My family runs an adventurer's guild.

The following morning, reinforcements from other towns downstream finally arrived one after another at Lenggang Town, which had been ravaged once again.

However, their work was no longer about fighting the enemy, but about carrying wooden hammers and chisels, stepping on the still frozen ice, walking onto the frozen ships, chiseling off the enemy corpses and their equipment that looked like ice sculptures, and then huffing and puffing as they carried them back to shore.

There was no other way; if they waited for the ice to melt, the spoils on the ship would either sink to the bottom of the river or be washed away.

This method of seizing loot by chiseling ice and mining seems foolish, but there is no better solution at the moment.

On the open ground ashore, Phil was jumping around excitedly, directing the militiamen from other towns who had come to collect the spoils from the corpses and enemy ships. Among the people who had fought last night, Tony had magnanimously given up the right to distribute the spoils: even if he took these junk, he couldn't take them with him, and besides, as a billionaire born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Tony wouldn't care about these odds and ends.

After re-establishing contact with the rear, Miss Silver Dragon Lulutia immediately boarded a ship and left the battlefield to seek healing at the temple.

Thus, of the spoils brought back from the glacier, aside from a small reward for the surviving soldiers of the town's garrison and the laborers who chiseled the ice, the remaining 70-80% of the wealth ended up in Phil's own pocket.

For him, a poor cat from the Totoro Town Adventurers' Guild, this was a very, very rare extra income!

"...Ugh! This pig-headed man smells awful. Just take the swords and money pouch, but don't bother stripping him of his clothes. Quickly dig a hole and bury him!"

"...This tiger-man's fur is quite nice, but unfortunately, it was damaged while chiseling the ice, so it can only be used to make a vest! Let's split the skin in half after we skin it!"

"...This werewolf... well, wolf pelts aren't worth much, even werewolf fur is the same. Whoever wants it can keep it!"

"...Tsk tsk, this dark elf female mage is really extravagant! Not only is her entire outfit enchanted, but even her underwear is enchanted. I wonder what the effect is. I'll collect them all for now..."

"...Hey, who gave you permission to take away this female dark elf mage's corpse? Even if you've already stripped her naked of her spoils, that's not allowed! Put her down, I still need her!"

……

Watching Phil excitedly work on the naked corpse of a female dark elf, Tony couldn't help but blink in horror. After a moment's hesitation, he coughed and asked, "...Um, Phil, is this the end of the mess from last night?"

“…Yes, the enemy has been defeated, the town has been defended, and the matter is naturally over.” Phili turned and replied.

"...Isn't there any follow-up action? For example, a diplomatic protest, or a press conference or something?"

Tony looked around at the numb, indifferent expressions of the people around him, feeling that it all seemed unreal. "...Why isn't there even a reporter interviewing us?"

"...Why bother protesting over something so trivial? This is everyday life in the Westfall, a world teeming with monsters and barbarians, and a paradise for adventurers, criminals, and cultists—law and order have not yet been established, and battle and death are everywhere."

Phil curled his lip. "...Small skirmishes like this happen once or twice a month in the Western Wilderness. Everyone's used to it..."

Chapter 259, Wilderness Meow Guest (Part 2)

"...The enemy lost three white dragons, over five hundred orcs, and more than thirty dark elves. On your side, an entire town was burned down, and several hundred people died... And you think this isn't a big deal? What would be considered a big deal? Isn't the Golden Dragon Kingdom in a time of peace?"

After hearing Phil's casual explanation, Tony was dumbfounded and said that he didn't quite understand.

"...This is the norm in the Western Wilderness during peacetime, Mr. Stark. This place is always a place of fighting and killing."

Phil scratched his head. "...As for what level of event is considered major...well, to give an example, if a herd of more than a hundred Behemoths suddenly migrated in the Western Wilderness, trampling twenty or thirty villages along the way, causing tens of thousands of deaths or disappearances, and even razing Stromgarde to the ground."

