Little Black Sparks Controversy Again
Greninja stared blankly at the screen. The Grand Summoner who had sounded so damn impressive while bragging about himself was pinned in place by chains woven from black mist and song.
The next second, the blonde Miss Knight raised her knight's sword high and brought it down, like Saber from Fate cleaving through the Black Grail with Excalibur.
Radiance flowed, and all things in the world fell silent once more.
By then, Greninja's language center could no longer produce even half an adjective. He could only utter the most plain and sincere praise in all of China.
"Holy shit, that's awesome."
After watching the video, Greninja had long since tossed the idea of sleep into the trash and continued browsing the comments below.
As usual, all kinds of comments were showing off in creative ways.
Help, my Little Black is way too cool!
Why do I feel like this female character named Iris is kind of like Saber?
Enough already, upstairs. Everything originated from Type-Moon, right?
Seeing those knights carry out their commander's orders even at the cost of losing an arm reminded me of those ten-odd years in Great Xia. Damn, my nose is getting sore.
Little Black is seriously ruthless. Watching the knights desperately carry out his stupid orders, his expression didn't even change.
What the hell do you know? If Little Black hadn't seized back control, they would have kept killing each other in an endless loop. For the knights, that ending was definitely better.
Keep whitewashing him, then. How do you explain him using evil magic to destroy the Grand Summoner's soul?
Give me a break. What explanation do you need? That old bastard touched the forbidden; he wasn't some good guy either.
If you can't say it, I will! It was mentioned before that the Kingdom of Blossoms had suffered a war and nearly been destroyed, so the Grand Summoner probably touched the forbidden to save the country. And Little Black used that bizarre magic to kill such a big shot just to take some item from him. Tell me, how are you still going to whitewash that?
Little Black definitely isn't a good person. I'll say it right here: if he doesn't turn out to be a villain or boss later on, I'll livestream myself fucking ten 8080 Tis.
I actually like Little Black. Other games either have you saving the world every day or hand out idiotic quests. This is the first time I've seen an NPC use players for personal gain. It's refreshing.
Greninja read the comments while quietly thinking things over.
Judging from his actions, Little Black definitely could not be considered a good person. Whether it was treating the knights as disposable tools or using the players as keys to activate the Secret Realm, both proved that.
Especially that Dark Nursery Rhyme afterward. If this were a 9+ game, parents would definitely report it out of existence.
But if one insisted on calling Little Black a bad guy, that did not seem right either.
For one thing, up to now, he had not done anything truly monstrous. Even his use of players was based on the condition that they would not be harmed. For adults, that was not really so terrible. Secondly, Greninja had a feeling that Bobby Wendell was no good person either.
With a faint sigh, Greninja finally prepared to log off and sleep. But at that moment, another post with over 100,000 replies was bumped to the top.
"Not letting me sleep, are you?!"
Though he cursed under his breath, he could not stop himself from opening the post titled "My Personal Analysis of the Little Black Incident." Its author was, once again, Myriad Flower Mirror.
"Explanation: This post is not meant to whitewash anyone. It is meant to analyze the hidden information the developers have not yet revealed in this video, detail by detail."
"Let's start with the background. In the video, Little Black and Iris mentioned that five hundred years ago, there was a war that swept across the entire continent. The protagonists were the dark Kingdom of Palenke and every other nation. Personally, I believe this thread will definitely be foreshadowing that runs through the entire main storyline. Of course, since the developers have provided no information, this is only speculation."
"Next is Little Black. After my video was released, many people became enraged by Little Black's actions, criticizing him for using the players and knights and for destroying Wendell's remaining soul. To those comments, I only hope that after you're cremated, they can burn out a few more relics from you."
"Little Black is not a good person. That is practically settled fact. Whether it is his self-proclaimed identity as a 'necromancer,' Dark Nursery Rhyme and its skill effects that are anything but pleasant, or what he did to the players and knights, all of it proves this. But does that mean he must be a bad person? Must be a villain?"
"My answer is no."
"Let us turn our attention to Bobby Wendell."
