Mystery: A Spark

Even if you can swim, you can't swim very far on the vast ocean.

"Speaking of which, I promised you before that I would teach you some skills for civilized communication, right?" Arthur, seeing that there was nothing else to do, decided to fulfill his promise to Danitz.

“Yes, I’ve been waiting for the past two days,” Danitz replied.

"You're not in a hurry at all? What, aren't you afraid I'll break my promise?" Arthur asked with a smile.

"Ha, we're on the open sea now, do you think I'm afraid you'll run away?" Danitz scoffed.

"Alright, Elbow, come to my room and I'll give you a good talking to." Arthur said something that sounded very ambiguous as he turned and walked towards his room.

Danitz, however, failed to grasp the deeper meaning of those words and followed Arthur off the deck.

Chapter 17 Teaching Polite Language

Arthur led Danitz to the door of his room, and then he used a "King's Invitation" to pull Danitz inside.

After that, he began teaching polite language.

"First, when we provoke someone, we need to determine the level of knowledge our target has."

"To launch a successful provocation, you must first ensure that the meaning of your words is successfully conveyed to the other party's mind," Arthur began to speak eloquently.

“I understand that. The captain once said that you have to use different language to communicate with people of different levels of education.” Danitz quickly grasped Arthur’s meaning.

"That's right, you can't use words with overly obscure meanings when dealing with those ordinary illiterate pirates."

“For example, questions like ‘How old are you?’, ‘Have you been to school?’, ‘What medicine are you taking now?’ would be difficult for those cruder pirates to understand.” Arthur began to expand on what he had said before.

Danitz didn't understand the meaning of the three questions at first. He was about to ask them, but then he thought that if he asked them directly, wouldn't he become one of those crude pirates that Arthur was talking about?

So he cautiously remained silent, instead trying to decipher its meaning himself.

Although Danitz's knowledge wasn't particularly profound, his grammar was fairly good thanks to Edwina's frequent instruction.

So, after careful consideration, he soon began to grasp the nuances of those words.

Arthur continued his explanation:

"For ordinary pirates, we can use a more direct approach, which is to dismiss their achievements in a lighthearted manner and belittle their actions as worthless."

"For example, when you are fighting with your opponent, and your opponent launches an attack on you, if you are not seriously injured, or if you are injured but it is not obvious on the surface."

"So at this point, you can just calmly say, 'That's it?'"

Danitz licked his lips, feeling that this simple phrase seemed to contain immense provocative power.

This is on a completely different level compared to his usual insults like "dog shit."

This short phrase not only contains no profanity, but also subtly expresses contempt without losing one's composure.

This led Danitz to believe that the person who first discovered this phrase must have been a master of provocative linguistics.

He didn't think that Arthur had discovered it, because he felt that Arthur, who was only twenty years old, was not so genius as to be able to develop a whole set of language skills.

Arthur naturally noticed the surprise and admiration in Danitz's eyes.

Although he didn't create these civilized language skills, Arthur naturally felt a lot of comfort seeing things from his hometown gradually flourish here.

If everyone learned this set of language skills, the world would surely become much more civilized... Arthur thought to himself.

He organized his thoughts and then continued his explanation:

"If you want to express your contempt in a light and casual way, it's not just about saying 'That's all?' but without a doubt, it's the most concise, refined, and powerful sentence."

"And besides that, you could also say, 'Is that all you've got? Is that all you're capable of?'"

"You can even exclaim with a very exaggerated expression, 'Wow, that was great!'"

"At this point, you should simultaneously demonstrate that you are completely unharmed under the opponent's attack, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of your words."

When Danitz looked at Arthur, who was speaking so confidently in front of him, he momentarily thought that the captain was giving him a lecture.

It must be said that Arthur's posture at this moment was almost identical to that of their captain when he taught them mystical knowledge; he looked quite like a master.

Thinking of his captain, a question popped into Danitz's mind, and he asked:

"I have a general idea of ​​how to deal with those crude pirates, but what is a more effective way to deal with highly educated and knowledgeable people?"

He asked this question, not to target his own captain, but because while most pirates at sea were not very cultured, there were quite a few exceptions.

These exceptions are generally very difficult people to deal with.

In other words, the effect of successfully provoking them once is far more significant than provoking ordinary pirates.

Of course, after successfully provoking someone, whether they can survive is another question.

Arthur naturally provided an answer to Da Nizi's question.

"Da Nizi, first we need to understand one fact: the rhetoric used by educated people may not necessarily work on illiterate people, but the rhetoric used by illiterate people will definitely work on educated people."

"Therefore, the provocative techniques we mentioned earlier are naturally effective for those who are highly educated and cultured."

Danitz paused for a moment, then quickly realized what Arthur meant and nodded to indicate that he understood.

"Of course, for those who are cultured, we naturally have other civilized terms to use."

