Chapter 593: Talent Donation(1)
Chapter 593: Talent Donation(1)
After a brief moment of Kate’s subtle humblebragging, the issue regarding the speculative nature of Call of Duty was resolved quite smoothly.
As Luminous had pointed out, the act of gambling should be regulated; regulating the entertainment itself would be putting the cart before the horse.
The moment a massive amount of money is staked—rather than playing for pure enjoyment—it is considered gambling. This logic applies to any other form of play as well.
[Before long, casinos will be overflowing with people playing Call of Duty.]
[New forms of entertainment are always welcome. However, we must not succumb to the devil's temptation.]
The public seemed to understand and accept this perspective. They agreed that gambling should be stopped, not the game itself.
The cards were simply based on a work of immense popularity; objectively speaking, it was just the debut of an entertaining card game.
Coincidentally, Luminous seemed to have sent word to the Church, as there was no particular backlash from the religious community. However, one thing remained a concern.
[In the end, the cards are drawn based on 'probability.' The label of gambling will follow it like a shadow.]
The act of opening a pack while relying on probability is, in itself, a form of speculation. This was an unavoidable reality.
Even if the odds were made public, it wasn't as if people who bought lottery tickets were unaware of the chances. Some buy them for fun, while others buy them truly hoping for a sudden windfall.
To prevent such issues, the best method would be to limit the number of card packs a single person can purchase.
However, doing so would deal a severe blow to sales, making it a difficult dilemma to navigate.
Since the issue of speculation would follow the game forever anyway, I decided it would be better to at least try to reduce the number of gambling addicts.
"Let's establish Trading Shops."
"Trading Shops? What are those?"
"Exactly what the name implies—shops where cards can be traded at appropriate prices. They can also sell card packs and provide a space for people to duel—I mean, play the game."
Thus, I decided to create shops where cards could be purchased at fixed prices rather than through gacha.
I recalled similar places existing in my previous life. Those shops dealt not only in cards but in all sorts of curious items.
However, since Call of Duty had only recently been released, there weren't many completed decks yet, and many more cards were scheduled for release.
Furthermore, since the game would be continuously updated until the novel's conclusion, these shops would likely serve as little more than meeting plazas for now. But even that would be enough.
I should drop by to take a look every now and then.
I would be able to see Duelists in this world. I looked forward to seeing how many different people and races would gather.
Musk praised it as a novel idea and vowed to push forward with it immediately, telling me to leave everything to him.
Not long after, the world's first Trading Shop opened in the Maishal Territory, leading to a significant surge in tourists.
On the surface, it was a booming success, but Musk was soon hit with another hurdle.
"Pardon me, but could you place the Trading Shop under the jurisdiction of the Maishal family instead of mine?"
"Why?"
"Because of the taxes..."
"..."
This man was as corrupt as ever. According to Imperial law, buildings directly operated by noble families enjoyed much lower tax rates.
In particular, to prevent commoners from accumulating real estate, the taxes levied on each building they owned were much harsher.
It was a moment that simultaneously revealed the dark side of a class society and Musk's cunning.
How can he be so consistent?
He was incredibly loyal, but on a personal level, he was the definition of a man who was moderately corrupt and moderately diligent.
Back during the theft of the first volume's manuscript of the Xenon Biography, Musk had suffered quite a bit due to tax evasion. And here he was again, asking me for a favor regarding taxes.
"Is it too much to handle?"
"It's not that, but my accountant is swearing at me. They threatened to resign if the workload increases any further... This isn't about committing corruption; it's about knowing when to give up cleanly."
"Understood."
I could understand that much. The printing presses Musk owned were spread across the entire world.
In a world without computers, an accountant was a high-level professional. Since even basic calculators didn't exist, they were treated with more respect than almost any other workforce.
Come to think of it, the Empire must be collecting taxes from our family too. I wonder how much they take?
For now, my father handled everything, but I would have to take over once I inherited the family.
Of course, the Empire would provide high-level personnel. As long as I prevented them from doing anything strange, it would be fine.
Anyway, now that the Trading Shop was established in the Maishal Territory, I had only one task left.
[The victor of the Battle of Moscow is the Soviet Union. Their indomitable will has halted the demon's advance!]
[Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union have traded places. Initially, Stalin ground down his own army, but this time, Hitler has led his own forces to defeat.]
[Cold is humanity's greatest enemy and worst foe. However, because Hitler remained in a warm place, he was ignorant of that fact.]
My task was to continue serializing Blood and Iron for the steady updates of Call of Duty.
The Battle of Moscow had just concluded, and the German-Soviet War was seeing various small and large skirmishes leading up to Operation Blue.
Even with the defeat at Moscow, Nazi Germany was still Nazi Germany. They secured a major victory at the Battles of Rzhev and continued to pressure the Soviet Union.
Stalin had also acknowledged his own military incompetence and began deploying commanders appropriately, but because they were underprepared, they were forced to retreat.
They managed to hold on barely thanks to the American Lend-Lease, and under the influence of General Winter, they were gradually being reborn as the true 'Red Army.'
[Japan takes a hit from the United States. An air raid that announced Japan's mainland is no longer safe.]
[The Doolittle Raiders, who brought hope in the wake of successive defeats. Their battle is only just beginning.]
[To whom will the balance between Japan and the United States tilt? For now, the United States appears lacking compared to Japan.]
