Giving Civilization a Cheat Code

Sandbox No.1 had finally produced Aether.

This discovery greatly excited Lin Tuo. After all, this had been his purpose in creating the Sandbox.

As time raced onward within the Sandbox, Lin Tuo saw faint traces of Cyan-White Qi gradually appearing in the air. It was pale and sparse, but it was there nonetheless.

"Should I take a breath? Just one breath?" Lin Tuo wrestled with himself for several seconds before rising to his feet. He looked down over the Sandbox continent and silently activated the Qi-Eating Method.

Yet, to his surprise, the Aether did not respond to him at all.

Current Environmental Aether Concentration is too low. Unable to collect.

The message surfaced in his mind.

Helpless, Lin Tuo sat back down. He had no mood to play on his phone anymore, so he simply propped his cheek on one hand and waited beside it.

Evolution within the Sandbox continued.

The climate remained generally stable. The occasional droughts and floods flashed past in fast-forward beneath Time Acceleration.

The Edict Age lasted a full eight hundred years. Across the continent, the population surged, and the old social structure finally could no longer hold. Then, at some unknown moment, war broke out.

The continent abruptly descended into chaos. Heroes rose side by side, feudal lords stood everywhere, and the concept of nations emerged. The old order shattered. At its peak, the entire continent had splintered into eighty-two feudal states, locked in ceaseless conflict. The Edict Age ended, and the Warring States Era began.

Lines of text appeared one after another in the Operation Log.

Lin Tuo saw beacon fires flare across the Sandbox. Though he could not make out the details, those fleeting glimpses alone were enough to convey the brutality of an age of war.

"Less than three hundred thousand square kilometers of land, yet it split into so many powers..." Lin Tuo clicked his tongue in amazement.

At the beginning of the Warring States Era, the powers were scattered and chaotic. Yet as the feudal lords annexed and expanded at one another's expense, the land gradually settled into a thirteen-state balance. The Warring States Era entered a brief period of peace, but that state of affairs did not last long.

In the 700,040,103rd year of world evolution, the "Chi Kingdom" reformed, and its national strength surged. It dealt a crushing defeat to a neighboring state at Pinnacle Valley. Over the following twenty-one years, Chi Kingdom's territory gradually expanded until it finally annexed the other states and unified the continent.

The ruler ascended the throne, offered sacrifices to Heaven and worshiped God, then proclaimed himself Emperor. Thus, the Warring States Era ended, and the Dynasty Era began.

"So fast?" Seeing this log entry, Lin Tuo froze for a moment and could not help glancing at the dark night outside the window.

It was only a little past three in the morning. He had originally expected the Sandbox to perhaps enter a feudal Empire before dawn, but it had happened ahead of schedule.

"Maybe I can try absorbing Aether again before dawn." Lin Tuo got up, went next door, dug out a cup of instant noodles, cooked it, and silently waited as dynasties rose and changed upon the continent.

During the Warring States Era, the arrow beside "Aether Concentration" had once pointed downward. But Lin Tuo understood that this kind of war was an inevitable part of civilization's development.

It was different from natural disasters.

So he had not intervened or altered anything.

By the time the noodles were ready, the arrow had turned upward again, faintly green.

"Slurp." Holding the noodle cup, Lin Tuo ate as he watched. He noticed that time within the Sandbox had slowed even further, while the distribution of human settlements began radiating outward in all directions from the capitals.

The most striking sight was not the fairly sizable cities, but the stretches of farmland. Advances in cultivation had increased grain yields, and the postwar population was recovering at a rapid pace.

It soon surpassed the population of the early Warring States Era.

Perhaps it was because the Sandbox still drew from reality, or perhaps the broad course of civilization was always astonishingly alike. Even the clusters of buildings in the Sandbox gradually came to resemble the styles of the Han and Tang dynasties as they evolved.

Lin Tuo had thought this dynasty would soon be overthrown and replaced by a new ruler and national name. Yet to his mild surprise—

The unified dynasty in the Sandbox displayed astonishing vitality.

In the 700,040,602nd year of world evolution, the human population on the continent officially surpassed five million.

Not long after that line appeared on the Virtual Panel, Lin Tuo discovered that the "Environmental Aether Concentration" had finally changed from "negligible" to "low."

"I can absorb it now!" At the sight, Lin Tuo sprang to his feet and saw that the sky outside the window had already begun to pale. The night was about to pass.

