Extending the Deployment Time

Chapter 22 1.22 Extended驻扎 time

When the Pandora Era began, Earth's lifeforms reveled, while human civilization declined step by step.

Radio communication lost its effectiveness, and traditional cable telegraphs and railways were repeatedly destroyed. For the first few hundred years, cities relied on Jeeps for communication. However, cars require a complete industrial system to maintain.

After cars lost industrial maintenance, fifty years later, cities could only rely on "Dragon Horses," massive livestock with horse and ox genes, for the exchange of goods and information.

Furthermore, due to the isolation in production and communication, each city could not maintain overly advanced education.

Over these hundred years, cities regressed from nine-year compulsory education to three-year literacy education, and finally back to one-year literacy, causing cities to maintain a technical style of the Black Iron Steam Age.

In reality, universal education was not absolutely impossible under this productivity. At least before the 1970s and 1980s of the 21st Century, universal literacy had been forcibly promoted. At that time, the vast rural areas of the East Asian continent were still in a state of oxen plowing productivity. However, after the Pandora Era, the defeatism brought about by human decline left humanity without the morale to advance, and without morale, no one would strive.

Universal education! This is a strategy of the upper echelons of society giving to the lower echelons. If social development is deduced based on self-interest, this strategy cannot be sustained.

In a capitalist society, calls for educational funding in parliament are clearly at a disadvantage. Military spending, the economy of the capital market, which of these does not have a large number of people clamoring for it? Moreover, the esteemed members of parliament were not educated through public basic education, and cutting investment in public education funds can solidify class structures.

At the same time, among the groups currently enjoying the rights of compulsory education, adolescents overestimate their role in society. They will call for environmental protection, social fairness and freedom, but they will never call for more homework for themselves.

As for how nine-year compulsory education, at the beginning of the Pandora Era, gradually degenerated into its current state?

After all efforts to prevent the Erosion of Pandora Field on Human Civilization failed, the remaining humans began to get used to this precarious existence. The first generation of knowledge teams focused more on how to ensure the continued existence of their respective teams, rather than listening to some voices droning on about preserving the torch and restoring glory. Therefore, the allocation of Social Status inadvertently overlooked teaching and nurturing.

After the era of the first generation of intellectuals ended, the second generation was unwilling to accept assignments to "teach and nurture for ten years like a single day." The highest ruling class, facing the reality of insufficient manpower, changed it to six-year compulsory education. At this time, some "Clear-sighted ones" even appeared, believing that current production did not require such high levels of knowledge, and that literacy was sufficient. For example, buying groceries on the street does not require understanding complex mathematics and physics; this knowledge is useless, isn't it?

However, while society relaxed its approach to education, it did not mean that everyone would relax and engage in healthy competition with you. Society will never lack people who compete for class. After the second generation of intellectuals in the Pandora Era implemented six-year compulsory education, society was substantially stratified.

Social management requires forms, classifications, and statistics to quickly identify the most deficient areas and fill them.

In terms of industrial technology, the maintenance of steam engines and the anatomical structure and connection of biological organisms require an understanding of Solid Geometry. High-tech positions all require knowledge instilled through systematic education.

When these problems arose, did the human city-states in various regions discover them and make amends? No, they did not. The Way of Man dictates that one takes from the insufficient to bestow upon the abundant, and everything only accelerated this process!

When the class that possessed knowledge overlapped with the upper class, the now-aristocratic class would be even less inclined to contribute to grassroots education, which is arduous, brings little fame or profit, and betrays their own class.

Consequently, eighty years into the Pandora Era, almost all city-states decisively abandoned the universal education of the old civilization era.

Civilization is like this; once progress is abandoned, there is a significant regression. Not to mention the economic entities of these city-states in the Pandora Era, even in the 21st Century, the top-tier developed countries made such mistakes in education. The result was that it started a chain reaction, like Dominoes.

Even if there were some politicians during this period of decline who had the idea to reverse everything, their decisions were shackled and plastered over.

Shackle 1: "On the surface: academic freedom in schools. Inwardly: the government allocates funds to education but without government supervision."

Shackle 2: "Every teacher preaches political correctness and does not interfere with students. However, Academic warlords control teachers to voice the same opinions, thereby completing group cohesion among a generation of intellectuals."

Ultimately, after education degenerated, anesthetics were brought in to provide temporary comfort.

This "anesthetic" is exemplified by: "Students in one's own society, under open education, produce innovative geniuses who learn on their own. Students in other societies who undergo strict assessments are all bookworms lacking innovation and are all copying our ideas."

To make this self-deception more effective, examples like Edison, who was self-taught, and Gates, who voluntarily dropped out of college, were cited.

If a society lacks education, then ignorance, pride, and complacency will evolve within its culture!

This was the case in Jian City. When the explorers, clad in black and gray, ran back and reported this "mysterious," "newborn," and "strange" human gene colony to the upper echelons.

The decision-makers of Jian City, without further investigation, hastily made a decision!

Zeng Longmu's seven or eight strategists scrambled to show off.

When they submitted their decision proposals, their mindset might have been: Investigation? Meticulously investigating for days to gather a large amount of data and then inferring, that's the work of mediocre hindsight. Only by judging (guessing) the outcome based on the limited information at hand can we demonstrate our intelligence surpassing ordinary people!

In reality, they couldn't investigate either! Investigation requires a large amount of manpower, observing from as many perspectives as possible, and then each person humbly considering their own views as part of the entire investigation.

When reaching a common conclusion, there should be no mindset of "individual capability," nor should one forcibly prioritize their own investigation and subordinate the views of others.

In short, the strategists of Jian City, lacking civilian education, performed at the same level as a think tank in a certain country in the 2020s of the 21st Century.

Their deductions and conclusions regarding Wei Keng's appearance were as follows.

Deduction 1: This is a colony born primarily from human genes. The emergence of this colony might be a coincidence caused by human gene radiation from multiple cities, including Jian City, or it could be a branch of a mixed-population colony from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in the north migrating south.

Deduction 2: The current strength of this colony is very weak. No large biological beasts capable of contending with Beast Tamers have been discovered. Most individuals are only equipped with firearms and other gear.

Deduction 3: This colony is in a state of confusion, hence their request not to be contacted for six months. They might be in the process of further dispersal.

Conclusion: Jian City must dispatch forces as soon as possible to control, or even destroy and replace, its core before it further strengthens.

Blah, blah, blah, the remaining words of these small experts in the county town were of no nutritional value.

It was nothing more than "Our city-state now has a large number of Beast Tamers, and the newly calibrated Mechanical War Beasts are powerful. Now is the time to use a small knife to cut an ox, demonstrating our strength internally and externally."

In the office of Jian City, Zeng Longmu listened to the report and turned his gaze to two young people. One of the young men was still looking at documents, while the young woman beside him was gently tugging at a kumquat on a potted plant. She asked Zeng Longmu, "Uncle, when will your little kumquat ripen?"

Zeng Longmu replied, "You, move less, and it will ripen a bit faster." He then turned to the young man beside him.

Zeng Longmu said, "Fang Hong, I want you to carry out this mission this time."

Fang Hong nodded.

Zeng Longmu looked at the two of them and said, "When you return, this pot of kumquats will be sent to you."

A month later, which was the seventy-eighth day since Wei Keng arrived in this dimension, someone, well, over a thousand people were counting down the days, expecting to return in more than twenty days.

The large iron gate of Jian City creaked open with the sound of the steam engine on the city wall.

A convoy of twenty horse carriages emerged from the city gate. The carriages were marked with raised metal symbols that appeared to be traditional Chinese characters, spelling out "Jian."

The draft animals were heavy draft horses weighing two tons. No, these dragon horses with mixed genes, snorting hot air from their nostrils, dragged vehicles with fine steel chassis and metal suspension rubber tires, slowly crossing the rocky arch bridge over the moat in front of the city gate.

Due to the strong vitality of various creatures under life radiation, rubber, a resinous liquid, could still be obtained.

The horse carriages were surrounded by steel shells. Of course, they couldn't achieve all-round defense against machine guns like tanks, but the steel shells near the car windows were thicker. People could hide behind the steel shields at the car windows and use heavy machine guns to shoot at the surroundings.

Behind this convoy were three war beasts clad in metal armor. These stitched-together creatures of biological and mechanical origin rested their forequarters on flatbed carts, advancing half-leaning on wheeled vehicles. These were the mechanical war beasts of the beast tamers.

These mechanical war beasts, weighing over five tons, had eel-like power generation cells inside to drive the machinery in their chests and forearms during combat. However, this drive was not very sustainable; intense combat could only be supported for twenty minutes.

Inside one of the carriages, there was an incubation tank in a metal box. Microorganism replication was emitting life radiation within it. These life activities were controlled by the mechanical war beasts, which could draw energy from them, like wireless charging.

The convoy headed west, emitting a unique metallic sound. This entire event, just as it began, was spotted by a detached reconnaissance group dispatched by Wei Keng.

Jian City's actions in the last ten days or so after Wei Keng's transmigration was nearing its end reminded Wei Keng of timed game missions; something always happened at the end.

Regarding the details of returning, Wei Keng inquired about the system's relevant procedures.

The return process began with all self individuals gathering at the initial point of descent, and the entire process lasted for half a day. This meant that retreating from here and changing location to retreat again was impossible. They had to stop these uninvited guests now.

Stopping could be divided into verbal blockade and armed blockade.

