Chapter 23: On Deterrence

As a normal person, Rama initially had superficial pursuits in mechanics and alchemy.

In the future he envisioned, mechanics meant large-scale war armors and aerial fortresses, while alchemy meant gene serums that could infinitely enhance the human body.

Of course, as his knowledge deepened, he gradually realized that his pursuit of these two disciplines was too one-dimensional—though this did not prevent him from still loving these things.

However, as his knowledge expanded, it indeed ignited other branches of thought.

These two fields have the same effect in the foundation of civilization: to form combat power with the smallest cost and the most people.

Obviously, at the early stages of civilization, population is an indispensable part of both war and development.

War is a realistic thing; it requires you to pay a price to achieve victory.

And in basic hunting and fighting, numbers have always been the correct answer. Usually, when there's a large disparity in the number of soldiers, the outcome of victory is almost determined.

Winning with fewer numbers is, after all, rare.

And development—we usually call it labor force—is also a simple answer to why population is pursued.

War and development run through the entire route of civilization's progress, which is why population is so important.

But as the technological tree advances, the inevitable need for population gradually decreases.

There is still pursuit, but not the mandatory attitude of early development stages.

The greatest value of weapon development is to reduce the output cost of a soldier, and the beginning of alchemy is actually medicine. Physicians may be benevolent, but the purpose of medical skills is to allow more ordinary people to survive and continue creating value, giving more soldiers a chance to return to the battlefield.

Besides that, the advancement of the technological tree naturally brings about a revolution in productivity, allowing more resources to be produced with less labor.

From a developmental trend perspective, the pursuit of population clearly decreases with the level of development.

Of course, civilization is ultimately a human civilization, and no matter how much it decreases, it will not be reduced to nothing.

However, the development of the era will gradually devalue the significance of individual worth, unless it is a rare genius. Most people, in terms of the collective, become insignificant.

They can be there, but losing them is not an unbearable loss.

Strictly speaking, Teyvat actually belongs to the latter category.

Teyvat's civilization does not belong to humans; it belongs to the gods, and the gods have little need for humans.

The storyline only shows that the gods, led by the Seven Archons, inexplicably care for humans.

But why do they love humans? This is not explained.

"If I could become a god, the tribe would lose its value to me."

"I could solo the Sumeru Akademiya's dungeon and make the desert a kingdom of Sumeru."

"But no, individual strength in its early stages is clearly not as practical as developing technology."

Rama shook his head.

Klee once permanently altered the landscape of Windrise with bombs—not to belittle swordsmanship or elemental power—if Jean were to do the same thing, she probably wouldn't have any chance.

Jean is already a genius among mortals, and it's hard to say if there are many with better talent than her.

But the destructive power of the two is so intuitively different, almost worlds apart.

In Genshin Impact, using elemental power to fight, taking even one step forward is very difficult.

Rama faced the same choice. His time was limited, and his pursuit of individual power naturally led him to spend most of his time honing elemental power rather than climbing the technological tree.

Clearly, the current return on this investment was not high enough.

Investing time in researching the technological tree during this period was obviously more effective than simply pursuing power.

"However, investments aren't calculated like this," Rama didn't regret it. "Elemental studies bring not only power but also research on elemental energy."

"Teyvat's technological tree, either like the Scarlet King and Khaenri'ah, follows a special tech line, or it must rely on elements as energy."

Energy innovations will affect the growth direction of the technological tree, and the core energy of Teyvat is obviously elemental power.

While waiting for the opponents to react, Rama thought a lot. These thoughts didn't waste much time; once the watchtower was taken down, they quickly responded.

The warriors and elders of these tribes clearly had some combat proficiency. Though they were deterred by unknown means, they quickly responded.

However, this quick counterattack brought them no benefits.

Rama looked up at the sky.

Small arrayed flying devices hovered high above, capturing the entire view below.

Their observed view was projected in front of Rama, making the tactics of these desert dwellers almost transparently clear.

Lure the enemy ahead, while some elite warriors with spirit weapons took another small path to flank them.

"Tactics... I've heard those phrases for a long time." Rama murmured, "But with the rise of technology, how many tactics can still play a role?"

The flying devices displayed all the movements of the opponents to Rama. He knew better than the command-giving elders when the tribe's warriors could arrive at certain locations.

"Before using technological means to achieve ultimate victory, let's thoroughly brush up on elemental proficiency."

Rama's face was filled with anticipation.

He had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

Rama's original plan was to be a master swordsman, honing all the skills he wanted, then sweeping through.

Anyway, the future situation in the desert wouldn't be too bad. As long as he avoided Lumine, the Tanit tribe wouldn't have any problems.

But when skills reached a certain limit, although the upper limit of experience points remained unchanged, the difficulty of obtaining experience points increased continuously.

At this stage, he could no longer gain significant experience by repeatedly performing skilled tasks.

He needed better and more materials to experiment repeatedly and build technology, which required wealth and power.

He also needed to stir up wars to rapidly increase elemental proficiency, thereby gaining greater power more quickly.

Plans couldn't keep up with changes, so he had to come out and do something.

It didn't matter which tribe it was. In the theory of killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, the former is just a means, while the latter is the true answer.

Who bears the brunt of the battle is irrelevant, because Rama intended to deter not them, but the Tanit tribe and everyone who would pay attention to this conflict.

Nearly a hundred large iron-clad robots emerged from beneath the desert sands. They clustered silently behind Rama.

These were almost the crudest creations, showing almost no mechanical beauty. Out of nearly a hundred, not many had similar appearances.

Rama used whatever materials he could find without demanding uniformity.

(End of this chapter)