Rebirth of the Super Battleship-Chapter 599: Bumpkins

Xiao Yu’s current Continent-Class residential spaceships had a total carrying capacity of about six hundred billion people. The maximum carrying capacity of a single Continent-Class habitation ship was thirty billion people. But that figure was the absolute limit. Housing that many people would reduce the living experience to an unimaginably horrifying level, requiring all artificial scenic areas and all mountains to be demolished, lakes and seas to be filled in, and every bit of interior space to be built into densely packed high-rises to achieve it.

What was more, the population of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance combined with the population of the original inhabitants of the Divine Ark Civilization had already surpassed eight hundred billion, so the existing habitation ships were clearly insufficient.

Thus, continuing to construct Continent-Class spaceships was very necessary. But this was not urgent. Although the Continent-Class residential spaceships built by the Level 5 Civilization Alliance were, in Xiao Yu’s eyes, simply trash, the inhabitants there were not authentic citizens of the Divine Ark Civilization, and Xiao Yu could not be bothered to care.

Xiao Yu thought, “Let them suffer for a while first, then when they come into the Continent-Class spaceships I built and experience a more comfortable way of life, they will know which is better.”

To maintain public order inside those Level 5 Civilization Alliance Continent-Class residential spaceships, and to better control those intelligent beings, Xiao Yu dispatched large numbers of robots to station on those ships, and also obtained a great many first-hand materials closest to the people’s daily lives.

After these materials were handed over to the Social Committee headed by Luka Two, they even elicited exclamations of surprise from many committee members.

“Heavens, is this really a Level 5 Civilization? Within a Level 5 Civilization there are actually living quarters like this? Using bunk beds to maximize space, six intelligent beings, even eight intelligent beings, living together in a room of less than twenty square meters? Sharing all kinds of sanitary facilities? This is unbelievable. If I had to stay in such an environment for one day, I believe I would go mad.” One committee member exclaimed repeatedly as he looked at the materials in his hand.

“There is something even more unbelievable, my friend.” Another committee member looked at the materials in his hand as if reading a tale of the impossible and pointed to part of it. “Look, because industrial resources are tight and all industrial resources are used to build war equipment, the Level 5 Civilization Alliance’s civilian industrial facilities are extremely lacking. Even routine sanitation maintenance has to be personally carried out by intelligent beings. Heavens, what a colossal waste of resources. Intelligent beings ought to study all kinds of knowledge and use that knowledge to serve their civilization. How does it make sense to serve civilization with manual labor? Mm, due to the lack of intelligent-being labor, vast amounts of city garbage cannot be promptly cleaned. The cities of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance are filthy and dilapidated, the air is foul. Heavens, this is no different from hell, is it?”

“What you mentioned is nothing. I learned for the first time that in the Level 5 Civilization Alliance’s residential ships, there is not a single scenic spot. There are no grasslands, no wild flora and fauna, no oceans, no mountains, nothing at all. Everywhere is a jungle of steel. Everywhere you go there are bustling crowds. Look up and you see no sky, look down and you see no earth. Oh, the reason is this, because of the lack of industrial base, the nearly six hundred billion population of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance can only live on a mere twenty Continent-Class spaceships. This already exceeds the maximum carrying capacity of Continent-Class spaceships. I truly do not know how they survive in such an environment.”

“Perhaps it is not that exaggerated. Although the Level 5 Civilization Alliance has nearly six hundred billion people, a large portion are soldiers and workers. They work on warships and planets and usually do not return to the Continent-Class residential spaceships.”

“Perhaps it is precisely because the environment inside the residential ships is too harsh that those soldiers and workers are unwilling to return.” Another committee member sneered. “If the master, when forcing them to leave the warships and planets, promised that they would not have to go back to their residential ships but would instead be allowed to settle on our habitation ships, perhaps they would not be so reluctant at all, but would come cheering.”

This committee member’s remark set everyone roaring with laughter. A committee member said with a smile, “It could very well be that way. The living environment of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance’s populace is truly too poor.”

“I am very curious. When the people of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance have free time, how do they relax? You must understand, there are no scenic spots there, and the population is so large that there are crowds everywhere.” After the laughter subsided, a committee member asked curiously, “I have not yet seen materials related to this aspect. Has anyone seen them?”

