Re:Zero - Jobless Reincarnation: Succubus Sword God? I don't recognize it!

Chapter 396 Reverse Prisoner's Dilemma

"The royal capital, Arkham."

After the words were spoken, Octopus and Cole behaved in completely different ways.

The former, as an octopus, had no human features at all, and Alan was unable to use the Water God Style, in which he was proficient, to discern what he was thinking through his micro-expressions.

But the tentacles and tentacles were swaying restlessly and fell into Alan's flow of feeling, but it was a few milliseconds faster than before.

The latter, being a mermaid, has an expression on her beautiful human face that is very easy to understand.

Her face was filled with excitement.

Alan looked at Cole's expression and wanted to continue asking about miracles and magic circles, but then he stopped the desire to speak. He loosened his hand and let go of Cole.

The latter swung the fish tail to his side and steadied himself, looking as if he was relieved.

Alan suddenly turned his head and looked at the motionless octopus beside him.

"I say, Octopus, according to you, 'Abyssal Sea' is the name of your Sea Fish Tribe's territory in this 'Leviathan Corpse'?"

"Yes."

"It sounds very similar to your language style. What is its mermaid language?"

The octopus' eyes rolled and paused for a moment. Not knowing what Alan was going to do, he just replied honestly.

"The Deep Sea (merman language), in the Merman language, to be precise, it should be called 'the seabed that dwells in the abyss'. I just gave it a concise name according to your language habits.

Alan instantly turned to look at Cole, only to see him imitating the tone of Cole and the octopus, slowly biting out the words in human language.

"Deep sea, Arkham."

Cole was stunned and stared at Allen.

Alan continued to speak, and continued to correct his pronunciation, adjusting to the other party's phonation method that was similar to the tongue sound. "Yuanhai, Arkham."

Cole's eyes lit up and he corrected him tentatively. "Abyssal Arkham!"

"Deep sea, Arkham."

the third time.

If you ignore the voice, Allen's pronunciation is almost exactly the same as Cole's.

She even imitated the delicate intonation of the other person, a female mermaid.

Cole's face lit up with joy, and he crawled in front of Alan like a snake on the ground, propped himself up, and looked at Alan straight in the eyes.

His eyes were full of brilliance.

"Abyssal Sea! Arkham!"

She seemed very happy that Alan was imitating mermaid language.

Alan looked at Cole quietly for a while, but ignored him. He turned his eyes again to look at the octopus that suddenly stopped moving and seemed a little nervous.

"Just now, Cole seemed very excited about the existence of a magic transfer circle in Arkham. What is she so happy about?"

Cole looked puzzled and looked at the octopus quickly. His body language revealed urging and excitement, as if he had accomplished something and wanted to know what the next sentence of Alan's imitation of mermaid language would be.

Is he trying to show his goodwill? Or is he agreeing with what he said?

The octopus was strangely silent for a while, "Perhaps because she saw that you were willing to learn the mermaid language. After all, strictly speaking, you are the first human she has come into contact with."

The voice stopped the simultaneous interpretation and just spoke in human language.

“Bobo Bobo Bobo!!”

A look of confusion appeared on Cole's face. He didn't know why the octopus suddenly stopped. He urged it with an attitude that was half scolding and half giving orders.

This reaction was clearly captured by Alan and reflected in his deep pupils.

He just bent his eyes and looked the octopus up and down.

"Octopus, are you sure?"

The octopus looked at Alan with gurgling eyes, "What do you mean? Are you suspecting that I tampered with the translation? Now you and I are both in prison, both prisoners, and I also hope that you can get out and save me from prison, so why would I tamper with the translation?"

Alan's eyes moved under the dim mycelium light.

He didn't respond, but just turned to look at Cole who was very close to him.

Open up.

“I don’t know where they are exactly. After entering Arkham, I was imprisoned here by those traitors. But they are likely taken away. There is no magic in Arkham, and those traitors need magicians to study the magic circle that can transfer them to the miracle.”

But he repeated what Cole had said in response to his question, "Where are your companions?"

Hearing this, Octopus and Cole looked up sharply to look into Alan's eyes.

