The Times Have Changed

My lord, times have changed.

A popular internet meme: The last page of a late medieval European swordsmanship textbook shows a swordsman killing another swordsman with a musket, accompanied by the caption "My lord, times have changed."

In the movie Indiana Jones, the black-clad swordsman showed off several sword moves to the villainous protagonist, only to be shot down by the protagonist.

Thirty years later, when the first student at a higher school used his Credits to buy the first ordinary handgun from a store, it heralded that this Dog-Headed People society, which originally belonged to the Bronze Age, had leaped into a new stage.

It directly propelled the Dog-Headed People from the Bronze Age, skipping several periods of cold weapon evolution, into the age of firearms. Of course, it wasn't that the Dog-Headed People could manufacture them, so strictly speaking, it doesn't count as entering the age of firearms; it's just that firearms appeared in society.

The pistol is the most powerful weapon that the Dog-Headed People can buy with their school Credits.

The reason humans were willing to place the pistols there wasn't because the New Government had lost its mind and handed weapons to the Dog-Headed People, but because, given the current level of enhancement in human bodies, the pistols posed no threat whatsoever.

Even without any armor, humans can withstand handgun bullets, so there is no question of giving others a handle to use against them.

Apart from the extremely expensive pistols, other steel knives, pots and pans, and other daily necessities also gradually entered the homes of ordinary Dog-Headed People in the thirty years that the school was open to the public.

Many items even passed through the hands of the Dog-Headed People of the Volcano Kingdom and were resold to neighboring countries.

The ultimate purpose of humans establishing schools is to increase the knowledge reserves of Dog-Headed People, so that they will be able to become suitable machine operators in the future.

Therefore, humans don't interfere with students using Credits to buy goods from the school and then resell them. Not only do they not interfere, but they also actively support the addition of many successfully researched and improved crops to the school store.

The circulation of goods will increase the commercial prosperity of the Volcano Kingdom, while the emergence of improved crops will allow the Dog-Headed People to obtain more food.

With a thriving business environment, the Dog-Headed People will have more money and more food. Dog-Headed People won't have to struggle to feed themselves all day long, and they can use their free time to think about and consider other things.

When you think and ponder a lot, inspiration often strikes, and that inspiration may be the spark that ignites a change in the social structure.

Humans did not directly intervene in the evolution of the Dog-Headed People's social structure, but through schools and shops, they caused the Dog-Headed People to evolve on their own, while simultaneously promoting the intellectual level of the Dog-Headed People population.

Humans have decided to wait until the 'Mind Imprint' technology is mature before using Dog-Headed People, so they are not worried about Dog-Headed People becoming smarter. On the contrary, the smarter they are, the more humans like them.

However, the Dog-Headed People, living in a slave society, had such backward thinking and extremely low productivity that even though some nobles and royalty came to study at Human School, their numbers were still too small to meet the future needs of humans.

On the other hand, since the New Government has defined the use of Dog-Headed People, the curriculum of advanced schools established by humans to train Dog-Headed People has also changed.

The focus of all content is shifting from classroom learning to practical application, and this applies to all types of exams as well.

Once the Dog-Headed People pass their high school exams, acquire basic knowledge, and develop a certain worldview, the direction of human education will change.

Those Dog-Headed People pass the assessment will learn about the various control devices, communication equipment, facilities, and scientific instruments on the warship, and through hands-on practice, master the methods of using these scientific devices and instruments.

Since the Dog-Headed People's hopes of setting foot on the stars are already slim, humanity has decided to take as many as they can. Those Dog-Headed People who meet the assessment criteria will be sent to the God of Light's Kingdom, essentially cryogenically frozen, to be thawed and used as humanity's vanguard once the technology of Mind Imprint is developed.

Humanity intends to use these Dog-Headed People to forge a loyal and Fearless of Death cannon fodder army. To this end, humanity plans to build another batch of Lake-Class Warship for future use.

The fact that this plan was approved proves that humanity has now completely become a Wandering Civilization dominated by spaceships.

Winter goes and spring comes, year after year.

Of course, there is no distinction between spring, summer, autumn and winter on the spaceship; only the clocks set by humans remind them that a new year has begun.

The start of a new year means that schools on the planet will welcome a new batch of students. On this day, the capital city of the Volcano Kingdom also welcomed three Dog-Headed People had traveled from afar.

Upon arriving at the city gate, the three Dog-Headed People were stopped by the guards.

"Who goes there!"

Seeing two gleaming steel blades blocking their way, the three Dog-Headed People quickly greeted them with smiles, "Guards, we three have come from the Ba Shi Kingdom in the east, crossing thousands of mountains and rivers. We hope you will allow us to pass."

As he spoke, the leading Dog-Headed People rummaged around on his body for a few moments, then pulled out several copper coins from the Volcano Kingdom and handed them to the guards.

"What brings you here?" Upon seeing the coins, the guards immediately put on a smiling face and sheathed their weapons, but still asked the routine question.

The leader of the Ba Shi Kingdom Dog-Headed People was secretly pleased to see this, and his eyes fell on the steel knife in the guard's hand. "We have heard that the Volcano Kingdom has all kinds of rare treasures, and even swords and knives that can cut through iron like mud. We have come here to buy some rare goods to sell for money."

"Oh?! You're traveling merchants?"

"Yes, we are traveling merchants from the Ba Shi Kingdom."

The guard's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and he pulled out a secondhand lighter from his pocket, saying, "Since you are traveling merchants, I will sell you this lighter."

"A lighter? What's that?" The traveling merchant stared intently at the delicate lighter in the guard's hand, his eyes fixed on the transparent liquid inside, his heart filled with curiosity.

"It's for starting a fire, of course," the guard boasted, snapping the lighter button. A small flame immediately appeared.

"This... this is the magic of the God of Flame! Impossible! How could you know the magic of the God of Flame?!" The traveling merchant was shocked. He had only heard that there were many magical things in the Volcano Kingdom Ba Shi Kingdom, and he thought that he could make a fortune by going there. He never expected that the guards of the Volcano Kingdom would know the magic of the God of Flame.

"What God of Flame? This is a lighter created by our God of Light using great supernatural powers. It is the source of our God of Light's fire and has nothing to do with your God of Flame." The guard waved the lighter in front of the traveling merchant and then said, "Since you are a traveling merchant, I will sell you this lighter that stores countless fire seeds for only five thousand copper coins."

He bought the lighter from someone else, and if he could rip off a traveling merchant from another country, he could earn two thousand copper coins.