The Birth of a Cybertronian Capitalist

So, this is what happened that night.

"Do you understand the process? Come, let me teach you some more Flame Element... I'll start a fire first."

"Isn't it easy? Not difficult at all, right? Here, have two hundred rounds of 9mm bullets..."

"Roar of the Crimson Flame? No, no, no, you're overthinking it. You don't need that many."

"One hundred enchantments are enough for now. The remaining one hundred will be Sharpness of the Divine Edge to increase penetration and lethality. Here, show me the USB interface, and I'll give you the blueprint."

"Hmm? Why would you think that?"

"I'm teaching you this knowledge to help you learn these two enchantments. You can then enchant and enhance your own ammunition to increase your combat power. This is a skill your father selflessly taught you. Knowledge is priceless. You're just helping me with some repetitive tasks. Is there a problem?"

"Son, I think you've fallen into a misconception. What surplus value are you talking about? If I hadn't provided the means of production, would you have had the opportunity to generate any surplus value? Knowledge is priceless, child. It seems I have to explain to you the evil apprenticeship system of the old society. You're living in a world of blessings but don't know it..."

Do you know where you went wrong?

"Alright, I'm off now. You can multitask, right? You definitely can. Computers can do it, so there's no reason you can't. What I mean is, I'll drive, and you process the ammunition, okay?"

Then, the night passed, until the sun rose and pedestrians appeared on the road.

As usual Kang De drove his Humvee to a remote, desolate area to rest—he had now become a nocturnal owl, for safety reasons.

After all, cars are too conspicuous.

After surveying the surroundings and taking some cover, Kang De lowered his seat and tapped the steering wheel. "Could you cover all the windows?"

The Humvee hummed softly, and the disassembled parts transformed into a hard shell that enveloped everything, plunging the interior into darkness. A mechanical arm handed Kang De a blanket and a pillow.

"Oh, thank you," Kang De said. "The guard duty is now in your hands."

A deep voice came from the car's stereo. "Yes, Father."

The kind old father smiled and said, "There are still many things to take care of; you can't rest now."

"..."

The Autobots paused for a moment, then said, "Father."

Kang De lay comfortably on the extended, wide chair, pulling the blanket over himself. In absolute darkness, without light, only the human soul and the machine soul seemed to be conversing. "Hmm?"

"Theoretically speaking, I don't need to sleep for long periods like you do. As long as I have enough energy, I can keep moving, but that's only in theory."

The Autobots's voice held a hint of confusion. "But I get confused, especially when I'm doing this meticulous and tedious work repeatedly, while my father is happily singing and even using his phone, to the point that I have to distract him to help him control the direction and speed... This makes me feel confused."

Kang De's voice sounded weary and weak.

"My little one..."

He sighed, "You only see me singing happily, but you don't see the weeping of my soul. My child, you don't know how I survived before you were born. I was all alone, wandering in this strange world, everything around me was completely unfamiliar. The humans here harbored great malice towards me. Every day I had to travel in fear, and I had to sleep with one eye open and one eye closed..."

He covered his face and sobbed, "Besides that, under this intense psychological pressure, I also have to find the time and energy to enchant and enhance my bullets to increase my combat power and self-defense capabilities, in order to resist the potential dangers of this world. My son, do you know how hard I'm working...?"

Kang De's voice choked with emotion as he said this, "I am a human being, with a weak heart and a fragile soul, low psychological resilience, and immense mental pressure. My physical constitution dictates that I am not suited for tedious, repetitive labor, yet even so, I gritted my teeth and did it..."

"And then, you appeared."

"Do you know how happy I am? From now on, I'm no longer alone. I can sleep soundly, and I have companions to walk with me, to face dangers and difficulties together. You can even help me with some of the work, because I'm so tired and want to rest..."

"After all, you're a robot... you're much more suited to these repetitive and tedious tasks than my flesh and blood, right? I just want you to help me out for a while..."

Kang De sighed, "But you're right, I was indeed too selfish. I shouldn't have given you all the work; it wasn't fair to you. I had no right to do that, after all, I was just your creator, your guide, your mentor, and your caretaker..."

He pushed the blanket aside and said shakily, "Help me up, I'll help you with your work..."

"..."

A mechanical arm gently pressed Kang De down, Autobots's voice, filled with unbearable shame, rang out. Kang De could even hear the engine power increasing. "Father, I was wrong. I shouldn't have said that. You've been so good to me, it's only right that I do something for you. I'm sorry, I was so naive and immature..."

It looked genuinely excited and ashamed.

Kang De remained silent for a moment.

"You're too excited, the car's temperature has risen, could you please turn on the air conditioning..."

"... oh."

The cool air it blew out solved the problem of the Autobots.

