"But in exchange, I cannot directly interfere with anything."
Aidan shook his head and spoke.
"What does that mean...?"
"To put it simply, I am now a rule. If you don't take the initiative to touch the rules, then I can't do anything," Aidan explained to everyone. "Suppose there is a standard. As long as you remain within the allowed range of that standard, no matter how excessive your actions are, as long as you don't cross the line, I cannot interfere with you directly."
"You're like a passively triggered security system now," Welt summarized.
"Exactly. However—I just can't use direct means. It doesn't mean I can't use indirect ones."
Aidan floated up and sat cross-legged in the air.
"Indirect means? What are those?"
"I can use you as a standard to create an opposite version of yourself, with identical strength but a completely opposite personality, letting you fight yourself. That's the most obvious way. A less obvious way would be for me to tamper with certain aspects of you that you wouldn't notice. For example—I could tip the scales of the Interstellar Peace Corporation's wealth right now, returning 1% of their riches to the people of the galaxy."
For a moment, Dan Heng didn't know what to say, his eyes only widening slightly in shock.
"Returning the Corporation's wealth to the people of the galaxy" sounded simple, but the Interstellar Peace Corporation controlled the vast majority of resources in the entire galaxy. Just 1% was already an unimaginable amount.
"You... can do that?"
"I can, but not right now, because it's not necessary."
"...Not necessary?"
"Because the Interstellar Peace Corporation's wealth scales have already been tipped before."
If the hand of equilibrium hadn't moved against the Interstellar Peace Corporation before, the wealth of the entire galaxy would belong to them by now.
"Then what if someone wanted to destroy the galaxy?" Stelle suddenly asked. "What would happen then?"
"In that case, I would have to let the Arbitrators exercise the power of equilibrium. When an inclination reaches a certain extreme, [equilibrium] will give rise to an equal amount of power to counteract it. It's not because of me, but because that's how the rules themselves operate."
"So what can you do now? With such a powerful state, you must be able to do something, right?"
"I'm sorry, I can't do anything. I can only maintain the balance of the galaxy on a macroscopic level. Although powerful, there are strict limitations."
Stelle leaned in and poked Aidan's chest with her finger. Her finger passed right through, hitting nothing. Curiously, she stuck her whole hand in, waving it back and forth inside Aidan's virtual chest.
Checking the camera work here.
"I really can't feel anything."
"While I'm chatting with you all, the other half of my mind is actually dealing with issues on the other side of the galaxy. There are too many ambiguous problems in this world; many things have no absolute right or wrong."
Aidan shook his head gently.
March 7th watched the hand going in and out of Aidan's chest with a look of helplessness.
"Can you stop playing? It's kind of creepy."
"But it's really fun." Stelle poked it twice more before reluctantly withdrawing her hand. "Alright, alright, I'll stop. Time to get some rest."
— — —
"It's been three days since I last heard Mr. Yang tell stories from his hometown. Even though he hasn't seemed very fond of using his powers to show us movies lately, his stories are still really exciting."
Stelle rubbed her hands together and sat on the sofa opposite Welt.
"Mr. Yang, Mr. Yang, tell us more about you and that Overseer of Schicksal."
Dan Heng sat to Stelle's left, and March 7th sat to her right.
Leading a yellow dog on the left and a falcon on the right.
Question: What does 'yellow' refer to?
1. A yellow dog
2. Teacher Danheng
Stelle would, of course, choose Dan Heng without hesitation.
"Ahem, since you all want to hear it so much, I'll continue the story today."
Welt pushed up his glasses.
Aidan wasn't from the same world as him, so even if there were discrepancies in history, it was inevitable. After all, there are always small differences between worlds, right? Sometimes different histories are understandable.
"Where did I leave off yesterday?"
"You were at the part where Otto, the Overseer of Schicksal, disguised himself as a clown-masked man to backstab you, and you dodged it with an Indian-level sidestep."
March 7th raised her hand and spoke.
"And you also saved Siegfried, who was right next to you and couldn't dodge in time."
Stelle added.
"Ah, right, right."
Welt nodded.
"Unfortunately, I still wasn't strong enough, otherwise I wouldn't have fallen for his tricks later."
Right?
Right.
Embellishing these small details was harmless.
Besides, he couldn't make Otto out to be too weak.
He couldn't exactly say he was almost killed by a sneak attack back then.
Welt shook his head.
Sigh, saying it out loud would be a bit of a blow to his reputation in his old age.
Without realizing it, Welt had become a bit inclined toward Elation.
Could it be that this was actually Aidan's ability from his Elation form a couple of days ago? To subtly change others' consciousness and thinking patterns—that would be too overpowered, too strong, and too unbelievable!
But that wasn't the case.
In fact, it was simply that Welt himself wanted to do it.
It had absolutely nothing to do with the power of Elation.
Elation, you are so weak.
Once you understood what kind of person he was, you wouldn't think it strange for Old Yang to quietly give himself a bit more spotlight.
"Mr. Yang is the best!" Stelle gave a thumbs up.
"Mr. Yang is so amazing!" March 7th clapped.
Welt waved his hand with a "it's not worth mentioning" expression.
"By the way, Mr. Yang, what happened to that Otto later? Was he finally brought to justice?"
This question made Welt fall silent for two seconds.
"His end..." Welt took off his glasses to wipe them before putting them back on. "It's quite complicated. He did many bad things, but he also truly did a lot for that world. In the end, he fulfilled his wish in his own way... From a human perspective, he could be considered a pioneer in the fight against disaster, but that doesn't negate the crimes he committed."
Welt leaned back against the sofa.
"..."
No.
That guy Otto was so disgusting when he was alive, and even after death, he left behind so many shadows that Welt couldn't even sleep well.
Eh.
A lightbulb went off over Welt's head.
He was a history teacher.
This was right up his alley.
Of course, he wouldn't beautify or whitewash everything Otto had done, nor would he cover up the terrible things he'd committed...
However, adding a bit of reasonable speculation is also a part of history, right?