novelraw #198 - Section 198
#198 - Section 198
The Moonshadow Priests of the Elven Empire, the Great Forgemasters of the Dwarf Clans, the Matrons of the Underdark, the Mad Liches of the Burial Grounds—all the power-holders of this world obtained Soul-Mimic Bracelets through their respective channels.
They logged into Dauntless Space in unison, wanting to know just what the heck the Green Vine Empire was up to.
In previous years, the Eternal Night Empress's relentless warpath had been their nightmare, fearing that one day that madwoman would bring the flames of war to their own doorsteps.
But now that the Eternal Night Empress had stopped fighting and declared a period of recuperation, they not only didn't relax, but became even more worried about what medicine that woman was selling in her gourd.
Currently, it seemed this empire hadn't become more terrifying, but was instead declining, just as they had hoped?
The combined power of the various theocracies would certainly crush the Green Vine Empire with ease.
But one-on-one, unless their worshipped deities personally intervened, no country dared to say they could absolutely withstand the iron hooves of the Green Vine Empire.
And in reality, because of the Seven Gods' schemes over the years to create hatred between different races in order to extract more faith, how could these theocracies truly unite?
For example, the Fallen Elves driven to the Underdark by the Elven Empire had an irreconcilable blood feud with their parent race; they would never unite unless it was truly a matter of life and death.
Even if the churches had cooperative relationships, unless they could brainwash on a large scale, their believers weren't clay to be molded at will.
In this situation, the Eternal Night World was now a typical "one superpower, many strong powers" structure; as the world's only superpower, the Green Vine Empire's every move was naturally watched by countless eyes.
They were wary of the Green Vine Empire becoming an unmanageable enemy, hoping to nip it in the bud before a real threat emerged.
And what the Green Vine Empire needed to do was seize the initiative and complete its development before these countries discovered that the empire could sweep them all away.
Against this backdrop, there was actually a constant intelligence war raging.
The surrounding countries wanted to dig out the empire's true situation, while the empire desperately stuffed misleading information in front of those spies.
After the Night Watch fully controlled Aodu and the empire's major cities, the tentacles extended by these neighboring countries were under control in every move they made.
So from this stage onward, the information these spies saw was what the empire wanted them to see.
On the surface, of course, it was all real information.
But while named as real, it was actually fragmented, with the order of presentation changed and key nodes hidden; the final conclusions drawn were likely to be completely opposite of reality.
This was an operation easily accomplished by the side with an intelligence advantage, using information asymmetry.
For example, if such a thing happened, the briefing message would be that the Aodu City Defense Force had a dispute with civilians, their weapons were snatched, they retaliated by injuring civilians, and then were suspended from duty.
Looking at this message alone, it was easy to conclude that the City Defense Force had low status, their combat power was worrying, and even civilians could bully them at will.
But this message was incomplete; the full situation was that the City Defense Force violated the law, forcibly taking away civilians, and were punished by their superiors after the matter was exposed.
Of course, the weapon snatching also really happened; all the information in that notice was real and traceable.
But here, the City Defense Force's real mistake was "violating the law," and they were punished for this; the neighboring countries' intelligence analysts didn't know this, they would only think that the empire's military strength was declining and the country's prestige was being trampled on.
In order to achieve final victory in this intelligence war, the Night Watch specially arranged for a female Gold Sleeve, leading professional talents to establish a department called "Pastoral Empire," fully responsible for intelligence processing.
They transmitted this kind of "real news" with countless layers of filters to foreign spies active within the empire, to reflect how chaotic the empire was and how bad the current situation was.
This intelligence looked very real, but after analysis, there was always a strange smell; and those spies didn't have the comprehensive intelligence controlled by the Night Watch, and their every move was still under the Night Watch's surveillance, making it extremely difficult to verify, so they could only transmit this processed information back.
As the saying goes, it's easy to spread rumors, but hard to refute them; even if these spies were heaven-sent heroes and peerless geniuses, it was impossible for them to investigate these problems, which were already full of doubts and like a spider web, clearly in the enemy's territory.
It must be said that the "Pastoral Empire" plan has been very successful so far, because for the surrounding theocracies, offending the entire aristocratic class, leading to internal chaos and lack of control, and the overall decline of the country in chaos was a situation they were happy to see.
Even with the Eternal Night Empress's strength and past performance, this situation shouldn't have happened, but after eliminating all impossibilities, what remained was just the possibility—
This is information we analyzed from intelligence, how could it be fake?
Clearly, the Eternal Night Empress was fond of great achievements, trying to control the entire country alone, and messed it up!
Hooray!
So in the surrounding countries' intelligence, although the Green Vine Empire was still a huge threat, the degree of threat was declining, and the degree of vigilance and concern was also declining sharply.
Judging from the performance of the City Defense Force, the foundation of the Green Vine Empire was still there, but it was already a toothless tiger; the Eternal Night Empress valued the common people too much, raising them to an undeserved height, and this big empire was going to be finished sooner or later!
