Chapter 101: Law and Synthetic Map System

Law is an extremely complex concept. In the previous life, primitive laws represented by the Code of Hammurabi primarily served to protect human safety and interests. They developed around the idea of “man,” and “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” was the core of their existence. After the classical period, laws became the will of the ruling class, used to maintain national and social order. From that point onward, law was no longer fair, but gradually acquired meanings of order, freedom, justice, efficiency, and interest… It became a more solid and clear bottom line than morality, allowing people to know what they could and could not do, and then… Then there was no “then,” and Mo Fangyuan knew nothing more.

What was said above covers most of the information about law that Mo Fangyuan could think of; the rest was beyond his reach. He was merely a pathetic high school student with no social experience, let alone knowledge of systems, laws, or politics. Even civil law was only half-remembered. Standing at the edge of the abyss, Mo Fangyuan gradually abandoned his thoughts. First there was the question of regime, then law… Truly a headache-inducing problem. Asking an ordinary person like Mo Fangyuan to contemplate these matters was no different from asking a primary school student to write a thesis…

“Maybe I can try the methods from those farming empire domination flow novels…” Mo Fangyuan stroked his light beard and began to daydream.

“Roar roar roar!”

Suddenly, Mo Fangyuan’s soaring thoughts were yanked back to reality by the zombie’s guttural roar. “This place is dangerous. We’ll think about these things when we return to the Block Kingdom.” Jumping out of the pit, he sliced through the yapping zombie with one stroke. In his left hand he gripped the Black Forest map, which carried a faint scent of cream, while in his right he held the Empire’s Blade and advanced toward the nearest elite skeleton.

Click! Click!

The skeletons loomed darkly in the gloom, exuding an eerie terror. Removing the faint grayish particles radiating from them, these were ordinary monsters. That was why Zhang Lingyun had nearly been backstabbed without honor while exploring the Black Forest. Nevertheless, she had also detected several skills for it: Fortress, Dodge, and Rage. Monsters possessing attributes similar to those in the previous life’s elite monster modules were called by Mo Fangyuan “bodyless attribute-enhanced elite monsters,” or simply “attribute elite monsters.”

The Fortress effect halved damage taken, Dodge gave his attacks a chance to miss entirely, and Rage doubled the skeleton archer’s attack power—though it would then take damage to itself…

Having organized his knowledge of elite monsters, Mo Fangyuan compared himself to the one before him and was certain he could slay it. “Let’s see how it plays out!” he declared, gripping the Empire’s Blade with absolute confidence. Artifacts of the block people were not things even small elite monsters could withstand!

Click! Click! Click…

The footsteps of the elite skeleton archer echoed through the Dark Forest like the senseless coordinates of a primitive civilization being endlessly fired into the void. The knife-wielding hunter had already fixed his gaze upon it.

Before the might of powerful weapons, the elite skeleton archer that had exposed its position could only await annihilation. Concealed behind a tree in the Black Forest, Mo Fangyuan drew out his fishing rod and carefully aimed. One second, two seconds, three seconds… Mo Fangyuan’s hand began to move!

Whish! Whish!

The fishing line’s sound spread through the air, and the elite skeleton archer detected the anomaly, attempting to dodge the incoming attack. Yet once a hunter in the Black Forest fired, the consequences were invariably destructive. A flash of red light crossed the monster’s body, and it retreated a single step. “Got it!”

Mo Fangyuan immediately reeled in the line and hauled the elite skeleton archer close. Click!

The attribute skeleton elite monster momentarily lost its footing. “Come here!” Seeing this, Mo Fangyuan delivered a swift kick, sending the monster sliding into the prepared pitfall. It was a three-block-deep hole at the bottom of which waited the “lava bath” specially prepared for this elite creature.

Click! Click! Click!

The clash of bones mingled with the roar of bursting lava. Whenever the elite skeleton archer tried to leap free, Mo Fangyuan simply kicked it back. “Cleanse the sins of the monster within your flesh.” Listening to the rhythmic sound of bones colliding, Mo Fangyuan spoke coldly. After some time, he judged that the brainless elite skeleton archer must already be at low health. To ensure its experience orb and drops would not be destroyed by the lava, Mo Fangyuan mercifully stowed the lava back into the iron bucket and delivered one final blow, allowing the suffering creature to repay the monster’s crimes against the block people.

Click!

Impact and knockback shattered the skeleton into fragments. The burning fury of the Empire’s Wrath left no trace of ash. Ding!

An experience orb settled into his stomach. The experience bar’s glowing section climbed to twenty percent.

[Blue Gift Bag]
[Bow (49% durability)]
[Bones × 34]
[Arrows × 26]

“What a fine haul—a Blue Gift Bag!” Reaching out, he placed the Blue Gift Bag into his inventory, then collected the remaining three drops.

Compared with that mutated enderman, this attribute elite monster had clearly shown him respect. Still, what wonders the Blue Gift Bag would reveal remained a matter of luck. “Luck… truly an elusive and profound existence.” Untying the deep-blue ribbon tied to the gift bag, it dissolved into five streams of light scattered across the grass.

[Redstone powder × 36]
[Blank map × 1]
[Peony × 3]
[Coal × 7]
[Recipe: Explosive Stone Brick]

“Recipe?” “…Then it’s looking up!” What was lacking was lacking, and redstone was exactly what was missing at Fang Zhi’s place—now it had appeared. And there was also the recipe for explosive stone brick. As the name implied, it was a material possessing strong resistance to explosion damage and made an excellent defensive choice. It was probably the low-end variant of explosive stone found in the Industrial Mod.

“Let me see for myself.” Spreading the recorded synthesis diagram open, the crafting method came into view. “Requires a junior stone mason to work beside the diagram; after placing stone bricks and clay in the designated positions on the crafting table, explosive stone brick may be synthesized…”

When Mo Fangyuan finished reciting the method for explosive stone brick, the diagram began to burn and vanished into the block world. It had already merged into the item synthesis system of the Block Kingdom. Any stone mason who lived there or was born there, upon reaching the junior professional level, would automatically obtain both the synthesis method and the qualification to produce it.

The synthesis system was merely a concept—a collective term for the interconnected synthesis diagrams possessed by the block people. It could refer to a region inhabited by block people, or to the synthesis diagrams of all block people across the world… This was the core technology that allowed the block people to survive in this world. Every block kingdom and village maintained its own synthesis diagram system, varying in size yet fundamentally similar. From wooden tools through stone tools, iron tools, and redstone… The larger and more advanced the synthesis diagram system, the more complex it became and the greater its benefits. The pinnacle of synthesis diagrams could give birth to new eras; the legendary mysterious age and barbaric age might themselves have been created by these systems. Many block people scholars believed that vanished synthesis diagrams entered a peculiar space—the collective consciousness of countless block people, the spiritual realm of the entire race—where they connected and bound themselves to the block people.