Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 1193 Prisoner’s Dilemma
The concept of superiority and inferiority among the harpy people is so absolute—

Once Chief Ewas's identity as the King of the Winged Ones was confirmed, he immediately gave up all his previous thoughts.

She knelt obediently on the ground, just like the harpies who knelt before her, trying to show her piety and loyalty in an almost humble manner. It was only after Aiwass helped her up that she sat back in her previous seat.

Erlo finally spoke, and told Aiwass the most precious thing in the desert - intelligence - without reservation.

"Although people call the forces that oppose the good master 'rebels', in fact they are not a unified organization. Even their philosophies, combat effectiveness, distribution and even race are completely different. Strictly speaking, the Dry Water Army can also be regarded as an unorganized organization.

"For example, the largest rebel organization near Holy Spring City is called the 'Original Sect'. They are united in a certain religious way and respect the will of the leader. Their hostility towards the good master is not particularly strong... or rather, they just hope to form a semi-independent organization like the Snake Temple with their slaves. They worship Yan Tiansi, stay away from cities and all civilizations, and don't even communicate with each other verbally. They live a carefree life like wild beasts.

"In Wanyu City, near the city with the name of 'Tens of Thousands of Joys', the 'Blood Eater Gang' was formed. It is an extreme human supremacist armed group. They rescued and collected a large number of human slaves, roaming around the oasis by plundering foreign resources. They also infiltrated a large number of free people into the gang and secretly provided them with resources in the city.

"They did not oppose the system of the ancient Parthian Empire itself, but wanted to plunder a 'city that belongs only to humans'. They would even capture foreign slaves and sell them to slave knights, or buy and rob some foreign slaves, and use and punish them at will. They would require those who joined the gang to eat a foreign child alive in public to prove that they were not determined to treat foreigners as their own kind."

Erlo's introduction to the "Blood-Eating Gang" was obviously a bit more detailed.

Apparently, the Harpy is on the Vampire Gang's menu as well.

In response to Aiwass's question, Erlo nodded without hesitation and answered: "I have a son who was caught and eaten by them.

“——If I have the chance, I will hang them up and tear them to pieces. I will feed their flesh and blood to all my compatriots who have had their families taken away from them.”

As the chief, Erlo did not waver in this matter: "Even if you stop me, I will definitely do it."

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That's what should happen."

Aiwass nodded slightly.

He then asked, "What about Paradise City and Hassan?"

"The organization near Paradise City is an evolution of the organization led by Hassan in the past. They don't have a clear organizational name... but people call it the 'Red Hand Faction'."

"Is it the 'Red Hand' that corresponds to the 'Flame Fist'?"

Aiwass asked.

Er Luo shook his head slightly: "Not entirely. Mainly because their ideas... are quite extreme.

"Hassan regards the Good Lord as the opposite, and regards 'fire', the opposite of 'water', as a symbol. Those who join the Red Hand are basically revengers whose families have been destroyed by the Good Lord and his subordinates. They are determined to destroy these cities at all costs.

"Those free men who obeyed the will of the good master were no different from puppets and slaves in their eyes. Even the free men were never truly free. It was only freedom kept in captivity by the good master. It was like the difference between sheep kept in a sheepfold and sheep free on the pasture."

Erlo said so.

Aiwass was a little surprised.

——You knew that those sheep were raised by others and not wild?
And Erlo continued: "Just as slaves are the property of their masters, if slaves do something wrong, they must go to their masters to settle accounts... Some things can be forgiven by punishing the slaves, but there are other things that the masters must pay the price for.

"Because slaves are the property of their masters. From this perspective, it is impossible to make slaves fight against their masters, or even to make slaves stand in the middle. Some insurgents and resistance forces will rescue slaves with a sense of justice, but then they will be betrayed and sold out by slaves... Those most legitimate resistance forces can hardly survive."

Hearing this, Aiwass nodded.

This is true.

His ritual teacher Ibn was like this back then - he saved people, but was betrayed by the people he saved. Even Zhu Tang had experienced something similar... After all, in the cognition of most slaves, the good master is invincible and unshakable, something that exists as a matter of course as the cornerstone of the world, and a great existence like a god that cannot be shaken and cannot be harmed.

The slaves themselves knew how hard life was. Following the rebels might lead to death after failure, but betraying them once would allow them to directly obtain free citizenship and immediately receive a considerable amount of property.

There was no cost, no risk - as long as the good master got their intelligence, he could easily wipe out the rebels. Even if he only needed to know the coordinates, the ritualists and curse masters could attack from a long distance, bombing the place until there was no one left alive, and then it would be no problem for the knights to come out and clean up the battlefield. And there would definitely be more than one slave who would be saved.

If one of these slaves betrayed, the others would die with him; if multiple people betrayed, the second and subsequent ones would receive almost no reward.

——Evans knew that this was a typical prisoner's dilemma.

According to Aiwass's knowledge, the prisoner's dilemma generally has two completely different solutions.

When experiments are repeated over a long period of time, people will eventually tend to cooperate. If multiple people participate in the experiment at the same time, people will always tend to cooperate with those who choose to cooperate. As the mutual understanding becomes closer, those who are willing to cooperate with others will also be chosen by others.

This is the power of "morality" and "kindness".

That’s how civilization came about.

However, if people know in advance and both parties clearly know that such an "experiment" will only be conducted once, they tend to choose to betray.

On the one hand, this is because they do not understand each other, are wary of and do not trust each other, and on the other hand, it is also for the sake of "stability".

The more tense, scarce, and dangerous the environment is, the more likely people are to choose certain things - just like choosing between 100 with a 50% chance of getting it and with a % chance of getting it.

Although these two numbers are the same in mathematical expectation, people without money are more likely to choose the former, while people with plenty of money are more likely to choose the latter.

When the slaves were captured and then rescued, they were in a very embarrassing situation.

Once they were discovered, they would be executed - because the collaborators of the rebels were also considered rebels, and the rescued slaves were also considered their collaborators. Therefore, all the slaves who were asked to cooperate by these rebels would often choose to betray under pressure, which was naturally "human nature".

After all, even the slaves themselves did not want slavery to be abolished.

How can you save others if you don’t save yourself?
"…Thus, the Red Hand chose the most extreme course. They gave up on freeing slaves and on adding their companions from among the freedmen."

Chief Erlo said slowly, "'Since the free people are the slaves of the good master, then harming the free people will also harm the good master.' That's what they think."

"……indeed so."

Aiwass was silent for a while, but he had to sigh and nodded.

To a good lord, his inhabitants are his property itself.

The benevolent leaders are like playing a simulation business game. They must sacrifice some people regularly to obtain water resources. The more people they sacrifice, the more water resources they have. The more water resources they have, the more people will be attracted to settle here... It's like the "residential houses" in those business games.

Therefore, the more people hoard, the larger their wealth base will be. Personal property can accumulate like a snowball at an incredible speed until it becomes a meaningless number.

"And what the Red Hand did was simple..."

Er Luo also took a deep breath, obviously quite afraid of these lunatics: “That is to ignite the flames.

"Burning down the oasis with fire will destroy the water source. As long as people can't live here, they will naturally flee.

"Only when the real asset of the good master - the population - is harmed, will the good master feel pain, become furious, become hysterical... and reveal his true flaws. Any rebellion other than this is nothing more than the pampering and playfulness of a child to the good master."

"You mean..."

Aiwass opened his eyes wide.

He realized a terrible possibility.

(End of this chapter)