731 Foundation Stone of Propaganda
"Ouch!"
"Aiooo!"
"Yiek!"
The students let out varied shrieks as they plucked their hair strands and began to tie them together. Their mistakes were plenty and a majority of them lacked the flexibility of fingers to accurately tie a knot on the short hair strands.
"Hold it in the gap between your nail and finger like this." Inala approached one of the students and explained the process in detail. His voice was a whisper, please to the ears, causing the student to feel like he was in a trance before feeling sleepy.
Inala's peaceful voice was sleep-inducing. As he slowly explained, Prana gathered at his throat before he opened his mouth and emitted a small packet of sound.
Mystic Royal Art—Universal Slip!
The packet of sound travelled through the boy's ear canal and formed a Piezo Slip on his eardrum. And while Inala talked, in frequencies inaudible to the human ears were Zinger Shrieks, emitted alongside his regular-sounding dialogues.
This Zinger shriek slammed into the boy's ear drum when the Piezo Slip vibrated captured it and vibrated accordingly, translating the contents into a form recognizable by the human brain. The signals were faint but encrypted, so the brain didn't register any message for the time being.
However, the information was gathered by it, just not processed.
Universal Slip was a form of Piezo Slip that could be engraved on the eardrum on a target which can absorb Zinger Shrieks and convert them into a form suitable for the respective body's brain to process and gather the information from.
However, due to the condensed information characteristic of a Zinger Shriek, the volume of information would be too complex for the brain to understand. Only after the individual falls asleep and most of the brain becomes free would this encrypted information be decrypted.
Then, the information within the shriek would appear in the individual's dreams. This was how Universal Slip worked. And the best time to use it would be when the target individual was in a state of concentration.
When in concentration, the brain diverts a larger portion of its processing capabilities to the field the body was focused on. This works to the Universal Slip's advantage, as it would immediately be shelved by the brain for later processing.
It was the easiest to use on Iron Grade existences due to their brain's limited processing capacity in comparison to Higher Grade existences. Moreover, it was something whose effect was pronounced upon significant, extended use, so it couldn't be applied in a battle.
Universal Slip was one of Inala's tools to brainwash the people over the course of time. It was created so that he could have a perfect cover while transmitting propaganda content to his students and other people.
Any unassuming individual wouldn't even know what was happening when conversing with Inala. Only at night would they experience the contents of the Universal Slip in a dream. Moreover, it would be a dream at the end of the day, so the majority of its contents wouldn't even register in their mind once they wake up.
However, if it was maintained for years at a stretch, then their minds would be shaped accordingly. A bias of sorts would be formed in them that would affiliate them towards a certain line of thought. And since this happened gradually, over a period of years, no one will notice anything amiss.
'Time is the greatest ally of this ability.' Inala thought as he engraved a Universal Slip on the other eardrum of the student. The longer the time passes, the greater the results and the more impossible it becomes for a third party to detect his hand in it or even the cause.
The Universal Slip wasn't an omnipotent Skill though. At the end of the day, even the eardrum was a part of the body. Therefore, even if the carving of the Universal Slip didn't register as a wound, it would still vanish once the layer of cells gets replaced naturally over time.
Based on his calculation, once engraved, a Universal Slip will exist for close to two weeks on the eardrum of a person at the Spirit Stage. This fell down to approximately eight to ten days for someone at the Iron Grade, one to two days for someone at the Silver Grade, and barely an hour for someone at the Gold Grade.
It was a bit of a pain to unleash a Universal Slip, but as long as Inala transmits a Zinger Shriek into the targeted eardrum before the Universal Slip vanishes, his work was as good as done. For higher Grade existences, he would only have to find suitable opportunities to use the Skill again.
As he went around, giving one-on-one guidance to the students, Inala carved a Universal Slip in the eardrums of all forty students, familiarising himself with the Skill. Following that, he arrived before everyone and began to speak.
Mystic Royal Art—Dual Speech!
Dual Speech was a touch Skill to create and use since it placed a strain on his vocal cords. When activated, it allowed him to unleash sounds in two different voices. The first was his regular, human voice, meant for the masses. The second was a Zinger Shriek, unleashed at a frequency inaudible to the existences in his surroundings.
