Cyber Ghosts

Chapter 99 Theseus and Yang Zhu
“Of course, I’m still myself,” Hao Ning thought for a while, then scolded in anger, “Pooh! Your organs are all broken!” After saying that, he suddenly realized, “I got it! You mean —”

“The ship of Theseus!” Zhou Yuan thought for a while, “It’s a classic thought experiment of the ship of Theseus!”

“What are you talking about?” Hao Ning opened his mouth, then turned his head to look at Zhou Yuan together with Liu Shuai. After Zhou Yuan became the “moment god,” not only did he mutter something inexplicable, it was easy for him to say and do unexpected things.

“The ship of Theseus is a hypothesis,” Zhou Yuan thought about it. “This ship that can travel on the sea for hundreds of years is reliant on continuous maintenance and replacement parts. As soon as a board decays, it will be replaced, and so on, until all the functional parts are not the first ones. The question is, is the ship the same ship of Theseus as before, or is it a completely different ship? It is exactly the question that Liu Shuai asked you just now. If all parts of your body are changed, are you still yourself? If not, then when did you begin to become a different person? ”

“… That’s resourceful…” Hao Ning frowned, “How do you know all these things?”

“Hehe,” Zhou Yuan laughed. “There are always people who post these profound articles on WeChat Moment to show that they are knowledgeable, unconventional, and unscrupulous. Is it strange that I know of these now?”

“Aren’t you also unscrupulous …” Hao Ning thought about it, but he didn’t say it out.

“That’s a WeChat Moment version of Wikipedia…” Liu Shuai sighed, “That’s what I meant. If the body is like that, then, of course, it will be even harder to find a part of the soul that has been replaced. ”

“That’s right. You have finally started to understand,” Zhang Quan nodded his head. “Although the part cut off from a person’s soul is not that much, but it can accumulate to a large amount. So, it’s still worth it for these people who cultivate devil arts to do it.”

“Why it can accumulate to a large amount?” Hao Ning felt that he had returned to the state he was in a few weeks ago, and he did not understand many things. “Like what you said, soul cutting is a new method, wouldn’t it be more troublesome?”

“Do you have countless questions?” Zhang Quan had never finished even one “lecture” today. He was always interrupted, so he was in a horrible mood. However, after pondering a while, he still tried to explain in detail, “The preparation of soul-taking is extremely complicated. If one wanted to exterminate others’ souls completely, he must do many preparations so that the other people’s subconscious would completely accept the fact that they don’t have a soul. That is why Lan Ruo needed to come a long time in advance to tempt Zhou Yuan to say something like ‘Don’t wait for his soul’. However, if it’s only to cut a part of the soul, there’s no need to go through all these troubles. ”

“Stingy thought experiment!” Zhou Yuan suddenly said again.

“Damn, bro, what are you talking about?” Liu Shuai was listening with relish, but after being interrupted by Zhou Yuan, he could not help but retort.

“You don’t know anything about it?” Zhou Yuan looked at Liu Shuai with wide eyes. “Isn’t this the basic knowledge that losers need today?”

“Dame you …” Liu Shuai blushed a little, “If you have something to say, say it, don’t pretend to be profound.”

“Hehe.” Zhou Yuan glanced at Liu Shuai, “The stingy person is used to describe Yang Zhu in ancient times. He once said: If you want to pull out a single strand of my hair, even if it would benefit the entire world, I will not give it to you. The descendants then ridicule Yang Zhu for being so stingy.”

“This person is truly selfish,” Liu Shuai nodded. “He deserves that mocking.”

“Yep. Master Mo Zi’s disciple, Qin Zi, had the same reaction as you,” Zhou Yuan laughed softly. “So he went to argue with Yang Zhu’s student, Meng Sunyang, but in the end, he was face-smacked by Meng Sunyang.”

“Face smacking?” Liu Shuai shouted in anger. “Yang Zhu is such a stingy and selfish person. How could his disciple act so brazenly?”

“Well, he was confident!” Hao Ning also recalled this story and took the conversation. “Meng Sunyang asked Qin Zi if someone said that he would give Qin Zi ten thousand pieces of gold after beating him up, would Qin Zi like to allow him to do it. Then Qin Zi answered ‘Yes’ without hesitation!”

