The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4260 Possession by an Evil Spirit (Forty)
Marlos was initially shocked. He raised his hands and backed into the house, shouting, "No! I'll give you anything you want, and there are police patrolling around the clock, you can't..."

“The police aren’t coming.” Kent pointed at his gun. Marlos glanced in the direction he was pointing, his pupils shrinking. That was standard police equipment. Was this bastard going to kill a cop and steal his gun?

“I’ll ask, you answer,” Kent said. “Who are you?”

“Me? I…” Marlos was momentarily at a loss for words, for the question was too strange. Kent had already come once before, and at that time he knew he was a senator. Whether he was there to rob him or to kill him, the question was meaningless.

Kent stared intently at him. He had a strong feeling that he hadn't made a mistake; this was the old man, Berg, he was looking for.

Unfortunately, he wasn't Batman and couldn't pinpoint the details of the other person's words and actions; he only had a vague feeling. And that obviously couldn't be used as evidence.

Kent took a deep breath. The situation was too complicated. If he couldn't find crucial evidence to expose the other side, they would never reveal their true colors. If they intended to keep up the act, then if Kent fired his gun, Kent would be the one in trouble.

To outsiders, Marlos was a senator. If Kent shot him, he would become a universally condemned criminal; after all, not many people would believe in theories like demonic possession, and Kent couldn't provide any decent evidence of ghosts.

Even if he kills Marlos, the evil spirit won't die with him; bullets can't kill ghosts, and he can simply switch bodies.

Kent's purpose in coming here was not to kill the evil spirit's body, but to force it to reveal itself. Because a group of ghosts were following him, and if old Berg showed himself, he could kill him using the power of the ghosts.

So how exactly do we force old Berg to show himself?
Kent had to start thinking: What would Batman do?

He must be very experienced in this area, because he's dealing with a bunch of lunatics in human skin. To defeat such people, shooting them won't work; he has to use psychological tactics.

At that moment, Kent understood Batman even better. Facing such a cunning monster every day, even a super brain might not be enough.

Kent forced himself to calm down. He quickly went through the whole story from beginning to end, and then realized that there was still only one puzzle that was difficult to solve: if it was old Berg who changed the rules of the mental world, why was he running away?
He changes the rules to his own advantage, to create the paradise he wants. So why doesn't he just lie in his paradise and enjoy it instead of coming out here to be a congressman?

As I said before, being a congressman isn't an easy job. While it's not exactly working day and night, there's certainly a fair share of work and social obligations every day. Compared to the ideal world of paradise, where one doesn't have to worry about survival and perfectly embodies old Berger's vision, the real world has absolutely nothing to offer. Yet he still came, which proves that something must have gone wrong there.

Kent didn't know what the problem was, but he knew it must be something that saddened old Berg. Whether it was the kind of problem he suspected, he could find out by asking.

“You don’t need to pretend anymore,” Kent said. “Berger, I know who you are and what you’ve done, but I didn’t expect you to come here. What, you can’t stand the act anymore?”

Kent sneered, looking Marlos in the eye, and said, "The ancestors of the Boulder family killed the Flying Angels, framed the animal trainers, and stole the circus from them, all to build your ideal heaven. But what was the result? You went through all this trouble to finally achieve your dream, only to find it was a pile of dog shit. You couldn't stand it anymore, so like cowards, you abandoned your so-called heaven and ran here."

"If you ask me, the circus really picked the right people to play clowns. Everything your Berg family has done from beginning to end has been nothing but a joke. From committing massacres to practicing dark magic, after several generations, you finally achieved your goal, only to create a complete laughing stock. I have to thank you, this is the funniest joke I've heard recently."

"Enough!" Marlos's face darkened, and he stared at Kent with a murderous expression. Kent knew he had guessed right.

Old Berger went to such great lengths to create a spiritual world that perfectly conformed to the doctrine, only to end up becoming a councilor in Westville. The reason might be quite simple: he himself couldn't stand that system anymore.

That's right. Even though he is the leader of a sect, and all the followers revolve around him, and he doesn't have to follow the doctrine to have a bunch of children, the world attributes he has created are already unbearable for him.

For example, in the spiritual world, there are no beverages like tea and coffee, no industrial drinks like cola, and certainly no alcohol. Moreover, there are no modern foods, not even modern, legal, and harmless seasonings. So, although you can taste the flavor of food, it can't possibly taste good.

