Necromancer's Second-Original Chat Group

“Yes, I know.” Marcus nodded seriously.

Vienna was still bustling late at night, but the power grid divided the city into two parts.

This art capital had introduced electric lighting by the end of the 19th century, but by 1913 it was still in a phase where gas and electric lights coexisted. However, important buildings in the city center, such as the Hofburg Palace, the State Opera, the newly built concert hall, and affluent areas, certainly enjoyed ample electric lighting. The Vienna Musikverein, in particular, served as a showcase for electrification technology, with its Mozart Hall renowned for its advanced lighting system, becoming a benchmark for the application of electricity at the time.

That's also the most exciting and unrestrained place in the city's nightlife.

However, the power grid is mainly concentrated in the inner city, government buildings, theaters and upscale residential areas. The suburban working-class areas and ordinary citizens still rely on gas lamps or oil lamps, and at night only a few lights can be seen. In contrast to the prosperity of the inner city, the people who create and maintain the operation of this city can only choose to be silent after night falls.

This is a metropolis with a population of over two million, and at the time it was the fifth largest city in Europe. But behind its glamorous facade, the number of suicides recorded by officials each year exceeded 1500, and the population living in extreme poverty accounted for more than 10% of the city's total population.

At this moment, a future head of state is one of the people who are currently impoverished.

Those who can live relatively comfortably in Vienna make up less than 30% of the city's total population, and there is a risk of falling into a lower social class if they are not careful. The quality of life for the middle class here is not stable.

Even so, this place is considered an "advanced metropolis" in Europe.

You're asking about London?

As a country with a high level of morality in Europe, the poor are not considered human in Britain, right?

Yes, many people die here, so there are freshly forged fragments of souls here. This place is also proof of European industrial civilization. The stark contrast between the positive and negative is enough to reshape Wan Qi's worldview.

He wasn't like Ilse, a transmigrator who endlessly reincarnated into parallel worlds of Earth across different dynasties and periods. His experiences in the Red Sea world only turned him into a deformed strongman, not a strongman in terms of values. He was simply more morally upright than the average person of this era, nothing more.

But morality only hurts moral people.

In the slums of Vienna, Wan Qi has gathered tens of thousands of soul fragments in his hands. As the remnants of the soul, the last proof of the living in this world, these fragments naturally carry a lot of memory information. In the process of collecting them, these fragments were initially just some noise, but as the number increased, the noise transformed into a kind of memory recollection.

Every necromancer must pass this test, just as the Grey Knights must withstand the whispers of the warp.

Wan Qi had not received any training in this area, nor could he train his abilities. He was the only one in the Red Sea world, a single soul; how could he cultivate such abilities?

His only advantage now is his incredible resilience, which allows him to clearly distinguish between memory and reality, preventing him from being overwhelmed by memories and losing sight of reality.

But there is still an emotional impact, and in this city, the poor are the most likely to die.

The monsters in Journey to the West don't like to eat poor people. Poor people suffer too much, and who wants to suffer?

Those people who collapsed and died in the corners of the city, their greatest wish in life was to have a full meal, or perhaps to return to the home they remembered. Like the little match girl, in the last moments of their lives, they tried to find a trace of sweetness in their impoverished memories before leaving this world.

The little match girl had matches to dream with, but they didn't even have matches.

Don't forget, matches are also industrial products and a symbol of the civilized world.

Having obtained the 50,000th soul fragment, Wan Qi leaned against the corner of the wall, panting heavily.

He was physically exhausted, but the mental shock made him feel like he was drowning, and his strong will made him realize that he was in a very bad state.

"Damn it, why was it that I had no problem collecting so many soul fragments in Terra before, but here... Ah, I see, so that's why."

Wanqi compared the soul fragments he had collected from Chernobog on the continent of Terra with those he had collected in Viana, and discovered an incredibly tragic reality.

The soul fragments collected by Chernobog were purer, with fewer impurities in their memories.

But this doesn't mean Terra is any better. On the contrary, it points to a more despairing truth: the deceased had no attachment to this world, or very little attachment, and saw death as their release.

For those infected, death is almost like a relief, especially for those in the later stages of infection.

But among those who died in Vienna, not many were completely desperate. Many of them could have survived if their country had shown them even a little more humane care, such as giving them a job, even a job like James Bond's would have been considered merciful.

In response, how did the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a country with three governments, react?

Let's help these poor people, give them some food, and provide them with a place to live that's barely better than a pigsty.

Then it was gone.

Those who go to work in factories have no way out, so the bosses are really ruthless when they exploit them. Although there is still a lot of room for improvement compared to the average age of 30 in the UK, they are basically treated like livestock.

Those souls struggling on the edge of despair were unwilling to accept it. They had seen the glitz and glamour of the inner city, but none of that was for them. They worked hard, hoping to become respectable, but things always went in the direction they didn't want to see, because the European lords needed to maintain a large unemployed population to ensure that the workers would obey them.

