Veins and Civilization

Lu Zhiyu felt his memories suddenly flood back; as a youth, he had been quite arrogant. With good grades, good looks, and a well-off family, he had been somewhat overbearing and a bully at school.

Ai Shu had also been very pretty as a child, but she was timid, withdrawn, and quiet. Lu Zhiyu had been very interested in her at the time—one could call it the budding affection of a young boy—but a young boy's way of showing interest in a girl was never a good thing. Their methods of expressing feelings and getting close to girls were particularly bizarre, usually starting with bullying them.

At first, it was just Lu Zhiyu bullying her alone, but later, because Ai Shu was so unsociable, the entire class began to ostracize her. Lu Zhiyu remembered that he once accidentally broke something of hers, which made Ai Shu furious. She fought back, and when Lu Zhiyu resisted, he hit her with his schoolbag.

However, Lu Zhiyu happened to have a flashlight in his bag at the time, and he accidentally smashed it into Ai Shu's head. Because of this incident, Lu Zhiyu was publicly reprimanded by the school. Since he was in the sixth grade and about to graduate, his family helped him withdraw and sent him to the provincial capital for middle school.

Seeing the Ai Shu of those years now, a sense of shame so intense he wanted to crawl into a hole flooded Lu Zhiyu's brain. He felt completely at a loss, sitting in his seat like he was on pins and needles. Lu Zhiyu felt that such childish stupidity should have been left behind after growing up, but whether it was because he had cared so much back then or for some other reason, he felt very uncomfortable inside.

At the dinner table, Lu Zhiyu looked at Ai Shu frequently, which caught her attention. Ai Shu stared blankly at Lu Zhiyu, and a female classmate beside her immediately whispered something to her. Ai Shu looked at Lu Zhiyu in surprise, then turned her head away, refusing to meet his gaze again.

She still remembers what happened back then!

Lu Zhiyu lowered his head in shame. Throughout the rest of the reunion, he was somewhat distracted. Most of the reunion was spent reminiscing, exchanging contact information, and asking about each other's recent lives.

Because many people were already married, most left for home after the meal and a few rounds of drinks; there was no moving to another venue or playing until late, keeping things moderate.

As they parted, many classmates surrounded Lu Zhiyu, asking for his contact information and his current address, promising that if they ever went to the provincial capital, they would definitely come to visit him.

"Definitely! You must come find me when you're in the provincial capital!"

Lu Zhiyu was chatting with a few female elementary school classmates when he turned his head and noticed Ai Shu preparing to leave, carrying her handbag alone. Lu Zhiyu immediately apologized to the others and ran over.

Lu Zhiyu stood in front of Ai Shu, and she stopped in her tracks, looking at him with some confusion. After taking a breath, Lu Zhiyu said, "Do you remember me? I'm that... your elementary school classmate, Lu Zhiyu. The one who..."

Ai Shu's short hair had a charming quality to it, and her posture was quite reserved, yet she was very tall. Even with Ai Shu wearing high heels, Lu Zhiyu, at over 1.8 meters, was not much taller than her.

Ai Shu nodded at Lu Zhiyu without speaking. Lu Zhiyu found himself feeling unexpectedly nervous. "I mainly wanted to say today that I am very sorry for what happened back then. I'm sorry. Although this apology comes a bit late, I feel much better saying it out loud!"

At this moment, Lu Zhiyu immediately took a business card out of his pocket. "This is my phone number and contact information. If you ever need anything, feel free to contact me!"

"Mm."

This was the first word Ai Shu said to Lu Zhiyu, and then she turned and walked away. Lu Zhiyu watched Ai Shu's back and let out a sigh of relief. Just then, Wang Yi walked over and draped an arm around Lu Zhiyu's shoulder. "What's wrong? Made up? It's been so many years since that happened; surely Ai Shu isn't still being petty and holding onto it?"

Lu Zhiyu shook his head. "I don't know. She only said one word, 'mm,' but she did take my business card."

Wang Yi nodded. "Don't take it to heart. It's been so many years. Ai Shu has always been like this—doesn't like to talk, doesn't like to interact with people. She's been the same for years!"

Sitting in Wang Yi's car and starting the journey back, Lu Zhiyu felt this reunion was truly worth it. Not only had he met his childhood classmates and found many beautiful memories, but he had also encountered Ai Shu. He had to admit, this matter had always been a knot in his heart regarding his childhood self.

In the Space Castle, the bookshelves in the library were gradually being filled thanks to Lu Zhiyu's recent massive purchases. However, the books Lu Zhiyu had placed there earlier had already turned yellow, looking as if they were ancient texts.

Two hundred years had passed since the New Human Creation Project. On the Alan Continent of the Maria World, large numbers of human tribes had begun to appear in the south. In two hundred years, humans had multiplied for over a dozen generations. The original humans had passed away in the erosion of time, and the current humans lived with the memory that they had lived on this continent since the distant, ancient era.

The human population had grown from the initial count of hundreds to tens of thousands. From a few small tribes, they had gradually spread across the entire southern region, like sparks starting a prairie fire. The orc tribes in the north had begun to develop city-states and civilization, and as humans continued to expand, they had begun to come into contact with these orcs, realizing that they were not the only protagonists on this land!

These two hundred years, for Lu Zhiyu, were merely a short two weeks in the outside world. Ten days ago, while observing the development of tribal civilization, Lu Zhiyu discovered a huge mistake of his own. Although the Maria World was rich in resources, it had a fatal flaw: it lacked mineral veins.

That's right. When Lu Zhiyu built the Maria World, although he had distributed various terrains and minerals throughout the earth, everything was too uniform. The earth had not formed continuous mineral veins. The tribes remained primarily in a Stone Age civilization; occasionally, they would find a few rare ores, which were treated as divine artifacts. The Bronze Age and Iron Age were unable to arrive, even delaying the birth of city-state civilization.

With no other choice, Lu Zhiyu once again used Source Substance to modify the rules of the Maria World, adjusting the distribution and content of metals in the earth to form various mineral veins. Gold, silver, copper, tungsten, antimony, iron, and other metal veins, including coal and oil, were all adjusted and pushed into formation by Lu Zhiyu.

Several copper and iron surface veins were even created directly near these tribal civilizations, promoting the development of their civilization. Lu Zhiyu's remaining 108 units of Source Substance, after spending 3 units to build the Space Castle, had grown to 176 over these days as the civilizations developed and the lives that died every day brought him Source Substance.

When condensing the mineral veins of the Alan Continent, he used another 47 units of Source Substance, leaving him with 129. However, it must be said that Lu Zhiyu's expenditure was well worth it. With the emergence of bronze smelting technology, various bronze wares began to appear in tribal civilizations. The arrival of the city-state era accelerated the evolution of orc civilization, and they had begun to have their first king.

"The Beast King of Saga City!"