Chapter 303
Chapter 303: The Ordinary Person’s Generation (Part 2 of 2)
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
If one were to look back on everything I’d ever done, one could see that there was a clear goal to my actions—I wanted to increase the power of the average person in this world.
Did this world lack powerful individuals? It didn’t. Without even mentioning how many top-level mages gathered mold and dust while staying as hermits in their experimental laboratories, there were countless dragons, giants, and unknown powerful individuals out there. Even when I was Emperor Yongye back in the day, I only ranked 30ish on the Calamity Rankings, which ranked the disaster rating levels of everyone who liked to act as walking calamities. This world was quite large, with many powerful individuals in it. However, would those powerful individuals be able to change the world?
The answer was evidently no. It required far too much luck to create a top-level powerful individual, typically through processes that couldn’t be repeated for others, and it required huge amounts of time and resources. Top-level power would forever be limited. Since the entire generation was changing, there was no point in counting on such few individuals and small groups of people to change the overall situation. This was the experience I gained from my past failures.
But what frustrated me the most was that these powerful individuals preferred to play the part of hermits, viewing themselves as above the war, treating the Holy War as something that will pass in time, just as the Cloud Tower’s archmages did. By the time the powerful individuals noticed that this Holy War was uniquely special compared to the past, it would be far too late, and none of them would be able to escape.
“Powerful individuals are rare? They’re chosen by heaven? It’s simply that most people have never had any chance to become strong to begin with. If I want more top-level powerful individuals that seem like they were chosen by the heavens? Heh heh, as long as I increase the basic population of those who can fight, as long as I increase the number as high as possible, miracles and so on will appear on their own. After all, geniuses are only relative. Isn’t a genius simply someone who surpasses ninety-nine people out of one hundred? Perhaps I can’t create more of that one percent that requires too many random factors, but as long as I improve and increase the ninety-nine percent, I can multiply the base amount of fighters by over ten times. The number of geniuses and so on will naturally increase severalfold!”
If I compared this world to an ark that was about to meet a flood, which represented the countless trials that this world was about to go through, then before the astonishingly large waves and thunderstorms arrived, furiously increasing the ark’s weight by strengthening its foundation was the most important thing to do in order to survive the flood.
I needed to improve the overall power level of the ordinary people in this world as they were by far the majority. Then, I needed to control things from behind the scenes with the power of Law and Justice Points to guide them on the correct path. I would also need to decrease internal conflicts as much as possible so that we could gain the strength to resist the future thunderstorms. That was the choice I made.
The appearance of the power of Law, the Four Elemental Swordcasters, and magical archers created by Olive’s Magic Box would all help ordinary people to possibly reach the peak. However, it was just a beginning. The “Great Industrial Party,” this mage organization which was named half-jokingly, had the tremendous ambition to change the entire world.
I took a deep breath as my next words were going to hit the critical point I intended for this lecture.
“The small portable battery ‘Olive’s Magic Box’ has far more effective uses than what I just mentioned. The greatest beneficiaries of this invention aren’t even magic users or mages. Perhaps some of you have already tried my Iron Horses, right? What do you all think? How do they compare to real warhorses?”
I ignored the commotion beneath the podium, as the conclusion was obvious.
“Warhorses are expensive, and their bloodlines and breeds are big problems as well. Not to mention, they take an incredibly long time to raise, and there’s the problem of fully equipping them. It could be said that an excellent warhorse with its own horse armor is half of a knight’s life. Add to that the fact that warhorses require the highest-quality feed, and it could be said that domain lords everywhere spend great amounts of effort on maintaining a sufficient amount of knights under their command. Yet these Iron Horses…”
There were plenty of mages that came from the nobility so they were the first to guess what I was about to say.
