175: Chapter 157: Study Hard 175: Chapter 157: Study Hard “On the thirty-seventh day of our journey, the supplies of the Holy Order are almost depleted, but we still haven’t found any signs of the next torch…”
“….Aker has mutated, right before my eyes, he twisted into a lump of flesh in an instant and was killed on the spot by Mr.
Knight…
Is it because of the food?
Is it due to a lack of ‘light’?
Or rely a loss of resolve to carry on…”
“…Finally, we found the promised land described in the ancient books.
We obtained a clean water source, and there are only a few low-level Magic Monsters outdoors, they are not too difficult to deal with.
Most importantly, we found the ‘torch’.
Ah, what perfect light.
I had a good sleep last night, I even had a dream…
but thinking of the painful journey back, I…”
“The Knight Commander said this is our new territory in the future, he will be our new lord.
Although everyone was hesitant, no one objected…
or maybe, everyone is quietly anticipating…”
Lu Ping’an put down his notebook.
The “Sphinx’s buff” worked very effectively, allowing him to copy two and a half hours’ worth of pollution knowledge smoothly.
At this mont, he was studying late into the night.
He didn’t leave the “factory”, but settled in at a local inn instead.
His desk was now filled with a pile of worn-out second-hand books and notebooks, all of which were stained with a hint of pollution, visible to the Spirit Vision.
This was the harvest of his dayti shopping.
Having the “insightful” BUFF, he naturally utilized it to enhance his Scholar’s Career Ability.
His two LV7s were always a significant threshold for his Advancent.
Since his focus was to improve his “Reading and Writing” skill, the books he selected were naturally a bit special…
or rather, very cost-effective.
“I never expected that these highly polluted, yet inexpensive books would turn out to be otherworldly books and travelogues…”
Upon deeper consideration, it seed obvious.
“Travelogues”, “Otherworldly Geography”, etc.
seed interesting to read…
Lu Ping’an was truly fascinated.
But they serve no purpose.
The knowledge they contain may be precious for the Otherworldly, or perhaps so undisclosed history of certain Deity, but to Lu Ping’an, they were rely interesting novels…though most of the real-life protagonists in them did not live long enough to finish writing the books.
Perhaps you might find a use for them during a long journey, but the chances of that are minimal.
Books with equal amounts of knowledge and pollution were only a fraction of the price of other “useful books”, and most of them were preloved, copied, and incomplete, further reducing their practical value.
After all, incompleteness and alterations imply that the knowledge is not original.
And unsuspecting readers could be killed by the lurking danger at any ti.
When he saw Lu Ping’an, who was “practicing skills”, take away a pile of unsold books, the bookstore owner was overjoyed.
But from another perspective, Lu Ping’an didn’t feel he was at a loss at all.
“…Indeed, the Silver-tier consumption buff is amazing.”
The elf did not lie, but it didn’t reveal everything either.
The obtaining of this BUFF is not easy, with significant risks to its great strength.
The first failure will only cost an arm, but pain and fear will imdiately bring about the second round of questions.
The second failure will cost a head, and if there is a third failure, it will cost your heart…
sending you to your death under the rules.
This seems like a harmless gamble, but since Lu Ping’an won, he reaped a lot in return.
He had never co across silver-tiered BUFFs, and with the two additional short-term consumption and passive restrictions enhancing its effects, Lu Ping’an’s “insight” seed divinely aided.
Reading these books was not tiring at all, and even his proficiency in exotic languages improved…
What troubled him most was the interesting content of the books.
Now, watching the “protagonists” die one after the other, he could hardly put it down.
But are these things really aningless?
That’s not necessarily the case; Lu Ping’an’s perspective on this is completely different.
Or, more accurately, he developed a bold idea.
“Perhaps, our current civilized society is not the only choice…”
The world depicted in the translated copy Lu Ping’an got was subtle.
Humans or human-like beings capable of writing books lived like pets or even insects…
The wilderness was incredibly dangerous, filled with various Magic Monsters and even Evil Gods.
A person who dared to venture alter alone in the wilderness would likely mutate after a few days.
A large number of fortress cities beca human gathering spots.
