23 Chapter 23 — Flat Planet?

Over the past month, the Third Reich had been slowly expanding and consolidating its power. All demi-humans were turned into slaves and became a major workforce in mines and factories. Secret Police did random investigations to find any demi-human sympathisers housing demi-humans. All neighbouring Kingdoms had been subjugated.

The Gene-Seed project was also making progress. Basic Gene-Seeds to enhance reaction times were implanted into many source soldiers, and advances in cannon technology allowed for much higher accuracy. Basic Gene-Seeds for combat, on the other hand, were not as necessary, as gunpowder weapons were enough. They were only used for special forces or as Konrad's bodyguards.

Konrad had also gotten himself a few beautiful demi-human maids. The country was no longer in any mortal danger, and he could, for the first time, finally take a breath. He was getting tired of being surrounded by men all the time, so the best demi-human slaves were chosen to serve him. Their families were given good food and accommodation and were treated well, but they were under constant surveillance and were essentially hostages for the maids. If they dared to betray him, then they would all be executed.

One side-effect of the Gene-Seed was it no longer allowed the user to use magic, but this was no problem for the source soldiers and Konrad, whom by nature couldn't use magic anyways. Konrad had implanted himself with advanced gene seeds that pushed his abilities to a superhuman level and underwent extensive combat training. This was on top of his body, which had been strengthened by all the elixirs he took.

All experiments to gain power were being tested in Site-01. Blood magic, necromancy, cursed weapons, and everything magical that could potentially increase national strength was being researched. Demi-humans and convicted criminals were used as test subjects, and all experiments were heavily monitored and controlled. Konrad didn't want a containment breach happening.

The entire world had been shocked at the power displayed by the Third Reich. Even though their national strength was injured, no one dared to challenge the mostly intact battleship fleets whose cannons could rain unparalleled destruction. In a rush, Kingdoms and Empires all around the continent started investing heavily in cannons and steam technology, with mediocre results.

In response, the Third Reich began selling steam equipment. The prices of them were hugely inflated, but countries still bought them at high prices. Of course, Konrad only released simplified and outdated versions of the technology. Even then, countries were shocked at the efficiency and power of them, especially the train. Far-sighted Empires started building extensive train tracks covering their country. On the other hand, other countries, like the Elves, rejected the technology completely.

Konrad also set up a giant tobacco industry. Tobacco didn't exist in this world, so it was an untapped market. Cigarettes and cigars were sold to other countries, and the addictive tobacco products instantly became popular. Konrad banned all smoking in the Third Reich and was against smoking as he knew how harmful it was. The demand for tobacco was so high that it completely overshadowed supply, and giant tobacco fields were planted to keep up. Even then, there was still much potential to be explored in the market.

The influence of the Third Reich and its products were spreading throughout the world. Traders looking to enter the country were heavily restricted, so Trader Permits issued out by the Third Reich became highly sought after.

High Command was established as the headquarters of the military. Since the country was essentially a military dictatorship, High Command controlled the entire country. Government officials, on the other hand, had no military power and were completely controlled by the military.

The nobles that previously dominated the country had been completely removed from their power. They were simply powerful blood-sucking leeches that drained the country of its wealth and resources. When Konrad re-organised the country, he found no use in keeping them and sent them all to extermination camps. He wanted to remove the problem from its roots and not leave any remains that would hate him. In fact, any important official and person with a reason to hate him had already been removed.

Konrad noticed that he had almost lost his empathy, and he was able to give out orders to kill innocent people with a feeling of guilt. He still had all his other emotions, but he just turned more rational and willing to do anything. He was almost like a rational technological AI.

[I don't know what losing my empathy means, it's probably an effect of my source power]

Konrad didn't wish to become an absolutely rational being, after all, he wanted to enjoy life.

[I must eventually find out the origin of this source power, other transmigrators, and this world]

After the battle with Daiki, Konrad realised that he was not the only powerful alien that entered the world and that he did not have enough knowledge of the other powerful forces that inhabited the continent. Therefore, he started a space program to expand his intelligence.

He tried to launch spy satellites into the sky, but he found that the further up in the sky you went, the higher the pressure was. This was very unscientific and resulted in all his rockets imploding as they were not designed for high pressures. Further experiments showed evidence that the world was not round as he assumed. In fact, it seemed to be flat.

Now, if you asked any person living on the continent if the world was round, they would laugh at you and not hesitate to say it was flat. After all, wouldn't you just fall off a round planet? But the source scientists whose thinking and knowledge originated from Earth knew that this was incorrect. On Earth, the world was undoubtedly round! The proof was overwhelming!

However, in this world, there was no equator where the world curved out of sight and no matter how many experiments over long distances were performed, all the evidence pointed to the world not being round! In fact, no matter what they tried, they could not find any curvature of the planet, not even the slightest bit!

The source scientists that Konrad had summoned were puzzled about it, and they felt like their whole world had shattered. All their evidence showed that this world was flat. But that was impossible! How would gravity still work like normal and not pull everything towards its centre? Why was the sun, moon, and stars round? Is the planet simply too big to measure any curvature with the sample size they have? But if that was the case, the gravity should be much higher!

All these problems would be solved if they could get a rocket to space and see the world from there, but none of the rockets could withstand the unscientifically high pressure.

Determined to find the truth, a new rocket that could handle high pressures was developed. It was a giant rocket with a cylindrical hull even stronger than a deep-sea submarine. It was made with precious strategic materials harder than titanium, like Mithril and Adamantite. Since they were magical materials, they could not be made with source points and had to instead be carefully made by scientists and factories. Over the past month, Konrad had spent the nation's resources and efforts to unlock the mystery of the flat world, and today was the launch date.