Chapter 595: Costs
"This universe truly is despairingly vast." He recalled that sentence again.
Compared to the tens of thousands of years of expected lifespan for an ordinary Myriad Manifestation Realm cultivator, the time left for Bai Mo was truly too little.
In his current state, he would need approximately a hundred million Holy Progenitors connected to the mental network to sufficiently share the power of one 'Phase' of Daoization.
For every 'Phase' of power reduced, he could delay his complete Daoization by one year.
Currently, there were three billion Holy Progenitors on Earth, which, when calculated, could only grant him an additional thirty years of life.
Moreover, he had discovered that as his power continuously expanded, the sharing effect would gradually diminish, creating a side effect akin to "drug resistance."
Yet, in the end, this was the only truly viable method for now; even with the resistance, he could only continue until he found a new path, or until it became completely ineffective.
...
According to Bai Mo's calculations, the ultimate capacity of Earth's first phase of development was to accommodate three hundred billion intelligent beings, comprising one hundred billion on land and two hundred billion at sea.
Five hundred years, combined with the three hundred years he currently had left, amounted to only eight hundred years in the best-case scenario.
Eight centuries might seem unimaginably long to ordinary people, but if superluminal travel was never invented, humanity's current technology would barely be enough to escape the "Solar Island" and reach a few neighboring star systems.
...
As for the Federation, planning to spend three centuries on a journey to escape the solar system was far too extravagant for the current Bai Mo.
Because this meant that more than half of those eight hundred years would be spent traveling.
Of course, the five-tier individuals on the Moon God with lifespans of a thousand years, and the six-tier individuals with lifespans of three thousand years, would deem this worthwhile. Even if everything else stagnated, they would have enough time to witness the future.
What's more, the path to the seventh tier had already been laid, merely awaiting their advance.
However, Bai Mo couldn't afford to wait. The hope of other star systems was too distant; even if he truly escaped the Solar Island at all costs, the remaining time wouldn't be enough to accomplish anything else.
Therefore, he chose to turn his gaze towards the Sun, intending to utilize the mass-energy from this closest star to sustain the future "cells" that would support his existence—entities at the hundred-trillion, even quadrillion level.
...
Of the energy radiated from the Sun, less than one-billionth reached the former Earth, yet this one-billionth fraction of light illuminated the entirety of human civilization.
If he were to become the new "Sun," directing the power of the entire star, then even if the existing per capita energy consumption were multiplied a hundredfold, it would still be enough to sustain quadrillions of humans.
As for how to accommodate such a vast number of humans, he might eventually choose to dismantle Earth itself.
The current method of only inhabiting the surface was simply too wasteful of material; the colossal planet utilized only a thin layer of its surface land.
Solely considering Earth's total mass, if it were reshaped into thin slices only tens of meters thick, the number of humans it could accommodate would be tens of thousands of times the current amount. RANoB#Еs
Not to mention, he had also reserved Mercury and Jupiter as backup materials, allowing him to practice and experiment first.
It was precisely based on such a plan that Bai Mo chose to stay within the Solar System.
His time was incredibly precious now, and he couldn't afford to waste it on prolonged space travel.
...
Of course, all of this was still very far removed from the people happily living on the Land of White for the time being.
...
One year later.
"The first artificial womb factory... is it?" A group of students from Tianqing University's Medical College on the Land of White entered a place filled with an eerie aura, looking quite serious.
They were the third group of students organized to visit since the factory opened.
Inside the four-meter-tall glass vats, pale yellow liquid teemed, with human embryos suspended upside down within. Behind the vats, a multitude of conduits connected to the underground, ceaselessly transporting something.
And the number of such glass columns, at a glance, stretched endlessly out of sight.
Pale yellow almost completely dominated the visible world, with only the occasional automated robot patrolling, bringing a touch of silver-gray to the scenery.
These robots, through their built-in cameras, inspected the condition of each vat.
In the bottom right corner of each glass vat, the corresponding serial number, the names of the parents who provided the reproductive cells, and the ID of the managing staff member were inscribed.
...
"My mentor is a collaborator on the artificial womb project, but I truly never imagined it could be industrialized so quickly," the young leader remarked with emotion upon seeing all this.
Although he appeared to be only in his teens, he was actually a middle-aged man in his early forties, considered an old-timer who had experienced several previous eras.
The dense "womb forest" not only failed to frighten him but, in the leader's eyes, even possessed a strange sense of familiarity.
"I heard, Professor, that your previous achievements only went into mass production once the technology was fully mature and profitable?"
"Back then, who would do something unprofitable? Especially in a money pit like biotechnology, you'd definitely try every method to recover costs," the leader replied without hesitation.
"But if you keep making more and losing more, why are you still producing them now?"
"Young man, the concept of loss only exists when there's a market price. Now, our entire Earth operates under a planned economy; where would a market price even come from? Naturally, there's no such thing as loss anymore.
If you just set the price of all equipment and raw materials to one cent, the loss disappears," the "middle-aged" leader declared, earnestly spouting some strange economic theory.
"But isn't that just self-deception? Even the cafeteria food still has prices marked! Who would sell for one cent?"
"Current transactions are merely a ritual. The true buyer behind everything is the system, and simultaneously, all sellers are also the system.
From the farmers who plant grain, to the cafeterias that buy it, and then to us who eat it—no one profits from a change in that price, and no one suffers a loss.
Don't forget, we live in a world of rationing; contribution points, this currency, are nothing more than a game!
..."
"Excuse me, could you perhaps take your private conversation elsewhere?" another accompanying professor interjected, stopping the leader's endless lecture.
"..."
The air suddenly fell silent.
...
"Before, we didn't have to raise them; now, even the birthing process is skipped..." After a long while, a new comment finally emerged, breaking the awkward silence.
Due to the low-desire trend of the Daoization society and the dissolution of the family concept, the birth rate instantly plummeted to an extremely low level.
Meanwhile, ordinary humans, having undergone a decade-long round of modifications, had their lifespans generally extended to just over two hundred years, instantly transforming society into a strange situation of "no birth, no death."
On one hand, no one was willing to give birth; on the other hand, no one was reaching their natural lifespan....
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