A/N: Spoilers for Season 3 Episode 4; "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender."
If Morty knew it, he didn't say it. Chances were great that Rick himself didn't know, and couldn't remember, what that night had been about. The night he got so black-out drunk that for far from the first time he got a glimpse as to what it would be like if he acted his age and contracted Alzheimer's. Of course, he'd already found the cure for that disease and had used it on himself so he'd never forget anything he didn't want to forget, but what he hadn't cured were the effects of getting black-out drunk. Maybe because he didn't want to cure it; he wanted to be able to experience times where he could claim a lack of fault simply because he couldn't remember what events had occurred. Could you blame an amnesiac for murder? Rick enjoyed falling back on that societal moral hiccup.
That moral hiccup is what ultimately left nobody willing to speak of what had really happened that night. Rick didn't know, didn't remember, and if Morty knew he didn't make any accusations, or perhaps he was too blinded by the idea that Rick had unknowingly hurt him yet again to consider the possibility that the harm had been intentional.
That night hadn't been about Noob-Noob. Rick didn't remember Noob-Noob, didn't care about Noob-Noob. It was always about Morty... But not in the way one might expect. He didn't try to confess his love for Morty and fall back on confessing a love for some random being instead when he couldn't pull himself through. He didn't do it all for Morty's sake and then chicken-out. He did do it all for Morty...
But he did it to punish him.
Rick knew his Grandson well enough. He knew that Morty wanted Rick's adoration. Knew that Morty was equally conflicted between hating and loving him. But what Rick wanted was Morty's everything. He wanted Morty's life, his loyalty, complete devotion. He needed a follower who'd do anything for him, so the last thing he'd wanted to hear was that his Morty, which he'd been working so hard on making his "Morty-est Morty," was a kiss-ass for the Vindicators: Popular Pricks of the Universe.
Morty dissed Rick. "They're my heroes!" He'd said. So Rick had set out to change that. The message of the whole series of events was clear, and served its purpose whether or not anyone knew that the message had been sent intentionally. Rick did good things sometimes, like save the Universe from Worldender, but not because he ever wanted to, only because he had to. He didn't do good or bad things, he did what he wanted, at least in his mind. He was a world-ender, a killer, a nihilist, who occasionally was forced into doing good things for his own benefit.
That night he hadn't set out to do good, or bad, or anything like that. He'd wanted to punish Morty. He wanted to send a message that would be received by Morty on every level, by every thought that consumed him, a memory to haunt him and influence all future decisions.
A message which, with or without words attached to it, spoken silently and heard resolutely, Morty would always remember:
"I alone am the center of your Universe. You are mine. You serve me. You admire me. Don't ever forget that, or I'll annihilate whatever else you placed above me. I am all that matters."