novelThe Ways Of Civilized People
| ← Ch.1072 | Ch.1074 → |
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The crab man whom Fang Ning was tailing in Shadow Mode was crouching on his seat like a dog...
His hair was golden colored, and so was his skin. The shape of his head was very round, which bore some resemblance to a gorilla's face.
There were many other crab people nearby with the same hair and skin color as him. Clearly, these were a golden kind of crab people...
Fang Ning stood beside this golden crab man, who was unable to see him, and was taking a cell phone-like item out of his backpack with both hands.
This extraterrestrial cell phone looked very similar to the cellphone designs on Earth, although it was slightly bigger in size.
"@#@￥#￥" After taking out his cell phone, this golden crab man began to speak into the phone.
"Ugh, this is so hard..." Fang Ning muttered impatiently before looking at the other crab people.
Under the dim light of the night, the other crab people were also playing with their cell phones.
At a closer look, Fang Ning noticed various image icons that seemed like apps, albeit with gibberish names to them, much like how cell phone functions on Earth were designed.
Based on this, Fang Ning felt that their level of technology should be similar to that of Earth. As for why they were able to achieve extraterrestrial colonization, it was likely because they had selected a difference technological tree.
Nonetheless, upon careful observation, Fang Ning found that their writing looked somewhat similar to the Cuneiform writing system that used to exist on Earth. He was able to detect this because of the many time-travel novels that he had read before. In one particular novel, there was a guy who had traveled back in time and had come across a tribe of primitive humans. It was this guy who introduced this system of writing to Fang Ning.
Time passed by very fast in the plain daily lives of the crab people.
This golden crab man was still unaware that there was a scary extraterrestrial being watching him right now.
Later, as a sound was broadcast on the public bus, he put away his cell phone before crawling down from his seat and getting off the bus.
Fang Ning trailed after him.
At that moment, Sir System sent him good news.
"I've sent the language pack you requested to the Heavenly Book. Now, you'll be able to understand what they say and write."
"Sss, how are you so efficient? I'm really seeing you in a different light now, you Son of a B*tch, " Fang Ning said with delight.
"Well, despite your compliments, I'm not like you, so I won't take credit for someone else' work. This was translated by Anderson after extracting the memories of tens of locals, " Sir System informed.
"Uh, did that result in any problems?" Fang Ning quickly asked.
"Of course not, they had already turned over a new leaf, " Sir System explained.
"That's good then." Fang Ning brought along the Heavenly Book and continued tailing his target.
Meanwhile, the crab man, who had been walking under the streetlights, had reached a busy little neighborhood.
In front of the neighborhood along the street were various types of stalls. This scene reminded Fang Ning of his previous city life.
After browsing a few stalls, the golden crab man gritted his teeth and paid for a few bunches of fruits that looked like bananas with his phone.
Fang Ning heard the payment being announced, and with his Heavenly Book baby's real-time translation, it no longer sounded gibberish to him.
"Collecting a payment of 15 yuan."
The golden crab man used his two hands to place the bananas into the backpack on his back, and then crawled toward the neighborhood.
There were numerous other crab people crawling about around him, and most of them were using their phones while crawling. Occasionally, there would be a few collisions, but thanks to their four-legged build, they did not have to worry about falling over.
Soon after, the golden crab man entered a building and took the elevator to the seventh floor. Then, he opened the door and went in.
To Fang Ning's surprise, this young crab man did not live in a single-unit apartment, but a huge house with three rooms, two living rooms, and two bathrooms. According to his visual estimation, the total area of the house was over a hundred square meters.
The door to every room was left wide open, suggesting that he lived alone.
Judging from the architectural structure, this was probably not a rental house, but a private-owned property. Otherwise, a typical rental house would not need two bathrooms.
"Can this guy be a rich person? Or is this their normal living standard? If that's the case, the wealth of their civilization must be much more than what the Earth used to have, " Fang Ning mumbled to himself as he wandered around in the house like a ghost, studying everything around him.
Inside the house, there were mechs for cleaning, doing the laundry, and even for cooking. Based on this, their technological level was clearly higher than that of Earth, albeit not to a large extent.
Fang Ning estimated that their technological standard should be roughly ten to twenty years ahead of Earth.
These mechs had neither high intelligence nor real consciousness. Rather, they were specialized mechs that were built to solve specific problems.