What came out of Alan's mouth was not human language.

It is the language of sea fish.

The sticky and slippery words came out of Allen's throat, like bubbles rising from muddy water. Through precise body control, he perfectly reproduced Cole's reply after he asked the question just now.

No matter what language it is, nouns cannot be distorted by grammar and semantics.

And Alan just happens to have the information-grabbing ability that the Water God Style should have.

So he replicated Cole's words.

It was just a slight change, replacing all the words "Abyss" with "Arkham" precisely.

This moment.

Octopus quickly turned to look at Cole, before he could say anything.

Cole actually cheered! He turned around and rushed over, with his hands outstretched, and suddenly hung on Alan's neck, his tail slapping the ground, his vertical pupils scanning Alan's face up and down, and his mouth kept making noises.

Unusual intimacy.

Alan ignored Cole's abnormal behavior and just turned his head quietly to look at the octopus.

From the moment he opened his eyes, he faced an unfamiliar environment and the current situation of being imprisoned. Luo Qixi and the other two were missing, and the prisoner he was imprisoned with turned out to be his former enemy.

Allen has been in a deformed "prisoner's dilemma".

Why deformity?
——The essence of the prisoner's dilemma is: locked in a cage, two prisoners who are companions of each other, worry about being betrayed by each other, and make irrational and worst choices for each other in an abnormal state.

But Alan was now locked up with a member of the sea fish tribe who was determined to be an enemy rather than a friend.

She was not a companion.

The premise of the prisoner's dilemma is that the two parties were partners who trusted each other before, but they faced the possibility of betrayal in the future, which gave birth to the seeds of distrust.

But if you just open your eyes and find yourself locked up with your enemy, the conflict will break out immediately.

Because from the beginning, the two were in opposition and no one could trust the other.

That's what Allen did.

——When he just woke up, his first reaction when he saw Cole in the cage was to kill her. But when he saw that she was not wearing the Poseidon coat and realized that he was safe, he began to torture her to get useful information.

They even reached a partial cooperation - if killing Cole and taking out his nerves and opening the cage could be considered cooperation.

all in all.

Alan looked at Cole, who was kissing non-stop in front of him and holding his hands around his waist, and then looked at Squidward, whose face was as stiff as a sculpture.

At present, Allen and Cole are now "living in harmony".

This can only be done on the premise that the 'Poseidon Coat' does not exist and Cole is harmless.

How did you come to the conclusion that Cole is harmless?
1: Cole does not use the 'Poseidon Coat'.

2: The octopus' words that emerged later confirmed the fact that the 'Sea God's Cloak' had been taken away.

As a result, the situation that was originally unfavorable to Cole was instantly turned into the fact that Cole was "harmless". Then, after Octopus said "Your companions are in the royal capital Arkham", it even laid the foundation for the cooperation between Allen and Cole.

Allen looked at the cheerful and intimate Cole in front of him. At this moment, he actually had the illusion that the other party was an 'ally' rather than an 'enemy'.

Yes, it's an illusion.

Because, is it true that the 'Poseidon's Cloak' was taken away?

No, Allen couldn't verify it at all.

If we analyze this deformed prisoner's dilemma with conspiracy theory, then its essence should be called
——The Truman Show.

By forcibly locking Allen and Cole in the same cell, the prisoner Allen is created to have absolute power over Cole's life and death, which relaxes Allen's vigilance against Cole. By guiding them step by step, they develop a distorted illusion of sharing life and death, and build up a "good impression" between the two sides.

The Truman Show who eventually became the other party's "helper".

It's amazing.

Therefore, Allen needs to screen the information to determine whether he is really in Truman's world now, and to determine whether he is too cautious and has created the current illusion.

How to do?
Very simple.
Now, the first step.

Anti-guidance.

To judge this prison calamity is really a disorderly, contradictory, illogical accident.

Or maybe.

Orderly, clear, and consistent in purpose.
conspiracy.

Alan was silent and the atmosphere was very low. After a while, under his scorching gaze, the octopus was defeated. It stared at Alan with three eyes and slowly spoke.

