Chapter 218 — The Self-Awareness a Transmigrator Ought to Have

The rotor-type magical-energy engine could be said to be one of the very first ideas Gao You had conceived after he hit upon the path of "magical industrialization," yet its realization had been dragged out until today—because the difficulties and complexity of this system far surpassed any magical device conceived thus far. A rotor magical-energy engine required no fewer than eight sets, and as many as a dozen or even several dozen sets, of neatly arrayed repulsion arrays operating in unison before it could start; and with so many repulsion arrays linked together, the magical interference produced was nothing short of a disaster. To solve the interference problem therein, even with the mathematical calculations of runic logic, proved exceptionally arduous.

But Jenny had solved this problem nonetheless—and had even proposed a further optimization scheme for the original rotor engine.

Gao Yang gazed for a long while at the blueprints on the desk and the documents beside them. His expression must have been too grave, for even Amber, who had followed him into the study to watch the fun, was startled. She stared at Gao Cen in astonishment: "What's wrong? Is there a problem with the blueprints? Did Jenny make a mistake in her calculations?"

Gao Yang lifted his head and said, apropos of nothing: "I am no genius."

"Huh?" Amber was struck dumb by this muddled remark. The next second she decided it was Gao You teasing her. "You're doing this on purpose to needle me, aren't you? If a monster-class fellow like you isn't a genius, are ordinary people even allowed to live? Of course, I don't count myself among the 'ordinary people'—I'm a genius, I'm the Chosen of the Goddess of Night, you know..."

"I was merely speaking from the heart." Gao Yang paid no mind to the latter half of Amber's words, but said this with a half-smile, turning to look out the floor-to-ceiling window at the lights gradually kindling across the territory as night fell.

He was no genius.

Nor was he the center of the world.

He could not conjure a magical-industrial age out of thin air, nor could he alone drag this world onward toward some sea of stars.

Gao Yang had possessed this awareness from the very beginning, and today he understood it all the more profoundly.

He knew that compared with ordinary people he counted as a special individual, and he could frankly admit that he meant to do great things, that he harbored the ambition to influence the transformations of this age—but he knew even better that even if the age changed, it was not something he alone could pull along.

Reviewing carefully all that had happened along his path, Gao Yang judged his own position ever more clearly, and recognized ever more clearly what talent and wisdom the locals of this world possessed.

The magic net came from a down-and-out yet gifted wild mage; the Rebecca Crystal and the runic trigger came from a noble girl with a wondrous turn of mind; runic logic was a great law distilled by three generations of researchers over decades; the first magical-energy engine was hammered out bit by bit by the craftsmen and technicians of the territory; and the mass-production technique for alchemical potions—and ultimately the machine designs and the completion of the factory—were the fruit of months of labor by the druid Pi Yun and the apprentices he led, together with the hundreds of workers, technicians, and craftsmen of the territory.

Just moments ago, Padrick Bohn of the Kant territory had, in barely an hour, grasped the concepts of regional agency, production-supply-marketing chains, and market feedback, and had, in accordance with the actual conditions of this age, put forward a proposal for tiered sales of goods.

And now, Jenny Perot had completed the final calculations for the rotor-type magical-energy engine, and—before Gao Yang had even thought of it—had designed an effective speed-regulation scheme for the engine.

Gao Yang lowered his head, looking at the Cecil territory, which even after nightfall remained full of vitality and vigor.

This was a dark and backward age, but that did not mean a transmigrator became the center of the world. In this age, in this world, wise people were hidden everywhere; even those nobles who seemed so benighted and backward maintained their ruling position through wisdom and strength. Gao Yang felt that if he wished to accomplish something in this world, then the first thing he must do was probably not to forget to hold this world in awe.

To value the systems of this world itself, to recognize the locals' own wisdom, and on that premise to reasonably seize what was his due—this was the way of survival and development.

A smile on his face, Gao Yang turned to look at Amber, who was curiously studying the blueprints on the desk (though she seemingly could not understand a thing): "Tell me—if everyone in this land is a person of talent, then what exactly am I doing here?"

"What's with you? Suddenly talking all mysteriously," Amber blinked. "Isn't that nonsense? You're the lord—without you, what would the rest of us be gathered here for? We'd have split the luggage and gone our separate ways long ago... Say, you're not really planning to announce the disbanding of the gang, are you..."

Gao Yang glared at the half-elf: "Could you stop misusing the words I taught you? It's a team, not a gang!"

"...Anyway, it's about the same meaning. Put the two words together and only the last two letters differ..."

Gao Yang looked at this thief lady helplessly, yet the corners of his mouth still carried a smile.

That was right—the magic net was invented by a wild mage, the alchemical reaction device by Pi Yun, the blasting crystal and the runic trigger by Rebecca... Many things in the territory were not created by him, Gao Song, or at least not solely by him. But his greatest value here was not to personally create these things, but to lead these variously gifted people to bring out the intelligence they already possessed.

He did not surpass the locals in wisdom, but he surpassed them in vision and approach—with the knowledge of his past life, the knowledge of Gao Yang Cecil, and the will and experience of an Observer of Antiquity. He could create nothing, but he knew what this land needed.

He knew which way the road went, and that was his role and his reason for being here. In the grand sense, he could plan the future order and social structure of the territory; in the small sense, he could describe a machine for some specific need along a technical route, and then let the territory's technicians find a way to realize it.

Gao Yang suddenly laughed happily. He felt that whatever cheats he might have, at least one thing was certain:

He was this world's cheat—or at least the Cecil territory's cheat.

Oh, and one must not forget that gentleman (or lady), Mr. Nicolas Egg, who had recently recovered from a cold and was these days in the Mechanical Research Institute pondering how to build the next generation of large stamping machines.

But the rippling thoughts in Gao Yang's heart could not reach the convoluted labyrinth of Amber's skull. This thief lady saw only that Gao You, deep and solemn as he was, had suddenly burst out laughing, and at once felt every hair on her body stand on end. She was on the point of dashing out to warn Hedy and Rebecca that their family's great-grandfather might be overdue for corpse reanimation, when no sooner had the thought crossed her mind than she saw the old sticky rice dumpling before her nod at her: "Amber, tomorrow you will go to Tanzan Town as my envoy and deliver my personal letter to Viscount Andrew."

"Making me travel so far in the dead of winter..." Amber grumbled. "What am I going there for?"

"I want to invite that viscount to be a guest in the territory, and let this great mine owner see how the people of the Cecil territory dig their mines."