Chapter 392: The Fire of Civilization

In Iron Stone City, amidst the moonlight, a woman in a black dress stood gracefully, strolling through the main street like a goddess under the moon.

"How strange, my personal male pet... actually has a crush."

A look of confusion appeared on the face of the woman in the black dress.

This matter truly puzzled her.

"However, he is just an important figure, after all.

I am not one of those love-struck fools who can't walk straight the moment they see a man.

Once other matters are settled, I will come back to claim him as a male pet."

The eyes of the woman in the black dress were brimming with smiles; under the moonlight, her skin appeared even fairer.

Having only just awakened from a long slumber and never having experienced the sun's rays, her skin had a sickly pallor.

She strolled along, her pace very slow, as if enjoying this sensation.

She spread her arms wide, as if embracing the heavens and the earth.

"So this is the feeling of being active; it's wonderful.

This is the first time since my birth that I have truly moved with a physical body.

It is a pity that the Source is becoming increasingly scarce; I must savor this opportunity to experience it."

"It's just that..." An Qian stopped in her tracks, "Why is it somewhat different from what I saw? This Nine Prince... is he not very lustful either?"

An Qian pondered, her brows furrowed.

"Sigh, if only I were truly an omniscient and omnipotent deity.

Unfortunately, I am merely standing on the upper reaches of a river, occasionally seeing things drift by, knowing a few things that others do not."

An Qian muttered to herself. She stopped under a streetlamp, feeling the orange light, and sensed a trace of warmth.

Under the light, she thought of something, suddenly lifted her skirt, and began to spin, like an elf.

Her face was brimming with smiles, as if she were a patient paralyzed for many years who could finally move.

Three days later.

Lin Chao sat in his room, looking at the report on the paper, a look of surprise appearing in his eyes.

"Anwa's younger sister, An Qian?"

"Injured due to an incident, in a coma for two years without waking?"

"Now, she has disappeared."

For these three days, Lin Chao had not seen An Qian again, and she seemed to have vanished, as if she had never appeared at all.

And now, An Qian had indeed left Iron Stone City, no one knew where.

As for Anwa, she had left Iron Stone City long ago, after that incident at the Arcane City.

Lin Chao put the matter of An Qian aside for the moment.

Now, his most urgent task was to accumulate Divinity and then ascend to godhood.

There are two ways to increase Divinity: first, from believers; second, by having players hunt Divine Creatures and then melting down their Divinity to replace it with the Divinity one requires.

Of course, this is not a one-to-one ratio.

Currently, Lin Chao was gaining Divinity quite quickly, but to him, it was still too slow.

According to his calculations, if he continued step-by-step, it would likely take about three months for his Divinity to be sufficient to support his ascension.

To increase the speed, he needed to increase the number of believers and boost faith.

However, a problem lay before him.

Just a moment ago, the Blue Light of Iron Stone City applied to establish a Civilization Church in the city to offer sacrifices to the God of Civilization, in gratitude for the changes the God of Civilization had brought them.

This matter put Lin Chao in a difficult position.

What is civilization?

Civilization is the passing of the torch, the inheritance of culture, and the process of humanity's constant progress.

If there were a God of Civilization in the midst of this, then civilization would become somewhat incongruous.

Or rather, his Divinity is Civilization, but he is not the true God of Civilization.

Lin Chao walked out of the room, his figure dissipating.

He arrived in Iron Stone City, and no one discovered his presence.

Outside the city, there was a long queue; among the line were all people in rags—they were refugees.

These refugees, with their numb expressions, now had a light of hope in their eyes.

A young mother, very thin and small, like a wooden pole that would fall at a gust of wind, stood very steadily while holding her young child in her arms.

Her shoes were already tattered, and there were stains and blood on her feet. She stood in line, looking at the steaming porridge ahead; her throat moved, and she sniffed hard, as if merely smelling the scent was enough to satisfy her.

"Xiao Qi, wait a little longer. Once Mother eats, I will have milk to feed you."

The young mother held her child, standing in the long crowd, living tenaciously.

There were many people like her among the refugees.

Looking at this mother, Lin Chao could not help but think of Liu Gui Hua, the mother he met on the road while he was Lin Pingshi, traveling with Mo Fengxue.

That poor, crazed woman whose son was taken by the government officials.

That was the cruelty within civilization.

Yet it allowed Lin Chao to see the beauty within civilization.

Lin Chao established Iron Stone City, providing free porridge to refugees and taking them in.