“Of course, …why not,” Liu Shuai swallowed his saliva, and responded in the end.

Seeing Liu Shuai nodding his head repetitively, Hao Ning continued to speak, “Meng Sun Yang asked again if someone could give him a country after cutting off one of his legs, would he like to allow him to do it. This time Qin Zi was silent for a long time and did not answer, because he knew that the next question would be: if someone could give him the world after chop off him, would him like to allow him to do it.”

Liu Shuai did not speak anymore, as if he was trying to make sense of the words.

“This thought experiment was then summed up to— —” Zhou Yuan nodded his head and agreed with Hao Ning. “As long as there is an example of someone harming other people’s interests, it will extend from a single hair to the entire body, from one person to the whole world, from voluntary to involuntary, and ultimately use the interests of the whole world to support a tiny minority. A thousand miles of dike collapses from an ant’s nest. Similarly, it begins with depriving a person of a single hair’s worth. Even though this is the case, most people are still willing to pay a small price, such as a single hair, to exchange for something else when they encounter such a problem. That’s why it is much easier to use them.”

“It’s just like when someone meets a swindler on the way here,” Hao Ning thought of this matter and planned to tease Zhou Yuan.” Although he was talking about the ‘fake, kindness and beauty’, he could not differentiate the truth from fake, and he did not consider it a big issue to be cheated. As long as he could bear it, he is willing to spend some money to avoid the trouble. In the end, not only did he lose interest, but he also encouraged such parasitizing acts. ”

“Fine, stop laughing at me. Back then, I was not ‘enlightened’…” Zhou Yuan scratched his head and laughed, then sighed. “The reason was made clear by our ancestors a few thousand years ago, but we did not listen to them. It’s truly just like what Mr. Zhang Quan said just now. The answer is right there, but we did not think it the right way.”

When Zhang Quan heard that Zhou Yuan use such an elegant way of speaking to explain the reason behind his words, he could not hold back the smile on his face and nodded his head proudly.

“What does this have to do with soul-cutting?” Liu Shuai was not very interested in stories and histories, nor could he be bothered with these few people’s mysterious dialogues as he asked.

“If you were to say that to take out an entire soul is like chop off a person’s head and kill him, then taking a part of his soul is like pulling off his single strand of hair,” Zhang Quan said as he looked at the seal on the wall. “This kind of method does not require the other party to consider the meaning of his soul seriously. Perhaps, just a single sentence from the other party, even if it’s an unconscious sentence, would be enough to cut off a portion of his soul.”

“So, the other party only asked Qili a single question, and Qili only casually agreed. Thus, he cut off his soul?” Hao Ning connected the dots between the two sides and realized the while picture suddenly. “If that’s the case, then it’s so convenient. In the future, no one will dare to speak carelessly. Otherwise, he would lose his soul.”

“You can’t put it like that either. Under the principle of equal exchange, he must satisfy the desire of the other party,” Zhang Quan laughed and waved his hand. “No matter what the temptation is, the other party must use some way to satisfy this person’s desire, which means, he can’t eat his words, and that’s the fundamental rule of the devil path.”

“In that case, the rules of the devil path are more reliable than those in the human world.” After Zhou Yuan heard this, he laughed, “I’ve been swindled countless times when I bought things online.”

“Err …” Hao Ning did not expect Zhou Yuan to say this, and he could not react to what was wrong. “Don’t be so cynical, okay? Forget about this, so the reason why Qili’s soul was cut off is that his desires are satisfied? ”

“Yep, he desires to do whatever he wants after obtaining martial arts, isn’t it?” Zhang Quan found a chair to sit on and crossed his legs. He looked completely different from Zhang Chihang’s usual elegant demeanor, “It just so happens that the other party took out from a certain book the incense everyone believes in, so it’s nothing strange for him to give Qili some martial arts.” As he spoke, he looked at Hao Ning and asked a question in reply, “Didn’t you also get the same kind of ability through your Lend Me Your Mana ability, which allowed you to learn so many martial arts?”

“Me?” Hao Ning was startled, “I thought I was …”

“Do you think you’re the only one in the world?” Zhang Quan sneered.