Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 792: Are the rules changed as a result?
"This is wishful thinking!" Nevill couldn't help but refute: "You will never succeed! Even if you succeed, the new world you create may not be a good one. It may only lead to its destruction!"

"is it?"

Tiandis tilted his head and glanced at her: "How can we be sure?"

"Because the world has its own laws, and magic is the basic law that the goddess gave to Mirror Star. For example, if you want to remove the foundation of a house, won't the originally solid house collapse and be destroyed like a castle in the air?"

The Countess's words were exactly what Lingge and the others were thinking. Although Tiantis believed that magic was the original sin that caused the separation between supernatural life and mortal life, in fact it was also the cornerstone of the existence of this world.

When the scale of all things has become accustomed to following the rules of magic, blindly removing the foundation will only lead to the collapse of the house.

unless……

Ling Ge suddenly thought of a possibility and his eyes flickered.

"Your worries are not without reason, Silver-eyed Countess, but do you think that the Witch Society, which embodies the wisdom of all mankind, can't think of what you can think of?" Tiantis grinned, and his smile was somewhat intriguing: "Before that, why not think about a question first: How does fire burn?"

This question made everyone stunned for a moment. They didn't understand why the topic jumped so much. One moment they were discussing the feasibility of cutting off magic power, and the next moment they jumped to this physical phenomenon that can be seen everywhere. Are these two things related? Moreover, although combustion is a common physical phenomenon, it would take them a while to summarize its principle. Even Ovira, who is the most knowledgeable among the crowd, would not be bored enough to search for such common sense on weekdays, right?
In the end, it was Lingge, the only one who had attended university, who summarized it in a short sentence: "Combustion is a physical phenomenon in which a combustible reacts with oxygen to produce rapid heat and light, usually accompanied by the appearance of flames."

The star in the mirror and another distant and unknown planet are the inner and outer parts of each other. They should have been isolated forever, but they are connected by a mysterious bridge. In turn, this has prompted the Witch Society to conduct in-depth research and analysis on the different rules of the two worlds.

Tiandis paused for a moment, as if to give everyone enough time to think, and then slowly said, "I said it at the beginning, the basic law of the Mirror Star World is magic, and the basic law of the Earth World is physics. If that's the case, why can the physical laws of the Earth World replace the magic laws of the Mirror Star World?"

This time she did not give everyone time to think, and directly told the truth: "Because the connection between the Earth World and the Mirror Star World is not that far, they are not only connected by the Sky Boundary Bridge, but should actually be likened to two similar states inside and outside the mirror, and the barrier between the two rules of physics and magic is the mirror, preventing them from further contact. So, when one of the barriers, such as magic, is weakened, what will happen?"

"The answer is actually very simple."

She looked at everyone and raised her long eyebrows slightly. "It's very simple. It will cause the physical laws of another world to invade Mirror Star. In this case, the physical laws and scientific creations from Earth will be applicable to this world to varying degrees, from the most basic phenomena such as flame combustion and gravity to the more advanced conversion of energy and mechanical kinetic energy. That's it."

"The standard answer." Tiantis clapped his hands softly. "It's almost the same as the definition I saw in the textbook. It seems that Mr. Ling has not forgotten the knowledge he learned when he was young. This spirit is worthy of praise."

"So?" Linger frowned slightly. He was not happy about her praise. He wanted to know the meaning of this question. Somehow, the young man always had a hunch that its meaning would not be very good. "What does this have to do with the topic just now?"

This huge amount of information made everyone so shocked that they couldn't say a word. Only Ling Ge, who had a premonition, was not that surprised. He whispered to himself, "So, it's called Mirror Star?"

"Yes." Tiantis chuckled, "So let's go back to the original question: if magic is cut off, how can the Mirror Star World continue to exist? Another world has already described a good example for us. If a house collapses when its foundation is removed, then we just need to build a new foundation before it collapses. The physical rules from the Earth world are a good choice. Compared with the magic rules, they are more advanced, but this advancement does not lie in its complexity and rigor, but in the fact that intelligent life may be able to use physical rules to create many terrifying war weapons, but it can never make itself the physical rules itself. Therefore, the essence of life has not changed."

