Chapter 293 - 231: The Paralyzed Sir and the Tiefling Nanny (2)

Chapter 293: Chapter 231: The Paralyzed Sir and the Tiefling Nanny (2)

The transformation of a poor fishing village.

It just goes to show how unpredictable life is.

"Yuno, have you made any headway on the magical device integration plan? It’s fine if you haven’t; I know it’s a tough one."

As Zog Group released more and more magical products, the complete Zog "family bucket" could fill an entire bedroom.

Yet, all of them together still couldn’t replicate the functions of a single computer.

Socializing, gaming, music, and even some production functions like tuning or editing—each function required its own magical device.

Zog really wanted to cram them all together, but the current technology was nowhere near advanced enough. Zog Group couldn’t produce magical chips measured in mere nanometers.

So, he had given Yuno the task of finding a solution with a more uniquely Feilin flair.

"No," Yuno replied awkwardly. "So far, there are no viable solutions. The only thing I can think of is to put a storage space inside a magical device and teleport out the necessary magical accessory for whatever function is needed."

"But that would be too expensive," Zog said, pointing out the flaw in that plan.

"Yes, and there aren’t that many stable Plane Spaces that could be used for storage."

"What about unstable planes?" Zog asked.

He didn’t have any stable ones, but he had plenty of unstable ones—bought in bulk from the Mage Guild back in the day.

Right now, they were only used for transmitting Demon Vision signals, leaving a vast amount of space unused.

"That won’t work. First, a magical device can’t store Magic Energy in an unstable plane. Second, it would suffer from wear and tear, eventually breaking down on its own," Yuno pointed out.

"Oh..."

Zog leaned back in his chair, displeased. ’Looks like I’ll just have to wait for the tech tree to level up bit by bit.’

"But... couldn’t the magical device just not store Magic Energy? Aren’t we building a Magic Energy network? We could just plug it in when we use it," Elsa said timidly from the side.

Zog and Yuno both turned to look at her in unison.

"Don’t look at me like that! I’m not an expert, it was just a random thought. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work."

"No, it’s just... what you said actually makes a lot of sense."

Zog suddenly had a realization. Desktop computers had to be plugged in to work, so why couldn’t a Feilin host do the same with Magic Energy?

"Is it feasible to power it and run it at the same time?" Zog asked Yuno.

"Theoretically, yes. It wouldn’t be much different from using a Magic Energy Stone."

"The Magic Energy produced by a Magic Energy Machine is no different from that of a Magic Energy Stone," Professor Moore confirmed.

"So it is feasible, then," Zog’s interest was immediately piqued. "How long would it take for damage to occur if stored in an unstable plane?"

"Usually about five years."

"That’s plenty of time! What more could you want from a host that lasts five years? That’s long enough for two generations of hardware upgrades."

Zog was very pleased with this outcome. "Yuno, you’ll be in charge of this project. Code name: Duckpear."

Zog employed his signature naming convention: co-opting a greater name.

"Do we really have to call it that?"

"The Duckpear Host. With a name that cute, doesn’t it just make you want to buy one?"

Every living being in the conference room shook their head in unison.

"I don’t care. That’s the name. Yuno, I look forward to your results."

The routine meeting had been going on for nearly two hours, and all reports on major ongoing projects were complete.

"Anything missed?" Zog asked Elsa.

"No."

"Excellent. Then I’ll just say a few words."

As he spoke, Zog turned on the large screen at the front of the conference room, and a slide appeared.

"A-Charitable-Project-to-Help-Tieflings-Reintegrate-into-Society." Furin read out the slide’s title, word by painstaking word.

She then clapped a hand over her mouth, her face screaming, ’We’re professionals, we don’t normally laugh,’ but she was clearly about to lose it.

Beside her, Elsa was pinching her own thigh hard.

If the conference room hadn’t been so full, she would have burst out laughing at him.

It wasn’t about saving face for her boss in public; it was mainly that mocking him in front of more people would result in a bigger pay cut. She had just gotten a small raise, after all.

"Hey, what’s with those expressions? Is the idea of me doing charity really so hard to believe?"

