"The right to speak?" Duck Down stuttered, "I don't quite understand … I can't even remember the name of the pocket dimension."
This was the part that Lin Sanjiu did not explain to her.
"When I was washed into this pocket dimension by the river, I don't know why, but I said to Duck Down, 'I finally brought you here'." Lin Sanjiu looked at the crowd and said, "It was this sentence that made Duck Down suspicious of me. After that, he deducted a large part of my credibility."
Duck Down rubbed his nose sheepishly as a tacit admission.
"At that time, I noticed that all of you are from Fanjia City. You have the same experience and are facing an unknown pocket dimension together. Yet, you don't seem to have any intention of helping each other. Instead, you are wary of each other as if you are afraid that someone will attack you."
At this moment, everyone in the room was the same as before. They were a few steps away from each other and had their arms crossed. The only difference was that all of them were looking at Lin Sanjiu.
"Now, I understand why. It's because I wasn't the only one who said something suspicious. At least, Jiang Tian and Doctor Chen did the same. "
"I really don't understand why I would say those words," Jiang Tian covered her face and sighed, "My explanation after that wasn't convincing enough …"
"That …" Ratface hesitated, "Vanvolt also said that. He said that I misunderstood … "
"If it's not limited to what you said, then you behaved very strangely yourself," Caveman immediately replied.
After someone spoke, a few more people pointed out the suspicious points of the others. They were immediately labeled as "behaving strangely". From the looks of it, even before the thirteen of them entered the pocket dimension, they were already very suspicious and wary of each other. Some of them only realized that they had unknowingly aroused suspicion when others pointed them out.
Lin Sanjiu raised her hand and stopped the discussion.
"It's not strange. This is the 'initial setting' that the pocket dimension gave us."
Lin Sanjiu's gaze seemed to be a reminder. The people under her gaze all remembered to stay still and stood still. "Among a bunch of people who are not trustworthy, and when you know that they are wary of you, it is not only difficult to spread the media and messages, but it is also almost impossible to succeed four times in a row."
"So, we need to rebuild our credibility?" Jiang Tian asked.
"That's right." Lin Sanjiu nodded, "But it's very difficult to rebuild the credibility of the story. Even if he tried his best to prove that he was telling the truth and made someone believe him, his words would only produce a credibility of 0.1 divided by 12 … so low that it was negligible. If someone thinks you're lying, that's bad. They can deduct 0.1 from you with just one sentence. It is precisely because of this deliberate imbalance in scoring that in this instance dungeon, telling the truth is a stupid method. "
"But if we don't tell the truth … how do we increase our credibility?" Jiang Tian asked, confused. "Isn't it more risky to lie? If someone were to verify it later, it might even create the impression that you're a fraud. "
"It's simple. It's not a lie," Lin Sanjiu replied slowly.
After a short pause, everyone's confusion, doubt, and disbelief surged out at the same time. "What do you mean it's neither true nor false?" "It's either true or false. What's in between?" "Besides, how can we reconstruct the credibility of this?"
"We can build a convincing narrative based on a visible fact. Then, we can win over believers." Lin Sanjiu raised her hand and pointed at Doctor Chen's body at the other end of the room. The commotion slowly died down.
She stared at the crowd and said, "Doctor Chen's recording system is a fact. His death is a fact. We don't need anyone to tell us that they are true. However, they are just two small pieces of the whole picture. "
The firelight cast a large shadow on the wall. No one in the room spoke or moved. Everyone waited quietly for her to continue.
"We only have a few fragmented facts in front of us. For example, Doctor Chen is dead and he asked us to search for paper. We can't prove anything with just a few fragmented facts. However, at this moment, someone claims to have pieced together the truth based on fragmented facts and came up with a seemingly reasonable narrative … It's not Media or Message. It's safe, right?
"When you believe that the narrative is the truth, you will naturally increase the credibility of that person. Even if you don't agree with the narrative, you will only think that the person is wrong. You won't think that the person is lying to you. Am I right?"
