Collective conscience.
A term that is used for the values that put society together and make it so that it can function together.
In a sense, one can say that it is the shared beliefs, norms, and moral attitude that exists in a particular society and a group that acts like a glue to hold them together.
The lynch culture itself stems from that, as the individuals belonging to a group will be subjected to situations or events that will trigger certain emotions inside themselves.
Then, how do you cope with the culture of Lynch? How can you deal with the rumors that will trigger certain emotions inside the public brain?
That was what I had thought the moment I heard the rumors. Aside from coping, how can you turn it into your advantage?
The enemy making a does not necessarily mean you are not in control. Amidst the chaos, there is an opportunity. It's important to remember that being the target of an enemy does not mean losing control. Like a chessboard, the game can be turned to your advantage by adapting to the changing circumstances.
Then I was greeted with an idea.
As there exists the Collective Conscience, there is also the individual conscience that has taken its shape for each individual and how they lived their lives.
The feeling of guilt comes from there.
If you want to make someone feel guilty, then you should make them do something that goes against their individual consciences or values.
And the best way to do that for a wide range of people is to make them get triggered by a bunch of temporary feelings, or in modern words, "collective mood."
As we all know, humans or any sentient beings are social. We need to fit the society. Therefore, there are times when the tide is too strong for an individual to resist, making them unconditionally agree with what others think, even if it actually goes against their values. Then, when they check the things they have done, they will feel a certain feeling.
Guiltiness.
Guiltiness is a feeling that eats one away, and if one's self-esteem is low, then they are bound to be consumed by it. Even those without low self-esteem can be psychologically affected unless they are complete sociopaths.
Then, what do you think will happen when you see the kid you bullied? You talked behind his back and were actually an innocent person who got nothing to do with the things he was accused of.
The brutal scenes that you have supported and watched leisurely, like a movie on theatre, were actually nothing but an act of criminality that targeted an innocent person.
A person had just been beaten to death, and you were there to support it, make it look like heroism, while the said person was suffering from emotional and physical pain.
How unfair is that, right? Then, at that point, the feeling of guilt will come, entering the individual's head.
And that was my goal.
The students talked behind my back as the rumors spread. I wanted them to feel guilty. Therefore, I didn't instantly clear my name.
Because I wanted them to say things behind me, talk behind me and support the ones that were actually evil.
However, of course, I knew the feelings were temporary. Especially for the feeling of guilt that you will feel when you commit wrongdoing against a person that you don't know much about.
So, it won't be much effective in the long run since the hypocritical society will instantly forget their wrongdoings, right? They will just continue to live their lives, normally like nothing happened very soon.
But that doesn't mean the traces will be erased. No, rather, it is the complete opposite. Even on the surface, the students would forget what they had done; in their subconscious, one thing will remain.
It was the fact that I was innocent. And the recording of the clone of me getting beaten will also remain in their subconsciousness, as such a brutal scene is hard to forget completely.
Then, when a situation like this occurs once more, at that time, the standings of the students will be more favorable to me. The way to control the emotions and the standings will be a lot easier as I can easily show this event as a reference.
In simple words, I now have a card that I can play for such situations in the future.
However, that is not all there.
Thanks to the rumors that were spread, my lack of response, and the duel between Arden and me, the followers of the church were bound to respond to me since they were basically fanatics. Since the fire of anger inside them was triggered….
Then, the method they used was easily predictable as I knew the leader of the fanatics inside the academy from the game already.
And that young man needed to be shut down for a while, as he holds considerable amounts of power in the academy and the church.
What is the way to do it?
Simple.
Just bait the real neutral paladins of the academy that really believes the doctrine. Even if there are those that were corrupted in church ranks, that doesn't mean the ones with virtues don't exist.
This also had a high probability of limiting actions of Alicia for a while since she also needed to lie down if an investigation inside an academy in ensued.
And thanks to the act of vengeance coming from those fanatics, I had the opportunity to do so since neither the academy nor the church could ignore such violence that happened inside the academy grounds by their followers if the act was known.
At that point, Aliya and my knowledge entered the equation.
Being someone that played the game in the 21st century doesn't only provide you with the knowledge of the academy but also the knowledge of the concepts that had yet to be shown in this world.
Like cellphones. Not the phones used for only communicating but also phones used for everything in daily life.
And as a college student majoring in engineering, I was, of course, interested in that concept as I had a considerable amount of knowledge, at least enough to present the ones that would develop it in this world.
Which I did by giving Aliya the idea of the phones and then giving her enough guidance to make it happen.
Aliya was a girl that had the name of Demoness of Money inside the game, so she was quick to understand and turn it into a profit. The project had just finished before we entered the academy, and we were waiting for an event to present it.
And, just at that time, these rumors were spread in the academy. The emotional trigger that we needed to make those buy our product inside the academy filled with the children of high-ranking nobles made its appearance.
Just like that, just by simply waiting, I hit multiple birds with one stone.
I gained public sympathy by making them guilty and solidified my position for such cases in the future.
I promoted my product of mine into adolescent young people, who were the target audience already.
And used that product to bait the paladins into the academy and make them indebted to me emotionally while also limiting the actions of my enemy for a while…..
And also planting spies in the ranks of enemy….
--------------------------A/N----------------------------
Hope this clarified why the way he acted all this time. Now, we can speed up and leave all these mind games and progress the game's plot for a while.
For this month, I am planning to increase the daily chapters to three if I can. We will see.
Hope you liked the chapters.
You can check my discord if you want. You will be able to see the illustrations here and engage in a conversation with me if I am available.
https://discord.gg/ufP7aaZu
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel