The First Plane War

At the Eastern Time-Space Crossing Department, the latest information from Wei Keng and the Bai Linglu Group had just come in. The "High Minister"-rank officials who'd been a little uneasy about the incident now felt completely differently.

One High Minister who'd received the Plane Data turned to his colleagues on the neighboring front and remarked with exasperation, "Those two are a pair of oddballs."

One of them hadn't bothered to explain that the deaths of a few individuals weren't permanent. Their memories had already been stored, and when their consciousness returned, all those memories would be restored. He'd wanted to use that "scare" to push the Transmigrator to take his mission seriously.

And the other? He'd certainly been scared, then rejected every suggestion and exaggerated the dangers of everything in the unknown plane dozens of times over.

Now, the people at the Time-Space Management Department could understand some of Bai Linglu's thinking. "Wei Keng, what are you afraid of? With the mode you've developed, your abilities are no weaker than those of a High Minister. You've already backed up your Return Channel system. You can absolutely take on some Regional Level threats in this world, then come back and gather data on this Plane Descent Mode to improve your own Consciousness Growth System."

The Main World had now officially confirmed that East and West were in the midst of the First Plane War.

The two sides were fighting across nearly a thousand planes and 460,000 timelines, with each side deploying thousands of Transmigrators!

The social mobilization system forged by the four World Wars on this Earth was now competing in Plane Exploration. It was frankly incredible. In some less dangerous regions of the planes, both sides repeatedly explored the same Historical Lines, down to precise personality profiles of every minor leader at the Mayor Level in each city.

The two sides laid plans against each other in these repeatedly explored planes. The Battle of Wits between Transmigrators was beyond the imagination of someone like Wei Keng, who was only a "Civilian."

The "Civilian" rank had no Military Law System to govern it. If there had been one, then regardless of whether Bai Linglu had broken the rules, Wei Keng couldn't have gone against his Exploration Mission's orders after reaching the plane—even if he'd arrived by accident, or even during the journey there.

In these Hot War Planes, both sides captured and detained the defeated side's Transmigrators.

Detention meant seizing their Consciousness Nodes and forcibly locking them inside Space Bubbles within the dimension.

In the name of humanitarianism, the two Transmigrator Groups didn't completely erase the other side's Consciousness Existence. But the detentions still damaged the Transmigrators' consciousness, affecting their Number of Crossings and Professional Lifespan.

In every sense, this was a war.

And because it was a war, both sides had abandoned the mindset of the Peaceful Era. Well, you couldn't expect your girlfriend to speak gently and reason with you while she was on her period.

The Eastern Time-Space Administration Bureau had now mobilized everyone it could. To some extent, Wei Keng was now considered "military personnel," not a "Civilian" as he'd been before the war.

As for the importance of the plane where Wei Keng now stood, few explorers had visited it, so its Time Flow Rate was faster than that of many other regions. That gave it considerable Strategic Value.

The latest phenomenon discovered by High Minister-rank Transmigrators during the First Plane War was that time flowed faster in Living Planes than in Mature Planes, and this could change with Shuttle Activity.

In other words, repeatedly crossing into a particular point in a plane and opening up countless Historical Lines would slow that plane's flow of time relative to the Main World.

For example, before the World War, ten years spent at a particular point in the Shenzhou Plane corresponded to one year on Earth. Now, after the Main World's crossings had spawned many new timelines, the ratio had fallen to 9.8 to 1.

This trend had made humanity realize that Time Flow Rate was a new measure of a plane's resources. Time itself was a resource only if it could diminish. No matter how important something was, if it never diminished, it wasn't a resource.

According to the Time-Space Administration Bureau's assessment, a plane's value became very low if its Time Flow Rate fell to 3:1.

Different Planes were valuable because they provided information.

If personnel sent by the Main World crossed over—Transmigrators sent down from the Main World's Gravity Well—and spent one year to obtain information from three years later over there, that couldn't make up for the enormous investment required to cross over.

So a year spent obtaining ten years' worth of information, or a year in the Main World during which Transmigrators collected a century's worth of information on the other side—that was what counted as high value.

Although the World War was still ongoing, both East and West had realized that the resources of Adjacent Planes and Near Planes were limited. In the future, they would have to explore Distant Planes and Different Planes, despite all the dangers that might hinder them.

As for the plane where Wei Keng had settled, its current time ratio compared to the Main World was an astonishing 678:1.

During this Plane War, all timelines urgently needed faster and better Information Enthalpy processing. The plane where Wei Keng had settled was definitely a High-Value Mine.

Before, with so little information available, the plane had been considered high-risk, and Wei Keng might not have been able to settle there. The Time-Space Administration Bureau hadn't said a word. But now it was clear that Wei Keng could settle there, and he was still only a "Civilian" in the reserve forces. So, naturally, they'd tacitly accepted "Bai Linglu's little tricks."

Of course, the Time-Space Administration Bureau still had to work on the Transmigrators' morale.

