Voyage of the Stars

My lord, times have changed.

A popular meme on the Internet: The last page of a European swordsmanship textbook in the late Middle Ages shows a swordsman using a matchlock to kill another swordsman. The illustration is accompanied by the text "My lord, times have changed."

In the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, the black-clad swordsman flaunted several swordsmanship moves against the evil protagonist, only to be shot down by the protagonist.

Thirty years later, when the first senior school student used his credits to purchase the first ordinary pistol from the store, it heralded that the kobold society, which originally belonged to the Bronze Age, had entered a new stage by leaps and bounds.

It directly allowed the kobolds to transcend several cold weapon evolution periods from the Bronze Age to the hot weapon age. Of course, it's not that kobolds can make them, so strictly speaking, it doesn't count as entering the era of thermal weapons. It's just that thermal weapons appear in society.

The pistol is the most powerful weapon that kobolds can buy with credits in school.

The reason why humans feel free to put pistols up is not because the new government is out of their minds and puts weapons in the hands of kobolds, but because of the current level of strengthening of human bodies, pistols do no harm at all.

Even without any armor, human beings can resist pistol bullets, so there is no such thing as teaching people to use them.

In addition to extremely expensive pistols, other steel knives, pots and pans and other daily necessities have also entered the homes of ordinary kobolds one after another in the thirty years since the school was opened.

Many things even passed through the hands of the kobolds of the Volcanic Country and were sold exclusively to surrounding countries.

The ultimate purpose of humans setting up schools is to improve the knowledge reserves of kobolds, so that they can become suitable machine equipment operators in the future.

Therefore, humans do not care about the fact that school students use their credits to purchase goods from the school and then resell them. Not only did they not ask about it, but they also supported it by adding many improved crops that have been successfully researched in the school store.

The circulation of commodities will also increase the commercial prosperity of the volcano country, and the emergence of improved crops will allow the kobolds to obtain more food.

When business is prosperous, the kobolds will have more money, and with more food, the kobolds will not have to run around all day long for food, and in their free time, they can have the mind to think about other things.

When you think too much and reflect too much, inspiration often appears, and that inspiration may be the spark that changes the shape of society.

Humans did not directly intervene in the evolution of the kobolds' social form, but through the school store, the kobolds themselves evolved and at the same time promoted the intelligence level of the kobold population.

Humans have decided to wait until the 'thought imprinting' technology matures before using kobolds, so they are not worried about kobolds becoming smart. On the contrary, the smarter they are, the more humans like them.

However, the ideas of the kobolds in the slave society are too backward and their productivity is extremely low. Even if some nobles and royal families come to study in human schools, the number is still too small and cannot meet the needs of future human beings.

On the other hand, since the direction of the use of kobolds has been determined by the new government, the learning content of the advanced schools set up by humans to cultivate kobolds has also changed.

The focus of all content changes from classroom learning to practical practice, and the same goes for various exams.

After the kobolds pass the middle school exam, master certain basic knowledge, and form a certain world view, the direction of human teaching will change.

Kobolds who pass the assessment will get to know the various control equipment, communication equipment, facilities, scientific instruments, etc. on the battleship, and through practical operations, master the use of various scientific equipment and instruments.

Anyway, the hope of these kobolds to set foot in the starry sky was very slim, so humans decided to take away as much as they could by then. Kobolds who achieve the assessment goals will enter the Kingdom of Light, that is, they will be frozen in order to be thawed out and become the vanguard of mankind after the thought imprinting technology is realized in the future.

Humanity must use these kobolds to create a cannon fodder army that is loyal and fearless of death. To this end, mankind will plan to build another batch of Lake-class battleships for future use.

The approval of this plan proves that mankind has now completely become a wandering civilization dominated by spaceships.

Winter passes and spring comes, year after year.

Of course, there are no spring, summer, autumn and winter environments on the spacecraft. Only the time clock set by humans reminds humans that a new year has begun.

The beginning of a new year means that schools on the planet will welcome a new batch of students. On this day, the capital of the Volcano Kingdom also welcomed three kobolds from afar.

As soon as they arrived at the capital gate, the three kobolds were stopped by the gatekeepers.

"Who is coming!"

Seeing two shining steel knives blocking the way, the three kobolds greeted each other with smiles: "Back to the guards, the three of us came from the Bashi Kingdom in the east and crossed thousands of mountains and rivers. I hope the guards will let us go."

As he said that, the leading kobold groped for a few times on his body, took out a few copper coins of the Volcano Country and handed them to the guards.

"What are you doing here?" When the guard saw the coins, he immediately put on a smile and put away his weapons, but still asked in a routine manner.

When the leader of the kobolds from Bashi Kingdom saw this, he was secretly happy and looked at the steel knife in the guard's hand: "We have heard that there are all kinds of rare and precious treasures in the Volcano Kingdom, and there are also swords and knives that can cut iron as well as mud. We are here. But it’s just to buy some rare goods to sell back for money.”

"Oh?! Are you traders?"

"Yes, we are travel merchants from the country of Bashi."

The guard's eyes lit up when he heard this, and then he took out a four-hand lighter from his pocket and said, "Since you are a traveling merchant, I will sell you the lighter."

"Lighter? What is that?" The traveler looked at the delicate lighter in the guard's hand, staring at the transparent liquid inside, filled with curiosity.

"Of course it's for making fire, look at it." The guard showed off by pressing the lighter button, and a small flame suddenly appeared.

"This, this, this is the Flame God's spell. It's impossible. How can you know the Flame God's spell?!" The traveler was shocked. He only heard about the many magical things in the Volcano Country in Bashi Country and wanted to take a trip. I'm sure I can make a lot of money. I didn't expect the guards of the Volcano Country to know the Fire God's spells.

"What fire god? This is a lighter created by our God of Light with his great magical power. It is the source of fire for our God of Light. It has nothing to do with you God of Fire." The guard waved the lighter in front of the merchant, and then said: " Since you are a traveling merchant, I will sell you this lighter that stores countless fires for only five thousand copper coins."

He bought this lighter from someone else. If he could trick a trader from another country, he could earn two thousand copper coins.