Chapter 443: Two-Dimensional
Of course, for Yamato, which had already been striding forward on the path of a planned economy for many years, the complete collapse of the financial system wasn't actually too much of a concern.
As early as over a decade ago, Seres, the Grand Priest of the Sea Race, had already discerned that humanity's economic development was largely dependent on globalized trade. Therefore, it believed that by striking at trade, it could very effectively create economic crises in human society, slowing down their pace of development. It then ordered large numbers of the Sea Race to drive their lower-tier kin to attack all human ocean-going merchant ships regardless of the cost, so as to sever the most important global maritime trade network.
And due to concerns about potential recurring tsunamis, as well as to guard against unexpected Sea Race landing harassment, with the exception of nations truly without retreat, the vast majority of countries relocated their political and economic centers inland after the disaster, while coastal regions became the frontline of battle.
For various reasons, maritime trade ultimately plummeted; only large-volume, valuable goods that couldn't be transported by air would be transported by hiring highly skilled ship guards at exorbitant prices.
This move by the Sea Race was undoubtedly an extremely fatal blow for an island nation like Yamato, surrounded by sea and heavily reliant on maritime trade.
Under these circumstances, the Yamato people, with no other choice, soon began to implement a material rationing system, stipulating the essential daily necessities to be allocated per person and minimizing unnecessary consumption as much as possible.
A large number of bankrupt factories were uniformly taken over by the state, producing only necessary products to adapt to the new environment of various raw material shortages, and the entire nation quickly entered a wartime economic system.
Yamato, the bridgehead of capitalism, was, more than a decade ago, brutally forced into a planned economy by cruel reality.
An almost 180-degree drastic policy reversal was inevitably accompanied by countless sacrifices.
Not to mention their specialization in land reclamation, a technology within normal bounds, the Technology Development Bureau under the official leadership of Yamato spent nearly a decade painstakingly developing the insane technology of "human two-dimensionalization".
The initial effect they wanted to achieve was merely a further improvement on the Huaxia Federation's virtual reality system, allowing some people's physical bodies to remain in nutrient pods and then live most of the time within the virtual network.
Because once this technology was popularized, the material needs of those living in the pods would be reduced to an extreme minimum, and their spatial requirements would be almost zero, thereby greatly alleviating national pressure.
Yamato had extremely abundant Spirit Stone resources, but after its sea routes were cut off, it, suffering from resource shortages, could only hold its nose and accept high-priced raw materials jointly supplied by the Huaxia Federation and the United States to maintain the nation's normal operation.
At the same time, the astonishing number of local Spirit Stones had their prices jointly suppressed to rock bottom, making it convenient for surrounding nations to engage in arbitrage, 'shearing the wool' round after round.
Although superhumans who had cultivated to a certain degree gradually evolved to shed external dependencies and could solve the problem of eating by absorbing Spirit Qi, the vast majority of the population, ordinary people, still needed to eat, drink, and consume.
Moreover, superhumans also had desires for enjoyment, so while large quantities of materials were imported, vast amounts of Spirit Stones were exported through secret channels in exchange for luxury goods from all over the world.
When the research reached its fifth year, the first batch of nutrient pods successfully went into production; thirty volunteers participated in the experiment, living healthily within the pods for nearly three months, declaring the experiment a success.
Subsequently, the existence of nutrient pods was publicly announced by the Yamato government, but even though most people's real lives were unsatisfactory, they still expressed considerable aversion to living in a virtual world, and very few actively registered in Kyoto.
Only a very small number who detested mundane daily work and preferred to stay at home all day, like otaku, gladly accepted this.
Living in the network around the clock, without needing to worry about various problems in real life, was, in a sense, getting exactly what they wished for.
Unfortunately, a large portion of modern society's work could be completed remotely via the internet, and the Yamato government, which was so frugal it wished to split a penny in half, naturally wouldn't support them for free.
These minds wandering in the virtual reality network, these individuals who thought they could escape work by fleeing into nutrient pods, still couldn't escape the fate of becoming 'corporate slaves'; they merely had their workplaces moved to the virtual world.
Two years after the existence of nutrient pods was made public, through various overt and covert efforts, over two percent of Yamato's population were either semi-coerced or enticed, and ultimately became a part of it.
The Kyoto Nutrient Pod Underground Center, located inland, thus gathered two million people whose bodies were in hibernation; they collectively 'lived' in a virtual city named "New Tokyo".
This virtual city was like the shadow of the terrestrial city, silently supporting the development of all Yamato from behind.
Naturally, with nutrient pods and virtual reality, some would want to go a step further, to explore the possibility of humanity completely shedding the shackles of the physical body.
The Ghost King located in the ruins of old Tokyo over a decade ago, after being instantly killed and refined into a Soul Crystal by a mysterious being of light, left behind quite a few remnants; these remnants, under the induction of Spirit Qi, slowly evolved into some unintelligent ghostly entities.
These ghostly entities, after brutal struggles, ultimately gave birth to a very small number of highly intelligent elites, whom the Yamato people called — Drifting Spirits.
Yamato, in urgent need of uniting all forces, disregarded the so-called "separate paths for humans and ghosts," quickly reached a consensus with them, allowing them to reintegrate into the nation.
In such research on humanity completely shedding the shackles of the physical body, Drifting Spirits were undoubtedly excellent research examples; Bai Mo's avatar, Hei Xue, who was then at the Yamato Technology Development Bureau, also participated in related matters.
It wasn't until the eve of the Red World Chaos that the "thought informationization" plan showed some promise, and Yamato, unable to wait, immediately began human trials; however, the results this time were catastrophic.
Among one hundred test subjects, thirty-one had their brains explode, dying instantly; forty-one suffered mental derangement and became insane; twenty-five successfully transformed into "two-dimensional beings," but they were merely a jumble of incomprehensible garbled data, having lost all reason.
Only three individuals in total ultimately achieved the experiment's goal, able to sever all ties with their physical bodies and become true data life forms while maintaining normal thought processes.
However, before the various research centers could even analyze the experimental results, the Spirit Devourer virus erupted furiously, and the research teams, composed entirely of superhumans, were forced to scatter and hide in deep mountains and old forests.
During the subsequent Red World Chaos, the nearly un-guarded experimental sites were destroyed by rioters; at that time, Bai Mo, who originally had the ability to save it, was also entangled by the Adherents of the Red World, unable to control his avatar, and thus the experiment ultimately ended inconclusively..
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