The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

You laugh at Americans' anti-intellectual conspiracy theories, and Americans laugh at you for not understanding America.

All of this happened under Jennifer's precise control. She simply plucked the strings and made the entire public opinion field play the melody she wanted.

…………

Li Shanze looked at the changing direction of public opinion, smacked his lips, and touched the docile Jennifer's head as if he was rubbing a pet.

Jennifer's body trembled slightly the moment Li Shanze's palm touched her. A tingling sensation like an electric current shot from her scalp to her toes, making her almost moan with satisfaction.

She obediently lowered her head slightly, enjoying the touch that belonged only to her master, her eyes flashing with an almost fanatical joy of being recognized.

All her efforts and all the energy she spent were perfectly rewarded at this moment.

Li Shanze praised them generously, "Tsk, well done. But you're actually guiding them in the opposite direction? I thought you were going to lead them to enlightenment and onto the right path. I didn't expect you'd defeat them with one 'lie'."

Jennifer's lips curled up in a subtle, mocking arc. She raised her head and looked directly at Li Shanze, her eyes revealing undisguised loyalty and cunning.

"Master, you overestimate them." Her voice was gentle, yet filled with condescending disdain. "Can you let those people who have received public education in the United States truly learn 'dialectical' thinking? Can you let them suddenly realize the truth from a carefully woven lie and embark on the right path you advocate?"

She chuckled, her laughter filled with disdain: "That's probably a miracle that only God can perform."

She paused and looked at Li Shanze quietly. Seeing that Li Shanze was not disgusted by her ridicule, she felt relieved.

She continued: “They are used to simple narratives, to a world of black and white binary view.”

"When one 'demon' is exposed, they will attack it in droves; when another 'demon' is revealed, they will immediately shift their targets, pouring all their anger and fear onto the new target."

"What they need is not the truth, but an outlet to vent their emotions, an illusion that they can think independently."

“Instead of trying to wake up a group of sleeping lambs, it is better to give them a new shepherd, or a wolf that they can all hate.”

Jennifer's tone became even colder and more confident.

"They will think they have seen through the conspiracy and that they are awake, but in fact, they are just jumping from one manipulated lie to another manipulated truth."

"This is the most effective way to guide people. If we don't do this, wouldn't we be betraying the sincere intentions of the US government in its decades-long 'awakening education'?"

Jennifer's words were filled with ridicule and hatred towards the US government - after hearing her master say that it was the US government and the nine great wizards who tampered with her memory, she was filled with hatred towards them.

After saying that, Jennifer raised her head slightly, enjoying the warmth of Li Shanze's palm, her eyes flashing with absolute confidence in her own abilities and contempt for those "fools" who were being manipulated by her.

In her view, this was not a case of lies defeating lies at all, but rather her precise exploitation of educational weaknesses and American arrogance to pave the way for her master.

And getting the master's approval is her greatest satisfaction.

Feeling the touch from her master, she felt so happy that she felt like she was floating in the air.

…………

Meanwhile, in Princeton, not far from Philadelphia, Marco Giuseppe Romano was lying in his luxurious penthouse apartment, enjoying the fruits of victory.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling window was a tranquil night scene. He was holding a glass of fine red wine in his hand, with a satisfied smile on his lips.

He had just planned a perfect war of public opinion. Watching the people influenced by his runes dancing like puppets, he felt an unprecedented sense of control.

"A mob." He whispered contemptuously, shaking the wine glass. The red liquid rippled in the glass, just like his mood at the moment.

He believed that not many people could see through his carefully arranged witchcraft, and no one was willing to take the initiative to counter it - the wizards of the Delusion Society always kept their distance and protected each other, and never interfered with other people's "business".

At this moment, the cell phone on his bedside table suddenly vibrated, breaking the silence.

Romano frowned in displeasure and picked up his phone, the screen showing his most capable assistant, a man named Vito.

"What's the matter, Vito?" Romano's voice was filled with impatience. He didn't like being disturbed when he was enjoying himself - there were two Broadway actresses lying in the bedroom waiting for him to pamper them.

Vito's trembling voice came from the other end of the phone, with obvious panic: "Sir, something happened!"

Romano's frown deepened. "What happened? Vito, if you bother me with such trivial matters, you'll regret it."

"No...it's not a small matter, sir!" Vito's voice was almost crying, "Those cognitive spells you set up...they...they all seem to have failed!"

318 Bad News

"Ineffective?" Romano scoffed, as if he had just heard a huge joke. "What nonsense are you talking about? There's no way those spells and runes I carefully placed couldn't fail!"

"But...but data won't lie, sir!" Vito's voice was filled with tears.

