Chapter 189: Chapter 189: A Greater Crisis?
Shen Hao discovered that within the same phase, every three levels at the Store Level, there would be a slightly larger improvement.
At Store Level twenty-four, even a White Level spaceship has begun to possess a Curvature Engine!
This type of engine can truly increase the speed of the spaceship to sub-light speed, at least to the magnitude of one percent.
The maximum speed of the Purple Epic tier mother ship he had before was only two percent, but now, the maximum speed of a White Level spaceship at Store Level twenty-four has reached one percent of light speed!
“Technology becomes obsolete so quickly,” Shen Hao couldn’t help but feel slightly astonished.
Dont look at his seemingly easy rise through the levels, but that’s because he is cheating.
In reality, every level up represents a significant improvement.
Especially after stepping into the third stage.
Even Purple Epic quality is only equivalent to White Quality after a four or five level gap at best, more balanced, perfect, or unique in certain aspects.
“The Store at Level twenty-five costs twenty trillion, even after all the Underground Cities are completely built, it won’t be enough to raise the level,” Shen Hao contemplated, “But a Level twenty-four Store will be enough to keep me busy for a long time, even if it’s just White Quality. Considering everything from end to beginning and adding the foundation provided by Desert Tower Civilization, there’s a chance to lift the technological domain to Levels seventeen or eighteen…”
Honestly, Shen Hao wished this “safe” period could last longer.
Compared to suffering heavy losses in the Trial, this period of rapid progress is undoubtedly what everyone desires.
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However, Shen Hao never let his guard down regarding the Civilization Trial compared to some who have even started to relax.
Not to mention, even with the current numbers of Underground Cities, squeezing a bit, they would be sufficient for the survival and development of thirty or forty billion people.
Normally, that should have been enough to meet the needs for surviving the Trial.
Yet, the Trial continues.
This can only mean that there’s an even greater crisis lurking, and it’s a crisis big enough to threaten their existence.
The Eternal Night Ice River, or the Undead?
The Eternal Night Ice River only signifies a further drop in temperature, even if it drops to absolute zero, leveraging nuclear fusion energy and the Earth’s insulating layers, Shen Hao believed that Human Civilization still had the opportunity to survive.
Not to mention, the temperature in space is also very low, and relying solely on large migrant spaceships, hundreds of millions could survive and thrive.
Therefore, the greater probability lies with the Undead.
“The information in the Basic Information Library is still too scant,” Shen Hao’s gaze seemed to transcend the distant star river, looking into the distance, “The number of Undead on the Mongolian Planet isn’t considered high, roughly seven or eight hundred million, controllable with a military encirclement, not a big problem. The real difficulty lies with the Wing Sky people’s planet.”
That planet’s space was too vast.
The Undead World was equally enormous.
A mere hundred million Wing Sky people can play hide and seek in front of more than two billion Undead, evading and persisting until the arrival of Human Civilization’s rescue. It goes without saying that attempting to exterminate the Undead on that planet would be equally challenging.
An Undead King with intelligence isn’t incapable of fleeing or using guerrilla tactics.
“Could the danger really stem from the Undead on the Wing Sky Human Planet?” Shen Hao frowned slightly.
If those two billion Undead all reached the Extraordinary Second Stage, maybe they could truly bring an existential threat to Human Civilization.
In any case, it’s still important to pay attention to this.
Shen Hao decided to find ways to enhance interstellar defenses, as well as vigilant against Undead on Alien Planets.
However, before that, the second round of ranking settlement was about to begin!
Without a doubt, in this ranking, Human Civilization was still far ahead, number one on both lists.
This time, the points Shen Hao earned for his personal performance were ten times that of the second place!
However, under these circumstances, the second place still managed to reach one-tenth of his points, which indeed surprised him.
After all, he had cheated, and his actual performance value should only be a third of what it is now; in other words, even after garnering massive points from killing the Otherworld Undead and nearly monopolizing all points within his own civilization, he was still only three times that of the second place.
This second-place Chosen One was quite strong.
Most likely, they came from that Number 8 Planet that possesses Spiritual Power.
And the civilization on this planet was also ranked second on the civilization list.
Indeed, the second-ranked on the last listing was Desert Tower Civilization, but now, after being harvested by Shen Hao in a round, Desert Tower Civilization seemed to have fallen into some internal trouble, its performance value dropping to third and much lower than the second.
But it appeared to still be healthy.
There wasn’t need to worry that those two billion people would soon perish and turn into a staggering number of Undead.
As for fourth place, it’s the Sky Spirit Civilization.
Fifth place is the civilization on Planet No.9.
This civilization seemed to also follow a technological path, with a level probably between the former Human Civilization and the Desert Tower Civilization, around Ninth or Tenth Level.