Verbal blockade meant negotiating and reasoning. Armed blockade meant using force to suppress. Wei Keng had not considered verbal blockade. But when the other party arrived with military weapons, attempting verbal blockade was as naive as "asking the League of Nations to mediate on September 18th."

However, armed blockade presented a problem. Wei Keng had clearly seen heavy machine guns in the arriving team, which he couldn't deal with.

Submachine guns and heavy machine guns were not the same concept. The former had an effective range of only 150 meters and couldn't serve as the squad tactical core. The latter could suppress any action of enemy infantry within a range of 500 to 1000 meters. In essence, the heavy machine gun was the core of firepower.

As for crossbows, they were used to bully monsters in a semi-jungle environment before. If it were a formal battlefield, the requirement to stand to shoot would be fatal on its own.

Relying on organizational strength and willpower to defeat the opponent? Wei Keng: I have mediocre talent; willpower is unreliable.

Moreover, the other party were the local residents. To achieve annihilation by relying on perfect terrain, the opponent's intelligence would have to be significantly lowered. If a war plan was set up perfectly from the start, there were past precedents in history!

The naval idiocy in the Pacific War, when setting operational plans, always pursued perfection, assuming the American devils would definitely fall for their strategic deception, get trapped, and finally the Imperial Army would achieve a great victory.

War was a very serious matter. After undergoing a baptism, the Wei Keng Collective would absolutely not rely on one or two possible favorable conditions when dealing with war.

No matter how Wei Keng thought about it, he felt he couldn't grasp the current situation and had to seek help from the system.

Facing Wei Keng's proactive conversation, Bai Linglu responded very smoothly. First, he expressed concern about Wei Keng's current crisis. Then, he expressed confidence that Wei Keng could solve the problem and willingness to help as much as possible. Finally, he analyzed the current threat, stating that it was only short-term and that successfully overcoming it would lead to different results.

Lastly, he elaborated on a system aid provision: "We can immediately provide relevant military equipment support, but corresponding material support will require extending the arrival time of the shuttle return channel."

In simple terms: after receiving the aid, you must remain in the area for an extended period, no, stay longer.

Facing such an answer, Wei Keng ground his back molars and asked, "How long will it be delayed?"

Bai Linglu: The quality of transported materials is calibrated to one-third of your body weight as a unit scalar. You currently have 1523 people, with a unit scalar of 45.3344 tons. Completing the transport of one unit scalar will extend the Channel Arrival Time by one hundred days. Exchanges must be for more than one scalar and less than three scalars.

The Wei Kengs, after a certain degree of intense discussion, well, if Wei Keng were a single person, such a discussion would be internal hesitation.

The key point of the Wei Kengs' discussion was whether to meticulously plan for one scalar or leave a little room to exchange for three scalars.

If Wei Keng had not split into multiple bodies, facing such self-hesitation, they would have resorted to flipping a coin, or perhaps slapping themselves to see which hit hurt more.

But now, they compared, seeing which viewpoint had a higher proportion within their collective.

Five minutes later.

The Wei Kengs' Communications Group replied with a unified plan to Bai Linglu: "Exchange for three scalars." This was the maximum exchangeable amount.

Bai Linglu was somewhat surprised by Wei Keng's sudden generosity.

However, the reason behind the Wei Keng Collective's generous choice was: Since they were on the verge of battle, they had to go all out. The purchase of military supplies must be guaranteed as much as possible, and they would not be as stingy as the Great Qing before the Battle of the Yalu River.

After confirming the total amount of supplies, it was time to place the order.

Wei Keng Comms 11: "Give me ten of those Individual Nuclear Bombs, the Cold War type with a yield of fifty tons, the Nuclear Rocket Launcher. Hmm, I know how to use them, dig trenches, put on a Protective Suit. Oh, and give me two more Motorcycles. Oh, don't worry about me, no one here has signed up for projection, I will."

Regarding the projection of these nuclear rockets, there was no shortage of volunteers within the Wei Kengs. Wei Kengs: This kind of Tough Guy Gear, one should experience it in their lifetime.

However, Bai Linglu quickly dismissed the Wei Kengs' wild fantasies.

Bai Linglu explained sincerely: "Heavy Element Atoms are unstable during transit. If you can find enough Artificial Elements in this Plane for calibration, then you can deliver this equipment."

Bai Linglu's tone was very polite when saying these words. The Simple-minded Wei Keng felt that the tone at the end of this Young Lady's words seemed to mock them as "Broke Person."

The poor and short-sighted Wei Keng could not refute, and could only sigh inwardly.

Several minutes later.

Wei Keng began to carefully examine the list of Transferred Materials they could accept. These were all relatively ordinary items, well, items they had thought of these days.

Wei Keng Comms 34 said to Bai Linglu: "It seems you already have a Plan."

Bai Linglu: "As an Observer, I should Share Worries when you encounter difficulties in Plane Exploration."