"The views and engagement rates on those inflammatory videos we've put out have plummeted! The comments section... the comments section is filled with ridicule and questioning. The tide has turned!"

"On platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, we can still control the direction of public opinion by paying off administrators, but on TikTok, it's completely out of control!"

Romano's face began to darken, and he sat up suddenly, almost dropping the wine glass in his hand.

The red wine splashed on his bathrobe, spreading out like blood.

His voice was cold, with a hint of dangerous anger. "Vito, are you drunk? How can those fools resist my runes? They will just be like donkeys, led by the nose by me!"

"TikTok...what happened? Did anyone post a video refuting our comments on TikTok?"

"Yes, yes! No... no, sir!" Vito sounded a little incoherent.

"Is it or isn't it? Calm down, Vito!" Romano laughed at Vito's nonsense. His tone sounded particularly dangerous. "You're not trying to make fun of me, are you?"

"Yes, someone did post a video refuting our claim! But that wasn't the root cause. According to my team's analysis, the root cause was some funny videos."

"Funny video?" Romano turned serious. He sat up straighter, not caring about the red wine spilled on his bathrobe. "What's going on?"

"We analyzed those funny videos, and they... they seem to carry some strange frequency. Although it's very weak, it can... make people feel disgusted and questioning!"

"And they spread so fast, like a virus, they can't be controlled at all!" Vito's voice became smaller and smaller. He knew he was touching Romano's reverse scale.

“It’s like, it’s like I’ve mastered the rules of Tiktok’s push…”

"Disgusted? Doubtful?" Romano leaped off the sofa, his bare feet touching the cold marble floor. The color drained from his face, replaced by a sickly paleness. He gripped the phone tightly, his knuckles turning white from the strain.

"And those videos questioning us only emerged after those funny videos were released. It seems like ordinary users posted them on their own after being 'inspired'!"

"We've tracked down people who are uploading videos all over the country, from California to New England, from all walks of life... We haven't even found any commonalities yet."

Vito was indeed Marco Giuseppe Romano's right-hand man - and he didn't get the position just because he was from Italy.

He and his team sorted out the whole story as soon as they noticed the fluctuations in public opinion.

Did other wizards from the same school meet their end?

It didn't take Romano long to figure out the trick.

This precise method of reversing public opinion was undoubtedly led by a wizard who was very familiar with the witchcraft of the Delusion School.

And it can be called brilliant. It simply stimulated the Americans' stupid "conspiracy theory" and "independent thinking" mentality, without any hint or guidance, and achieved the effect of making things happen.

Romano even began to admire his opponent.

Although the essence of witchcraft is the violent negotiation of consciousness with the material world, the deeper the understanding of objective laws, the more precise the "violence" used and the more amazing the effect.

Romano had to admit that this light-weight, yet powerful, tactic was much more effective than the violent indoctrination of his propaganda machine - the public opinion field that was instantly overturned was the best proof of this.

"Have you found the person who originally uploaded the video?" Romano took a deep breath. He wanted to meet his colleague who was so ignorant and overstepped his bounds that he was amazed by his talent. If he couldn't solve the problem, he would solve the person who raised the problem.

"No, it doesn't. The first IP address points to a US military base in Greenland, but that was clearly a smokescreen."

Vito's voice was filled with a hint of frustration that was hard to conceal. The technical team behind him was scratching their heads at the codes jumping on the screen and the complex network topology diagram.

"Our cyber forensics team has been investigating for over an hour and discovered that it is a highly complex multi-layer proxy chain with at least twelve layers of encrypted tunnels."

“We attempted traffic analysis and metadata correlation, but all hops pointed to disposable virtual servers controlled by the botnet. These servers were immediately wiped out by self-destruct scripts after the packet transmission was completed, leaving no traceable digital footprint—”

A technician answered the phone and was explaining the situation tremblingly.

Romano was dizzy from all the incomprehensible terms. He shouted impatiently, "That's enough! Have Vito notify me when you find out!"

After hanging up the phone, Romano took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

But the phone suddenly rang again, and the screen showed that the caller was a guy he was familiar with but also disgusted with - one of his fellow members of the Delusion Society.

He answered the phone, and before he could say anything, a hoarse voice with a thick French accent came over: "Oh, dear Marco, I heard that your 'little trick' encountered some trouble? How sorry."

Romano's eyebrows twitched suddenly. He knew that this man came to test him and even to laugh at him.

He suppressed his anger and responded coldly: "Just some minor incidents, Jean-Pierre. Just some low-class clowns."