Secondly, no books other than religious texts are allowed. There are no novels, no magazines, not even world classics. Furthermore, no artistic creation is permitted; at most, one can only sing hymns.

Then there was the lack of any modern entertainment equipment. Even when old Berg was young, there were radios and black-and-white televisions, movie theaters and videotapes, but there was nothing in the spiritual world, no modern facilities.

Therefore, in this spiritual world entirely governed by sectarian rules, all that everyone can do is gather together and chat, and the topics they can talk about are very limited: praising God, praising the sect leader, and praising this kind of church life.

Moreover, since children cannot be born in the spiritual world, they cannot even do things like raising and educating children to pass the time. Apart from church activities, they just sit around doing nothing.

If one were born into such an environment, it might be bearable, but who is old Berg? He used to be a star performer in a circus, traveling all over the country with the circus, visiting every major city, witnessing the extravagance of high society, and also coming into contact with the most advanced modern equipment.

The saying goes, "It's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality." He thought he was a very pure believer. In the real world, he couldn't completely isolate himself from modern society, so he created such an ideal world in his mind. But when he created it, he found that it was a ridiculous ideal world, it was just like being in prison.

At least in prison you can watch TV and read newspapers. After experiencing the entertainment of modern society with its information overload, no one can accept living like in a primitive society.

Moreover, the people in one's spiritual world remain the same; it's always the same people coming and going. This kind of performative socializing, no matter how interesting, will quickly become tiresome. Wasn't old Berg constantly running around?
“What do you know!” Marlos said through gritted teeth. “You have no idea what modern society has brought to people: suffering, hunger, death—things that should never have happened!”

Kent didn't understand what he meant at first. Malos looked at him and said, "I know you're from a big city, probably born into a wealthy family. You've never been to the underprivileged, you don't know what it's like there, how much people suffer, and you don't care at all."

“Those homeless people, those drug addicts, those prostitutes and their children, they blindly rush into this advanced society, they are committing suicide. The rich take everything from them, they give everything to those bastards in office buildings for their illusory dream of the big city. They abandon their hometowns, give up their simple lives, just to become fuel in the fireplace of the rich. I am saving them!”

"What's wrong with small-town life? What's wrong with church life? There are no gunfights, no homeless people, no one will freeze or starve to death, and everyone lives in a warm, big family. They won't run off to those cannibalistic places because of the propaganda of those unscrupulous media outlets. They can live a peaceful life in a small town!"

“If you hadn’t said that, I wouldn’t have found you so ridiculous,” Kent said, looking at Marlos. “If you didn’t have this whole theory, I would have just thought you were impulsive, occasionally having a flash of inspiration and coming up with a stupid idea that led to the current situation. But unfortunately, your stupidity is systematic.”

“You call this state of stability, but I prefer to call it stable backwardness and poverty. There is one point that you are fundamentally wrong about: the rich take everything from the poor, regardless of whether they live in the city or the countryside. It’s not that the rich in big cities only exploit the poor in big cities, nor that you are immune to this harm just because you hide in the countryside.”

“Let me give you an example. Kansas farms are rural enough, right? Farmers spend their whole lives on their land, living the kind of very stable rural life you’re describing. But do you know how much money grain buyers, agricultural machinery dealers, and seed companies take from them? At least 85%.”

“Grain buyers sign long-term contracts specifying the crops to be planted, but if the crop market is bad, they break the contracts and demand even lower prices. If you don't sign, all the crops will rot in the fields. Agricultural machinery dealers sell every piece of equipment at exorbitant prices, add all sorts of locks to ensure you can never repair them yourself, forcing you to buy expensive parts and pay for repairmen. Seed companies genetically modify seeds; you can't get good seeds without paying enough. Even agricultural protection associations set a bunch of industry standards for farmers; if you don't meet the standards, you can forget about selling a single grain of wheat.”

"The farmers' lives are very stable because they don't have much cash on hand. After a year of hard work, once they get their money, they immediately have to invest it in the following year's production. When the market is bad, a family might only have $20 left, and they would eat pea puree for three months straight. They lead a stable religious life because they have no other choice. Living a difficult life in poverty, religion can give them comfort. But if they had money, the warm waters of Hawaii and the beautiful scenery of the Alps would give them even more comfort."

"Pushing people into the quagmire of big cities is the same as trapping people in poverty in small cities. You are no different from the unscrupulous media that you claim lures people to big cities."