56: Chapter 56 Maya Kneeling

Chen Mu was a bit dazed seeing this: "What's wrong? Maya, did something happen?"

"Chen Mu," her voice was hoarse, "does your promise about owing me a favor still count?"

Chen Mu adjusted himself to face her squarely: "Of course it counts."

She said while crying, "I know humanity has lost, so I want to beg you, could you please let go of those who were disrespectful to you in the past?"

"I know they were wrong, but please, I beg you not to punish them. They are just ignorant; they just don't know what they are facing."

Chen Mu looked at her and asked in confusion, "Don't you hate them? I remember a group of people burned down your house."

"I used to resent them a bit," Maya spoke slowly. "I even thought that if I had been there, I would have opened fire; I would have broken their legs."

"But now, I am more afraid of them actually being massacred under your orders."

Chen Mu raised an eyebrow: "Oh?"

Maya took a deep breath: "When I was in school, I saw pictures of one brutal massacre after another."

"Black and white photos in textbooks, mountains of corpses, mass graves, and the hollow eyes of children."

"At that time, I thought it was history, the past, a savagery that humanity had already evolved away from."

Her Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty: "Later, when I became a police officer, I also saw many dark sides of human nature."

"I've seen college students stab their roommates to death for a few hundred dollars, neighbors smash the heads of their own kind during riots, and people who were usually gentle turn into beasts in collective hysteria."

Maya looked up, her gaze fixed on Chen Mu's face like a nail: "Until then, I realized that humans are actually creatures that can't even tolerate their own kind."

"If you order a purge of those who were disrespectful to you, the massacre will inevitably expand without end."

"Today you kill those holding signs, those cursing, those making videos; tomorrow you will kill their families, and the day after you will kill those who sympathize with them."

"After that, a wrong word or a wrong look will cost a life. Hatred and fear will spread like wildfire, burning from New York to London, from Moscow to Dongda. No one will be able to control the blaze."

Her fingers tightened on her phone: "By then, I'm afraid hundreds of millions will die, not from the fire of an alien fleet, but from humanity's own internal purges, snitching, revenge, and madness."

"My house, the favor owed to me, my grievances." She let go, letting the phone slide to the floor. "Compared to the weight of hundreds of millions of lives, they are nothing."

Chen Mu stood before her, looking down at her. This scene was completely beyond his expectations. Regarding the situation Maya described, he admitted it made sense; the literary inquisitions of the Qing Dynasty in his previous life were a typical example.

But he had never thought of massacring these people, because during this time, he had once again summarized a pattern of the fear value.

That is, in the process of public opinion dissemination, only those with extremely intense emotions generate fear value, while the rest, even if they do, produce very little.

Similar to his previous life: "What do national affairs have to do with my three-thousand-yuan monthly salary? Whether aliens rule or not, will it let me skip work tomorrow?"

These people are already numb from the hustle and bustle of life; unless you can truly change their current situation, they won't generate any fear value at all.

From this perspective, those who cursed Chen Mu before are precisely the base that provides him with fear value. Therefore, not only can Chen Mu not kill them, but he also has to try his best to stir up their emotions.

Moreover, those who have cursed him number in the tens of millions, if not a hundred million. If a real massacre began, he was afraid the Blue Star Civilization would be scared witless and everyone would become numb.

However, agreeing directly would make him seem too easy-going, so he decided to play a little game.

Chen Mu leaned back in his chair, his fingertips tapping the armrest.

He pulled a coin from his pocket, flipped it twice between his knuckles, and suddenly spoke expressionlessly: "Maya, their previous behavior indeed made me very angry."

Maya knelt on the ground, her back instantly tensing up.

"But since I promised I owe you a favor," Chen Mu stood up, flicking the coin with his thumb, tracing a dazzling arc of light, "I can give you a chance to save them."

The coin clinked back into his palm and was flipped onto the back of his hand.

He looked up at Maya expressionlessly: "Heads, they live; tails, I won't leave a single one."

Maya's whole body trembled: "I..."

"Guess quickly." Chen Mu's voice was like a knife through butter. "Heads, or tails?"

Maya opened her mouth, her eyes fixed on the hand covering the coin.

"Hea—" she blurted out, then suddenly bit her lower lip.

Maya's heartbeat was so loud it seemed to fill the entire reception room. She remembered the mass graves in textbooks and the victims torn apart by mob violence in police files; it was as if the painful wails of hundreds of millions were ringing in her ears.

"Tai—" she changed her mind, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.

Chen Mu's brow furrowed impatiently: "Hurry up, heads or tails?"

"Heads." Her voice was hoarse but firm. "Heads."

Chen Mu stared at her, his pupils like two deep wells: "Are you sure you won't change it?"

"I'm not changing it."

Chen Mu opened a crack with his hand and glanced at it; the tails side of the coin lay quietly on the back of his hand.

He stuffed the coin back into his pants pocket: "You win!"

"Go see how the kitchen is doing." Chen Mu had already sat back and started swiping on his phone, as if the gamble involving the lives of hundreds of millions was just a boring pre-meal pastime.

Maya didn't move; her legs were still weak, as if she had just finished a marathon, and she couldn't stand up at all.

After a long while, Maya slowly stood up. She looked at Chen Mu, who was tweeting, and understood in her heart: whether the coin was heads or tails never mattered; what mattered was the person holding the coin deciding which side would face up.

"Thank you!" Maya softly closed the door.

[Ambassador of Guga Planet: Hello, residents of Blue Star.]

[Just now, the kind Ms. Maya came to me to plead for those who acted excessively over the past week.]

[She knelt before me, begging me not to punish those who cursed me online, held signs against me in the streets, or made videos mocking me.]

[I agreed.]

[I hereby clearly inform everyone: First, I previously promised the Mr. President that I would not punish anyone for any remarks made on the internet. This includes photoshopping me into various images, making hero videos for Thompson, and all comments cursing me in the Twitter comment section.]

[Freedom of speech is a tradition of your civilization, and I respect it. You can say anything online; I will not turn off your sun because of it.]

[Second, what you really did wrong was disturbing my sleep. For a whole week, you started shouting slogans at seven every morning. Also, you burned down Ms. Maya's house. She is a kind person, yet you burned her house.]

[But Ms. Maya does not hold a grudge; she is willing to forgive you, so I forgive you as well.]

[Third, from now on, you may continue to speak freely on the internet; I will not interfere.]

[But if anyone harms us in any form in reality again—whether it's targeting Ms. Maya, myself, or any staff working for the Embassy of Guga Planet on Blue Star—you know the consequences.]

[I wish you all a pleasant lunch.]