Liao Ke asked, "You are feeling sad because of Bai Liu's sadness, but you are not actually sad yourself, right?"
The stethoscope hummed.
Liao Ke lowered his head and wrote, "You and Bai Liu have empathized."
The stethoscope asked, "What is empathy?"
"Empathy occurs when two people have similar experiences, or when the other person holds a special meaning to you, which enables you to resonate with their emotions," Liao Ke wrote in his notebook. "Spades, do you know why you feel sad because of Bai Liu's sadness?"
The stethoscope answered honestly, "I don't know."
"You actually lack the foundation for empathy. Your experiences are too blank, which makes it impossible for you to imagine what another person would feel in a given situation based on your own experiences."
Liao Ke explained, "Most empathy is based on mutual understanding, but that doesn't apply to you and Bai Liu. You don't understand Bai Liu—or, in other words, you don't understand anyone. You don't even understand the mechanisms of human emotion."
"So it's very strange that empathy appears in you." Liao Ke raised his eyes. "Based on my understanding of you, I think the only explanation is—"
"You are instinctively sensing Bai Liu's emotions."
"But correspondingly, although you can feel them, you have no way to process such complicated emotions." Liao Ke smiled. "To use an analogy, if Bai Liu's emotions are special data, and you are a computer that lacks the ability to process that data, then the influx of it will cause you to have a very unusual reaction."
The stethoscope asked, "What kind of reaction?"
"In order to process this special data, you will also keep generating special data in response," Liao Ke said gently. "Sometimes people fall in love with those who love them, and hate those who hate them. This is a form of human emotional feedback. You sense the other person's emotions, and accordingly, you generate emotions to respond."
"Bai Liu is sad for you, so you also become sad for Bai Liu."
Liao Ke continued, "But we need to find the source of this empathy together. Among all the people around you, Spades, why did you instinctively—or subconsciously—choose Bai Liu instead of others as the person whose emotions you feel?"
The stethoscope seemed to be thinking and drooped slightly. "Bai Liu… is different from others."
"How is he different?" Liao Ke asked softly. "This question may be difficult for you to answer, Spades. Let's examine the progressive relationships around you to explore why Bai Liu is different."
"For example, the strangers in the game pool—what is the difference between them and Bai Liu to you? Why don't you choose to empathize with them?"
The stethoscope was silent for a long time. "These people are afraid of me."
Liao Ke nodded in understanding. "Because these people fear you, there is a natural barrier to empathy between you. They harbor ill will toward you, so you shield yourself from them."
"In fact, under normal circumstances, if Spades were a human who grew up in a typical environment, his first reaction to being feared by a large crowd would be to internalize it. He would subconsciously begin to fear and hate himself, align his thoughts with those of other humans, seek a sense of belonging, and try to avoid being isolated by the group."
"Humans are social animals and instinctively avoid loneliness—but Spades is not like that."
Liao Ke looked at the Reverse God beside him. "Spades must have always lived in an environment where he was severely excluded. He is accustomed to that state. So when he is widely feared, he simply considers it normal and ignores it, rather than seeking recognition from those who fear him."
"I want to ask you, Reverse God—do you know the circumstances of Spades' birth?"
The Reverse God silently clasped his hands together and rested them against his nose. After a pause, he spoke.
"This Spades guy… logged into the system from the single-player game in Siren Town."
"Tawil, the previous evil god, once became good friends with a human. After being forced into a deep sleep and falling, he drifted into the real Siren Town map."
"From that time on, the new evil god punished Tawil by letting him drift between various games in a dormant state. He was beaten by players as a wandering god-level NPC and was also cut into various 'evil origins' to create and design game instances."
"In order to return and find that human, Tawil went back to the Siren Town where he had first drifted into a game instance. While the new evil god was distracted searching for his successor, Tawil severed his soul and flesh there."
"Tawil allowed his soul to remain trapped in the game and suffer forever, while his body transformed into human form, slipped in when a group of new players logged in, and ultimately entered the game through a dead player's small TV."
Liao Ke seemed to realize something. "Earlier, people said there was an extra small TV in the new single-player instance, and it was blocked so the content couldn't be seen. Were they referring to Spades?"