“They’re cheap, truly cheap compared to real warhorses. The cost of production isn’t that high, and merely some engineering materials are required without any special magical ingredients. It can easily be mass produced. As for their abilities, even with just the current technology, until the batteries powering them run out of power, they’ll be even quicker than warhorses wearing a full set of horse armor. Not to mention that you can easily add additional armor to the Iron Horse, and its defensive capabilities will be far stronger than a horse which possesses a physical flesh and blood body.”
I closed my eyes and envisioned what I wanted for the future. In future battles, these Iron Horse-riding knights would wield spears and dwarven firearms which would enable them to strike the invaders in lightning-like ambushes. Yet they were only the first part in my planned iron-outfitted warriors!
“This is merely the beginning. I can tell you all right now that self-propelled super small mechas have already been developed. They are capable of greatly increasing any individual’s combat strength and survivability. We’re also developing heavy mechas with similar specs to war mammoths, as well as large Titan mechas and siege weaponry that are currently undergoing mass production. Soon, the field of engineering that you’ve all ignored for forever will develop from a joke field into a way of truth that’s more than equal to magic. Not only that, the users of these mechas will be the ordinary people that you look down upon. The ordinary people of the future will have far more power than any of you realize.”
To use a cliché phrase: “The tides of history are unstoppable.” Heroes would forever rise throughout the times, and revolutions would occur when the winds were right. Even without me, there was destined to be a “magical engineering” revolution in the future regardless.
In the game’s “history,” after Armageddon finally descended and the Auland Empire suffered many serious losses and setbacks, pushing it to the brink, the Auland Empire finally gave everyone their secret technology of small portable batteries which had the power to change the world. What came with it was a revolution in magical engineering.
Even though it was still a thorny road afterwards, magical engineering products changed the entire world in the game’s “history,” changing the way people lived, how they fought, and even Eich’s very culture.
Yet since I was now here in this world, how would I possibly waste precious time that could be used to prepare for future battles? Thanks to the butterfly effect that I intentionally caused, Olive invented this all-important technology more than ten years earlier than she was scheduled to. Nor did Timlad need to waste so much time in “maturing,” thanks to my “experienced” guidance. This helped them avoid many incorrect paths in their research, making their paths much clearer and straighter.
It wasn’t merely my knowledge of the game’s storyline. Even my memories about how modern-day wars worked in my world would help push engineering developments forward in this world by thousands of years. After all, it was common that even one small technological improvement would take countless years of hard work and combat experience to otherwise obtain.
The most obvious was how Russia had once modified bulldozers into tanks. Plus, even World War 1 tactics like barbed wire fences, trench warfare, and stationery machine gun turrets were usable in this world as well! Perhaps just a tiny little moat and a small defensive structure guarded by a squadron of ordinary people would require an entire squadron of knights to use countless sacrifices in order to conquer.
“In the upcoming generation, it will become hundreds of times easier to obtain power. Even an ordinary person will be able to defeat or kill the strong! This is a revolution! This is no simple invention, this is an industrial revolution which will bring about an entirely new generation! This is the goal of my mage organization, the Great Industrial Party!”
Of course, chaotic worlds would always give birth to heroes, as if the world itself would instinctively refuse to die off. Soon, new technologies, new magics, and new powerful individuals would appear endlessly like how new plants would sprout after a spring rain. As this world’s enemies continuously increased in strength, the original residents would improve in strength in leaps and bounds as well. And what I needed to do right now was to prematurely bring the “Industrial Revolution” to this world of fantasy and magic in order to strengthen its foundation.
“Perhaps some of you here are thinking that such a revolution is unnecessary, and that you should try and stop me… so what I’m going to show everyone here next is the most truthful information of all. There are prophecies among what I’m going to show you, as well as current situations. I swear on my own name of the veracity of this information.”
I took a deep breath here. After all, these were things I needed to show them.
“…You all still want to act like cowardly turtles hiding in your shells? Let me just see how you’re going to hide in your shells when enemies are knocking at your door!”
And so, I showed the mages here the same information that I had once broadcast on the Borealis back in the day.
