Mage Manual-Chapter 158 - 144: Running Towards a Better Life

Chapter 158: Chapter 144: Running Towards a Better Life

Ash’s expression froze for a moment before he changed the topic, “I could get over tea-cafes, since I, too, love to look at beautiful women. But why in some places called ‘Mud-Cafes,’ are there so many scantily clad men striking poses? It really offended my eyes. If I weren’t an escaped convict, I would want to report them to the Crime Hunting Hall for disrupting the city’s appearance. There should be laws clearly prohibiting this—”

“I advise you not to meddle in things that don’t concern you,” Freyja warned. “If you don’t like to look, we do. You men can look at beautiful women, but we can’t look at handsome men?”

“Actually, I can ignore that too, after all, it’s a traditional profession. Although it has grown in scale, it’s not incomprehensible.” Ash’s expression darkened, “I wandered a bit further and saw the workers on a construction site.”

“What about the workers?”

“They… more than half of their bodies had been turned into machinery. Their legs had been replaced with wheels, their hands with multifunction toolboxes, even their eyes had been replaced with mechanical ones… If I hadn’t seen them drinking alcohol and overheard their conversations, I would have thought they were robots.”

“How could they be robots?” Freyja waved her hand dismissively. “Fully autonomous robots are so expensive and require frequent maintenance. In comparison, hiring these mechanical workers is much cheaper. I remember you haven’t been in prison for long; mechanical workers became popular in Kaimon City over a decade ago, how come it seems like you’ve never seen them before?”

...

“…Are there many mechanical workers in Kaimon City?”

“Not necessarily at construction sites. Their hands can change attachments. With some simple training, they can work as assembly workers, maintenance workers, assemblers, and other technical jobs.”

Freyja took a big bite of the Red Flame Lala Fatty, her mouth corners smeared with egg yolk sauce, “Generally speaking, ordinary people who have no hope of becoming Mages, most will change their profession to mechanical workers, and that includes clerks, the difference is just the degree of mechanization.”

Ash was stunned, “Even non-technical labor professions are mechanized?”

“Of course, not to mention limbs and spine, replacing internal organs with mechanical modules is very advantageous.” Freyja poked her Buns. “The heart could be replaced with a more powerful ‘Spark,’ the lungs with a ‘Combustion Chamber’ with better circulation, and the stomach with an ‘Energy Pool’ that has stronger digestive and absorption abilities…”

“Now, mechanical modification has become very affordable. A standard mechanical module set, if one works diligently, can be paid off with a loan in just three to four years, but the effects are excellent: It can give you longer endurance and be more energy-efficient.”

“In times of hardship, you can survive on just drinking water, while still maintaining high energy levels; in times of plenty, you have more strength to enjoy life and can have more intense sensory experiences.”

“If it weren’t for the fact that mechanical modules reduce a Mage’s efficiency in absorbing Magic Power in the Void Realm, it’s likely that many Mages would opt for mechanical modification instead of the more expensive biological modification.”

Freyja shrugged her shoulders, “However, as it stands now for regular people, the ‘Universal’ mechanical hand and the ‘Energy Pool’ mechanical stomach are almost a necessity, otherwise enterprises simply wouldn’t hire them. Most practical tools are designed to interface with a mechanical hand, and without one, you can hardly use tools. Like the head chef in my university cafeteria; his mechanical hand attaches to a spatula, can automatically heat, cool, and season, and he makes a particularly delicious steak.”

“And the mechanical stomach allows you to eat all of the day’s food in the morning and then digest it slowly, not only increasing working hours but also saving on food costs—like our meal here, which can be exchanged for 30 portions of ‘feed.'”

“A mechanical worker just needs one portion of feed to sustain a day’s worth of work. In other words, we’ve just consumed what would feed a mechanical worker for an entire month.”

Ash couldn’t understand, “What about the Human Rights Association? The Racial Rights Association? Aren’t they doing anything?”

Freyja frowned, “What does this have to do with the Human Rights Association? No one is forcing them to undergo mechanical modifications, they are doing it voluntarily. The Human Rights Association can’t restrict their freedom to undergo mechanical modifications, nor can it prevent them from pursuing a better life.”

