Chapter 107: A Problem of Contradictions

Year 1 of the Human Coalition Era.

People held a grand memorial ceremony for those who perished in the Doomsday Crisis.

During the week when all entertainment activities were paused,

the HCC chose the exact time of day when Asteroid 2801 had struck Earth

to observe a moment of silence for the entire civilization.

During this silence, the whole civilization entered a quiet state.

All vehicles stopped; electric propulsion spaceships paused departure at stellar ports; superconducting maglev trains halted operation.

On every city road, smart vehicles controlled by intelligent programs pulled over simultaneously.

All non-essential equipment paused worldwide, and all non-essential electronic devices ceased making sound.

The entire world became extremely quiet.

It felt like returning to the moment the Doomsday Crisis began—when Earth fell completely silent.

At this moment, most people across civilization recalled memories and images.

The lifeless, terrifying disaster scenes witnessed after the Asteroid 2801 Impact Crisis ended.

Everything human civilization built on the surface vanished instantly during the impact and resulting chain of apocalyptic disasters.

People’s desperate hopes and round-the-clock efforts to return to the surface.

Images of present-day cities, pre-crisis urban landscapes, and post-impact ruins

seemed to overlap now, tangled in collective memory.

Though survivors lived through the Doomsday Crisis,

the despair inflicted by Asteroid 2801 remained mankind’s shared trauma.

Countless lives were permanently altered by this catastrophe.

Every survivor held at least one searing memory of the calamity:

The fear and confusion while leaving the surface for underground refuge cities.

Cheers from crowds welcoming electric propulsion spaceships arriving at the lunar surface—bringing people who hadn’t touched solid ground in over a decade.

Watching Academician Qin Yu and his team become the first humans to return to Earth’s surface.

Their own joy and anxiety upon finally stepping onto land again, later soothed when settling into surface cities.

Each memory stayed etched in hearts.

Now,

human civilization had collectively returned to the surface.

It did not betray humanity’s faith—that civilization wouldn’t fall to the crisis, nor be utterly destroyed by it.

Having survived disaster, humanity stood again on fertile soils that once bore them.

They conquered doomsday and overcame Earth’s devastated post-crisis environment.

Today’s mourning

wasn’t just remembrance for lives lost,

but a final declaration: Human Civilization had triumphed over the Asteroid 2801 Impact Crisis.

This was why HCC—or the Negentropy Research Institute—held memorials now,

not immediately after the calamity.

They wanted civilization to remember victims and history

as conquerors of doom, not victims trapped within it.

Now,

for humanity’s past,

and themselves, many teared up during the silence, some shedding tears freely.

Others remained motionless long after the tribute ended.

Beyond collective mourning,

the HCC resolved to build

a “Humanity Monument”

where land met the ocean closest to Asteroid 2801’s impact point—

to commemorate the civilization’s survival story.

This monument used an alloy crafted from the Materials Research Institute’s latest breakthrough.

All 225 surface cities’ intelligent industrial clusters contributed—

each synthesizing materials or assembling components—

until the “Humanity Monument” stood complete.

The 283-meter structure gleamed in the alloy’s raw gray-black hue.

Only two words—”HUMANITY”—and the exact impact time of Asteroid 2801 were carved upon it.

After completion, many visited to lay flowers at its base.

Meanwhile,

Qin Yu traveled to the outskirts of what was once the Capital Underground Refuge City.

Here, a new cemetery held tombs—mostly containing personal belongings—of victims.

Similar graveyards bordered every new surface city

as tributes to those lost in the asteroid catastrophe.

Perhaps realistically meaningless,

but people willingly built them.

Qin Yu entered such a cemetery now.

He found the symbolic tomb of a Senior Leader who died in the crisis, laying flowers before it.

Crowds had gathered here long before his arrival.

Flowers covered the tomb alongside photos of the newly built surface cities.

Qin Yu stared at the gravestone silently before finally leaving.

Throughout his long life,

many he once knew had vanished into the river of time.

…

After bidding farewell to the past,

the shadow of the Doomsday Crisis waned further.

Having closed this chapter of disaster,

humanity inevitably raced faster into the future.

…

In that year, besides the establishment of HCC, many other events occurred.

First, to ensure the gradual restoration of land and ocean ecosystems on Earth’s surface, HCC issued the strictest ecological ban ever known.

Essentially, it forbade people from hunting or destroying most wild creatures on land and in the sea. However, this had little real impact on people. People now did not do related work; all needed vegetables, fruits, and food came from vertical farms run by intelligent programs.

Unless they recklessly burned small areas of ecosystems built using great effort, they basically could not break this ban.

In that same year, after HCC formed, no changes were made to the idea of the major continents on land.

They were still called the Nine Provinces, North American State, South American State, Afrika Continent, and Europa Continent.

But the concept of these continents had shifted a lot.

It was just a matter of geography, with no real dividing lines from the Nine Provinces to Europa Continent.

The 225 giant surface cities rebuilt earlier on were not all limited to the original Nine Provinces area because of geographical changes.

Some giant cities were actually located within Europa Continent’s geographical range.

There were no traditional boundaries between the giant cities either.

