Exploring Technology in a Wizard World
Chapter 480 - 479: The Failure of Preaching and the Exploration of Philosophy

Chapter 480: Chapter 479: The Failure of Preaching and the Exploration of Philosophy

But the Little Boy had not taken two steps when suddenly, "snap", his arm was struck by a small stone.

"Ouch!" the Little Boy cried out, turning his head to look around, angrily demanding, "Who hit me, come out!"

"Hehe, it was me, Barry!" A chubby little boy appeared, holding a handful of stones, provocatively looking at the Little Boy named Barry, with a gang of followers behind him.

Seeing the chubby little boy, Barry was very angry, "Sta, why are you hitting me again?"

"I felt like it, if you dare, come chase me! Woohoo!" called Das, the chubby boy, making a face to provoke Barry, with his followers mimicking him.

Angry, Barry lifted his leg to chase after Das but was stopped by a little girl, "Barry, don’t chase him, you forgot what your mom told you."

Barry snapped back to reality, glaring at Das, "Hmph, I’m not chasing you because my mom told me that fighting is not for good kids."

"Pfft!" Das scorned, continuing to provoke, "Now you listen to your mom, but why don’t you when you’re supposed to be sleeping at night?"

"How do I not listen?"

"Your mom told you not to wet the bed, so why did you still do it!"

"I didn’t!" Barry argued loudly.

"Nonsense, I’ve seen the quilt in your yard, you did wet the bed!" Das shouted, "Lying is bad, lies will set your butt on fire!"

"Lying, sets the butt on fire!" Das’s followers chanted together.

Barry was furious, so upset he could hardly respond, his eyes reddening with anger.

Suddenly, the little girl cried out, pointing towards Das, "What’s that?"

"Huh?" all the kids paused, looking where the girl pointed, only to see smoke rising from the seat of Das’s pants, soon followed by a small burst of flames. Richard looked on indifferently from the side.

The panicked Das twisted around, trying to see the flames behind him, which grew larger by the moment.

All the children stared, wide-eyed; Das rolled on the ground, unable to extinguish the flames, while the other children started thinking of running away. The little girl pulled Barry to move away too.

But Barry suddenly spoke up, "We need to help Das, or he’ll be burned alive!" Saying so, he quickly ran to the front of Das, took off his pants, pulled out his water gun, and aimed it at Das while shouting at the rolling boy, "Hey, hold still, I can’t aim if you move, lie down!"

Das: "..."

The others were stunned. The little girl’s face turned as red as an apple, covering her eyes, peeking through her fingers.

Barry continued to spray water, and the flames on Das began to diminish, but did not go out completely. Barry immediately shouted to Das’s followers, "Don’t just stand there, help him too!"

Awakened as if from a dream, Das’s followers quickly gathered around, valiantly undoing their pants, aiming their water guns at Das to spray.

Barry directed, "Don’t spray randomly, have a plan. You two spray over there, you two on the other side, aim accurately, don’t waste..."

Speaking, Barry turned his head, not forgetting to call out to the little girl, "Lisa, come over too, help Das, all of us together..."

"I don’t want to, I don’t want to, I’m not like you boys, my mom said I can’t take off my pants in front of boys," the little girl blushed, hiding to one side.

Barry, helpless, turned back to focus on spraying water to save Das.

Eventually, all the water guns ran out of water, completely extinguishing the flames.

Barry was the last to pull up his pants, looking at Das lying in a muddy patch, "Hey, Das, you’re alright now, get up."

Das slowly stood up, his expression verging on collapse.

"Das, are you okay?" Barry asked with genuine concern.

How could he possibly be okay?!

First his body caught fire, and then he was saved in a special way, the shock to Das was indescribable. Just as Das opened his mouth about to express his pain, his words turned into sobs.

"You... you guys went too far, waaa..." Das cried and ran away, his group of followers first paused, then chased after him.

"Das, Das, don’t run, what’s wrong!"

Thinking for a moment, Little Boy Barry, pulling Little Girl Lisa along, also gave chase, saying as they ran, "Das, why are you crying? I’m trying to help you, really trying to help you. Also, can you stop throwing stones at me from now on? We can play together..."

"Waaa!" Das’s crying became louder, heart-wrenchingly so.

Richard watched the group of children run off, smiling knowingly; to him, this was far more interesting than any stage performance.

As he thought this, suddenly a voice beside him spoke softly, "They look like they have no worries at all, even their scuffles seem without much malice, truly a bunch of naive, pure children. Sadly, once they grow up, they won’t stay this way."

"Hmm?" Richard turned his head and saw the Clown appearing beside him like a ghost, despite his keen perception, he hadn’t noticed how the Clown had approached.

That was indeed worth pondering.

Pursing his lips, Richard addressed the Clown, "Mr. Clown, perhaps you should have come earlier, they all would have really enjoyed your performance."

"Not necessarily, many children are actually afraid of clowns, they think clowns are evil. My appearing now is probably just right. Of course, mainly because I finished my performances and saw you staying over here, I came to check out this group of truly happy children, which I quite envy," the Clown said.

"Envy?" Richard inquired, feeling the Clown was trying to provoke a discussion, so he decided to follow along and see where it led.

"Yes, envy," the Clown said, "As I mentioned earlier, once people grow up, they change, it becomes hard to find happiness like a child’s."

"Do you not think so?" With his mask, the Clown looked towards Richard and asked, "Don’t you think that many times people strive and struggle, yet find no happiness? In fact, often, people don’t even know what they want, and many times, they chase after the wrong things. In such cases, wouldn’t it be wiser to give up and achieve a better outcome? What do you say, passerby?"

Towards the end, the Clown spoke very seriously, while Richard saw White Crow quickly flit across and disappear in the night behind the Clown.

"What’s this supposed to be?" Richard suddenly laughed, looking at the Clown, "Is this Mr. Clown’s warning to me? Or a reminder? Or perhaps, a sermon, thinking some of my actions are mistaken, and you kindly advise me to reconsider?"

"No, no, no!" The Clown quickly waved his hand, "Don’t misunderstand, I’ve told you before. I’ve spent so much time playing the clown that I talk in strange ways, easily causing misunderstandings. Actually, I have no ill intent; I just want to discuss this issue with you simply."

"Discuss the issue?"

"Yes."

"It’s quite a classic philosophical problem," Richard spoke out, "Are you sure you really want to discuss it?"

"You seem very knowledgeable about it, why not talk about it?"

"Certain?"

"Certain."

"Alright then," looking at the Clown, Richard slowly spoke, "As for this issue, I personally don’t have many thoughts, but there’s someone called Diogenes who would likely agree with your views."

"Diogenes?" The Clown seemed puzzled, unfamiliar with the name.

"Yes, Diogenes," Richard nodded, "This person is a disciple of Antisines, who in turn is the founder of the Cynic School of Philosophy."