In this cyberpunk era, why are you still playing the traditional villain?

Having sorted out the cause and effect, Xu Shi breathed a sigh of relief, seemingly lost in thought.

"No wonder."

By reasoning the conclusions back to the process, many things can be explained.

While the "natural law" approach was somewhat lenient, Xu Shi had also been curious about Luo Yu's affairs.

After all, compared to little Shen He, this guy is really too lacking in prestige. Even if Shen He is bad, he has at least tried to fight to the death with me. Even when I had the upper hand, I still maintained a certain winning percentage in Xia Ke'an's future calculations.

In contrast, Luo Yu was ridiculously bad, completely outmatched by himself throughout the entire battle, and only played a supporting role in the final fight. The real protagonist was Xu Ying, the "Observer."

To put it bluntly, he was no different from cannon fodder; he could die at any moment, and his main characteristic was a clean and swift death.

Not to mention that this is because Boss Xu has the dual advantages of experience and technology, Luo Yu himself completely fails to demonstrate the resilience and ability that a "protagonist" should have.

But if the protagonist's halo given to him by "natural law" was originally weak, then it seems to make sense.

Judging from the timeline, the storyline of the Hualan Empire must have started later than that of the City of Night Sin. When Shen He's family was destroyed, Luo Yu was still wearing open-crotch pants.

It is clear that the previous experiment failed, so a new restart was carried out.

This resulted in Luo Yu's protagonist aura being weaker than Shen He's. Xu Shi guessed that even if he hadn't come, Luo Yu's future path might not have been as smooth as he imagined, and he might have had to switch from a "feel-good" story to a "tragic" one.

But none of these are the most important.

The most important piece of information is this: the strength of "Tianli" is not what it used to be!

After realizing what had happened, the others were also very happy, especially Jiang Chengcheng, whose joy was almost overflowing.

Her personality is different from others, and she is not actually that resistant to "natural law", or rather, she doesn't care.

She only cared about Xu Shi, listened to him without question, and was willing to work hard for his goals.

Now that she heard good news for Xu Shi, she was naturally happier than anyone else.

Should we speed things up?

While delighted, Jiang Chengcheng also offered a reminder, "Taking advantage of 'Heavenly Principles' while it's weakened will allow us to accelerate our own improvement and further enhance our advantages."

"of course."

Xu Shi looked at her and smiled, thinking to himself, "Second Madam, you're quite the smooth talker."

In a sense, what they are doing is still stuck on "narrowing the gap with 'natural law'", and "increasing advantages" is obviously a more boastful statement.

But saying the same thing in a different way can boost morale even more, and it makes him feel more comfortable.

Narrowing the gap is one aspect, but another is that he actually understands that "Tianli" may not have been crippled by the rampage of "Rust Fog." Rather, it is more likely that their development speed is temporarily unable to keep up with the expansion speed of "Rust Fog."

Once they can respond, things will likely become even more complicated – if the bottom line of "Heavenly Justice" returns to normal, he, the rebel, will likely be purged, and he will have little chance of being able to withstand the opponent's deus ex machina attack.

"It seems we need to return earlier than planned; some deployments can only be carried out back there."

He suppressed his smile and said seriously, "The same applies to existing research."

"OK."

Everyone is well aware of this, and it is more prudent to carry out strategic deployments at the base camp. Even though the Hualan Empire is gradually taking on the shape of Xushi, it will still take a certain amount of time.

In contrast, this place might be more like a backup base, or a safety net – as long as “natural law” doesn’t change its decision to abandon this place, it will remain a lawless paradise.

After chatting for a few more minutes, everyone dispersed to rest—the experiment hadn't lasted long, but the lessons learned were worth digesting.

Xie Qingyan and Jiang Chengcheng no longer had any desire to cling to Xu Shi; all they wanted to do now was get a good night's sleep.

Indeed, the two girls were so busy with this experiment that they couldn't even close their eyes. Even if they really had the will, they probably didn't have the energy.

We don't have the energy to do any extra physical work; we're not oxen.

Even if that's true, isn't there an old saying that goes, "There's no land that's been over-cultivated, only oxen that have died from exhaustion"?

snort!

Thinking this, Xie Xiaogou, who was always prone to throwing tantrums, couldn't help but pinch Xu Shi and give him a sharp look.

Faced with her aggrieved little eyes, Boss Xu simply raised his hands in surrender and let her vent her anger.

The end result was that he became a lonely figure for a short time—even his little apprentice Pan Ling had slipped away first, and she sensibly went to take care of other trivial matters for her master.

They're very busy too, you know.

Faced with this outcome, Xu Shi could only lament that his disciple had grown up and was no longer home, while cheerfully walking towards the door.

then.

He then saw Qin Yiyan, who was guarding the place.

The red-haired silly girl had actually been here all along—Xu Shi had said she could come anytime if she wanted to sit in, and she hadn't refused.

However, she still had some self-respect and couldn't bring herself to be in the same room with others and openly "examine" Xu Shi, so she had no choice but to resort to the same old trick of prying into the corner of the room.