Lin Sanjiu smiled faintly. As expected, she saw the ugly expressions on the faces of the crowd.
"How did Doctor Chen die? Who killed him? What was the killer's motive? Why did he choose to kill him at this time? Was his recording system for our good or for his own convenience? Do you know the truth? You actually don't know. You just think that you know the truth after you believe in the narrative of others. "
"What do you mean?" Wen Ya asked in a deep voice. He stared at her from under his eyelids.
"I hope that you can think about it carefully," Lin Sanjiu ignored him and continued, "Currently, we have three narratives circulating around Doctor Chen's death. Each of them tells a different story, right?"
From the expressions of the crowd, some of them were struggling to understand what she meant. Some of them had a look of realization on their faces while some of them stared at Lin Sanjiu expressionlessly.
"I still don't understand …" Hana said blankly, "What do you mean by narrative?"
"I will start with the two most recent narratives because they all belong to the same person." Lin Sanjiu smiled at her. She raised her hand and slowly plucked a few strands of her eyebrows. "First, Doctor Chen's recording system was used to hunt for a mouthpiece. Someone secretly noticed this and killed him. Second, Doctor Chen's recording system affected someone's action of hunting for a mouthpiece. In order to stop us from recording, he killed him."
Amidst the gasps, a few people turned their heads and stared at Wen Ya. Wen Ya's face was cold and he didn't say a word.
"That's right. As you all remember, he was the one who came up with these two narratives," Lin Sanjiu sighed. "It doesn't matter which one is the truth because he doesn't know himself. However, if you believe in one of them, it means that you have accepted Wen Ya's narration. Apart from increasing his credibility, you won't be able to resist the story that he is about to tell."
"As long as we believe in him, he will establish …" Eider Down mumbled, "'The right to speak'?"
"That's right." Lin Sanjiu nodded. "The establishment and enhancement of the right to speak requires the speaker to have a certain level of trust. For example, as long as everyone believes that a person is very influential in a certain industry, that person will have more right to speak than someone in the same industry. If you believe that someone cares about you and has your best interests in mind, that person will have more right to speak than a stranger. Similarly, once you believe that Wen Ya discovered the truth in the pocket dimension, he will have more right to speak about 'what is more truth'. This is the essence of the battle for the right to speak. "
"You rascal. You want me to become your mouthpiece after I believe you!" Hana yelled angrily, startling everyone who was still in a daze. "Is this the reason why you told me that the murderer only wanted to kill Doctor Chen and that I don't need to be too careful?"
"Don't move," Lin Sanjiu's voice wasn't loud, but it was enough to stop Hana.
"Your eyebrows …" Jiang Tian turned to look at Lin Sanjiu. She couldn't hide the shock on her face. Eider Down was the only person who wasn't surprised by Lin Sanjiu's change in appearance. Not only was she not surprised, she even seemed a little proud of herself when she saw the others being surprised.
"Actually, Wen Ya's choice of two narration angles isn't the best strategy because it will be less persuasive," Lin Sanjiu didn't respond. Lin Sanjiu did not respond. Instead, she plucked her other eyebrow and continued, "But I think he has no other choice. He has already sensed the most influential and persuasive narrative in the Pocket Dimension. In order to fight against it, he can only occupy as much space as possible for himself."
"What narrative?" Robb asked blankly.
"'There is an assassin among us, and he is planning to assassinate us one by one.'" Lin Sanjiu turned to look at the woman who had been silent all this while and asked in a low voice, "Am I right, Guannan?"
Sometimes, when I write an article, the first word that comes to mind is English (When I write English, sometimes, the first word that comes to mind is Chinese). Then, when I switch languages, I always find it hard to find suitable Chinese substitutes for the following words:
Grunt, groan, rumble, whimper, grumble, snap (in someone's context, I think this is the most difficult one).
I think this is the most difficult part.) Actually, there are many more. Perhaps it's because I'm not proficient in either language. My vocabulary in either language is too small.
I know there are many hidden talents in the doomsday readers. Let's discuss it together?
(End of chapter)
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