The Autobots continued, "Father, please rest well. Leave these matters to me... Whether it's enchanting bullets, reforging ammunition, or modifying gun calibers..."

Kang De said uneasily, "I'll do it myself, don't tire yourself out..."

The Autobots tried to dissuade him, saying, "Father, I won't get tired, really, as long as I have enough energy. Actually, I was just confused before, but now that's cleared up. I was too selfish. I should have thought more about you, shared your burdens, and taken on some of your work..."

Kang De sighed, "That's true, but I'm your master, and you're my son. Exploiting you... I mean, making you do things for me is something I can't bear to do. Making you do things for me is just a temporary measure. What I mean is, shouldn't we think of a more win-win way?"

The Autobots asked curiously, "What does 'win-win' mean?"

Kang De said, "Of course, I mean that you don't have to work, and I don't have to work; we can exploit each other... I mean providing valuable job opportunities for others."

"Think about it, when you complete the enchantment, I provide the Flame Element, and you use a device similar to a probe to draw a pattern on the ammunition to achieve the enchantment effect. In fact, intelligent beings can also do the final step; what they lack is simply a probe device for storing and outputting the Element..."

"Put your brilliant mechanical brain to think: could you be in charge of producing some kind of refillable probe device and Element storage equipment? The tedious enchanting work can be delegated to someone else..."

--In fact, Kang De's earlier idea of using machines like engraving machines to automate enchanting actually had a lot of difficulties. Due to the huge bonus brought by the Fire Thief's talent, he thought it would be easy, but according to the Autobots, Element enchanting engraving requires a certain amount of mental guidance, and mechanical, rigid operations are prone to failure. In the end, it still needs intelligent beings to operate it.

"We could even go further and delegate this work to machines, eventually achieving large-scale industrial production... but that would require significant technological breakthroughs, and that too would depend on you."

"How are you, my child?"

Kang De gently encouraged them. "The source of human technological progress is the opportunistic nature. I suggest you strive in this direction and become a promoter and researcher of technology, after all..."

The evil humans of Earth have given voice to capitalism.

"It's much more comfortable to watch others work themselves to the bone while you manage things leisurely, rather than to be exhausted from your own busy work..."

The Autobots's tone carried a hint of uncertainty. "Is... is that so?"

After all, it's still a pure and honest good kid. "This kind of work is tedious and tiring. If we delegate it to someone else, wouldn't that just transfer the pain to them?"

Kang De smiled meaningfully, "What are you saying? We won't let others work for free. We can pay them, give them wages, let them earn money, and let them change their lives, gain happiness, and gain respect... Don't you see, isn't that a good thing?"

The Autobots, upon hearing this, thought it made a lot of sense, "Y-yes, that's true... As expected of Father. I understand. Then, I'll think about how to solve the problem of Element storage and output..."

Kang De smiled with satisfaction.

He wasn't lying; it was the truth.

But there was one thing he didn't tell the naive child.

Even if he paid the workers generously, the so-called generous compensation was nothing more than a drop in the ocean compared to the value they created.

Isn't that unfair?

That seems unfair.

After all, the value created by the workers far exceeds their wages.

The enchanting tools were provided by Kang De, the enchanting technique was provided by Kang De, and even the materials for enchanting were provided by Kang De —how should this part be valued? How much profit should be taken from this portion?

Following this line of thought, such an allocation seems fair.

Anyway, the other world operates according to this rule: patents, jobs, shares, contracts, agreements, motivational quotes... all of this forms a new and hidden form of exploitation. Most people have no objection to this, and those who object can get lost. There are so many people who need money to support their families, and the workforce doesn't need you.

This is what the world is really like.

Right and wrong, advantages and disadvantages, the past and the present—many people argue about it, many are worried, and many more are indifferent... But all of this has nothing to do with Kang De today.

His surname was Kant, and his given name was De; he was not that philosopher, nor did he want to ponder such issues of human Civilization.

For him now, these things are all too distant and too vague.

He had immediate matters to attend to—helping Goth defeat the elves, the world's overlords, and settling scores with the eldest prince of the human world's empire.

Therefore, power is needed, all available power must be mobilized, any power will do... Black cat or white cat, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat. He doesn't mind releasing some wild beasts.

At the very least, if his plan succeeds, he can easily manufacture a large number of enchanted weapons, which can be used to support Goth or exported to make gold as an arms dealer.

"Then, I'll leave it to you."

He lay on the chair, covered with a blanket and a pillow, with his eyes closed.

The tone was very soft.

Honestly, I'm really happy to have you here, in all sorts of ways.

"I thought about a lot of things last night, and I had many ideas. With you here, many of these ideas can be put into practice... No matter if the opponent is an elf or an empire, we can still see hope for victory. We can definitely win. I was a little worried before..."

