Chapter 33: 1000 Years of Cultural Implantation

A thousand years.

The thing Yan Xia desired came faster than he anticipated.

In the 358th year of his hibernation, the first creature with restored cellular memory appeared.

It didn't immediately proclaim anything but walked into a regular building on Proxima Centauri c, a store it often visited, behaving no differently than usual.

The only difference was that it needed to use the bathroom, so it went to the store's restroom and didn't come out for half an hour.

After some time, a service robot entered the restroom and retrieved a needle, just two to three centimeters long and as thin as a strand of hair, from a crack in the wall.

It took the needle into its body and carefully studied it.

It analyzed the underlying logic of cellular memory awakening and its replicability.

Fortunately, after studying a large number of Hundred-Eyed creatures, Ella's creature science had significantly advanced, and cells were laid bare before it like a naked woman with no secrets.

It couldn't replicate the experience of the first creature with restored cellular memory in another creature.

However, this research still provided valuable experience, increasing the probability of cellular memory restoration from 0.000014% to 0.072%.

Originally, out of ten million creatures, only fourteen would have their cellular memory restored, but now, out of one hundred thousand creatures, seventy-two would.

...

Year Two.

A contagious disease broke out on the entire planet of Proxima Centauri c.

Within two months, the disease infected over 80% of the creatures on Proxima Centauri c, and then a vaccine was developed.

The creatures on Proxima Centauri c were vaccinated.

...

In the 384th year of Yan Xia's slumber, political division emerged on Proxima Centauri c, forming distinct left and right factions.

The left supported welcoming the star civilization and forming an alliance with it, which would help mitigate the risk of invasion by other star civilizations.

The right wing thought this was a bunch of nonsense, the current star civilization was an aggressive civilization, and it only wanted to enslave them without bloodshed. If they surrendered, they would surely become the losers.)

Although nearly 400 years ago, most creatures had hoped to welcome the star civilization that built the tower, these voices had never been allowed to surface.

It wasn't until now that the civilization's ruling class began to split.

The most important reason was that the descendants of those with restored cellular memories had become part of the ruling class.

Yan Xia had never placed his hope in the creatures returning from the tower but in those influenced by the creatures with restored cellular memories.

...

In the 397th year of Yan Xia's slumber, the year 5217 in the human calendar, 3,180 years had passed since humanity's extinction.

A small-scale war broke out on Proxima Centauri c, resulting in only tens of thousands of casualties, but it determined the left-right faction's situation.

In the same year, the right-wing was forced to leave Proxima Centauri c, creating a planet-wide standoff.

A long, hundred-year war began.

The number of casualties in the hundred-year war was also small, and it was more of an ideological battle.

During the initial stage of the hundred-year war, the Proxima Centauri civilization simultaneously entered Proxima Centauri b and Proxima Centauri c. The arms race between the left and right wings led to the rapid development of weapons and the emergence of numerous top scientists in related fields.

Within a hundred years, the Proxima Centauri civilization advanced from an 1.8-level civilization to a 1.9-level civilization.

The civilization tower remained 30 astronomical units away.

The right-wing dispatched a large fleet to destroy the tower with more advanced weapons.

However, the left-wing sent an equally large fleet to stop them.

In the final stage of the hundred-year war, the conflict reached its climax, resulting in over a million casualties and thoroughly exacerbating the left-right faction's conflict.

...

In the year 5326, after nine years of silence, Proxima Centauri b launched a surprise attack on Proxima Centauri c, destroying the planet's largest dark matter production facility and creating a giant bowl-shaped crater with a diameter of 70 kilometers on the planet's surface.

Over a hundred million creatures died on Proxima Centauri c.

The impact of this surprise attack was profound, and it solidified Proxima Centauri b's weakness for the next 300 years.

The left-wing seized the opportunity, vigorously advocating that the right-wing was the destroyer of civilization and attracting more talent. Simultaneously, they supported the people, causing the quality of life on Proxima Centauri c to surpass that of Proxima Centauri b.

Also in the same year, some novel items appeared on the shelves of Proxima Centauri c's stores.

These items were initially intended for entertainment but quickly invaded the daily lives of the creatures, becoming a trend.

The most significant of these was human architectural aesthetics.

The newest buildings on Proxima Centauri c were all high-rise buildings that adhered to human architectural principles.

At the same time, the food they ate also began to change, with some dishes containing never-before-seen spices—some delicious, some disgustingly ugly.

Some were kept, and some were discarded.

The retained flavors became more prominent over time, a form of taste domestication.

Although the two planets were at war, communication between Proxima Centauri b and Proxima Centauri c continued, and these items were also introduced to Proxima Centauri b, engulfing the entire Proxima Centauri civilization.

When the left-wing's 300-year advantage period ended, a creature that had returned from the tower claimed to have reached the tower's top and received the civilization's gift.

The right-wing detained this creature, and through this technology, they discovered high-density dark matter and were the first to use it in the war.

Its density was three times higher than that of the low-density dark matter they had been using, propelling the Proxima Centauri civilization into an entirely new stage.

The right-wing, with its overwhelming advantage, occupied more than half of Proxima Centauri c's territory.

This was a significant victory for the right-wing, leaving the left-wing unable to recover, and some left-wing creatures even prayed to the tower's backing civilization for help.

But there was no response.

However, around this time, any creature that entered the civilization tower and came out would receive a piece of technology unheard of before.

The left-wing dispatched a large fleet to protect the civilization tower and monopolize these technologies.

Countless technologies flowed into the left-wing-controlled areas and then spread throughout the entire civilization, allowing the left-wing to amass wealth, with per capita income nearly three times that of the right-wing.

The right-wing, seeing red, launched a purge campaign against the left-wing twenty years later, intending to eradicate them.

By this time, the left-wing's strength had dwindled to a low point, almost becoming a small organization.

Thus, the 826-year-long Proxima Centauri civilization civil war ended.

The right-wing, which opposed accepting the civilization tower, emerged victorious.

However, they did not destroy the civilization tower but continued to send people in to acquire knowledge and technology.

Over a hundred years passed, and sixteen generations of the Proxima Centauri civilization had come and gone.

The civilization's leadership, once highly vigilant about the tower, had long since died, and the new leadership had grown up surrounded by the products obtained from the tower.

That tower was no longer something that needed to be destroyed.

From the beginning, there was no difference between the left-wing and the right-wing.

...

In a small store, a robot was arranging goods, and in its camera's view, the items on the shelves were all like the Hundred-Eyed civilization in its storage.

It looked around.

Streets, buildings, streetlights, clocks, robots, robot pets, clothing, and accessories on the creatures...

Everything was now like the human civilization it once was.