Under One Person: One Person Goes

Chapter 524 One Man Today: Biyou Village Chapter (Part Two)

"Zhang Chulan, do you know how many people live in our country right now?"

"About 14 billion."

"So how many people do you think are in our industry?"

Zhang Chulan couldn't answer, but Meng Duoduo told him the answer: "No more than 50,000. This figure is only because the company has been managing the community of supernatural beings for many years and has prevented any major disputes from arising."

what?
It has to be said that Zhang Chulan's expression was quite interesting when Meng Duoduo announced the total number of people in the current supernatural community.

Because this data was far different from his prediction. Since he entered the world of superhumans, everyone he had come into contact with was a superhuman. Not to mention the different factions, he had seen no less than a hundred superhuman colleagues in the North China region of his company, and that was only the ones he had seen openly.

Even considering companies large enough to manage the entire community of superhumans and establish rules and order, the current number of superhumans in China is less than 50,000? That's unbelievable.

"Are you surprised, Zhang Chulan? You are an Outcast, your father is an Outcast, your grandfather is an Outcast, and your family has had three generations of only sons who are Outcasts. Everyone you meet is an Outcast, which gives you the illusion that there are many people in the Outcast circle, right around us."

Xiao Zizai, who was listening from the side, couldn't help but speak up, and Zhang Chulan's expression said it all. After all, in the world of supernatural beings, it is extremely rare for a single person to be a supernatural being for three generations. Just look at the four famous families. These families have been passed down for thousands of years, and each generation only has about ten supernatural beings, making them highly sought-after members of the family.

Zhang Chulan's expression pleased Xiao Zizai. After controlling his innate killing intent, Xiao Zizai now indeed looked somewhat like a teacher.

It's clear that even after joining the company, Zhang Chulan still doesn't have a clear understanding of the current state of the supernatural community, and he's started talking a lot.

"Zhang Chulan, do you think it's better to have more or fewer superhumans?"

Zhang Chulan didn't answer, but Xiao Zizai had already found the answer on Zhang Chulan's face.

"I think you would definitely feel that it would be better if there were more extraordinary people, at least that way your childhood wouldn't be so lonely, and you would have a few friends who share the same language with you. In fact, your idea is not unique. We have all had similar thoughts, but this idea is not suitable for this era, nor for any era in the past."

Individuals with superhuman abilities are stronger than ordinary people, but if their numbers are too small, it's not a big deal. However, once their numbers reach a certain level, a phenomenon of cohesive consciousness will emerge among them, making them easier for ordinary people to detect. Zhang Chulan, imagine, in that feudal, uncivilized, and ignorant era of ancient times, what would individuals with superhuman abilities like these be seen by ordinary people? Gods.

Xiao Zizai's self-questioning and answering, and his conclusion that the Extraordinary Ones were gods, made Zhang Chulan's heart skip a beat.

He was not a three-year-old child and knew very well that Xiao Zi was not fooling him. His summary was still relevant in modern times because the world is so big, there are always some places and regions that are still backward and ignorant. In those regions, if a superhuman shows his abilities in front of ordinary people, it is perfectly normal for ordinary people to regard him as a prophet or a divine messenger. Their perception is what it is.

“Once there are too many superhumans, this phenomenon will become common, and the possibility of ordinary people noticing superhumans will greatly increase. This will cause superhumans to form a kind of privilege based on superhumans, which is not a good thing for a world where most people are ordinary. Zhang Chulan, you understand this, right?”

Zhang Chulan nodded blankly.

Sitting behind Zhang Chulan was Mu, a bald-headed young temporary worker from the South China region, who also came up to him at this moment.

"So once the number of superhumans reaches a certain limit, the rulers of all civilizations and dynasties in the world will take measures to reduce the number of superhumans. Zhang Chulan, you should have learned about the Three Wu and One Zong's persecution of Buddhism when you were in school, right? Speaking of which, this matter is related to us, Senior Brother Xiao."

"Xiao Mu, although we both come from the Buddhist sect, please don't call me senior brother, and please don't always use your methods. If you scare me, I'm afraid you won't be able to handle my reaction."

"Senior brother, please don't mind. This is a talent I was born with, and I've managed to control it very well over the years. Zhang Chulan, the Three Wu and One Zong's persecution of Buddhism in our history, and the witch hunts in medieval Europe, are all microcosms of how rulers in various civilizations and dynasties actively reduced the population in order to control the population red line of people with supernatural abilities."

"Population red line?"

Another keyword captured.

"That's right. Extraordinary people have existed since ancient times. In fact, to some extent, everyone can be an extraordinary person. However, compared to us, who are favored by nature, most ordinary people need to spend decades from Foundation Establishment to Qi Acquisition. That's why there is a distinction between extraordinary people and ordinary people."

Zhang Chulan nodded in deep agreement; his grandfather had told him all of this.

But what Xiao Zizai said next gave Zhang Chulan a deeper understanding of the differences between the current world of supernatural beings and the secular world.

