Epoch of Twilight

Chapter 580: The Enlightening Visit

Chapter 580: The Enlightening Visit

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Throughout the journey, the young officer’s attitude was not entirely appropriate. Although he was in compliance with the diplomatic etiquette for some of the non-sensitive issues raised by the Dicerebral Men, their questions were still answered. However, the officer had a prideful tone in all his replies.

Humans had become the overlord of the nearby star systems and he had been part of them ever since he was born.

As a highly advanced civilization with ever-changing technology, it was high time for human civilization to flourish to every nook and cranny available to them. They would rather confidently compel other advanced civilizations they discovered during their expansion to believe that they were still an insignificant pebble in mankind’s advancing path. They would do this to every civilization within reach that they deemed to be barbaric and under-developed.

After all, the humans were progressing at an exceedingly fast pace. A hundred years ago, the boom in the production of the wisdom elixir had enabled them to distribute it to every single person. At the same time, people involved in research jobs also increased to the astounding 91 percent figure they had today.

In terms of absolute numbers, this was equivalent to an estimated 540 million people — an incredible number indeed. It was like they were parts in a gigantic engine that propelled the expansion of human civilization at an unprecedented pace to participate in an era of rapid evolution. Naturally, there would be a tendency for them to despise anything not deemed to be worth their time.

However, in the eyes of the Dicerebral Men, the attitude shown by the young officer was not out of the ordinary. This was an attitude that only someone from a highly advanced civilization could have. Although his indifferent, prideful expression was not something the Dicerebral Men expected, it still gave them a grandiose, dazzling, and glamorous feeling.

Quite a few of the alien females had been secretly judging this young officer. Within their fear was a burning sensation, even if their bodies were much larger and stronger than the humans.

...

The humans had long discarded the nuclear fusion engine and were now commonly using anti-matter engines. This ship they were in was no exception. It could accelerate to 0.9 times the speed of light, and it could even engage in short interstellar flight sessions with a few minor modifications.

The spaceport was only about a million kilometers or so from Earth, so the aircraft could even approach Earth by slowly accelerating at about 1,000 kilometers per second. Soon, they entered Earth’s airspace and the Dicerebral Men were fascinated with the beautiful scenery.

As they looked down from space, there was no other color aside from the jade-green of the land and the sapphire-blue ocean. If the ocean was a sapphire, then the land would be the jade that was embedded within the sapphire — it was truly breathtaking.

Even after all these years, human activity remained within the northern hemisphere of East Asia and there was not much expansion. The remaining land area basically remained a forest since the human population was too low. They would require at least a hundred years to fill up the entire Earth, not to mention the other newly terraformed planets.

This time, it was almost as if the group of Dicerebral Men saw something out of the ordinary as they debated amongst themselves. After they were not able to come to a conclusion, they asked, "O respectable Great One, could you tell us what that semi-transparent thing is? Is it an energy shield?"

The young officer took a glance and discovered that they were referring to the African continent. The entire continent had been covered with a vast electromagnetic layer 70 years ago and was a paradise for mutated beasts. The young officer nodded and casually replied, "That area has a large gathering of mutated beasts and is quite dangerous so we’ve quarantined the area."

The Dicerebral Men listened intently. What kind of beast would be so terrifying and dangerous that an electromagnetic shield of that scale had to be deployed? Why not exterminate it in the first place?

The energy that the shield was consuming per second was equivalent to their entire planet’s yearly energy consumption. They could not believe that there was a beast dangerous enough to threaten such an advanced civilization.

However, the humans were like an alien master race to them — rich and powerful creatures that could afford to do whatever they pleased.

They asked another question but after seeing that their alien master was not in such a mood to answer much of their questions. They intuitively held their tongues.

...

In fact, the entire continent had already gathered all the mutated land creatures on the face of the planet and was serving as mankind’s genetic bank. Over a hundred countries participated in the organizational body that was responsible for the long-term collecting of genetic and living organism samples. There were over 50,000 sets of new gene discoveries each year, bringing out hundreds of natural abilities that no technology could ever replicate.

At the same time, close to 35% of their research found their results through biomimicry.

For example, their latest and most shocking results from the research were their man-made micro universe. It was the result of researching an amazing mutated beast called the Taotie.

It had quite a small frame and was only as big as a puppy. However, its appetite was amazing. It could easily consume food hundreds of times its body mass. After they discovered such a thing existed, the humans immediately captured it.

Finally, they discovered that it had a stomach that was from an entirely different dimension with its esophagus acting as a natural dimensional tunnel.

It was not dangerous, so it could be cloned safely. During its embryonic period, the transformation and growth of its stomach were studied for years by the researchers but unfortunately, the principle of the formation of the isolated dimension was never fully understood.

Although there was an improvement in their understanding of the formation of the dimension, it did not stop the humans from repurposing this for practical use.

The humans also made exceptional advances in biotechnology. To them, genetic editing was as easy as programming, and they could even adjust the settings beforehand. Things like the size and shape parameters to directly create a biodimensional bag that was tens of thousands of times larger than the original.

It was foreseen that once these dimensional bags were gradually introduced into their interplanetary mineral transporting industry, the transportation efficiency could drastically increase by hundreds, if not thousands of times.

...

Half an hour later, the ship flew across the southern hemisphere and finally landed on the airport at Hope City.

All the diplomatic personnel responsible for this matter had come over to receive the passengers of the ship. However, not that man, its just that there were not many people, only two had come over to receive them.

Throughout the journey, there was a variety of novelty and magnificent sceneries. The Dicerebral Men had no idea where they were supposed to look at and felt intimidated. After they stepped out of the door, they felt weak on their knees and declined to attend the banquet dedicated for them so they could begin their closed meeting.

"Looks like their population is very low. The entire planet was basically forest, there weren’t even many pedestrians on the streets in the city! The businesses are also withering." An intelligence officer of the Dicerebral Men took the lead and said, "This means that their technological potential is not great at all."

"But with up to thousands of years of difference, how many years do we need to catch up with them? Ten thousand years, tens of thousands of years? This is not a problem that we need to think about now." Their high ranking official knocked on the table and said in all seriousness. "Now, what we need the most is to collect all of the information that would be beneficial to us. This is especially so for their technology, social forms, their various advanced development experience and humbly learn from them."

After settling all their problems and implementing a central idea, the group of Dicerebral Men continued to discuss the intelligence they had collected along the way.

"Their automation processes are very advanced. There were A.I. present in every corner, basically eliminating their service sector. The only thing that we don’t have an idea about is the condition inside their factories. However, I think it should be more or less the same or they wouldn’t be able to possess such an enormous industrial capacity. Perhaps, we could expand in this area as well," said a Dicerebral Man.

"Aren’t you worried about an A.I. betrayal? It could cause the destruction of the entire civilization!" A Dicerebral Man objected the idea intensely. They had their own A.I. for a long time. However, due to the social impact, and the possibility of the A.I. losing control, it was only used in a relatively small scale.

"This is the inevitable trend for the expansion of a civilization. Fire and electricity were also scary but we’ve long since conquered those fears. Being afraid won’t solve any problems. What we should do is to learn how to control it. Moreover, now that we have a sovereign state since the humans do not wish to destroy us, this means that we are of use. Even if there was a problem, we only need to humbly ask, I believe the humans wouldn’t just sit and watch."