The others had already given prior notice, so they weren't surprised, but they didn't really care.

Xu Shi looked her up and down, wondering whether he should let her act as a maid and carry him to the bedroom.

Qin Yiyan ignored his gaze and stared straight back at him.

Perhaps the gaze was too intense, for upon meeting it, Mr. Xu frowned.

"What are you doing?"

"...I heard your conversation just now."

Qin Yiyan gave an irrelevant answer.

"so?"

Xu Shi raised an eyebrow. "This is all because I allowed you to eavesdrop. Are you going to ask for credit and reward? No extra pay, by the way."

"So I'm curious."

The red-haired, somewhat naive girl frowned. "Why...why do you insist on choosing the path of eliminating 'divine energy'?"

It's understandable to deal with "natural justice." Not to mention Xu Shi, even she herself has such thoughts now. As the saying goes, no one wants to accept a life that is manipulated.

but.

Clearing away the "rust fog" and fighting against "natural law" are not causally related; they are two independent things. It's just that people often put them together, which is why everyone overlooks them.

Qin Yiyan, an observer, was unusually clear-headed.

After all, in her eyes, Xu Shi was very purposeful and ambitious.

For someone like this, clearing away the "rust fog" is a thankless task—not only does it require astronomical amounts of resources and energy, but doing so is tantamount to him voluntarily giving up some of his own advantages.

Instead of eliminating "rust fog," wouldn't it be better to monopolize the technology in this area?

She tried to think about the problem in Xu Shi's way.

"You...are you really willing to do that?"

Okay, everyone, but my strained shoulder still hurts so much, sob sob.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 317 Can you give me one more lesson before you leave?

2023-11-14

Qin Yiyan's doubts were not without reason.

If it were someone else, it wouldn't matter, but what she heard was that Xu Shi was going to overcome all difficulties and use a lot of manpower and resources to do something that she thought was impossible.

Cleanse the "divine breath"?

How can it be? !

She wasn't some ignorant little girl; she naturally knew about the "Rust Fog"—it was an extremely dangerous entity!

Before she became a "Chosen One" in her childhood, she and the other children in the monastery were strictly forbidden from contacting related matters. Even after she became a knight commander, she had seen too many cases of people losing their lives because of "divine breath".

Developing "Divine Breath" is like asking a tiger for its skin; this is a generally accepted fact, and even when researching it, people are extremely cautious, let alone anything else.

This is a slide that cannot be touched.

The key question is, what is the significance of removing "rust fog"? How long has "rust fog" existed? Not only have people long been accustomed to it, but many technologies and things in life are also closely related to "rust fog".

If one day, "rust fog" suddenly disappears from people's lives, will the consequences necessarily be good?

I'm afraid many established conventions will be broken, wouldn't that be a step backward?

That's why she felt this was a thankless task, and she felt it was something that someone like Xu Shi couldn't do—if he really had that ability, becoming an oligarch would be more likely, wouldn't it?

"What's there to be reluctant about?"

Xu Shi's answer was nonchalant, showing no concern for her doubts.

"You should know that your Holy Maiden and the people behind her are doing the same things. Why can they do it, but I can't?"

To be fair, Xu Shi was quite discerning. The Holy Maiden was the Holy Maiden, and the good daughter Xu Ying was Xu Ying. Although they were still in the same physical form, their inner selves were completely different.

But he also knew that Qin Yiyan's loyalty had always been to the Holy Maiden, the "Observer" of "Heavenly Principles," and he still held onto the idea that she would one day return to normal.

However, he had no interest in arguing with the other party about such matters, and that didn't stop him from doing his own thing.

Clearing away the "rust fog" is certainly a long and arduous task, but the reality is that if we want to overturn the "natural order," we must take action against the "rust fog."

Or perhaps they should just let it go, shut themselves off and do their own thing, and wait until the concentration of the "rust fog" becomes completely uncontrollable, at which point "natural law" might collapse on its own.

But this wouldn't benefit Xu Shi himself either; a lose-lose situation was never his preferred option.

And if we really wait like this, who knows when it will be? It's hard to say whether he'll even live to see that day.

Of course, what the red-haired silly girl said wasn't wrong either. Clearing the "rust fog" is also a long road. Just because we've made a start today doesn't mean the sky will be blue and the grass will be green tomorrow. It might take ten or even several decades.

The only difference might be that one is proactive and the other is reactive.

To be honest, Mr. Xu considers himself a relatively passive person. Didn't you see that the girls all came to him on their own? He only accepted them out of helplessness.

But if it's "natural law," he'd rather take the initiative. They've controlled him long enough; it's time to turn the tables and become the master.

As for the consequences of the disappearance of the "rust fog"... he didn't really care.

Firstly, this process will not happen overnight, and the advantages he currently possesses will not change for a long time.

Secondly, he was only targeting the "rust fog" atmosphere above the dome. The seawater corroded by the "rust fog" and the mutated "rust fog" ores were not in his consideration for the time being. If he really included these in the plan, it would not be a matter of ten or twenty years, but a matter of moving mountains like the Foolish Old Man.