9 City of Everlight [4]

If a place like this existed, why a part of humanity was left outside? This was the question Lucian asked himself after they were heading to the white tower.

He finally understood why Rita and her friends appeared to be lacking common sense and were easily tricked by Dustin. And also why the outside world was so far behind compared to the advancement of civilization and technology here.

It was simple. The people who founded this city were monopolizing knowledge, information, and power to control the rest of humanity.

These villages were left outside for a reason. However, hunters were also deployed to subjugate the monsters and barrier technology was provided to them for free for a precise goal. Although they didn't have anything to complain about since they couldn't see the bigger picture.

It didn't take Lucian long to understand all of this when he first arrived on the continent, and he was now sure of it after seeing the city with his eyes.

As such, it wouldn't be strange for this only this city to be this advanced.

However, it wasn't as if the founders were completely evil. Normally, if all of these resources and this technology were to be misused, this city would never exist and humans would go to war among themselves instead, destroying themselves in the process.

However, because of their luck and also their outstanding ability, this group of people—it was also probable that it was a single individual—managed to control the most talented humans while gathering all of the most precious resources to build this city.

Instead of sharing the resources and the technology equally with all humans, they used it to pull the human humans to the top even if it meant that some people were left behind.

Their goal was to focus everything the humans had to offer in a single point, mostly around the power of a single person or a group of people, to surpass the threat of monsters and create an absolute power.

From that single point, they began to expand their power, slowly exterminating monsters, until they finally conquered the whole continent.

How many years did it take for this city to be built? How many people had died before all of these gigantic mutated monsters were completely subjugated from the continent? If they didn't do that, would humanity have survived?

'Renaissance, huh...' Lucian understood that there was a positive and negative side to all of this, but if he only focused on the result, it was better than being crushed by these monsters.

They eliminated the possibility of a human being divided by eliminating those who didn't agree with them, all but necessary sacrifice, logically speaking.

As for maintaining the current balance of this world, the key elements were the adventurers and hunters.

All of the monster's cores gathered by the hunters went here, creating a job for people while keeping control over them.

The same with the adventurers who venture inside the abyss. One can become a free adventurer but since a person could only use one relic, there will be no use in risking one's life by going inside the Abyss to find more relics.

As such, the adventurers' guild bought anything that an adventurer found inside the Abyss, or exchanged their services with some privileges, like being able to live inside the city.

The one who controlled them also controlled the world.

"L-ucian…" Interrupting his thoughts, a small voice called out Lucian's name. He looked down, and in front of him, he saw Rita. "S-sorry…"

The inside of the automated vehicle was cramped, and Lucian and Rita were close to each other, in fact, she was pressed against his chest.

A lot of people were trying to go to the city in the hope to change their lives, so this number of people wasn't surprising, Lucian thought.

He didn't mind Rita in the least. She was adorable, and he didn't want another filthy human to touch her now that he had decided to watch over her. Still, he didn't intend to tell her all of that. He also didn't plan to discuss his goal with her.

He knew that Rita would probably accept anything he said the way she was now, but she wouldn't develop as a person and would never become a superior human if he told her everything she had to do, instead of letting her develop her ability to think and use her imagination.

"Welcome to Everlight. You are now at very the heart of the human race."

"Look, it's a huge moving statute." The door of the automated vehicle opened and all of the passengers disembarked. As soon as they did, they began to look around in awe.

The giant figure of a woman stood at the center of the place. Lucian looked at it and examined it.

From the look of it, the crystal below it produced tiny lights that were conceived to move in unison along with the voice produced by another artifact and create this figure of a woman speaking.

Most of the people who came there for the first time didn't understand what they were seeing and began to prostrate as if they saw a God.

Looking around the city, Rita was overwhelmed. She didn't know what to do next. She Was about to ask Lucian, but then she remembered what he said. As such, she began to observe.

There were a lot of people walking on the street. There were tall buildings of strange shapes, but they looked beautiful. There were green and beautiful plants here and there.

People were chatting happily in front of their automated vehicles. Some of them were entering and exiting buildings that had the letter shop marked at the entrance.

And even though they were all shops, Rita thought, the buildings were all different from each other.

Then she looked up and saw a blue sky and clouds even though they were inside a tower. There were also a lot of automated vehicles moving on top of the transparent bridges above.

Everything was so foreign, so incomprehensible. Rita didn't know what she should be doing next.

"Ah, money…" Rita muttered. Even if she walked around the city she didn't know what to do because she had no money. Her friends had saved a little money but they were gone alongside them.

But that was already good progress, Lucian thought. "Now think. Where can you obtain money?"

"…" Rita thought seriously but she couldn't come up with an answer.

"When you don't know the answer. Then it's probably related to luck. In every situation, you need to prepare ahead of time by observing, thinking, and learning, but you also need luck. If you have the power of a relic, for example, you will be able to earn money ahead of time by gathering monster cores. And if you prepared money ahead of time by working, you wouldn't have any problem in this situation." Lucian said, not giving her the answer but helping her to think. "But it all depended on luck whether you find a relic or have a life where you can work. Now think, if you aren't lucky like you are now, what do you do?"

"I…" Rita thought about it for a few minutes but she still didn't know how she could possibly make money.

As Lucian expected, she was too good-natured so she didn't even consider the easy options.

"You create situations where you are lucky," Lucian continued, knowing what Rita was thinking. "Look at me and think. How can you deal with this situation?"

"I-I know… L-Lucian, please lend me some money…" She said in a meek voice, and she wanted to hide her face. However, she didn't avert her eyes away and looked at Lucian.

"Do you see the difference?" Lucian replied, acknowledging her improvement. "You didn't blindly rely on me from the beginning, which is good. First, you thought about the best solution by observing. You observed me and knew what I can do. Indeed, meeting me was part of your luck," he explained.

"That said, you still ended up relying on me, and I won't help you."

"I understand…" Rita answered, a little bit dejected.

For some reason, Lucian ended up talking a lot more than he intended to. He just hoped that Rita understood.

"The ability to think is your greatest weapon. There's nothing you can't do. You are just restrained because you are too weak or didn't think long enough to realize the existence of the best solution. Then again, if you think they are too weak, then continue to think. Why are you weak? What do you lack?"

Then, he took the short chain from his bag, along with a pouch filled with rectangular metallic objects of different colors, silver, gold, and black, the money used in this world.

"Now, before going inside the Abyss, think about everything you lack and try to come up with a way to improve your chance of survival."

"Eh?" Rita was taken aback, seeing Lucian talking that much, and seeing that Lucian was walking away.

"This short chain will let me know your position. I will meet you again in two days and we will go together to the guild," Lucian said, walking away and leaving Rita alone.

The short chain was his relic and connected to him, so he could sense its presence. He liked this particular relic because it was robust and could extend a couple of meters if needed. And of course, he had already pushed it to the limit to test its durability, but it was almost impossible to break it.

He had also remembered the map of the entire city, so he knew exactly where Rita was at any given time.

Rita was still pretty confused but Lucian didn't back look back.

He wanted her to understand that nothing was impossible for a human as long as they used their imagination in the right way.

There was a reason why humans were the only creatures capable of thinking on Earth, and in this universe.