Alternatively, the brutal warlords of the Beacon Federation hired cancer mages to spread the plague, resulting in the deaths of more than a third of Stromgarde's population of over ten thousand.

There was also a reclusive magician who messed up an experiment, opening a portal to hell that couldn't be closed, turning his secluded retreat into a demonic abyss. Thousands of residents were displaced, and behind him was an army of evil demons that devoured people and hunted down the refugees.

And a poison gas leak in the palace magician's laboratory killed tens of thousands of residents in several blocks of the capital.

Or perhaps a corrupt lord or nobleman, having sided with demons, sacrificed all his subjects, leaving behind a city of the dead with only a few thousand undead creatures… That would be a truly significant event. Don't be surprised, these things actually happened in times of peace…

"...My God! How come this 'peaceful country' seems to be far more dangerous than Afghanistan and Iraq on Earth?"

Tony the cat quipped, "...If this chaotic scene can be considered peacetime, then what would define wartime?"

"...Well, the most recent large-scale war the Golden Dragon Kingdom experienced was the 'Battle of Dragon's Sleep' a hundred years ago. At that time, taking advantage of the fact that His Majesty the Dragon King, the two princes, and the three princesses were all in hibernation, the two brass dragons colluded with the Lighthouse Federation to launch a rebellion. They also contacted the Church of the Plague Goddess and sent a large number of cancer mages to spread the plague throughout the country, leaving many cities almost deserted."

Meanwhile, the barbarian nomads of the western wilderness and the elves of the southern Greenwood Kingdom took advantage of the chaos, launching an invasion. At the height of the crisis, Stromgarde and Dragonneck were utterly annihilated, and even the royal capital, Thousand Sails, was once again turned into a battlefield by an elven attack.

After thinking for a moment, Phili replied, "...However, under Her Majesty the Queen's wise leadership, the kingdom survived this catastrophe, not only suppressing the rebels but also gradually expelling the invaders from the country. Subsequently, the defeated troops of the Lighthouse Federation and the elves, after retreating back to their homelands, brought the plague and cultists with them. The Lighthouse Federation also experienced a coup and internal strife due to its defeat."

When His Majesty the Dragon King awoke, he immediately organized his forces to retaliate. He first slaughtered the old capital of the Lighthouse Federation in one fell swoop, and then unleashed a massive tsunami that submerged more than 20 port cities in the country, killing 400,000 people and forcing the Lighthouse Federation to pay reparations and sue for peace.

Then, he ambushed and killed the former Elf Queen and Crown Prince of the Green Forest Kingdom, and burned half of the forest on Green Forest Island. This caused the Elf population of the Green Forest Kingdom to plummet from 300,000 to 80,000, and has only now recovered to 100,000—even with the gradual replenishment by Elf immigrants from the Old Continent.

Of course, our country also suffered heavy losses in the war. It is said that a total of about 1.5 million people died, and many towns were completely wiped out. In short, after such a great war, the number of intelligent life of the entire civilization race in the New World was reduced by more than half.

There were two other major wars of this scale in our history, and in the Old World, a war was fought every twenty or thirty years…

"...Wow, the deaths here are so horrific! The entire population of a nation is halved so easily! Even a world war is much gentler than this!"

Tony was taken aback. "...No wonder your country's population growth is so slow..."

—Although Tony has been busy with inventions and creations lately (recreating various modern Earth technologies in another world) and hasn't paid much attention to studying the history and culture of the Golden Dragon Kingdom, he has a vague feeling that the country's population seems abnormally small.

To say that this country has a low birth rate is definitely impossible—Tony has personally witnessed it; those kobolds give birth to litters of "dog eggs" every year. As for human and orc families, most also have many children, and "heroic mothers" who can give birth to ten are everywhere. While long-lived species like dragons and dwarves certainly have difficulty conceiving, they don't actually make up a very high percentage of the population in this country, do they?

