Chapter 378: The Virtual Online Game New Universe |
After issuing these orders.
Chen Mang sat down in the train cabin and halted his current work of collecting stars. The efficiency was simply too low. Without the help of the Power Magnet, this task would consume a massive amount of time.
Even if the Power Magnet did not work, he would have to find another way.
Blindly collecting them manually was definitely not going to work.
He looked at the Civilization Wonder he had just obtained on the train's screen.
"New Universe".
This was the fifth Civilization Wonder of the Human Civilization, obtained when he upgraded the Space Portal to its max level. It had appeared directly inside the train and was placed by him in Carriage No. 13.
The previous four were—
"Zerg's Silence", "Divine Silence", "Descent of Miracles", and "One Finger".
Its effect was as follows.
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"Special Wonder. For the civilization possessing this wonder, every time a planet is collected into the train, a point of light on the Civilization Wonder will be illuminated."
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"Oh?"
Chen Mang raised an eyebrow, a flash of surprise crossing his eyes. He had been wondering why a few of the light points in the "New Universe" Civilization Wonder floating in Carriage No. 13 appeared brighter. It turned out that the planets already stored inside the train had illuminated some of them.
How interesting.
To think there was an interactive effect like this.
As long as the Power Magnet could randomly generate the ability to absorb planets, he would not only acquire a massive number of stars but also completely light up this Civilization Wonder. He just did not know what it would do once fully illuminated.
Now, he just had to wait for the Primordial Blueprint of the Power Magnet to be manufactured.
He left the pressure to Qi Ke Xiu.
Immediately after, he looked again at a new panel that surfaced on the train's control console screen.
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"Human Civilization, Civilization Tenet: For every Civilization Wonder built that is recognized by the laws of the universe, a chest containing a random mysterious reward will be granted. The maximum limit is nine." (Seven-color)
"The Human Civilization has successfully created a Civilization Wonder recognized by the laws of the universe. The universe has named it 'New Universe'."
"Successfully obtained a chest containing a random mysterious reward."
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It was time to open another chest.
This was the fifth chest he had obtained.
The one before last gave him cigarettes, the last one gave him a lighter. He had no idea what this one would contain.
'It couldn't be liquor, right?'
Muttering to himself, Chen Mang opened the box on his desk. The next moment, he fell into an expressionless silence. Inside the box was actually a bottle of beer.
It really was alcohol?
Did this thing have telepathy?
He picked up the beer bottle, which bore no logo, and toyed with it in his hands. A special item. A special item targeted at civilizations. The special items opened from these chests were fundamentally aimed at entire civilizations; very few were meant for individuals.
After all, in the face of a civilization, the strength of an individual was insignificant.
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"Item Effect: After your civilization issues a 'Prohibition Order' with an actual enforcement rate of over 90 percent, a drop of nectar will be born inside this beer bottle every 10 years. Upon consumption, one can gain the immortality tenet from the universe, never dying of natural old age."
"When the 'Prohibition Order' is lifted, or if the actual enforcement rate drops below 90 percent, this item will become invalid, and all those who have consumed the nectar will lose their immortality tenet."
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"How interesting."
Chen Mang gazed thoughtfully at the item's effects. He did not particularly need this immortality nectar; he just found the item fascinating. Bound to a civilization's policies, it was a tool that could potentially alter the developmental trajectory of an entire society.
"Captain, should the Human Civilization implement a Prohibition Order?"
"No need."
Chen Mang waved his hand dismissively. Although he did not enjoy drinking much himself, alcohol truly had no good substitute during moments of celebration. For a civilization, it was quite indispensable.
The most important thing was...
Ten years.
It required ten years after the Prohibition Order was enacted just to obtain a single drop of nectar.
He could not wait that long.
At his current pace of progression, in ten years, if he did not want to eat beef, not a single cow would be allowed to survive in the entire universe. He had absolutely no use for this item.
As for trading it.
That was even more unnecessary.
He no longer needed to trade with any civilization. The entire universe was simply a plot of soil waiting for him to conquer. Everything born in the cosmos belonged to him. Why would he ever trade with himself?
All he had to do was wait for the Primordial Blueprint of the Power Magnet to be researched.
