Establishing Authority

After returning to the real world, Kerry was still sitting at the bow of the boat, deep in thought. Greedy Cat Jack, who had been waiting for over ten minutes, was already getting impatient. Either agree or start a fight—why did he need to think for so long?

At last, Kerry looked up and said, "I've decided to go home for lunch."

"You're fucking messing with me! Boys, grab your weapons! Today, I've decided to spend a few years vacationing on a deserted island." After waiting more than ten minutes only to be toyed with by Kerry, Greedy Cat Jack could not stand such humiliation and immediately started the fight.

"You want to attack a noble? I have the right to arrest you. Have you thought this through?" Kerry had robots backing him up now, even if they were not combat robots.

They were still more than capable of dealing with these useless scum, as long as he could hold back the strongest fighter on the other side: Greedy Cat Jack, a Warrior Level 1.

"Are you sick? Can't you see the situation?" Jack was the boss. With things going so well, there was naturally no need for him to step in personally. He would only take the field if his underlings could not handle it.

The power rankings on this continent were simple and crude.

Warriors had ten levels, and mages had ten levels. Upon reaching Level 10, one could live for two hundred years.

Warriors: below Level 5 was Earth Rank; above Level 5 was Sky Rank. Generally, only warriors above Level 3 had mastered battle aura.

Level 1—1,000 meters in 100 seconds, 500 jin of strength.

Level 2—1,000 meters in 90 seconds, 1,000 jin of strength.

Level 3—1,000 meters in 80 seconds, 2,000 jin of strength.

Level 4—1,000 meters in 70 seconds, 4,000 jin of strength.

Level 5—1,000 meters in 60 seconds, 8,000 jin of strength.

Level 6 Warrior—1,000 meters in 50 seconds, 16,000 jin of strength.

Level 7—1,000 meters in 40 seconds, 32,000 jin of strength.

Level 8—1,000 meters in 30 seconds, 64,000 jin of strength.

Level 9—1,000 meters in 20 seconds, 128,000 jin of strength.

Level 10—1,000 meters in 10 seconds, 256,000 jin of strength.

Anything beyond that was unknown.

Mages: above Level 5, they could Instant Cast low-level magic. At Level 10, they could cast forbidden spells. At Level 3, they could learn the Wind Magic Featherfall Spell to float through the air, while at Level 5, they could use the Flight Spell to fly quickly.

The higher one's mana, the more spells one could learn and the higher one's level could become.

Mage levels required examinations. Of course, retests were allowed, but unrecognized levels came with none of the corresponding benefits. Advancement was judged by destructive power, with each level being roughly twice as strong as the previous one.

Overall, this was a medium-to-low-tier magic martial world. Both the military and agriculture were extremely important.

To be honest, Miner No. 5's strength exceeded ten tons. It was practically a humanoid crane, stronger even than a Level 6 Warrior. Unfortunately, it was not a combat model and could not beat people up. It could only use riot-control equipment to protect the mining area.

"Greetings, Master. Unit 001, a general-purpose robot, salutes you. What are your orders?" A fight was about to break out, and since it was Kerry's first time fighting, he was somewhat nervous. He did not hold back his trump card and directly deployed Miner No. 5.

"Rioting thugs have invaded the mining area. Protect me and arrest them." This was one mode of issuing commands to robots. If he directly ordered Unit 001 to attack humans, the command could not be executed.

There had to be rioters. It had to be defensive retaliation. They could be arrested, but not killed.

Furthermore, overly complicated commands would affect the CPU's processing speed. At a time like this, they were in the middle of a fight, where every second counted.

"Order received. Protect Master. Arrest rioters." Kerry had reset Unit 001's designation. Originally, it had been a twenty-five-character code of letters and numbers. After repeating the order, Unit 001 took out a riot shield and a rubber riot-control gun and began firing. Rat-a-tat-tat!

Kerry did not want to personally enter the fight. As a Warrior Level 1, he could only handle three to five ordinary people at most. He would need to reach Warrior Level 2 before there was any real qualitative change.

But not wanting to enter the fight did not mean he could avoid it. Before long, Fishery Overlord Jack's subordinates had been dealt with by Unit 001.

Jack realized that things were going badly. This noble was rich enough to buy a combat puppet, something even the Goblin Kingdom rarely sold. It seemed there would be no peaceful end to this today.

Following the principle of capturing the leader first, Jack leaped onto Kerry's boat, pulled out a dagger, and stabbed at Kerry.

Kerry had studied how to fight unarmed enemies wielding weapons at the royal capital's Magic Martial Academy, but he had never experienced a true life-or-death battle.

With a clumsy roll, Kerry dodged the dagger. Sweat broke out on his forehead. That had been close. Could Boss Big Head's Learning Device learn real combat experience? I have to go check next time.

It was Kerry's first battle, and his mind was a little muddled. Even now, he was still thinking about using the Learning Machine to cheat his way into gaining practical combat experience.

"Heh heh, and you call yourself a baron? Is that all you can do? Why don't you hand your title over to me? A baron who only knows how to run?" Jack threw out trash talk, trying to throw Kerry off.

He could see it too. This young noble possessed the strength of a Warrior Level 1 but had no combat experience. He was only playing clever tricks, relying on their similar physical abilities and speed to keep dodging. Put nicely, he was maneuvering around Jack.

That was right. Kerry knew his own weaknesses. He was playing to his strengths and avoiding his weaknesses, doing his best to stall. Unit 001 would soon come to support him. In the end, he would still win. For now, he just needed to stay steady and not get reckless.

And that was indeed what happened. Less than five minutes later, Unit 001 used a riot-control net launcher to capture Jack alive.

The fishermen who had originally thought there might still be a chance to salvage the situation were completely despairing after Unit 001 captured Jack alive. They had failed to steal the chicken and lost the rice instead. They had worked all night for nothing and had even offended a baron.

These fishermen no longer regarded Kerry as a young, down-and-out noble who had returned to the countryside to farm.

They now saw him as a true noble lord.

A man with the authority to arrest any commoner who offended him, and the ability to arrest any commoner he wanted to arrest.

Seeing Fishery Overlord Jack, who had dominated the area for so long, arrested on the spot, and thinking of Jack's future in prison, the common fishermen avoided Kerry's gaze and felt uneasy. They were terrified of angering the lord of South Australia Island, Baron Kerry.

Kerry felt that this incident with Fishery Overlord Jack had turned out rather well. Looking at the fishermen around him avoiding his gaze, terrified that he might take out his anger on them, Kerry was delighted.

He knew that after this incident, he had at least established his authority among the commoners. In the future, when he issued orders, they would no longer casually dismiss him or ignore him as they had this time.

Although they were still far from obeying his every word, Kerry—who had been an ordinary person in his previous life and only possessed memories of how to be a noble in this one—was experiencing for the first time what it felt like to have power that made others fear him.

Next, as long as he allowed those who feared him to gain even a little benefit from him, he could turn fear into respect. These were the valuable noble lessons the original owner of this body had learned since childhood.

"I've suddenly changed my mind." Just as the fishermen had resigned themselves and prepared to sail home, Kerry suddenly raised his voice.

What? Was he going to arrest them too? They were not criminals like Jack. If they were thrown into prison, they might very well die in there.

Prisons in every country during this era had extremely high death rates. Many people began arranging their funerals the moment they heard they were going to prison.

The fishermen were so frightened that they barely dared to breathe, terrified of drawing Kerry's attention. If he noticed them, would they be sent to prison?

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