"From the perspective of level design, these six people cannot unite." Loki said while using his coat to dry Thor's hair. "Whether it's reasoning or escape rooms, the most important core idea in all designs is fairness."
"Though reasoning can use narrative tricks, it must strictly avoid lying about significant facts from God's perspective; otherwise, it is unfair reasoning. It can't suddenly introduce characters and props without prior explanation, only to later play important roles—this is also typical of unfair reasoning."
"The same goes for escape rooms. The level designers can use psychological and physical tactics very maliciously to make it difficult for the escapees, but they can't create a situation where it's impossible to survive, nor can they create completely unsolvable puzzles. Furthermore, the intensity of the clues should be proportional to the difficulty of the level."
"Take the level we passed previously as an example. With electrified cages and water, it's already challenging enough, so shaking just three directions allows passage. If they designed thirty directions, it would be a certain death situation—that's unfair."
"Similarly, because solutions must be thought out in an extremely short time, otherwise, one risk getting flooded, the entire mechanism must be simple enough without any distracting clues, and each step of reasoning should bring you closer to the answer. Otherwise, if they draw on walls and place other mechanisms to interfere with vision, then during the rising water, it would be impossible to derive the correct solution, which constitutes unfairness."
"The previous levels were like this too. For tougher levels, there generally is a unique solution with clues; for simpler levels, clues are accordingly reduced. This is the fairness principle of escape room design."
"Look at this level," Batman's deep voice sounded, "The hosts themselves, or the people they send, participate in the process. They control the entire game flow, manipulate the mechanisms above us, and can decide most of the game's progress. If they unite, and no one makes little moves, then it is too unfair."
"Like in football, if the players, goalkeeper, and referee are all from the opposing team?" Superman thought of an analogy.
"If we compare it like that, it's like they control the grass, the football, and the goalpost frame. They decide where there's grass, the football's weight, and which direction the goalpost faces. In such a scenario, the players can't play."
Superman nodded, somewhat understanding yet somewhat confused. Batman had to give another example. He looked up at the mechanism and said, "Suppose they set a rule now: If we don't commit suicide, they directly control the mechanism above to pour magma down—do we have a way to resist?"
Superman shook his head: "One suicide means one person dies; if magma is poured, two people die. Then we have no choice."
"That's right. Even if the rules are made fancier, creating a food chain competition or dominance, the essence doesn't change. They are using the game to force us into internal conflict or self-harm. They set the rules, control the mechanism, and decide victory or defeat. Then what are we playing?"
"Has it evolved from exploitation to persecution?" Anatoli looked at the mechanism above with thoughtful eyes and said.
"What's the difference?" Lucifer asked curiously. He wasn't interested in Anatoli's often-talked-about thoughts before, but his omnipotence meant he couldn't possibly understand. Yet now, having lost his superpower and become a mortal, even a burden in a certain sense, he became more interested. It's being driven by one's position—when you're weak, you naturally become more interested in theories about protecting the weak.
"I usually see exploitation as collective unconsciousness. It's a phenomenon that doesn't stem from the malice of a single individual but arises from class distinctions. This concept is relatively abstract. Before reaching an ideal state, classes won't be eliminated. Thus, it takes greater strength to push for continuous comprehensive struggle and not just feel accomplished by killing one or two people."
"But persecution is different. Persecution arises from the malice of a few individuals or a group. They aren't doing these things out of a desire to extract surplus value, but rather freely release the evil part within human instinct, venting their negative emotions onto others. This is the key difference from exploitation, apart from being tangible and abstract, it also pertains to whether it is always top-down."
"I don't understand." Lucifer said. "Especially the last part. What does top-down mean?"
"From the class perspective, exploitation is always top-down. It's always the upper class exploiting the lower class, and it's never possible the other way around. But persecution is different. A group from the lower class can also persecute an individual from the upper class. It can even happen individually."
"And the reason to emphasize this point is that people often beautify persecution from the lower class against the upper class as resistance and revolution. But in reality, it's just some people venting personal desires. Driving the upper class into opposition or even killing them, the consequences may be disastrous."
"I don't understand. If the upper class always exploits the lower class, why is it bad to kill them?"
"Because we must unite the vast majority." Anatoli looked into Lucifer's eyes, "Take the Hell war as an example. If we insist on eliminating every Demon, killing the ones we see and driving away the ones we can't, would just a few of us cause such a commotion?"
