Chapter 72
[Title: Hey, Is There Something Special About Today?]
(Meme of a hat piled high with mana dumplings)
There seem to be a lot of people giving me money today.
Usually, I might get one or two, if any, so I can't tell whether this is a dream or not.
Is there something special about today?
- Take my money too
- (Don't Give Up, Fight Back! emote)
- It's not your fault that you're poor
ㄴ Author) No, people keep sending me trade requests. W-What's going on?
ㄴ (Shut up and take my money too! emote)
Les Misérables brought another change to society.
Humans, who were far more numerous and individualistic than the other races, also had a higher proportion of beggars.
Among them were children who had been born poor through no fault of their own.
But people began seeking them out and placing a dumpling in each one's hand.
“Here, child. Take this.”
“Th-thank you! P-please tell me your name!”
“I only did what needed to be done in Jean Valjean's place.”
It was the so-called Petit Gervais campaign.
Petit Gervais was the chimney-sweep boy in Les Misérables.
He was also the owner of the coin Jean Valjean stole, and even though the boy cried and asked for it back, Jean Valjean did not return it.
He regretted it later and wandered the streets looking for the boy, but never managed to find him.
After reading that story, people in the real world began looking for Petit Gervais in Jean Valjean's place.
- I spent a hundred dumplings today
- Ah lol, I got swept up in the mood of the novel and gave all the money I had set aside for a refrigerator to some kids
- How dare you starve on the street like that
ㄴ For real, make sure you never go hungry in front of me again lol
ㄴ Everything they say is trash, but what they do is fucking angelic lololol
The results soon showed up in Marketplace sales.
[All items in ‘Category/Food’ have sold out.]
“Wait, everything sold out?”
Popular items like canned tuna and ramen had already sold out the moment they were listed.
But when you counted every item, there were always some products left over.
I never expected absolutely everything to sell out.
Besides, thanks to the good deed system, I had plenty of points left in my daily allotment.
“In that case, I can increase the quantity of items sold on the Marketplace.”
Moreover, the fairy tale's impact was clearly visible among the elves as well.
- Is this, is this literature?
- The children are so pitiful ㅠㅠ
- It has such extraordinary depth. I never expected to become this immersed even though I'm not an elf
- (This is highly rated by elves... emote)
Elves took great pride in their culture.
Perhaps because they were the race of beauty, elves were also deeply interested in culture.
The fact that a gigantic library had stood in the center of the elven city of Eladrien for ages said it all.
- Human literature? Who reads that?
- It isn't fun... and it isn't moving...
- You could call elves the pinnacle of culture
In particular, elves were depicted at the center of every novel and painting.
They hadn't been mocked as knife-ears and betrayed during the Great War for nothing.
But even those elves began to be absorbed by Les Misérables one by one.
The young elves were at the forefront of it.
[Title: Heehee, I'm Jean Valjean]
(Meme of someone stealing bread from a bakery)
(Meme of an old elf screaming from behind, their ears bright red)
Hheek, heheh!
It's so much fun!!!
[Recommendations15] [Dislikes3]
- Lolololol
- Crazy bitch lol
- Look at her, too exhausted to chase after him lol
- Columbarium vs. fossil
ㄴ (Don't say mean things like that emote)
- Elk Knight... the true guardian of Elad...
- You cute little mischievous bastard~
- You incorrigible little brat!
[Title: Was This Jean Valjean's Agony?]
(Meme of a strawberry cream cake)
(Meme of an elf crying as they take one bite at a time)
How much pain must he have been in to steal bread?
I wanted to share that feeling.
So I bought a strawberry cream cake on the Marketplace today...
Was it because I ate it while trying to understand Jean Valjean's heart?
(Meme of a plate cleaned completely down to the bottom)
I guess what matters is the thought, not the taste!
[Recommendations1] [Dislikes51]
- You fucking humblebragging bastard
- How the fuck did you buy it, you bastard?
- Ha... fuck
- (I will definitely kill you! emote)
- Jean Valjean ate dry, rock-hard bread. Did he eat some ultra-premium cake from the Head Mod's Marketplace?
ㄴ Author) (Elf sticking out tongue emote)
ㄴ Ah, I'm going to yank it right off lol
ㄴ Ah lol, I want to grab one of those pointy ears and make a fist with all my strength lol
ㄴ (Elf flailing while being held by the ears emote)
Of course, the elves ended up taking the trend in a slightly strange direction.
“Hmm, just the usual Gallery, right?”
The Can't-Stop-Elgu crowd and the people lost in their feelings.
And the dwarves, who still hadn't caught on to the trend and remained steeped in booze and blacksmithing.
It was the usual WWE atmosphere in the Gallery.
Or so I thought.
[Popular Post: The Communist Manifesto]
Author: Mark
Commoners of all nations, join the tide of revolution!
But then, all of a sudden, UFC broke out...
“No, wait a second.”
I felt my mind go blank.
*
It doesn't take anything grand to change the world.
