It Never Hurt to Understand the World

The increase in this world is ultimately just an increase; it can turn five into six, or even one into two, but zero will not become one.

Just like the tendencies of fairy tales, it cannot conjure up divine intervention out of thin air, nor can it cause a person to encounter events without reason or undergo transformations without any prior preparation.

All developments, in general, will inevitably move in the direction of fairy tales, continuously advancing under the unique amplification of this world.

But the power of moving forward itself is entirely real.

After this second examination of Mrs. Travers, Manus realized this clearly once again.

Apart from that, everything seemed perfectly normal and went very smoothly.

After Mrs. Travers was taken home to recuperate, she was under care almost 24 hours a day. Staying at home, she was unlikely to encounter any unexpected situations, and since it was just normal recuperation, it was very difficult for anything to go wrong.

"Just make sure you get plenty of rest afterwards, and don't go against your instinct to fall asleep unless absolutely necessary."

Manus replenished the Soul Cradle with new medicine and gave Mrs. Travers a dose of healing potion, giving her medical instructions.

Travers had made a point of writing down what was completely comprehensible, which made Manus somewhat embarrassed.

Well, at least this serves as a supplement to the Wizard's lack of medical records.

I stayed at the Travers' house for lunch. Travers' cooking skills were surprisingly good, which showed that he had learned more than just how to make snacks after Mrs. Travers' accident.

In the afternoon, Manus didn't rush home, but instead went to the London Library to update the academic information in the Muggle World that had been available for the past six months.

Although Manus has been running businesses outside the company for the past six months, he has been busy with various affairs at the company and school. These matters are not life-or-death, but they have far-reaching impacts, and he needs to make the final decision on every detail.

Did you go see the solar eclipse in May?

While Manus was flipping through papers and academic journals, Mr. Bauer and Manus chatted casually.

"I went to see it, and it was absolutely stunning."

Hogwarts was experiencing a rainy day, making observation conditions less than ideal, but Manus managed to observe from other locations, even risking using the Stargazing spell to conduct some observations.

As for the observation results... they were indeed quite astounding.

Manus realized that his current protective measures were somewhat inadequate in the field of Stargazing, and he also gained some insights into the power of the sun and eclipses.

While there have been some practical gains in the magical realm, they haven't yet reached the point where they can be considered as significant magical achievements.

It can only be said that it provided richer research materials and laid a solid foundation for subsequent research.

Before the Legendary Magic of [Manus's Astral Vestment] was truly perfected, Manus did not intend to easily observe stars directly again, especially one so close to him.

Although the Astral Plane does not have a physical concept of distance, some magic in Manus's modified Star Magic: This World Edition is still affected by physical distance to a certain extent.

"Really? That's a pity. I happened to be on duty that day, and it just so happened to be a cloudy day here."

Mr. Bauer sighed, his tone not revealing much regret, but rather a sense of disappointment at not being able to witness the excitement.

Although solar eclipses are not particularly rare, for many people who do not travel far from their place of residence, being able to observe a clearly visible solar eclipse is not especially frequent.

Fortunately, this wasn't a total solar eclipse; otherwise, it would have been a great pity to miss such a rare event that only occurs once every few centuries.

There's still a chance.

Manus knew that Mr. Bauer was just saying it casually, so he offered a perfunctory consolation and turned his gaze away from the academic journal in his hand.

There haven't been any major academic breakthroughs in the past six months. The few noteworthy ones are in particle physics, but these breakthroughs have limited value for Manus.

He doesn't have the time to research projects that may have broad prospects, but are unlikely to bring him any significant improvement in the short term.

Of course, breakthroughs in nuclear physics are another matter. While they don't directly improve his personal abilities, they can upgrade the energy core of his Mage Tower. Currently, his design for the energy core is still a cold nuclear fusion reactor.

He wouldn't mind scrapping and redesigning if he could replace it with a more efficient option that didn't involve a significant leap in technical costs.

Are you concerned about the changes in the Muggle world?

Mr. Bauer noticed Manus flipping through the pile of newspapers again and became curious, since they were about the international situation.

No part of this world is isolated; there's never a bad thing to understand it.

Manus spoke sincerely, especially now that he has business dealings in the Muggle world, which makes him even more worthy of attention.

His gaze lingered briefly on the military clashes between Greece and Turkey in Cyprus and Greece's withdrawal from NATO before moving on to other matters.

War... profits...

This world has a fairytale-like quality, but it is not a true fairytale. Human desires and ambitions do not disappear out of thin air, and no matter how much they are influenced by fairytale-like tendencies, they will eventually erupt.

Manus also noted that the continuous rise in oil prices has caused global economic growth to plummet to a standstill, a consequence of the previous situation in the Middle East, and this trend is expected to continue.

Manus can already see many signs of the constantly changing situation in the Middle East, with the United States and the Soviet Union making moves and confronting each other there.

If this were a real fairy tale world, Manus might be able to create some new energy sources to spark a wave of change, leading the world towards common prosperity after overcoming the problem of distributing limited fossil fuels.

But this is the real world, Manus's actions will only escalate the world from localized wars over inefficient fossil fuels to a global war that has only been over for a few decades.

This is not an exaggeration. The rapid iteration and upgrading of weapons was an important factor in the global calm after World War II, but this level of energy innovation will also bring visible prospects for innovation in weaponry.

This will shift everyone's initial calm after suddenly discovering a weapon that can kill many people but also harm them, to a state of anxiety about the enemy developing a weapon that prevents them from using it, which would directly lead to their deaths.

The current global confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States is based on this back-and-forth of restraint and madness, a constant tug-of-war between unease and calm.

If Manus detonates this powder keg, the moral standards that have been upheld in the past will likely become useless, and the protagonist of this world will be someone else.