Lucifer shrunk his neck again. Late in the process of clearing out Hell, it was actually forced upon him. At that time, Hell was basically ablaze everywhere, with every ethnic group in Hell rising up—against the Demon King, against Satan, and even against Heaven and God. If it hadn't become unbearably large, he wouldn't have resorted to such violent means. There is a difference between playing leisurely in the World and being forced into the World due to a house fire.
"Humans can be transformed," Anatoli said, "since we are to liberate and transform, it shouldn't apply to just a certain class of people, but rather to everyone. The upper class oppresses the lower class, but that doesn't mean there isn't a class above them to oppress them, nor does it mean that the upper classes don't oppress each other. Everyone in this world experiences different forms of oppression and exploitation, even those at the very top. Does the Emperor in a feudal autocracy not need to be transformed? Killing him recklessly has no benefit. Without understanding this point, a revolution is hard to succeed."
"You seem a little sad again," Lucifer said.
"Yes. Because I think, perhaps the seeds of the Soviet Union's collapse were sown from the execution of the Tsar's family. Such an execution, which implied persecution, was their gravest mistake."
Anatoli quickly composed himself, took a deep breath, and said, "Back to the game. If the earlier levels could be considered as acts of exploitation—like conducting human experiments or selectively sieving out certain people—it was certain people of the upper class resorting to unscrupulous means for gain. But now it seems more like a malicious persecution."
"It seems they just want to watch us struggle to pass the levels for entertainment," Lucifer pondered and asked, "Isn't that still unscrupulous for the sake of profit?"
"Of course. Sacrificing the lives and safety of others for one's own pleasure is, of course, exploitation. But since it's filled with immense malice, it turns entirely into persecution."
"Was there no malice before?"
"Not exactly. But now, with a new group of living people here, it demonstrates the depth of their malice." After a pause, Anatoli continued, "Originally, our enemies were the mechanisms. All the living people in the levels are victims. But now, another group of living people appear. They participate in the game but are not victims being exploited; they are rule-makers, manipulators of the mechanisms, even performers displaying their personality and character."
"Is that so bad?" Lucifer clearly didn't understand yet.
"Exhibiting intentionally to the persecuted necessarily accompanies great malice—why else do you think I plucked a feather from you back then?"
Lucifer was momentarily speechless. Suddenly, he stood from a new perspective, understanding why Anatoli reacted so strongly. Now, he found the people above them intolerable too.
They were here struggling through the levels, with experiences like almost drowning or getting their wings pierced, while those people sat there with animal masks, theatrically mysterious. Who wouldn't get angry seeing that?
Similar to Anatoli then—his country had just perished, and he himself had just died, full of anger and sorrow. Then Lucifer, drenched in Holy Light, appeared before him with wings. Anatoli merely plucking a feather was already a kind of respect for an Angel.
Lucifer walked over, hugged Anatoli, enclosing him with his wings: "I wasn't trying to show off to you. I just...I just lost control too..."
"Yes, later on, I understood that. You were simply suddenly realizing your inability to avoid a manipulated fate, feeling anger and despair, while I also lost control because of my own experiences. We each had our difficulties back then."
Lucifer tightened his wings around him.
"I don't believe they're all of one mind," Charles said confidently, "It's even possible that the chamber was not constructed by them. They are just clients of another large company."
"That could be," Erik said, leaning against the wall of the compartment, "Some big company is doing this kind of business, and it just so happens that some affluent individuals have this penchant. One side provides the money, the other side provides the labor, forming this situation."
"Do you think the company would allow these wealthy individuals to risk their lives?"
"Of course not. If something happens, it'll be troublesome. Not to mention the compensations, these people have reputations; if the cause of death cannot be explained, who knows how many shareholders would come knocking. No company wants that kind of trouble."
"But they can't prevent it." Charles sneered, "Human desires are like Pandora's Box; once opened, they can never be shut. The curse deepens, madness shadows us. Killing isn't enough, so there's torture; torture isn't enough, so there's psychological torment; psychological torment isn't enough, so they establish such a chamber, watching people suffer and die in various ways. But what then?"
"They won't be satisfied with just observing from on high. They will want to participate themselves, proving their superiority, proving their ability to control everything. No one can refuse to become God—no one can refuse to become the omnipotent deity choosing the Human race through the flood of extinction."