Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Glancing at Li Yao, Heiye Lan bit her lips and said, “You can achieve everything you said with only a game?”

“We don’t know whether or not we can achieve it,” Ling Xiaole said, “but we will work hard to make it happen. Also, after a hundred years of development, ‘Civilization’ has long grown from the maddest design in the beginning into a virtual platform that covers every aspect of the society. It is now a new Sector made of crystal processors, light circuits, data, and telepathic thoughts.

“The people of the federation live in seven different Sectors in reality. We may be hundreds if not thousands of lightyears away from each other. Our customs and living environments are vastly different. It is quite difficult for us to be called one people and one civilization.

“However, in the virtual world, even people living on two different sides of the federation can still hug each other without obstacle. They can share their experiences with each other, pass on their wisdom, and eventually view the universe in the same way.

“Therefore, many believe that ‘Civilization’ is the federation’s actual territory, and the virtual platform is the most important eighth Sector for the federation!”

Heiye Lan looked at Li Yao again. Seeing no objection, she continued asking, “Then, how does the world of ‘Civilization’ run? Is anybody free to participate?”

“Of course. The world of ‘Civilization’ is divided into many levels. All the people of the federation can, and must, take part at the bottom level.” Ling Xiaole smiled. “Every person in the federation will get in touch with ‘Civilization’ when they are in elementary school. Of course, it is still a real game at that time. We have inputted a lot of knowledge about nature, mathematics, and other disciplines into the game so that the teaching sessions can be conducted in a more interesting way.

“Have you ever heard of ‘applied problems’? Does the mathematic education on Firefly involve ‘applied problems’? If so, you may consider ‘Civilization’ at this time to be an all-encompassing and ever-changing applied problem.

“In the virtual world, the kids learn the fundamental information about the seven Sectors of the federation. They learn to distinguish between the basic minerals on the various resource planets. They will understand the gravity and oxygen difference between different planets. They will also be able to calculate the path programming to jump from the Uranian Ring Sector to the Heaven’s Origin Sector in the ‘fastest mode’ and in the ‘most energy-conserving mode’.

“As they slowly grow up and their brain matures, the content added to ‘Civilization’ becomes more and more complicated. The grandiose narration and the trivia around them is included.

“The children can manage the entire country as the ‘Speaker of the Federation’. They can also lead the most magnificent fleet of the federation to battle as the ‘commander of the Burning Prairie Fleet’. Of course, the more grandiose the narration is, the more blurred the granularity and the less real it will be. If they want to be more delicate and professional, they can be the owner of a certain mine on a resource planet, the captain of a certain small carrier, or the mayor of a town on a planet that is yet to be developed, so that they can manage all the affairs in their tiny territory.

“In those cases, we retrieve the data of real mines, carriers, and towns from our database for them, including problems that they are going to face. The keys to all the problems lie in the knowledge of the various disciplines that they have learned.

“From elementary school to junior high to senior high, the children of the federation have always been educated in such a way. Then, when they finally turn into adults, they will already be raised into basically qualified citizens of the federation who have a basic understanding of society and the world, and they will enter the world of the real ‘Civilization’.”

“I have another question.” Heiye Lan frowned deeply. “If it is just a game, it is destined to be unreal and not of much significance in guidance. If authenticity and educational purposes are what you pursue, the game will definitely not be interesting and attractive enough. Maintaining the normal functions of the smallest starship is enough to overwhelm even an adult Cultivator, what with dealing with all the data and contingencies. Are the children really into such a game, or has the federal government employed a certain compulsory approach to force the children to play the boring game?”

“How is it possible!” Ling Xiaole widened her eyes. “The federation worships freedom. How can the government use any compulsory approaches? Besides, no compulsion is required at all. ‘Civilization’ is a non-optional subject in the College Entrance Examination in the federation, and it takes up more than fifty percent of the total score. There are even cram schools for the game ‘Civilization’ on every street. Parents all take their children to those places, begging for their children to become game experts!”

“…” Li Yao.

“…” Heiye Lan.

“After the children finish all the basic lessons and pass the corresponding tests, they earn the right to enter the real world of ‘Civilization’. Different from the game, they encounter more compatriots that exist in reality than NPCs generated by the crystal processors. Everybody is like a butterfly on the other side of the ocean, and they can raise a storm by simply flapping their wings.

