Pandora Era Year 137, March - Ah, Friend, Farewell

In March of Pandora Era Year 137, in Yu City in the Upper Reaches of the Great River, the natural city once built high on the mountainside and neatly divided into modules by giant trees was now making preparations in full swing.

On the Great River, dozens of fifty-meter-long Tortoise Shell Ships sailed across the water. These "ships" had no propellers, paddle wheels, or sails. Instead, beneath their hulls were rows of turtle-like limbs that slid through the water in Dragon Boat Mode.

These ships were also a kind of livestock: Aquatic Hauling Livestock.

They were now carrying wave after wave of supplies downstream toward Dongting Lake. Of course, among the cargo were also batches of Stitched Beasts, crouched in the recessed sections of the Tortoise Shell Ships' decks.

As these ships sailed by, they emitted sounds at a special frequency. The trees on the towering cliffs along both banks received these sounds and relayed them downstream. This system formed a communications network far more efficient than a "carrier pigeon" network.

Looking at Yu City in its current state, it finally seemed like a human group preparing for mobilization.

In fact, the Central Consciousness of Yu City's Gene Colony did not deny that she was human.

The ancient buildings from the Civilization Era that she occupied in the core of her domain housed a vast collection of books from the Old Era. They were her favorite things.

For that very reason, when facing the traditional city-states and kingdoms downstream along the Great River and the Yellow River, the consciousness of Yu City called them Old Humans and declared herself to be among the Orthodox Descendants of Humanity.

Humans had a Self-Preservation and Supremacy Trait—the more tightly they bonded within their own group, the more they rejected others of their own kind. Thus, humans were one of the few species in the Natural World that organized themselves to carry out a "Thorough Purge" of other groups of their own kind.

From humanity's own perspective, even the slightest changes to many aspects of Human Society could trigger the Uncanny Valley Effect, making people from the original era find the altered versions almost impossible to understand.

Yu City's colonies had industry; they simply didn't like it. But when necessary, they could start it up. Like now. Upstream of Yu City, one Smelting Building after another was unsealed.

These several-hundred-meter-tall pyramids began to glow red inside once the combustion chambers near their entrances were lit. Charcoal was fed in through sloped passageways.

On the land around the pyramids, plants with nothing but bare stems began to grow. Across several square kilometers, the plants exchanged air, making the ground rise and fall faintly. The resulting air currents flowed through plant conduits several meters thick beneath the earth and converged at vents at the base of the pyramids, feeding into their centers to raise the furnace temperature. In the end, molten steel would be produced inside the towers.

For humans in the Civilization Era, industrialization was a Social Attribute. Once productivity reached the Industrial Age, people's Material Needs were unleashed, and production across the globe had to keep running to satisfy that Supply Demand.

Yet the instincts humans had retained from the Primitive Era also resisted the constraints imposed by industrial society, because maintaining industrial production stifled their sense of freedom.

So, once Developed Regions completed industrialization and built up their wealth, they immediately shifted manufacturing elsewhere. They kept their freedom and pushed the labor onto other regions.

Of course, to preserve this comfortable life forever, they used Patent Technology to remotely control production in outside regions. Then, through financial means—in other words, by acting as the house and setting the odds—they drew these Emerging Manufacturing Regions into the game. One round of extraction drained the newcomers' capital, their credit, and sent them back to work for them, satisfying demands their own societies could no longer reduce.

That was why, before the Pandora Era, the societies of developed regions found themselves caught between "consumer demand" and "Anti-Production Constraint." The latter had caused them to shrink most of their industries, keeping only the bare minimum of High technology to maintain the World Order and supply the former. In the end, they dressed it up with a fine-sounding slogan: "I innovate, you labor; Global Division of Labor."

But the human Gene Colonies of Yu City had, in a sense, completed their "evolution" and resolved this contradiction!

They could let industry wither away entirely when it wasn't needed, then suddenly bring it back when the need arose.

Imagine a human group that had developed the ability to build Aircraft Carriers and established a whole industrial system for Oil Refining and steelmaking. After a war, it could seal away that entire system: no need to convert military production to civilian use, no need to make cars, no need to maintain a vast logistics network. It could reduce the energy consumed by society to the bare minimum, with everyone returning to small-scale farming and handicrafts—and enjoying an extremely high Happiness Index. Then, when needed, they could suddenly become all kinds of craftsmen and fight wholeheartedly for their species!

Old Master Wei Keng simply couldn't understand this way of life, which was supposedly that of the "Elf Race."

Yu City's human Gene Colonies had cast off industrialization as a Social Attribute and turned it into a "Social Tool" that they could pick up or set aside at will. That was one of the reasons the Fused Humans believed they had "surpassed the old human civilization."

In a mere two years,

Yu City's Fused Humans had gone from the handicraft stage of "inserting wooden poles into animals" and stitching "human bodies to living organisms" to using steam and water power to forge and Cut Steel. They had also increased their production of Nitrated Substances for military purposes. The colony had gradually entered Combat Mode.

