CHAPTER 532: CHAPTER 42: PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING FOR THE RICH YOUNG LADY

Back at the Lysine Building, Aske settled back into his rocking chair while Peggy continued dutifully to push it from behind.

"How much do you like this rocking chair?" Eleanor commented, "Why don’t we just talk to Nora about taking it back to Fire Island?"

"It’s not the rocking chair I like," Aske said, "I just want to rest."

In fact, within the entire main storyline of "Song of Iron and Fire," the universally acknowledged most difficult part was the Church Court expansion pack.

Thus, since last year when he arrived in this world, everything Aske had planned, including finding teammates, training, actual combat, and dungeon raids, was all to successfully get through the Church Court campaign.

Now that the biggest crisis had been resolved and the team had almost reached the critical point of everyone being Level 10, Aske didn’t need to worry too much about their strength, allowing him finally to take a breath and rest properly.

This year had deepened Aske’s understanding that this world and the game world of "Song of Iron and Fire" had considerable differences.

That difference was the existence of the players.

Players as a whole were a very utilitarian group; most played the game with two goals: the sense of achievement from leveling up and the thrill of crushing the enemies after leveling.

The former necessitated that players constantly feel the achievement of "I am getting stronger" from the game, and this required players’ leveling speed to be fast.

The latter required NPCs’ leveling speed to be slower than the players’ so that "NPCs I couldn’t beat before", "can be easily crushed after leveling up," allowing players to obtain the thrill of "I am powerful."

Thus, at the third expansion pack of "Song of Iron and Fire," when the level limit was Lv. 15, mainstream players’ levels had generally surpassed those of the Sixth Epoch mainstream NPCs Transcendents.

After all, NPCs had to run around everywhere to collect recipes and materials, whereas players had dungeon guides, teleportation arrays, and Undying Bodies that allowed for endless trial and error, so they almost immediately left the new generation of Low Rank Transcendents behind.

However, they couldn’t defeat those ancient Demigod old freaks, and therefore, a storm of negative reviews even erupted for a short period as players complained all over game forums, bar forums, and group chats, about there being no monsters to defeat.

The game’s third expansion pack, "Expedition to Church Court," emerged against such a market backdrop—using an army of Synthetic Humans and Mechanical Drones to consume the excessive energy of high-level players.

After the Expedition to Church Court ended, the third Magic Tide pushed the level limit to Lv. 20, and players began frantically chasing after training hours, trying to promote themselves to Demigods and then engaging in PvP, so during this period, the game company refrained from launching any super-hard campaigns to draw criticism.

Which meant, the latter half of the year 242 of the Sixth Epoch was a tranquil six months, with players simply dungeon raiding, leveling up, and engaging in PvP, lacking any significant plot events worth noting.

However, in this world without players, Aske naturally didn’t have to worry about PvP issues. He methodically condensed laws, comprehended leveling up, conducted daily practical training, and occasionally tended to his team members’ psychological issues.

As for the next full-scale war "Undead Heavenly Disaster," that wouldn’t happen until the start of year 243, still six months away—really not a rush.

Aske, who had everything figured out, was feeling sleepy when he saw Nora come back from outside.

"Aske," Nora greeted him and said, "I went to Sicily Island to see my parents today."

"Did they forgive you for running away from home?" Aske lazily asked.

"Of course not!" Nora almost got sidetracked by his question but recovered and said, "They want to meet you."

Peggy: !!!

Eleanor: !!!

The two girls nearby perked up their ears, only to hear Aske puzzledly asking, "Meet me for what?"

"Probably to thank you for looking after me this year," Nora said with a light smile.

I don’t think it’s that simple. Peggy eyed Nora suspiciously, trying to search for any suspicious signs in her smile.

Eleanor indeed felt confused, but quickly suppressed her myriad thoughts with willpower, pretending to casually look at the advertisement videos outside.

"So, what do you think?" Aske asked without any suspicion, "Shall I go to them, or?"