Moreover, compared to medieval Europe on Earth, the socio-economic situation of the Golden Dragon Kingdom was quite prosperous. At least, there were practically no starving people, and it didn't seem like the country couldn't afford to raise children. His Majesty the Dragon King also didn't issue any laws to restrict childbirth.

Moreover, even if the Jinlong Peninsula is almost fully developed, as long as you climb the steep cliffs and come to the western wilderness, there is still a vast expanse of land available for cultivation—not barren land like the Sahara Desert, but fertile land rich in resources like the Great Plains of the American Midwest!

In addition to relying on the natural reproduction of its subjects, the Golden Dragon Kingdom also has immigrants from the Old World to replenish its population. In just the few days Tony spent in the capital, he saw a ship full of human immigrants sailing across the ocean from the Old World. This shows how large the number of immigrants is.

However, the British began immigrating to North America in the first half of the 17th century, and after three hundred years, their population had grown to hundreds of millions. Meanwhile, the Golden Dragon Kingdom, established for three hundred years, had already had some pioneers colonizing and settling there for nearly a century before the Golden Dragon King Alaric laid the foundation for the kingdom… A total of four hundred years of colonial expansion, yet it only accumulated three million people—this population growth rate just doesn't seem right, does it?

Now, Tony finally understands: it turns out that while the people of this country give birth very quickly, they die even faster!

The socio-economic development model of the magical world is different from that of the technological world. Although some communities where magicians congregate can achieve living standards and production levels comparable to, or even several generations higher than, those on modern Earth, thanks to their highly developed magical technology.

However, compared to technology, magic is unstable in its transmission, heavily reliant on talent, and easily lost. Furthermore, it's difficult to popularize. This means ordinary people are unlikely to benefit from the development of magical technology. Those truly gifted and skilled in advanced magic often don't have the intention of benefiting the masses; instead, they are focused on using powerful magic to break free from the constraints of the world's rules. As for whether this process of breaking free from the world's rules will bring any disasters to the masses… the great magicians don't care much about that.

In the world of immortals and heroes, cultivators kill to attain enlightenment; in the world of magic, great magicians often use their apprentices as test subjects for medicine, and employ human sacrifices and cooking... Even if not quite that inhumane, the various wildly imaginative experiments conducted by many magicians can bring calamities to ordinary people far more devastating than war.

—For example, a certain brain-dead great magician, because he cast a seriously blasphemous spell, and more importantly, failed to defeat the god, resulted in the entire city where he lived being punished by the god, with tens of thousands of residents instantly turning into dust.

Another group of high-ranking sorcerers with bizarre ideas drained the life force from a certain land, turning a vibrant oasis into a barren desert. This forced the indigenous inhabitants who had lived in the oasis for generations to leave their homes and embark on a long and tragic migration, with countless people dying along the way...

Even in a milder case, if an alchemist secretly added drugs to the city's public water supply to test his new, potent aphrodisiac and fertility enhancer, resulting in five thousand illegitimate children in a city in a single year... that would still be heartbreaking!

Such bizarre magical events occur almost every year in this fantastical world, leaving the poor mortals utterly exhausted.

In fact, even such "extraordinary and unscrupulous" great magicians are considered to be kind and decent people—at least they are not causing destruction with malice. Other more "worldly" magicians are keen to use magic simply as a weapon, taking pride in the larger the fireball and appreciating its terrifying destructive power: and in general, this is considered the "right path" for magicians.

This resulted in war casualties in this world far exceeding those of medieval European battlefields on Earth, with hundreds often dying in a single encounter. Not to mention the plague-spreading mages who frequently wreak havoc, creating one biological crisis after another. Rulers of various countries, driven by a desire to undermine each other, simultaneously strive to eradicate terrorist organizations within their own borders while heavily supporting foreign terrorist groups…

In such a dangerous environment, it is really not an easy thing for ordinary people to live a peaceful and smooth life until old age.

