BornAndTorn 144 How To Provoke Your Enemies 101

People have grown suspicious about my behaviour and are now wary about all of my antics. This makes it harder for me to manipulate them. By doing the same thing over and over again, even the most thickheaded players will notice a trend.

Even if it's just a hunch, that listening to me will not do them any good. Once they have the slightest feeling that something is amiss they will act carefully. And who would want the enemy to think about the situation?

" Stop trying to sound so smart and tell me your plan"

Patience is required if you want to succeed. Your current behaviour is not any better than the one your previous hosts have shown. I still think that you are nothing more than a fabrication of my mind, but for the sake of the conversation, I will gloss over that detail for now.

When someone has made up their mind it is useless to go against it. The amount of effort it would take to convince them is just not worth it. Instead, it is much easier to fulfil their expectations and work with them.

a.n.a.lyze the enemy, seek for potential weaknesses to exploit and divert their attention. They should not even question all of your actions. As long as everything develops in accordance with their expectations, then it is already won. I am not here to prove myself, I am here to survive.

I have said it before but worrying about honour and morals is a luxury I do not possess. If I have to fall on my knees and lick their shoes then I will make sure that these darn shoes will look spotless in the end.

Everything that ensures my survival will have to be done. In this scenario, I could still persist and struggle on for quite a while if give it my all. This can only be achieved by disregarding the toll it would have on my body. Which in return makes this method absolutely useless.

My initial strategy was to buy enough time until everyone has left down their guard before the insects will drop my makeshift bomb onto them. This option would surely have a lasting impact but should only be considered as a last resort since the outside of the town is full of players.

This is a complicated situation which requires delicate planning otherwise I might run into another danger I can not account for if I act carelessly. Not only do I have to take care of these 7 monsters in front of me but also of every danger lurking on the outside. You must have noticed the extra person as well.

" Wipe that s.h.i.tty grin of your face."

Yes, there is someone lurking in the shadows. Just because I can not see the player, does not mean that I can not see the location. It is easy to deduce their position, judging by the effects their steps have on the ground. They still give themselves away by the noise they produce.

I will have to be careful not to let my guard down since my enemy is only waiting for the right time to strike. On the other hand, I am also unable to strike preemptively since I am still kept busy by the other players who are ought to kill me.

I might be able to borrow their magic to get rid of the problem. I can make it seem like an accident since I will just dodge the wave of attacks thrown by the enemy. That way I can reduce the risk significantly. The choice to dodge the threat coming to them or risking it all to attack me is an easy one to make.

Although this path would surely be able to buy me some time it does not solve the core problem. I need a method to get rid of these players in one way or another. Killing them one by one would require too much time and would result in too many injuries on my side.

Trying to turn them on one another would take too much time and the odds of me succeeding are not that high, to begin with. They are way too doubtful about my antics for such a strategy to work out in my favour. Besides Laura is way too familiar with that kind of approach.

I did not expect her to refrain from partic.i.p.ating in this kind of battle. I need to figure out the reason, why she is content with just spectating the battles. It might be related due to her ability to copy the magic of others. Yet, her eyes are constantly focussed on me. what is she planning?

It is very hard to predict her next action as her motivation is entirely unknown as of now. Seems like I will have to draw her attention to something else. What could I do, that would surely catch her attention? Shame I already outed myself as the real Moirai, otherwise, I could sacrifice one of my clones.

Though I still could cause a lot of confusion by taking that statement back. By pretending, that I was just the test for them, to prove their worth. Add some over the top dramatic acting on top of it and they will most likely start to question everything. Especially If I do not act like the fierce enemy they had imagined me to be.

Afterwards, I would bow and lower myself in front of a random Moirai and declare that they have proven their abilities. Some words of praise later I would make him out to be the real Moira. I need to convince them that something is amiss. It would be best if they did not see me as the object of their desire anymore, but I can not hope for the best-case scenario.

But once their attention is drawn away, I can begin to act. It is not easy to distinguish me from all of my clones. So if absolute chaos breaks out they will never find me. How do they plan to catch me if every Moirai runs away from them?

" How do you plan on achieving that?"

Just let me finish. I would have given you my plan in the next sentence, yet you could not help yourself but interrupting me.

To persuade these Moirai is real simple. Just do not try to convince them at all. Everything these guys did was copy my behaviour and leaving the town to never return. So in order to create the desired effect, I will make the players force them to. Can those NPCs truly stand still if they are attacked?

To ensure that the wave of attacks. .h.i.ts my clones is rather simple, all I need to do is hide in a small crowd of players while I get attacked by the players. The magic will cover the entire crowd since those egoistic morons consider my clones to be beneath their notice.

How exactly those NPCs might react to such an act is something that I can not predict. But I am certain that they will at least show a reaction. If not then I have to resort to different means. I could try and use my newly gained fanatics to sacrifice their lives to buy me some time.

While they can not be compared to any magician they are by no means weak. Someone will have to pay the price, after all, nothing in this world is for free. Success is built on the pain and suffering of others. One mans gain means one mans loss.

I could also hide underneath the mountain of corpses, should my clones refuse to act. If I let the bomb drop I can make sure, that enough casualties occur. Or I could exploit CallMeDaddy and make another interesting proclamation to spiral all of this out of control.

