Satisfaction level was something which dictated how happy a citizen was in being a part of the particular kingdom that they inhabited. Hence, after repeated experimentation, and due to all the efforts he had undertaken to increase the satisfaction level of his own kingdom, Daneel had an idea regarding how to influence it in whatever way he wished.
Basically, it was all about the thoughts of a citizen. He had always known that it was possible to use indirect methods in order to increase the satisfaction level drastically, such as the one that the King of Axelor was employing. Yet, he had always had the feeling that there must be some motive behind the Emperor putting this as the test for those who wished to obtain what he had hidden behind the three seals.
So, he had always endeavored to increase it in the right way, and he was happy that most of his efforts had worked out well.
Yet, he had to agree that this method of increasing the overall number of people to increase the average was something which was smack dab on top of the line between right and wrong.
On one side, it was such a gaping loophole that he was sure that the Emperor might have thought about it, and on the other, it also looked as if there was no way to stop someone from taking advantage of it. After all, if the objective was to find a King who would keep a lot of people satisfied that they were in his kingdom, then what was wrong with him a.s.similating more people into his dominion so that he could make them happy, too?
While questions like these swirled in his head, Daneel teleported into the Black Raven Kingdom and headed to that same village where he had started his recent task two days ago.
As soon as he arrived, he noticed that the atmosphere here was quite different from how it had been all those months ago when he and Faxul had traveled through here as part of their journey in the Black Raven Kingdom.
At that time, although the rate of development and the number of things that were being done for the people weren"t anything remarkable, at all, there had still been happiness and joy in most of the families in this little village.
Yet, now, all Daneel felt was a weird atmosphere where many stares were being exchanged between various families, who had been coexisting peacefully until now.
Clearly, the differences in opinion were driving wedges between them, which was something that he had seen a lot back on Earth.
He had been loath to use this simple yet effective method of differing opinions to decrease the satisfaction level so that Arnold wouldn"t directly break through the third seal, but it had been staring him right in the face, and it was the easiest method to make sure that the other phases of his plan would go ahead properly.
And of course, this fit in with the rest of it, because only troubled times would give rise to what he wished.
Putting aside his excitement for the last phase, Daneel first pointed at a specific spot in the air, where he knew a communication eye was present.
He had already planned this beforehand so that Faxul would be present in the throne room where all the display screens were present. So, as soon as he pointed his finger at it, he asked Faxul, "What do you see? Was there any sort of flickering?"
After a few moments, Faxul responded.
"None. The image remains as it was. I have to admit that I"m thoroughly impressed by this part, Daneel, even more than the rest."
To this, Daneel merely chuckled and said, "Well, it was pretty obvious that he would have to use some sort of monitoring system in order to check out what is going on in this Kingdom that he thinks is under his command. If I wanted to deceive him in any way, I needed to prepare beforehand - and he could never have expected that I would deploy communication eyes everywhere, so that I can simply show him a loop of whatever happened whenever I want. Keep checking. If there is even a sign that anything might be exposed, I"ll stop."
"Alright. Just be gentle with them. Remember, they will be under your command soon."
To this, Daneel just said "Of course. When have I ever been anything but gentle with citizens?", Before cutting off their connection and walking into the village.
Right after he did so, Daneel once again checked on the eye, and then conjured a throne before sitting down right in the center of the village.
The input of the communication eye that the King of Axelor would see was already hijacked and it was sending data of the day before- so that nothing amiss would be seen by anyone who might be watching.
With a smile, he spoke inside his head.
"System, deploy the Anti-Satisfaction Level module."
[Affirmative. Deploying. Beginning a.n.a.lysis of data. 62 families detected. Listing families on the basis of what side they are on. Primary Targets identified: 16 families. Collecting information about targets.]
This was something that would take at least a little bit of time, so Daneel conjured a book out of thin air which was one of those that he had acquired in the library of the G.o.ddess"s Sanctum.
It was an interesting piece of work about how even those of high talent should be put through extra difficulty so that they would always be grateful of their power, which might allow them to reach the highest level that they could.
10 minutes later, the system was done.
[Results are ready to be displayed in the HUD.]
Standing up with a broad smile, Daneel asked the system to activate the HUD to show him the results before walking forward to the first house that was located just a few steps away from where he had been sitting.
As he walked, no one could tell that there was anyone in that location, and only those who pa.s.sed close by got a strange feeling which made them look around with suspicion, and then shake their head, thinking that they must have imagined it.
Trusting the efficiency of the system in hiding him from the sight of all who might be watching, Daneel reached his target and simply teleported inside.
He noticed that the two members of this little family were embroiled in a small discussion regarding whether they should continue supporting the King"s decision, and be happy that they hadn"t been vanquished by the King of Lanthanor, which was a possibility that might be true based on the decades-long history that the two Kingdoms had shared.
