Mage Manual
Chapter 320 - Chapter 320 Chapter 273 Blood Moon and Gospel

Chapter 320: Chapter 273 Blood Moon and Gospel Chapter 320: Chapter 273 Blood Moon and Gospel When the sun rose in the horizon and sunlight fell on the center of Azura, the entire city seemed like a flower bewitched by a “Miracle,” shyly blooming.

The flow of vehicles on the highway became dense, and the sky began to be occupied by swarms of drones; all races and people started another calm and happy day.

Hanna’s car was still parked not far from the Holy Spirit Building; by now, all traces had been cleaned up by the Red Hats. The suspect had been captured, the bodies had been taken away, and the victims had been transferred to the hospital for psychological treatment.

Perhaps the experience of the Beastman Mage would become the talk of the neighbors for the next few days, but soon they would forget this discordant noise due to their fast-paced, fulfilling lives.

Ash and Hanna watched the Red Hats enforce the law in silence until the first ray of sunlight fell into the car, striking Ash’s face like a slap.

The cult leader slowly said, “Is this the ‘reality’ you showed to Harvey and Igula?”

“More or less,” Hanna replied. “I specifically chose a few tasks that I thought would touch you appropriately.”

“Is your real target that blond man?”

“That’s right. A common assassination task, which I definitely wouldn’t have taken in the past, even though my methods are completely legal. But the Gospel Book would still lower the rating of my office. Now it doesn’t matter anymore, since to get you guys on board, my office has become totally dirty. It’s like giving up.”

“What was your planning approach?”

Hanna gestured with three fingers: “Confirm the target, find a proxy, and then have the proxy take care of the target.”

“But how do you motivate the proxy?”

“Everyone has their own desires,” Hanna said. “The Gospel Book doesn’t require you to suppress your desires. It only helps you learn how to cover your actions with lies. When you vent your desires, you’ll inevitably encroach upon others’ interests. But hidden behind lies, none of you know you’re hurting others or being hurt by someone.”

“The network of relationships built by the Gospel is so exquisite yet so fragile.”

“I just need to lift the curtain of lies, and what follows will naturally be a conflict of desires.”

Ash asked, “So you mean to say, you can destroy anyone’s life?”

“Depends on the situation. There are differences in difficulty among different people, and as I said earlier, doing such things would lower the office’s rating. Anyone with a bit of ambition wouldn’t take on such tasks.” Hanna explained. “Plus, not everyone has vulnerabilities, like the people on the List of the Unfavored who don’t have social relationships that can be destroyed.”

“Like you newcomers to the Gospel, who’ve only been here for a few days, are like small bugs not yet stuck in this web.”

“But as long as you live in the Gospel, as long as you interact with others, as long as you have desires to vent, you will eventually be deeply entangled in this web of relationships.”

“You will quietly hurt others using the Gospel Book, and others will also quietly hurt you using the Gospel Book.”

“In fact, if you know nothing, then you will be quite happy. Your life is in simple mode, the Gospel constantly weaves the curtain of lies for you, shielding you from the dirt of reality and allowing you to embrace the happiness of dreams. You can enjoy peace and occasionally vent wicked thoughts, living a flavorful life.”

Purple Moth looked at the rushing traffic beside and said softly, “With such a sophisticated social system, the Gospel has reduced meaningless internal friction in society. Together with a ranking system as motivation, productivity has significantly advanced. Public safety, resident satisfaction, and living standards, these happiness indices have not decreased.”

“Doesn’t that sound quite nice?”

Hanna flicked her amethyst earring and glanced sideways at Ash, “Do you like our Gospel?”

Ash asked, “What did Harvey and Igula think about it?”

“They didn’t answer directly, but Mr. Harvey seemed quite angry, while Mr. Bokin was pleased beyond words.”

“Normal, Harvey dislikes having his life controlled by others, whereas Igula always feels that he can manipulate anyone by relying on rules.”

Hanna asked, “What about you, Ash? Do you detest this system, or do you want to utilize it?”

“I’m not naive enough to judge this social system, which has maintained the stable development of the Kingdom of Gospel for centuries, based solely on your words,” Ash said. “But your goal has indeed been achieved.”

