Sorcerer’s Handbook

“Chosen One, huh…”

In the Audio-visual Room, after watching the documentary “Gospel” at 8x speed, Igor wrote down the term in his notebook and circled it heavily.

This documentary was shot in 1680, just eight years ago, and after setting aside the typical inclinations of such social science documentaries to ‘pander to the audience,’ ‘oversell achievements,’ and ‘ignore the costs,’ it could serve as an essential reference for Igor’s actions within the Kingdom.

The documentary revealed many points of interest, such as the company ‘Salome,’ responsible for manufacturing Gospel Items, like how each city divided into Race autonomous zones and multicultural districts, like the push for ‘multi-layered cities’ over the next thirty years to deepen urbanization, like the Gospel Kingdom’s complete free education system, where Sorcerer colleges offer free tuition, room, and board to those who pass the entrance exams, and how the number of higher learning institutions increased from 89 to 135 within a hundred years, with annual enrollment numbers climbing year by year…

From the proportion of Igor’s notes, it was clear how much he envied the educational environment of the Gospel Kingdom. He was desperate to dismiss the free education as a mere gimmick, but the documentary proved him wrong time and again, forcing Igor to admit—while he was burdened with student loans, occasionally working part-time at Mud Café, gritting his teeth to get through college, there was a whole bunch of lucky bastards enjoying a carefree rose-colored university life.

So even though Igor sped up the playback, it still took him nearly half an hour to watch the documentary—the more he watched, the more he felt like his past was nothing but a life in the Sewer, so painful that he couldn’t breathe and had to stop to catch his breath.

He was the type easily consumed by jealousy, feeling sick to his stomach with disgust at the sight of others’ happiness, so much so that whenever he saw Ashe’s optimistic, foolish grin, he felt as if his eyes were being stabbed.

But even in such a documentary, clearly made for celebration, Igor still caught a few unusual pieces of information.

Firstly, there are no Churches in the Gospel Kingdom.

While everyone knows that the Gospel is a Boon from the Omniscient Weaver, that’s about as far as it goes. No one preaches the doctrines of the Omniscient Weaver, no one erects statues in its honor, and nobody can even form an ‘Omniscient Weaver Study Group’—because all one needs to do is open the Gospel and ask, to realize that there’s no officially recognized Church.

When you think about it, it makes sense. The foundation of the Church is ‘God selects spokespersons to shepherd the world’, which simplistically means “this group owner is too lazy, so they picked a manager to help oversee the group members.” But the Omniscient Weaver isn’t lazy—provided you have Points, the Gospel representing the Omniscient Weaver is available 24/7 to listen to your drivel. How could any Church compete with that level of service?

In a sense, the Church is like a middleman profiting from the markup, whereas the Omniscient Weaver operates direct to consumer sales. There’s simply no fertile ground for the Church to exist.

Secondly, although there are no Churches, the Gospel Kingdom… does have an imperial Royal Family.

Having heard of Royal Nobles in other kingdoms during his time in the Blood Moon Kingdom, Igor shouldn’t be surprised. But the Gospel Kingdom is so advanced and prosperous that Igor finds it hard to understand why it’s still a monarchy rather than a democratic system?

Even vampires know not to be dictatorial!

However, the current ruling Yisuo Royal Family has been in power for 760 years, centralizing authority generation after generation. They have a firm grip on legislative, judicial, and executive powers. Violent armed forces like the Red Caps responsible for public security and Bluebeards for Suppressing the Abyss are led by royal appointees. All state decrees come from the imperial capital ‘Nabistin’, such as the “multi-layered city strategy” which is a new policy issued by the Royal Family. In essence, they have all military and political power in their hands.

Logically, one might expect such an autocratic state to suffer from a bloated bureaucratic interest group that makes life miserable for its citizens, eventually leading to internal collapse and dynastic change—indeed, the dynasties before the Yisuo Royal Family fell in just such a way.

But for some reason, the Yisuo Royal Family has broken this cycle. They’ve not only continued for over seven centuries, but the nation has also developed at a breakneck pace, thoroughly outperforming the democratic Blood Moon Kingdom, leading Igor to question if perhaps autocracy is the only way forward for a Sorcerer’s kingdom.

