Inside the brightly lit research base, the master control program's countdown reached zero according to the schedule set by Lan Feng, the base director.
[Replica Plan: running checks again] [Individuals currently available for activation: 20140] [Beginning awakening sequence]
The nutrient fluid was drained from a matrix of over ten thousand cultivation tanks. The sleeping individuals floated as small antigravity generators activated, and faint electrical flashes suddenly passed over every body. More than ten thousand pairs of eyes opened to look upon the world.
Molecular Robots in the air swiftly formed white outfits around their bodies. Like the others, the researcher Replica with the number 1000 on his chest looked bewildered, but memories began surfacing rapidly in his mind.
An immense trove of memories, from his birth on Water Blue Star to the implementation of the planetary relocation plan, the appearance of starships, the New Homeworld Plan, and ultra-long-distance Spatial Jumps-far too many memories awakened at once. Even with his powerful biological body, Number One Thousand felt dizzy and overwhelmed, unable to adjust to them all immediately.
"I cloned myself?" The multitude of identical organisms before him triggered Number One Thousand's memories, and his expression instantly darkened.
As sensation fully returned to his body, Number One Thousand leaned against the cultivation tank and moved his limbs. He stared darkly at the identical individuals nearby, inwardly seething, Madman!
A social group was a group because it consisted of countless distinct individual consciousnesses. They could intersect and influence one another, but they were not copies. Yet the blueprint for this "social group" before him had come directly from a single consciousness entity.
The first memories to awaken in Number One Thousand were his earliest memories from the Crystal Civilization's home star system. It was this stretch of memories that first awakened