by <unknown>
For the students of the Refining Department, it was their daily routine to work as a refiner's assistant or run magical equipment tests.
Now that it was an offer proposed by the legendary Master Li Yao, the item to be tested was definitely not random magical equipment. There was absolutely no reason for them to refuse the offer!
Therefore, all the students were encouraging Long Yunxin to accept the request.
After all, Long Yunxin and her students were on a study trip. The opportunity to be enlightened by such an expert like Li Yao was too rarely-seen to be missed out. Therefore, she promised Li Yao very quickly. However, she did say that some of the students that she had brought with her were less skilled than others. Some of them were only in their sophomore year or even freshman year. If the magical equipment to be tested was too sophisticated, they might not be able to complete the job well.
"Rest assured, everybody. The test does not have any difficulties. Not just college students, even middle-school students can finish the job easily." Li Yao smiled. "In fact, it is not much of a test. I'm simply inviting you to play a game."
"A game?" Long Yunxin was confused.
"Yes." Li Yao smiled and replied mysteriously, "A game. A very special game."
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at a sealed area in the southeast corner of the Magical Equipment Exposition.
The most cutting-edge super magical equipment, some of which was still being developed and tested, was displayed in the era. It was not open to the public. Only VIPs and specialists with special invitation cards were allowed to visit.
Li Yao brought the hundred students to a round, glass room.
It was like a center of virtual games everywhere to be seen, with game cabins that looked like metal cocoons scattered about in the room. Through the nerve connection technology, the players would be allowed to enter the most profound Grand Illusionary Land where they could play vivid and exciting games.
Special humming sounds caused by the high-functioning crystal processors could be heard. The air was mixed with the flavor of incense.
A lot of participants were already running tests in the game cabins.
Long Yunxin glanced around and noticed that the age and gender of the participants varied. Most of them were even seniors whose hair was completely white.
"This particular game demands that the tester boasts certain knowledge in sociology, politics, game theory, and military strategies," Li Yao explained. "Therefore, most of the ordinary participants are of a relatively older age.
"Right now, the game is still in the alpha test phase. We have invited the citizens of different trades and social classes in the Heaven's Origin Sector for the test and accumulated tremendous data. Next, we will invite players from the Blood Demon Sector and the Flying Star Sector who are of a different cultural background for the test!
"The Flying Star Sector is a civilization based on starships. When you play the game, the strategies that you choose will certainly be slightly different from what the people of the Heaven's Origin Sector, who are from a planetary civilization, have chosen.
"The hundred students that have come with you on the study trip must be the most distinguished elites, considering that they have been admitted by Flying Star University. It should not be difficult at all for them to have fun in the game."
Li Yao took the college students to the first basement. Many workers immediately led them to their game cabins.
Long Yunxin noticed that the staff were all wearing the school emblem of the Grand Desolate War Institution on their chest. They should be a team of volunteers made up of the students of the Grand Desolate War Institution.
It appeared that the development of the game was deeply associated with Li Yao, who was also from the Grand Desolate War Institution.
Li Yao adjusted one of the game cabins to the 'Half-Step Grand Illusionary Land' mode and guided Long Yunxin to play the game.
Because the game had not been completed yet, the picture demonstrated on the light beam was a bit shabby. In the middle of music, a crude, unembellished title rushed close from the depths of the universe.
Civilization!
That was the name of the game.
On closer look, the title 'Civilization' was actually made of countless brilliantly shining stars. When the player focused their eyes on the title, the shining stars suddenly exploded into a waterfall, which was then magnified into swirling galaxies.
Every galaxy had a caption next to them.
The Curly Dragon civilization!
The Medicine Fork civilization!
The Martial Meritocrats civilization!
The Sand Primitive civilization!
The names of dozens of different civilizations were listened. When the player focused their eyes on any name, detailed information about the civilization would be displayed, including the population, distribution of resources, social form, number of experts, and so on.
"'Civilization' is a cosmic simulation game," Li Yao explained. "The player will choose a civilization of Cultivators, play the role of the highest decision-maker, and decide the progress of the civilization!
"Every civilization of Cultivators has its unique skills and resources. Some of them boast abundant crystals, and some others have tremendous relics of the Star Ocean Imperium. However, the civilizations are faced with all kinds of problems, too, such as a shortage of resources, population boom, asteroid collision, and even the invasion of demons or descent of extraterrestrial devils. As the highest decision-maker, you will have to select the most appropriate strategy and deal with the problems one by one!
"We have provided almost a million selectable strategies. You can consider yourself to be infinitely free in the game, not bound by any rules such as morals, laws, or ethics. You can do whatever you want as long as you can bear the consequences of a certain strategy!