In this way, the population of Iron Stone City would increase, and the labor force would also grow.

However, what else was the original intention for doing this?

Kindness?

Pity?

Self-satisfaction?

Hypocrisy?

Lin Chao looked at the refugees; the expressions on their faces varied—some were sorrowful, some excited, and others fearful—the myriad states of life under civilization.

"I am indeed not the God of Civilization."

At this moment, Lin Chao finally determined that he was not worthy of being the God of Civilization.

To Lin Chao, civilization was a very abstract and generalized concept.

The feudal civilization of a feudal empire.

The Immortal Cultivation civilization of Jiuzhou.

The Supernatural civilization of the Qiyuan World.

The tribal civilization of those savage tribes on the West Continent.

These civilizations each had their strengths and weaknesses, but they were all civilizations.

Even, to Lin Chao, an ant nest under his feet or a cluster of Water held in his palm were all civilizations.

He was still far from being the God of Civilization.

Lin Chao left the outskirts and entered the city.

The current Iron Stone City was bustling with activity, a scene of prosperity.

According to the news received some time ago, the population of Iron Stone City had already exceeded one hundred thousand.

Among them, the number of players was twenty thousand.

This could already be considered a large city.

Lin Chao spent the entire day wandering through the city.

He saw many people and learned many things he had not known before.

For instance, Worn, who sold green sugar on Chenke Street, had always been carefree until one day, an adventurer told him, "Your voice is quite good; you have a talent for singing."

The Ordinary Worn took this to heart, practicing singing hard every day when he returned home; he wanted to become a singer and believe in the great God of Song.

Or, for instance, the old blacksmith Zack in the south recently went to a cafe to drink coffee and had his love expressed by a good-looking woman; he was currently working hard to save money, preparing to scrape together two Gold coins to help his sweetheart escape the sea of bitterness.

Of course, he did not know that his sweetheart had said the same thing to many people.

Or, for instance, the little boy Wang Zhan, who carried a stick every day and waved it around wildly; his dream was to become a knight when he grew up.

The myriad states of life were very Ordinary; at first glance, they were very dull, but delving into them, one would discover that every person had their lovable aspects.

"Building a Temple... is very necessary."

Lin Chao had already made up his mind to build a Temple.

After all, he wanted to become stronger quickly.

"However, it cannot be called the Temple of Civilization."

He was at most a successor of civilization, providing some people with a better living environment.

"Let it be called... Civilization of Fire."

Civilization is like fire; whether the light is small or large, it is burning.

Perhaps one day, it will be extinguished by a torrential downpour.

But it is also possible that it will burn and spread, eventually becoming the momentum of a great sun.

"I only lit the fire; when the day of breaking limits comes, I will naturally leave.

In this world, there will no longer be a deity called Civilization of Fire.

Civilization of Fire will only be a totem."

"Quest, Civilization of Fire?"

"Ignite the Civilization of Fire of Iron Stone City and help Iron Stone City advance to obtain the Civilization of Fire Badge?"

"The Civilization of Fire Badge can be used to change class into a Civilization Warlock?"

"When equipped, all attributes increase by 1% to 10%."

"Holy crap, this is god-tier gear; I must get it!"

Among the players, many people showed excited expressions on their faces when they saw the newly issued quest.

"This dog developer finally released this kind of badge again!"

"Yeah, this game is good in every way, except it lacks a head for making money; wouldn't it be better to release more of those badges, accessories, and such? The money would just roll in."

"What exactly is this Civilization of Fire?"

"Don't you read the quest description? This is a type of title; anyone who makes a contribution to the civilization of Iron Stone City can obtain this badge.

For example, if you go sweep the streets, or for example, if you bring things from reality into the game like Hong Ying did, inventing and creating, you can also obtain the Civilization of Fire Badge!"

"This badge is quite interesting." At this time, the level eight Little Tough spoke up, "If I remember correctly, yesterday, in Iron Stone City, a church was being built; the deity worshipped in that church is this Civilization of Fire."

"Ah?"

"That's not right; aren't we players here in this game to overthrow deities?

How come our main city is building a church?"

"This matter was approved by the Manager.

I suspect this Temple is different from other Temples.

Other Temples all worship deities.

As for our church Temple... what it worships is the Civilization of Fire."

"Each of us is a part of civilization; isn't everyone a fire of civilization?"

"In other words, is it us ourselves who are being worshipped in this Temple?"

"You could say that," Level 8 Little Tough muttered.

