Episode 87: New Year’s Commemorative Cultural Event (2)
“I wonder what the next event will be like.
I’d be perfectly happy if it’s just as fun as yesterday. No more, no less.”
“You must have really enjoyed yesterday’s ‘Derasia War.’
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you that excited, sir.”
“It brought back some old memories for a moment.
Though it was definitely fun to watch, and the various ideas were interesting too.”
A few days after leaving the first event thoroughly satisfied, and purchasing all sorts of commemorative goods in return.
Aria and I had already arrived at a new venue to participate in the next event.
As I had already explained once before, all the events we had decided to attend this time were ones born under the influence of my works.
“In other words, they are not events with long-standing tradition.”
“It has not even been four full years since you met me and began your career in earnest, sir.
Since these events were newly created after that, it cannot be helped that their traditions are short.”
Of course, the length of an event’s tradition did not determine its fun, popularity, or quality.
“To put it bluntly, if you compared a gathering of bandits that had been held for a hundred years with an event only a year old but personally opened by His Majesty the King,
the latter’s quality and authority would be so overwhelmingly superior that there would be no need for discussion.”
The longer a tradition goes on, the more naturally the level of the event tends to rise.
But even if it was a new event without that kind of history, if it had enough capital, power, and manpower behind it, its quality could be raised as much as needed.
Why was I suddenly bringing this up?
Because the event I would be attending today was a prime example of the latter case.
An event that overcame its lack of tradition with capital, power, manpower, and even mana, finally rising to become one of the most important events in the kingdom!
“Thank you for accepting our invitation, Mr. Wei!
Welcome to the Magic Tower’s Technological Development Expo!”
It was none other than the technological development expo unveiled by the Magic Tower.
An event where they generously revealed and demonstrated all sorts of innovative new technologies recently developed by the Magic Tower.
‘You could say it feels like a science fair or expo from my previous life.’
In short, the technologies on display here represented the cutting edge of the Yustia Kingdom’s technology.
Compared to my previous life, the scale was naturally a little smaller.
But countless guests from all walks of life were flocking here to see and test those cutting-edge technologies.
Until now, the Magic Tower had been a mysterious and closed-off space exclusively for magicians.
That made even more people interested in this expo, where they were throwing the doors wide open.
So I, unable to suppress my curiosity, had no choice but to accept the invitation.
“My name is Carix, the general team leader of this expo, and I will be your guide today.
If there is anything you need or anything you are curious about, please ask me anything.”
“Ah, I’ll be in your care.
I didn’t expect the person overseeing the entire expo to personally guide us.”
“That is how important a guest you are, Mr. Wei.
And I am personally a fan of your work as well, so I was actually the one who insisted on doing it myself. Hahaha!”
An expo tour guide personally served up by none other than the general team leader!
It had been the same when I went to see the “Derasia War” not long ago.
Whether it was because I had come by invitation, or because of the reputation I had built up, the VIP treatment was unmistakable.
“Ahem, then may I ask you to guide us right away?
I’m looking forward to the technologies at the expo, so I’d like to look around as soon as possible.”
“Of course. That is exactly why we invited you.”
I suppressed the part of me that was starting to feel a little arrogant.
After a simple greeting and a commemorative photo for promotional purposes, we immediately began touring the expo.
I was grateful for the VIP treatment.
But I felt bad keeping someone in charge like him occupied for too long.
Besides, I was genuinely looking forward to seeing what kinds of cutting-edge technologies were actually being developed, and whether or not I could make use of those technologies in my writing.
And so, as we listened to the detailed explanations of General Team Leader Carix, who had a thorough grasp of the entire expo, the tour displayed a level of technology and novelty that far exceeded my expectations.
“This is video technology being developed together with the royal family.
From what I know, they are developing it in the direction of using illusion magic together with memory magic mediated through familiars.”
“Memory magic mediated through familiars?”
“Yes. They say they intend to use familiars stripped of all other functions and intelligence, specialized solely in seeing and remembering.
This way, there will be no concern that subjectivity will enter the memory and distort it, and many restrictions on filming distance or direction will also disappear.”
“Ooh... I don’t understand the details, but that sounds amazing.”
“Of course, there are still all sorts of issues to resolve, so it remains in the realm of theory for now.
Starting with how to extract and store a familiar’s memories, and then editing technology as well...”
There was video technology they were trying to realize through magic and familiars.
“What is this small jewel?”
“Ah, that is a compact recording jewel.
We are working on reducing the size of crystal orbs that record sound to make them easier to carry.”
“Oh, that’s nice.
With this, wouldn’t you be able to carry it around and listen to songs whenever you wanted?”