However, they tactfully refused further contact with Human Civilization.
Yes, they tactfully refused.
Human Civilization reached out, and the response they got was, “We truly appreciate Human Civilization’s concern, but we are capable of resolving our crises on our own.”
Since there didn’t seem to be anything of significant benefit that warranted attention and they replied as such, Humans saw no need to establish contact by force.
If the people were truly conquered by force, they might not be able to integrate quickly.
That’s why Shen Hao, although very interested in the civilization on Planet No.8, did not rush to establish a relationship by force.
He would wait until this round of settlement was over, then take a look.
Shen Hao closed the leaderboard, and unless there was an unexpected turn of events, the current ranking should be the final one.
In three more days, the settlement time would arrive.
Shen Hao waited quietly with anticipation.
Meanwhile, within the Desert Tower Civilization at the same time, the Supreme Sage was also making a series of preparations.
He planned to strive for a spot, to compete for second place.
With Human Civilization around, the Supreme Sage dared not venture to other civilizations to compete for points, but even so, there was still a way to earn as many points as possible.
He had already calculated a rough algorithm for obtaining the Civilization Performance Value.
In terms of weight, “Prevention” is greater than “survival ratio,” which is greater than “killing the undead,” which is greater than “temporary resistance.”
That is to say, taking preemptive measures against the trial could earn the highest weighted performance value.
Constructing the Underground City was exactly that for Human Civilization.
And the survival ratio was also an important standard, which was not just about the number but also included quality.
Simply put, surviving with more powerful individuals would earn a larger performance value than surviving with more of the weak and infirm.
Killing the undead goes without saying.
Temporary resistance refers to measures that can only fend off the current crisis but not prevent subsequent ones. For example, the Magic Barrier of the Sky Spirit Civilization could only block the current cold wave, but could not withstand the Undead, and was even less able to resist the intensifying changes of the cold wave later on; it only delayed death.
With such a calculation formula, there was a way to earn performance values.
Right from the start of the trial, the Supreme Sage, through microchip monitoring of vital signs, had driven those whose lives were nearing their end or who had entered old age to one place for a mass execution.
At the same time, waiting in the Undead World to capture all the newly born undead.
And raising them.
The death of some people would, of course, lower the performance value, but some low-quality population could be traded for points brought by some powerful Undead, which would actually help the overall Civilization Performance Value in a positive way.
The Supreme Sage silently calculated and managed everything.
After removing emotions and connecting his brain to the immense computer that controlled the entire civilization, his thought process had become akin to that of a pure AI, even in the face of a crushing defeat before Human Civilization and suffering immense losses, he felt no despair, but only added the two huge variables “Extraordinary” and “Mythical Talent” into his calculations.
The next time, he would not make the wrong judgment again.
Even now, the results of his calculations still told him that shedding the burden of emotion was the best choice for a civilization to keep developing and surviving.
Emotions would only lead to meaningless internal friction.
And even lead to rebellion.
For example, those “high-levels” within the current civilization.
Yes, the Supreme Sage saw it clearly—the different parts of the entire civilization, especially some of the Chosen Ones and high-levels with emotions, were conspiring to launch a rebellion.
Entangled in anger and unwillingness, they began to be wary and loathe the power he held. Under the guise of fighting for the future of the civilization, they sought to destroy him.
These individuals had even aimed at the final sprint period, planning to release the undead previously kept in captivity, to cause chaos within the civilization, to then defeat him and usurp his power.
How foolish.
Without him, the civilization would have perished more than a thousand years ago in internal strife.
However, even knowing what these people were plotting, he could not act immediately.
After incorporating the “Extraordinary” into the computation of growing strength, the importance of these Chosen Ones kept rising. As long as the benefits they brought outweighed the risks, the Supreme Sage would not eliminate them but would calculate other methods of dealing with them.
In the end, he made thorough preparations and quietly awaited the time for the final sprint.
He had calculated everything.
The previously captive undead would be reaped, the Desert Tower Civilization would overtake second place in the last ten minutes with a subtle advantage to become second.
And those intending to rebel would pay for their actions, fall into despair, and then obediently follow orders.
After this trial was over, free from the influence of Human Civilization, the future of the Desert Tower Civilization was still bright.
“The time has come, reap the undead!”
As the Supreme Sage gave the order, everything began to move according to his countless calculated outcomes.
But at this moment, the words of that powerful being unexpectedly surfaced in his mind again.
“You don’t understand the Extraordinary, the Chosen Ones, nor the Civilization Trial.”
The Extraordinary and the Chosen Ones, he now understood and had factored into the calculations.
But what about the Civilization Trial?