“The governments of all levels often publicize a lot of content regarding public decisions on the virtual platform, inviting everybody to play the game in different roles as ‘decision-makers’ and ‘decision-takers’. The issues can be great crises such as the invasion of the expedition army of the Imperium or insignificant trivia such as a certain public affair in their community.

“For example, if the local government of the Uranian Ring Sector intends to build a new fully-enclosed vacuum rail here, there will be a lot of points that require consideration. The distribution of the route, the location of the stations, whether or not it will affect people, whether or not anybody will be forced to move, the influence on house prices nearby, and even the future influence on the population in decades to come. It is not a bad idea to invite the specialists whose spiritual roots have been awakened to devise plans in the traditional way, but wouldn’t it be even better if the specialists have the first-hand data and even the ‘voice’ of the local residents during the calculation?

“In such a case, the local government can issue a quest named ‘Rail Construction Simulation’ in ‘Civilization’ and invite the residents nearby, or the experts who are adept at quests of such a type according to their profile, to accomplish it.”

“Does it work?” Heiye Lan said coldly. “The deployment of rails and stations is the most professional problem. How can regular outsiders expect to solve it?”

“We do not need them to resolve the problem; we only need them to constantly make mistakes and express what is on their mind while they do so,” Ling Xiaole said. “Even the best horse sometimes stumbles. Of course, the general game players are not as good as specialists. But at the very least, they can make thousands of different mistakes, which will save the specialists a lot of time and inform them of what the local people living in the area need and worry about so that a rail that satisfies everyone will be built in the end.

“More importantly, if some residents living nearby are affected by the rail or forced to move, it will be easier for the contractor to communicate with them when they are involved in the construction of the rail in advance and foresee the concreate benefits that the rail will bring to the local area after it is built!

“This is one of the most insignificant aspects, but the federation is made of billions of such insignificant aspects. Through the release and participation of one quest after another, we make use of the wisdom of ordinary people and listen to their voices as much as possible so that the final decision will satisfy more people!

“Of course, the specialists are most important, but on the other hand, in the hundred thousand years of mankind, did the great emperors and big shots in every dynasty ever consider themselves not to be real ‘specialists’? Yet, under their government, the dynasties, nations, and civilizations fell apart in the end anyway!

“Let’s take the Imperium of True Human Beings for example. However brilliant and magnificent their emperor is, even if he is in the Divinity Transformation Stage or even higher, can his wisdom and computational ability be higher than the combined wisdom and computational ability of a hundred billion people?”

Heiye Lan almost choked, blushing.

Li Yao chuckled and said, “You do have a point, Miss Ling. But on second thought, if the effect you describe is to be achieved, it must be guaranteed that most of the people in the federation spend a lot of time and effort in ‘Civilization’, which is relatively boring and monotonous. It is equivalent to advanced ‘free labor’.

“I know human beings to be selfish animals. What do you use to ensure that everybody volunteers to waste their previous time on it? Or in other words, it should have a rather thorough incentive system, shouldn’t it?”

“Of course. As I said just now, ‘Civilization’ is connected to the daily life of everyone in the federation,” Ling Xiaole said. “There’s no need to mention the College Entrance Examination, in which the expertise in the game directly decides the future of a student. Also, the win rate, contribution points, gaming times, and other elements are bound to an individual for their entire life. They have a lot to do when it comes to job interviews, business activities, and even love and marriage.”

Li Yao was slightly dazed. “It even has a lot to do with marriage?”

“Of course. Just think about it.” Ling Xiaole smiled. “The win rate and completion rate of the quests represent one’s wisdom and decision-making abilities. The gaming time and history indicate one’s personality. If someone has been doing the boring tasks that happen to be related to everyone’s life, just like ‘Rail Construction Simulation’ that I described just now, even if their completion rate is not high, it at least suggests that they are passionate about public welfare, right?

“Therefore, when big corporations browse through resumes, they will know the abilities of the applicants when it comes to fixing practical problems from a few clips of game footage that the applicants attach. When a girl decides to get married with her love, it is also necessary for her to check his game record. It is often possible to infer his character from the type of quests that he has chosen. If the guy is only concerned about himself and never worries about the problems that the community he’s in is faced with, can she expect him to be a really responsible husband?”