Chapter 500 The Swell In Ambition, The Unstoppable “Tank”!
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, from the most basic physiological needs, safety needs, love, and belonging, up to the noble esteem and self-actualization, a person would be chasing these five levels unceasingly, so much so they could give their lives away.
Su Mo thought that all the residents of the marshland had surpassed the hurdle of the most basic physiological needs and would strive to climb towards the other levels, but as the building started, he realized he was wrong.
The segment of physiological need would never be fulfilled, and this hurdle would never be crossed.
As long as one was alive, the passion humans have for this segment of need was terrifyingly high!
Since sending the ents away at 1 in the afternoon, as the residents who were out collecting the salt residues from the land came back, the land that was 5000 square feet in front of Iron Rock Mountain had started to have fleeting changes.
In the Civilized Era, it was easy to build a sturdy house.
Generally, it would first be to use a strong degrasser for a thorough clean-up, making sure that the land the house would be on would not cater for any plant growth, ruining the foundation.
Then, it was to draw the horizontal line using the leveler, making sure the height of the land was consistent and leveled throughout, so the problem of lopsided land ruining the strength of the building would not occur.
After the ground was leveled, it was time for the cement concrete and the bricks to come in to form the foundation of the house.
Then, one would work their way up and proceed to build an entire house.
This was a way that saved time and energy/ It would not take long for a house to be built, even if they had to build it themselves.
Sadly, in the Doomsday Wasteland, there were no limestones and cement, so everything had to be kept simple.
Even so, from the knowledge of their forefathers and with teamwork, the villagers had thought of many good ideas.
Firstly, it was to level the ground, so they picked out all the rubble and roots residue they could see, and it was quickly done in about one hour thanks to all 1000 people and their help.
Secondly, it was King Kong’s job to step in in partnership with a rotary tiller and was able to efficiently dig out the entire land, making all the hidden rubble and roots to be exposed once more.
This time, many shattered roots and rubble would be taken away. Even if the rest were to lurk in a corner, it would not cause much harm.
Thirdly, it was the joy-inducing “press”!
It was totally okay even in the absence of machinery to help press the land down.
The villagers found a few huge rocks and after chipping it with the excellent-quality chisel to become a cylindrical shape, the Earth Tiger was able to pull this cylinder around.
Even though this method could not achieve the same as using professional machinery, since the ground was still soft after the rain, it had gotten a surprisingly good result of 60%!
Just a few rounds back and fro and the ground was visibly more leveled.
Su Mo felt the most when he stood and watched from up the hill.
Far beyond, it was puddles galore.
Near to where he was, it was flat land that smelt nicely of soil.
Wherever his gaze would reach, he would see smiling residents that were walking in a crouch, using their own body weight to stomp on the ground!
They had worked from 2 pm to 4 pm and had no breaks in between.
The most astonishing was that no one complained of tiredness throughout the entire process, and no one was lamenting about how difficult things were.
Everyone gave their 120% for a place they could call home!
“Hah, the virtual reality is really a double-edged sword. If gone wrong, it would take months or up to years to recover.”
“However, if it’s used properly like this, it could achieve amazing things!”
Lu Kuan, who was controlling the robot and standing on top of the hill as well sighed.
The pros and cons of virtual reality that was being used had more than exceeded the founders’ initial estimation of usage when they first invented it.
To the outside world, the virtual reality technology could make lies extremely real, coaxing the opposite party to go towards the path of death.
To their own people, virtual reality could mimic real-life training, or even mimic a ‘future’ to ignite the ‘want’ in people.
It only took 2 hours in virtual reality for the villagers to have such a huge change in enthusiasm.
Work efficiency rate instantly fulfilled full bar.
“No, Lu Kuan, the village in the virtual reality was only a part of the catalyst. The real reason why this change happened was that…”
“There was a sense of accomplishment!”
Lu Kuan was stunned. “A sense of accomplishment?”
“Yes. Look there, what different about him?”
Su Mo pointed at one of the villagers that played one of the five Star Kings.
Many things that were grown in the garden were never sown.
In the morning, Su Mo was still fretting about how he could quickly fulfill everyone’s needs so he could pull the work efficiency rate up.
When it came to the afternoon, after having some people involved in some ‘acting’, he had inadvertently achieved what he wanted.
“He… There’s a change in his spirit. If it could be said this way, he merely wanted to survive before this, but now…”
“He wanted to become stronger?”
