Chapter 437 - 286: Soft Power Is Also Power (Part 2)

Chapter 437: Chapter 286: Soft Power Is Also Power (Part 2)

At the same time, the current commander of the Guard Corps announced a decision that stunned the entire city: they would cooperate with Hell to establish a new criminal psychology research institute. The institute’s members would be composed of intelligent beings from Feilin and Devil Detectives.

This wasn’t some snap decision the commander made on a whim after getting hooked on the film *Shadow of Evil* and deciding he wanted a Detective Starling of his own.

The whole affair had been discussed many times. First, the Church had clearly informed all nations that the future path with the Devil Race was one of peace.

After studying the matter, the Sutton Royal Family decided to be the first to test the waters. Perhaps this was an opportunity for Sutton to become the world’s foremost power in the future.

As one of the first nations to begin its industrial revolution, Sutton’s production capacity was beginning to show signs of surplus.

They needed a new market.

To this end, they identified two pilot regions within Sutton. The first, of course, was Deepwater City, which was already using Inferior Demons.

Zog rejected the Royal Family’s investment offer. He needed to maintain Deepwater City’s high degree of autonomy. Paying taxes to Sutton was already a concession; giving them a say in his affairs was out of the question.

However, Zog did accept Sutton’s offer of a tax reduction. After all, he was going to have Devils living there anyway; it would be foolish not to take advantage of the tax break.

As for the second pilot region, it was naturally Twin Tower City, the most open and inclusive city in all of Sutton.

It was located in the north, while Deepwater City was in the south.

Compared to Zog’s territory, Twin Tower City’s attitude toward Devils was far more cautious.

Soron and the City Lord’s Mansion deliberated for a long time on what the first step of their cooperation should be.

The initial idea was to collaborate on gaming, as it was a new and popular industry in the city. In both game development and esports, it was a leader in Feilin.

The Zog Group’s game development department was located here, so learning from them would be quick and easy.

As it happened, Devils had recently visited the city for a Red Alert tournament, so public acceptance was expected to be relatively high. They considered, for example, recruiting a few expert Devil players for the city’s esports clubs.

But this idea was immediately shot down by the City Lord’s daughter, Miss Grace.

"In the gaming world, the Devils and Twin Tower City aren’t some kind of respected rivals—they’re mortal enemies. If we actually dare to recruit a Devil for the Children of the Twin Towers, the fans would be ready to tear down our headquarters."

That was what Miss Grace said.

And she was right. A hundred years later, the matches between the Children of the Twin Towers and the Devils would become the longest-running and most intense interplanar derby in esports history.

After the gaming idea was ruled out, the commander of the Guard Corps proposed the idea of a cooperative criminal psychology research institute.

This commander, who came from an administrative background, had, on that fateful day, received a request for reinforcements from the Seventh Squad. The report claimed that Devils had appeared on Chrysanthemum Street and that the captain of the Seventh Squad was surrounded.

It had to be said, the guard who went to call for reinforcements had a certain talent for taking things out of context.

A Devil appeared on Chrysanthemum Street, and the Seventh Squad captain was surrounded by a crowd of curious onlookers.

He’d omitted the part about the onlookers.

To the commander’s ears, the situation sounded extremely critical: a large number of Devils had actually appeared on the streets of Twin Tower City and dared to surround a captain in public!

"How many Devils are on the scene?" the commander had asked at the time.

"Unclear," the guard answered truthfully. He really didn’t know; the captain had only determined that Starling was a Devil and wasn’t sure if there were others present.

What the commander heard was that there were too many Devils to count.

And so, he immediately led the Guard Corps’ entire fighting force and rushed to the scene.

Then he was coaxed into a movie theater for a private screening of a Shadow of Evil.

Thus, most of the Guard Corps’ top brass were baptized by *Silence of the Lambs*.

Although the commander was scared out of his wits that day—he rarely worked the front lines and hadn’t seen many horrific crime scenes—he was also greatly inspired.

He felt the movie’s method of tracking Buffalo Bill through psychological profiling was worth emulating.

In the past, many veteran members of the Guard Corps had used a similar method to solve cases, putting themselves in the criminals’ shoes to deduce their thoughts.

Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t.

