66: Butterfly Wings

Of course, this is not free.

Narrative-level Civilization have their own methods for mass-producing deities to deal with certain special situations—such as the Speaker of the [Society].

Even if you can't defeat the main body of [Society], killing the Speaker would still be a major blow to [Society].

The Temple of Annihilation is best at this. They have a special organization called the Pantheon, which is used to cultivate and organize Planet Consciousness nurtured by Spirit Maggot into warriors to resist the invasion of [society]. They then disperse them back to their respective planets to form a solid Great Wall defense line.

The mass-produced deities of "Heroes Empire" are slightly different in nature, but in principle they still lead to the same goal.

Whether it's mass-producing deities or achieving ascension through legitimate means, both rely on one technology— the Ascension Platform.

"It's this thing... I'd better be careful."

Li Aoz stood up and paced back and forth a few times.

Previously, when he communicated with Du Zexin, N4, and the Xiajian Jing, they discussed how to solve the Azure Planet problem, and he proposed two solutions at the time:

First, destroy a planet. Li Aoz will purchase a planet in advance as a destination for interstellar migration.

Second, drag the larva of Entropy out and throw it into the black hole, which is considered sealing it.

The advantage of the former is that it is more reliable. Once the undeveloped Entropy Lord is eliminated, this star field is completely safe.

The cost is that, even so, many interstellar migrants will die.

The advantage of the latter is that it can preserve the planet, but the cost is that it takes too long.

When Li Aoz said that, he was actually implying that he would try his best to find a better interstellar immigration company, so that the Azure Planet People would not be too optimistic.

Even he wasn't optimistic about the plan to seal Entropy Lord. He would try to sound out their intentions. If the Narrative-level Civilization insisted on blowing up the planet, then Li Aoz wouldn't be able to do anything but prepare for immigration.

He would try his best to prevent the Azure Planet People from destroying their homeland and the place where their ancestors had lived for generations, but if the Narrative-level Civilization did not agree, there was nothing Li Aoz could do.

Whether from a subjective or objective perspective, blowing up a planet is the most suitable option.

But the appearance of the White Obelisk made Li Aoz change his mind all at once.

"We must, absolutely must, protect Azure Planet!"

The White Obelisk cannot be moved once it is deployed, Li Aoz doesn't want to give it up.

If managed properly... perhaps Azure Planet can pursue an independent and free path of development, without being held back by any civilization, nor becoming a member state of other Narrative-level Civilization.

No one wants to be a pawn; everyone wants to be the player in their own game.

In the universe, only society and narrative are the players.

The White Obelisk gave Li Aoz a glimmer of hope—the hope that Azure Planet could develop independently and become Narrative-level Civilization!

"Once I do that, my fate will be inextricably linked to that of the Azure Planet ... but it seems that's how it is."

Azure Planet serves as the Novice Village for players in the Yanxia Zone, and its player base is exceptionally large. Li Aoz estimates that few planets have more players than the Yanxia Zone.

If it's a binding deal, then so be it; he won't lose out.

Rather than confronting the threat of Entropy head-on, Li Aoz would rather take a gamble.

To personally nurture a Narrative-level Civilization... what a magnificent and splendid undertaking that would be.

Although this is only a very slim hope, there are civilizations that have developed their own Ascension Platform, but most of them are controlled by Narrative-level Civilization.

"However, I'll have to speed things up. Although my upgrades are already fast enough, I remember that for Azure Planet, there are only 20 years left. Even if I don't provoke Entropy, it will be at most 25 years."

Li Aoz clicked his tongue. "Within 25 years, I must reach level 120, change my job to [Bishop], advance to the Zeta-rank (ζ, the sixth Greek letter), and even dive into a star field once, only then will I be qualified to join the battle."

How powerful is the Zeta-rank? Well, destroying the Azure Planet wouldn't be a problem. Only those who reach the Zeta-rank can be considered a mainstay of the universe.

According to Li Aoz's experience, leveling up becomes very difficult after the Delta-rank. A single quest can easily take five or six years, and later-stage players may even spend more than ten years on a single battle, which is quite exhausting.

He does know of places where he can grind experience and levels up, which might allow him to reach level 100 within three years.

However, the prerequisite is that he himself must first reach level 90.

If Li Aoz wanted to advance quickly, he would have to target the players. But Li Aoz remembered that the public beta wouldn't start for another five years.

Five years... Li Aoz sighed.

Relying on these few beta testers, he really has no way to level up quickly. In these five years, he'll be lucky if he can resolve his household registration and education issues first.

Let's see if there's any activity on the forum.

Just as Li Aoz was preparing to deploy the Path Building, he logged onto the forum to check out recent events.

He had barely clicked into the games section when he was immediately struck by the opening announcement: "Fully open Open Beta Version: Star Abyss 1.0 - New expansion pack [Whispers of Contempt]!?"

Li Aoz stunned. He glanced at the contents and was greatly shocked:

"What's going on? It's already in open beta? That's a full five years ahead of my previous life—even in reality, that's several weeks ahead!"

No wonder I didn't get any feedback from players when I broadcast to the ground of Azure Planet. It turns out that these people went offline to rest after the closed beta ended and were waiting for the server to open.

