Loser System and Berserker Me

Chapter 119: Population White Paper

?What happened?!?

System 12345 was stunned once again.

?Why did Baysema’s loyalty suddenly get maxed out? Is my host that formidable?!?

It had thought that its host would need some time to accomplish its mission.

Time is an important catalyst for two people to deepen their ties. From strangers who initially walk away after completing their trade, to acquaintances who exchange a few words, till they are finally close enough to open up to each other…

There can also be chance encounters, such as one where Baysema has no choice but to take off the host’s clothes and apply medicine on him. With a mix of embarrassment and intimacy, the distance between them slowly closes…

System 12345 could faint from excitement just thinking about the possible scenarios.

Ah, so romantic!

Yet…

?It hasn’t been that long yet. How did my host already accomplish his conquest??

System 12345 fell into deep thought.

?Let me check the data… She was initially shocked, then terrified, before everything went blank for her, and now, she is fully devoted to my host…?

?Gasp! My host, surely you didn’t…?

My host must have forced himself on Baysema to ‘convince’ her, or else her emotions wouldn’t have fluctuated in such a manner!

?Wu…?

System 12345 could already envision what had happened.

Baysema thought that it was just another normal business transaction, but my host suddenly went on a rampage in her courtyard. She tried to escape, but it was to no avail. She tried to struggle, only to realize how powerless she was.

She could only watch in fear as my host…

Eventually, she fully submitted to my host.

The more System 12345 thought about it, the more reasonable it sounded.

?My host, I understand that you might prefer such methods, but I think it’d be better if you at least lay the foundations a bit…?

So, System 12345 nonchalantly sent Shu Yichao a bottle of aphrodisiac.

Usually, it would have vehemently opposed such immoral methods, but now…

?Mhm, my host is just conquering the capture targets, just that his means are a little violent.?

…

In the town…

“Ah, wait! Brothers, try to capture them alive!” Shu Yichao shouted.

…

“Why did he suddenly decide to capture them alive?” Miazova murmured in confusion.

It had already gotten used to Shu Yichao popping out buildings at a whim and expanding the Eternal Blight wherever he went—god knows where he learned those skills—but since the latter didn’t explain, it figured that it was probably his secret.

So be it. Who doesn’t have a secret or two nowadays?

However, it was confused as to why Shu Yichao had suddenly changed his strategy.

Isn’t he planning to convert all enemies into skeleton soldiers?

Shu Yichao watched the frightened prisoners being rounded up as he replied with a pained heart, “That’s because we don’t have enough people.”

So far, they had saved thousands of Tang civilians by taking down mines and toppling towns. Those people were overjoyed to be liberated, so much so that they tearfully embraced the Tang flag and chanted ‘Long live General Shu!’, ‘Long live the Tang army!’.

They were also highly motivated, organizing their own training sessions in preparation for the Karluks’ or Tibetans’ counterattack.

Even so, Shu Yichao realized that there was a problem with the population!

On the one hand, there were too few Tang civilians. It would take him many years before to meet the requirement for upgrading the city at this rate.

On the other hand, the demographics were wrong. Most of the rescued Tang civilians were young men, with a couple of elders and effectively no young ladies at all.

How was he supposed to proceed like that? He needed the population to quickly grow!

Granted that he could head to more places to rescue more enslaved Tang civilians, but there would be few prisoners in small towns, and correspondingly, places where there were a huge number of enslaved Tang civilians were likely to be major cities.

Of the troops he had right now, the White-haired Ghost Horsemen couldn’t part from their steeds to fight as footsoldiers, and he didn’t have enough skeleton soldiers to overrun his enemies yet.

It was not yet time for him to siege a city.

Thus, he had to get creative.

Bam!

A Tibetan commander with a stuffed mouth was pushed out. A skeleton soldier kicked the back of his knee, forcing him to kneel on the floor.

“Pui!” The Tibetan commander angrily spat as soon as the cloth was removed from his mouth.

“Accursed mages! Lowly Tang slaves!

“Don’t think that this will change a thing! Our city lord will soon arrive with her indomitable army! Our powerful shamans and mages will trample you to the ground! It’ll be too late for you to beg for mercy then!

“You might as well surrender now! With that pretty face of yours, you might just…”

Shu Yichao paid no heed to the military commander. He took out a bottle of viscous green fluid and poured its content into a huge vat of clear water.

Shu Yichao had found this inexplicable item inside his inventory not too long ago. He was initially confused as to how he should use this item, but now…

“What are you doing?!” The Tibetan commander was alarmed.

The few skeleton soldiers held the Tibetan commander tightly in place, as one scooped up a ladle of water from the vat and forced it down his throat.

“Urk! Wugh! It hurts! IT HURTS!!!”

The Tibetan commander’s muscles were being ripped apart, as his bones reshaped itself. The process was so painful that he found himself wishing to drop dead and die. He rolled all around the ground, feeling like he would go mad if he stayed still.

A few moments later, the pain finally subsided.

However, the profusely perspiring Tibetan commander, who felt like he had taken a trip to hell, was so traumatized by that experience that he immediately surrendered.

“Brave warrior of Great Tang, I surrender! I’ll do whatever you want! Just spare me!”

A second later, the Tibetan commander belatedly noticed an anomaly. “My voice…”

He grabbed his chest—it was soft.

“AHHH!” he shrieked. “You monsters! What did you do to me?! How did I turn into a woman?!”

Miazova was awed to see a brawny woman transforming into a delicate woman within seconds.

“Respect.” It nodded. “So, your solution is to provide the Tang civilians with foreign women, and if there aren’t enough women, you’ll drug them to make more?”

“What else did you expect?” Shu Yichao shook the potion in his hand. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. We can kill them off later, but having a huge population is critical to a city’s early development.

“These people climbed on top of our people’s head and did whatever they wanted, but they are yelping now just because the tides have turned, and our people are the ones riding them now?”

I’m sure your ‘climbing’ and ‘riding’ have very different definitions.

“…What if they are reluctant to do it?” Miazova asked.

Shu Yichao took out another potion bottle. “I think they’d be more than happy.”

Aphrodisiac? You’re going to drug them? Do you have no morals?

“…” Miazova gave the plan some thought before replying, “It’s not safe.”

These Tibetans used to be staunch soldiers; it won’t be easy to break their will. It’d be naive to think that they wouldn’t fight back just because they have been turned into women.

Bringing all these people to Kucha might spell a calamity instead. As the saying goes, it’s easy to dodge a spear from the front, but it’s hard to guard against an arrow from the back.

So…

Miazova took out a grimoire. “We should cast ‘Memory Loss’ on them.”

The duo exchanged looks and snickered.

“My grandson sure is awfully despicable.”

“Son, I see that I have taught you well. You have inherited my flair.”

With that, the plan was fixed in place.

Shu Yichao and his army went around attacking mines and towns, making sure to capture as many prisoners as possible in the process.

The prisoners were sorted into categories—those who had committed too many sins were executed to vent the people’s rage, whereas those whose sins weren’t deserving of death were force-fed the Potion of Gender Change.

Actually, what was more important than the human population was the livestock population.

Agriculture wouldn’t be enough to feed so many people in a place like Kucha, so rearing livestock was of utmost importance too. Fortunately, the Potion of Gender Change worked on livestock too, so they didn’t have to worry about livestock reproduction.

Thus, the number of chickens, ducks, and other livestock in Kucha grew at an unbelievable speed. It felt like Kucha had been restored to the vibrant city it used to be, though outsiders wouldn’t know better due to the concealment of the Eternal Blight.