These were images that resembled prophecies, with countless hordes of demons walking on the streets, cities burning and screaming as black knights trampled everything underfoot, the undead invading the living’s territory, the elves’ holy grounds becoming nothing but rubble and craters, and magma covering lands that used to be filled with ice and snow.
And, the most astonishing sight of all for everyone here was a pile of rubble that still shone with remnants of mystical light at the broken tower’s tip. This place was doubtlessly the Cloud Tower which was flourishing so much today.
At the same time, my memory crystal also showed them the recent battles that had just occurred.
They saw the demon armies invading the Underground World, the fierce beastmen ambushing the Northlands, the Undead Calamity invading the Bardi Empire, the forbidden spell duel I had against Undead Emperor Aso which ended in Aso’s death, the current situation in the Auland Empire’s Rain Capital, the battle against Emordilorcan in the Earth Elemental Plane and the Divine Sins birthed there. No easy battle had been fought; each one was a close battle to the death.
The entire world was quietly changing around them, with wars on the level of myths occurring continuously. Yet the mages of the Cloud Tower continued living secluded off in their own little world, with the topics about the ongoing wars being nothing more than idle gossip to them. No matter how fierce “someone else’s war” was, they would merely sigh or be slightly moved before forgetting about it entirely.
However, scenes that they could witness would be far more impactful than reading words on a report. All these scenes of Armageddon in the future as well as current and recent battles interchanged with each other, showing them both the current reality as well as prophecy. All of the mages naturally recalled the recent Gods’ proclamations as well so even the most self-confident of mages would now be closely considering just how large in scale the current Holy War was likely to develop and whether they would be able to safely stay out of things as they had originally wanted.
The facts would be more powerful than any argument I could make, so I didn’t waste words. Naturally, it was now time for me to deal with any doubts.
“…Just how did you obtain these images that are like prophecies? Divination magic can’t possibly divine such results. Not to mention, divination magic can’t even be used anymore ever since the God of Fate used his power during the Gods’ proclamations. Also, just when exactly did you learn about such prophecies?”
It was only natural that Oslowen, who was the highest-ranking member of the Mystical Blade present here, would be the first to question me on this.
“The source? I could describe it as a mere coincidence. I can swear right here, right now, using the powers of the Holy Light, that this is the truest ‘history’ and ‘future’ of this world. If I don’t intervene, everything in these images will certainly occur without question.”
From a certain standpoint, my status as a user of Holy Light was incredibly helpful to me. At the very least, it was incredibly helpful whenever I needed to tell a “truthful lie.”
“As for when I knew about these prophecies? Would you believe me if I said that I learned about them more than three hundred years ago? That’s right, I swear in the name of the Holy Light, that more than three hundred and seventy years ago, when I was still a seven or eight-year-old little brat, I already knew that all of this was destined to occur.”
The blinding Holy Light surrounding me proved the veracity of my words, which sent the entire classroom into the biggest commotion so far.
As for me, it was now time for me to make my escape after successfully saying everything that I wanted… Fine then, I actually didn’t have much else to say, and I felt that I would be caught out in a lie somewhere if I continued speaking on this topic any longer.
******
“A hidden truth behind the Yongye Calamity!? The history books should be rewritten!”
“A slandered hero of darkness? The only one who knew the truth about the upcoming Armageddon? A maniac forced to insanity by the burden? The truth about the Northlands prince!”
“The newest research and discussions on the veracity of the prophecy on Armageddon—an interview with the dimensional expert archmage, Fensoan!”
I was quite impressed with the hard work that the dimensional reporters put in as I looked at the thick stacks of magazines and extra edition newspapers before me. Even I hadn’t realized that I had supposedly done so many things in secret before, turning into a tragic hero who had to bear such a reviled reputation in order to save the world.
“Hahaha, this article even discusses your past romantic history, claiming that you used to have two lovers and a mistress. Could it actually be true? Roland, did you take revenge against the Holy Church because of a dead lover back in the day?”
