Chapter 44: True Paradise (Patreon)

[Sunday: ... I always thought a perfect paradise meant giving everyone a perfect place to belong. Only now do I understand that true perfection is never a paradise bestowed by one person. It's the future each person creates with their own hands.]

[Robin: Brother... a world where everyone can sing freely is the truly beautiful world.]

[Silver Wolf: Oh? The Oak Family Head finally gets it? Quit dreaming inside your Ena's Dream. If you've got that kind of time, go look at the bottom of Penacony and see what people actually need.]

[Sunday: I have my own judgment. Also, I haven't forgotten that you hacked my account and exposed my merch purchases. We're not done about that!]

[Silver Wolf: Somebody's mad, somebody's mad. If you've got the guts, come through the network cable and fight me.]

[Zhongli: "When the granaries are full, people know propriety; when food and clothing are sufficient, people know honor and shame." Only with material abundance and an equal awakening of hearts can a world of Great Harmony like this be achieved. Today, I have finally seen a true paradise on earth.]

[Qingque: If I lived in this world, I could slack off and play cards every day and never go to work. By the Reignbow Arbiter, I wouldn't even dare dream of such a life!]

[Fu Xuan: Qingque! Can't you have a little ambition?! However... when a society no longer measures a person's worth by material wealth, and everyone can freely choose how they live, that is indeed the optimal model of social development.]

[Wanderer: Heh. Still far better than Inazuma's shogunate, which sealed the country for a hundred years and kept its people in the dark.]

[Screwllum: Analysis: after achieving collective ownership of the means of production, this civilization directed its core resources toward deep-space exploration and fundamental science, rather than internal strife and involution. This is the defining mark of a civilization entering maturity. Conclusion: this civilization's development potential far exceeds that of most interstellar civilizations at the same tier.]

[Mobius: Heh. Compared to his revolutionary theory, I'm far more interested in his Ultimate Life Form genes and his life sciences laboratory. No budget limits, no space limits, no need to watch the higher-ups' faces. Which scientist wouldn't be green with envy over a research institute like that?]

[Fulwish: ...]

Watching that true paradise from inside Planarcadia, Fulwish was filled with longing and resentment.

Longing for a real paradise, not a place called a paradise that was truly hell like Planarcadia. Resentment that Planarcadia had never been the paradise it ought to have been.

"If Planarcadia were a heaven like this, how could I ever..." Fulwish roared in fury.

As she brooded, her thoughts turned to the Company. "It's all the Company! It's the Company's fault! The Interastral Peace Corporation turned Planarcadia into this!"

This time, at least, Fulwish wasn't blaming the wrong target.

The Company, or rather, the arrival of capital, had warped the Elation of Planarcadia, turning it from the pursuit of Elation into the pursuit of traffic.

The true meaning of Elation is to know that everything ends in nothingness and still feel joy because you are alive. It is the dignified stance of a sentient being who sees how absurd the world is and laughs out loud anyway.

But the Company's arrival changed all of that.

Though Asat Pramad had a hand in it, the Company's voracious nature made Asat Pramad's moves go smoothly.

Both were polluting Elation with Voracity, but one did it actively, while the other was passive and unaware of it.

The perspective returned to the moment Communist Interstellar was declared founded.

Gusttave stood at the edge of the crowd. He didn't go up on stage or give a speech. He just watched quietly.

He wore a faded, plain-colored Daoist robe and blended in among the workers and students, no different from the young people thrusting their fists in the air around him.

"You're just going to stand here?" Yukong popped up from nowhere, an energy bar dangling from her mouth, and nudged his shoulder with her elbow.

"Not interested." Gusttave waved a hand. "I told you long ago, this world has never had a savior."

Yukong rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay. I've nearly memorized your 'it all depends on the people themselves' lines. But you could at least go up and say a few words, right? Now that the revolution's succeeded, everyone wants to see you."

"And after they've seen me?" Gusttave turned his head to look at her. "Hang me on a wall? Worship me as a god?"

Gusttave went on, "The reason I'm pushing this revolution without showing my face is that I don't want them to know I'm still alive and helping from behind the scenes."

"In the past, I led them to overthrow the feudal dynasty and the immortal sect clans. If they learned now that I was secretly leading them to overthrow the rotten Way of Great Peace as well, how far would their worship of me go?"

Yukong didn't follow. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Gusttave shook his head. "No. It would only hurt them. If I led both revolutions, then should Communist Interstellar's people decay in the future, the masses would only beg for me to appear and save them again, instead of picking up weapons themselves to resist injustice."

The hand holding Yukong's energy bar froze.

She studied the side of Gusttave's face for a good while, and a flicker of some indescribable emotion crossed those untamed eyes of hers.

This man had enough power to suppress an entire world. If he wished, he could become a god worshiped by millions at any moment. Yet he chose to hide himself away, unwilling to even listen to the cheers of the revolution's victory.

"You really are a strange one." Yukong pulled the energy bar from her mouth and poked Gusttave's shoulder with the stick end. "Everyone else is dying to gild their own faces, and you? You finish the gilding and then peel it right back off."

"What good is gilding?" Gusttave smiled. "Gild yourself too much and you start thinking your face is precious, until you can't even bring yourself to look down at the common people."

Yukong rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine, I can't out-talk you. But I'm curious, what do you plan to do next? Communist Interstellar's been founded. You, the mastermind behind the scenes, can't keep hiding away in your lab forever, right?"

"What happens next has nothing to do with me." Gusttave said, "This is their country. How to build it should be for them to decide. I'm just a remnant of the old era."

"You might not believe me, but if I could, my greatest wish would be to lie in bed reading novels and playing games. Running a country is something I'd happily leave to somebody else."

"It's just that this world won't let anyone lie flat, and it's forced me to step up and be the tall one who holds up the sky."

Like the Emperor from a certain Warhammer universe, Gusttave never wanted to be any kind of savior. He only wanted to be a layabout who ate, played, and slept.

Leave the hard jobs to the tall guys. All he had to do was lie flat.

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