Daily Life (2)
My marveling at the forum users' sheer demon lord-like behavior did not last very long.
Over the past two weeks, bizarre antics were all I had seen from them, in overflowing abundance. For a demon lord, such conduct was only natural. Pure malice, unprovoked hostility toward others, deep-seated contempt for different species, and paranoid vigilance against anything resembling goodness—just skimming the gallery's threads made it abundantly clear that most demon lords possessed these traits as default settings.
"Sigh."
Was there really no other demon lord in a predicament like mine? At the very least, it would have been nice if there were a few more sensible individuals around, like the Marquis of Wolves.
The Demon Lord Gallery was peerless for killing time, but it could hardly be called a sanctuary. At the end of the day, the yawning chasm separating me from these genuine demon lords was impossible to bridge. Then again, who was I kidding? Walking into a quasi-psychiatric ward like the Demon Lord Gallery and expecting to find someone sane was an exercise in pure idiocy to begin with.
As I clicked through the posts with a self-derisive chuckle, an intriguing title caught my eye.
Only users who can replicate 5th-tier Pandemonium magic or higher using pure scientific technology allowed.
Nothing major, just looking to invest since my military power seems a bit lacking lately. Can anyone recommend a decent superweapon?
I'm definitely not asking for hyperdimensional weaponry or anything like that. Just recommend a superweapon capable of projecting solar-system-scale destruction per second that's reasonably viable on a galactic scale.
As for the budget, I can spare the resources and workforce of about 2,000 star systems.
"What the hell is this?"
When I first read the title, I clicked in thinking, Isn't our world's technological level decently advanced too? But the contents were leagues beyond anything I recognized as technology.
Solar-system-scale output? Viable across an entire galaxy? Grinding down two thousand star systems just for the budget? In human terms, a star system was something on the order of our own Solar System, home to planet Earth beneath my feet. Humanity in our dimension had barely managed to attempt interplanetary travel within our own system, so the idea of treating an entire star system as a trivial unit of measurement was frankly terrifying.
The comment section was even more astounding.
Black holes, supernova explosions—it was a conversation from a reality operating on a completely different magnitude. And then, that name buried right in the middle of the comments caught my eye.
"Death Star?!"
Wait, what was Star Wars doing here? It was a relic of an ancient classic movie, so I didn't remember every single detail, but I certainly knew that a planetary superweapon named the Death Star existed.
Did this dimension somehow connect to the dimension of that fixed-nick user, Bookworm?
If it were only vaguely similar, that would be one thing, but for the name, function, and even form to match almost identically made me wonder if there was some link between his realm and mine. Watching the comments scroll by, another realization struck me.
Wait... couldn't I acquire overwhelming technological knowledge from this gallery?
It began as a passing question, but quickly blossomed into a spark of inspiration—a potential breakthrough for all my current struggles. According to the Marquis of Wolves' explanation, the laws of magic in my dimension were so thoroughly distorted that, barring a minuscule handful of outliers, no one could perceive magic, let alone cast it. But scientific technology was another story entirely.
If I could successfully acquire technological schematics, even just a scrap of data from a world like EMPEROR's, humanity wouldn't need to cling desperately to Earth just to survive. If that happened, we wouldn't even have to look twice at the Gates.
I put the idea into action immediately.
Seeing that front-page post made me realize how crazy advanced your technology is.
So... is there anyone who can pass down some scientific tech?
My dimension only managed to leave our home planet a little over a century ago, so I'd be endlessly grateful for literally anything you throw my way.
If you give me interstellar travel or terraforming tech, I will genuinely serve you for life...
The response was instantaneous. Ever since my very first post two weeks ago, the Demon Lord Gallery had been burning with drama revolving around me for over three straight days. In other words, I had become somewhat of a gallery celebrity.
Among the replies, there was one response I hadn't anticipated at all. I had braced for flat rejections or scoffing replies like "Why should I?", but I never imagined they would call it outright impossible.
It was just sharing scientific knowledge, so why on earth was it impossible?
Brimming with confusion, I continuously refreshed the gallery while waiting for the post from the fixed-nick sub-moderator, FeatheredSnake. Before long, his post went live.
Sorry to crush your spirit, newbie, but transferring scientific knowledge to your dimension is impossible.
To start, most other gallery users reside in Dimensional Depths 400 through 999. Because of that, their physical laws and fundamental elements are nearly identical.
The demon bro from the front page is in Depth 700s, so he can receive data from users in the 400s through 600s without any friction. But your dimension, newbie, is in the 100s, which as far as I know makes you completely unique across the Demon Lord Gallery.
A lower depth (700s) can adopt technology that relies on the physical laws of a higher depth (600s), but a higher depth (100s) can't possibly adopt technology built on the physical laws of a lower depth (400s).
Whether it's data files or blueprints, even if you try to build something, it won't function.
Telling you now so you don't break your back trying only to end up crushed by disappointment later.
"..."
I couldn't even register the gallery users ganging up to mock me in the comments. The content of the post was simply too devastating.
Even if I received advanced technology, not a single piece of it would function? If this wasn't some cruel joke from God, what was it? In a world where scientific technology lagged far behind other dimensions and magic existed only within fiction, why on earth had we been cursed with trials like the Gates?
If I could ever meet whatever god was responsible, I felt an overpowering urge to scream curses right into their face.
No magic, no tech transfers.
Why is my dimension the only one like this?
Am I the only one cursed with rotten luck? Am I doomed to dig in the dirt like a beggar forever?
It was a post born of equal parts lamentation, indignation, and fury. Written in the raw heat of emotion, it immediately provoked explosive reactions from several users.
Naturally, the vast majority of the responses were derisive mockery. Well, they were demon lords—what else did I expect? Those demon lords hailing from Pandemonium especially seemed to be devils by blood, living up to their infernal reputations with relish.
A seemingly benevolent fixed-nick user offered me a glimmer of hope, but—
It was nothing but psychological torture.
"Haah..."
To sum it all up, there was literally nothing I could gain from this forum right now. To think the day would come when I genuinely envied demon lords fighting in the Colosseum, trading intel, and dispatching heroes.
"Of all the damn dimensions to get stuck in..."
Could there possibly be a day that swung between heaven and hell quite like this one? Reaching out to grasp hope, only to plummet headfirst into an abyss immediately afterward—now that was truly an extraordinary experience.