The Order’s “torch” dispersed the surrounding darkness and also limited the population of the town.
Even though the technological innovation of so places has surpassed that of the Earth, feudal society and Divine Right remain mainstream, and in so areas, slavery has even beco a form of redemption.
“Heh, if the situation of our world continues to worsen, could it regress back to such an era of city-states?”
This is not a baseless speculation from Lu Ping’an.
Among the series of recent reforms, one of them is “to relocate the population from small and dium-sized villages to large cities”, aid at reducing the cost of social stability.
I must admit that these miscellanies from different worlds greatly broadened Lu Ping’an’s horizon and made him consider his own future.
[“The new source is not far away, not far away!”
“The first batch of seeds only had 200, but two survived!
Their mutation…
has reached the level of a ‘Unicorn Monster’, great, once they grow up, we can go and snatch other sources….”
“…..We must consu more, more mutations in order to ensure our clan’s advantage.
Those damn, airborne beasts…”]
The worldview ntioned in this fragnt is exactly the opposite of the previous two.
The main races in the forr world actively avoided pollution and uncontrollable mutations, thereby increasing their population.
As for the “scholarly” race in the latter world, they are not the only intelligent, civilized race in their world, but just one mber of a large competitive group.
In their world, “sources of pollution” have beco a resource, allowing mbers of their clan to undergo more mutations and gain special abilities, which is an advantage in the struggle for survival and resources.
Becoming a monster?
Who cares.
If you’re slow, you’ll end up as food for other clans.
As for most mutants losing their rationality or even their physical form?
This has already beco the price this world must pay.
Their tolerance for the “oddities” among their own kind is incredibly high, even viewing it as a kind of beauty and fashion.
Each intelligent race is in a mad competition, competing to see who can go crazier, who can consu more “pollution” at the top of the food chain, and acquire more “total pollution ratio”…
This figure is used to ensure the overall strength of the clan and the overall advantage in the competition for survival.
It’s worth ntioning, if Lu Ping’an did not make a mistake in his estimation, considering the speed of mutation on both sides, the “degree of pollution” in these two worlds is actually quite similar.
Lu Ping’an silently covered his face with the book, the system prompt of “Reading and Writing” both breaking through to lv6 allowed him to slowly relax while also calmly thinking…
“These two worlds should be classified as ‘high pollution’ worlds, the Earth fifty years ago was ‘low pollution’, now it should be ‘moderate pollution’ …”
The degree of pollution between worlds, if you want an easy-to-understand analogy, can be regarded as the difference between the “Deep Water Zone” and the “Shallow Water Zone”.
The result of the “Great Summon” caused a low-pollution world to enter the “moderate pollution zone”, leading to a series of changes today.
Every world, with completely different attitudes to survival and systems, fascinated Lu Ping’an a bit, and he began to understand those “Travel Canines” who ran around aimlessly.
However, what he cares more about in these “stories” is the existence of “God” and “Profession”.
From beginning to end, he did not see the omnipotence of the Biblical stories, only specific and powerful existences, one high-pollution source and the power it derived.
A system of abnormal abilities similar to the human vocational system, other worlds have it more or less.
Many worlds have “Professions”, but none were exactly the sa.
Mimic, mark a high-end creature’s path, engrave, copy its growth path’s evolutionary path, is one of the common approaches that various worlds use to deal with pollution.
So are quick, so are slow, so are stable, so are gambles…
Lu Ping’an asked the big cat, there are even human-specific professions in Otherworldly-transformations.
And in many systems, the human vocational system is considered slow-growing but more stable, unlike so systems where you have to gamble with your life every ti you advance.
He also guessed that these power systems are directly linked to the degree of world pollution.
The reason why humans couldn’t beco a great deity in the past, may just be because the pollution level was not high enough…
Those powerful races that compete for the “world pollution ratio”, where hardly any two mbers look the sa, left a deep impression on Lu Ping’an.
Thinking, pondering, contemplating, Lu Ping’an continues to read late into the night under the lamplight.
“So plans may need to be rearranged, since order may not be eternal, perhaps I’ve been too conservative…”
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