"The game has hundreds of different victory criteria. The one with the highest difficulty is to make a civilization of Cultivators survive thirty thousand years and radiate to at least a hundred Sectors nearby.
"It's a pity that no player has yet achieved the goal in the alpha test. Therefore, Miss Long, you may set your goal as 'make my civilization live as long as possible' before you get started.
"After the game is over, you will be able to see how skillfully you can lead a civilization from the rank of players."
Chapter 1307: Unavoidable Doom |
Long Yunxin's eyelashes were shivering slightly. She was not particularly into such strategy games where grandiose narrative and the grand sea of stars were involved.
But according to Li Yao's introduction, it sounded rather interesting. She might as well have a go.
Following the tutorial, Long Yunxin entered the game step by step. She selected the easiest beginner mode and the Curly Dragon civilization, which was at the top of the list.
Under the 'beginning mode', she did not need to draft the specific rules and policies. After she chose or altered the main strategy, the system would carry out her will in the most optimal way.
"In year 431 of the Curly Dragon Calendar, the new Archon of the Curly Dragon Coalition Government has been inaugurated. We hope that you can bring Curly Dragon, which has a proud history, to a tomorrow that is even more brilliant and glorious!"
With the simple and dry introduction, a vigorous planet grew larger and larger in front of Long Yunxin. Prosperous cities, dense skyscrapers, and crowds on the street gradually showed up.
Information streams fell down like a waterfall, giving a basic introduction to the Curly Dragon civilization.
The game 'Civilization' had two different versions, one for the Cultivators and another for ordinary people.
In the version for Cultivators, the transmission speed of information was ten times higher than that in the ordinary version, thus significantly reducing the time cost.
As a teacher of Flying Star University, Long Yunxin naturally boasted a reasonably good computational ability. Although
strategy games had never been her favorite, she still managed to grasp the basic situation of the Curly Dragon civilization.
At the beginning of the game, the Curly Dragon civilization was a rather mature civilization with a single planet.
On their mother planet, they had already established a civilized, highly-developed society full of benefits.
Here, the ordinary people and the Cultivators lived in harmony, deluded in the pleasant life of high benefits, high pension, paid vacation, low working hours, and low labor intensity.
But the pleasant life was founded on the abundant resources of the planet that were running dry at an ever-increasing rate.
Long Yunxin was from a civilization of starships, which was like a nomadic people in the sea of stars. From her first memories, her family and compatriots had been wandering on starships, sifting through broken spaceships and battlefields for the slightest resources.
Other than the resource planets that were too harsh to be developed, they did not leave any space in the Flying Star Sector.
Therefore, once Long Yunxin 'mastered' the Curly Dragon civilization and discovered that the 'death date' of the planet was coming near, she naturally chose to march into the universe.
To march into the universe, an enormous space fleet would need to be established.
To build such a fleet from scratch, the entire civilization would have to be shifted from a high-benefits society where everybody enjoyed their life to a hardworking one where everybody strived and contributed their everything.
Long Yunxin soon discovered that it was not as simple as she had imagined.
When she ordered to increase the taxes, shorten the vacations, and extend the working hours, and when a lot of resources were devoted to the construction of the space fleet, she immediately suffered serious backlash from every field.
The civilians were all complaining, striking, and demonstrating. The scholars berated her for damaging a well-functioning economy. Her political enemies accused her of being too aggressive and declared that she was establishing the space fleet for her own interests.
As a result, because of the internal contradiction, the resources that she could devote to the space fleet were even less than before!
Seeing that such a policy would lead to riots in the society, Long Yunxin had to make a minor concession.
She thought that such concession would calm the people down.
However, the greedy guys thought that she was weak and that they could take advantage of her. They proposed more and more outrageous demands.
In the end, their demands of benefits and social security were even more ridiculous than the system at the beginning. There was no way that the national economy could shoulder the burden.
This time, she fought back without giving in.
But her weakness in the past had already made her lose the support of her allies and subordinates. The two parties wasted a hundred years bickering with each other, while all the resources on the planet plummeted. Eventually, all the curves turned into a straight line that looked like the electrocardiogram of a dead person. The vital signs of the Curly Dragon civilization were disappearing fast.
Soon, a series of cold words jumped out.
"In year 522 of the Curly Dragon Calendar, the people of the Curly Dragon Sector consumed the last gram of crystal during their protracted argument. They lost their ability of space jump.
"They were suppressed to the cage below one percent the speed of light and failed to break out the solid barrier when they perished in silence!"
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
Her score and her rank popped up.
Embarrassingly, Long Yunxin discovered that her previous performance was lower than 83% of all the players who had selected the beginner mode and the Curly Dragon civilization!
Long Yunxin's face was aching, as if somebody had slapped her. She was a teacher of Flying Star University and a Cultivator in the Building Foundation Stage after all. How could her performance be so poor?