That was why they'd passed the situation along to Wei Keng's younger brother, Wei Qiang.

On the Shenzhou Plane, Wei Qiang was aboard Hetu's Time-Space Shuttle. A batch of supplies had been packed and was ready to be erased inside the Super-Time-Space Machine—in other words, sent to the adjacent plane.

Since Future Company had entered the fray on the timeline next door, his side had to provide their Transmigrators there with enough support.

After sending over the sixth batch of supplies, he frowned as he received a new message. Then he lay down inside the time machine, entered the Time Rift, and connected to communications in the High Dimension.

Oh, it had taken only a few days to confirm it: against all precedent, his brother had managed to settle in a High-Risk Plane. He'd even done quite well, and the Main World's Time-Space Management Department was paying close attention to him. Wei Qiang breathed a sigh of relief, then couldn't help laughing in disbelief.

Wei Qiang laughed and cursed, "He only shows what he can do when he's pushed to the limit."

The two brothers had lived together for more than a decade. Wei Qiang knew Wei Keng's personality, and he could tell from the few scattered lines in the report that his brother had approached that Pandora Plane with the attitude of someone cramming for an exam. His older brother wasn't really useless—he was just too fond of lazing around in his nest.

To understand the brothers' bond, it was important to remember that the Main World was the true world among all worlds. Time in the Main World flowed far more slowly than in other planes.

So even after crossing over a dozen or twenty times, they could still see their loved ones unchanged. Without realizing it, those loved ones became emotional anchors.

Wei Keng and Wei Qiang's father had also fathered children in other planes, but time there moved too quickly compared to the Main World. In the blink of an eye, the so-called brothers in those worlds had grown up like radishes, so he never regarded them as brothers. Besides, Wei Keng and Wei Qiang's arrival in their plane had actually been prepared by their parents: after finishing their exploration, Father Wei and Mother Wei had chosen a new timeline and arranged for an embryo to be conceived there, leaving the brothers a foundation.

As for the forty-odd timelines in various planes that Wei Qiang had compiled from his father's legacy, they all had backups of Wei Keng's arrival.

Their parents had already laid the groundwork for the brothers to explore other planes together. Wei Qiang thought the same way, though he was more competitive. He'd gone ahead and plunged into Plane Exploration, waiting there for Wei Keng.

At that moment, the Chief Observer of the New War Zone Wei Qiang had reached noticed him staring into space.

Li Ximeng asked, "Sergeant Wei, what's troubling you?"

Wei Qiang replied, "It's something going on back home, senior."

Li Ximeng said, "Your brother joined the crossings too. I heard there was an accident and he ended up in a High-Risk Plane. How is he now?" Her clearance wasn't high enough to check on Wei Keng's situation.

Wei Qiang said, "My brother's doing well. He's successfully settled in that plane and can complete every mission on his own. It's just that he and his Observer don't work well together."

Li Ximeng asked, "Oh, they don't work well together? Did they have a falling-out?"

Wei Qiang said, "No, they just work together very awkwardly, and he has trouble communicating with his Observer. But for now, they're managing."

Li Ximeng said, "After the war ends, when he changes planes, he can try working with another Observer."

In Pandora World, it was another new day, twenty-three days after the ambush at Jian City. The daily labor and Big Chorus had led Wei Keng to try to bring the captives into a rhythm—and he'd ended up falling into one himself. Now, the consciousness of each Wei Keng was communicating more and more frequently. Nearly every individual could now communicate telepathically with the others they regularly worked with.

People outside had grown more and more accustomed to Wei Keng, while he felt he was becoming stranger and stranger.

By now, merchants from several Human City-States had arrived to trade. Wei Keng bought a lot of Textiles and food (Jing Blocks).

He'd originally planned to trade gold for these goods, but he discovered that the local currency was "steel coins" and "copper coins"—the one-yuan and fifty-fen coins from before the Great Cataclysm.

Fortunately, the merchants didn't want to "return with empty holds." They were interested in the coarse salt Wei Keng had extracted, and what interested them most of all was Copper Bullets!

Throughout the Southern Kingdom, three things served as hard currency: Gold Bars, bullets, and Betel Nut. Bullets were the scarcest, and according to Wei Keng's calculations, they had the highest markup. They cost twenty times as much as the same weight of Copper Skin and Black Powder!

The Human world wasn't without the relevant production equipment, but qualified workers were very rare. And perhaps because of management problems, production of Firearms and Ammunition was also extremely limited.

A merchant from another city who traded with Wei Keng told him that Jian City had four Arms Workshops. The largest produced no more than a hundred thousand bullets a year, barely enough to distribute among some of the city's armed forces.

[Behind this distribution system, the upper class was divided into factions. Powerful families and individuals prioritized the military forces loyal to them, making sure they received enough ammunition, while neglecting the rest. It hadn't occurred to Wei Keng that even a small county seat would practice Mountain-Stronghold-ism when it came to its armed forces.]