On the American front, the Doolittle Raiders had struck the Japanese mainland. Since the Navy saw no clear path, they used the Air Force to strike the heart of the enemy.
Due to its geographical features, Japan was a natural fortress, famous for being a land that had remained uninvaded for centuries.
But now that sanctuary had been shattered, and the psychological shock to its citizens was bound to be immense.
[Japan massacres 250,000 Chinese in retaliation. Innocent civilians were slaughtered simply for providing aid.]
[Despite this, China holds firm as if unyielding. Can Japan truly conquer China?]
Here, the massacre of Chinese civilians occurred as Japanese retaliation. This was because the Chinese had aided the Doolittle Raiders in their escape.
There were even anecdotes of Chinese civilians who had received gifts from the Raiders being subjected to brutal torture.
While the retaliation might have seemed 'justified' in the context of the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War, the sheer amount of ill-will Japan had accumulated only highlighted their pettiness and cruelty.
One might ask if many weren't also dying in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In that theater, both sides were so focused on 'exterminating' each other that such acts didn't stand out as much.
If the United States and Japan were trading counter-punches, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were locked in a struggle where they grabbed each other by the hair and relentlessly pummeled each other's faces.
Meanwhile, on the North African Campaign, Nazi Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States were all clashing. I was steadily depicting that front as well.
[All these battles are but a prelude. A truly massive conflict is surely coming next.]
[Historically, there are always battles that turn the tide of war.]
Though their styles(?) differed, many readers were anticipating it—that a battle capable of shifting the entire landscape of the war would eventually erupt.
In reality, following the Doolittle Raid, Nazi Germany would launch Operation Blue, and the Battle of Midway would break out between the United States and Japan.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't Operation Blue itself but the 'Battle of Stalingrad,' though since that was part of the operation, I let it slide.
The same went for the North African front. The Battle of El Alamein would take place, flipping the situation in North Africa.
It's strange how it's all concentrated in mid-to-late 1942.
The battles that turned the tide were all clustered in 1942, yet the war didn't end until 1945.
It goes to show the sheer resilience of Nazi Germany and Japan—even a dying dragon is still a dragon, I suppose.
Of course, Japan simply held on until the very end before surrendering immediately after being hit by two nukes.
And the gas chambers are operational now.
The Holocaust began in earnest after the Wannsee Conference. I had been focused on the battles until now, but those infamous gas chambers were already in use.
I planned to reveal that content bit by bit in the next volume. The sight of people being dragged to concentration camps, and the fact that they were never seen again afterward.
People in this world probably assumed they were just being worked to death as slaves for the rest of their lives.
A normal person's mind would naturally lean toward that conclusion.
A fate of being worked like a dog and then discarded to die like one. While prisoners were occasionally shot or brutally tortured, this was in the realm of systematic massacre.
They would never imagine that people were being led into 'gas chambers' to be killed like vermin rather than livestock.
Furthermore, the people of this world were somewhat familiar with the concept of 'gas.'
There were environments where poison spread widely through the air—a truly fantasy-like setting.
Because of this, people would truly feel how horrific a gas chamber was. The agony of internal organs burning away the more one tried to breathe.
By the way, that man North has been quiet lately, hasn't he?
North, who had been hailed as a new prophet(?), hadn't been stirring up any trouble recently. Word was that he had been paralyzed with fear after reading about the Wannsee Conference.
From my perspective, it was a bit of a shame. I had high expectations for North because he was the one person getting closest to the truth.
The things everyone else dismissed as nonsense were actually the correct answers. There was nothing more entertaining than that.
Let's see. I've decided to return to the Academy after the wedding, so what's left is...
Life was busy in many ways.
*
The world is wide, and fools are many. It’s a phrase often used negatively.
However, 'fool' isn't always a term of derision. Sometimes, it was a word used to describe a genius with a mad idea.
Eins was one such person. A great figure who, inspired by the Xenon Biography, invented the mana engine and, eventually, the tank.
Even he was called a fool by those around him at first. His friends had even told him to stop wasting time and just go mine some ore.
Like this, geniuses branded as fools often vanished without ever seeing the light of their era. Even if their ideas were truly extraordinary.
[BOOM!]
A tank, boasting a heavy presence just by its appearance, spat fire. The shell, fired at high velocity, soon struck its target with precision.
Seeing this, one might think they were testing a tank in Machina, but something was off.
The form wasn't quite sharp; it had a slightly blurred, hazy quality. Its appearance was also different from the Ogre No. 1 Tank invented in Machina.
It bore a striking resemblance to the T-34, the main battle tank of the Soviet army. It looked as if it were being projected as a hologram.
"It worked! It worked! We succeeded!"
"We need to refine the sound and the image a bit more, but...! This is enough!"
A beautiful man and woman cheered as they watched the fire-spitting tank.
They looked like inventors rejoicing over the invention of the century.
In fact, they looked quite disheveled, as if they hadn't washed in days, and their faces were etched with fatigue.
But as they faced their 'success,' their eyes shone more brilliantly than any jewel.
"Let's go show the Queen quickly! I'm sure Her Majesty will love this!"
"Let's wash up first. It would be rude to go looking like this."
"Right."
Despite their disheveled state, the two possessed striking beauty. And they shared another common feature.
"I wonder if we'll need the Dwarves' help? Even though we were the ones who directly infused the magic into the cards..."
"Couldn't we just use those things called 'factories'?"
They both had long, pointed ears.