Chapter 244

The winter of the Third World is passing by.

By my reckoning, it’s been way over half a year since I arrived here.

Pretty soon, I’ll be in second grade.

Nothing much might change for me, but big changes are coming for the students at the Royal Academy.

And they’re not pleasant ones. Loads of important people from other countries will be joining and attending classes together.

What must it feel like to be in a place where even breathing is tough without serious political power?

I reckon it’ll be super entertaining to watch.

Ugh…

The fact that I’m thinking this shows I’ve finally got some peace of mind.

Back in the day, I was always scared about getting expelled or ending up stuck somewhere indefinitely with no idea how long I’d have to wait.

But now, I exist across two worlds.

That means if one goes wrong, I still have a way out.

Right now, it’s like planting seeds and waiting for them to grow. And even if one field fails, I’ve got another.

I’ve got backup.

Once the seeds are planted, they mostly take care of themselves. Sure, I’ll need to check on them occasionally, but they’re pretty easy to manage overall.

The only small problem is that I’ll need to wait way longer than just a year or two—more like over a hundred years—to harvest the fruits I want.

But waiting? That’s fine.

When the time comes, there’ll be an influx of warmth, just like I experienced once in the First World. The kind of human warmth that gets trampled consciously or unconsciously as we go about our lives will flow back in.

Even in my faded memories, I never directly hurt anyone.

But I lived on top of countless corpses—using products made through economic exploitation, eating bread from companies that didn’t take responsibility when workers died in accidents.

I lived atop endless piles of bodies.

I believe every world I encounter will be the same. That’s why I’m creating harvesters without any specific instructions.

Ah, though, I do have to be careful not to make too many harvesters and collapse the world.

Still, compared to real farming, this is way easier.

Well, technically, I don’t have actual farming experience, but I remember stuff from others’ experiences!

Being able to access other people’s memories is so convenient.

Without this ability, I’d probably be in a much tougher spot, especially since reading emotions from people would be nearly impossible.

Even now, despite being able to sense emotions, I still make mistakes sometimes.

If I couldn’t read emotions at all…

I don’t even want to think about it.

Later today, I’ll put Bell to bed, and tomorrow school starts again.

Before then, I should tidy up a few loose ends.

First off: Brightshin slum-originated harvesters.

They’ve gotten jobs as transporters and are traveling all over the country. Along the way, they either deal with attackers or get attacked, sharing warmth wherever they go.

One thing I realized while handling this:

The smaller the village, the more completely mechanical devices have been phased out. In remote areas, many places are still transitioning to using these machines, often rejecting them due to media coverage.

And these villages? They’ve managed to avoid the current economic crisis sweeping the nation—or even the world. Take, for instance, the village where Beatrice and Maurice live.

They practice self-sufficiency with vegetables and grains.

Meat? It’s hunted by what you could call a sub-species of hunters in the Faded World who specialize in monster extermination.

Surprisingly, this world doesn’t rely on livestock for meat. Instead, they hunt monsters for it.

You might wonder how this feeds everyone properly, but with the presence of magic power, animals here grow large yet reproduce like rabbits.

Compared to the Faded World, both the First and Third Worlds have richer wildlife and different biological cycles.

Actually, averaging everything out, the world in my faded memories feels more like a severely dehydrated critical patient.

What about the Second World?

The harvesters haven’t gathered enough info there. Both Daegon and the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign only know their immediate territories well.

Oh, right, one more thing.

Daegon’s world.

It also has magic power, with biological populations rapidly growing and reproducing without depletion—unless you drain entire planets or stars rich in magic power.

Daegon was an invader who, after fully conquering his universe, ventured beyond to wage wars of conquest in other worlds.

Think of it like the Civilization game—if he were at the point where modern times just began, got crushed in a war against a neighboring country, had only one city left, and then robots suddenly popped out of a nearby barbarian base and wiped him out entirely before I took him over.

Whoa…

My thoughts wandered into weird territory there.

Anyway, productive little villages are doing fine.

On the flip side, cities dependent on trade are struggling.

More precisely, places that grew from rest stops into markets and eventually into major trade hubs reliant on commerce have collapsed.

With the phase-out of mechanical devices, blood flow—so to speak—has decreased. Villages along these routes have either turned to banditry due to resource depletion or disappeared altogether, effectively clogging the arteries.

Cities above a certain size can’t survive without supplies from surrounding production areas.