"The connection is that you don't think this is abnormal. Combustion must be a physical phenomenon, just like the fact that we can stand on the ground instead of falling into the universe because of gravity. The refraction and reflection of light, the attraction and repulsion of magnetism, the diffusion and dissolution of liquids, the propagation and echo of sound, these are all physical phenomena mentioned in the compulsory education process, but the problem is..."

The young man's heart skipped a beat; he knew that his premonition had finally come true.

Tiantis chuckled, and this chuckle had different meanings to everyone: "A long time ago, our world was indeed dominated by magic: the burning of flames depends on magic, and the Lortasians believe that the element is fire; the earth is a chaotic ocean condensed by magic, and the simple shamanism calls it Gaia, and points out that it is because of the attraction of Gaia's magic that living beings can stand on the earth instead of falling into the starry sky; the energy of boiling water is also a kind of magic. The great wizard Sangir, who predicted the disaster of destruction among the Moryas, said that it was the 'water spirits'. They are invisible and intangible, but they dominate all the water and sources in the world... But later this phenomenon was changed, and the rules of physics replaced the rules of magic. Why?"

During the Renaissance, the great man Galileo, who named the Mirror Star, was a philosopher of the Witch Society.

To talk about it in a more fundamental way, it is necessary to relate it to more advanced physical terms such as molecules and heat, which is not something that Lingge, a college student majoring in history, can explain clearly.

"Fire is born from burning, people stand on the ground because of gravity, and steam engines operate by converting the energy of boiling water into mechanical kinetic energy... None of you have ever questioned these phenomena because they are commonplace and not surprising. However, you know very well that this is a world based on magic, and all the phenomena I mentioned above need to rely on the laws of physics to exist."

"Science and technology are tools created by ordinary and fragile humans in the process of exploring the truth of the earth. Sometimes they lag behind, sometimes they are advanced; sometimes they are confused, sometimes they are firm; sometimes they are overturned, sometimes they are verified... But no matter what, they are always on the road to progress. The Mirror Star World dominated by the rules of magic will only stand still. How can those false gods and evil gods who are eager to gather great power for themselves consider the welfare of mortals? For ten thousand years, only our Witch Society has been working hard."

Tiantis advocates the physical rules and technological civilization of the Earth world, and despises the magic rules and extraordinary civilization of the Mirror Star world. This tendency is fully reflected in her words. Alice came to her senses, not knowing whether she was aroused by rebellious psychology, or as an Earthling, she understood the world she lived in better, so she did not hesitate to refute: "Who says that technology is definitely better than magic? Several world wars on Earth have killed millions of people, a nuclear strategic weapon can wipe out a city, the information network can silently destroy the evidence of a person's existence, and the energy competition in the interstellar era has even reached the point of cosmic war... The tragedy that happened on Mirror Star, won't it happen on Earth?"

Although they didn't know what she meant by world war, nuclear strategic weapons and information network, Saint Shalia and others could still understand the death of millions of people and the competition for energy. Moreover, since it was an earthling's own experience, it was more credible, at least more credible than Tiandis's theory. Linger sighed silently, because he knew that Alice still didn't grasp the point and her rebuttal was wrong.

"I told you so long ago, Miss Alice."

Tiantis looked up at her. Although they were standing at the same height, her eyes gave Alice a feeling of being condescending and oppressive. "The equality I pursue is not in terms of class, wealth or power, but the essential equality between lives. The beauty I yearn for is not a world without fighting and death. Everyone knows that is unrealistic. I want to see the attitude of life trying its best in their ordinary and fragile lives, the kind of beauty that cannot be denied by anyone."

"Technology will certainly create disputes. I have fully understood the history of the Earth before making this decision. The world wars, nuclear strategic weapons, information networks and energy competition you mentioned are real, but will they deprive life of its own value? If you still can't understand, I will put it in a simpler way: those ambitious people who started wars for their own selfish interests in the history of the Earth will eventually turn into dust and ashes, proving that their lives are no different from those soldiers who died in the war or even an ant under the artillery fire; however, the disaster god Abraham, who indirectly caused the Dark Ages and the disaster of the gods, has been hiding in his nest on the East Continent. Every moment, even in this minute and second when I am talking to you, there are still countless believers praying to Him, eager to exchange blood and souls for power. If you were a mortal, which situation would you prefer to accept?"

Alice choked and was speechless.

