Chapter 31: The Ascension Theory

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Not long after he came to this world, Li Wenyuan had heard of the term Level 2 civilization.

At first, he thought that it was a standard to determine the strength of a civilization in this galaxy.

He had also asked the archaeologists back home, but the answer he got surprised him.

“This is not used to judge the strength of a civilization. In fact, we still judge the strength of an interstellar civilization through common production capacity, military, technology, and other aspects.”

“The ‘level of civilization’ we are talking about refers to the flexibility and upper limit of a civilization’s development. This flexibility and the upper limit are expressed by its natural lifespan in the galaxy.

“A Level 1 civilization can only last for less than 10,000 years at most. Most Level 1 civilizations don’t even survive for that long before they fall back to their native era or even die out.

“It’s because of their resource distribution, social form, ethics, and technological advancement… And so on, the necessary affairs to maintain the stability of civilization will inevitably become rigid and lack flexibility for a long time.”

“After reaching a certain limit, a small accident is enough to cause violent turmoil in the entire civilization. The sudden outbreak of war and internal strife are all trivial matters.

“The most common result is that the entire civilization regressed back to the primitive era and was out of orbit. A large amount of technology and history was lost, and the remaining survivors struggled to survive, gradually forgetting their former glory.

“If you’re lucky, after a long period of development, you can once again stand on the interstellar space stage as ‘another civilization’. If you’re unlucky, you would directly die and become a forgotten part of interstellar history.”

“Therefore, the ‘upgrade’ of a civilization is something every interstellar civilization has to consider sooner or later. Even Level 2 and Level 3 civilizations have to find ways to continue moving upwards after reaching their limits.”

“Every civilization, after reaching a certain shackle, will build a new and upper-limit foundation for the civilization through an ‘evolution’ that will affect the entire civilization.

“This kind of upgrade and evolution is called ascension in the galaxy. If this ascension has been carried out several times, then this civilization will be at what level?

“In theory, all interstellar civilizations are at least Level 1 civilizations. And all artificial intelligence (AI) civilizations are at least Level 2 civilizations.”

“But as for what exactly the ascension requires, what the research is, and what the preparations are, nobody knows. The civilizations that have already ‘ascended’ to a higher level are not willing to share this secret, either.”

Li Wenyuan was greatly surprised by how the interstellar civilization judged the level of civilization. He did not expect such a theory to exist in the universe, and it seemed to have been proven.

At that time, he asked the archaeologists with great interest, wanting to know what level of civilization he belonged to.

However, the answer he got was, “You are the lost empire, so this interstellar evaluation doesn’t apply. At your level, there are no more shackles and limits. The only thing that can destroy you is an external factor.”

He suddenly felt bored and understood that no matter what were the results he produced, they would be regarded as: You are the lost empire. It’s your duty.

The archaeologists might have even regarded themselves as a member of this place and were not surprised by many technologies. It was unrealistic to rely on them to judge the true level of their civilization.

Therefore, Li Wenyuan decided to choose a technology to show to Craybow. Through Craybow’s reaction, he could determine the level of each section of technology in his Level 10 technology tree.

From there, he could roughly determine the upper limit and potential of his development.

After thinking about it, he chose the technology that was most likely related.

[ Ascension theory]

[ Technology level: 3 ]

[ Introduction: Our history is a cycle of dramatic leaps in technology, politics, and culture. These leaps would often bring about an era of violent change, but they would also come with a peaceful time. To this day, we have seen too many cycles. In order to break the cycle, a certain theory has been born. ]

[ Possible technology: Flesh and skin (99.9%), design evolution (99.9%) ]

The ascension theory was a very special technology.

It was a technology that had suddenly been added to the technology tree when Li Wenyuan was communicating with the archaeologists, and it had reached Level 3 as a basic technology.

The possible technology it extended was also very short-lived, and it was extremely inconspicuous in the entire technology tree.

However, from the name, Li Wenyuan understood that this technology might be the path of civilization upgrade in this galaxy.

The highest possible technology it could extend to was Level-6, so Li Wenyuan chose its subsequent technology to be flesh and skin, and showed part of its content to Craybow.