“Oh?”

“I will do everything in my power to fulfill the Divine Lord’s wishes,” Ash, looking up at the upside-down city above him, said. “It’s not to change anything, I just hope to possess the chips that will remain unchanged.”

If Ash could remain blissfully ignorant of everything, he could continue to live naively in the Kingdom of Gospel. But having seen the Gospel’s Weaving heavenly net, he could no longer meekly accept his fate.

Upon reflection, both the Kingdom of Blood Moon and the Kingdom of Gospel, despite their many differences in social systems, were created to solve one issue: how to reduce the internal consumption between societal gears when productivity greatly developed.

When every person could obtain sufficient sustenance with simple labor, the traditional family system would naturally disintegrate. Humans are selfish; to give is against nature, but in the past, resources were insufficient for survival, compelling people to band together during hard times. Besides, with productive labor occupying most of the time, there was little opportunity for desires to be vented.

Once productivity developed to a certain extent, two problems would arise: people would have more leisure time and pursue better lives; people could sustain themselves with little time, and no longer need to depend on others.

If these two issues were not addressed, societal development would stagnate, birthrates would gradually decline, conflicts related to race, class, and regions would become increasingly acute, and societal energy would be wasted in meaningless internal friction.

The Kingdom of Blood Moon and the Kingdom of Gospel each offered dramatically different solutions.

The Kingdom of Blood Moon chose to floor the accelerator all the way, not waiting for families to disintegrate naturally. They preemptively abolished families, making everyone start as complete orphans, then promoted consumerism, strictly prohibited any discriminating behavior, and used mechanisms like Blood Moon Judgement, sugar, and mud tea to induce people to vent their anger. As for reproduction, they simply bought children with money.

The social progress of Blood Moon did not depend on commoners. Outstanding commoners could be promoted through regular channels to become second-class citizens of Blood Moon, then enter research institutions and the Church to contribute light and warmth; other commoners were fuel, all supporting a tiny fraction of the Longevity Species.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Gospel chose to cover up contradictions. If society were a completely random game of chaos, the Gospel Book would be the only solution to this game. It regulated everyone’s desires, covered all contradictions, and leveraged a sophisticated veil of lies to make everyone live in a happy world.

They further used the Gospel List to motivate progress, giving everyone something to look forward to in life. The public, accustomed to life’s easy mode, would follow the Gospel’s guidance on issues of reproduction, employment, and education, hence the society could continue a virtuous cycle.

By contrasting Blood Moon and the Gospel, Ash finally understood what a terrifying Wonder — no, Miracle — the Divine Lord had imposed on the kingdom!

The Extreme Master of Blood Moon created the “Blood Moon Promotion System,” a sustainable system that drained resources without addressing any social conflicts, even using these conflicts to conceal the exploitation by the elite; it relied only on a few elites to push societal development.

The All-knowing Weaver, using the absolute authority of the Gospel Book, forcibly suppressed and covered all social contradictions, making well-educated citizens obedient as sheep, their working, reproducing, and consuming all calculated within the Gospel Book!

Compared to powers that wreak tremendous destruction, this kind of miracle, which changes everyone’s fate from the top down, made one feel even more insignificant.

“I’m glad you’ve finally joined my side,” Hanna said with a smile. “It seems, compared to vague temptations, a real threat is necessary to willingly involve you in my plan.”

Ash glanced at her, “But Miss, by stirring up our greed like this, is it really good for you? I won’t say much, but from young, Igula and the others have never understood the word ‘concession’; they only know ‘monopoly.’ Or perhaps, do you have such faith in the Contract?”

“The sole purpose of a Contract is to be torn apart, but what replaces it might not be animosity; it could also be an alliance.”

Hanna extended her hand toward Ash, “Let us sincerely collaborate with ulterior motives.”

Ash looked at her gravely and shook her hand.

“Right, we agreed that if I complete the task, you’ll add funds to my game…”

“10,000 copper coins.”

“That’s not enough. 10,000 copper coins can at most buy a pass and a monthly card; I still need to buy the big monthly card, newbie bonus pack, limited-time pack, and also the level-up pack for the pass; otherwise, I can’t reach level 1000…”