“Mm, it is like this. The Level 5 Civilization Alliance was unable to resolve the living environment within the ships, so they specially developed dedicated virtual world devices to ease this pressure. The replication of reality of these devices is fairly decent. Using these devices, they developed a large number of virtual games with beautiful regions. The populace of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance can use such devices to go into virtual worlds to relax. Oh, here is a statistic. Because they are easy to manufacture, inexpensive, and do not occupy much industrial resources, these virtual devices are very popular in the Level 5 Civilization Alliance. Almost every citizen owns a set.”

All the committee members’ expressions became strange.

“According to the statistics of our Social Committee, virtual reality games are also numerous in our Divine Ark Civilization, but they are all small-scale and cannot form a trend. Any citizen with a bit of ambition will not be interested in such things. Moreover, how can virtual scenery compare in authenticity to real scenery? The various senses of intelligent beings, including touch, taste, vision, smell, and so on, are indeed processed by the thinking organ, but sensations obtained by directly stimulating the thinking organ always differ somewhat from those obtained through real environments. In our Divine Ark Civilization there are endless real beautiful sights to see. Why would we need to seek them in a virtual world?”

“Yes, and yet those bumpkins are still so reluctant to part with their so-called homeland. I am afraid that once they learn the standard of living among the citizens of the Divine Ark Civilization and experience life aboard our habitation ships, even if we drove them away they would refuse to go.” A committee member sighed.

“Yes, a bunch of ignorant bumpkins.”

After seeing these materials about the living conditions of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance’s populace, these committee members immediately categorized them as bumpkins.

“Perhaps we can make these materials public and let our citizens know how the other Level 5 Civilizations live.” A committee member suddenly had an idea and proposed, “Doing so will let our citizens know how superior their current lives are. This will be very helpful for enhancing our civilization’s cohesion.”

“This is a good proposal. Perhaps we could also apply to the master to dispatch several work teams to those Continent-Class residential spaceships for on-site visits.” another committee member suggested.

“Good. I will handle this at once.” A committee member very straightforwardly agreed to take on the task.

The facts were indeed as these committee members said. Compared with Xiao Yu’s habitation ships, the environment inside the Level 5 Civilization Alliance’s residential ships could be called a garbage dump without exaggeration. This was precisely the effect Xiao Yu intended to achieve, because only through comparison could differences be found, allowing these intelligent beings newly joined to the Divine Ark Civilization to increase their sense of belonging to it.

Once Xiao Yu built Continent-Class spaceships with beautiful environments and comfortable living conditions and let those former Level 5 Civilization Alliance citizens truly experience the benefits of joining the Divine Ark Civilization, Xiao Yu believed they would soon forget their previous experiences, fully identify themselves as members of the Divine Ark Civilization, and take pride in it.

This was Xiao Yu’s innate advantage as a fusion of a Technological Civilization and a Mechanical Civilization. These material things required the Level 5 Civilization Alliance to expend great effort, consume many resources, and subsequently invest huge effort to manage. Yet such things, whether resources or effort, were not worth mentioning to Xiao Yu. Therefore, Xiao Yu had absolute confidence that he could integrate these nearly six hundred billion citizens under his banner and have them obediently contribute to his technological advancement.

In the invisible curvature space, Xiao Yu’s vast fleets were speeding swiftly toward their destination. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

“Unconsciously, from leaving Earth until now, nearly thirty thousand years have passed. Ten thousand years flash by in an instant. I am about to step into a Level 6 Civilization and can truly participate in and influence the overall situation of the Milky Way.” Xiao Yu thought with some emotion. Even now, Xiao Yu still remembered the bewilderment and fear when he had just left Earth. Along the way he had encountered innumerable hardships and dangers. Fortunately, he always turned peril into safety and had walked all the way to today.

“After entering the ranks of a Level 6 Civilization, I will have a broader space for development. My vision will become wider. There will be more things waiting for me to do and more mysteries waiting for me to unravel. The name of Earth’s humanity will spread throughout this galaxy, and the name of the Divine Ark Civilization will resound across the entire galaxy.”

“Level 6 Civilization, Level 6 Civilization… The Sweepers, the Guardians, and the three great Alien Beasts, the Taihao Civilization, all belong to this tier. Before long, I will truly stand before them. Just thinking of this makes me excited.”