The Anti-Intellectualism Demon King’s World Invasion

Chapter 44. Bread and Fame 2

While my clone was diligently consulting the other world, I had to watch Mihun touring my world in real-time.

Real-time means that one second in this world is equivalent to one second in my perceived time.

For someone like me, who focuses on playing by compressing and accelerating hundreds of years of time to evolve creatures, it’s really boring, but this guy insists on watching it with that sense of time.

“Do you do it like this in your world too?”

“Of course. The main event doesn’t have subordinates.”

“······Wait a moment. So, the protection period lasts for tens or hundreds of years, and you’re spending all that time in real-time?”

“The sense of time for mortals and immortals is different······. You might consider it ‘boring’ or ‘painful,’ but watching over the lives of everyone living in the world is the duty and joy of those called immortals.”

Isn’t he crazy? This guy.

So, between collisions, he’s managing the world alone in real-time for hundreds of years?

Well, it might be more efficient for world development, but while Sesaisa and I don’t have subordinates, we use mythical traits to create clones and avatars, and he solves it in such a brute-force way.

After watching him wander around my world for a long time, his main body sent some information to his clone.

“Oh ho. Oh ho······. Oh ho! I see. Your understanding is this high. Then, there’s no need to look around any further. I will go to the place where you are having trouble and teach you the key points.”

In an instant, we teleported, and we were both at an open-pit mine.

The open-pit mine was overflowing with creams, and the breads were just gobbling them up, lying around, occasionally scratching the ground.

“You explained to me the principle of producing elixirs without harming the earth’s energy, so I will also explain the principle step by step and elevate your creations to a higher level.”

“As you wish.”

Mihun pointed to my scattered breads with a fan.

“First, let me ask, is your problem that the [breads] there do not have life and are just continuing meaningless lives?”

“Yes. I want them to be somewhat helpful to my world or at least attack the opposing world. And while doing so, keep their intelligence low.”

Mihun responded immediately.

“Of course, it should be that way. Raising their intelligence would be useless in this situation.

Intelligence is about making rational decisions. What rational decisions could those [breads] make even if they gained intelligence?

At best, they would think, ‘Let’s conserve more energy.’ ‘Instead of reproducing, let’s save as much as possible.'”

That’s true.

“Those are just living mechanical devices, corpses that are merely alive. To solve the problem, you need to imbue them with desire.”

“I’ve already tried reducing the supply of cream or shrinking their territory to induce competition. They just became more frugal.”

Then Mihun clicked his tongue and scolded me.

“Tsk tsk. That’s not desire; it’s instinct. Living by instinct, they naturally become lazy. All living beings are like that.”

“?”

Mihun continued his explanation.

“Suddenly, but you. What do you think 〈charm〉 and 〈culture〉 are? Why do they elevate the level of creatures?”

When asked like that, I just thought they had such functions because they were game stats, without much thought.

But is there a significant reason?

“Many people think 〈charm〉 is something that ’emanates,’ but in fact, it’s different. 〈Charm〉 actually ‘converges.'”

“Like how we use the expression ‘gaze,’ but in reality, the eyes don’t emit light to see objects; they absorb the reflected light?”

“That’s an interesting analogy. Indeed. For ‘charm’ to exist, the presence of others is essential. In other words, ‘charm’ is the power to draw the flow of others towards oneself.”

I see. So?

“Then, how do you elevate that ‘charm’?”

“Culture.”

“Correct. Then what is ‘culture’? The essence of ‘culture’ is life (命). Life means ‘meaning’. It can be anything. The meaning it pursues. The meaning it had to be born. And the meaning that ultimately defines it.

Even in simple music, there is the meaning of wanting to please the listener, the meaning of the performer, and the meaning of the music itself. All of that is life (命).

Without such life (命), it is merely existence (生). Just a corpse that is merely alive. Cultivation (修仙) is about defying the life (命) given to oneself, thus being rejected by the principles of the world…

“Ah, no, that’s not important. So how do you give life to my bread?”