I am sure, that the current situation would not last long if I were to spread some interesting rumours about the purpose of my existence. Since most people still see this as part of a game, then I will have to add some spice.

Long lost magic, that one Moirai carries with him sounds very promising, but not very feasible. It needs to have as much appeal but should not be that implausible. The secret to my strength or being able to recruit me would never be enough to make them go crazy.

These religious nutjobs need something, which they absolutely can not refuse. What is tempting enough to cause these people to forsake their honour and do their utmost to obtain it? This is not restricted to being a real item, it can be something illusionary. If their honour is not enough then we have to get one step further.

The logical next target would be their faith. if everything they do is for or caused by their specific G.o.ds, then this will be more than enough to motivate them. And by "motivate" I mean to provoke them until they have lost their minds.

I am sure they will not react too kindly If I start to blaspheme their G.o.ds directly and make fun of them. The pure imagination is pure bliss. Looking into the stream of CallMeDaddy staring directly into the soul of every viewer only to proclaim in a dramatic fashion. " Your G.o.ds do not exist and if by any chance they do, then they would have never settled for you sc.u.m. Your absolute devotion and faith is nothing more than a bad joke."

I would love to give a speech right in front of everyone and watch the chaos unfold with my very own eyes. It would be one h.e.l.l of a show. Why do you look at me as if I had lost my mind?

" I would advice against picking such an approach. You are not strong enough to endure the backlash. You are messing with forces you can not possibly imagine."

You should know by now, that threats like this are absolutely useless. Every strategy has its inherent risks and potential dangers, so what's the use of not using such a strategy if it were to cost me my life?

Once I die it is all over, so spare me the trouble. For every action, I take I will have to bear the repercussions, so what about messing with forces I do not understand? Should I just lay my life down because it would create less trouble?

Why should I give up everything and quietly disappear? Why should not have the right to strive for living yet another day? Why should I be the one who needs to change on the whims of others? Tell me, why am I the one who has to suffer, while they are just playing a game.

Let me tell you why actually it is laughably simple. It is not my lack of strength or the knowledge I do not possess. This game I am forced to play was rigged from the start. The end, my death, is an absolute certainty.

Every minute I live, is a win against the overwhelming odds I am confronted with. Every single breath is a priceless treasure. Even the tiniest instant of time I manage to persevere is a wonder in itself. For they give me the chance to feel something.

Sorry, but I will not conform to anyone's whims if it means giving up on myself. I owe this much to the man who had to give up his life to show me my own inanity.

" Why have you given up on logic, just because I gave you a warning? Treating that path would only result in your death. The players would be the least of your worries if you were to anger the G.o.ds."

A long sigh escaped its mouth and its appearance returned back to looking like mine.

" With your att.i.tude, the G.o.ds would have obliterated you not long after you have opened your mouth. You see, questioning or cursing the G.o.ds is not something anyone does here. Which means, that your negative outlook would have drawn a lot of attention. And these old fools do not take lightly with criticism you can trust me on that one."

Its eyes began to twitch as if it was remembering something unpleasant. This change did not escape my eyes although it did not last long before it returned to its usual arrogance. The teaching resumed with its usual haughty att.i.tude.

" I did my best to follow your decisions and to use your tactics, but I did not imagine that it would invite that much trouble. It was my mistake to put any trust into a madman in the first place. Your thoughts and actions spell disaster and attract only trouble."

" Yet instead of learning from your mistakes, you try to solve the situation, by causing even more trouble. Why do you refuse to adapt and learn to solve the issues, without following your inherent desire to make a mess out of everything?

Now even fabrications of my mind began to criticize me. Getting lectured by your own mirage somehow made this experience feel so much worse. It became even more vexing since I could not find the words to refute it.

" As if it wasn't stressful enough to operate a human body, I am also forced to compensate for your behaviour so that we can both experience the coming day. It takes all my skill and ability to keep you alive and you still want to throw yourself headlong into disaster? Do you long so much for your untimely end? "

" The strategy you are following is actually a very clever one, but why did you have to antagonize so many people at the same time? Now it has spiralled out of all control."

If you were the one in control of my body. then why are you trying to shift the blame on me for attracting all of their ire? I am not claiming it would have been any better if I had been the one to do so, but do not pretend to be any better than me.

I don't think all these players would have let me live if I had been kind to them. Besides, I doubt I had any other choice but to p.i.s.s them off. Running away, would not have been possible because they would have never stopped their chasing.

Forgive me for saying this, but the present state of affairs would have been the same no matter what I had done. Therefore what-if scenarios are absolutely pointless. I need a path that leads to my survival, not anyone who is to blame.

While you rightfully criticize my actions, be aware that you had the final decision. that is as long as the claims done by you are the truth.

But one thing you should never forget. There are many different means and approaches to provocation. But they all serve the same purpose, to achieve the desired effect. If you only blindly focus on definitions then you are the sorely mistaken one.

Because the method is never truly as important as the goal you are striving for. Because right now, you are so focussed on my ideas that you lost sight of my goal. The goal is to survive. Provocations are only one method out of many.

If I can not insult the G.o.ds directly, then I will make the players think that I did. The end justifies the means, and that is how it has always been and always will be.