Section 61: Monument to the Revolutionary Heroes (Part I)

"Oh?" This time, it was Machiavelli's turn to be surprised.

"Actually, I've been considering a plan for a while now," Grant said, weighing his words carefully. "Comunison is a great cause, unprecedented in history, and it is bound to have its rough patches. As we saw when capturing the city of Gaul, many lives were lost. I have been thinking about how to commemorate these individuals, to ensure everyone knows they gave their lives for the revolution and for the common people. I plan to build a dedicated Hall of Heroes near the city of Gaul, where the ashes of everyone who died for the people, the revolution, and glory will be placed. This will be a tremendous honor. In front of the hall, I will erect a monument inscribed with their great and glorious deeds. Appointed administrators and a memorial hall will be established so their families and the general public can come and pay their respects."

At this, Grant smiled. "If you don't mind, the magic array you mentioned could be built beneath this Hall of Heroes and connected to the monument. I intend to name this monument the Monument to the Revolutionary Heroes. What do you think?"

Machiavelli looked at Grant in astonishment. Even with mental preparation and backup plans, he was still caught off guard, because Grant's proposal was clearly superior to his original conception.

"By connecting this Hall of Heroes and the monument to your massive magic array, we can harvest the spiritual energy emitted by the people," Grant said, unbothered by Machiavelli's surprise, pondering as he spoke whether there were any flaws in his plan. "These people died for the revolution. To a certain extent, they represent the revolution, they represent Comunison; they are heroes, even revolutionaries. Therefore, despite their grief, their families will feel pride in the cause for which they gave their lives, which will further solidify their faith in Comunison. Ordinary citizens who visit this place will also be moved by them. While the degree of impact might vary, I am currently establishing various schools that will incorporate specialized education of this kind, allowing children from a young age to understand how hard-won victory is, and even regularly organizing people to observe moments of silence before the monument."

Grant thought back to certain days in his previous world. He remembered that when he was in school, especially in middle school, students would always wear red scarves and be organized on special days to visit specific places to commemorate special people and events. Although children were still young and didn't truly understand the Comunison of that world, it didn't stop them from revering the heroes described by their teachers—those brave souls who blocked gun barrels with their bodies or blew up pillboxes with their lives. Through the commemoration of these brave individuals, children in their formative years came to recognize Comunison as a great cause. Back then, countless people aspired to become soldiers or technicians like Hegel, growing up to build a wonderful Comunison world.

How he missed those simple days, Grant sighed inwardly. As they grew older, some people changed; not everyone had the chance like him to rebuild this dream of Comunison.

"It truly is a brilliant method," Machiavelli praised sincerely. The idea was genuinely wonderful, riding the momentum to meet demands on all fronts. It granted the deceased honor and allowed people to place their grief while being emotionally moved, thereby strengthening their faith. Meanwhile, the spiritual energy generated by that faith would not be wasted, quietly harvested by the magic array.

"However, what is the range of your magic array? I mean, how large is its energy collection and power coverage area?" Grant asked, bringing up the question he cared about most.

"That depends on the scale and degree of construction you are prepared to undertake, and even the quality of the magic crystals used will determine its effectiveness," Machiavelli replied. "Are you familiar with the Necromancers' Towers of Resentment?"

"I have heard of necromancers. They were driven out of the mainland and live on isolated islands. The Towers of Resentment..." Grant stopped midway through the three words. Actually, he had indeed heard of the Towers of Resentment; he had once read a novel called *The Lost Continent*, which was a magical world fantasized about by some book-loving person in his past life. Who would have thought such a thing actually existed in this world?

Assuming Grant knew nothing about it, Machiavelli explained, "To some extent, a Tower of Resentment is a similar kind of spiritual collector, capable of automatically gathering the negative emotions of people dying within a certain range, thereby providing power to the master of the tower. However, necromancers pursued power to an extreme. To enhance the potency of the Towers of Resentment, they used magic to forcefully condense living humans into the structures. In doing so, the negative emotions and states generated by the victims at the exact moment of death were sealed within the tower and fully utilized without dissipation, making the energy provided ten or even a hundred times more abundant."

Grant nodded. The principle of the Tower of Resentment was somewhat similar to the magic array they intended to build, lacking only the function of energy conversion. It could only directly harvest negative energy to feed the tower, forming an auxiliary power source for necromantic magic, yet it could not convert the power of resentment into other attributes of energy. Still, this was quite sufficient for necromancers, as they could only wield necromantic spells and certain types of dark magic anyway.

"The Towers of Resentment do have certain range limitations. The more resentful spirits sealed within a tower, the more negative energy it can provide, and the broader its coverage area. But ultimately, there are limits," Machiavelli said. "During the period when necromancers wreaked havoc across the southeastern coast, they built dozens of Towers of Resentment, causing immense destruction. Yet ultimately, they were defeated by the coalition led by the Church and forced to flee far away to the islands. It is said that in the twilight of that era, the necromancers realized they could no longer withstand the Church. Although the Towers of Resentment could provide them with a steady stream of energy and an endlessly renewable 'fuel' in the form of ordinary people, the fragmented necromancers were no match for the coalition. Therefore, in the later stages, the necromancers established the Necromancer Council in an attempt to unite. But this unity remained merely superficial, because necromancers who possessed Towers of Resentment were unwilling to leave their own territories, and the greatest drawback of the Towers of Resentment was that they could not be interconnected."

"Can this problem be resolved?" Grant frowned. He had no spare time to dwell on why Machiavelli possessed such extensive knowledge. According to what he said, this was indeed a massive flaw inherent in things like the Towers of Resentment. It was much like the walkie-talkies known to a transmigrator, where communication was only established between a pair of master-and-sub units rather than linked into a network like modern cellular networks. If this issue could not be solved, while Machiavelli's magic array would still hold immense value, it would suffer from severe limitations. Just as he had stated, when the Church defeated the necromancers, they did so by picking them off one by one.