Mythology: Ragnarok

Chapter 319 Pension System

Agreed calmly looked at the red-faced Xuanyuan Muze and explained to him in his usual indifferent and calm tone: "I did not induce them. Have you ever thought about why they chose to be young again?"

When you grow old and your hair turns gray, and your decaying body makes it impossible for you to even remember things, do nothing well, or do anything at all, will you feel despair because you feel worthless?

When you are shunned by everyone because of the complications caused by aging, when you are lying in bed unable to even go to the toilet by yourself and are defecating and urinating without any dignity, when someone gives you a choice so that you don't have to lie in the hospital bed waiting to die, so that you can stand up again and not be tormented by aging and disease, would you choose to inject an anti-aging injection and live a magnificent life again, or go to the hospital bed to wait to die and live for a few more decades?

I reiterate, they knew the consequences of injecting the anti-aging injection. I never induced them to get it; I merely gave them a choice, a dignified way to die. But I did do it intentionally because it was in the best interests of the race. I did sell drugs, but not for money. The Kingdom of All Races has never lacked money; it's all for the sake of the race.”

Xuanyuan Muze demanded sharply, "For the sake of the clan? What kind of clan needs to kill its elderly to maintain itself?! Stop making excuses for your evil deeds!!"

Agreed shook his head with a wry smile and said to himself, "You're too young and haven't seen enough. When you're my age and see things from my perspective, you'll understand that my choice was right. Let me explain it to you from a perspective of self-interest."

The total amount of resources in the universe is limited, and the resources on a single planet are far from enough to support the unlimited population growth of a species. Do you admit that?

As civilization develops, resource shortages will inevitably occur. The worse the management system, the lower the resource utilization rate, and the faster the shortage problem will appear. For example, your hometown has a theoretical upper limit of 80 billion people, but you have less than 10 billion people and you have already started to experience resource shortages.

In fact, the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Races had also encountered these problems. I quickly figured out the most crucial issue: the aging population. Although the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Races had undead people who manufactured basic resources, resources were not unlimited. A race should undergo benign elimination. If no one left, the resource quota that was originally allocated to newborns would be taken away.

However, the elderly have lost the ability to create value. They are just occupying a place so that newborns cannot be born. As a result, you will find a trend: fewer and fewer newborns and more and more elderly people. Even if young people risk their lives to earn money, they cannot live a satisfactory life because the elderly have taken away too many resources that do not belong to them. Those resources are squeezed out of the mouths of newborns and young adults.

'Longevity is a privilege for the strong, but for the weak, a long lifespan is just a long curse.' Remember this sentence, and it will be the only principle for all civilizations to solve the population problem. I also understand that what a civilization must do to develop well is to let the old people leave as soon as possible. It's like if you want to make the stagnant water in a pond clear again, the only thing you can do is to make the water flow and let the stagnant water... be discharged.

Therefore, I had to make a decision that you might consider outrageous: I invented the anti-aging needle. I tried my best to find a way to make the elderly die peacefully, experiencing the joy and happiness of regaining their youth. As a result, the 'pool' began to flow again, and the nation of all races prospered, with the birth rate remaining remarkably high despite abundant resources.

Xuan Yuan Mu Ze disagreed, saying, "You clearly have a way to ensure everyone can live a good life, so why are you doing this?"

Agreed countered, "Why not do it this way? Let everyone live? But what right do those who cannot contribute to the evolution of the race, those who have no value to the future, have to live forever?"

Think about it carefully. A bunch of people who only think about having fun to the death live forever in this world. A race with no newborns will have its future development entirely dependent on a small group of people. The entire race maintains a false illusion of immortality by sucking the blood of a small group of people. Do you think such a civilization is efficient? Do you think such a civilization is competitive in the universe? Do you think such a civilization has a future?!

Everything that develops is for the sake of the race. Only magicians, soldiers, and scientists should live long lives, because they are the future of the entire race and they are truly valuable beings.

Anyone else can be discarded because no one else has any direct value. Only when those people are discarded can children be born, and new children become magicians, soldiers, and scientists! Death is rebirth, and the alternation of life and death is what allows civilization to continue.

This sounds harsh, but that's reality; the road ahead is destined to be dark.

Xuanyuan Muze roared, "You are already so powerful, can't you still relax your requirements and give those old people even one more chance to live?"

Agreed shook his head and whispered with a devilishly cold gaze, "A thousand-mile dike can be breached by an ant hole, and a millennium-old wonder can be destroyed by a gentle breeze. I can afford to gamble, but the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Races cannot! The bottom line must be firmly upheld to ensure there are no flaws. I have been able to develop the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Races to this day because of a simple principle: I never do things I am not confident about, and I will not put the entire civilization in danger for the sake of so-called compassion!"

All I can do for those elderly people is to allow them to accumulate vast wealth with minimal labor in their youth, and to let them live out their final years happily with their enormous savings. That is my final act of mercy. I do not deny that I am a cruel ruler; perhaps you have better methods. I can only say that this is the best method I can think of. At least I have solved the problem of aging in a way that everyone can accept.

Xuanyuan Muze looked at him helplessly and asked, "You turn the remains of those old people into spirits, don't... have the people ever complained about this? Don't you have any funeral rites and customs?"

“Good question, but this problem has never occurred in the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Races because our compulsory education has systematically popularized this knowledge to them. Once they understand, they are no longer fixated on it. Moreover, the dead can make their lives more prosperous and comfortable. From a profit perspective, this is a situation that everyone is happy to see. After all, morality is always so powerless in the face of profit.”