The Reverse God hummed in confirmation. "Spades was born from Tawil's mermaid body. When he was born, although the player and the main NPCs were already dead, the game itself was nearly completed."
"That means the residents of Siren Town had basically regained their normal consciousness and were ordinary humans again. They knew their tragedy had been caused by the mermaid captured at the beginning—Tawil. So they were extremely afraid of and repulsed by Spades, who was born from Tawil's body."
"…The townspeople tried many ways to kill Spades—burning him with fire, cutting him with knives. But his resistance was too high. None of it could hurt him, and he didn't feel any pain."
The Reverse God took a deep breath. "From beginning to end, Spades never resisted. Or rather, he didn't understand what was happening. He simply let the townspeople do as they wished."
"But when they failed to kill him, their extreme fear drove them mad."
"They lined up in front of Spades, shouting at him with twisted, crazed faces, 'You're a monster!'—and then collectively slit their own throats."
"Later, Spades searched their bodies, found the dead player's corpse, took his system coin, and logged into the game covered in blood."
Liao Ke nodded thoughtfully, then turned to Spades. "Spades, why don't you choose your teammates as objects of empathy? They aren't afraid of you."
The stethoscope lowered its head as if thinking seriously, then replied, "They don't generate special data for me."
Liao Ke laughed softly. "You're using my earlier analogy, aren't you? Feelings toward you are data—but your teammates' feelings aren't strong enough to cause you to generate special data in return."
"That's normal," Liao Ke mused. "Like strangers in human society, there is distance. But your teammates' feelings toward you should be stronger than those of strangers. You should be able to sense them somewhat. And they've been with you much longer than Bai Liu has. Why can't you respond to them, but you can respond to Bai Liu?"
This time, the stethoscope was silent for a while before answering.
"Because… the first time I met Bai Liu, he smiled at me."
"I felt like he wanted me to hug him."
"I felt like he didn't want me to leave—like he wanted to stay with me forever."
"Other people aren't like that. They're not afraid of me, but they don't want to hug me or stay with me forever."
"Only Bai Liu generates this kind of special data for me."
Liao Ke and the Reverse God were both silent for a moment before Liao Ke continued, "The special data Bai Liu gives you feels different from what others—like your teammates—give you, right?"
"Yeah," the stethoscope answered quickly.
Liao Ke went on, "Can you compare the feeling this special data gives you to something?"
The stethoscope paused. "When Bai Liu first met me, he held my wrist."
"It was warm."
Liao Ke lowered his head and continued writing in the notebook. Then he looked up at the Reverse God. "I've finished asking my questions. I believe you now understand Spades' psychological issue. Do I need to say it out loud?"
The Reverse God held his forehead and sighed helplessly. "Although I suspected it during the game, now that it's confirmed, I still feel a little…"
Liao Ke smiled. He stood up, loosened the restraints securing Spades, then turned and patted the Reverse God on the shoulder. "It's complicated, right? When my youngest daughter first told me she had a crush on someone, I felt the same way."
"On one hand, I was glad she had grown up and found someone she liked." Liao Ke turned to look at Spades, smiling faintly. "On the other hand, I was worried this fool would fall in love with the wrong person."
"But fortunately, you two can understand each other easily." Suddenly, Liao Ke reached out, grabbed the Reverse God's forearm, and yanked it outward forcefully. "I think I should provide psychological counseling not only to Spades—but to you as well."
Caught off guard, the Reverse God hissed in pain as his arm was pulled forward. Bloody whip marks covered his hands.
Liao Ke raised his eyes and looked at him steadily. "You can fool Bai Yi by saying you weren't injured, but you can't fool a professional like me. What are these whip marks? Why are you the one who's wounded?"
The Reverse God paused, then pulled his hand back and forced a slightly aggrieved smile. "What else could it be? When I was about to log out of the game, that bastard Spades suddenly went crazy and lashed at me with a broken whip. I was caught off guard and didn't have time to react. I got injured and was kicked out of the game."
Liao Ke continued to stare at him. "The wounds on your body and the ones on Spades' body are the same type of whip marks—with barbs. Spades' whip doesn't look like that."
The Reverse God sat on the back of the sofa, lowered his head, and remained silent for a long time.
Blood from the whip marks dripped slowly onto the floor.