After getting away from the Grand Illusionary Land, she looked around, afraid of being found out, only to discover that Li Yao had already left some time ago.
More or less relieved, she gritted her teeth and went back into the world of 'Civilization'.
She selected the beginner-level Curly Dragon civilization again. This time, she made up her mind and persisted in her policies toughly in spite of the backlash of the people and the vilification of her political enemy. Like an iron lady, she pushed forward her plan of 'universal development'.
Large-scale riots immediately burst out everywhere on the planet.
Fiery riots were bouncing inside Long Yunxin's beautiful eyes. Biting her lips so hard that her teeth pierced into them, she chose to suppress the riots without any hesitation.
As a result…
The demonstrating crowd somehow boasted massive destructive magical equipment and attacked the military policers. The suppression turned into massacre. For a moment, blood was being spilled everywhere.
Although the trend of strikes and demonstrations was stopped by force, the spirit of the civilization was entirely demolished. Everybody lost their enthusiasm!
Long Yunxin felt like crying when she read the stagnating resource data.
It was true that she could lengthen working hours, reduce benefits, and force everybody to go to work, but there was no way that she could stop people from being sluggish!
The leadership of the military who were responsible for the construction of the space fleet took the chance to suggest that, with the peril right now, she should announce that the country would enter the general mobilization state. Large-scale curfews and military control should be implemented. Everybody should be included in a militarized system. Those who were lazy would be punished according to the military law!
Having no choice, Long Yunxin accepted the suggestion.
After the shot of 'special cardiotonic', the effect was rather obvious. The society was stable again, and the efficiency in resource collection and utilization was significantly improved. The space fleet grew larger and larger. Everything was back on track.
When Long Yunxin took a deep breath of relief and thought that the Curly Dragon civilization had finally passed the test, a team of fully-armed, aggressive soldiers suddenly popped up on the picture and strode toward her.
"Hey, hey, hey. Why did nobody tell me that there's also a 'military coup' in the game? Somebody, help me!"
The poor Curly Dragon civilization was destroyed again, by the crazy ambitions of the military this time.
Unwilling to give in easily, Long Yunxin was patient enough to try a few more times. However hard she thought and weighed up different options, the Curly Dragon civilization fell into the abyss of destruction in the end helplessly.
Of all her attempts, the furthest that she ever went was the one where she struggled to the year 600 of the Curly Dragon Calendar and successfully developed almost twenty resource planets.
Tremendous crystals were shipped to the mother planet incessantly. She established a cross-world, enormous space fleet again, ready to march into new Sectors ambitiously.
Right at this moment, nineteen resource planets announced at the same time that they were done with the blatant exploitation of the mother planet and that they would be an independent 'Outer Space Federation' henceforth. They were even waging a war against the mother planet!
Seeing the starships that were coming at her from various directions, Long Yunxin was so angry that she felt her head going dizzy!
"There's absolutely no answer to the development of the Curly Dragon civilization. This is an out-and-out unresolvable conundrum!"
Pissed off, Long Yunxin switched to a new civilization—the Martial Meritocrats civilization.
Very soon, she found herself mired in trouble that was even bigger than that of the Curly Dragon civilization.
Holding back her dizziness, she played another few rounds and finally ran out of her last shred of pati
ence. She had to admit, however reluctantly, that she was perhaps the worst 'leader' in the world.
When she lost the enthusiasm and selected 'Exit', a reminder suddenly popped up on the menu, asking whether or not she would like to continue experiencing the game from a brand-new perspective.
Long Yunxin calmed down and browsed through the introductions patiently. Then she discovered that 'Civilization' had two different game modes.
In the first game mode, she was the supreme master of a certain civilization who would guide the way for a civilization.
However, she could also choose to be a tiny constituent of the civilization, an unknown ordinary person, and experience the rise and fall of the civilization from the bottom level of the society.
The first mode was a top-down, magnificent strategy game.
The second mode, on the other hand, was a bottom-up role play game.
Thinking quickly, Long Yunxin chose to experience the second mode. The light and shadow around her changed again, and she soon found herself in a brand-new world.
She was back on the mother planet of the Curly Dragon Sector but not as the Archon of the Curly Dragon civilization this time, instead one of the most ordinary clerks in an office.
Of course, time went much faster for the life in the game.
The great events that were happening in the society and their influences on the female clerk all turned into torrents of information flooding into her brain.
She could also make different choices regarding the female clerk's life.
However, most of the time, under the surging trend of social reforms, personal choices were usually weak and meaningless. Individuals often could do nothing to change their life.
At first, Long Yunxin was still struggling hard, but she gave up trying very soon. Like a cold and ruthless bystander, she watched the female clerk living her life and trying to find a balance between her job and her family, her parents and her children.