Chapter 51: Entering the Wrong Door (Part ½)

Luo Nan sat quietly in his seat as he stared at the nearly empty five level pyramid. He continued to deduce some conclusions:

“It is the same pyramid, but the contents that remain inside is as different as night and day. It should be because the ‘Standard’ is completely different.”

“The stratification I had early before was a simple reproduction of the structure of society; anyone could be arranged within it. But this sort of structure didn’t have a clear-cut and accurate position for each individual. It’s like a mass of parts piled together. No matter how much I demanded its completion, it wouldn’t be assembled into a complete and functional machine. It was meaningless.”

“Today’s stratification has a simple and crude standard…… Whether or not it belongs to “Me”? Under this simple logic, all existences that are unrelated to ‘Me’ are wiped away.”

“As for what’s the criteria for being ‘Related’...... Obviously one must have a direct relationship with my Self Formatting in order to be brought into this system.

As layers and layers of logic propelled his thoughts forward, the software interface continued to change. The heavily chained crow was like a giant python that moved about inside and outside the five level pyramid structure. But no matter how it moved, it maintained connections with Xie Junping, Cat Eyes, and the Wraith Sign inside the structure.

The heavily chained crow symbolized ‘My heart’s a prison’. The concretization of the Self Format.

Luo Nan had used the heavily chained crow to annihilate a clone of the Human-Faced Arachnid on Xie Junping. Cat Eyes had suffered the countermeasures of the heavily chained crow when she had impinged upon Luo Nan during his divination with the psychic drawing. As for the Wraith Sign, it had been under the heavily chained crow’s control from beginning to end.

These scenes flashed one by one in Luo Nan’s mind, and he made a footnote from his reasoned conclusions.

Of course, differences existed between these three. These differences were reflected in how they were partitioned between these levels.

Xie Junping and Cat Eyes were in the Student Level. According to Formatting Theory, they did not contribute to the Social Format. Instead, they were Learners who received teachings in a unidirectional manner.

Even though Xie Junping had gotten Luo Nan out of a predicament emphatically, even though Cat Eyes released her deep memories for Luo Nan, these only happened after they entered the Formatting System. Their inclinations were undergoing changes.

From merely at the system level, Luo Nan was completely unable to obtain any direct benefits from these two. And if a major stimulation would occur, they may likely refuse Luo Nan’s teachings and walk out of the pyramid, parting ways with Luo Nan.

The Wraith Sign, however, was absolutely Luo Nan’s dog. It’ll bite whoever Luo Nan wants it to bite. Its loyalty was off the charts and it possessed extremely powerful capabilities. More importantly, Luo Nan could obtain direct benefits from it. The benefits he could get were even higher than simply relying on training his body…… The gains from consuming the Human-Faced Arachnid’s clones were already proof of this.

And so, the Wraith Sign had entered the Technician Level.

But the problem was that it wasn’t self-aware. It was impossible for it to ascend to a conscious state. It had already reached its highest level.

His deep thoughts arrived at this point. Suddenly, Luo Nan inexplicably felt a feeling of familiarity. The levels became clear to him. The progressively deepening links and feedback patterns. Where had he seen this before…..

He traced back his memories in a single direction and found the relevant scene, the frozen frame of Grandfather roaring fiercely.

Luo Nan pressed against his forehead, digging with his fingers. Then certain words suddenly smashed into his brain, lingering around and difficult to be dispelled.

“Shrine. Holy Nation. New God. Old God…… God. God?”

Within the crazed speech of his grandfather, the frequency of words related to ‘God’ was extremely high. And these words were held in core positions of the speech.

If it was the past, Luo Nan wouldn’t pay attention to this. But now his scope was broadened wide. It would be hard for his thought process to remain simple.

He closed his eyes, connecting into the Psychic Wave Network via the HexaEar and entering into the interface of the professional society. Then he searched for the item “Secret Order” to look up relevant information on the structure of these organizations.

Soon, a large quantity of information surged forth. It seemed that the filtering function of the AI installed in the Society’s Psychic Wave Network wasn’t that impressive. Luo Nan could only search and comb through the data with difficulty until he found this sole section that drew his attention:

The overwhelming majority of Secret Order founders have been unavoidably influenced by current existing social culture. In the beginning, they often refer to ancient myths, mainstream religions, and historical legends to build the basic structure of their sects. They even model things off of novels and games, smearing their sects with various fantastical flavors, yet they set up strict rankings. The concrete ideas are myriad in diversity…..”

“Let’s refer to the Secret Orders that have existed for at least ten years. One must admit that a convergence in nature has appeared in a very large degree, a degree so large that it’s shocking. Most notably is the structure of these organizations. The three major world Secret Orders all practically agree by chance to divide their internal members into four rankings. They may call these rankings by different names, but the implications of each are very similar. I will take all these Secret Orders and explain it as a unified whole: Shallow Believer, Devoted Believer, Mad Believer, Favored.”

“As the name implies, the cultists of the four levels have different degrees of devotion and dedication towards their “Gods”, and there are also differences in the favors and awards given by their Gods. The facts can be verified. These Gods, these First Oblatums, have real and true offerings, demands, and feedback from each and every ranked disciple that are strictly determined by ranking. These organizations possess similar but strict and feasible logic to form systems that are stable even until today.”

Luo Nan only read half of it, but he already felt that this article matched really well with his ideas. It answered his questions precisely, so Luo Nan took care to look at the author’s name. He never thought that it would be a familiar one.

“Bamboo Pole……”

In case this wasn’t known before, this was the skinny and tall person that was in charge of the intelligence work on the night of the 28th. Luo Nan remembered that this person was all smiles, but his words were actually quite sharp.

Luo Nan’s impression deepened for this person’s explanation corresponded with his own situation.

Now he finally understood where the familiar feeling came from. The four rank structure of Secret Orders…… Its definitions can certainly be borrowed from some novel or some game, but it seemed to be completely comparable with the pyramid structure.

Even though the pyramid structure had five levels, the topmost Politician Level’s definition was fairly special. It represented the subversion and negation of the entire format. It didn’t need to be discussed for now.

The lower four levels were highly reasonable matches.

Looking at his grandfather’s Formatting Theory, or at least the Social Format level, from this perspective, wouldn’t this be an explained ability system…...And wouldn't it be slanted more towards the standpoints of Secret Orders?

Then what was he now? A poorly developed god?

Luo Nan rubbed his forehead with greater force.

“Tired? We’re almost home.” His uncle suddenly spoke.

Luo Nan went “uh,” jumping out of his state of reflection. It seemed like his behavior just now made his uncle and aunt worry. He thought for a bit, then smirked lightly:

“I’m not tired. I’m just a bit hungry.”

His uncle went, “Mm,” and he turned around to talk to his aunt: “It’ll be late to make dinner when we get back. Do you want to let Old Mo make a nutritious meal, or shall we get by with something outside?”

Mo Peng shouted with fright: “God. Don’t let that old man work!”