“Precisely. The unfortunate part is that the price is somewhat high.”
“I’d like to buy a few for now. How would I go about purchasing them?”
There were also compact recording jewels reminiscent of music CDs or MP3 players from my previous life.
“Ah, this is the place researching home integrated game consoles.”
“Home integrated game consoles?”
“The goal is to make it so people don’t have to go all the way to an arcade just to play games, and don’t have to purchase a separate game and machine every time they want to play something different.
They say they want to make it possible to play multiple games on a single device.
To be honest, I am skeptical as to whether that will be possible...”
“No! I think it’s a very cool and reasonable idea.
I also believe that’s the most ideal method, and that one day such a game console will appear.
I’d like to cheer them on so they can definitely succeed!”
“Ooh. If Mr. Wei says so, then that changes things.
We will have to provide additional budget support to the home integrated game console.
Ah, if you do not mind, sir, may I pass along the encouragement you just gave to them?
If you allow it, it will be a great help to their passion.”
“Of course. Please tell them I believe it is definitely possible.”
There was even technology being developed with a home console game system as its goal.
“As expected, there seem to be a lot of technologies related to me.
Video and recording, and game consoles too.”
“Haha. That is only natural.
The various works you have created, Mr. Wei, are precisely the hottest and most closely watched technologies in the Magic Tower these days!”
“Oh...”
“All magicians who do any research into technology are endlessly amazed by the new visions and inspirations you have shown them.
So it is only natural that everyone is digging into technologies related to you like this.
Of course, that includes me as well. Hahaha!”
As befitting an event born under the influence of my works, there were many culturally oriented technologies similar to the things I had introduced.
And quite a few fresh ideas and technologies stood out, to the point that they did not fall behind even when compared with my previous life.
No, in some cases, thanks to magic, they had even achieved breakthroughs in solving technologies that had been impossible in my previous life.
‘On the other hand, there were also many technologies that had been commonly commercialized in my previous life but didn’t exist here.’
But considering that this world was a fantasy world, yet still firmly in the medieval era, that could hardly be called a flaw.
Rather, that made it even more interesting.
In a civilization with a completely different tech tree, they were recreating the culture of my previous life in a completely different way.
How could watching that possibly not be fun?
Since I was not an engineering nerd but a humanities guy, and on top of that someone who had given up on magic, I could not understand the detailed explanations of the principles.
But even if I did not know those principles,
it was enough to know that technologies were being developed here at the expo that could entertain me, and perhaps even help me with my goals.
“What if you developed a technology linked to the compact recording jewel that lets only the wearer hear the sound?
Then they could enjoy only the recorded sound without being disturbed by surrounding noise.”
“About the home integrated game console.
Could you pass along the idea of making a dedicated external connection device?
Something where the game console only handles the output, and you just swap the game into the external device.
Ah, in that case, it might be better to make games designed to run according to the specifications of the game console itself.”
So I, too, offered advice in the hopes of being even a small help to them.
It was only minor advice based on knowledge from my previous life, or ideas that occurred to me from it, and I did not know the principles myself.
But sometimes, a small word of advice like that could break through a blockage.
And casually saying a few words in passing was not exactly difficult.
“Ooh. Thank you for your valuable advice!
As expected, you truly are different, Mr. Wei.
You identified points for improvement just by watching the demonstrations!
Many other guests do not even properly understand what the demonstrations are about. Hahaha!”
“Ahaha...”
I decided not to reveal the fact that if I had not been a reincarnator and had simply been an ordinary resident of this world, I probably would have been included in that list of guests who did not understand.
There was no need to deliberately shatter a fan’s dreams and fantasies...
In any case.
As we continued around the expo, listening to explanations, being amazed, and occasionally leaving advice for promising technologies...
Murmur, murmur—
“Hm? Why are so many people gathered over there?
It looks like almost ten times as many as the other places.”
I discovered one demonstration area that had drawn a suspiciously large crowd.
When I asked Carix what on earth they were doing there to have gathered such a uniquely large audience,
an astonishing answer came back.
“Ah, that is the greatest highlight of this expo.
It is also the demonstration area for the technology I am researching and developing.”
“Oh! The technology you developed is the highlight, Mr. Carix? As expected of someone entrusted with the role of general team leader.
What kind of technology is it?”
“Ah, the technology I am researching is the Gigant.”
“...Pardon?”
“To be precise, I am researching a mass-market Gigant that even ordinary people who are not knights can ride and enjoy for recreation!”
It was an answer brimming with romantic ambition—to make Gigants available to everyone as something they could enjoy for fun.