In this world where the strong are respected, there was no such thing as all glory belonging to the working people; a legendary powerhouse could surpass ten thousand commoners.
In the cognition of general rulers, offending the aristocratic class to protect the interests of the common people was purely unthinkable.
Therefore, knowing that the empire's national strength was declining and internal chaos was occurring, using powerful magical power to create Dauntless Space, with various entertainment facilities and modules, its purpose was very obvious:
This was a super cheap but sufficiently effective means of entertainment.
Dauntless Space's ten-to-one time flow meant that one hour of entertainment at night was equivalent to the happy time of a full day's work.
On the surface, you gave the serfs a day off, but in reality, they thought they had rested for ten days; weren't the extra nine days a pure profit for the noble lords?
In Dauntless Space, they could eat and drink to their heart's content, vent their emotions with slaughter, and enjoy the gentle and lovely system ladies...
The common people did enough of what they wanted to do, were very happy and satisfied, and had more energy to invest in production work, but in reality, they didn't waste any real material resources...
What a wonderful scene this must be!
The neighboring countries' rulers and intelligence agencies weren't stupid either; they quickly conducted a detailed analysis of the true use of Dauntless Space, drawing conclusions based on past intelligence:
The promotion of the Soul-Mimic Bracelet was to dissolve the increasingly strong rebellious will of the empire's people, to divert their attention from their miserable lives, further corrupt them, and then manufacture them to serve the empire.
Now the services of Dauntless Space are free, but when those common people get used to this enjoyment and can't leave this virtual world, and then they are forced to pay, wouldn't that be equivalent to directly harvesting their labor?
Let them know that free things are the most expensive!
The various stimulations constructed by the virtual space were no different from the real world, but those farmers normally couldn't enjoy them in their entire lives.
The materials that the Night Watch delivered to these countries also included "nutritional fast food" developed by secret methods.
It provided enough energy and ensured health, but the taste was quite terrible in order to save costs.
This nutritional fast food, combined with the eating options in Dauntless Space, with virtual delicacies, even the most difficult food could be swallowed by those common people.
In this way, the empire's food consumption would be greatly reduced, and the common people would grow up as strong as livestock...
"We should have such good things too!"
Almost all rulers gave their magical advisors the latest orders.
Although they ridiculed the Green Vine Empire for managing their country into a mess, was the situation in their own countries any better than the picture painted by "Pastoral Empire"?
Not at all, and even similarly facing high internal pressure; if the virtual beauty of Dauntless Space could replace bloody suppression, it would be an absolutely good method!
Mentally addicted to the virtual world, but physically still working hard in the real world, creating a better life for the noble lords, wasn't this the most ideal citizen?
So an activity to crack Dauntless Space and imitate the Soul-Mimic Bracelet began.
The final results were not optimistic.
The principle of the Soul-Mimic Bracelet was not complicated, and many countries successfully cracked it and successfully imitated it.
It's just that they didn't have the foundation of magical industrialization; facing this magical item, it was impossible to produce it on an assembly line, but required magicians and alchemists to cooperate fully and hand-craft it completely.
Due to well-known reasons, magicians' labor compensation was very high, and their numbers were also limited, so the Soul-Mimic Bracelet became a "normal magical equipment with a cost of hundreds of gold coins and limited production, making it impossible to popularize it to the entire population."
"Then how did the Eternal Night Empire produce it?" a certain duke asked.
"It can only be explained that the Secret Law Society has special means; give me 80 million gold coins, and I can break through it in ten years," his magical advisor said righteously.
Then this magical advisor was dismissed, but this duke couldn't find a new magical advisor either...
The cracking of Dauntless Space went very smoothly, but not completely smoothly.
Slightly more powerful magicians could easily see through that this thing was the mental demon domain of the Eris Worm, and then modify it.
They couldn't make a Dauntless Space covering hundreds of millions of people, but making a replica that could accommodate thousands or tens of thousands of people was very simple.
It was like official servers and private servers; as long as there was a game server-side, slightly more experienced players could build the server by looking at the documentation.
But wanting to make a server that could accommodate millions of players online was a problem of technology and scale.
Now these magicians saw the details of Dauntless Space and could crudely imitate it, but they encountered a key problem that stumped them.
They couldn't find the Eris Worm in the Astral Realm anymore.
Little Afu sang at the top of his lungs, catching all the nearby Eris Worms; it was unknown if there were any deeper in the Astral Realm, but within the empire's exploration range, almost no cicadas escaped the net.
These neighboring countries wanted to copy and study Dauntless Space, they knew the principle, but they didn't have the raw materials, and they were immediately stuck.
This was like the Lighthouse not allowing chip exports; no matter how good your other parts were, it was useless if the core technology was choked.
It's just that at the moment, the Green Vine Empire was choking the throats of other countries in the Eternal Night World.
Roger had predicted the current situation when he initiated the project.
