Chapter 478: A Divergent Future
Bai Mo had many ideas.
He once conceived of throwing souls into fictional horror worlds, letting them constantly wander between life and death to provoke the most intense emotions, which would then serve as fuel to sustain his existence.
He also once conceived of letting some souls experience extreme bliss in fictional worlds, providing him with abundant joyful emotions to harvest.
To combat the intractable curse of Daoization, Bai Mo devised numerous plans, each awaiting his subsequent implementation.
...
The mist pouring forth from the White Month swept over the land, floated into the sky, and sank into the oceans, acting like the most potent anesthetic, causing all living beings to fall into the deepest slumber without any resistance.
Originally, there were still quite a few people clinging to a sliver of hope, unwilling to leave Earth or join the Land of White. They hid in remote corners of the planet, attempting to evade the search.
Earth was so vast, with huge stretches of uninhabited areas; they didn't believe they wouldn't find a place to hide.
But unfortunately, the world had changed. None of these naive individuals managed to escape the carpet-bombing white mist, collapsing into unconsciousness one after another.
Two hours later, except for a small area in North America, the entire planet was heavily enveloped in white mist, a thick white canopy completely obscuring the azure planet.
The mist was indistinguishable from the air, reducing visibility to nearly zero. But it didn't matter anymore, as there were no living creatures left awake within the white mist.
"Clearance time has arrived." An omnipresent voice echoed across the space shuttle launch pad.
Thousands upon thousands of Bai Mo avatars, composed of various materials, simultaneously issued a final ultimatum to the group of people still remaining on Earth.
Tens of thousands of uniform voices, their combined sound waves sweeping across the entire launch pad like a tsunami, causing many people's eardrums to ache.
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
"Ignition and launch!"
"Before we leave, may I ask you a question?" The reporter, who had voluntarily stayed until the very last moment, used his radio from inside the spaceship to ask Bai Mo, just as they were about to lift off.
To produce a news story worthy of being recorded in history, this obscure reporter bravely shouted out his request, risking the possibility of remaining on Earth forever.
"Why would you let us decide for ourselves whether to stay or leave?" Before Bai Mo could answer, the reporter, too nervous to even open his eyes, blurted out the question he wanted to ask.
This question had long been a point of concern for many, but all curiosity had been forcibly suppressed until the evacuation plan was complete.
For they truly couldn't predict whether, if they took the initiative to voice their doubts, Bai Mo might suddenly have a whim and revoke his previous decision.
It was best to minimize provoking an unpredictable and capricious person, if at all possible.
"Besides the experimental group, what else is needed?" Bai Mo didn't directly answer the trembling reporter's question, but instead posed another in return.
However, he didn't give the other party time to think. The moment the space shuttle lifted off, the thick white mist surged towards this last sanctuary, completely covering the Earth's surface.
By the time Bai Mo finished speaking, looking back towards Earth from the space shuttle, nothing could be seen except an endless expanse of white.
The residual pockets of mist above the Northern Hemisphere also vanished without a trace in an extremely short time.
The ground was abnormally calm, as all life activity had been smoothed over by the white mist; from tiny ants to colossal blue whales, they, along with humanity, had all fallen into a state of slumber.
Even the planet's true eternal residents for countless years—microbes—ceased their ceaseless life activities, becoming part of the sleeping army, like insects trapped in amber.
The once vibrant Earth, at this moment, seemed to have been cast under a time-stasis spell, transforming into a cold, utterly silent planet.
The protective layer of nanite swarm enveloping the Land of White also transformed into a colorless torrent at this moment, preparing to commence the world's transformation project.
The system panels implanted within individuals, after their hosts fell asleep, linked up with the white mist, transforming into cocoons enveloping them.
He intended to use this opportunity to transform everyone in the world into modified lifeforms called Holy Progenitors, connecting them to the subconscious network.
Calculating Earth's billions of intelligent lifeforms at one hundred million supporting one phase of world assimilation power, if all transformations were completed, the entire network would be enough to counteract dozens of phases of assimilation power, buying Bai Mo nearly a hundred more years.
Bai Mo didn't have much confidence in the effect of this transmigration, so he decided to arrange everything beforehand, letting the transformation plan operate according to his programmed procedures.
Even if it ultimately ended in failure, his investment in Earth wouldn't be for naught.
...
"Besides the experimental group, is it a control group, then?" After hearing the question Bai Mo posed during the final "interview," many immediately guessed the answer.
"So the reason we were able to escape is that his social experiment required a blank control group..."
"Though it's psychologically annoying, it's at least good news. At the very least, he won't interfere with the internal affairs of the Human Federation anymore."
"After all, it's a blank control group."
"I propose we name the last space shuttle to leave Earth the 'Blank Slate'." A Federation senator self-mockingly suggested.
...
Regardless, after deciphering Bai Mo's unspoken meaning, the high-ranking officials of the Federation breathed a sigh of relief. The shadow that had loomed over all humanity had finally dissipated.
"What's going on with the white mist on Earth?" The Federation government on the Moon once again contacted the people in the space shuttle, attempting to extract some intelligence from them.
"We're not sure. After the white mist appeared, we were expelled." Among this last group on the plane, there were many powerful superhumans, but they were equally bewildered.
"What about Tang Na De? Did they succeed?"
"Heaven knows what happened to those lunatics."
...
And so, humanity's first large-scale space migration in history came to a dramatic end.
Nearly four billion people, over five years, completed the seemingly fantastical plan of migrating from Earth to the Moon in an extremely hurried and costly manner.
Meanwhile, the three billion people remaining on Earth embarked on a path strikingly different from their former compatriots, moving towards a bifurcated future.
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