: : Wrong : :

I couldn’t help but be bewildered by the shout that seemed to shake the very divinity that constituted my current consciousness.

What? What did you do?

The angel of Mihun, who had been quietly watching the two of us, hurriedly approached and chattered.

“Oh no, Mihun…! Please don’t imbue your words with power just for a conversation…!”

“The question itself is pathetic, so I couldn’t help it. Listen, Biin. Your question shouldn’t be ‘how’ to give life (命).

In the first place, engraving life onto a mere creature is an easy task. You are already a quasi-immortal. Just use your power to appropriately give life. But we are not talking about that level of discussion, are we?”

With a snap of his fan, Mihun poured his logic onto me.

“The important thing is ‘what kind’ of life you give. Originally, life (命) is irrational, ‘culture’ is also extremely inefficient, and ‘charm’ is also irrational. But for some reason, life is drawn to such madness. Because life inherently seeks meaning.

So, let’s say you give those things the life of a killing machine that destroys the enemy’s world. Let’s say they start to enjoy slaughter and that becomes their life’s purpose.

How long would that last? Their essence is just to eat the food you made and roll around on the floor. It won’t last long. Because it’s too different from their essence.”

You have to do what matches the essence.

Somehow, I felt that the transcendent player Mihun was not talking to the surplus bread of my ecosystem, but to me, Biin.

What do I really want to do?

From noble mtl dot com

While researching the anti-intellectualism build, I actually knew. That this is not the best build in the world. That there are more normal and efficient builds.

But why did I cling to it? Why did I invest considerable time in it among so many games?

Wasn’t it because I wanted to prove something?

“……”

The existence of humans, intelligent beings, civilization, is actually unnecessary in this world, that the world would run perfectly fine without them.

The development and success of civilization are just the results of countless coincidences, not because it is particularly superior.

In other words, proving that humans are wrong. If I lose, it just means I was wrong.

My eyes opened wide.

I wondered if I had inadvertently forgotten the essence for the sake of victory in the game.

In other words, had I treated my ecosystem like a human attempting to breed favorable traits?

The ferocious monsters in my ecosystem were not raised through such artificial breeding.

I never intended to create such monsters in the first place.

The most terrifying and powerful monsters in my ecosystem evolved to be ferocious because it was advantageous for survival. I merely facilitated that direction, a direction of evolution that is extremely ‘natural.’

However, even the most ferocious Bisyakits understand ‘culture.’ They know courtship, build beautiful homes, and know how to show off.

Even my ultimate weapon, Yog-Tosos, developed a desire to dominate and rule others, becoming arrogant instead of merely following my orders.

When I first played the game, I hated humans and wanted to prove that humans were wrong, or perhaps to prove that I was wrong. I tried to win by eliminating all civilizations without accepting the opponent’s surrender, even though I knew it was inefficient. I seem to have forgotten that part of myself for a moment.

So, what I need to do is not to modify that bread to suit my taste.

Rather…

“I found a way.”

“Oh. Really?”

“I understand the direction, but I don’t know if I can realize it. Can you help?”

“Of course. The principles of ordinary construction methods are well understood, and the only thing lacking is the principles of pre-construction. What difficulty could there be in an event of your level?”

I explained my idea. Mihun pointed out whether it would work or not, properly guiding the direction I was heading, thus paying for my consulting his ecosystem.

“Good. I’ve told you all the necessary formulas, so go ahead.”

First, I focused on a Yanggang that was drinking nectar from the Nectar Lake.

It was a Yanggang that had been promoted to a heroic entity, as mentioned by an angel long ago.

With an immensely powerful body, strong and efficient organs, splendid decorations, and immense syrup flowing within, it possessed formidable combat power, immune system, fighting spirit, high intelligence, mental strength, and overwhelming charm. It was also the only entity with the genes of [Candy].

I used this creature as the material.

I gave it a revelation to follow the syrup river from the Nectar Lake to the open-pit mine.