Linger had no choice but to step forward and continue asking questions on her behalf: "In order to replace the rules of magic with the rules of physics, your Witch Society weakened the magic barrier of the Mirror Star World while introducing various technological creations and scientific concepts from the Earth World?"

"Yes."

Tiandi said calmly: "But weakening the magic barrier is not a process that can be done overnight, because the formation of the magic environment is related to many factors: aliens, monsters, magical plants and even extraordinary people. It is impossible to achieve it overnight. We must find the most suitable breakthrough point. In the end, the breakthrough point we chose first is-"

"Superhumans." Linger gave the answer for her: "Or rather, it is the potion system represented by Superhumans."

Tiantis asked with interest, "Are you sure your answer is correct, Mr. Ling?"

"If it were me, I would make the same choice."

"So, you admit that we are on the same side?"

"..."

Regarding this question, Lingge had no choice but to remain silent, because no matter how he answered, it would be inappropriate.

Tiandis didn't care and just laughed it off. "Like Mr. Ling said, we first locked the breakthrough point on the magic potion system because it is the most twisted byproduct of all magic. Whether it is the erosion phenomenon that is destined to cause the extraordinary people to lose their minds, or the equilibrium theory discovered by the God of Disaster Abraham that devours the bones of extraordinary people of the opposite sequence to maintain sanity, they are all too barbaric and will only lead the world into the abyss of destruction."

The others also responded one by one. Saint Shallia murmured, "So that's how the magic system and the magic guide system came into being?"

Merlin, the founder of the magic system, is the philosopher of the Witch Society. The Steam Cult, the founder of the magic system, is the previous disguise of the Witch Society. In the past, everyone was puzzled as to why the society developed two systems for the use of magic power, and always turned around and killed the beneficiaries of the old system after developing a new system. Now it seems that the answer is at hand.

"I have used the comparative method to analyze the differences between the two systems."

Ling Ge suddenly said, "Then I discovered a very interesting phenomenon: these two systems seem to be very different, but in fact they have a common characteristic, which is that they gradually stripped away the characteristics of magic as a power attribute. In the early extraordinary people, magic acted on both the body and the soul, so they possessed both the soul and the body, which were two mutually dependent powers. The magic users of that era could not only control various extraordinary abilities, but also rely on their bodies to fight even without magic. However, perhaps because magic was too deeply ingrained in the body and soul, they were unable to stop the erosion and eventually lost their minds."

"Later, the magic system created by the great wizard Merlin changed this situation. Magic power only resides in the etheric sea of ​​the soul and no longer forms a dependent relationship with the body. This makes it more convenient and efficient for magicians to use and match magic, but it also makes their bodies generally weak, no different from mortals, and can be easily killed by a dagger or a bullet. In today's era, the magic system created by the Steam Cult has also separated magic power from the soul and become a pure energy source. It needs to be used with various magic devices to be used as extraordinary power. The users of magic devices, that is, wizards, no longer need to strengthen their magic power through meditation, drinking potions, or accumulating knowledge. They only need to awaken their spirituality and master the operation skills of magic devices."

"This paradigm shift is similar to the shift in modern warfare: from fully armed knights wearing plate armor and honing their martial arts to the pinnacle, to gunners relying on matchlocks and steam muskets for long-range suppression, and finally to modern soldiers who have abandoned even muskets and rely on various war vehicles and fortresses to fight. Its distinctive feature is that the rigid requirements for magic power are getting lower and lower, while higher requirements are placed on the individual qualities of magic users."

"So, I have a guess-"

Lingge paused before continuing, but everyone was listening attentively. No one except Tiandis noticed the brief pause: "The human magic system is positively correlated with the magic environment of the Mirror Star World. When there are more magic users among humans, the frequency of magic use is higher, and the way of using magic is more direct and rough, the magic environment of the Mirror Star World will be more active, right?"

"And the Witch Society's development of the magic system and the magic guidance system, and the slaughter of extraordinary people and magicians, are essentially reducing humanity's dependence on magic, reducing the number of magic users and the frequency and method of their use, which in turn leads to a quiet magic environment in the Mirror Star World. Once the magic becomes quiet, the original barrier will be weakened, and then -"

He quietly stared at the black-haired girl not far away and whispered, "The physical rules of the Earth world can gradually replace the magic rules of the Mirror Star world through this loophole."

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)