Pursuing a better life.

Ash was left baffled.

He remained silent for a long time, waiting until Freyja had eaten her fill and wiped her mouth before he suddenly raised a question.

“So Mechanical Workers are so thrifty, where do they spend their salaries?”

Freyja counted on her fingers, “Mud coffee, tea coffee, casinos, candy stores, drama voting, fashion jewelry, biological modification, updating chip versions, updating the Veil of Knowledge, ‘Mage Ascension,’ ‘Void Realm Fantasy 14,’ ‘Miracle World,’…”

After a day of surfing the web, Ash knew that the last three were the hottest multiplayer games inside the Veil. The Veil was an information world jointly constructed by all the citizens, equivalent to the internet. It was called the “Veil” because of its high degree of concealment. Apart from the Crime Hunting Hall that managed the chips, it was impossible for ordinary people to find others in the Veil, where everyone was an ‘invisible person behind the curtain.’

Also, because of anonymity, people’s comments in the Veil could be incredibly unrestrained. Just in one day, Ash learned all sorts of dirty language involving racial discrimination, gender discrimination, educational discrimination, and occupational discrimination.

Even though there were no mothers in the Kingdom of Blood Moon, their proficiency in swearing still astonished Ash; he somewhat wished he could switch to a pair of eyes that had never seen those dirty words.

He even had a moment when he thought that perhaps the ‘speaking restrictions’ at places like Shattered Lake Prison had some merit, and that this bunch of reckless trash-talkers should be captured and reformed.

As for drama voting, it was a special pay-per-view model for TV dramas in the Kingdom of Blood Moon. To put it simply, after the audience watched the first half of the series, the producers would provide multiple ending options. Viewers could then vote (by paying money) for their preferred ending, and the producers would produce the ending as wished.

For example, the comic Ash had read, “It’s All My Fault for Saying I Like MILFs,” might offer endings like “the male lead lives happily with the female lead,” “the male lead lives a shameless life with both female lead and the second female lead,” “female lead ends up with the second female lead,” “the male lead ends up with the second male lead,” and so forth, a dozen different directions. After the audience watched the first half of the series, they could choose the ending!

Regarding fashion jewelry, Ash found out today that though Freyja did not come from a large home, she had three closets stuffed with all sorts of attractive clothes and accessories. He thought it was a female hobby, but walking on the streets, he noticed that almost everyone dressed very upscale and classy, even the male clerks in food supermarkets dressed like wealthy young masters.

Moreover, apart from the middle-aged and elderly, most young people were very good-looking, regardless of gender, even Goblins had delicate features; some people even had starlight in their eyes—the real kind, where pupils twinkle and flash.

It was clear that everyone’s appearance had been artistically touched up by Medical Practitioners, but Ash couldn’t really say much about that—he too had his face ‘touched up’ by a Medical Practitioner [222].

As for why they purchased the Veil of Knowledge, that was because updating chip versions also cost money. The chip version most people were implanted with at birth was the Miracle Model 1, which was slow, had small storage space, and could only be said to be ‘usable.’ Most adults would update their version to Model 10 or higher. The newer the chip version, the stronger the functions and the better the experience. Not to mention, many apps had version requirements, and lower-version chips could not run higher-version apps.

The Veil of Knowledge was the glass screen they were currently looking at. Compared to the narrow light screen displayed by the chip, the Veil of Knowledge had features like higher resolution, larger size, better color, bigger storage space, and stronger performance.

Although both information entertainment terminals, the chip’s status was akin to an implanted cellphone, while the Veil of Knowledge was like a personal computer.

“So you’re saying that most people, after earning money, would invest it into drugs, gambling, modifying their bodies, fashion jewelry, and virtual entertainment?”

“Right.”

Ash opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again.

It wasn’t until he ate the last piece of milk egg pancake that he couldn’t help asking, “Do you do the same?”

“Yeah, but I’m not interested in gambling or drugs, and I cannot undergo biological modification at the moment since I’m aiming to become a Mage in the future.”

“Then are you happy?”

Freyja looked at him strangely.

“Very happy.”

This content is taken from freёnovelkiss.com.