Following the flow and the revelation given to it, driven by its own instincts, it crawled all the way to the open-pit mine.

“Clack clack clack…”

It approached the [bread] that was lying around eating cream in the open-pit mine. Was it for a meal? Or a battle?

Neither. It instinctively tried to exchange genes with them and produce offspring.

The bread was bewildered… not knowing why this was happening to them.

However, since their bodies were genetically close to jelly-like creatures, mating and further processes were easily carried out. The Yanggang devoured the bread, raped them, and gradually grew larger, intertwining their bodies with its own.

“[Nameless Yanggang] can be promoted to a [Unique Epic Entity] under the influence of [Open-pit Mine] and [Creamland]. This attempt consumes a total of 16,489 points of [Life], [Industry], [Culture], [Mystery], and [Faith].”

Adopting the postponed level 6 culture trait now.

“Promotion Support: Provides 4,085 points of [Culture] that can only be used for unique entity promotion.”

And they consumed a large amount of bread and cream to make up for the lacking resources.

「[Nameless Yokan] has been promoted to an epic entity.」

The special yokan, which was a hybrid of five types of life, had the genes of bread fused into its body. Now, it could no longer be called yokan, but a new creature, a combination of jelly + pudding + gummy + candy + gel + topping + dough + milk, a cradle of genes containing all the life forms I had directly or indirectly created.

It now had a very clear and distinct sense of purpose.

‘I want to mate more.’

‘I want to have more offspring.’

‘I want to grow bigger.’

‘I want to eat more.’

‘More!’

A vulgar yet powerful desire. The strongest instinct of life. The desire to increase oneself.

Perhaps because it contained the genes of all the life forms I had created. Or maybe because it had sublimated to that level due to its powerful epic name, it greedily grew its body, devouring bread, consuming cream, and gradually becoming gigantic.

The bread, which had only increased in size, was helplessly slaughtered. It was eaten, became part of its body, or was forcibly mated with and began to produce offspring similar to it.

And it continued, soon filling the open-pit mine. A completely new species had taken over the entire open-pit mine.

‘I want more!’

It devoured all the vast cream of Creamland, ate its offspring, and consumed all the metals and minerals in the open-pit mine, yet it still seemed to feel a lack.

“It has grown as big as a hill.”

“It’s because it kept eating and attaching.”

‘More!’

It then had one thought.

I just need to put my mouth where the cream comes out.

And so, it thrust its snout into the place where the cream poured out in Creamland.

Then, it thrust a second snout into the place where the syrup river overflowed towards Creamland, and directly sucked in the vast nectar flowing from the Nectar Lake.

Furthermore, with the rest of its body, it dug into the ground, growing as if it would deplete all the veins in this open-pit mine.

「[Nameless Being] can be promoted to a 〈Legendary Unique Entity〉 under the influence of 《Open-Pit Mine》 and 《Creamland》. This attempt will consume a total of 25,004 points of 〈Life〉 〈Industry〉 〈Culture〉 〈Mystery〉 〈Faith〉.」

“I will tear off the fragments of the god residing in 《Open-Pit Mine》 and all of 《Creamland》 connected to it to make up for it.”

And then, I madly poured all my divine power, the magic flowing through the Nectar Spring and Creamland, the huge jelly mass existing in the open-pit mine, the numerous life waste in the Nectar Spring, the shells and corals, the yogurts floating in the air, the doughs not yet combined with the spirit called milk, all into this, and the fragments attached to it.

Squirm─!

“It has started to pulsate. A lowly yet magnificent life.”

Rise. Created from the lowly creatures of the ground, the mother of all things embracing the whole world. Respond to my call.

Squirm─! Squirm─! Squirm─!

You are the goddess of abundance and fertility! If Yog-Tosoth is the sky, you are the master of the earth that supports this world.

Come forth! Second Commander of the Dessert Legion!

Shuk-Rimuras, who leads a thousand baby breads! Appear now according to the command given to you!!!