Wei Keng didn't believe that only a hundred thousand bullets were produced a year. He'd captured two hundred thousand himself—had he really taken two years' worth of output from one Arms Workshop?

Besides, with Wei Keng's own bullet production efficiency, he could make a million rounds a month if he had enough raw materials. The system had provided standardized molds, a Forging Machine, and a Lathe Polisher, and Wei Keng had set up an assembly line. Shiny bullets could now clatter off the line by the thousands.

Wei Keng did business with anyone who came to him. He was still cautious about bullets, of course, and agreed to sell only ten thousand rounds a month. He was also willing to discuss ransoming the captives with Jian City. As far as Wei Keng was concerned, this mistaken conflict should end as soon as possible.

Through his conversations with the merchants,

Wei Keng gradually learned that around fifty thousand people lived inside Jian City's City Wall Defense Line. Since the territory a city-state could defend was relatively safe, one or two thousand people had gathered in some Secluded Natural Villages as well. These Satellite Settlements surrounding the city-state had complicated blood ties with the city. Some were collateral branches of the city's upper class, forced out after losing Intra-city Struggles.

Including those people, the total population of the Guangnan Region was estimated by the system to exceed 1.2 million.

Wei Keng paid more attention to the reports that the region might have an armored convoy of Steam Tractors, and could produce 70mm Caliber Cannons.

After learning this, Wei Keng had no intention of provoking the Human Forces in the region again anytime soon. When the other side outnumbered him by several hundred times, there were far too many variables. War would create countless uncertainties,

and things were fine as they were now.

At the River Embankment, a Hydraulic Rotary Saw was running. The captives from a month ago were pushing huge logs into the Hydraulic Sawmill, cutting them into planks. In the Pandora Era, wood couldn't be used as a building material, but it was essential as Modular Raw Materials.

Wei Keng felt they were a little short on manpower.

At that moment, the Observer said, "Explorer, I've made a new discovery. It may be useful to you."

Wei Kengs replied, "Go on."

Wei Keng was engaged in collective labor, so his telepathic connection was active. Thus, his conversation with Bai Linglu was actually a conversation between the Observer and all the Wei Kengs in their shared, unconscious, collective state. In other words, Wei Keng had begun achieving Consciousness Integration on his own.

Facing the orderly replies from all those Wei Kengs, Bai Linglu felt a little nervous. It was like a little girl facing the rolling waves of the sea and hearing them answer her.

System: Your Life Radiation in this world has now risen to a very high level. Based on the characteristics of the early Pandora Era, your Stem Cells can be developed into a complete New Body under controlled technical conditions.

Wei Keng asked warily, "What conditions?"

System: "A facility. Not a big one—just twenty tons. You can start by building a Brick and Tile Dam."

The system displayed a Replication Center's Culture Dish facility and gave Wei Keng the growth rate of a person under his Strong Life Radiation. It would take about ten days to form a New Body.

After the New Body formed, some of the memories and thoughts of the Wei Keng individuals who had contributed their Life Radiation would merge into it, along with their consciousness.

[During this process, the newly created Wei Keng would have all his past memories and thoughts. At first, he wouldn't realize he was newly born. Instead, he'd wonder, "Huh? Did I come into this new body?"]

The device would make Wei Keng endlessly renewable, but he could hear the pay-to-win pitch behind it.

For the past few days, ever since he'd obtained information about Jian City and many of the surrounding cities, Wei Keng had been too distracted to eat or sleep.

But the Observer, eager to stir up trouble, proposed the "Pingji Strategy." Her excited delivery brought to mind a line from a Wuxia Novel: "First destroy Shaolin, then exterminate Wudang."

Bai Linglu had been saying this lately: "You're strong as an ox now. Be bolder, and set your sights higher. Conquering the world isn't realistic, but taking this fifty thousand square kilometers is doable."

Wei Keng still politely turned down Bai Linglu's proposal.

Wei Keng said, "Self-Replication is a little monstrous. I'm leaving in a year, so there's no need for it."

The Wei Kengs turned their attention back to the work at hand. Through their telepathic connection, they discussed how to cut the logs more evenly.

In the course of a war or other special circumstances, use everything you can. If the rules don't let you use something, work around them and use as much as possible. That was how the leaders handled their manpower. All that mattered was keeping grievances from surfacing. Here, a grievance surfaced when the relevant party stepped forward to lodge a complaint; at the very least, they couldn't be allowed to do so during this period.

Readers, please remember: you have God's Perspective.

In reality, most people have only a single perspective. For example, many young people throw themselves into work with enthusiasm when they first start a job, working overtime and giving it their all. Their leaders encourage them: "You're a hard worker, kid. I'll give you a good assignment." But how much can they see at the time? Later, they understand, and once the past is behind them, they don't feel angry anymore. So, try to take things in stride now. At least the Time-Space Administration Bureau isn't working the protagonist to death, and all his compensation is being recorded. Reality is harsher: once the leeks have been harvested, they're simply left to wither.