The crucial difference was that, compared to the abilities Hannibal displayed in the film, the Guard Corps members relied more on experience. Their methods were relatively illogical, severely lacked theoretical backing, and didn’t have a high success rate. As a result, this approach had never been taken seriously.

He made a point of speaking with the captain of the Seventh Squad. Although the captain wasn’t very skilled, he had been the apprentice of a former senior member, the one who was once the Corps’ best at psychological deduction.

He probably hadn’t inherited much of his master’s true skill, but in the current Guard Corps, he was still the best of a bad bunch.

After discussions with the captain and other high-ranking members of the Guard Corps, a consensus was reached: if a rigorous theoretical system could be established, this method could prove highly effective.

With this idea in mind, the commander studied the ancient texts on Devils provided by the Church.

Being a highly educated man, he could not only understand the material but also immerse himself in it.

After poring over numerous tomes, he came to a conclusion: among the many rumors about Devils, one thing was definitely true.

Devils were truly experts at understanding the human heart.

To be precise, they were adept at grasping the minds of all intelligent beings—they even deceived other Devils.

Besides their vast experience, Devils also possessed numerous psychology-related Magic spells. These spells were extremely rare in Feilin, and their system differed from Human Magic, making them difficult to learn.

So the best method was to cooperate directly with the Devils.

The City Lord was hesitant at first about the idea proposed by the Guard Corps commander.

’Isn’t letting Devils participate in solving crimes a bit too extreme? The public might not be able to accept it.’

In the end, it was Soron who stepped forward. He would keep an eye on these Devils, and if any problems arose, he would take responsibility.

Among his long string of titles, "Guardian of Twin Tower City" wasn’t just for show.

A hundred years ago, he had protected the civilians of one of the towers from Zog’s breath—though, in truth, Zog had no intention of harming them and had deliberately aimed wide.

After that, he made the safety of Twin Tower City his personal responsibility. His reputation was rock-solid.

The Zog Group also helped out a bit here by promising to invest in the new institute.

It wasn’t for direct profit, but to accelerate the process of Feilin’s acceptance of Devils.

The faster, the better.

’He’d already leased so many tourist attractions in Hell; he was going to make a killing on admission fees!’

Thanks to the efforts of multiple parties, the criminal psychology research institute was finally established.

Today was the day the Devil "Detectives" were scheduled to arrive.

As for why "Detectives" was in quotation marks, it was because, of course, Hell had no such thing as detectives.

They didn’t even have an organization to maintain public order. It had always been a place where might makes right.

When it came to selecting whom to send, it gave Asmodis a massive headache.

He stared at the definition of "detective" from his search, nearly pulling his already sparse hair out.

’What kind of Devil in Hell fits this definition?’

In the end, a single sentence from Zog was enough to awaken the dreaming devil.

"Find the best liars in Hell. They’re guaranteed to be experts in psychology."

And just like that, the greatest con artists in Hell were officially employed.

An incredibly smooth path to "civil service."

This was a great step forward in establishing exchanges between Hell and Feilin. Asmodis also came in person, still in his familiar portly-uncle form.

Leading a group of misshapen and grotesque "detectives," he came to attend the institute’s inauguration, ribbon-cutting ceremony, and public open house.

The tradition of ribbon-cutting comes from the historical ceremony of cutting a ship’s mooring lines before its maiden voyage, a practice that has been continued to this day.

However, aside from the ribbon-cutting, Asmodis couldn’t quite understand the rest of the decorations at the site.

Because the institute was built by Zog’s construction team, the ribbon-cutting ceremony was also designed by the Zog Group.

Balloons, banners, and a stage covered with a red carpet—the whole venue was decorated in a red and yellow color scheme.

’To be honest, it fit the aesthetic of Devils perfectly,’ Asmodis thought. ’But did Humans like this kind of thing too?’

Zog’s comment on the matter was, "It’s a shame we’re missing an inflatable arch."

Under the flashing of cameras, the group of dignitaries cut the red ribbon together.

This was followed by a public meet-and-greet and a press Q&A.

The Devils walked onto the stage one by one to present themselves. It was hard to tell who was more nervous—the Devils on stage or the audience below.

"Excuse me, did the Devils come to Feilin with some kind of ulterior motive?"

asked the first reporter.