"So is there any way for ordinary people to cross this threshold and become superhumans? The answer is yes. Superhumans are divided into innate and acquired. Innate ones are rare, while acquired ones are common. Because of this, superhumans cannot be separated from ordinary people, because the vast number of ordinary people are the cornerstone of maintaining the superhuman race."

However, this is not a sufficient and necessary condition. Over the long years, some extraordinary individuals discovered that if they were isolated from the world and kept from contact with ordinary people, living only among themselves, after round after round of reproduction, a phenomenon would occur: their offspring would either be born extraordinary individuals or, like you and me, be blessed with extraordinary talents and be able to easily enter the path of cultivation.

Over time, these extraordinary individuals will form their own ethnic group, develop their own culture, language, and writing system, and gradually replace ordinary people, just as Homo sapiens replaced Neanderthals.

When Xiao Zizai stated this conclusion with a blank expression, Zhang Chulan felt a chill run down his spine.

Although they are both human, Zhang Chulan could not accept such a genocidal conclusion, even with the example of Homo sapiens replacing Neanderthals.

The two are completely incomparable. The former's replacement process can be called natural selection, and at that time, there was no civilization, let alone language communication. But the latter was an imaginable genocidal war.

"It's cruel, isn't it? But if I told you that after this conclusion was discovered, the people in power at the time didn't find it cruel at all, and even wanted to promote it, then a problem was placed in front of the people in power who were ordinary people and the superhumans who wanted to promote this conclusion: productivity."

"productive forces?"

"Yes, it's about productivity. Zhang Chulan, you have to understand that the concepts of being able to eat your fill, eat well, and not go hungry are only a thing of the past few decades in our land. Before that, not having enough to eat was the norm. Many dynasties changed because of not having enough to eat, which led to so-called rebellions. Hunger doesn't care whether you're an ordinary person or an extraordinary one."

"Brother Xiao is right, Zhang Chulan. You should know that the global population growth has only occurred in the last few decades, and one of the fundamental reasons for this is the progress in productivity. But in ancient times, in that agrarian era where people depended on the weather for their livelihood, productivity became an unsolvable problem for the globalization of the supernatural."

In the early stages, for the Extraordinary People to develop into a stable group, they needed ordinary people as a foundation. However, the productivity of ancient times was simply insufficient to support the growth and expansion of the Extraordinary People into a group capable of replacing ordinary people. So, what methods could be used to both reduce the population to meet the productivity needs of the time and allow the Extraordinary People to become a group capable of replacing ordinary people?

"War, plague." Zhang Chulan felt a chill run down his spine when he uttered these two words, while Wang Zhenqiu, who was looking at him, had a grin on his face.

"Congratulations, you answered correctly. So this is where things get messed up. Those in power can accept the gradual replacement of ordinary people by the superhumans because they will ultimately benefit from it, but they cannot accept reducing the population through war and disease to maintain stable productivity, as this would affect their rule, especially such unjust wars."

So gradually, the proposal was abolished, and the conflict between the superhumans and ordinary people became irreconcilable in the process. This continued until the Chu-Han Contention set the tone: once the superhuman population exceeded a certain number, the ruling class, representing the majority of ordinary people, had to reduce the number of superhumans.

"The Chu-Han Contention? Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King?"

"That's right. Xiang Yu, the Overlord who was born with double pupils, was not only a naturally gifted extraordinary person, but he could also cultivate like an acquired extraordinary person. He could be called the most powerful extraordinary person at that time. However, he fantasized about establishing a country entirely led by extraordinary people. He could neither learn to compromise with ordinary people nor solve the problem of how to improve productivity. Therefore, he lost, and lost completely."

The driver in front, Hei Guan, picked up where Wang Zhenqiu left off and continued, "Later, with the development of the times and the gradual progress of productivity, especially in modern times with the arrival of the industrial age, firearms replaced cold weapons. Everyone also realized that in the face of firearms, all beings are equal, and whether or not one becomes an alien has become unimportant. Just like the Neanderthals who were replaced by Homo sapiens, they are gradually fading from the stage of history."

It wasn't until sixty years ago, with a great war—later known in the global community of supernatural beings as the War of Cause and Effect—that the idea of ​​globalizing supernatural beings was resurrected from the dustbin of history.

"A battle of cause and effect?"

"That's right, the War of Cause and Effect. It's called that because this great war redefined the fate between superhumans and ordinary people. The challenge was initiated by the top superhumans and non-human elves in the West at the time, and only two people accepted the challenge. The battle ended with the victory of these two people."

With the answer so obvious, how could Zhang Chulan not guess who the two challengers were in this war of cause and effect, which was defined by all the supernatural beings in the world? However, when he revealed the answer himself, he still felt like he was telling a myth.

"Wang Yi, Zhang Zhiwei."

"That's right, it's these two. One is the founder of our company's predecessor, and the other is an invincible celestial master who has been in the human world for forty years. Even now, those old-timers in our circle who witnessed the causal battle between these two back then cannot explain the process of that causal battle to future generations. Or rather, they simply cannot understand the two of them's moves. Because they cannot understand them, they cannot comprehend how these two of them won so easily."