Neighboring countries longed for the Soul-Mimic Bracelet and their own Dauntless Space, but couldn't get it at all.
Just then, the young queen of the Orcish tribes announced a shocking message to friendly nations:
We have obtained key technologies from the Green Vine Empire through some special channels and successfully imitated the Soul-Mimic Bracelet and Dauntless Space, which will soon be open for purchase to all countries.
Chapter 175: Reluctantly On Boarding the Great Powers
These days, the Kingdom of Terra was constantly producing some exquisite magical equipment. As for the special channels that Tassica spoke of, the great powers of the Eternal Night World were well aware of it and it had become an open secret:
The Orcs had placed very high-level spies within the Green Vine Empire!
Through these spies, they had stolen a lot of the empire's very profitable production technologies, which not only accelerated their own country's construction speed, but also earned a lot of foreign exchange from them...
The rulers of the great powers would definitely condemn this matter in public, that sending spies was wrong, and that we should respect the inventions of magicians and protect knowledge, balabala.
In reality, the great powers were seizing the time to hold meetings with their own intelligence agencies: Can those trash you sent out bring back something more useful?
With the same spies, why were the Orcs so excellent?
This wave of great powers all wanted the Soul-Mimic Bracelet and all wanted Dauntless Space, but their imitation work had all failed, and then the Kingdom of Terra stood up again...
We have what you want but can't get!
Of course, the great powers weren't stupid either, and they believed whatever Tassica said.
They didn't know much about the previous goods and equipment, but this time they had personally imitated the Soul-Mimic Bracelet, knowing that this thing looked simple, and manufacturing wasn't troublesome, but truly mass-producing and commercializing it was by no means a simple matter.
That wasn't a technology, but a complete set of supporting technologies.
It was useless to just make it; it had to be finished early and the price had to be low enough, otherwise if you sold it for a hundred gold coins, it would be a drop in the bucket for the great powers' ambition to maintain the stability of their rule with spiritual space!
However, their doubts didn't last long, and the empire's spokesperson stood up and issued a statement:
"Strongly condemn! Solemn protest! The Kingdom of Terra illegally stole our country's key technologies, and if they continue to produce, we do not rule out the use of war! Do not say we didn't warn you!"
As soon as this news came out, the great powers who had been half-believing and half-doubting immediately put their hearts in their stomachs:
It seems that the technology possessed by the Kingdom of Terra is real.
If you don't believe it, look, the Green Vine Empire is anxious!
And the Kingdom of Terra, which had already "copied" countless products from the empire, put on an indifferent stance, continuing to announce the details of their products to the outside world:
The bootleg version of the Soul-Mimic Bracelet is called "Totem Bracelet" on the Orc side, and the dial is replaced by a pattern of a Totem Fire.
The illusion magic that displays the time is naturally gone; this flame is printed on, and there are only a few small red light beads inside.
The appearance is relatively rough, without refined polishing, and there aren't many customizable appearances to choose from. It only comes in two classic colors: black and white, and the material is the cheapest leather.
However, it has all the basic functions, and the core parameters can reach 80% of the original's level.
Fearless Space has been skinned and is now called "Blissful Illusion". It's a forcibly modified inner demon domain, only having 50% realism, for the sake of accommodating more people.
The environment experienced after entering is naturally not as exquisite and realistic as "Earth Online".
As for the reason, the Orcs also explained that the Eris magic worms they used were stolen from the Arcane Council as eggs, and they were just hatched and not yet mature, but were pulled out and exploited.
If Dream City is a real science fiction world, high-end and filled with fantastical elements that the world considers very dreamy, a romance of steel and machinery,
then Blissful Illusion is a simple black street, dirty and messy with sewage everywhere, but the various sensory stimulations it can provide are real and not limited in quantity or time, removing the restrictions of Dream City.
In terms of style, the Totem Bracelet and Blissful Illusion are truly in the Huaqiangbei knock-off style, simple and rough, but they have everything you need.
It's like the official Pokémon GO is blocked and you can't play it, but suddenly there's a pirated "Let's Catch Monsters Together" in front of you. Would you play it or not?
Even if Nintendo fans strongly resist, but for non-Nintendo fans who are curious about this game mode, guess if they'll play it?
The technology that Tasika obtained is, of course, the original version...
No, it's the Arcane Council's latest upgraded 1.5 power-up version.
The production cost of the Soul Imitation Bracelet has decreased by 30%, the yield rate is higher, and the performance has also slightly improved.
But to make the act complete, it's normal for stolen goods to be inferior to the original, but if it crushes the original, then the whole world will know that there's a problem with the Kingdom of Terra.
So, after layers of castration, the knock-off set that perfectly hits the psychological needs of the colonial rulers was successfully launched and began selling.
The Totem Bracelet costs 2 gold coins each, and Blissful Illusion charges the user's country a monthly service fee based on the number of logins, averaging one gold coin per hundred people.