Chapter 162: 35 Years

“Academician Qin, this is the new dish developed by the Food Research Institute: ‘Qi-gu Beef Stew’…”

In the dining hall within the Negentropy Research Institute,

the service robot enthusiastically introduced the served dish to Qin Yu.

Unlike most city restaurants run by Intelligent Machinery,

most dining halls within the Negentropy Research Institute were usually quite empty.

Except when gathering with friends, most Researchers just had the service robots deliver meals to them.

Or, with kitchens in their rooms, they simply had the robots cook at home.

It was rare for Qin Yu to visit the dining hall.

‘Qi-gu’ was a plant obtained from the Stuo Civilization.

Reportedly, it was the staple food of a Planetary Civilization the Stuos had previously encountered.

The HCC’s Food Research Institute had experimented with it and created several new dishes. What sat before Qin Yu now was one of them.

Qin Yu took a bite. Qi-gu looked like some kind of root vegetable.

Its texture felt very strange to human tastes.

It chewed like meat, was quite tough, had a slight bitterness, and carried a spicy aroma that was hard to describe.

It was said that since the Food Research Institute introduced it, it had become quite popular.

After finishing this dish, Qin Yu put down his chopsticks.

“Academician Qin, would you like any other dishes?”

Qin Yu shook his head and had the service robot clear the plates away.

He didn’t really feel full or not full.

He could gain satisfaction from enjoying good food, but as an Absolute Immortal, he didn’t need to eat.

After the service robot left,

Qin Yu remained seated for a while longer.

A Holographic Projection at the front of the hall played news about ‘The Construction Progress of the Civilization-Level Fundamental Experiment Facility’.

This was the largest mega-project for Human Civilization in this era, and naturally, something many people cared deeply about.

Qin Yu glanced at it briefly, but his mind wasn’t on the news itself.

Perhaps it was because he had lived too long while Human Civilization developed too fast.

Occasionally, looking around at the scenes within Human Civilization society,

he always felt a bit like he was ‘born in a foreign land’,

even though many changes in Human Civilization were often his own doing.

…

The 80th year of HUE.

Over fifty percent of Human Civilization’s productive capacity was diverted to the construction of the Civilization-Level Fundamental Experiment Facility.

This didn’t concretely affect the daily lives of most people living in the HCC at that moment,

but on a macro level, it inevitably impacted Human Civilization as a whole.

That year, the total population of Human Civilization was 22.8 billion.

To adapt to these macro changes, the HCC, as planned, temporarily reduced the annual population growth rate from 300 million to 150 million.

Within the Negentropy Research Institute, available research resources from Research Institute 011, the Physics Department, the Energy and Power Research Institute, and others were all reduced somewhat.

Resource allocation for the Heavy Nucleus Fusion research project, a collaborative effort between Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization, was also affected.

This was inevitable.

It applied to Human Civilization, and equally to the Stuo Civilization.

Originally, both civilizations dedicated the majority of their productive capacity to the scientific research field. Keeping their societies running didn’t need that much capacity.

Now, shifting fifty percent of overall capacity to this super project meant the previously dominant research fields had to lose some resources.

Otherwise, why call it a high-stakes gamble for both civilizations?

Being a high-stakes gamble meant it inherently carried risks.

For the Stuo Civilization, this problem was even more extreme.

Besides squeezing research resources from other fields, the Stuos also reduced the lifespans of their middle-class citizens.

Similar to how Human Civilization adjusted its population growth, the Stuos reduced the expected lifespan of their middle-class to three hundred years.

This shared super project,

built together over roughly thirty-five years, might seem like something the Stuos could complete alone in about sixty-odd years.

But the reality wasn’t calculated so simply. Depending solely on the Stuo Civilization, they likely couldn’t support the project to completion.

Given their current cooperative state, both civilizations might finish construction in over thirty years.

But separated, lacking the pressure and driven motivation, neither could complete it alone within sixty or seventy years. The increase in total completion time would be nonlinear.

And, most crucially, the possibility of failure had to be considered.

Success meant suffering and persevering – something perhaps bearable.

Suffering, persevering, and still failing – that was the greatest risk.

The last time the Stuo Civilization failed, whenever it was, they likely took a long time to recover, even with their Sacred Decider.

Both civilizations were well aware of this.

…

The 82nd year of HUE.

Over these two years, Qin Yu focused more on theoretical research and contemplation.

For Qin Yu,

it was becoming clear that the ‘Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility’ would likely be the last major research undertaking of ‘this lifetime’.

Once the facility was built, his time in this life would be about up.

Unless he chose to step forward and become the eternal ’emperor’ of Human Civilization, he needed to start planning his next life phase.

As for whether the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility would be built,

Qin Yu had little doubt.

Its completion had become a near certainty from the moment the design was finalized.

The only variables were when it would be done – slightly sooner or later.

But,

after the facility’s construction, whether the fundamental science experiments conducted within it would achieve the desired results –

allowing Human Civilization and the Stuo Civilization to glimpse the secrets of the universe’s microcosm and higher dimensions –

that, even for Qin Yu, was uncertain.

The theories built by Qin Yu and Human Civilization also needed real-world experiments to validate them.

What experimental data the facility would yield remained fundamentally unpredictable.

Indeed, if the outcome was certain, neither civilization would need to go through the immense effort of building such a colossal structure.

On this front, Qin Yu could only work on slightly improving the chances of a successful experiment.

He pre-defined potential experimental results, then constructed mathematical theories around these possibilities,

to facilitate faster analysis of the experimental data later gathered from the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility.

…

The 83rd year of HUE.

Human Civilization and the Stuo Civilization communicated again.

They decided to further increase the productive capacity allocated to the construction of the Civilization-Level Fundamental Experiment Facility to accelerate the pace.

Proportionally, Human Civilization allocated approximately sixty percent of its total productive capacity to this mega-project.

The situation was largely similar in the Stuo Civilization.

This intensified move caused many, while anticipating the facility’s completion, to feel some renewed concern.

Such a massive investment of productive capacity represented an enormous risk for both civilizations.

However, because Academician Qin Yu was still involved at this time,

the public generally accepted this level of investment without significant opposition or dissent.