Su Mo nodded lightly. “It’s easy to go from frugal to extravagance, but it was difficult the other way around. When you have become’ someone who is way stronger, and you’re forced to go back to being ordinary, you would have a great sense of divide.”
“In our universe, there was a show that aired in Huaxia which generally was to get village kids and city kids to exchange lives.”
“Like expected, the village kids would work really hard after coming back from the city. They would make and achieve their goals, where city kids would turn over a new leaf and improve themselves when they’re back from the village.”
Lu Kuan stopped. “That’s good, right? Everyone achieved what they wanted!”
“No!”
Focusing his eyes on the villagers that were trying their best to level the ground, Su Mo shook his head regretfully.
“It was like this initially, but after a certain time, the city kids would revert back to how they were like before, and the village kids would eventually accept reality and would fall quickly back into their slump.”
“Once stimulated, it shouldn’t stop, because if the momentum is gone, it would need at least tens or hundreds more to prick the same enthusiasm!”
“The marshland before this could really stop developing at any time, since no one had any ambitions before this, and all they wanted was to live peacefully in this land.”
“But now, the marshland is only starting to become a real tank that could only march forward. Once it stops, only you and I can remain true to ourselves. As for the others…”
Many people lived their lives thinking that they had no big dreams or ambitions, but it was all merely limited to the knowledge and exposure that they had.
Even the village kids who were a part of that program went back and had ambitions to change themselves and be the creme of the crop one day.
Needless to say, these villagers were considered the ‘elites’ that were above average in society before.
The wasteland was not the materialistic world where ordinary people would find it hard to climb up.
Here, things have changed.
As long as you have enough ‘ambitions’, things would change.
“Is this a good thing or a bad thing then?”
“You’ve made me confused!”
Different from Su Deben, who had seen all types of men and understood how people really are, Lu Kuan the scientist would only scratch the surface of things even if he was somewhat involved in the psychological field before.
He got confused when he saw Su Mo shaking his head and sighing for a moment and shaking his fists in excitement in another.
“It’s considered a good thing, I guess. At least for now, as long I’m the person holding the steering wheel, and that I can hold it tightly, our development speed would have at least a 5 to 10 times increment!”
Confidence oozed out of Su Mo’s eyes as he looked at Chen Shen, who was smiling and walking toward him. There was a smile on Su Mo’s face as well.
The history of Huaxia had proven it.
To be the ruler of the world, what was important was for the subordinates to stay in their own lane, be able to control their desires, and focused on the future.
However, to be the ruler of the world, what it required was for everyone to be greedily ambitious enough to march forward with boldness without a slight sense of hesitation, even if there was nothing else but a cliff before them, they would have to march on with conviction.
Su Mo did not tell anyone about the impending zombie crisis, but he believed that the marshland three months later, in the sowing of hardwork from everyone, a steel fortress would rise up from the ground!
Then, the fight of the New World would truly begin by then!
“Chief, we have collected a huge harvest today. They’ve really given too many Food Leaves, totally enough to feed us for half a month.”
“Oh? That much?”
Su Mo had briefly storied about the different grades of Food Leaves in the car on the way back.
Ordinary Dark Red Food Leaves could not provide the minerals needed for living beings and could only sustain a human with minimal activities for 2 days.
According to the workload in the marshland right now, it would need at least 30000 Food Leaves to supply everyone with food for half a month.
What a huge difference!
“Chief, didn’t you say that eating too much of the Food Leaves was just like eating too many potatoes, and it would make people weak? How would we dare to eat it?”
“So, I’ve tried. Who knew the biggest liabilities food-wise in our territory had absolutely no side effects after chomping them up happily?”
Chen Shen pointed at the bunch of lizard coolies and sheep that were sunbathing leisurely and also pointed at the yaks that were helping the villagers with work.
The happiness on his face grew.
“We have a total of 4200 pieces of Dark Red Food Leaves.”
“420 pieces of Light Red Food Leaves.”
“80 pieces of Dark Yellow Food Leaves.”
“And 10 pieces of Light-Yellow Food Leaves of the highest grade!”
“We will save the Dark and Light-Yellow ones as backup for us. The lower grade Dark and Light Red ones could all be fed to the lizards. If it’s according to what Paulie said, lizards couldn’t care less about minerals. They would be able to survive for 4-5 years even if they ate rocks, so if they eat these energy substances that could easily be digested, it was more nutritious to them than eating meat!”