Wan Qi had seen these things in his school books in his previous life, but now he was actually in them.

The necromancer's power is most likely to create two types of people: saints and madmen.

Countless memories and knowledge flooded his mind, and mania began to erode his reason. When a night patrol team beat several poor people who were not sleeping in the shelter, the screams and pleas for mercy that echoed in the night awakened the Grim Reaper under the cover of darkness.

"Out at night, they must be stealing or doing something shady. Beat them up!"

"I was wrong! I was wrong! Sir, spare me! Spare me!"

"We didn't intend to steal; we just didn't get back to the shelter in time, and now it's closed, so we can't get back!"

"Still trying to deny it, you filthy, cunning, poor wretches, give it your all..."

The patrol captain suddenly felt a lightness in his body, and then he was stuck to the wall.

Wan Qi held back, only knocking the opponent unconscious.

"What... Ah!"

That was the only scream the patrol members let out; immediately afterward, they drifted off to a deep, baby-like sleep.

In the darkness, under the dim light of the streetlights, several poor men who had been beaten lay on the ground in terror, for they saw a person in a black cloak appear before them. Due to the effect of the cloak, Wan Qi gave them the feeling of a death god emerging from a terrifying myth.

Fortunately, Wan Qi was only emotionally agitated and did not lose his mind. After rescuing the person, he casually placed a small bag of silver crowns on the ground and turned to leave.

Such small favors are meaningless and bring limited goodwill. These poor people might even suffer other misfortunes because of this money. As for changing the world...

Before you can change the "rainstorm," it's meaningless to change the external world.

But why let reason prevail in times like these? Isn't simply doing good deeds better?

Many things don't need to be thought of as complicatedly as they seem.

Just then, the dimensional phone rang.

One-on-one communication from Virtue.

Wan Qi flashed to the rooftop of the tallest building in the vicinity and answered the phone.

"It's so late, aren't you going to sleep yet?"

"Miss you."

Veltin's voice came through the phone, just two simple words, but the effect was even stronger than the memory shock of the fifty thousand soul fragments just now.

"Hold on."

On a cliff on Golden Island, Virtin suddenly felt someone hug him from behind.

She knew who it was, of course, so she prepared to turn around and launch a surprise attack.

But as she turned around, the smile on Virtue's face turned into worry.

"what happened to you?"

Section 87: Sticking Close to Virtue

(Update delivered!)

"What's wrong?" Virtue asked worriedly.

"What? What happened?"

"Your eyes... has something sad happened?"

Wan Qi covered his eyes with his hands and said helplessly, "No wonder people say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I should learn from Xing Ming and buy some sunglasses."

“Tell me about it,” Veltin said softly.

"it is good."

Beach, sea, stars, companionship—these words together are enough for anyone to piece together a beautiful picture.

The two figures leaned on each other; this time, they were each other's haven.

Wanqi completely let down his guard around Virtine and told her everything that had happened that day.

In reality, many people are not that fragile. The reason they appear vulnerable is because it's difficult to find someone who understands them and is willing to keep their secrets. The cost of meeting the wrong person is very high. So everyone has a safe that only they can open in their heart. The secrets they most want to confide in, but cannot find a trustworthy person to confide in, are all locked inside.

But everyone's safe has its limits. The size of the safe may vary, but it will eventually fill up.

However, most people leave this world before their safes are full, while those who burst their safes become madmen, insane people, irrational people, and patients in mental hospitals.

After saying all this, Wan Qi felt much better, and even had the mood to pinch Virtue's little face.

I declare! Veltin is the cutest in the world! No arguments allowed!

Virtue leaned towards Wan Qi, knowing that at that moment, a hug and a kiss were worth more than a thousand words.

Feeling the gentleness of the beautiful woman beside him, Wan Qi slowly spoke, "Vilding, would you like to hear a story?"

The clever Virtue immediately realized that Wan Qi wanted to tell her his most important secret, so she slowly got up and sat in Wan Qi's lap, showing her attitude through her actions.

This is our secret, and only our secret.

Wan Qi raised his hand to apply shielding and blocking, so even if Arcana came, he wouldn't know what the two were talking about, and the images he saw would be fake.

"This is a slightly long story, and it begins with a wizard."

"One day, ten thousand years ago, a shaman from a certain tribe suddenly discovered that he possessed magical powers and could manipulate fire. From that day on, the shaman transformed from a person who pretended to be a god into a superhuman who could communicate with heaven and earth and possessed powers that mortals could not attain. This is the origin of witchcraft."

"Power brings order, power unites faith, power brings hope. With the emergence of wizards, the number of extraordinary beings in the world increases. They begin to conquer, kill, plunder, merge, form alliances, and oppose each other. That was the Age of Gods, known as 'Gods of the Mortal World ruling over mortals'."