But it couldn't be said that Yu City had changed like this entirely because of the threat posed by Wei Keng. The Gene Colonies in the Dongting Lake Region had been badly mauled when they moved south—and could now be absorbed.

[For reference, consider the Freedom Eagle in the New Continent: its Industrial Capacity was greatest during World War I and World War II, when instability elsewhere created opportunities for easy gains. Those profits spurred industrial production. But if the outer regions were stable, then even if their military forces could be crushed, there was no point in boosting production if they could not be occupied.]

In August, after the Unified Punishment Army Group had consolidated the economy of the Yue Region,

Yu City's Gene Colony also carried out a purge in Dongting Lake, completing its Strategic Replacement.

The amphibian genes in Dongting Lake were replaced by genes resembling otters, while the Red-crowned Crane Genes that stood on long legs across the lake were replaced by diving-duck genes! Well, these ducks had four webbed feet: two for paddling, while the other two were eagle talons. They hooked their targets and dragged them until they were exhausted, then hauled their prey ashore and tore out the meat with their claws.

On a boat gliding across Dongting Lake, Long Ximin stood above the water. Her clothes weren't made of silk, but of long strands of Cotton Fiber Thread linked together with scales about the size of a palm. The fish scales were glossy and, in the 21st Century, would have been described as having the texture of Hornbill Bone or tortoiseshell. Of course, since there were gaps between the scales, glimpses of her fair skin could always be seen as she moved.

Ten kilometers from where Long Ximin stood was the place where Qi Shengxun had merged with the Dongting Gene Organism two years earlier. The tracks left by the giant monster that had devoured Qi Shengxun as it crawled across the Tidal Flat had long since disappeared. In their place, Long Ximin's Armored Beast Legion was boring holes across the tidal flats, pecking clean the last of the Dongting Gene Organisms left in the mud.

She was now gazing south. The Gene Colony in Dongting Lake had split apart, and its remnants had divided into several small colonies that were fleeing east and west. The passage had been cleared, and she was heading there to complete her mission.

The view returned south, where developments pointed to another path for humanity after the end of the Pandora Era.

Perhaps people here would also become a colony, but Wei Keng, as the pioneer of this path, had no intention of diminishing industrialization as a Social Attribute. Instead, he planned to make it a constant, "thermostatic" attribute of his human colony. Wei Keng's view was simple: "No matter what humanity becomes, its Practical Ability to achieve the Grand Dream must keep growing."

Keeping industrialization constant required a stable energy supply. That was why Wei Keng had devoted so much effort to this project, trying to make the power station practical—that is, something others besides him could routinely maintain.

Outside the fourth Experimental Power Station, many ecological laboratories with glass windows had been built. Like Plant Ecological Pods aboard a spaceship, these labs were affected by the Radiation Field created as methanogens replicated and multiplied. The organisms inside the Glass Grids endured the Life Radiation released when the swamp bacteria reached peak growth. The plants in each compartment served as a Radiation Shielding Buffer Layer and as "indicators."

Of course, besides setting up a Biological Protective Belt around these facilities, Wei Keng had also developed personal protective measures.

The personal protective measures were roughly as follows: workers here had to reduce their Dietary Fiber intake for the two days before work, especially avoiding fungi. They drank Carbonated Beverages and ate a small amount of Protein Blocks to replenish water and energy. For vitamins, they drank beverages made by filtering Fresh Plant Juice produced inside the facility.

After Wei Keng had gathered all the data, the Professional Science Team from the Desperate Plane had also completed the design for the Second Phase Biogas Digester.

The Desperate Plane had brought in a team of nuclear power plant engineers. They made recommendations based on the situation through the wormhole.

Most tasks that might expose people to Life Radiation could be handled directly by cable-operated machinery. They had worked out a series of Standard Operating Procedures, including feeding in materials, diluting with water, and rapidly shutting down the system.

When the Second Phase Bio-Power Station was completed,

Wei Keng looked at the metal tower surrounded by ring after ring of biogas pools. Dozens of Liquid Extraction Tanks and Material Feeding Tanks were attached to the upper half of the tower. Metal pipelines connected the tanks in a Hexagonal Symmetry.

As Wei Keng stood on a nearby rooftop and looked down at what they had built, something suddenly struck him as odd. He felt as if he had seen this design in some document before coming to the Shenzhou Plane.

While Wei Keng was pondering this, Bai Linglu had already entered a name into the records: Biochemical Reactor.

The term appeared in purple, and clicking it opened a hyperlink. Bai Linglu also sent over the remaining technologies: the Super Robust Biochemical Human Warrior and the Large Combat Organism (with a picture of a giant squid). Beneath these technologies was a small note: all of them could be applied in the Shenzhou Plane.

The corner of Old Master Wei Keng's mouth twitched. This was the timeline next door to Shenzhou, where biotechnology had developed to a high level. The system's recommendations had clearly just borrowed technologies that were already available there.

Following Luo Hongxing's advice, Bai Linglu was now trying to subtly guide things along. Only, she was being far too obvious.