Of course, on the other hand, because death is so frequent and inevitable, the inhabitants of this world are also more thick-skinned, and there is absolutely no room for those pretentious, saintly, and innocent types to survive—the so-called "take life and death lightly and fight if you disagree" is the correct strategy for dealing with the world.

Similarly, war syndrome is rare among people in this world—if there were such a fragile individual, they would have gone mad long ago.

"...This is daily life in the Western Wilderness: fighting, destruction, survival, and then learning from experience to prepare for the next battle..."

Phil summarized to Tony like this: "...Mr. Stark, isn't this the same process you go through when you're a superhero in your own country?"

"...Well, if you remove some unnecessary and cumbersome steps, it seems that's really the case," Tony sighed, pursing his lips.

"...Alright, we can think about these more abstract things later, Mr. Stark. Let's start packing! With this incident in Cold Harbor, our trip to the Westfall is probably coming to an end."

Phil said to him, "...Now, my mistress has already gone home. We should pack up and get ready to go home too!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The afternoon after the battle ended, the Golden Dragon King Alaric also arrived in Cold Harbor from Stromgarde and established his base there. He issued a mobilization order and announced that he would launch a larger-scale retaliatory attack on the elven colonies of the Green Forest Kingdom.

This world doesn't believe in repaying evil with kindness; instead, it values ​​"If I slap your left cheek, you should offer your right cheek to me!"

Thus, the noble lords and vassals from all over the land who had received His Majesty the Dragon King's summons, along with the mobile field troops stationed on the border, began to gather in Cold Harbor Town one after another, traveling by water and land. In particular, the dragon lords, possessing the ability to fly, arrived very quickly, soon filling the town, which was covered in ruins, with dragons gathering in droves and their might soaring into the sky, frightening away all the small animals in the nearby countryside.

Next, soldiers and militia from various places set up camp and gathered in the town, with flags waving and war drums beating everywhere, looking ready to go.

However, His Majesty the Dragon King Alaric did not invite Tony and Phil to watch the battle. Tony's heroic feat in the previous night raid on Cold Harbor could be considered a fortunate coincidence. If the upcoming retaliatory battle required Iron Cat's firepower support, wouldn't it make the warriors of the Golden Dragon Kingdom seem unworthy of their reputation, completely reliant on foreign envoys for support?

So Tony and Phil didn't make a fool of themselves by lingering, but instead took a return airlift ship back to Stromgarde.

As a result, just as the two cats arrived at Stromgarde, in front of the temple of the local goddess of fortune, another beam of colorful light poured down, guiding Tony the cat to heaven. Accompanied by hymns and divine blessings... this time, it was the goddess of fortune who bestowed divine grace upon Tony Garfield, the great tech-savvy Stark!

—The magical teleportation array that Tony previously improved, after being powered by an arc reactor, not only greatly increased its carrying capacity but also reduced costs. This is undoubtedly a huge boon for travelers, and even more so for merchants, promising a multiplied fortune!

Why is it said that "to get rich, build roads first"? Because the greatest significance of developing transportation is that it allows idle social resources to be pooled together and used at a lower cost, and makes the flow of people, information and capital smoother.

To illustrate, if transportation between two places was originally inconvenient, caravans could only make one round trip a year, and merchants' funds could only circulate once a year. But if transportation were convenient, caravans could make ten round trips a year, and funds could circulate ten times a year. Wouldn't that be equivalent to capital increasing tenfold?

Therefore, in just a few days, the trading activity in the Stromgarde market increased several times over, creating countless amounts of wealth and profits. The Goddess of Fortune was naturally delighted and generously rewarded Tony, this great contributor.

"...Wow, this is the fifth god to flirt with Tony already? Is he on his way to accumulating divine favor and becoming the chosen one for eternity?"

Even though she knew the other party was the chosen one, Phil couldn't help but mutter sourly.

