Wizard: I Can Refine Everything-Chapter 539 - 3: Conquer the Entire World with the Power of One

Chapter 539: Chapter 3: Conquer the Entire World with the Power of One

Upon hearing this request, the first word that flashed through Richard’s mind was "impossible."

To have eighty percent of the intelligent life in the whole world hear about one thing was already very difficult, but now he was also expected to shock these people with it.

How could this be possible?

But soon, Richard realized there was a huge loophole.

"No, wouldn’t that mean I’d be spreading a lie? Anyway, as long as it shocks those people, that should do the trick," he mused.

Ulysses gave a slight smile and replied, "My friend, you indeed found the loophole in this ritual. But have you ever considered that if you could spread a falsehood far enough to twist a world’s collective consciousness, then the act of spreading itself becomes an incredible feat."

Richard was momentarily taken aback, then laughed at himself in self-deprecation.

Indeed, if he could change a world’s collective consciousness just by spreading word, then this act in itself would already meet the criteria.

"It seems there are no shortcuts," he said.

"The path of evolution has always been one step at a time."

Looking at the world before him, Richard’s heart suddenly filled with soaring ambition.

He was about to embark on a madcap endeavor unprecedented in the history of the Wizard World. He would complete his ascension in an Otherworld. If things went as planned, he would conquer this world single-handedly for the next few centuries.

"Ulysses, I think I’ve gone mad," Richard said, laughing loudly as he beheld the world.

Ulysses, perched on Richard’s left shoulder, responded with equal bravado, "Isn’t that just like you Wizards, restrained yet greedy, logical yet mad.

This is the foundation of your civilization’s culture, my friend."

...

In terms of invading worlds, there is a very counterintuitive fact: the bigger a world, the easier it is to infiltrate. For instance, hundreds of thousands of Black Wizards had slipped into the Wilderness Great World.

But aside from the Heavenly Mechanism Saint Sect, not a single Wild Beastman in the Wilderness Great World had noticed anything amiss.

On the other hand, in smaller worlds, since the area of the world isn’t large and the Power of World Origin is mostly concentrated with one or two World Masters, even the slightest disturbance to the World Barrier can be detected by them.

That’s why Wizards invading medium-sized worlds and smaller must enter the world first and then gather intelligence from within.

Of course, there’s also the element of pride among the Great Wizards.

For dealing with worlds below medium-sized, gathering intelligence in advance is essentially considered a waste of time. The Great Wizards are confident they can simply steamroll over native World Masters.

Regardless, while the World Barrier is indeed formidable, there are ways to bypass it and enter another world. Apart from the risky method of disguising oneself as a Star Realm Meteorite and slowly moving through the World Barrier,

infiltrating via a traitor is also a viable method.

After pinpointing the world, Ulysses threw a Demon Contract through the veil. Although the World Barrier existed within the veil too, a Demon Contract is not a living being, so the World Barrier would not obstruct it.

After throwing the contract, Richard and Ulysses began to wait.

Essentially, a Demon Contract is bait for fishing – but for the fish to bite, it has to take the hook on its own.

...

In Bruno City’s Thirteenth District, Ben dragged his exhausted body onto the road home after a busy day.

Bruno City was an industrial city filled with non-stop mechanical noise, sporadically exploding steam pipes, and chimneys reaching to the skies, continuously belching thick smoke—the main tones of this city’s foundation.

Pedaling on his old bike, which was nearly falling apart, Ben pondered what to eat tonight while calculating how many more years he’d have to toil in this damned place to afford an apartment in the suburbs.

After crunching the numbers, Ben came to a ridiculous conclusion. At his current savings rate, he’d need only a hundred and twenty years to buy that apartment.

That is, assuming apartment prices don’t go up.

"I really am stubborn, why stick around here?" Ben laughed at himself. "Back in my hometown, building a house would only take ten years, and finding a woman just five.

The air back home is even better than in this hellish place where you could live on air alone."

Yet even as he cursed himself, the thought inside Ben’s heart remained unchanged.

His parents had spent their life savings so he could attend the National Mechanical College, hoping he would lift himself from their small place and make something of himself.

It took him twelve years to leave that small town. To return now, tail between his legs?

Not a chance!

Soon, Ben arrived at his small home in the Thirteenth District.

It was a tiny house shared by four, which he and three other Mechanics from different factories rented together - a mere sixty square meters.

As a Mechanic, Ben’s salary was enough for a relatively comfortable dwelling, instead of living like the laborers at the factory whose quarters were worse than pigsties.

He had once seen the workers’ communal dorms: fifty people living in a room the size of a classroom, with air so foul it made the factory’s atmosphere seem fresh by comparison.

Honestly, even though these slave laborers have undergone simple biological modifications by the Green Forest Group, the conditions were appalling.

Sometimes Ben even felt that those laborers were no longer of the same race as him, just as he was different from those noble and graceful nobles.

