Chapter 1291
Chapter 1291 - 1277: Everyone Has a Gun
1,483 words
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8 min read
The Sun Tree quickly became the new landmark of Salt City.
That warm tree continually radiated heat and light like the sun, illuminating the area even in the darkness of the night.
Perhaps, from a different angle, the darker the night, the more warm and precious it seemed...
"Two thousand for two streets, a bit absurd..."
Maybe because it was too well-fed, its growth had gone too smoothly, and the vines had already reached into other street districts. Lu Ping’an gritted his teeth, ready to pay a hefty price to buy several streets that faced the tree.
When Lu Ping’an actually proposed to buy the two neighboring streets... the seller immediately sent over the land deed.
"This is after bargaining... the original price was five hundred, but we put in a lot of effort on behalf of the buyer, to get them to agree to two thousand."
"Is this the fruit of reputation... But what’s the difference between this and robbery? Even if money here is valuable, shouldn’t this cost at least hundreds of thousands?"
"There’s a difference, the other party has to speak well of us and even thank us for being willing to take the money."
Big Cat’s jokes were quite cold; at least Lu Ping’an coughed twice and did not laugh.
"I’m not joking. Back in the day, if I was willing to ’take’... It was actually giving face to the other party, and they should thank me."
Big Cat frowned, uttering outrageous words.
"...Then it’s an even colder joke, and a bit hellish."
What was more absurd, Lu Ping’an thought for a moment, seemed to be true. On the previous Earth, a Quasi-God willing to take something from you... forming a good karma at least by recognizing your face, was worth its while.
But also, on that Earth, there wasn’t much worthy of a Quasi-God to "take."
"...How is our plan progressing?"
Lu Ping’an awkwardly changed the topic. He always felt uncomfortable with "bullying the weak" or "the natural privileges of the strong," possibly because even though he was now undoubtedly a Strongman, he wasn’t used to the self-awareness of the strong and always viewed himself from the perspective of the Weaker or even an ordinary person.
Big Cat didn’t press him. After all, according to her experience, mortals always change over ten or decades. Sitting on their bottoms long enough naturally changes their minds... but if he didn’t change, she would look forward to it even more.
"We have about five hundred people now... though not many in terms of the entire city’s population, the rumors have definitely spread."
In this era, urban rumors often had a true backdrop.
Language is power, and in an Extraordinary world, knowledge can sometimes be poisonous. One of the common understandings in the world of professionals is not to blindly believe in "rumors" and "stories," especially those involving rituals... On the current Earth, even elementary students know that "rituals" like ouija boards should absolutely not be touched.
But in this world, Mortals did not have this concept, and the "rumors" Lu Ping’an had released spread through the streets even faster.
They were the first beneficiaries, but at the same time, they were also the first test subjects.
"So far, there doesn’t seem to be any adverse reactions..."
Lu Ping’an sent people out to collect information on the development of the first batch of individuals, and it could only be described as quite subtle.
He initially assumed that most "professionals" would immediately change their destinies, forsaking their original jobs for the dazzling life of professionals... but after almost a week, at least one-third of them hadn’t changed anything.
Although they were now Zero-order professionals, truly Extraordinary, they continued to do whatever they were doing before. In particular, a porter Lu Ping’an had been following... using his enhanced physique, he became a Gold Medal Porter, made a name for himself in the industry, and nearly infuriated Lu Ping’an to a stupor.
But later, he found that this seemed to be a problem of his own making.
"... we gave them power, but we didn’t provide them with a manual for using that power, nor the connections and channels for further cultivation."
After some thought, Lu Ping’an decided to compile a manual, to teach the professionals some of the basics.
At the same time, he planned to inform them of some common knowledge and truths about the world, alerting them to what had plunged the world into infinite chaos, telling them that humans were allies and other invaders were the enemy, informing them that they could purchase what they wanted from the Rebirth Commerce...
"Uh, isn’t this a bunch of personal bias?"
"In this day and age, as long as it’s information and media, there’s always some bias, nothing is completely objective..."
Lu Ping’an appeared completely justified. Since they had started off using his resources, it was natural they would have to accept his "personal bias"... Perhaps they might take another path later on, but at the initial stage, "persuasion" was most effective, especially for those who had gained power; they naturally owed something to their own side.
𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂
"There’s another problem, the crime rate..."
"Indeed... Many weak individuals, when they gain power, the most likely outcome is that they turn to evil after becoming inflated with pride." This was a headache for both of them.
According to Lu Ping’an’s own tracking and investigation, among the first batch of pilot individuals, about thirty to forty people had crossed the boundary of "Earth’s laws," with at least a hundred more becoming significantly more temperamental... Being arrogant and rude was one thing, but bullying, extortion, and murder because of newfound power was going too far.
Such scum were not many, indeed the minority, but just one could lead to the bloodshed of several or even dozens of innocent people.
For this reason, Lu Ping’an called an emergency halt and also hurried to deal with these inflated individuals.
"Evil lies not in power, but in the human heart..."
"But the one selling the knives bears some responsibility, right? At least, some restrictions should be added..."
Lu Ping’an knew that with the escalating invasions from the Exotic Realm, "power" would become increasingly important. Professionals could ensure their own lives and those of their loved ones, while mortals could only go with the flow... In most cases, they were swept directly out to sea by the waves.
But once a gun was truly in hand, it was hard to say who would be shot first in the current phase... And if the situation deteriorated further, it would be too late to "distribute guns."
"We can impose some constraints. The supply of Contract Paper is infinite, right? Contracts like ’not to use a professional’s power to maliciously kill people’ should be doable, right?"
"It’s not difficult, but if we want to create a large number of contracts, our side has to pay as little as possible. Are we going to end up with Red Letter Contracts? Even so, the constraints are limited. Contracts signed under a Curse (Black Iron) will definitely become ineffective once they reach third or fourth tier."
"No matter, as long as we get through the initial expansion period, and they get used to having power and the correct way to use it, we can keep them from turning bad... If we can achieve this step, it’s already our limit; we can’t control every individual’s life..."
Lu Ping’an had thought it through repeatedly; the early stage was the most dangerous, and it was essential to prevent them from going astray right from the start.
Lu Ping’an, Big Cat, and the core members who were still in the society had also been repeatedly discussing this matter.
This experiment was not only testing the range and effect of this "ceremony," but also a sociological experiment, testing what impact giving this power to mortals would have.
From the current feedback, it was clear that completely ignoring it was not going to work, especially for "teenagers," who might actually take up guns on the very day they get them and commit mass murder against those who had bullied them in the past.
At least, at the start, they need to establish a rather harsh oath, to let them grow stably.
By the time they reached the second or third tier, it would probably be a while, and as professionals, the new worldview would already be mature; Lu Ping’an couldn’t interfere anymore.
"Okay, the ceremony only covers the nearby Seven Cities or so; do we have a way to solve this range issue..."
And there were many, many more problems to solve.
— End of Chapter 1291 —