"They will be returning to the villa in Iron Port Town tomorrow, and they’ll pass through Solomon City on their way; you and I can meet them then," Nora responded.

"Nora, can I come too?" Peggy asked eagerly.

"Of course," Nora fully grasped the Blood Clan girl’s thoughts but didn’t mind at all, "I’ll introduce all our team members to my parents then."

Peggy’s face eased, and Eleanor also secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"By the way," Nora said earnestly, "I have something else to discuss with you privately."

Peggy and Eleanor: !!!

Discussing private matters? What private matters? Could it be something indecent? Why discuss it in private? Have you guys hidden something from me, how far has this developed?

"It’s probably about the level promotion," Aske said with a smile, "Medea gave me your last bottle of Magic Potion."

Oh, so it’s about level promotion. The two girls relaxed again.

"No," Nora shook her head.

The two girls tensed up again.

"It’s about the Church Court," Nora said, frowning.

"I’m going back to Fire Island first, you can discuss slowly," Eleanor stood up, looking somewhat exhausted.

She couldn’t stay any longer without risking a heart attack.

"I want to stay here," Peggy stubbornly said.

"Okay," Nora smiled softly, utterly indifferent to the slight hostility Peggy showed.

"Here’s the thing," she looked at Aske who was lying on the rocking chair and spoke seriously, "Aske, you know that the higher the level of a Transcendent, the stronger their tendency to lose control, right?"

"Yeah," Aske said.

"Doesn’t that mean the more we promote to higher levels, the higher the risk of losing control?" Nora said worriedly, "And the higher the level, the greater the harm from losing control, right?"

"Correct," Aske said leisurely, "So do you think that leveling up is a wrong thing? Do you even think Transcendents shouldn’t exist?"

Nora smiled sheepishly, Squad Leader, you indeed understand my thoughts.

"Firstly, we have to acknowledge what you just mentioned, those facts are indisputable," Aske said methodically, "Promotion does indeed pose some potential harm to ourselves and those around us."

"But analyzing something shouldn’t only focus on its harmful aspects, but also on the benefits it can create, which is the so-called cost-benefit analysis."

"If, after calculating the benefits, the dangers or risks are acceptable, then we consider the cost, also known as the cost-effectiveness."

"If the benefits outweigh the harms, and the cost-effectiveness is the highest among all options, then I would choose to prioritize doing it."

"Oh," Nora looked at him thoughtfully, feeling like something that had been bothering her had been punctured.

"Promotion indeed has various harms, we can’t deny objective facts," Aske continued, "However, even if we recognize reality, we can only adjust our strategies, but can’t influence others’ strategies."

"That is to say, even if you give up on advancing, there will still be countless people in this world who are constantly pursuing any opportunity to become stronger."

"They promote, they lose control; they perish, they turn into Mutants."

"And by then, if you lack the corresponding strength, you won’t even have the chance to stop them."

"Aske, are you saying..." Nora finally saw the light.

"Even if you really think one day that Transcendents shouldn’t continue to exist in the world, you have to first possess the strength to enforce your own will, to have the qualification to change this world, and push it towards the direction you hope for," Aske said leisurely.

"Rather than neutering yourself first, and then hoping others will neuter themselves along with you. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I understand!" Nora shouted, pumping her fists excitedly in encouragement, "I need to become stronger!"

"Exactly," Aske took out the "Life IV" Magic Potion Medea had given him and handed it to the confident Nora, "Take it."

"When Medea returns, let her and Eleanor watch over you, drink this to promote to Lv.10, and then train hard."

"Okay," Nora couldn’t wait and headed for Fire Island.

Aske closed his eyes again, letting Peggy push his rocking chair, only hearing the hesitant question from the Blood Clan girl:

"Aske, does being stronger solve a hundred percent of the problems in this world?"

"Not quite that absolute," Aske said instinctively.

"Hmm, probably ninety-nine percent," he thought for a while, then answered.