After seeing these materials, Wei Keng instinctively grew wary. "Is this trying to egg me on to return to the Shenzhou Plane and stir up trouble? I seem to be getting more and more 'biochemical' in this plane. Have I... become more tolerant of biotechnology without even realizing it?"

Bored, Wei Keng fiddled with his fingers. Without noticing, he let his fingernails grow a centimeter in just a few minutes, then hurriedly grabbed nail clippers and cut them off.

The Wei Keng individuals stationed at the Swamp Bacteria Power Station had already adapted to Life Energy. Their fingernails could grow rapidly, and their hair could reach their waists in a single day.

[The other body hair could grow too, but letting it go would make him unbearably itchy, so Wei Keng didn't. What about this? Well, shaving the hair down there would leave stubble that scratched his thighs...]

Wei Keng found it hard to judge whether he was human or not by any fixed standard. But he had always tried, in every way he could, to be a person—to be someone society accepted.

Wei Keng could gather one percent of the immense Life Field around the biogas pool and focus it on certain organisms to make them grow and recover rapidly. He could also gather it around other people.

A new hospital stood nearby. Recently, it had taken in seventeen patients with missing limbs.

For people who weren't himself, Wei Keng resonated with them by singing the same songs.

Then he read the same books with them and discussed their thoughts.

Finally, he injected blood into the patients, bringing them into the shared Life Field. He transferred the growth power of the swamp bacteria working on himself to these disabled patients, allowing their injured bodies to recover.

This was arguably the most important application yet, but...

Wei Keng had been worried for a while that this medical technology could only be used by him and that he wouldn't find anyone to take his place.

Just as Wei Keng was fretting over this, Luo Hongxing came by a few days earlier to reassure him. "You're a node in this colony. The human colony as a whole will always have someone capable of maintaining this technology."

On November 30 of Pandora Year 137, after the last patient of the year had stabilized in the Life Radiation Recovery Hospital,

Wei Keng closed his eyes in the hospital and began expanding his life perception outward.

Because he could draw on the radiation from the swamp bacteria, the perception Wei Keng gained here was hundreds of times clearer than elsewhere. He could even sense flocks of birds five kilometers away.

Now, however, Wei Keng was looking inward, feeling the entanglement between his own life fluctuations and this world.

At that moment, Wei Keng "noticed" a door behind his life! This door was the node in his self-awareness that allowed him to travel between planes.

He could return at any time now.

In the Pandora Plane, the more work there was to do, the more there seemed to be. After the power station's Standard Operating Procedures were finalized, Wei Keng had to train the new workers, which would take three months.

And in the latest hydroponic project, they still needed to complete the selection and cultivation of dozens of crops.

Sun Xiangyang had awarded Wei Keng several boxes' worth of labor medals, which made Wei Keng feel too awkward to just up and leave.

In Pandora Year 138, five years, nine months, and twenty-nine days after Wei Keng's arrival.

The once-ruined banks of the Pearl River now had a great many towns filled with the open, forward-looking spirit of a new age: neat factory buildings, residential blocks scattered across the landscape, and loudspeakers broadcasting on every street. The population that had stayed for over a month and planned to settle here had reached 67,000—not counting the Wei Keng Collective.

But Wei Keng still had to return.

Once Wei Keng could control Life Radiation in the Pandora World, a Space Wormhole powered by this world's Life Field appeared naturally when he gathered the energy slightly.

It was now April 4, Year 138.

This wormhole looked like the same type as the one aboard the Yuanhua 834.

Sun Xiangyang soon arrived with his people. They tried to make contact and confirmed that the space-time door still exerted a repulsive force. But they quickly discovered that Wei Keng could approach the wormhole.

When one Wei Keng passed through, all the others vanished from the spot in a flash. But when the Wei Keng who had passed through the space-time door returned, the vanished Wei Kengs reappeared.

Fifty minutes later, the Space Wormhole expanded to its maximum over the course of an hour, then began to slowly contract. Judging by the trend, it was temporary and would close completely in a few days.

The group discussed the space-time door, then Sun Xiangyang ordered everyone to leave and sent people to seal off the area. After that, he announced a meeting.

Before the meeting, Sun Xiangyang spoke in his office with six representatives of the Wei Keng Collective.

Sun Xiangyang asked them frankly, "What are you planning to do?"

Wei Keng answered honestly, "I still really want to go back there for a while. After all, that's where my home is."

Sun Xiangyang paused. As a man who had spent years drifting at sea, he understood Wei Keng. He sighed, "Yes. Home is over there."

Then Sun Xiangyang said solemnly to Wei Keng, "The organization will take your personal needs into consideration. But for now, I'll still have to trouble you to stand your last watch."

The six Wei Kengs replied, "Yes!" and saluted together.

But as Wei Keng was leaving, Sun Xiangyang asked one last question. "Comrade Wei!" Wei Keng couldn't help stopping.

Sun Xiangyang said, "Will we, um, I mean, will we see each other again?"

Wei Keng paused, then answered a few seconds later. "I think we will."