Strong AI from the Brain Intelligence Project managed the basic running of all 225 giant cities. Even though the cities were spaced apart in geography and space, they were really one whole unit.

The Superconducting Maglev Train lines completed or being built at that time were part of linking these cities together.

They could all be called within the HCC range.

For the land near city districts, including mineral resource digging and current ecosystem recovery, this was handled by strong AI following plans from related parts of the Negentropy Research Institute.

To be exact, every area was taken care of by strong AI using part of HCC’s smart industrial productive capacity.

Traditional borders between cities no longer existed in Human Civilization at that HUE time.

Accordingly, that year, research teams and researchers from all departments and fields of the Negentropy Research Institute gathered. They planned further how the smart industrial clusters across surface cities would work, to make the city clusters have clearer jobs, avoid overlapping roles, and turn Human Civilization’s production part into a tighter group, raising Human Civilization’s productivity.

Of course, this job shift only changed where smart industrial clusters were placed. In the Intelligent Era, where final products came from did not affect people’s living conditions or how much things cost in the 225 cities.

Since city boundaries themselves were gone, traditional local lines like who belonged where were clearly not there.

Staying in Lingchuan City of the Nine Provinces or in an area of another city in Europa Continent made no difference at all.

Right then, the sorting of jobs for the city clusters by the Negentropy Research Institute was purely based on geographical differences. Some areas had raw materials, so their city clusters naturally got more chains for processing those materials.

Other areas were better for certain smart industries, so the size of those clusters in nearby cities was increased.

The final goal was to make Human Civilization’s ground industry into a ‘super factory.’ This super factory could run almost as efficiently as possible, meeting Human Civilization’s needs.

For this reason, many researchers at the Negentropy Research Institute were kept busy that year.

That same year, the Social Philosophy Department adjusted the original population growth plan.

After the Doomsday Crisis before, to quickly bring back Human Civilization’s population numbers, the Negentropy Research Institute had set the yearly new people at 100 million.

After many years, Human Civilization’s total population was back at 3.7 billion. Human Civilization’s average age had become very young as well.

Considering Human Civilization’s population health had recovered somewhat, and all had moved back above ground from below.

The Social Philosophy Department changed the yearly increase from 100 million to 60 million.

In later years, they could adjust this number based on real conditions.

In year two of HUE.

Following Human Civilization’s goal of expanding beyond Earth fast, that year, the Energy and Power Research Institute, Physics Department, and other teams gave a detailed plan for building Lunar Surface Cities and developing the Lunar Surface.

In the current plan, Human Civilization used the Moon mainly as a resource planet, with some industrial help.

They focused on digging up Lunar Surface resources on a large scale to meet Human Civilization’s need for Helium-3.

Then they could use the Moon’s space advantage to shape it into an industrial planet, likely first building Electric Propulsion Spaceships.

The basic needs for both putting up more Lunar Surface Cities and making it an industrial planet were actually already met.

The transport change brought by Electric Propulsion Spaceships enough supported Human Civilization’s Lunar Surface development and building.

Human Civilization, now fully in the Intelligent Era and knowing how to use Helium-3 Fusion Reactors, also had the productive power to make the Lunar Surface plan happen.

That same year, HCC started using a lot of Human Civilization’s productive power to develop the Moon.

Obviously, the number of flights by Electric Propulsion Spaceships rising or landing from stellar ports across surface cities, traveling between Earth and Moon, got much higher.

Similarly, covered by Human Civilization’s huge productive power, the Lunar Surface started changing fast, just like when cities were rebuilt on Earth before.

Qin Yu actually felt unsure about starting more Moon exploration and building right after returning to the surface.

Even before Asteroid 2801 really hit, when its arrival was noticed, Qin Yu and others had thought Asteroid 2801 seemed too strange.

Putting other things aside, how did it get such crazy speed?

With the Doomsday Crisis getting worse back then, there wasn’t much time to think on this, or even caring had little point.

But now, with the crisis over, there was a lot of time to think about it.

The big question was whether Asteroid 2801 coming was luck or a ‘must happen’, caused by some unknown power.

If it was luck, that’s one thing; if it was an unknown power’s doing, then that power clearly wanted Human Civilization gone.

In that case, Human Civilization building on the Moon and ‘making noise’ in space was risky.

But the problem was that hiding only on Earth, Human Civilization couldn’t get strong.

Human Civilization growing stronger needed more resources from beyond Earth.

What Qin Yu wanted was for Human Civilization to last longer.

Only a strong Human Civilization could fight off risks.

This all seemed very contrary.

In the end, Qin Yu chose to have Human Civilization push beyond Earth, at least to the Moon for now.

Because, instead of ignoring facts like an ostrich burying its head in sand and letting others choose for you, it felt safer to be strong yourself, able to escape and handle dangers.

This was especially true for Qin Yu as an Absolute Immortal.

Over endless time, leaving your fate to others meant eventually they’d pick something against Human Civilization’s hopes.

Of course, over that time, the Negentropy Research Institute had gathered some leftovers from Asteroid 2801 after impact. Qin Yu joined the study but saw no ‘made by someone’ signs in the samples. The huge energy from the hit itself probably destroyed any traces anyway.

Everything still stayed a mystery.