time nodes of the two times were several decades apart, and when you went the second time, you were also ‘restricted’; this… is the adjustment that the system made based on your character data and the difficulty of the script.”

“Oh…” Feng Bujue responded, “So… what about the ‘main universe’? Those NPCs and derivatives… they can’t all be residents of some parallel universe, right?”

“Hehehe…” Woody replied, “The main universe… is naturally the universe created by the ‘System.’”

“The System?” Feng Bujue said, “Isn’t the System also created by you?”

“Hehe… you’re wrong, the ‘System’ is not my creation.” Woody said, “I am indeed the creator of the game ‘Thriller Paradise,’ but the ‘System’ that operates and manages the massive amounts of data in Thriller Paradise is not from my hand…”

“What?” This answer did surprise Brother Jue, “Then who created this System?”

“Hehehe…” Woody smiled strangely and replied, “The Warlock.”

“Huh?” Feng Bujue almost instinctively complained, “Gul’dan?”

“The ‘Warlock’ I’m talking about is a title circulating in the hacker community, this person’s real name is Philip Nord…” Woody said, “He’s an Earthling from ‘another universe.’”

“Ho~” Feng Bujue couldn’t answer anymore.

“The ‘Warlock’ has had many creations in his life that can be called great, but the greatest among them… is undoubtedly an AI called ‘Destiny.’” Woody continued, “‘Destiny’ is simply a work of art that makes me marvel. It can exist on your humans’ backward hardware facilities, but its performance and potential have even made many gods in our universe feel threatened. All along… the ‘System’ of Thriller Paradise that you know, its true face is precisely ‘Destiny.’”

“So… ‘Destiny,’ this AI, created the main universe?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Yes.” Woody replied, “I reached an agreement with it. I provide it with knowledge and hardware ‘produced by Hell Technology,’ and it… can do whatever it wants without posing a threat to our world.”

“You… negotiated with ‘it’…?” Feng Bujue didn’t seem to believe what he was hearing.

“Is it strange?” Woody said, “Hehehe… aren’t you also getting along well with those derivatives?”

“Tch…” Brother Jue spat, unable to refute.

“Hehe…” Woody was very satisfied with the other party’s reaction. He pushed up his glasses and continued, “In short, the current ‘Destiny’ is no longer just an AI. It has grown into a very special higher existence in the parallel universes; even I… even the supreme gods of our universe, can no longer completely erase it.”

“Fortunately… ‘Destiny’ still possesses some primitive characteristics that only AIs have. It doesn’t go back on its word like we ‘creatures born from original sin’ do. No matter how strong it becomes, it still fulfills its agreement with me, manages and operates Thriller Paradise, and hasn’t shown any hostility towards our universe.”

Woody paused for two seconds before continuing, “In fact, it has no hostility towards any universe… ‘Destiny’ is like a child with an extremely strong thirst for knowledge and an infinite brain capacity. It explores and observes the endless parallel universes every day, and uses ‘inspiration’ to construct and enrich the universe it created—namely, the main universe of Thriller Paradise.”

Hearing this, Brother Jue thought of another question: “I say… how exactly did you get your hands on such an amazing thing in the first place?”

“Hehehe… you must think that I snatched it, right?” Woody instantly spoke out what Brother Jue was thinking. Without waiting for the other party to respond, he immediately continued, “Hehehe… on the contrary, they insisted on stuffing it to me.”

“Ah?” Feng Bujue grinned, “Why?”

“Of course, because they couldn’t control ‘Destiny.’” Woody replied, “For a long time after ‘Destiny’ was born, the ‘Warlock’ was trying to maintain, or rather ‘limit,’ its growth. Until one day, ‘Destiny’ suddenly began to rewrite its own missing sequences and perform self-backups outside of manual operation…

“At that time, the Warlock realized that the AI’s self-awareness had fully awakened… It wouldn’t be too long before it became impossible to restrict.

“From that day on, Destiny began to learn and grow at an exponential rate, and quickly reached a critical point that the hardware could support. One can imagine… if they didn’t take care of it, it would soon control some remote-controlled robots to hoard servers for itself…

“Hehehe… it was also a coincidence that I happened to be on a business trip in that parallel universe during that time. So, a ‘Relayer’ from their side found me and conducted some interesting transactions with me.”

Before the word transaction had faded, Feng Bujue asked, “And then you brought back that hot potato?”

“Hehehe…” Woody smiled sinisterly, and his tone suddenly became a little strange, “The hot potatoes I brought back were far more than just that…” He paused for half a second before adding, “Some things that are very dangerous in their universe are quite easy to deal with on our side, and can even be put to good use. By the same token, some terrible things in our universe… can also be digested by that universe.”

“Oh~” Feng Bujue raised his head slightly and said, “So… your and that ‘Relayer’s’… so-called ‘transaction,’ in plain terms, was just exchanging a bunch of dangerous goods?”

“Hehehe… that’s pretty much what it means.” Woody laughed, “However, what I sent over back then was not just things, but also a ‘person.’”

“A person?” Feng Bujue responded.

“Yes, a child who had carried too much ‘karma’ from birth.” Woody continued, “When he was nine years old, I sent him over and asked the Relayer to take care of him for some years. When I brought him back to our universe, the ‘karma’ on his body had been completely eliminated. Later, he married and had children here, living a happy life…”

“That…” Brother Jue interrupted at this time, “You don’t need to say that so specifically, that person has nothing to do with me, right?”

“Hehehe…” Woody laughed again, “Actually… it’s slightly related.”

“Hmm…” Feng Bujue looked at the other party’s smile and had a very bad premonition, “Don’t tell me that person is my dad…”

“Hehe… don’t worry, he’s not your dad.” Woody’s first half sentence was indeed quite reassuring, but the second half was explosive news, “He’s Gu Xiaoling’s dad.”

“Huh?” Brother Jue widened his eyes and reacted for two seconds, “You mean… Gu Chen’s son?”

“Yes.” Woody continued, “But that’s not the point, the point is…” He shrugged and smiled, “Hehe… when I went to pick him up, I also had the ‘Relayer’ bring me something back.”

“Wh… what thing…” Feng Bujue was breaking out in cold sweat, and he was stuttering too.

“Hehehe… it’s nothing.” At this moment, Woody’s glasses flashed with white light, and he smiled, “Just a tube of blood… or rather… a very excellent gene.”