However, the divine favor that Tony Garfield, the Great Technician, will receive before he leaves will not end there…

Chapter 260, Heroes of Two Worlds

After receiving the blessing of the Goddess of Wealth, Tony and Phil did not stay in Stromgarde for long. Instead, they continued their journey back to the capital, Thousand Sails, to reunite with the Earth Cat Expedition Team. Thanks to the powerful flight capabilities of the Iron Cat Suit, they arrived in just over half a day.

Phil had to be carried in Tony's paws the whole way, exposed to the cold wind, which was really unpleasant.

Other cat owners take their cats for walks, but he's the one being carried around by his cat...

Upon returning to the capital city of Thousand Sails, Phil was somewhat surprised to find that during Tony's absence, the Earth Expedition team's upright cat experts who remained in the capital had actually accomplished something, rather than doing nothing at all.

—Although they can't compare to Tony, who is a chosen one of the world, these "experts and professors" are still highly educated and eloquent intellectuals. However, compared to Tony, who is a master of technology, they are seen as lackeys and useless. How can they bear this?

Even worse, if this story is exaggerated and spread back to Earth by people from another world, their jobs might be in jeopardy!

—No matter what field you're in, there's an ironclad rule: weakness is the original sin, and the useless have no right to speak!

So even if they admit they're not as good as Tony, they still have to show off their skills and prove they're truly talented!

Of course, their hands-on skills are far inferior to those of Tony Garfield and Technipper Stark, but as the saying goes, "three cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang." So many Earth cats working together, scratching their ears and chins to come up with solutions, can eventually produce some results—after all, it's not some cutting-edge technology, just everyday practical techniques invented in the 18th and 19th centuries.

As the saying goes, "Even a fool may have a thousand ideas, but he may still have one that comes to mind!"

For example, some people "improved" Tony's milk powder making method—changing the original simple and crude method of heating milk directly until it evaporated to boiling fresh milk first, then adding refined flour until it thickens, then letting it dry in a cool place, and finally adding sugar or honey. This effectively removes the milky smell that some people would find disgusting. Unfortunately, the use of refined flour makes it a luxury item.

Before the advent of industrial society, finely crafted pasta dishes were often more expensive than their weight in meat.

For example, in medieval Europe, a loaf of black bread could be exchanged for three or four times its weight in roasted fish. In Ming and Qing dynasty China, the price of refined white flour was comparable to that of pork. It wasn't until the late Qing dynasty, with the introduction of steam-powered flour mills and the beginning of mechanical milling, that the price of refined flour gradually decreased.

The reason for this situation is that in ancient times, people could only use stone mills to turn wheat into flour. Compared with modern electric flour mills, this was extremely inefficient. In places with windmills and watermills, it was a little better. But in places where there was no wind or water power available, people could only put a small donkey in their eyes and walk around the stone mill in circles. At most, they could only grind a few dozen kilograms of flour a day.

Moreover, flour produced using stone mills is generally very coarse, mixed with countless amounts of bran and impurities. Eating this stuff is practically a nightmare for your teeth, throat, and stomach. To obtain finer flour, similar to modern products, it's necessary to manually sift the flour to remove sand, bran, sawdust, and other impurities. However, such fine flour requires at least four or five times the labor of coarse flour, and its price is predictably much higher. Therefore, after adding refined flour to milk powder, the price of milk powder actually skyrockets!

To solve this problem, the experts had to start thinking about how to improve the milling equipment. Steam engines and electric motors couldn't be put into production for the time being, but since Tony had left behind a magical version of the Arc Reactor and had plenty of magic power, they simply went ahead and launched a magical milling machine, which was quickly developed and succeeded: as long as the power problem was solved, milling flour was really not difficult at all.

Although some old-fashioned folks felt that having a magician grind flour was beneath him, many impoverished low-level magicians were eager to do it—in pre-industrial society, the social status of a miller was by no means inferior! At least no less than that of a modern coal mine owner!

Almost in the blink of an eye, several magic mills were built in the royal capital, Thousand Sails City, and quickly began operation and production.