The black cat dexterously used her claws to flip through the newspapers to constantly look for more hilarious articles on me. When she had laughed enough, she even sipped on some milk. Harloys really was becoming more and more like a real cat.
“Hmph, I died in that life at only fourteen years old. Do you really think that anyone will believe this article?”
Publicly making my statements while swearing to their truth using the power of Holy Light was quite worthwhile. By the same afternoon, just about all the mage organizations learned the content of everything I declared. Meanwhile, although it was already a publicly known secret that I, Roland, was also Emperor Yongye, none of the publicly sold magazines or newspapers made any direct mention of me being Yongye. However, there were plenty of guesses and rumors within the mage organizations’ personal publications.
Some slightly good news was that most likely, the various mage organizations didn’t want to aggravate me, so all the reports were still rather positive and easily acceptable ones. Although it seemed rather strange that I mysteriously became a dark antihero, it definitely felt much better than how I was simply blamed for everything, no matter if it was my fault or not, in the past.
After I revealed such explosive news to everyone, if the major mage organizations wanted to cooperate with me in order to receive more benefits, they would naturally try to give me a good name.
As for killing off this relatively new invention? Or forcefully stealing it? Let’s not mention how impossible that would be due to a certain reason. Sometimes, I even felt proud of how infamous my villainy was. It was quite useful in so many situations.
However, the only downside of what I did today was that Thorn Garden had a poor day of sales yet again.
“Are things still the same outside?”
“Yep. There are many people standing around, looking at the store, but very few are coming in and purchasing anything. The only ones that are buying products are the old familiar customers who are all at the mage-teacher level. It would seem that all those new faces outside are here for you. Are you going to go out and greet them?”
“Forget it. Earlier this morning, when I went out simply for some exercise, several tens of them were so scared that they took off running upon seeing me, and some even fainted on the spot. I’m beginning to think that I’m a medusa now, with the ability to petrify anything I see. Oh, and with additional sound effects of crying and howling.”
“Why aren’t you mentioning the young female mages who have lost themselves due to those stories about how much of a tragic hero you are? It must feel wonderful to have received the first ever love letter of your life.”
“Hmph, that definitely wasn’t my first love letter… fine then, don’t look at me like that, I admit it’s the first love letter that I can recall receiving, alright? But I’ve definitely received many challenge letters, duel letters, curse letters, and letters about never wanting to see me again. Perhaps there was someone in the past who intended to send me a love letter but sent it to the wrong person, or wrote the wrong person’s name inside, or there was a girl who wrote one to me but was too embarrassed to send it…”
I felt that I was more and more pitiful as I kept trying to defend myself, so I decided to change the topic to something more interesting.
“That girl is still crouching there, waiting for me?”
“Yep. She said that as an honorable executor of the law, she was definitely going to keep a close eye on you, and that I should tell you, ‘Don’t even think about causing any trouble in this city.'”
Harloys even imitated that silly Cher’s tone of voice—a really good imitation, in fact. At the very least, it was quite obvious from the way she grit her teeth and her expression that she didn’t intend to allow me to have a comfortable life here.
I glanced out the window at the tree where the female mage Cher and her public security team was waiting for me. I could only helplessly shake my head. At any rate, I didn’t intend to do anything illegal here—for the time being—so she could just wait there all she liked.
“Hmph! If she wants to be a free police mage in her spare time, then let her be. It even saves us money on hiring extra security.”
Yep, that was what I was thinking at the time. After all, from a certain standpoint, having police mages around here would help make our customers feel safer.
“You really should think of a method to make her leave as soon as possible.”
“Why? I’m not intending on breaking any laws here or ruining public order.”
“Just this morning, she came in for three surprise inspections…”
“Who cares!? It’s not like I’m doing anything illegal! Let her check whatever she wants!”
“The reason she’s been giving for searching us is ‘tax evasion.’ Each time, she’s been seriously going through our accounts. Are you sure your fake account books—”
“I must think of a way to make her leave! Immediately!”