The lizard coolies were hardworking and willing.
At the same time, they eat a lot. To ensure they could be properly bred, they were eating 8-people portions every day. For 36 lizards, they would have consumed 288 portions daily.
The price paid when calculated by months would make anyone grimace in pain! However, with the Dark Red Food Leaves, three of them could supply a lizard’s energy intake for a day.
4200 pieces of it were enough to last for at least 120 days.
There were still Light Red Food Leaves that could bump the number up to 5 months.
When the 5 months were up, the second or third batch of Food Leaves from the marshland would be able to seamlessly continue filling in this gap, and it could be said as the perfect plan!
“Very well, since it doesn’t harm the lizards when they eat these things, and it being benefits to us all, try to feed them well every day.”
“When we have our next batch of Food Leaves to continue this supply, we can probably start our breeding plan then!”
After calculations, Su Mo snapped back to his senses as excitement colored his eyes.
Su Mo had already thought of the different types of modification he wanted to achieve to these beings that could be bred into different breeds that carried different attributes the moment he got it if it were not for the shortage of food and the limitation in magnitude.
It was still not too late at that moment. Everything would have supple time on its own.
“The ents are really such treasures! They only came once and have given us such immense profit.”
“Heck, when it’s our turn to visit, I’ll bring people over and… Do it again! We’ll get another round of profits from them!”
Like what Marx said in his book <Capital>, people would become brave when there was an appropriate amount of profitability.
When there would be 50% of profit, people would dare take risks.
When there would be 100% of profit, people would dare to break all rules known to men.
When there would be 300% of profit, people would be willing to anything, even crime, and was willing to risk their lives!
Now, the profits that the ents had given was more than 300%, or even 3000%!
Under the great profit obtained, even Chen Shen, who was usually calm had bloodshot eyes even after saying what he said.
“That’s too huge a risk… If we were found out, if our virtual technology fail the next time…”
“No, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.”
After hearing Su Mo interject Lu Kuan’s “careful” speech, Chen Shen and Lu Kuan both raised their heads at the same time and looked into Su Mo’s eyes.
Alas, they did not see excitement nor the longing towards the unbelievably high yield in profit.
All they saw was calmness.
It was the same calmness when he ordered for the cannons to shoot back at the kobold castle.
After making sure a few more times, Chen Shen roughly had a thought in mind, but he still shook his head in disbelief.
“Chief, could you be…”
“That’s right. When it’s our turn to go to their territory, I’ll go with you. It’s not enough to have just you guys around to maximise the profit gain, and to ensure safety.”
Woosh!
The ordinary few words that came out of Su Mo’s mouth dropped like a bombshell in Lu Kuan and Chen Shen’s hearts.
Even if Su Mo did not exude a gambler’s vibe one bit, it was still as if a king would want to become an assassin and sneak into enemy camps. Such ridiculous act had the both of them implode immediately.
“No, Chief, please done! Let’s not talk about how huge the risk of you following us is. You see, if you leave and the underground shelter collapses, how could we continue developing?”
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“Su Mo, it’s at these urgent times where you cannot be hasty in your decisions. Think about it. Our virtual reality worked so well just now those ents that returned would become our tools in breaking through successfully. Even if you’re not there, we would have a great rate of success!”
“On the other hand, if they found out, we would definitely not be able to bear the consequences of you being in danger!”
As compared to Chen Shen, Lu Kuan was more realistic with his words.
After witnessing many people dying in the wilderness, after losing his own body and could only be a brain in a box, Lu Kuan knew better than anyone else what risk management meant.
In other words, in Lu Kuan’s heart, even if everyone on the marshland were to be gone, as long as Su Mo was still around, this was still a place of ‘Hope’.
However, if Su Mo were to be missing from the equation, be it him succumbing to trouble or death, this marshland, as huge as it would crumble in days.
“Don’t have to talk me out of it. I’m already prepared.”
“Besides, the game had limited me, it would not let me go! If I were to go, then only I could go through…”
Su Mo pointed at the cables sticking out of the robots behind all the way to the data cables that connected the robot to the brain box and did a spreading gesture.
Chen Shen was still confused, but Lu Kuan had immediately understood what he meant.
Subconsciously, Lu Kuan wanted to blurt out that the conscious uploading technology was nothing easier than the virtual reality technology, but when he remembered Su Mo using only a mere 10 minutes to extract the DNA and to do a successful match, he was dumbfounded.
