"The Hill Lands Commonwealth?" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The Goddess of Magic seemed to be hearing this name for the first time and couldn’t help but pause for a moment.

After hearing Ren’s explanation, she finally showed a look of understanding. "So those dozen or so small countries all worship the Church of Technology now? If that’s the case, they really are the perfect region for reform, because... enough of them have died, and they’re weak enough."

For powerful nations like the Gray Fort Empire, the Kingdom of Dawn, and the Elven Kingdom, even gods would find it incredibly difficult to make them reform. Even their state religions couldn’t pull it off.

The reason was simple—there were too many interest groups at every level. Even if a god called for reform, the moment it touched those families’ interests, they’d push back without hesitation, even if it might kill them!

When dealing with entities like that, you either flip the whole table and start over, or you chip away at it gradually, implementing changes piece by piece so they don’t realize how much has shifted until it’s too late.

It seemed like there was a choice, but really, there wasn’t.

With the alien crisis that could pop up at any moment, they obviously didn’t have time to flip the table. And the other gods wouldn’t just sit back and watch themselves suddenly get weakened...

Population size had way too much impact on the gods’ power.

Beyond that, most importantly, those eighteen small nations were just too weak.

Their populations weren’t large to begin with, they weren’t strong, and they’d already been purged by the Church of the God of War. Most of the vested interests were already dead, and the survivors had become the minority. Facing the technology combat forces, as long as you weren’t asking for their lives, they’d pretty much agree to whatever terms you threw at them.

What’s more, industrialization in their region would actually bring them huge benefits and could quickly patch up the wounds left by the Church of the God of War...

"Yeah, and they’ve got some natural advantages too." Ren said with certainty. "That region is really well-suited for industrial transformation. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be putting so much effort into it."

"Speaking of which, since we’re spreading knowledge, why not try using the Magic Net to spread it? Those videos I shot before worked out pretty well."

The Goddess of Magic seemed to suddenly think of something and asked, "As long as ordinary people everywhere can be like the residents of Roster territory and learn about industrialization, recognize some basic characters, and then learn through the Magic Net, wouldn’t that work? Schools don’t seem necessary."

"No, it’s not the same." Ren shook his head slightly and quickly explained the difference between the two as he understood it.

And at this moment.

The mortal realm.

The capital of the Kingdom of Dawn.

Outside Dragon Bank, a banner suddenly went up.

[New customers, deposit 3 golden dragon coins and receive a free second-gen Magic Net ring!]

At the same time, some kids appeared on the streets and alleys of the capital, holding flyers and wandering around everywhere, shouting, "Dragon Bank grand opening special! Starting today, just deposit 3 golden dragon coins and get a free second-gen Magic Net ring! Save money and earn money—get 5% interest every year. Deposit 100 gold coins, come back in a year, and you can withdraw 105! You can borrow money too, 10% annual interest. Borrow 100 gold coins, and after one year you only need to pay back 110!"

The city residents who heard this news were immediately stunned.

The second-gen Magic Net ring had long since become something everyone knew about. Noble lords, merchant guild bosses, magicians, and knights practically all had one, but for ordinary people, it was something that put a lot of pressure on them.

One second-gen Magic Net ring cost three gold coins to buy.

That was basically a month to two months of income for ordinary freemen in this city. To save up that much money would take about half a year.

Taking half a year’s savings to buy an entertainment product was way too extravagant for ordinary people.

Even if they had the money, they couldn’t bear to spend it.

But now, Dragon Bank was giving them away for free!

You just needed to deposit 3 golden dragon coins!

"Kid, you’re saying that I just need to bring money over, deposit it, and I can get a second-gen Magic Net ring worth 3 gold coins for free? So when can I withdraw those three gold coins?"

Outside a restaurant, a guy dressed pretty plainly came out and looked somewhat curiously at the kid who was shouting everywhere.

He worked for a noble family maintaining their flower gardens and taking care of plants. You could say he’d been longing for this second-gen Magic Net for ages. He often saw the noble lord or his children sitting in various spots around the house, laughing at the Magic Net, and he’d even seen a child practicing their magic while talking to a voice on the Magic Net...

If he could buy one and bring it home, wouldn’t he be able to experience the lords’ happiness too? Wouldn’t there be a chance for his own kid to become a magician?

"Yes, just deposit the money and you can take it right away. Even if you deposit the money now, get the Magic Net ring, and then come back tomorrow to withdraw the money, that’s totally fine."

Seeing someone interested, the kid quickly stepped forward and handed over a flyer. "But I think you definitely won’t want to take it out. Instead, you’ll want to keep it deposited for a while longer. After all, this money-making-money thing used to be something only the big shots could do, but now we can do it ourselves..."

As the gardener listened to the kid’s explanation, the expression on his face grew more and more shocked. "Really, just deposit 100 gold coins for a year and it becomes 105 gold coins? Is this legit?"

"Of course it’s legit! This is a bank created by the dragon lords. All the big shots have money deposited in there now. Forget anything else—just in our city’s Dragon Bank, they’ve received over 20 million gold coins in deposits in just this recent period. That’s 20 million! I don’t know if His Majesty the King has deposited anything, but the dukes and ministers all have."

Conversations like this were happening all over the city.

Of course, there were also some passing merchants who were even more curious, even shocked, about the loan side of things. "You’re sure that if I borrow 100 gold coins, after one year I only need to pay back 110? You’re sure there won’t be a situation where I borrow 100 gold coins but they only give me 90?!"

When they saw that depositing for one year only got you 5% interest, they were actually pretty dissatisfied, because most merchants believed that if the capital was in their hands, they could definitely earn way more. Forget 5 coins—50 was possible.

But after hearing about the loan interest rates, their expressions changed dramatically.

"Of course! The dragon lords aren’t like those greedy loan sharks. Their Dragon Bank spans the entire continent, and they’re the most fair and just. Also, you should have a Magic Net, right? The Dragon Bank function on the Magic Net lets you see directly how much you’ve deposited, how much you’ve withdrawn, how much interest..."

These loan terms were indeed way more reasonable than most loan sharks, pawnshops, and churches. Right then and there, quite a few people rushed toward the Dragon Merchant Guild, especially those merchants who had already established partnerships with Roster territory!