Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Look at these attributes! As expected of an epic-quality item! No matter how you look at it, it is indeed an epic-quality item!”
“Even if the magic carpet has now lost the records of its own epic, resulting in the Acting Lamp Genie special ability being locked, it’s still a good treasure!”
Caressing the smooth material of the magic carpet, Su Mo examined the properties displayed by the game panel. The more Su Mo looked at it, the happier he was. He could barely contain his urge to go outside and fly it right there and then!
Twenty meters per second was equivalent to 72 kilometers per hour.
The maximum flight duration was five minutes. Taking into account the time needed for takeoff and landing, those five minutes were enough for him to travel up to five kilometers.
With this magic carpet, Su Mo could escape from any dangerous predicament calmly and unscathed.
Sense of security +10000!
However, considering that it was still daytime and the Tundra fleet was still watching, Su Mo did not plan to go out for a trip immediately. He tried to shrink the magic carpet instead.
After he focused his thoughts, the magic carpet, which was 3 square meters in size, began to shrink rapidly. It eventually turned into a handkerchief that was about 30 cm long on both sides and dropped to the ground.
Focusing his thoughts once more, the divine light on the surface of the magic carpet began to fade away, and it suddenly appeared to be as worn out as before. No one would be able to notice anything out of the ordinary.
“Tch, this thing is quite magical. I hope to have the opportunity to figure out the principles within and see if I can mass produce them in the future.”
After picking the miniaturized carpet up, Su Mo pulled the curtains of the captain’s quarters open and observed the light the magic carpet emitted when it came into contact with sunlight, after which he sat down on top of it with a satisfied smile on his face.
The largest prize amongst the treasure chests had been claimed, but the other resources that were piled high in the captain’s quarters were not to be taken for granted either.
Su Mo was not in a hurry, as he noticed that the system’s update duration still had two hours remaining.
He picked up the objects on the ground one by one, recorded and labeled them, and then put them aside.
Maybe it was because the magic carpet had used up all his luck, or maybe it was because the game was about to launch the ‘Real Survival’ version update, but there were no other rare items with special abilities within the other gold treasure chests.
The number of equipment with special effects, which would normally drop in large quantities, had also greatly decreased. He obtained only three of them after opening more than a hundred chests.
‘What made Su Mo excited was that he had gotten 17 cards related to resources!
Among them were eight Level 1 Random Resource Cards, three Level 2 Random Resource Cards, two Resource Replenishing Cards, one Resource Modification Card (Structure: Level 1), one Resource Modification Card (Material: Level 1), and one Resource Upgrade Card (% Star).
Lastly, he obtained three very important and extremely precious Level 3 Random Resource Cards!
These cards, which would form the cornerstone of the basin area’s future development prospects, would make it possible for them to live self-sufficiently in terms of resources for a long time after migrating.
He also obtained a lot of Manifestation Cards.
Among them were nine Weapon Manifestation Cards, eleven Vehicle Manifestation Cards, twenty-two Daily Necessity Manifestation Cards, seventeen Technological Goods Manifestation Cards, and eight Clothing Manifestation Cards.
These cards manifested different items, with the probability of every item varying based on its rarity. They always came in batches, like a plentiful harvest.
Unfortunately, for weapons, defensive items, and technological goods, the probability of someone getting something good from those cards was extremely low. Those cards were like lottery tickets that the game gave players because it had nothing else to give.
The probability of getting a computer was only 3%. The probability of getting precision equipment, such as a lithography machine or collider from those cards was far lower.
Considering the fact that he had already gotten an epic-quality magic carpet today, Su Mo did not pay too much attention to these cards. He just recorded their numbers and then put them into his storage space.
“It seems that the treasure chests don’t help as much as exploring the ruins.”
“These items can solve some of my immediate needs at best, but they aren’t quite sufficient to develop the base.”
“After arriving at the New World, I must visit the location of the Blazeland Ruins and search through it. If I can uncover a large amount of basic production equipment, it’ll certainly be more rewarding than opening hundreds of treasure chests!”
After sorting out all the items, Su Mo looked at the various miscellaneous items that were recorded on a piece of paper, and he could not help but rub his forehead.
The development of technology was actually a complicated process despite how easy it might initially seem to be.
For example, the aliens appearing in the book “The Mountain” by Liu Cixin had mastered electromagnetic conversion and what humans knew as “Ohm’s Law’ since the primitive era, yet they did not master the use of fire until modern times.
The aliens in The Road Not Taken had mastered hyperspace migration, but could not even build an iron spaceship.
Standing on the shoulders of his predecessors, Su Mo knew what the base was lacking.
He also profoundly recognized how difficult it was to make up for what was missing.
For technological precision machinery and equipment, there were tons of manuals and blueprints out there.
However, one would need to study the prerequisite academic discipline for tens of years before they could properly grasp the required knowledge and skills.
Both the theories proposed by humans and the process of academic research were too reliant on time.
On the wasteland, there was not enough time for humans to develop and reconstruct their civilization.
This was why those who survived on the wasteland had to embark on so many dangerous undertakings.
If Su Mo did not have the system, he would have probably followed in the footsteps of his predecessors and studied some other kind of technology.
He might have tried to bypass traditional ethical principles, and dive headfirst into the field of biological science, pushing for the advancement of cloning, genetic engineering and prosthetics.
He might have developed cloning technology to the extreme, disregarding ethical constraints and bottom lines. Humans would then hopefully trample over the other races in this world thanks to their overwhelming population.