“But oppression inevitably leads to resistance. Soon, a group of brave people questioned God—your power is nothing but the power of mortals, and you are just another kind of mortal.”

"They were brave. After paying a terrible price, the gods ushered in twilight, and humanity ushered in dawn."

"Mysterious witchcraft began to be analyzed, understood, and used. More and more people mastered it. The elemental forces existing in the natural world were discovered, and the magic within the human body was also discovered. Thus, a group called magicians was born."

"On the question of how to use magical power, different voices have emerged within the magician community. Some believe that ordinary people without magical aptitude should be led by magicians, while others believe that those who cannot become magicians now may become magicians in the future, and magic should be a technology that everyone can use, just like a match."

“When disputes involve interests, they inevitably lead to divisions, and the magical and faith factions were born in the supernatural community.”

"The magic side firmly believes that education should be accessible to all, and that anyone can use magic. The reason why it cannot be used now is simply due to the limitations of current technology. The era in which everyone will have their own magic will eventually come."

"The faith side views mortals as lambs, believing that magicians should rule over them, give them order, and teach them obedience and dedication. Superfluous knowledge is unnecessary, and they abandon their names and professions to become priests."

"As expected, a war broke out between the magic side and the faith side, but the outcome of the war surprised everyone."

"The faith side was defeated, utterly and tragically. The seemingly vast religious empire crumbled in an instant because their elitism left them with a lack of ability to replenish their ranks with excellent mages. Meanwhile, the all-out war on the magic side fully integrated everyone into the magic system. No one was a superhuman, because everyone was a superhuman."

“A powerful mage can indeed turn the tide of a local battle, but if the number of mages on the other side is a thousand or even ten thousand times greater, even the most powerful legion on the faith side can only be defeated and flee.”

"The magic side's million-mage training program transformed each of their units into artillery, snipers, armored vehicles, and fighter jets. It was after this battle that the veil of mystery surrounding extraordinary power was lifted, and more and more people devoted their energy to popularizing and learning magic. The magic era for everyone has officially arrived."

"Humanity has been working towards this day for ten thousand years, with several setbacks along the way. Fortunately, they finally made it."

Wan Qi looked at Wilting in his arms and said seriously, "That's why I don't find mystical arts mysterious at all. The underlying logic of the two is exactly the same. The witchcraft of the wizards back then is the same as the mystical arts of today. It's just that they eventually emerged from ignorance and chaos and found order and direction. Controllable and universal supernatural power can make everyone skilled. This is the meaning of the birth of magic. It heralded the era that truly belongs to mankind."

Veltin blinked, leaned close to Wan Qi's chest, and said, "I understand what you mean. So, do you have a plan?"

“I have a general direction. For example, I can provide a shelter, or I don’t even need to do anything. Just having a large enough shelter can solve a lot of problems.”

The biggest problem with "torrential rain" is that it makes the whole world unsafe, technology cannot be accumulated, talent cannot be retained, and everything is regressing. It seems that mysticism is progressing, but in reality, mysticism is also regressing.

Don't bring up the idea of ​​reverting to a better, past-day era belonging to the mystics. If we really go by that standard, the best days for mystics were in the primitive, blood-eating era. In that environment, the power of a Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, was greater than that of an entire tribe, but only within the surrounding area.

Just as the modern Aurora can deter the world with its Dongfeng missiles, in ancient times, a strong and healthy ancient person could only deter a part of Henan province.

If Wanqi could suddenly provide them with a piece of land as a safe zone at this time, as long as the place is big enough, even in the Sahara Desert, there would be plenty of people willing to contribute to its development and construction.

The method is very simple: unleash the power of the Red Sea to its fullest extent, filling the earth with red crystals, and the "storm" will naturally recede.

But this is like bringing over Nurgle from Warhammer 40K just to get Originium from Terra. People can't really die, and they can't die anymore. You're trying to solve a problem with a problem, but you're creating an even bigger one.

“Perhaps we can keep it simple,” Veltin said. “Use red crystals to make protective devices to protect some people. After all, not everyone has the courage to step out of their own time and face a chaotic world.”

“You’re right. It takes courage to face the storm, and it takes even more courage to walk out of it.”

"So, when do you plan to start preparing?"

"If you're going to prepare, start preparing now. Opportunities are only for those who are prepared."

With a soft sip, Virtin kissed Vanchi on the cheek.

"I know, so keep it up."

“I will.” Wan Qi smiled, then asked, “How’s the progress on your end? This is Apailang Island, right?”

Friendly reminder: Golden Island is a name spread by the Hand of Reconstruction in the game's storyline; Apailan Island has its own name.

"Progress was going smoothly, except for a minor mishap..."

Virtue told Wan Qi what had happened, and Wan Qi just sighed and facepalmed.