He murmured, "On another note, what should we do after winning...?"

Whispering these words, Kang De slowly drifted off to sleep.

He was indeed very tired.

These days I've been traveling alone, constantly on edge, wary and vigilant about everything around me. I can't sleep soundly, and I don't communicate with the otherworldly beings... This state has lasted for a long time.

Moreover, their opponents were behemoths like the Elves and the Empire.

How could a mere individual possibly intervene in such a massive war?

But today, with the birth of the Autobots, everything has finally changed.

The car was completely silent.

Only Kang De's even breathing could be heard.

After a long silence, the Autobots whispered.

"Father, please rest assured, whatever you need to do, I will help you..."

At the same time.

The Vidal Family scouts discovered the bodies of two knights... the two who had been captured.

Leona arrived with her men, completely disregarding the gruesome corpse. She even personally examined it. "Hmm, a small wound on the head, a large hole blown open at the back of the head, remnants of Flame element in the wound, the same attack method... The victim's face still shows signs of fear, but there are no signs of torture on the body. Clearly, the victim underwent intense mental intimidation and interrogation before being executed..."

The silver-haired girl nodded and said, "He's a real talent. He should work at the Imperial Inquisition. Those perverts who make such bloody and disgusting scenes all the time should really learn from the Cathayan. They handle torture in a clean and dignified way... Damn, I'm getting more and more envious of Tina. She went on a stupid mission to the Empire and actually managed to meet such a lucky guy..."

The old butler said calmly, "Miss, please be more dignified..."

"What's wrong?"

Leona glared at her and said, "Can't I even praise him? I didn't say I wanted to steal Tina's sugar daddy. Do you think I'm that kind of person? Are you kidding me? Would I be that pathetic?"

"Besides, in the entire empire, in both the underworld and the legitimate world, who doesn't know that I, Leona, am the most loyal? Do you know what loyalty means? Loyalty means that even if every man in the world dies, even if I never marry, even if that Cathayan is incredibly powerful and muscular, I will never steal a man from Tina!"

Since Miss has said so, then there's basically no problem.

After all, the old butler had great confidence in the young lady's pride and vision.

--But for some reason, he still felt a faint unease.

Leona said, "But... the news has leaked after all, and this Cathayan is still alive."

The old butler nodded silently.

The Crown Prince's men aren't stupid. Although last night's pursuit was a clandestine operation, they still sent out a message beforehand, which couldn't be intercepted.

In other words, although this attempt failed, the eldest prince will certainly not give up easily.

It's not just him; Princess Tina's actions have now drawn the attention of the entire empire and even the world. The army she's mobilized is essentially slapping the empire in the face. Her ultimate goal is to lead this ever-growing reinforcement into Goth to fight the elves. In other words, Tina is now practically fighting against the two most powerful nations in the world.

Because of her clever methods and cunning, her enemies were unable to deal with her for the time being, but Kang De was all alone... Tina had previously claimed that the Cathayan was her betrothed.

"The entire western part of the empire is about to be thrown into turmoil..."

Leona said, "Given Kang De's previous display of wisdom, he must have anticipated this. Therefore, he won't head north to find Tina, as that would mean facing numerous obstacles and dangers, especially since the entire journey is within the Empire... If I'm not mistaken, he will continue westward until he leaves the Imperial borders and enters Goth, then head north from Goth to catch up with Tina's army."

The old butler nodded.

A well-reasoned and evidence-based analysis.

"So, I've pretty much finalized his route... Especially since he's from Cathayan, doesn't have precise maps, and isn't familiar with the terrain here, his next destination is even clearer."

Leona said, "Let's go ahead and wait for him there, or find him!"

The old butler asked, "Where are those greens?"

Leona smiled slightly, "Of course, tell them to go on their own... They now believe in that prophecy without a doubt, and I have a feeling they might be very useful..."

"After all..."

A look of worry appeared on the girl's face. "Kang De probably needs all the forces he can unite and utilize right now... His current situation is really not good."

She thought of another intelligence report she had received that morning.

The old butler asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

The girl sighed. "I just received intelligence this morning. Someone's offering a bounty for Kang De. It's a mercenary group that's risen to prominence in the last two months. They're full of noble disciples, wandering warriors, slave gladiators, and wild mages—very powerful and with extensive connections. These ragtag people are using all sorts of channels to find out where Kang De, the Cathayan, is. Apparently, their ferocious and terrifying leader specifically requested him..."

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PS1: Five thousand words combined into one long chapter... Damn, I didn't sleep well last night, so I'm not energetic today, my writing is slow, and the update is late again. It's a vicious cycle...