Their internal facilities simply can’t feed all the people inside.

As blood vessels got blocked, major cities functioning like vital organs suffered heavy blows.

This failure then spread nationwide. Most large cities housed industries.

Still, this country somehow managed to stabilize itself.

Other countries, though, aren’t faring as well. There’s an increasing number of foreigners speaking incomprehensible languages gathering in Brightshin slums.

Bern City has practically become an independent city-state, closing itself off. Meanwhile, Nantes has developed from a small port into a full-fledged harbor city due to the opposite reaction.

Meanwhile, Atlan Fortress City hasn’t changed much for the worse.

Effectively a port, it continues receiving diverse goods from abroad and regularly repels monster attacks from the eastern sea like clockwork.

Not that there haven’t been changes.

Getting injured by the eastern sea monsters spreads curses. If you get wounded even once, you’re lucky if it ends with just losing a limb.

Meaning soldier mortality rates were extremely high.

But once a harvester capable of removing curses appeared, things shifted.

If curses can be erased, injuries that sever limbs become minor wounds that can regenerate.

Risks decreased.

Thus, Atlan Fortress City experienced a different New Year this time around—not one filled with sorrowful farewells, but with reunions as the injured recovered.

In short, they’re thriving.

While some harvesters thrive, others struggle. People lead vastly different lives.

I’ve summarized the situation in the Third World.

Technologically, there hasn’t been any striking progress yet. In the capital, alternative power devices using people’s magic power are quietly circulating, and Bern City is trying to use Primordial Heavenly Sovereign tech to power mechanical devices.

However, these eco-friendly energy sources, while less polluting, lack sufficient strength to power traditional mechanical devices, causing difficulties.

But give it time, and this issue will resolve itself.

Someday, I hope they expand beyond this planet, venture into space, and even establish colonies in other worlds.

Then, the descendants of my harvesters will consume those worlds.

And they’ll bring me warmth.

Hehe.

***

Fourth World.

I’ve gathered more information than expected.

Mostly from harvester memories, but still, I learned a lot.

Why? Because I discovered that when someone undergoes what Jeber calls “purple mutation,” their wounds heal, and their physical abilities improve overall.

At one point, inserting a middle-aged woman revealed her appearance became younger, prompting me to turn several elderly individuals into harvesters.

When their appearances reverted to youthful states, the atmosphere shifted.

I experimented further, inserting a chimera with a brass necklace nearing its end due to aging and criminals whose bodies were mangled by severe punishment.

Then something major happened.

One criminal gained psychic abilities.

Using this power, he bent nearby metals, escaped, and attempted to kill Jeber. He failed, though—the bomb around his neck detonated.

From this, I hypothesized that restrained individuals have a higher chance of gaining powers that break their restraints.

Jeber, however, thought differently.

He immediately converted all available chimeras into harvesters.

Every chimera except assistants and those with silver necklaces became harvesters.

Oddly, none gained psychic abilities. After thoroughly checking for special abilities among the new harvesters and finding none, Jeber was deeply disappointed.

Jeber gained nothing.

Conversely, I gained a lot.

Jeber returned the chimeras to their original positions. Thanks to this, I can now observe him anytime. Essentially, having almost all chimeras means I can monitor Jeber’s entire household.

Through this, the lab chimera uncovered something previously unknown.

Jeber is preparing to create more harvesters.

Yes.

He announced an anti-aging experiment open to the public.

The event is scheduled for one month later.

Alongside this announcement, construction began on a new building at the edge of the mansion grounds. I suspect I’ll be turning whoever enters into harvesters there.

Perfect.

Anti-aging is such a tempting bait.

It’s irresistible not to grab that fruit.

And if there’s no cost involved, who wouldn’t try?

There will definitely be people willing to give it a shot.

Once the trend starts, there’s no going back. When others try it and seem fine, the next group will consider those who don’t partake as fools.

Just like in the First World.

A single contract recitation promised a better life; refusing it labeled you stupid.

Is the Fourth World collapsing?

Here, only those who see me and agree to the contract will participate.

If I had to personally oversee each case, it would take decades to gather as many harvesters as before. So, I’m not overly worried.

In the First World, almost the entire population of the continent became harvesters…

Each world has its limits, but I’m not concerned about that aspect, so I’ll indulge myself fully.

So please, hurry up and let me create more harvesters.

Faster!

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