Then, now that cheap refined flour was available, a Japanese expert had a brilliant idea and started developing ramen technology. After many experiments, which turned a lot of freshly milled refined flour into various unleavened dough cakes and noodle soups, he finally managed to cobble together a series of tools, such as a noodle-making frame, and eventually created the country's first ramen.

Naturally, this novel food first appeared on the menus of upscale restaurants invested in by the royal family, and received a very enthusiastic response.

Meanwhile, the royal mage corps of the Golden Dragon Kingdom was also figuring out how to utilize the massive amount of magic power generated by the Ark Reactor. Initially, they used magic to expand the lighthouse near the port of Thousand Sails City and installed extremely bright magic lamps.

Next, after Tony tinkered with and improved the magic teleportation array in Dragonneck, the court mages in the capital city also keenly realized the great significance of the invention: the magic teleportation array combined with the Ark reactor meant an explosive development of transportation!

Therefore, with the advice of the Earth Exploration Team experts, the establishment of the postal and express delivery industry in the Golden Dragon Kingdom has been put on the agenda. I believe that it won't be long before express delivery companies and free shipping zones will appear in this country.

However, the upright cats of the Earth expedition team didn't have time to wait to witness this scene; they had to retreat as soon as possible.

—Because, while the members of the Earth expedition were traveling and exploring this fantastical world in the Golden Dragon Kingdom using cat bodies, their own human bodies were soundly asleep in capsule sleep pods at the Temple of Sleep in the suburbs of New York.

However, if the expedition drags on for too long, causing them to be bedridden for extended periods, it will obviously be very bad for their health. Not to mention, these expedition members are all people of status; if they are cut off from contact with the outside world for an extended period, even they themselves would likely feel uneasy.

—Anyway, there's more than one chance for this kind of interdimensional exploration, so we can always come back next time!

Before his departure, in recognition of Tony Garfield's outstanding contributions to the kingdom, King Alaric, who was on the front lines, sent a royal decree bestowing upon Tony the title of "Hero of Two Worlds".

In fact, when His Majesty King Alaric drafted this decree of reward, many nobles disagreed, believing that Tony had only participated in one armed conflict in this world, and compared with those who had previously received the title of hero, he seemed to lack "martial virtue"...

So His Majesty the Dragon King immediately became so angry that he puffed out his beard and glared at his opponent, “...You think I praised him because of the night raid on Cold Harbor? No! It’s because he can help me eliminate the deficit! Whoever can make me stop using my own money to subsidize the national treasury is the greatest hero in my heart!”

Chapter 261, The Souvenir is a Black Girl's Corpse

The autumn sun shines lazily down, lacking the scorching heat of midsummer, but rather warm and pleasant, making one feel a little drowsy.

The road leading to the town was covered with withered yellow leaves, which were softened and brittle by the sun, signifying the cycle and passage of the four seasons.

On the ridges of the harvested fields, goats are happily munching on the leftover wheat stalks, while wild mice are collecting grass seeds to store as food.

Yi Ri comfortably rode on the back of the fluffy giant hamster [Kurasuke], leading the entire Earth Cat Expedition Team's convoy at the very front (to avoid getting dusty during the trip). Firi enjoyed the autumn scenery of the countryside along the way as they returned from the royal capital, Kansai Castle, to the familiar Totoro Town.

Just like when I left, Totoro Town remained as tranquil and peaceful as ever, exuding a lazy atmosphere perfect for retirement.

However, the Totoro Town Adventurers' Guild, which used to be deserted for many years, is now much busier. People frequently come in to ask about various aspects of the game "Overlord," such as pricing and game world settings.

Some offline players idly gathered in the Adventurers' Guild's lobby, chatting about their exciting adventures and mishaps in the game "Overlord," treating it as a free offline gathering place, which put a lot of pressure and annoyance on the receptionist.

—Because Ferry and his mistress Lulutia, the only employees of the Totoro Town Adventurers' Guild, left the town for another place some time ago with members of the Earth Expedition Team.