Artificial Intelligence

It was the year 603 of the Era.

The war had lasted two full years.

At long last, countries around the world understood exactly how wide the gap was between them and the Star Ancient Empire from the East.

How could you fight automatic weapons with matchlock guns?

The enemy could launch fierce artillery attacks at your positions from dozens of kilometers away.

There were even steel birds flying through the sky, faster than real birds, and the droppings they dropped could cause devastating destruction.

It was a war without any suspense.

The Star Ancient Empire unified the entire planet at astonishing speed.

Every civilization and faction that attempted to resist fell beneath the advance of the Star Ancient Empire.

As for those high and mighty beings, they paid no attention to the misery in the war-torn regions.

After this great reshuffling,

only the Star Ancient Empire remained on the entire planet.

The cabinet's rotation system was also temporarily extended to ten years.

The cabinet once again launched a policy encouraging people to have more children.

The various state-owned enterprises also put forth all their strength to begin developing the planet.

At the same time,

the entire world was renamed Origin. It was no longer called Earth, Blue Star, Mercury, or anything else.

After the threat from other civilizations disappeared, the Star Ancient Empire's technology did not decline in the slightest. Instead, it continued developing at an extremely rapid pace.

The year 650 of the Era.

The population of the Star Ancient Empire surpassed three billion, and its numbers continued to rise wildly.

After more than forty years of development, the Star Ancient Empire had completely brought the entire world under its rule, and its laws had also been revised to become extremely rigorous.

The cabinet even submitted an unprecedented request to His Majesty the Emperor.

To abolish the system of collective punishment.

However,

the cabinet proposed abolishing the system, while the military put forward objections.

The Emperor also rejected the cabinet's proposal.

That same year,

the Imperial Academy of Engineering developed Artificial Intelligence.

This meant that the Empire had entered the Artificial Intelligence era of the Third Industrial Revolution.

"Artificial Intelligence?"

Star Plucking Tower.

Even now, Star Plucking Tower remained the Empire's tallest building.

Emperor Yang Yu stood atop Star Plucking Tower, gazing at the planes arranged in orderly formation and flying along their planned routes through the sky. A smile appeared in his eyes.

After seven or eight hundred years,

he had finally brought the world up to the level of modern technology.

The Empire's economy, population, army, and military capabilities had practically reached their peak.

In a certain sense,

apart from nuclear weapons, the Empire could take on any superpower from later generations by itself.

"Not bad!"

"According to the current development trajectory of the Star Ancient Empire, it should take around another one hundred and fifty years to unlock the technological data for Empire 1.5 to 2.0."

Xingchen stood beside Yang Yu before the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down over the prosperous city below as she spoke.

"I'm curious. When the technology is unlocked, will it directly provide experts, or will it provide technological data?"

Yang Yu turned his head toward Xingchen and asked.

"First, I need to state that I'm a good person. I don't engage in human trafficking."

Xingchen said, "You'll have to train all the scientific researchers yourselves."

As if.

She was a proper system. She would never engage in something illegal like human trafficking.

"A good person? What good person goes around saying they're a good person?"

Yang Yu laughed helplessly and said, "Tell me, when Artificial Intelligence is born, should I have her monitor the network, or..."

"That depends on your own decision."

Xingchen said, "You haven't forgotten your dream, have you?"

"My dream? What dream?"

Yang Yu looked at Xingchen in surprise. Then, as if he had thought of something, he said, "I already possess such power. Why would I go back to being an ordinary person and let others control my fate? Do I look like a fool to you?"

Xingchen actually began examining him seriously, then gave a slight nod.

"Do you still want to reverse time and save her?"

Xingchen asked tentatively.

"If I weren't trying to save her, do you think I would work this hard?" Determination filled Yang Yu's eyes.

Lin Er—he had to save her.

A glimmer flashed through Xingchen's eyes as she said, "Don't you think calling yourself 'I, the Emperor' sounds much more impressive than calling yourself 'I, the Lonely Ruler'? Why do you still use the latter?"

"'I, the Emperor'? It's been overused."

"I don't even have a family. Aren't I a lonely ruler?"

Yang Yu said.

That was true.

His friends and lover had all vanished into the long river of history.

Only he remained, all alone.

If he did not call himself the Lonely Ruler or the Solitary One, what meaning was there in calling himself the Emperor?

Xingchen's figure disappeared.

Yang Yu remained standing there in silence, pondering the Empire's future development.

Even now,

the Empire still had not developed nuclear weapons. That would not do.

Even if the entire world had only one civilization left—the Empire—nuclear weapons still had to exist.

I can do without them, but I must possess the technology.

Next,

Yang Yu went to the Imperial Academy of Engineering.

He demanded that the Imperial Academy of Engineering hand all Artificial Intelligence permissions over to him, then returned to the Imperial Palace.

The first thing he did

was summon all the ministers of the imperial cabinet, including Bai Nian, who was still fixated on the position of Minister of Military Affairs despite being old and frail.

"First, I want to discuss one matter."

"The issue of roads reaching the Empire's people."

"Even now, there are still many villages and households within the Empire that have no roads built to their doors. This is a dereliction of duty by the road administration and the Ministry of Finance."

"I'll give you ten final years. If there are still roads that have not reached the homes of the Empire's people by then, you can all get out."

Yang Yu looked sternly at the prime minister and the Minister of Finance.

"Your Majesty, these problems don't exist because the imperial cabinet is unwilling to act. The situation is simply difficult to explain!"

"Some commoners have conflicts with one another. A family buys land to build a road, then refuses to let other people's cars pass through. They'll only allow people to cross on foot. There's nothing we can do."

"When they report it to the authorities, those people just hug the land and argue. They even claim that the other families refused to let them connect to the natural-gas pipeline, so they won't let them use the road either. There's nothing we can do."

The Minister of Finance spoke bitterly.

He had personally gone to the grassroots to investigate many such matters.

"That's what you're going to tell me?"

"Look for yourself."

Yang Yu threw out a document and said, "See for yourself why they refused to let those people connect to the natural gas. Was it because they were unwilling? You didn't even consult them before spreading rumors that they had agreed, and on top of that, you refused to pay for the branch pipes. Who would agree to that? They invested first and proceeded from there. Why should they invest, while you get a free ride without investing anything?"

"Also, look at what kind of pipe they're using. It's twice as thick as their branch pipe. It's practically the main pipe for rural natural gas. Would they dare let you connect to it?"

"Anyway, I don't care about any of that."

"I'll give you one final warning. Either roads reach every household, or you get out. It's that simple."

"You managed to reach positions like these. Are your brains made of paste?"

"The land belongs to the Empire. The Empire has expressly forbidden the buying and selling of land. On what grounds did they buy land to build private roads?"

"Are you trying to act like hooligans? No person, company, or family is allowed to act like a hooligan toward the Empire."

"Second, regarding matters related to the Imperial Academy of Engineering."