"If that's the case, then won't ordinary players flood into Azure Planet in just one week?"

Li Aoz glanced at it and found that most of the updated list remained unchanged, much like what he remembered.

There's just one thing: this also includes an enhancement to the resurrection mechanism, so now these players don't have to come back from the resurrection point like before.

"Players in the 'Redemption' category can build three types of Redemption buildings: Battlefield Hospital, Simple Life Altar, and Small Church, allowing players to rest and resurrect in the wild—this was only added in version 2.0!"

With this, players are essentially given the ability to save in real time. Originally, players only had three resurrection opportunities per day, but now, if they manage it well, every time they rest at a resurrection point, it counts as refreshing a resurrection opportunity.

"This patch greatly lowered the barrier to entry and reduced players' frustration... It was after this update that Star Abyss attracted a large number of players."

"Wait, according to my memory, the reason why this ' 《Lai Anding Medical Optimization Agreement》 ' came into existence in my previous life was because of the arrival of the Dai Weilin era. Due to the declassification of Cloning Technology and Artificial Womb, the population of Azure Planet was no longer a problem, which is why it was able to support hundreds of millions of players. That's why Qiqiao Network began to reduce the players' frustration and the difficulty of the resurrection mechanism..."

"In other words."

Li Aoz incredulously, "Dai Weilin, he's already in power?"

Li Aoz never imagined that his influence would be so great.

His first thought was of Du Zexin — Du Zexin's whereabouts remained unknown; he lacked Gravity Wave communication technology, Li Aoz couldn't find him either.

Although Ya Wen is Dai Weilin's daughter, she's basically useless. She even eloped with him to outer space, and now she's evolved from a third-rate agent into a female superhero who farms, weaves, is independent, self-reliant, and makes fashionable clothes by hand.

After thinking it over, Li Aoz realized a problem: it seemed that Dai Weilin's early appointment had nothing to do with him, but if you said he had no effect, upon closer inspection, it seemed that he was also involved.

At least, no one blew themselves into space in their past life.

It can only be attributed to the butterfly effect.

"No matter what, this is a good thing."

Dai Weilin is a very pragmatic man, pragmatic and insightful, but his methods are too gentle and he is too weak towards his enemies—this is Li Aoz's impression of Dai Weilin.

If Dai Weilin can take office five years earlier, then the Frostplate Federation era will also begin five years earlier.

"In that case, the number of players will only increase. Could it break 500 million? Maybe even 600 million, after all, Frostplate has already become human-like—wait a minute!"

Li Aoz suddenly realized something. "Those players who were incited by me to go to Frostplate in those forum polls are still planning to cause trouble!"

Could this create difficulties and obstacles for Dai Weilin? Li Aoz thought about it and felt that it might not be so.

Even if players cause a lot of destruction, it won't be as fierce as the civil war in the previous life of Frostplate. The ones who killed the most Azure Planet People were still the compatriots of Azure Planet.

Players need to use Recognition Filter to play the game, which means their behavior can sometimes be a bit outrageous. But those executioners and conservative soldiers from the Frostplate Civil War era were pure beasts, scum, and devilish trash.

At worst, he can simply use his authority to issue challenging missions to players under the name of "Echoes," thus diverting attention from the game.

Leave the rest of the hardships to Dai Weilin.

Li Aoz continued to review a batch of information leaks on the forums. Judging from the number of registered accounts and the number of votes, most players chose Heavenly Ring Nation as their birthplace, since it was a really good place to level up.

However, since Li Aoz went to space, the players in the [Dominator] category didn't know if they would have any mentors left. So, 96.81% of them chose to go to the Red Arrow Empire —where there are specialized Aoneng Research Institutes and superpower organizations. The Red Arrow Empire does not discriminate against Aoneng; on the contrary, it welcomes them.

Li Aoz pioneered the path of the [Dominator] system, and before leaving Azure Planet, he also published the formula for his Aura Awakening Potion.

He looked down on the worthless paper of Azure Planet and thought it better to turn all future Aoneng into "Mutant".

With this, those who awakened their Aoneng due to Entropy Lord's influence, such as Qiu Ran and Nomi, will all become history.

Those who are legitimate, safe, and properly trained "Mutant" will completely replace dangerous human experiments, and the development of Aoneng will become standardized and legal.

Li Aoz has always firmly believed that technology itself is not wrong; the wrong lies in the abuse of technology and the unscrupulous people who do so.

Red Arrow also has many densely populated cities, but it's necessary to consider factors such as comfort, faith output, prosperity, and player preferences.

He needs to find a city that is most tolerant of Aoneng and has a large number of players. It also needs to be a bit remote, preferably a city along the Old Era coastline. Otherwise, if he chooses a seabed area, and later defeats Entropy, his buildings will be submerged by the sea, which would be unfortunate.

After organizing the information, Li Aoz made his choice.

Considering his already high level of legendary status and fame on Azure Planet, Li Aoz decided to maintain his presence. [You selected [White Obelisk]]

Please select an area on Azure Planet as your deployment point for your Path Building.

[Selection complete - the Path Building will generate at the target location.]

[Target Location: Azure Planet - Red Arrow Empire - Eerga Coast - Eerga City]

[May this landmark be erected along your path, wishing you a swift Ascend to Godhood.]