"Human, I did modify what Cole said without permission, but the reason is that she was too unruly and brought shame to the sea fish tribe. Oh, although she is just a mermaid, if she wants to be our king, she shouldn't be like this."

"What did she say?"

This time, the octopus spoke in both human and marine language.

Cole's expression obviously froze, his eyes widened, anger flashed in his eyes, and he stared at the octopus.

The latter just looked at Alan.

"she says:
Companion, you don't need to worry about them. As long as I take back the "Abyss Sea", even if they die, I will catch new ones for you to entertain you.

Just stay here and socialize with me.

As far as I know, the lower powers still need to rely on others on land, but in the "Abyss", as long as we give birth to offspring, we can always rule this "Abyss".

You have power, and I have power.

You are the one chosen by God, and I am also the one chosen by God.

I am the 'King'.

You are the 'king' who can manipulate me as you please.

Stay and rule the sea with me."

After the words were spoken, there was dead silence.

Cole opened his mouth, as if he had just had a wonderful dream, and had a dumbfounded expression on his face after waking up.

No, didn't this powerful chosen one just tell me that 'we' would definitely return to Arkham to respond to my marriage proposal?
But you didn't understand it at all?
While she was lost in thought, Alan lowered his eyes to look at her, and their eyes met.

Alan raised his hand and reached down.

With one punch, he hit the opponent's fish tail and 'belly'!
"Ah!" Cole screamed and no longer hung on Alan like a mermaid ornament. He turned over and lay on the ground, twisting his tail in pain.

It can be seen how heavy the hammer that Allen used to hit the birthplace of Fizz was.
After being lured and defeated, Allen put away the Dragon Saint Fighting Qi in his hand and spoke expressionlessly.

"If you call them monkeys again, I will kill you."

Turning around, he saw the octopus gurgling and shrinking its body. Seeing Alan's hesitation, he continued.

"Don't be angry, monkey boy.

You have to know that I hate humans, so I will never allow Cole's suggestion. It's fine that the Sea Fish Tribe has a Sea Human leader, but now there is a human king, which is just a joke.

Among us sea fish, intercourse and giving birth to offspring is indeed a way to bind interests. But you are human, and you are more primitive and barbaric than us in some ways.

You are well aware that you have absolute power, and you can dominate Cole through force, regardless of whether you build alliances through reproduction or not. This is different from the thinking of us sea fish people.

So you just need to dominate her and save your partner.

As you said, the initiative is still in your hands."

Alan looked at the octopus quietly, and suddenly laughed so hard that he fell backwards with laughter.

"I have seen the market."

Alan pressed the bone cage where their eyes met.

"How come you assume that I need to 'dominate' a burden to save my companions?" He leaned in front of the bone prison, "I want to ask you, what does it have to do with you if I go to save them?

Steal the concept?

If someone else was in this kind of situation, you would have succeeded.

Octopus, you are really smart, so smart that I thought the person in prison now was not a prisoner, but the prime minister of your mermaid kingdom."

The octopus spoke immediately.

"The Abyss does not have the magic that you humans rely on for survival! Your desire to restore your fighting spirit and magic is pure nonsense. On the way to Arkham, you need a loyal ruler to clear the obstacles for you.

The most important thing is that you must return.”

"Ouch!" Cole climbed up and swung his tail on the prison bars, full of threats, as if he wanted the octopus to shut up.
The latter ignored Cole and continued to look at Allen.

"You definitely don't want to be in the Abyss. You want to return to the outside world. The Abyss has been submerged in the abyss for so many years. We are sea fish and can swim up from the bottom of the sea by ourselves, but you monkeys and humans can't. You need oxygen."

"What about summoning?"

"The summoning technique requires our kind to swim out and cast the summoning technique, but now we can't get out at all, because the exit to the seabed outside is in the royal capital, in Arkham, under the abdomen of Lord Leviathan, the god of the sea.

So, whether you want to save your companions or want to get out, you have to go to Arkham.

Cole will be the most loyal 'Sea Queen' to you in this process. No fish knows the structure of Arkham better than her."

(End of this chapter)