Thinking up to this point, Chen Mang muttered thoughtfully.
"Should I go look for a new research team?"
"The Human Civilization is now a Level 8 Civilization. Qi Ke Xiu's research team was recruited back when we were dealing with the Level 1 Appeasement Civilization. They might genuinely be struggling to keep up with our civilization's progress."
"I should visit those advanced civilizations and recruit a new research team."
"The god-tier Human Civilization seems like a pretty good choice."
"I will go take a look first."
One day later.
Through multiple transit jumps using Wormholes, Chen Mang successfully arrived at a prosperous commercial planet within the god-tier Human Civilization, known as Anni Star.
The entire process did not attract any attention.
His train and Wormholes were of absolute stealth grade. No one could detect them. Even though the god-tier Human Civilization also possessed max-level radar, they still could not spot them, as his systems were a tier higher.
When their train slowly descended into Anni Star's train transit station through official channels, they passed the scanning checks with ease.
Their fabricated identity was that of an inspection team from a massive corporation.
For a society at the level of the god-tier Human Civilization, its operations inevitably relied heavily on advanced AI management. Since Xiao Ai was already at max level, she could invade all the train AIs and easily fabricate verifiable background information for them in the database. It could not have been simpler.
Just basic operations.
"Not bad."
Chen Mang stood on the streets of Anni Star's bustling downtown area, gazing at the tide of people walking back and forth. There were people of all skin colors here, so his appearance did not seem out of place at all. It was just...
The difference compared to his own Human Civilization was truly immense.
Looking at it strictly from a visual perspective.
From time to time, a completely transparent person made up of countless blue and white lines of code would walk down the street. They had no physical bodies, no organs, and no flesh. They looked exactly like the ghostly manifestation of a programmer who had died suddenly after staying up all night writing code.
He learned from a nearby billboard that these people were called Mechanized Persons.
Simply put.
They had abandoned all organic, carbon-based forms. They had no flesh and blood, suffered from no illnesses, and experienced no life or death. Naturally, they could not engage in intercourse either, as they lacked the necessary equipment.
By completely converting themselves into energy, their core data was stored in a data center. Through data relays, they could travel to another planet tens of millions of light-years away within mere seconds.
Their range of activity had expanded infinitely.
The billboard detailed the benefits of this form, and it was even advertised as free!
Completely free, without charging a single cent.
"Captain."
Beside him, Xiao Ai quickly retrieved detailed information about this state from the database. "This form truly has almost no drawbacks. Even intimacy can be realistically simulated through data input. In theory, they have indeed achieved conditional immortality."
"The only downside is—their data must be stored in the 'Data Center'. If their personal data is deleted by the Data Center, they will truly die. Furthermore, the cost of storing one's data in the center is extremely high."
"Converting oneself into a Mechanized Person essentially means becoming a slave to the Data Center."
"They must work continuously until they can no longer earn any money."
"The advertisement claims that after becoming a Mechanized Person, you no longer need to buy a house, rest, sleep, or buy a car. You can go wherever you want, traveling anywhere through the data relay centers."
"In reality, after becoming a Mechanized Person, one must work around the clock just to ensure they can afford the next installment of their storage fees."
"Mhm."
Chen Mang gave a slight nod. From this perspective, he could at least tell that the god-tier Human Civilization did not heavily regulate internal capitalism. He did not mind marketization; for a civilization to develop and prosper, a market economy was essential.
Nowadays, in his own civilization, a common citizen could go to the supermarket and buy many things that they could not manufacture themselves, or things that would be too costly to make on their own.
That was the product of a free market.
It held immense value.
However, if enterprises within a civilization went entirely unregulated and became too focused solely on making money, situations like this would arise. He did not want to see companies in his own civilization end up like this.
However...
Based on his observations and the information on the communication platforms of the god-tier Human Civilization, he could still tell that the people here had a very strong sense of identity and belonging to their civilization.
But that was almost stating the obvious.
Which citizen of a god-tier civilization would lack a sense of belonging to their own society?
Other than that.
He also saw many interesting things.
For example—
Clothes that could freely switch styles and colors.
An exorbitantly priced earring that was, in essence, a miniature micro black hole.
A university student whose graduation project was to design a fully functional universe model.