The inside of the house was partitioned with wooden boards to ensure that every mechanic had their own independent space. Ben’s room was the smallest because his room had a window.

Returning to his room, Ben lit an oil lamp and then collapsed onto his bed.

The mechanics at the factory operated in two shifts, and the twelve-hour workday nearly drained Ben of all his energy. But soon Ben mustered up some spirit and went to the washroom to freshen up.

Then, from under his pillow, he pulled out a book titled "Intermediate Mechanics: Pistons and Pumps."

To become a mechanic, empty talk wasn’t enough; one had to pass the kingdom’s mechanics examination to obtain a mechanic’s certification before they could start working as a mechanic.

The certificate had four levels: from low to high they were low, intermediate, high, and special level. Special level was the limit for a mechanic, and beyond that was the domain of the mechanical scholar, which was a different system altogether.

Looking at the dictionary-thick book before him, Ben comforted himself, "Studying mechanics is still better than those studying biology. The stuff those transformation doctors have to learn stacks up twice as high as them."

After reading in bed for an hour, Ben’s eyelids were fighting to stay open, and he set the book aside.

Struggling to wind the alarm clock before he closed his eyes, Ben immediately fell into a deep sleep. However, his dreams tonight were odd; he did not dream of his deceased parents, he did not dream of the wildflowers of his hometown, nor did he dream of becoming a special-grade mechanic and buying an apartment in the Garden City.

Tonight, he dreamed of a strange creature, a being cloaked in black robes who stood nearly twice his height. The creature was handsome, with full and healthy skin, but it looked utterly devoid of green, as if suffering from albinism.

The strange creature handed him a piece of paper, telling him that this paper could change his fate.

How laughable, the thing that could change his fate was resting right next to his pillow.

Ding, ding, ding...

The noisy alarm clock woke Ben from his sleep, and having dreamt all night, Ben felt his head was splitting with pain.

"Damn, what a strange dream."

Rubbing his eyes, Ben threw back the covers, ready to wash up and head to the factory. But as he moved his arm, he suddenly realized he was gripping something tightly in his hand.

Ben rubbed his eyes again, sure he wasn’t mistaken.

It was an incredibly ornate leather-bound scroll; the scroll’s edges were filled with golden patterns.

"Is this... the scroll from the dream?"

Ben felt he should panic, given that something from his dream appeared in reality, but he turned his head and stuffed the scroll under his pillow before rushing into his clothes and into the washroom.

The possibility of being late and having his wages docked for a day terrified him more than dream objects materializing into reality.

The work of a mechanic was relatively safe compared to that of a laborer. But this safety was relative; after all, mechanics dealt with faulty machinery all day long. Any part that broke off from those giant-beast-like machines could puncture the body of a mechanic. If a steam pipe burst, the high-pressure steam could cook a mechanic to perfection within thirty seconds.

But what job in this world wasn’t dangerous? Ben consoled himself in this way.

Repair machines, inspect pipes, then drag his weary body back home, day after day, year after year.

With the passage of time, Ben gradually grew from a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old into a sturdy twenty-year-old. And just a month ago, he had successfully passed the intermediate mechanic exam,

Becoming an intermediate mechanic meant he could ask for a raise from the factory owner; regardless of the outcome, it was still something to be happy about.

But all of that vanished into nothingness with the sound of a pipe bursting.

"Eighty percent of the body’s skin is scalded, and the estimated treatment cost is ten thousand."

"Ten thousand? He isn’t worth ten thousand if you sold him!"

Amidst the safety supervisor’s roars, Ben’s heart sank to the depths.

Ten thousand dollars, and his hourly wage was merely three dollars. Ten thousand dollars meant he would have to work nonstop for more than half a year, even if he didn’t eat or drink.

But he couldn’t possibly stop eating or drinking; he had to pay rent, water bills, and all those miscellaneous taxes. Just taking the intermediate mechanic exam had drained half his savings, and now he could barely scrape together a thousand dollars.

Even though he was a mechanic with health insurance paid by the factory, the insurance payout was capped at two thousand dollars. And those bone-crushing insurance investigators would go out of their way to ensure you didn’t receive the maximum amount.

As for the factory... the factory was even less likely to pay.

Mechanics weren’t in short supply in Bruno City, even if he was an intermediate mechanic.

Soon enough, Ben was carried back home by the factory workers, which was the only thing the factory would do. Looking at the gloomy sky outside the window, a sudden rage began to boil within him.

Why had fate treated him so cruelly! What had he done wrong?

But quickly, that rage turned into overwhelming tears streaming from his eyes.

His life was over.

In a state of despair and crying, Ben drifted back into sleep. This time, he encountered that strange man again.

The man calmly said, "Ben, sign this, and your fate will change."

Ben, clenching his teeth, left his name on the patterned contract.

In the material world, Ben’s pillow concealed a leather contract that suddenly bore two new names.

One name was Ben Victor, and the other was Richard.