"Although I don't understand it, this Civilization of Fire Badge is truly sweet; we can get a 1% to 10% increase in all attributes, so we must obtain it."

"By the way, I have another hypothesis: the more powerful this Civilization of Fire Temple is... the greater the boost from this badge will be, perhaps even... exceeding 10%."

"Holy crap, that's insane?"

"Of course, these are just my conjectures; I don't know the specific situation."

Level 8 Little Tough said slowly.

After speaking, Level 8 Little Tough and Shouhou left that place to stroll around Iron Stone City.

Ever since discovering how to obtain the Beast Tamer Talent, Level 8 Little Tough had been investigating and verifying it.

Finally, he reached a conclusion.

This game can truly train a person's mental power, or rather, willpower, subsequently allowing those who originally lacked the Beast Tamer Talent to acquire it.

However, this does not apply to everyone.

After testing and speculating, Level 8 Little Tough guessed that this is related to two factors.

One is the player's level in this game; generally speaking, the higher the level, the higher the mental power, which is positively correlated.

For players from level 1 to level 5, about 10% reach the standard for the Beast Tamer Talent through mental power improvement.

For players from level 5 to level 10, about 30% acquire the Beast Tamer Talent.

Above level 10, it reaches a terrifying 70% or so.

The other factor is the degree of immersion and engagement in the game, which is also very important.

"Brother Tough, should we also go execute that Path to Godhood quest?" Beside him, Shouhou rubbed his hands in anticipation.

Level 8 Little Tough shook his head: "There aren't many people left in the Guard Team now, and we are short-handed, so it's better for us to stay here and maintain order in the city.

Otherwise, what if some unruly adventurer causes trouble and leads to casualties?"

"Brother Tough is right; the adventurers in this world... are really quite annoying.

The TV says that the greatest of heroes act for the country and the people, but the adventurers here possess powerful force yet are exceptionally selfish, doing anything for Gold.

However, these female adventurers really have top-tier figures!

Wearing leather pants, tsk tsk."

As Shouhou spoke, his eyes shone.

"You guy are a High-level Professional at level 11, how can you still be so sleazy?

Look at the adventurers here; those above level ten are all high and mighty, looking like they have great stature," Level 8 Little Tough laughed.

"Brother Tough, that's different; they are NPCs, I am just an Ordinary person."

The two chatted and laughed as they walked down the street.

People on the street saw their attire and showed expressions of respect on their faces.

They knew these were the city's guards, each one very powerful, the most loyal adventurers under Prince Lin.

Shouhou puffed out his chest and held his head high, looking at the city residents with a spirited gaze, the sleazy aura he had when with players having vanished.

The two patrolled the streets, and time passed quickly.

At this moment, Level 8 Little Tough stopped in his tracks.

He saw an acquaintance, seemingly arguing with someone.

"Manager Kainsi."

Level 8 Little Tough walked over and greeted Kainsi.

His gaze also fell upon the woman beside Kainsi.

She was a plump young woman, wearing makeup and dressed in gorgeous clothing, looking like someone not to be trifled with.

"Who is this?" Level 8 Little Tough asked.

"This is Rena, a manager from our Huiteng Chamber of Commerce." Kainsi breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Level 8 Little Tough approach, then he introduced him to Rena, "This is a warrior under Prince Lin, a member of the Iron Stone City Guard Team."

Upon hearing this introduction, a trace of disdain appeared in Rena's eyes.

"Kainsi, you really are losing face for our Huiteng Chamber of Commerce.

Being so servile to a mere guard; if I didn't know better, I'd think you were the guard and he was the manager."

Rena did not hold a guard in any regard.

She didn't even hold the Nine Prince in high regard these days, let alone a guard.

"Since you are Prince Lin's man, it's perfect that you're here; help me pass a message to Prince Lin.

Tell him that Rena of the Huiteng Chamber of Commerce from the Bauhinia Empire will come to pay him a visit tomorrow."

Although she used the word 'visit', Rena's tone was quite impolite.

Arrogant and conceited.

This attitude made Kainsi and Level 8 Little Tough very dissatisfied.

"Rena, this is Iron Stone City, not the Bauhinia Empire, nor the Huiteng Chamber of Commerce!" Kainsi's face was filled with anger.

If it weren't for the fact that Rena had someone backing her, he wouldn't give her a pleasant look.

Level 8 Little Tough, standing to the side, was angry but squinted his eyes with a smile on his face: "I will personally convey your words to His Highness the Prince."

(End of chapter)