Chapter 217

It’s been a week since the international conference, and it’s now the weekend.

As the weather got colder, lots of happy things started happening!

You see, I’ve been getting warmth more often!

Hehe.

Ah, but no, the Royal Academy hasn’t turned into a slaughterhouse or anything.

Not much has changed at the Royal Academy. This academy is unlike any school I’ve ever known—there’s no concept of field trips or retreats. It’s incredibly static.

At most, there were some minor incidents, like two guys dueling over a girl in the dormitory and both getting seriously injured, or someone sneaking into the girls’ dorm to spend the night and causing chaos when they got caught.

But that’s just what happens when you cram young people into a place like a dormitory.

In short, it was peaceful.

However, things are different for the Harvesting Systems who are weighed down by poverty.

They’re sending me warmth.

Not the faint warmth you get from killing animals or bugs, but real, proper warmth.

Yeah, that means they’re killing people.

There hasn’t been a riot or anything. They’re using justified force.

They catch thieves and harvest their warmth.

Right now, many of the Harvesting Systems in Brightshin work in transportation. A purple-haired person with white or blue skin automatically inspires trust.

But the need for trust implies that trust is often lost.

While jobs have opened up for Harvesting Systems, these are high-risk positions.

As always, in this world, humans are the cheapest expendable resource.

Why? Because outside the cities, it’s overrun with bandits.

Normally, bandits are rare here because the wilderness is too dangerous for them to survive. Villages without sufficient soldiers and equipment don’t last past a year—they get swallowed up by the wilds.

Of course, that’s expected. The vanguard forces couldn’t establish proper bases against such monsters.

But bandits have increased.

Even transporters inside supposedly safe towns have been attacked.

The rookies working in transportation didn’t know much about it, but I recognize the faces of the bandits.

People who went bankrupt from gambling while peddling goods, then rotted away in the slums until they became Harvesting Systems…

People who lost their legs to transport machinery and were left to die in the slums…

Their memories shine brightly as they recognize those they’ve encountered.

Many of the attackers outside used to be ordinary citizens.

That shows how dire the situation has become.

Harvesting Systems meet these bandits and kill them to survive.

Then the warmth flows to me.

And it’s only autumn right now. Winter is coming soon.

Winter here isn’t harsh; even in the dead of winter, it’s usually rainy rather than snowy. It’s a pretty livable country where snow is a once-in-a-while thing.

But that doesn’t mean plants grow year-round. Like most places, food production stops in winter, and people rely on stored supplies to survive.

So we need to stockpile food before winter hits.

Without food, people will attack others next year—even if they’ll eventually get wiped out—just to eat today.

Survival is a basic instinct. From a biological perspective, those who’ve become bandits aren’t necessarily bad.

Socially speaking, though, they’re very bad.

Bandits show up in almost any place except coastal villages.

Actually, coastal villages are fine because the sea provides plenty of food. If you can stomach weird-looking stuff, you won’t starve.

In other words, the rest of the towns are struggling so badly that normal citizens are turning to thievery.

There’s no mention of famine in the memories of the Harvesting Systems or Warmth Carriers.

This suggests the current issue might be tied to the recent corporate influence. I suspected something would happen eventually, but it’s happening way faster than I expected.

Even if they smashed up some Clockwork Devices without thinking, they should still have been able to gather crops. Besides, the incident happened mid-autumn.

We should’ve had enough food harvested for this year…

So why is there already a food shortage? Bad enough to drive people to thievery?

I check the memories again regarding food.

Among the Brightshin-born Harvesting Systems, excluding the hardworking ones, fear is growing about buying food.

People in the slums gather together, trembling with worry that they won’t make it through the winter.

Food prices keep rising.

And it’s not just food. Fuel costs are skyrocketing too. This world hasn’t transitioned from wood to coal yet, so they burn firewood.

Since citizens emotionally destroyed the Clockwork Devices, firewood prices in the capital have soared uncontrollably.

Still, it’s cold enough to kill people even in mild weather if there’s no heat source.

Clockwork Devices could solve this, but people can’t use them.

To avoid the cold, they’d have to restart the Clockwork Devices despite media propaganda painting them as murder machines.

There aren’t any Clockwork Devices in the capital untouched by those three corporations.

Effectively, they’re unusable.

Only when the cold becomes unbearable enough to risk death will they restart them.

But did you know?

Not all Clockwork Devices kill. Accidents only happen in places like Bern City, where power systems are overly concentrated and run for long periods.

For now, there’s no immediate problem.

Public trust in the media will decline. Maybe riots will break out.

Hunger and cold—it’s the breakdown of food and shelter. An incident is inevitable, and it will surely bring many deaths.

A lot of warmth.

Hehe.

While waiting for that explosion, I can enjoy the warmth Harvesting Systems gain from killing bandits.

Oh, and I noticed one thing during all this.

The Heavenly Horse Technique.

Yeah, it came from a Harvesting System’s hands.

Compared to the Heavenly Horse Technique in the memories of Second World people, it’s woefully inadequate—but it’s definitely the Heavenly Horse Technique, as the memory confirms.

The single stroke of the Heavenly Horse Technique left behind by the Heavenly Horse actually works.

It’s a short and simple record, making it hard to understand how anyone could use the Heavenly Horse Technique from this alone.

Originally, the Heavenly Horse Technique consisted of dozens of scrolls, requiring extensive background knowledge to comprehend.

To put it simply, it’s like needing all the math knowledge up to high school to learn college-level math.

Yet somehow, reading just one page allowed them to solve college-level math problems.

What’s more, it’s not exclusive to Brightshin-born Harvesting Systems. Survivors from Bern City are also using it.

They use completely different parts of it.

But still, it’s the Heavenly Horse Technique.

What exactly did the Heavenly Horse leave behind for me?

I don’t understand.

But if I can use it, I will. With powerful martial arts, Harvesting Systems can gather even more warmth!

Hehe.

Thanks, I guess.

Thinking briefly of the Heavenly Horse, I pushed the memory aside and looked out the window from my accommodation.

The scenery has changed a lot since I first arrived here.

Now, above the tightly packed buildings, the once-blue sky has turned dull and gray. Smoke rises everywhere in the city. If this keeps up, the capital will soon be shrouded in smog.

No, wait.

That won’t happen. Some memories shine brightly. Unlike the faded memories of another world, this world has magic.

Anyone can use it with practice. While maximum output depends on talent, only an extremely small number of people ever reach their full potential.

In short, anyone can perform basic magic with enough practice. Warming spells are very simple.

Well, technically, it’s slightly different.

If magic uses mana to create special physical phenomena, then most living beings in this world are inherently magical. Just like mitochondria producing energy using oxygen, the body itself is a form of magic.

This isn’t unique to the Third World.

According to Daegon’s memories, all worlds function this way.

The only exception seems to be the world of faded memories.

Just that one.

Yeah.

Anyway, people in the Third World can use magic to stay warm enough to survive. Temperature isn’t an issue.

But there’s something magic can’t fix.

Food.

Prices are the same or higher today than yesterday, and this trend continues. Food has already become unaffordable in the slums.

That means there’s a food shortage.

Collapse is near.

With the warmth sent by struggling Harvesting Systems, I softened the intense cold into a mild chill and watched the red twilight outside the window.

Soon, instead of the red twilight, I can almost see flames rising. Can’t wait!

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