"Unfair?" Pierre's laughter came from the receiver, with a hint of undisguised mockery. "To be able to instantly render our usual runes ineffective and turn the entire public opinion field upside down, that's not something unfair can do."

"If this is considered low class, then what are we? Babies still nursing?"

Romano's temples throbbed. He took a deep breath and swallowed the other party's ridicule - these hyenas are like this, once they smell blood, they will come over. If you show weakness, they will rush over and bite you.

Pierre then said nonchalantly, as if jokingly, "Marco, have you offended someone you shouldn't have?"

Romano knew that this was one of the other party's purposes.

"Oh, maybe the opponent's target is not you, but the three major pharmaceutical companies you represent."

"This is none of your business." Romano's voice was as hard as ice.

"Of course it is, dear Marco. We are all in this together, aren't we? Don't forget, I also work for a pharmaceutical company." Jean-Pierre's tone suddenly became sincere. "If you need help, we would certainly consider lending a hand. After all, maintaining the reputation of our school is everyone's responsibility."

"No need, I can handle it." Romano refused without hesitation. He knew that these so-called helpers were nothing but empty promises. They would only stand by and watch, or even fan the flames in secret, watching him make a fool of himself - or even waiting to share his corpse.

Moreover, Romano didn't believe that the old fox Jean-Pierre would not be able to see that the other party was also a fellow of the "school". This statement clearly meant that he was going to stand by and watch this damn Frenchman.

"Hahaha, that's good. You know, Marco, I've always been optimistic about you. I can't wait to see your performance."

After hanging up the phone, Romano took a deep breath. Jean-Pierre Anton called him for three main purposes: one was to test him, two was to distance himself from the matter, and three, of course, to just watch the fun.

But before Romano had a chance to catch his breath, another call came in almost immediately.

This time it was a woman with a thick Texas accent, her voice calm but sharp: "Marco, I heard your witchcraft was countered? That's not good news. Are you sure you didn't reveal anything you shouldn't have?"

"I don't need you telling me what to do, Erica." Romano's patience was quickly running out.

"I'm just reminding you that the agreement between us is based on not attracting unnecessary attention. You're such a pushover." Erica's voice was threatening. "If your mistake causes us both trouble, then..."

"That's enough!" Romano growled and hung up the phone.

For the next few minutes, his phone hardly stopped ringing.

Colleagues from Chicago, New York, and Seattle took turns to come forward, ostensibly showing "concern", but in reality they were all testing, distancing themselves from the matter, and gloating.

They said they were ready to help, but Romano knew that help would never come. They just wanted to make sure he was in trouble and whether it would affect them.

They also want to find out who this scoundrel is who broke the tacit understanding and took the initiative to cause trouble to another colleague?

In fact, Romano was also confused while looking through the call records.

Obviously, these people who called him on their own initiative were all the people he thought had the potential to do this.

However, they all distanced themselves from the matter, and no one made any subtle protests or bargaining.

Marco Giuseppe Romano certainly could not have imagined that all this was hosted by Jennifer Burton, the second-generation witch from CBS whom he had never taken seriously.

Romano could tell at a glance that Jennifer, the arrogant second-generation witch, might have some talent, but she had already fallen into an existential crisis - wizards would not even cast a glance at a poor person in an existential crisis.

The show her father left behind was already ruined, and perhaps the woman had already self-destructed by now.

Without knowing who the enemy was, Romano would be unable to plan a counterattack even if he wanted to.

Just as his expression changed, his cell phone rang again.

This time, the caller wasn't one of his colleagues who made him want to smash the phone, but his big boss, James Drummond.

Romano wished he had just smashed the phone.

Author's words: Thanks to Qianxiao Anran, Shisibushui, and Xiaopingguo112633 for their recommendations

319 Location

Romano took a deep breath, trying to calm his inner frenzy, and answered the phone.

What greeted him was not a storm of abuse, on the contrary, James Drummond's voice was incredibly calm.

"Marco." Drummond's voice came from the receiver, without a trace of emotion, but with a suffocating sense of oppression. "I need an explanation."

Romano felt his throat dry. He knew this was the real trouble. The wizards' taunts and probing were merely minor incidents, but Drummond's questioning directly affected his position and even his future.

"Mr. Drummond, I..." Romano was about to explain but was interrupted coldly by Drummond.

"I don't care what runes you use or what kind of opponents you face."

Drummond's voice was like an icy blade, piercing Romano's eardrums with every word.

"All I know is that I just received a call from my financial advisor. Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck are now suffering from the media and public's 'conspiracy theories'. Their stock prices are falling and their reputations are being damaged."

"And all of this happened after you were responsible for guiding public opinion. Do you have anything to say?"