"From his own words, we can learn that this Grand Summoner once belonged to the royal court of the Kingdom of Blossoms and held several positions at once. He was a figure of some standing. Yet both Little Black's words and his own behavior showed that he had once touched the 'forbidden.' But why would a respected master with a fulfilled life touch the forbidden?"
"Since we lack specific information, we'll set that question aside for now. What I want to analyze next is why he, Bobby Wendell, Grand Summoner of the royal court, appeared in the middle of nowhere when the nation's survival was at stake."
"First of all, the Knights Order, the church, and the royal family were three separate organizations. Because the church and the Knights Order were both founded by the God of Blossoms, they had an inseparable connection. Even the royal family could not interfere with them. Anyone could learn that just by asking a random NPC in the game."
"So why would a summoner affiliated with the royal family appear together with the Knights Order?"
"Secondly, Little Black said that when commanders determined they could not defeat their opponents, they would choose to wait for reinforcements or retreat. Yet the knights' displayed combat power was clearly far stronger than their opponents'. You could see that from how Little Black controlled the knights and wiped them out in one wave. So what exactly made the knights' commander feel that their opponents were absolutely impossible to defeat?"
"The answer is—Bobby Wendell was a traitor."
"Behind him was not a warm field of flowers, but endless darkness!"
"Perhaps some special opportunity had brought Wendell into contact with the Forbidden Secret Arts. Whether in books or other games, 'the forbidden' had always been described as possessing an allure that drove people mad. Once Wendell touched it, there was no way he could escape the abyss."
"Little Black said that if people from the Kingdom of Blossoms found Wendell, they would tie him to a stake and burn him. That was precisely how heretics were treated, which showed that the power Wendell obtained was neither permitted nor accepted!"
"However, the Kingdom of Palenke was a dark kingdom, a fallen empire that sought to destroy the world. Wendell's forbidden power was intolerable to the world, but perhaps not to them."
"Yet there was no such thing as trust without cost. The Kingdom of Palenke could not possibly have let Wendell join the dark kingdom based on a single sentence, so Wendell offered a pledge of allegiance—a squad of the Flower Knights' finest knights."
"Why did the knights believe they could not defeat their opponents? Because they knew Wendell's strength. They knew he was one of the greatest summoners, so they could only pray that Falasong would send reinforcements to help them hunt down the traitor."
"Unfortunately, those reinforcements never came."
"As for why Wendell failed to successfully join the dark kingdom, my personal guess is that while working with Palenke's warriors to eliminate the knights, he failed to suppress the rampage of the forbidden power. He lost his mind and AOE'd everyone together."
"So my conclusion regarding the NPC Wendell is this: he is not a villain, because he does not deserve to be! He is merely a selfish bastard who abandoned his nation at its most critical moment!"
"Let us return to the original question. Do you think Little Black will be a villain?"
"For now, I cannot give an answer."
"Little Black's objective was actually very clear. He came for Wendell's Forbidden Secret Arts. As for why, we do not know yet. In any case, it will not be for anything good."
"But I do not think there is any need to condemn this character over that."
"Everyone may have forgotten that there was a third person in the video—Miss Iris."
"From her conversation with Little Black, we can infer that she was a member of the Knights Order. Later, the way she resonated with the knights' phantoms also proved that she was indeed a devout knight. And I believe everyone knows perfectly well what position the knights represented."
"Though we do not know why a knight stood on the same side as Little Black, this also showed that Little Black, who was definitely not from a righteous faction, had great ambitions—enough to make the light stand temporarily on his side."
"His goal might be the very reason we came to this world."
"To summarize: Wendell is an idiot, Iris is my wife, and Little Black—the unknown NPC standing in the shadows, observing the world beneath the sunlight with ill intent—is very likely the protagonist or the great villain of this game world. The main storyline we must experience to play this game may be uncovering his tangled background and thus understanding the game world of 'Kingdom of Heavenly Principles,' which is almost identical to reality!"
"The above is the most likely explanation I could infer from fragmented information in every detail, based on my experience clearing countless galgames with guides. Of course, if anyone in the comments has any thoughts, feel free to raise them. If you insist on arguing with me over some point, then I surrender. You're right."
"Lastly, let me share a line from my favorite game character."
"—The world is not black and white, but an exquisite shade of gray!"
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