This was one of the reasons behind this family being on the side that Daneel didn"t want them to be in.
Hence, he had to change that.
The process for this was simple - the other side had already introduced a few doubts into the minds of these two people, so he just had to make those doubts stronger.
Right now, the point of the discussion was that Axelor had just as bad a history with them as Lanthanor, and that the positive actions that the latter had undertaken should be taken into account, too.
At this point, Daneel simply looked at the s.p.a.ce above their heads, where there were multiple statements floating around.
Above the woman"s head was a statement that said: "What about that time during the Olympics though, where Axelor was the one who must have deployed those mosquitoes which killed a lot of people?"
Choosing this one, Daneel made it…appear in her mind.
This was the simplest form of Mind Control which didn"t even take a lot of his effort - all he was doing was introducing this thought into her mind, and he wasn"t even coaxing her into thinking about it. That part wasn"t necessary, as their minds were already in a state of flux because of the discussion that was going on.
Hence, the next second, the woman uttered this thought that she had just gotten, and even she, herself, got a thoughtful expression on her face while both of them began to think of this, which slightly tilted their opinion towards the side which stated that they should rebel in some form, and not be happy with how things were.
He had basically given the system the task that it should identify all the facts regarding the issues that could be used as counterarguments to push the citizens to think what he wanted. So, all he had to do was pick what he wanted, so that he could learn what worked and what didn"t.
Changing someone"s thoughts while using this form of Mind Control was a very fine art, which was what Daneel realized after a few more minutes.
For example, in the husband"s case, he had used the issue about how uniting with Lanthanor would have given them better trade routes, and that this was no longer possible as they were a part of Axelor, which was a foe of Lanthanor"s. This didn"t result in any major s.h.i.+ft in their overall opinion, as it was something that did not concern them, personally, too much.
There were others which did concern them, though. For example, reiterating about how Daneel had looked during the episode of "Mercy for the Wicked" had worked well to swing them towards the rebellion again.
By the time he was done 20 minutes later, this family was already firmly heading in the direction of becoming one of those that would soon clamor for things to not be like they were right now, which was exactly what he wanted as the satisfaction level would go down.
With a smile, Daneel traveled to the next family and continued to repeat this, all while learning how to get better and better at the task.
Two hours later, 12 families were already well on their way to s.h.i.+ft their opinion. He couldn"t do it with all of them, though, as it would be too suspicious.
It would have been nice if this was the only thing he had to do, but it wasn"t.
Next up, Daneel traveled to the houses of the extremists, who were saying that they should begin right now and also target those who had different opinions from them.
These were his secondary targets.
Such people would always be present throughout the world, but he did not want them to do as they wished, as that would result in an atmosphere of violence which would cause many deaths - which was something that he really did not want to see happen.
So, in these houses, Daneel did the opposite - he used the thoughts from the other sides to make them doubt their own conviction in carrying out the rebellion, with the objective of making them decide that they would stall and wait to see what would happen.
With time, he got better and better at it, and even the system started to learn which ones worked in which didn"t.
With this, his work in this village was done. Before he had come, almost half of it had been on the general side of not wanting to be in this alliance. And now, that had changed to more than three fourths, which would definitely result in the satisfaction level plummeting instead of rising up.
True, he was manipulating them, but Daneel had to admit that this was a very good learning experience, and that it was definitely not boring at all to see how simple one-liners could influence the thoughts of a person.
This made him think about the major influence of social media back on Earth on the entire world, where even political parties had begun to use methods just like this one to sway people towards their cause.
Thankfully, there were regulatory bodies there which endeavored to stop this from happening, but there was no such thing here. Hence, if this fell into the hands of someone who could exploit it, it might definitely result in a disaster.
So, resolving to do something about this right after he was done using it himself, he proceeded to the next village, and then the next one, and the next town, and then the Capital itself.
He did so randomly, and even the number of families changed at each location was random - all so that there would be no suspicion arising whatsoever.
It was pretty exhausting, as there were literally tens of thousands of people he had to cover, but soon, with time, the system absorbed more and more data until it was capable of accomplis.h.i.+ng what he wanted automatically just my him pa.s.sing over a settlement.
That had been his hope, and seeing it work, Daneel was pretty happy. Hence, using this, he sped up the whole thing, and was finished with the entire Kingdom in three days.
The continent was still reeling from what had happened, as it hadn"t even been a week since that humiliating loss by the First Alliance of Angaria.
Yet, Daneel decided to proceed anyway, as it was best to strike the iron when it was hot.
Exhausted, with his eyes drooping, he picked up a communication trinket and sent a message to Faxul.
"My part in the second phase is done. You can proceed. Let me know how it goes. Good luck, Faxul."