Humans would decimate the land with their sheer numbers, devour all of the world’s resources like locusts, and use them to develop other technologies!
Unfortunately, this approach was very extreme.
If it failed to succeed because of a careless mistake, Su Mo, as the pioneer, might be overthrown by the people and end up dead before he could achieve anything!
“Just wait for the system!”
“A billion-level upgrade function, huh. I hope that it’s what I expect, and allows me to apply the upgrade function to other areas. If not, it’ll be impossible for humans to rebuild our civilization in this world!”
“Just thinking about the future disasters, such as extreme and horrible weather conditions of minus one hundred degrees or over one hundred and twenty degrees, or extreme disasters such as volcanic eruptions and planetary impacts…”
“If our civilization’s technology isn’t developed to a certain level, there is no possibility of survival even if we try to hide underground!”
Su Mo put all of the items back in place, and then sat down in front of the desk. His mind slowly drifted elsewhere, and he began to “travel” to the future “timeline”.
To other humans, Su Mo would always be a “bottomless pit” that they could not fathom.
However, only Su Mo himself knew that Hope Village’s level of technology at this moment was not even developed enough to forge a decent item from iron.
Luckily, he had recruited talents from the Tundra fleet this time. Otherwise, after the start of the ‘Real Survival’ version of the game, the village would end up languishing after their arrival at the New World; even if they possessed a sizable advantage in the beginning.
At that time, there would be no development or future. This scenario was even more terrifying than undergoing harsh survival.
While stripping away the layers of fog in his mind, Su Mo frowned occasionally, and wrote rapidly on the piece of paper at other times.
On that piece of white paper, several general directions began to slowly appear.
First, the mechanical aspect!
If humans wanted to improve their productivity, it would definitely not be accomplished by relying on martial arts training, or by seeking a way to improve the physical fitness of the entire population.
Taking strength as an example, a trained person could lift about 100 catties, and this weight capacity would gradually decrease with increased or prolonged physical exertion.
On the other hand, a medium-sized excavator could lift more than thirty thousand catties!
The difference between the two was about 300 times!
This gap should not be underestimated.
If he wanted to train a person, he would need to invest both time and resources.
To some degree, even the character and nature of the person should be taken into account. For example, the person might be lazy and slack off while training.
Mechanical machines were different. As long as there were enough resources, machines could be manufactured once the basic production line was developed.
From that point on, over a long period of time, they would be able to tirelessly provide strength to the humans, transforming their operators into Herculean weightlifters that could lift thirty thousand catties!
At that time, the development speed of the base would progress to unprecedented levels and, in a few days, the basin area would be completely transformed.
Secondly, the medical aspect!
The human body was still too fragile. Thanks to the nourishment of psychic energy water, Su Mo had not fallen sick at all over the past three months.
However, in other places on the wasteland, one in five human beings died because of illnesses or injuries!
In the absence of drugs and adequate medical care conditions, a minor injury could lead to infection and death by inflammation.
Suffering a serious injury basically meant that the person could start counting down the days to the end of his life.
Therefore, considering the fact that psychic energy water also had to be used elsewhere, and could not be unconditionally extracted to treat injuries, the medical aspect of development had to be fast-tracked and accelerated.
The human body had to be kept healthy, even if mysterious methods and equipment that operated on principles that he did not know of had to be put into use.
As for the third aspect…
Looking at the two plans he had drafted, and then at the survivors who were lying limply on the rafts outside, Su Mo finally drafted out the bio-engineering aspect of development.
Ina sense, this was an almost forbidden line of development.
One wrong move could result in a huge backlash, wiping out all his previous efforts.
However, bio-engineering was the only field where human exploration was limited and restricted during the many years of human civilization. It had a huge potential for development.
It was likely that a little research and development would bring unimaginable benefits and possibly even reverse the current trend of things on the wasteland.
However, after some thought, Su Mo crossed the word out and instead wrote down two small goals.
The first was to study how to improve human-machine integration.
It was not worth it to combine the genes of other species with that of humans rashly and alter the DNA of humans; the potential losses far outweighed the potential gains.
The final destination of human beings would be to integrate themselves with the technology and machinery which had brought them massive productivity.
If humans accomplished this like Tony Stark, combining technological and biological aspects to the extreme, then mortals could become comparable to the gods.
Plus, if standard armor for human beings could be invented, the strength of humans would be comparable to that of the other races.
Secondly, he should study how to better improve human adaptability.
Humans adapted well when faced with gradual changes to their environment and situation. However, they struggled when faced with extreme and rapid changes and challenges.
If humans could be enhanced to possess the physique of those people from the Ice Age, who were fearless in the face of wind and the cold and could sleep on the ground during days where the weather was below 50 degrees, a new chapter in the development of the entire base, or even the human race,
would start!
Ina few moments, a white sheet of paper was now filled with Su Mo’s artful handwriting.
However, he did not stop, and pulled out several sheets of paper from below the desk before continuing to write down his thoughts on the drafted general directions, trying to record everything before the fragmented memories of his time on Earth blurred and faded.
Su Mo did not care if what he was writing down was right or wrong; he just kept writing on the piece of paper whatever miscellaneous knowledge or information he had read in the library.
Time passed slowly as he continued writing.
‘When the sun set again, Su Mo blew on the ink on the piece of paper to dry it, and carefully stored the papers in his storage space.
The next second, the shabby system panel was summoned. Now, the remaining update duration displayed on the panel was only
Four minutes more!