"Just tell us, at what stage are you planning to start scamming people for money?" Furin bluntly shot him down. "It’s not another tea-selling scheme, is it?"

"Of course not! And besides, what was wrong with the tea advertisement last time? Drinking tea is good for you."

Zog’s expression turned serious. "Because Tieflings are a race that suffers from extreme prejudice. If we don’t help, they’re destined to never have a chance to improve their situation."

Social prejudice only deepens over time, until it becomes an indelible brand. It’s incredibly difficult to change that on their own.

"Besides, the recent Magic Vision Device incident created many newly transformed Tieflings, and their living conditions are not exactly optimistic."

Hearing this, Yuno nodded. He knew that even at the progressive research institute and Repin Academy, students who had been transformed into Tieflings were temporarily suspended from classes because their safety on campus could not be guaranteed.

It wasn’t that they suspected the Tiefling students would cause trouble, but that they feared the students themselves would be attacked.

Such incidents had been happening a lot recently. While patrolling the streets, the Early Morning Guard Corps would often find dead Tieflings in secluded corners.

Some were murders, but many more were suicides.

After the emergence of Zog Group and the rise of superhero culture, it had become rare to find people who had died violently on the streets.

"So, my idea is this: on one hand, we use academic content and artistic works to change the public’s negative perception of Tieflings. On the other hand, we provide jobs for them so they can survive without resorting to crime."

"But we don’t have many job openings right now," Elsa said.

"I know, but we’ll have the production lines for the Magic Energy Machines and Duckpear Hosts, won’t we? There will be a huge demand for labor then."

Zog’s idea was to have the Tieflings work with the Inferior Demons who would be arriving later. Compared to Humans, Tieflings had much less aversion to Devils.

Hell itself was already home to many Tieflings, who had fled there to escape prejudice, seeing it as their "holy land."

However, most Tieflings who reached Hell ended up regretting it. In terms of living conditions, sure, there was no prejudice, but there was also absolutely nothing about it that was better than the Continent.

"Besides, we’re not trying to take in all the Tieflings. We’re just setting an example."

Whatever Zog Group did these days, others would copy—production methods, organizational structure, recruitment processes. It didn’t matter if it was right or wrong; they just copied it first.

A company that could make so much money had to be doing something right, they figured.

"Also, besides the production lines, the construction of Deepwater City will also require a large labor force. Since there will be plenty of Devils there in the future anyway, we might as well round up the displaced Tieflings to do the work."

Elsa nodded, taking note of Zog’s requirements.

"Of course, we can’t just offer them jobs. Most Tieflings work in gray-area industries because they have no other choice, but a fair number are just budding criminals who can’t be reformed. For that group, we need to come down hard.

"Once we’ve provided jobs for the Tieflings, we’ll post bounties at the Adventurer Guild. For any who remain obstinate and insist on causing trouble, there’ll be money for their capture."

Zog had originally considered just having them killed, but on second thought, that wouldn’t work. If he did that, people would start using the heads of innocent Tieflings to claim the bounties.

The Adventurer Guild was a place where dragons and fish mingled, after all.

"As for the academic and cultural part, we need scholars to conduct research and prove that Tieflings are not inherently evil."

Zog believed that if Devils, long considered the very definition of evil, weren’t actually so evil, then there was no reason Tieflings, who only inherited half their bloodline, should be born irredeemable.

"Next, Grandpa Galina, I need the Drama Guild to create a series of works that gradually introduce Tiefling characters. Don’t be too aggressive. Start by writing them as morally gray characters. Once the audience gets used to them, we can gradually introduce heroic ones."

"Understood," Grandpa Galina responded.

He actually didn’t have much prejudice against Tieflings, mainly because he had barely ever encountered any. To be precise, wealthy people rarely did.

"Sir Gordo." Zog suddenly addressed Gordo, who was spacing out in the corner.

"Yes."

"How is the show coming along?"

"It’s back on the air. We’ve already started recording the next few episodes."

"Where’s your assistant?" Zog noticed that the personal assistant who was always by Sir Gordo’s side wasn’t there.

"He was injured during the previous incident and is still recovering."

"What a coincidence. I have a script here about finding you a new personal assistant. Interested?"

Zog said mysteriously.