As these mechs went about serving him, this golden crab man soon finished his meal and came to a computer in his study to surf the internet.
Fang Ning trailed after him and watched as the crab man leaned back on a sofa while lazing around on the internet.
These habits felt too familiar to him.
The difference was that when Fang Ning used to go online, he could only do it within the confines of his small room instead of having the comfort of this crab man right now.
When he had become successful and rich, it had to be during the time when he was seized by Sir System instead.
"Come to think of it, I've never actually enjoyed life before..." Fang Ning said to the Heavenly Book baby in a pitiful manner."I haven't even stayed that long in my big villa and big house, and I've already gone along with your System Daddy to stay in that Dragon's Cave. Now, every day, I'm sleeping in that cold and lonely System Space. This is too unreal."
"After the situation has stabilized, Master can move back there, " his Heavenly Book baby quickly consoled.
"I hope so, " Fang Ning muttered.
In the meantime, he continued to watch the crab man who was now online.
He saw that the other party was making a post on a forum-like web page.
With the help of the Heavenly Book baby's translation, Fang Ning began to browse the web page that the crab man had opened.
"Why are we still unable to find any extraterrestrial beings? We've already gone through three cycles of civilization, but why can't we venture beyond the Solar System?"
"This is a technological bottleneck. Now, it's already been a huge breakthrough that we've managed to colonize Planet Number Two with the help of the Malevolent Planet that's circling the sun. It's impossible for us to go any further than that. We've never been able to invent a nuclear fusion engine in each civilization cycle. We can't fly very far by using only fossil fuel. The universe is so huge. It's too hard to reach any other civilizations."
"Perhaps we've already encountered them. For instance, there might be someone from a different dimension watching us chat online."
"Haha, this is a very typical idealism. Entities are not to be multiplied unnecessarily. 1Please understand this simple concept. Anything that has never been proven to exist should not be brought into this discussion. If not, it'll only complicate the question at hand, " someone sneered.
"I have my freedom of speech. You have no right to stop me from voicing my opinions."
Soon, the online discussion turned an intense argument that seemed familiar to Fang Ning.
Later, this crab man joined in the discussion.
"Say, how many more years will it be until we reach the next civilization cycle?"
"Didn't an astronomer predict that it'll take four hundred more years for the Malevolent Planet to approach our planet again? It's still early. At least it's not something our generation needs to worry about."
"With our current level of technology, why can't we just destroy that small planet?"
"There's no way to do that. The Malevolent Planet is roughly one-third of the size of Mother Planet, and its core consists entirely of meteoric iron. Our strongest weapon at hand would be nuclear weapons, but according to the countless tests conducted before, even if we dug a few hundred thousand meters deep into the ground and detonated a nuclear bomb there, it would still be a useless attempt."
"There's no real significance in continuing this discussion. It'd be better for us to think of ways to pay off our mortgages. Anyway, when the time comes, our descendants would still end up like the ancients. The poor will have to go underground while the rich will fly to outer space. There'll only be these two ways to seek refuge from the disaster."
"Can't they create more nuclear weapons?"
"Uh, I'll tell you a piece of alleged news that I've heard. There are people who don't wish to destroy the Malevolent Planet. Firstly, it's because the cost is too high. Even if they invested our yearly GDP into the development of nuclear weapons, it still wouldn't be enough to cover the cost. Secondly, if we actually managed to blow it up, it might lead to too many side effects. Let's not mention that it might form an asteroid belt. There might be changes in the orbits of Mother Planet and Planet Number Two that could result in both planets moving closer to the sun and eventually being devoured by it. Then, there would be no chance for us to undergo another civilization cycle."
"Ah, the fate of our civilization could only be repeatedly decided by the orbital period of a solar planet, " the golden crab man posted the message in resignation.
After Fang Ning had followed the discussion up to this point, he realized something, and said to the Heavenly Book, "Seems like every family has its own problems. There is no paradise anywhere."
"Yes, Master. In this case, should we let them relocate and leave this solar system for us to build the Nets Above Snares Below?" suggested the Heavenly Book baby.
"Yes, but we should first go about it slowly. After all, unlike the society of magnetic people, they're a civilized society. We'll have to follow the ways of civilized people when resolving this issue." Fang Ning nodded in agreement.
| ← Ch. 1072 | Ch. 1074 → |