It was wise to use it after using the Skill of Piezo Resonance first. After knowing the frequency of all target bodies in his vicinity and getting to know their hearing range, in case Inala didn't know beforehand, only then will he use Dual Speech.
Otherwise, if the frequency of his Zinger Shriek falls within the audible range of his target, they'll figure out that he was up to something.
Preparations must be made before using the Skill of Dual Speech. Inala had been doing that while conversing with the students. And only after having a complete grasp of their hearing range did he start using Dual Speech.
"It might seem hard, but I'm sure everyone can grasp it with some practice," Inala said while using Dual Speech. His Zinger Shriek basically carried information regarding his experience in tying two hair strands into one.
This information was converted by the Universal Slip into a form they could understand and embedded the information in their brain. Once the kids fall asleep, they'll find themselves in a room, tying two hair strands together.
That insight will help improve their skill. And when the same continues day after day, they'll begin imitating it naturally, which rapidly shortens the time they take to learn the ability.
This process was faster than feeding them the experience through an Information Slip. After all, that experience will be Inala's, which would try to shape up the latter's mind, influencing them according to his ego, bias, habits, etc. while performing the action.
This was shown the most when using Skills learnt through an Information Slip. Back at the Mammoth Clan, when Asaeya learnt his Skill of Puppetry, her first usage of the Skill made her behave the same as Inala.
She quickly adapted the Skill into a form suitable for her psyche, but the average individual took months or sometimes, even years before they adapted it to their psyche.
For regular abilities, learning through an Information Slip was inefficient, since the body will hurriedly adapt to the biases that the creator of the data in the Information Slip possessed.
Something like tying two strands of hair at Inala's skill level could be achieved in a few weeks with nonstop training. So, it was better for the students to learn it manually instead of through an Information Slip.
This was also why most lectures were conducted manually instead of feeding everything through an Information Slip. It was faster to learn it manually than learning it through an Information Slip and spending a longer time adapting it into a form suitable for their psyche.
However, the information gained through the Universal Slip would be broken down, analysed, and displayed in the target's dreams. By that point, it was already converted into a form suitable for their psyche.
Dreams were unstable. Inala used that characteristic to his advantage. Even though this reduced the consistency and quality of information retained by the target, as long as Inala repeated the same for multiple days, the result was more than worth the effort.
He was basically feeding the targets information that they assumed were gaining naturally.
"Keep practicing it until tomorrow," Inala said and dispersed the class, spending only an hour with them. He had to teach a total of five such classes daily, with each costing an hour.
After the final class ended, he exited the classroom, which was basically a random hall in one of the Decodus Trees. No Academy of the sort had been established at the Noikatol District yet as the teachers were working professionals who taught classes part-time.
As the number of students was also minimal, MunuBuntara kept each class in a vacant room. Every day, Inala would be assigned a room in a different Decodus Tree. All the classrooms were multipurpose halls.
'Well, it works either way.' He thought as he exited, greeting a familiar face as he used the Skills of Universal Slip and Dual Speech in conjunction.
"How was your first day?" Wepetay asked with curiosity.
"Normal, I guess." Inala smiled, barely able to conceal his disappointment, "None of them seem to possess the passion I hope to find in this field."
"That's unfortunate." Wepetay sighed before shaking hands with Inala, "Well, you'll have to excuse me, Sir Binala. I'm leaving for the Noikatol Kingdom in a couple of hours."
"So soon?" Inala expressed his shock.
"Yeah, I arrived only to introduce you personally to Lord MunuBuntara. Since that's done, I've been ordered to return to my post. I'm pretty much my Lord's representative, so I need to be stationed at my designation." Wepetay said and excused himself, "Let's meet in the future when I return, Sir Binala."
"The pleasure's all mine," Inala said and accompanied Wepetay alongside his family to the railway station. He acted like he was helping Wepetay load the luggage onto the railway when in truth, he was using the Skills of Universal Slip and Dual Speech.
Since both were unleashed through sounds beyond the audible range of Wepetay and the rest, and the amplitude was faint enough, Inala's actions went undetected.
"Farewell," Inala waved his hand as he watched the railway leave for the Noikatol Kingdom. He turned around and walked away, acting ignorant of what he had done. 'I've just laid the foundation stone.'
'Now, to build a castle of propaganda.'