Who could have imagined that in a single night, Tako Continent would complete its transformation from tribal slavery to a unified feudal dynasty?

"I wonder how much Aether Value I can collect." Suppressing the joy in his heart, Lin Tuo tried the Qi-Eating Method once more. This time, it succeeded as expected.

The Azure White Qi floating above the Sandbox, inside the Isolation Shield, slowly gathered together and became a thin wisp of Spiritual Energy, which Lin Tuo swallowed with practiced ease.

Compared with the first time, however, Lin Tuo merely felt comfortable all over. He did not have nearly as strong a reaction as before.

In one breath, he had swept all the Aether clean from nearly three hundred thousand square kilometers of land.

Lin Tuo slowly exhaled, opened his eyes, and asked:

"How much Aether Value do I have now?"

The host currently possesses 124 Aether Value.

The Evolution Sandbox immediately gave him an answer in his mind.

"So little?" Lin Tuo froze, thoroughly surprised. There were only 124 points in total. Subtracting the 93 points he had originally possessed, that meant...

With that single breath, he had only absorbed 31 points of Aether from the Sandbox?

The result completely exceeded his expectations. This continent was far larger than Yangcheng City.

Yet its Aether Value was less than one-third of Yang City's.

The quality of Sentient Beings in Sandbox No.1 is relatively low...

It seemed his question had triggered some keyword. The Evolution Sandbox immediately poured the relevant explanation into his consciousness.

Lin Tuo's eyes flickered, and then understanding dawned on him.

The problem mainly lay in two aspects.

First, collecting Aether in Creation Mode inherently consumed more than it did in Observation Mode.

In other words, for the same amount of Aether, the Sandbox intercepted a greater portion in Creation Mode.

This was a matter of mechanism and could not be resolved for the time being.

Second, the human dynasty within the Sandbox simply did not provide much Aether.

Though its territory was vast, its total population was not actually greater than Yangcheng City's.

Modern cities were extremely densely populated. Yang City might not be a provincial capital, but it was still sizable, with a population of around six million.

Moreover, the more important factor was the quality of human life.

Modern people's average lifespan, health, state of mind, and so on all far surpassed those of humans under feudal dynastic rule.

To say nothing else, in the "Dachi Dynasty," vast numbers of people still froze or starved to death every year. Under such circumstances, individuals generated very little Aether.

If not for the fact that Lin Tuo's breath had drawn Aether from across many years of the Sandbox world, the number would have been even lower.

"This isn't quite what I imagined." In the Old House, Lin Tuo felt a little troubled, his smile bitter.

Still, the situation was not too terrible. After all, time flowed differently in the Sandbox and reality, and Aether recovered faster as well.

Sure enough, the Azure White Qi above the Sandbox visibly recovered quite a bit within minutes.

Given a little more time, he could conduct a second "collection."

How should he put it? If quantity was lacking, he could make up for it with frequency...

But...

Could he find a way to change this situation?

Lin Tuo leaned back in his chair and could not help sinking into thought.

"To solve the shortage of Aether, I have to start at the source. Either increase the population or improve the population's quality."

"It'll be difficult to raise the population. The Sandbox world's current level of social productivity is too low. The grain it produces cannot even feed its current several million people, much less more..."

"As for population quality... that is likewise constrained by the current level of social productivity. Unless the feudal society's production structure changes, its quality of life cannot improve..."

In this age of abundant information, Lin Tuo had absorbed enough through constant exposure to roughly identify the crux of the issue.

"So what do I do? Wait for the feudal Empire in the Sandbox to continue evolving?" Lin Tuo reclined in the Rattan Chair, one hand casually resting on the Sandbox's edge as his fingers tapped unconsciously.

His eyes were filled with contemplation.

"...No, I can't just sit here and wait. If reality is any guide, a feudal dynasty without an opportunity may very well become fixed in place, stagnate, and maintain its current social level for a thousand years."

"And now, the Evolution Sandbox's time flow has slowed considerably. I might wait ten days or half a month, and the Sandbox could still remain in the form of a feudal Empire."

"Hmm... If relying on its own advancement isn't realistic, then... what if I, an outside force, give it a push?"

At that thought, a flash of inspiration suddenly streaked through Lin Tuo's mind.

"If I find a way to grant early science and technology to the Chi Kingdom, could I accelerate the pace of their development?"

"Or, to put it more simply and directly..."

"Give the civilization in the Sandbox... a cheat code?"