“For example, use interjections when you speak,” Arthur suggested another technique. (I can’t use Rune language for examples, so just understand what I mean and don’t worry about the grammar of this other world.)

"An interjection?" Danitz asked, somewhat puzzled.

"That's right. Interjections can ease the atmosphere and bring people closer together without them even realizing it."

"But if every sentence is filled with interjections, it creates a kind of redundant sweetness, which greatly reverses the atmosphere," Arthur said confidently.

After hearing these words, Danitz seemed a little confused, and he asked in bewilderment:

"I... I don't think I quite understand what you mean."

“For example,” Arthur said with a light chuckle.

"When I made a bet with you before, I said something like, 'You're quite the little genius.'"

"This one sentence actually conveys a completely different meaning from 'You are such a little genius.'"

The latter sounds like a simple compliment, while the former, with the addition of an interjection, conveys a completely different meaning.

Chapter 18 The soldiers marched in formation, their movements swift and decisive.

With Arthur's explanation, Danitz gradually came to understand the difference between having one more and one less interjection, which made him feel that he had gained a lot.

He hadn't realized that there were so many nuances to the language he usually spoke.

It turns out that a provocateur can do so without using a single swear word, just a few short sentences, a few simple expressions and gestures, and still bring great ridicule to others... Danitz gained some insight from Arthur's explanation.

While explaining the theory, Arthur also gave several practical examples.

For example, when someone is having a really bad time, you can say to them, "You're such a lucky person."

In this way, the other person will definitely feel happy because of your praise.

And when someone makes a mistake because of stupidity, you can say, "You're such a little genius!"

Such praise is sure to enlighten the other person, making them feel as refreshed as if they had drunk an ice-cold cola on a hot summer day.

In addition, there are the classic phrases "Are you getting impatient?" and "No way, no way?", which are two concise and elegant expressions used in polite conversation.

These are all insights Arthur gained from his past life when he was arguing with people online—no, I mean, engaging in civilized communication with people.

Of course, what Arthur told Danitz today was just the tip of the iceberg of the civilized language he used in his previous life.

When he traveled through time, the internet age had developed to a great extent, and people from different regions could communicate online as if they were face to face.

This was originally a good thing.

However, due to the appearance of the River Crab Divine Beast and the strong interference of Miss Shenhe, people are unable to directly express their inner emotions in words.

When a person is in a state of heightened emotion, if they cannot vent their emotions, they are likely to do irrational things such as smashing their computer, hammering their keyboard, or throwing their phone.

This would result in significant economic losses for people.

In light of this, those sages who had encountered setbacks everywhere due to Shen He's domineering presence when speaking online took the lead in challenging this rigorous path and pioneered a new path of online cultivation.

As the sages made their sacrifices one after another, people were gradually inspired by their spirit of sacrifice and joined their ranks.

Later, through the pioneering efforts of generations of heroes, this set of civilized language training methods was developed.

In this way, talented but unappreciated netizens can use this new set of civilized language to communicate harmoniously online.

This even gave rise to the Six Arts of a Gentleman in the New Era:

Urgent, Classic, Filial Piety, Joy, Clam, Win.

There were even powerful beings who defied the heavens and peered into the secrets of heaven, thus obtaining three more words in addition to the Six Arts of a Gentleman.

With the addition of these three characters, the Six Arts of a Gentleman evolved into the Nine-Character Mantra of the New Era.

That is, Lin Bing Dou Zhe Jie Zhen Lie Qian Xing, Ji Dian Xiao Le Pi Bang Run Ma Ying.

Arthur did not use the full nine-syllable mantra here, but only taught Danitz the mantra for the single word "urgency".

Just like how Bodhi Patriarch taught Sun Wukong, this level is already enough; it's enough for Danitz to digest the Provocateur Potion within his body.

As long as he wasn't beaten to death.

The so-called nine-character mantra begins with "urgency," and this single word alone has immense destructive power.

Learning just one word is enough to thrive in this world; if all nine words were uttered together, perhaps even the fundamental principles of this world would be obliterated.

Of course, the main reason is the different cultural backgrounds; the people here haven't reached the level of abstraction that Arthur experienced on the internet in his previous life.

Because other eight-character mantras require sufficient cultural background to understand their meaning.

Moreover, the destructive power of the "urgent" mantra in this world is greatly reduced compared to Arthur's previous life.

Although the inhabitants of the mysterious world can understand the power of the "urgent" mantra to some extent, they cannot fully comprehend all its mysteries, so the mantra's effect is naturally weakened here.

In this world, if we include all the time travelers, perhaps only Roselle and Klein could fully comprehend all the mysteries contained in these nine words.

Of course, this is not necessarily true.

Even seasoned internet users who frequently use the internet are probably not familiar with these occult concepts unless they spend a lot of time on online forums and arguing with others.

Therefore, whether Russell and Klein actually knew about these things remains to be seen.