Third, while individuals in the Gospel Kingdom may have varying specific goals, their ultimate aim is the same—to ascend the Ranking List and become a Chosen One.

The term Chosen One is a recurring theme throughout the documentary.

Only Chosen Ones can pioneer new technologies, lead the times, and even attain happiness… similar to the Blood Saint Moonshadow of the Blood Moon Kingdom, Chosen Ones are the privileged class of the Gospel Kingdom.

However, unlike the Nobles supported by the Divine Master in the Blood Moon Kingdom, Chosen Ones are nobility celebrated by the common people. And the threshold to become a Chosen One is quite low; simply rank on any Ranking List, and you’re in.

Even making it into the top ten in jump rope within your region qualifies you.

But in some senses, the bar is incredibly high—if you lack sufficient Talent or effort, you won’t stand a chance. Even if you do everything right, you must consider the course of history. If your era happens to produce many geniuses, it’ll be just as tough to break into the top ten.

Unless you push even harder…

A thought strikes Igor.

He finally understands what felt so ‘familiar’ to him in the documentary.

Despite all the good, the vibrant energy, the harmonious cooperation among Races, and the thriving society, Igor doesn’t see the ‘happy smiles’ that would make him envious on any of the faces.

Every person and every statement in the film conveys the same message:

Be the best!

Be the strongest!

Outperform your peers!

Be number one in your field!

Those not on the Ranking List are holding their breath and striving hard, while those who are listed dare not relax, to maintain their edge. The whole society is like a machine with infinite gears, with everyone spontaneously accelerating in a frenzied sprint.

You don’t even have to fear losing your way; with a few Points, the Gospel is always there to guide you in the direction of your struggle.

Despite the starkly different social atmosphere from the Blood Moon Kingdom, Igor feels a profound sense of familiarity.

It’s like flies discovering a pile of dung hidden in a cake.

Intriguing, truly fascinating.

Igor decides to watch a few more documentaries to gain a comprehensive understanding of the Gospel Kingdom.

Igor left the Audio-visual Room, planning to grab some snacks and drinks to sustain a long battle with the documentaries.

As he passed by the novelty game room, Igor heard a sullen muttering from inside. Peering through the crack in the door, he spotted Lise with a large box of blocks in front of her, seemingly assembling a toy building block set.

The little Drama Queen playing with blocks?

From their interactions over the past couple of days, Igor had recognized Lise’s true nature—cute on the outside but cunning on the inside. After all, she reminded him of himself as a child, using an adorable facade to gain adults’ trust while inwardly mocking their foolishness.

Igor was certain that Lise belonged to the same breed as him—people like them are never satisfied with simply entertaining themselves with toys.

After all, once you’ve experienced the joy of fooling others, toys seem rather pointless.

They don’t get angry, they don’t have warmth, and they don’t scream; what value is there to play with such things?

So what was Lise doing? Could it be that the blocks contained a secret of Annan? Or was she waiting for someone else to come by?

Igor watched from behind the door as Lise seriously compared the shapes of the blocks in her hands and started to assemble them whenever she found a suitable piece.

One minute.

Three minutes.

Ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

Igor could no longer restrain himself. He burst in and pointed at the chaotically assembled blocks, “The instructions are right there! Can’t you follow them to play?! These are clearly castle blocks, and you’ve made them into a dungeon!”

Lise pouted at him without saying a word, only dragging the instruction manual over to look at it.

Igor clenched his fists, his face filled with anger as he approached, “You impolite little brat, it looks like I need to teach you a lesson…”

Another fifteen minutes passed, and Ashe, tired from playing virtual games, decided to head to the kitchen to grab some drinks and snacks. As he passed the novelty game room, he heard arguing voices inside:

“This one obviously goes here, look at the instructions!”

“Do you even know how to play, you dunce? I’ve never seen a kid as clumsy as you!”

“o(≧口≦)o Why did you pick such a huge block castle? This is not a project for just two people to complete!”

“o(￣ヘ￣o＃) You’re so annoying.”

Ashe peeked through the door crack at the castle blocks, which didn’t even have the foundation assembled, and walked away with a thoughtful expression.

Then he brought Banjeet and Harvey.