All it takes is one tiny incident amid emotions ready to burst, and everything will begin.
The starting point was the home of the village chief in an outlying village.
“No, please, don't do this!”
“If you take this too, how are we supposed to survive this winter?”
After Head Mod distributed portable generators and heaters, people began living together.
Since there wasn't one in every household, they kept them at the chief's house and gathered there in small groups.
But they came at a fairly steep price.
They were perfect for the local nobles to collect as taxes.
“Then am I supposed to freeze to death in your place?”
“You already have one!”
“Did you see me take it with your own eyes? Or should you have paid your taxes properly from the start! Now get out!”
“Dave!”
At his wife's cry, Dave, now a Gallery hunter, went tumbling across the floor.
Baron Boris's guard had shoved him aside.
But even the guard looked uncomfortable.
Standing up against the class system would only get them beheaded, so all he could do was force himself to look away...
Then a young child stepped in front of them.
“Don't steal it!”
“What?”
A young child who looked about six years old.
It was Dave's child, Philip.
The villagers pretended not to see the injustice and turned away.
They understood how the class system worked.
But the child was too young to understand.
“Why are you trying to take it?”
All the child saw were bad people unfairly stealing things. That was all.
“Our villagers bought this together!”
He spread his short, stubby arms to either side and stood boldly blocking the entrance.
At his words, the people were just beginning to raise their heads.
But Baron Boris's chosen solution differed from what they expected.
-Smack!
“What kind of little brat do you think you are?!”
He simply slapped the six-year-old boy across the face.
The Phron region was a harsh place to make a living.
Free migration was impossible.
After the Great War, the nobles exploited the commoners even more, leaving not even a sliver of room for the slightest rebellion.
Thinking otherwise was impossible to begin with.
“It's not like you can go anywhere else anyway, right?”
It was just as Baron Boris said.
- Fuck, making a living is fucking hard
- Eladrien > Kilgrot = Adrian >>>>>>> Phron
- I'm hungry... fuck
The problem of making a living.
The problem of surviving the cold.
They were living in conditions that left no room to think about politics or ideology of any kind.
Until Head Mod appeared.
That was how things had been until that book began circulating.
“Aagh!”
The child's face snapped violently to the side.
Baron Boris smiled faintly.
Usually, that solved everything.
Commoners could be ruled with violence.
But when a bruise appeared on the child's once-white cheek and his lip split.
“Oh, you fucking bastard?”
Dave lost it.
*
When he came to his senses, Baron Boris was no longer standing.
Instead, only Baron Boris's body remained on the floor.
His body, trained as a hunter, and the high-calorie food distributed through Head Mod's Marketplace had allowed him to beat a nobleman to death bare-handed.
But after doing it, his reason returned.
Everyone had witnessed it, and soldiers who had just rushed in from outside after hearing the commotion were pointing their spears at him.
“Why, why did you do it?”
The soldiers seemed flustered as well.
One of the soldiers, who knew him, berated him, but they had no choice.
If they let Dave off, their own heads would eventually fall too.
It was just as the soldiers, clearly unwilling, were about to execute Dave.
“Wait! Stop!”
The village chief, who had been standing behind them and looking away, stepped forward.
The chief hurried forward, shielding Dave with his body, and said in a rush,
“Head Mod would have done the same!”
They were short words, but powerful.
The moment the title Head Mod was invoked, everyone paid attention—but it was sophistry.
Head Mod wasn't here; it was merely an assumption about what he might have done.
But the influence of the title Head Mod was immense in Phron.
As the soldiers stopped to deliberate, voices began joining in from behind, one after another.
“That's right, he did the right thing!”
“I'm sick of living like a dog, having everything taken from me!”
“Commoners, rise up!”
People began surging to their feet.
The soldiers were flustered, but soon lowered their raised spears and joined the crowd.
“Rather than keep taking a pittance of a salary...”
“Yeah, Head Mod wouldn't have distributed that book for no reason, right?”
Phron was a cold region.
Once the rift erupted, it became fucking cold.
People gathered in front of Head Mod's heaters to escape the cold, and their solidarity grew stronger.
The thoughts kindled by the books began setting the hearts of Phron's people ablaze in red.
“An end to this system!”
“Nobles, go die already!”
The flames that had sprung up in the outskirts began spreading into the ducal castle in the blink of an eye.
The nobles were purged or stripped of their titles, and before long the uprising reached the castle of Duke's Proxy Mark.
People stood at the gate holding red torches and shouting.
“Open the gate!”
“Duke's Proxy, come out before the people!”
“Don't hide behind the walls! ...Huh?”
Tension was just beginning to mount between them and the soldiers aiming down at them from atop the walls.
-Creak
The castle gate, which seemed as though it would never open, suddenly swung wide.
Then Duke's Proxy Mark came running out in his indoor clothes.
“I found the answer!”
The crowd was momentarily confused and stared blankly at him.
Barefoot, Mark rushed out and held a declaration up to the sky as he shouted,
“Communism under Head Mod is feasible!”