"Historical Reenactment" had become a popular form of immersive theater.
It was essentially Chrono-Retrogression, but it had become much more popularized here. Elderly couples with nothing better to do loved to go together to look back at the days of their youth, watching themselves fall in love hand-in-hand.
It was a bit like... reviewing a replay.
Just as many people loved downloading and reviewing game replays when they performed exceptionally well to admire their own mechanics, through Historical Reenactment, people could review the highlight moments of their own lives.
These were not gaps in combat power.
It was not about max-level radars or max-level armor.
It was purely a difference in everyday life.
He had to admit, the foundation of his Human Civilization was currently quite shallow. There was still a long way to go before reaching the level of a god-tier civilization. Leaving aside everything else, if he randomly pulled a person off the street in his civilization right now and asked them what level the Human Civilization was, the other party would likely be uncertain and stutter out an answer.
There was nothing that could be done.
His Human Civilization was developing far too rapidly.
Every time the civilization advanced, all the textbooks regarding the current civilization level and the official websites listing the civilization's rank had to be updated all over again.
Their foundation just could not keep up.
"Oh?"
Right at this moment—
Chen Mang noticed something that caught his attention. He walked to the most bustling part of the city, and on the massive external screens of the skyscrapers lining both sides of the street, the exact same advertisement was playing.
"The Virtual Online Game 'New Universe' is Officially in Open Beta!"
A virtual online game.
It was an extremely common concept. He had already seen it in lower-level civilizations. Even within his own civilization, virtual online games had developed quite well. Naturally, in the god-tier Human Civilization, virtual gaming was also a standard form of entertainment.
However, the promotion for this particular virtual game was quite intriguing.
It claimed to be the largest virtual online game in the history of the entire universe. It was hooked up to a max-level 10,000-tier AI and consumed 100 percent of that AI's Computing Power. It featured a one-to-one scale map of the observable universe and held countless planets for players to explore.
It held countless random events for players to discover.
It offered endless hidden encounters to surprise the players.
The gameplay format was very simple.
It followed the developmental progression of a Train Civilization. Players needed to collect various resources from scratch to build their own trains, step by step, until they either joined someone else's civilization or established their own, ultimately conquering the universe.
This gimmick was already incredibly impressive.
Occupying 100 percent of a max-level AI's Computing Power—that was vastly more terrifying than Xiao Ai. Up until now, there was absolutely nothing aboard the Stellar Train that required Xiao Ai to expend 100 percent of her Computing Power.
Dedicating an entire max-level AI solely to a single game clearly exceeded the capabilities of any normal corporation.
No single company, even one hailing from a god-tier civilization, could possibly create a level 10,000 AI.
Even if they genuinely possessed the resources to build one, the civilization itself would never permit it. The resources would be confiscated, as the civilization would undoubtedly have its own uses for them.
Most importantly—
This game had an even more explosive selling point!
This virtual game, "New Universe", was jointly released by 27 god-tier civilizations. It featured multiple races to choose from, each with its own racial talents—except for the Human race, of course.
It was an almost perfect one-to-one replication of the civilization structures within the current universe.
This gimmick was mind-blowing enough.
A max-level AI providing 100 percent Computing Power with a Data Center capable of accommodating enough players. Using a max-level AI specifically just to run a game was truly like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
"This isn't right..."
Chen Mang's eyes narrowed slightly. A setup of this magnitude was clearly not as simple as just a game. He could not shake the feeling that there was something major going on behind the scenes that he did not know about.
"Xiao Ai, look into it. Find out what the true purpose of this game is."
"Understood."
Having Xiao Ai was the equivalent of carrying a portable intelligence center.
However...
Many god-tier civilizations possessed max-level AIs. As a result, everyone secretly knew that their AI databases ran the risk of being hacked. Most leaned towards physical storage methods for security, meaning a vast amount of classified intelligence could not be scanned remotely.
Very quickly—
Xiao Ai spoke up with a somewhat odd tone. "I found some information regarding our civilization."
"In the backstory of this game, there is a Level 8 civilization called the 'Human Civilization'. Its leader is named Chen Mang, and it is classified as a chaotic civilization..."
"It is categorized as the villain faction."