Chapter 14: Notice of Civilization's Critical Condition

Lu Yuan raised his eyebrows and criticized, "So it seems even people from the Otherworld like to slack off at work."

"Indeed, vying for government positions is equally the end of the universe in the Otherworld."

Why?

This guy named "Xin Qigou," spends three hours a day in the bathroom and still hasn't been fired, isn't that just the end of the universe?

Well, most of the archives actually have some meaning...

Things like biological, physical, chemical, and economic papers take up the vast majority of the archive.

The true treasures of a civilization were laid before him, and Lu Yuan felt admiration yet completely understood nothing, feeling like an illiterate.

Right, there's also politics!

That, at least, he could barely understand.

[Meida Civilization, Sixth Branch, City Mayor of Gou'er City, Mei Gandar, presided over the regular government executive meeting and delivered an important speech.]

[The main content of this meeting covered the maintenance and upkeep of industrial equipment, exchange of consumer goods, and the recycling of renewable items.]

[Research promotes large-scale equipment renewal and recycling of old consumer goods, the construction of a rule-of-law government, and other work.]

[...Focus on the current main issues, clarify goals and tasks, understand principles, set directions, learn methods, and increase wisdom... Especially by earnestly solving issues related to social stability and the people's urgent, difficult, and anticipated problems, can we reach our expected goals and achieve tangible results!]

A familiar feeling came over him; political reports like this, you don't want to continue after reading the first line.

Lu Yuan always believed that those who write such documents are the real talents!

Content that could be summed up in a hundred words is extended to ten thousand words; why don't you write web novels instead?

He patiently read through the article carefully.

"The meaning of this government work report is that the Sixth Branch of the Meida Civilization, Gou'er City, at first arrived at the Pangu Continent with scarce resources and many supplies that were hard to replenish."

"Therefore, strict control was necessary, and they needed to figure out how to recycle some important items. Rubber, metals, coal, and oil are used up bit by bit."

Lu Yuan couldn't help but worry, would humans encounter the same problem?

Clearly, they would!

Only 17 major cities had been transported to the Pangu Continent from Earth.

How much reserve resources could one city have?

It's already good if they could be self-sufficient in food!

Once coal and such are used up, that's it!

From this perspective, "God" is actually encouraging each civilization to leave the Safe Zone sooner rather than later.

"Will humans face the same choice?"

"How long will humans hide in the Safe Zone?"

The next paper: [Does God exist? When can our city dissolve the Safe Zone — on the potential dangers of hiding in the Safe Zone for too long.]

[Author: Ke Regou.]

[...]

[Who exactly is it? It summoned 13 cities of my civilization to the Pangu Continent, with each city having approximately ten million people. We are called the Sixth Branch of the Meida Civilization.]

[The culture of each city is slightly different, and a country only has one city.]

Lu Yuan was slightly startled; Earth seemed to have 17 cities, while the Meida Civilization had 13.

[Its voice appeared fifty years ago, and then it never appeared again.]

[It's more like an observer, aside from the initial setup, it merely quietly watched the changes in the Pangu Continent.]

[Our Meida Civilization has stayed in the Safe Zone for a full fifty years, while the outside world has already been five thousand years...]

[We've tried several times to dissolve the Safe Zone, but ultimately, it was still vetoed.]

[Will it give us more time? What is the ultimate end waiting for us?]

The author of this paper "Kerba," wrote with a heavy heart and appealed to the populace not to covet comfort but to advance to the Pangu Continent as soon as possible.

"It's a very normal appeal, yet it may not necessarily be effective."

Next article.

[When can the Meida Civilization dissolve the Safe Zone — on the opportunity cost of hiding in the Safe Zone for a long time.]

"?" Lu Yuan felt a question mark rising in his mind.

He looked and indeed, they were two different articles, just published at different times.

"Are you guys padding the word count with the same article? Does your leadership know about this?"

After a brief look, there was not much change in the content; "fifty years" had turned into "sixty years."

Alright, ten years have passed, and the Meida Civilization still has not left the Safe Zone.

That's normal.

The next article.

"When Will the Meida Civilization be able to Dismantle the Safe Zone?"

"Our Meida Civilization has been in the Safe Zone for a full seventy years—the outside world has already changed dramatically..."

The expert called for the Safe Zone to be dismantled as soon as possible to step into the Pangu Continent!

Only in the Pangu Continent are there more resources!

Holed up in the Safe Zone, with no resources, how can we develop?

"Do you experts think your job is too easy? This time there's not even a subtitle," Lu Yuan scoffed.

The next article.

"When Will the Sixth Branch of the Meida Civilization set off for the Pangu Continent?"

???

The next article.

"A Study on the Importance of the Pangu Continent to the Meida Civilization."

Gradually, Lu Yuan's face lost its mocking smile, and instead, he felt a sense of alarm.

Each of these articles seemed like a death notice, proclaiming the demise of a civilization.

What was dying was not an individual.

What was dying was a civilization.

Did anyone care? Some did.

But the masses did not care.

The masses chose comfort.

Three hundred years!!

In the fiftieth year, experts were already calling for "the dismantling of the Safe Zone"!

Yet in the three hundredth year, the Meida Civilization still had not set off for the Pangu Continent!

Three hundred years in the Safe Zone.

On the Pangu Continent, that would have been thirty thousand years!

The earliest civilizations to leave the Safe Zone and those that have not yet left, now have a gap of nearly thirty thousand years...

It's a chasm of time that cannot be crossed.

No matter how clever you are, or how stunningly talented, how can you make up for a development gap of thirty thousand years?

What terrified the Meida Civilization even more was that—as time rapidly passed—the environment of the Pangu Continent was getting progressively worse.

"Incomprehensible catastrophic disasters are occurring more frequently!"

"The observation frequency has increased from once in ten years to once a year."

"Do we still have time?"

Lu Yuan held his breath and continued reading.

What does "incomprehensible disasters" refer to?

They denote some extremely large-scale malicious supernatural phenomena.

For instance, a region shrouded in black fog where all living creatures undergo horrific mutations; red rain falls from the sky, turning all life into pus; a large number of corpses resurrect and indiscriminately attack the living, and so on.

These inexplicable disasters increased in frequency as time went on.

Eventually, the Pangu Continent became a land of desolate wilderness where no one existed.

"We even observed the fall of Sky City."

"Powerful civilizations from the outside have generally built mobile Sky Cities to avoid such disasters."

"But even these supremely advanced civilizations had their day of downfall."

"Do we still have time to build a Sky City?"