In short, because of this battle of cause and effect, and because of the methods of these two people that were almost like a mythical reappearance, the world's rulers have redefined the group of superhumans. They used to look down on superhumans because their various methods were gradually replaced by various inventions as times progressed, and the strength of an individual seemed insignificant in the face of ever-changing hot weapons. But these two people broke through their limited understanding of the strength of individual superhumans.

This has also prompted rulers worldwide to consider: if two such powerful individuals can emerge from just one to two ten-thousandths of the global population who are superhuman, what if the superhuman population were to expand further? Would individuals as powerful as these two become more numerous and common?

As Zhang Chulan listened to the clarinet's narration, his heart raced.

He understood the unspoken meaning behind the other party's words: talking about quality without considering quantity is irresponsible. However, once the number of superhumans increases dramatically, geniuses like his own advisor, who appear only once every thousand years, may not necessarily disappear. They could even control such people to appear in their own families. Once that time comes, a completely new privileged class formed by the superhuman race will spread throughout the world.

For the majority of ordinary people today, the emergence of such a privileged class of extraordinary individuals would be a disruptive change to the social structure.

"It seems you've grasped the crux of the problem, Zhang Chulan. I can tell you that the company's initial management policy for the superhuman community was to allow superhumans to fight each other. The company's only guarantee was to prevent the fighting between superhumans from affecting ordinary people. However, with changes in the international situation, the superhuman community in the West took the lead in expanding its superhuman population, so we naturally had to change as well, but we couldn't follow the same path as those superhumans in the West."

"The same road?"

"Zhang Chulan, have you seen the X-Men movie?"

what?
Zhang Chulan was a little confused. This topic was too far off. How did it get from the Inhumans to the X-Men? But with Zhang Chulan's little brain, he instantly realized that the so-called mutants in the X-Men were just a copy of the Inhumans!

"Powerful mutants dominate weaker mutants, and mutants who cannot control their own abilities are seen as outcasts by ordinary people. The source of the disaster is a chain of suspicion that runs through mutants and between mutants and humans. This chain of suspicion exists in people's hearts, making it impossible for mutants to stick together for warmth. There are even cases where mutants and those in power join forces to persecute other mutants and ordinary people, endlessly dividing the human group horizontally, making it impossible for mutants to ever be a united front. Zhang Chulan, does that sound familiar?"

How could Zhang Chulan not be familiar with this? Ever since he embarked on his cultivation journey at a young age, his grandfather and father had repeatedly warned him not to reveal his abilities to outsiders, for fear that one day his family and three generations of his family would become outcasts in the eyes of others and unable to live normal lives. In the years since Zhang Huaiyi passed away, his father disappeared, and he grew up alone, Zhang Chulan has always remembered his grandfather's teachings and kept himself hidden, even becoming an outcast and a weirdo in the eyes of his college roommates.

"Due to your rank, we can't tell you too much. In short, the company will not follow the path of the Western superhuman community in dealing with the number of superhumans and ordinary people. Otherwise, we wouldn't have conveyed the message of protecting the descendants of the Eight Extraordinary Techniques through the Ten Elders Conference."

However, in Biyou Village, the descendants of Ma Ben, the master of the Divine Strategist, have mastered a technology through the Eight Extraordinary Skills that can transform a large number of ordinary people into superhumans. This technology is something the company does not allow to be seen or, in other words, cannot appear in the public eye at this time. The current social structure and people's hearts are not yet ready to accept the drastic change of everyone being a superhuman.

So no matter what we say or do this time, the company's image will be that of a major villain in the world of supernatural beings. Zhang Chulan, you need to be prepared for that.

Faced with Xiao Zizai's direct gaze, Zhang Chulan subconsciously swallowed.

Just then, the sound of brakes came, and the van carrying seven temporary workers and a manager from the company's seven regions stopped at the intersection.

After getting out of the car, Zhang Chulan found that someone was already waiting for them in front of the car.

A Taoist priest, a woman, a boy, and an old man.

Just as Zhang Chulan and his group got out of the car, the old man from the other group also stepped forward.

"The company's people have arrived too. The village chief said that everyone is welcome to come, but they must abide by the rules of Biyou Village. Everyone, do you have any objections?"

"Of course, Senior Bi."

"I wouldn't call myself a senior; I'm just an old man with no real skills. As for everyone from the company, are you the only ones who came?"

"No, we are just scouts. There is another person who will be a little later. Please tell Elder Bi that the person who comes later is here to learn the Eight Extraordinary Techniques, Divine Strategist Refinement, from Village Chief Ma."

Wang Zhenqiu, a temporary worker in the Southwest region, did not hide anything and directly explained why they had come.

The old man he referred to as Senior Bi was actually named Bi Yuan, a highly skilled physician active in the world of supernatural beings. Gong Qing, the current acting leader of Quanxing, and Ding Shian, a rising star who joined Quanxing and was known as one of the two heroes in the world of supernatural beings, both had a master-disciple relationship with him.

"Is that so? I'll talk to the village chief. Everyone, please follow me."

(End of this chapter)