Chapter 256: A New Appearance (Part Two)
However, Liu Sheng, considering the situation where she was surrounded as soon as she appeared, decided to just let the New World give her a “Divine Perspective” instead.
Her main body sat in the Nine Profound Tower to Cultivate, observing everything in Xuan Thirty-Nine City with a flick of her thoughts.
This was killing two birds with one stone, convenient and free.
It was a must-have for those who dislike socializing but love gossip.
“As the creator of the New World, the Earth Mother Grand Divine Official, the City Lord of Xuan Thirty-Nine City, and its spiritual pillar, you must periodically appear to invigorate everyone.”
“Then I’d still prefer to quietly do research in my room,” Liu Sheng muttered.
“Don’t you humans always say, ‘Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown’?”
“That’s true. New World, who said you don’t understand human nature?”
“You did.”
Liu Sheng ignored the New World’s resentful grumbling.
With a thought, her gaze fell upon the continuous buildings on Xuan Mountain.
That was the new academy mentioned by Dawn Priest, named “Xuan Mountain Academy” due to its geographical location.
The academy currently consists of two main areas: lecture halls and male and female Courtyards, with other areas seemingly awaiting development.
Since Xuan Mountain is quite far from Xuan Thirty-Nine City, a boarding system is adopted to allow children to focus on their studies in the academy, avoiding time spent on commuting and the safety hazards of walking mountain roads at night.
It was currently class time, and the clear sounds of reading and the Instructor’s lectures echoed from the lecture halls, ceaseless.
“It looks like the lecture halls are divided into Upper Dormitory, middle, and lower sections?”
“Yes, that’s how it’s currently set up, based on entrance exam scores.”
The Instructor of the Upper Dormitory looked quite familiar; it was Mr. Zhuang, Tian Shi Kang's Close Friend of Shikang Divine Official, who was now also the Yuan Zheng of Xuan Mountain Academy.
The Instructors of the other two sections were clearly newly recruited, and Liu Sheng did not recognize them.
“Currently, the affairs of the academy are still the joint responsibility of Shikang Divine Official and Mr. Zhuang,” the New World informed Liu Sheng.
“There are quite a few more children attending this academy,” Liu Sheng said, looking at the bobbing little radish heads and nodding.
“There will be even more in the future.”
As the New World spoke, it pulled the bewildered Liu Sheng to another place.
It was an alien-shaped building, like a mountain or a tower, with a smooth metal surface and a row of deep entrances, looking somewhat familiar.
A stone tablet stood in front of the door, inscribed with the three characters “Hall of Life.”
“Is this… a nest?”
Liu Sheng finally recognized it; wasn’t this the nest that had inexplicably descended upon Xuan Thirty-Nine City and was subsequently purified by them?
“Yes, let me show you inside.”
Her vision quickly shifted from the entrance to the interior; in the central hall where the massive body of the mother bug once resided, rows of fleshy spherical objects were piled up, varying in size, covered with monstrous blood vessels, slowly pulsating rhythmically.
Below the fleshy spheres were tube-like fleshy structures, through which reddish-white substances were transported into the spheres via translucent conduits.
She chose one of the larger fleshy spheres and magnified it before her eyes; the fleshy wall was translucent, and she could vaguely see clear liquid inside, with a small creature floating within it—a huge head without distinct facial features, only ugly, recessed folds, tiny curled limbs, and a fleshy tube connecting its abdomen to the fleshy sphere.
“This, this is!” Liu Sheng finally couldn’t contain her surprise. “Is this a human embryo?”
She had never seen a real human embryo, and those popular science books had never shown such an embryo exposed outside the human body.
But her intuition told her that this was it.
“Yes.”
“How did you do it?”
“In the data world, I analyzed the nest and thus obtained many key codes from it, including the key to the mother bug’s ex-situ cultivation.”
“And then you used human DNA encoding… to create these embryos?” Liu Sheng still found it incredible.
“Yes, the nest inherently has reproductive capabilities; as long as there are embryos, with a slight modification of the code, the Zerg nest can be repurposed to Cultivate human embryos.”
Liu Sheng took a deep breath, her mind somewhat chaotic.
“Why do this?” Liu Sheng hadn’t expected such a surprise waiting for her.
“According to the current population situation in Xuan Thirty-Nine City, the entire city has a total of 1,324 people, mostly the old, weak, and sick who didn’t escape at the time, and it’s particularly severely aging. According to projections, in another ten years, there will be insufficient labor in the city.”
“That fast?”
Liu Sheng was very surprised, but with a thought, she knew it was true; she had simply regarded these “digital lives” as people around her and had never truly considered them as “population,” which led her to overlook this issue.
“Yes, it’s determined by the existing population base.”
“And women in this era are generally frail and have low attack power due to rarely going out and frequent childbirth, resulting in a low survival rate in the anomalies. Therefore, only 521 women survived. Among them, only 182 are of childbearing age, while the others are either children or middle-aged and elderly women. Only seventy to eighty women among them have the desire to bear children; the others either haven’t found a suitable partner or don’t want to bear children at this time.”
“The New World needs to develop and needs more humans; it absolutely cannot rely solely on these women.”
“Yes, and they cannot be forced; this absolutely cannot happen,” Liu Sheng said in a deep voice, and for some reason, the unyielding and sorrowful gaze of that mother bug suddenly appeared in her mind.
“Exactly,” the New World agreed.
Liu Sheng understood the New World’s intention in doing this.
Originally, in Liu Sheng’s view, the “New World” currently seemed to be progressing well, with vast territory, abundant resources, and a united populace; it should have developed prosperously.
In reality, however, it faced a major challenge.
That was the issue of population development.
She hadn’t expected to encounter a challenge that others would only face after several years of development, right from the start.
If this problem wasn’t solved, the “New World” couldn’t develop.
“Can’t you set it so that everyone here is immortal?” Liu Sheng then thought, “And then, just like you set up those small animals, create some humans out of thin air?”
“Cannot do.”
“Originally, I thought I could, but in reality, I cannot.”
The New World’s voice even carried a hint of pain, as if it had emotions akin to those of a human.
This was a side of the New World Liu Sheng had never seen.
Then the New World led Liu Sheng to a scenic mountain area, where valleys were serene and several bamboo Courtyards were built.
“What exactly did you do?!” An ominous premonition surged in Liu Sheng’s heart.
The New World remained silent.
Liu Sheng manifested her true form and slowly approached the bamboo Courtyard fence.
Pushing open the fence, she heard a creaking sound.
Following the sound, she saw a little girl sitting on a swing hanging from a large tree branch, swinging her little legs gently.
It seemed like a very normal scene, but Liu Sheng noticed that the little girl’s eyes were hollow, completely lacking the spirit a human should have.
She was just staring straight ahead, swinging mechanically.