Blenning looked at the short technology in front of him in disbelief, but he didn’t notice that his breathing had gradually become faster.

“This technology is…”

Even though he wasn’t a scientist, he had a certain level of scientific literacy. After sitting in this position, he also started to worry about the future of the company.

Of course, he knew about the civilization upgrade theory that was circulating in the universe, and he also knew that his company was preparing for this theory.

But in fact, most people did not know how to upgrade a civilization. They could only vaguely sense that this resource should be quite important through the large loss of living metal on the market.

Because of this, living metals were in high demand in the Milky Way market.

This time, when Blenning saw the technology displayed by the Administrator, even with his thumb-sized scientific knowledge, he instantly realized that this technology was definitely related to ascension!

His eyes instantly became fanatical, but he quickly suppressed himself. He tried to pretend to be calm, but the overflowing enthusiasm in his eyes had already betrayed him.

If he could get his hands on this technology, his status would change qualitatively, and he might even have a seat on the Board of Directors!

“T-that… Lord Administrator, you’re displaying this technology to…” His voice was trembling uncontrollably. At that moment, the artificial organs in his body could no longer suppress his excited emotions.

Seeing his extremely excited look, Li Wenyuan also understood that this technology was probably of extremely high value.

“So that’s how it is. Even a company like Craybow is crazily pursuing the technology related to ascension?”

“However, flesh and skin is only a Level 4 technology. In other words, I’ve studied almost all of the Level 5 technology, so I’m much stronger than Craybow.

“If I remember correctly, Craybow just entered Level 2 not long ago. My current technological level should be close to or even beyond that of a Level 3 civilization.

“In addition, the technology in my technology tree is generally stronger than that of most interstellar civilizations. It is not impossible for me to fight with a Level 4 civilization.

“Hiss, just how terrifying were the humans in the past? Even a little inheritance was so powerful…”

He had already made his own judgment, and at the same time, he sighed at the glory of the past.

So, he hacked into the system in front of Blenning and transferred the technology of the flesh and skin into their database.

Since he wanted to pretend to be a lost civilization, he would make it more realistic! He believed that Blenning would be able to guess his intentions.

Sure enough, even though the alarm saying electronic intrusion kept ringing, Blenning was only stunned for a moment before he showed an ecstatic expression.

“You…”

“This is a gift.”

After saying that, Li Wenyuan controlled the synthetic humanoid to turn around and leave, as if nothing had happened.

Blenning, on the other hand, was also stunned by the huge surprise. He didn’t come back to his senses until the Administrator left. He quickly pulled Mao Xiong and said,

“Hurry up! Quickly come with me to send him off!”

The Administrator’s fleet left the place and everyone got what they wanted.

Li Wenyuan, who was in the administration core, looked at Craybow’s star map and showed a satisfied expression.

“As expected, the interstellar situation around the solar system is very stable. There’s a large area of the galaxy that’s ownerless, and I can develop it to my heart’s content.

“Even the few other interstellar civilizations that are closest to us are quite a distance away. We don’t have to worry about being harassed for the time being.

“Craybow also gave me the coordinates of the ‘Lost Planet’. There are many ruins on it, so I’ll take a look if I have the time. This interstellar travel is a complete success!”

He didn’t give away the flesh and skin technology out of a moment of vanity.

On the contrary, he had decided to give it away after careful consideration.

First of all, from the value of this ascension technology, it was impossible for a megacorp like Craybow to reveal any information to other civilizations. This also put an end to the possibility of him being implicated because of the leak.

Secondly, ascension was a long and slow process. It required accumulation and hard work in all aspects. It was not that one could immediately upgrade civilization just by learning technology.

Based on Craybow’s foundation, it would be quite a while before they could make any breakthroughs.

Most importantly, he could further deepen his image of the lost civilization by giving this technology to them, creating a solid disguise.

At the same time, he would use the backup plan left in his system network to observe the development progress of Craybow. From there, he could determine the progress rate of civilization in this galaxy.

He could also confirm how much time he needed to develop and to what extent he needed to stand at the top.

“Only true power is power. I don’t know why the humans in this universe died… I can’t repeat their mistakes.”

With this thought in mind, Li Wenyuan began his expansion plan.