Chapter 35: Considering Withdrawal
Chapter 35: Considering Withdrawal
Fifty kilometers near the Redstone Volcano Massif in the North American State, the third earthquake in nearly a year happened. It was very small, only magnitude 2.1.
A tsunami occurred on the coast of the north Pacific Ocean.
Inland Europa Continent, heavy rain fell during a period of unusually hot weather.
In northern Afrika Continent, because tensions grew between the other two sides of the HCC besides Huaxia Nation,
an old tribe settled in a small town, with only a few dozen people, unfortunately went extinct.
Somewhere in the microscopic world, a strand of virus was mutating inside an animal’s body.
In a small, unnoticed corner by a riverbank in the Amazon rainforest, a new plant species was gaining an ecological advantage.
In the same rainforest, a new type of plant that humans hadn’t discovered yet silently went extinct.
On the sun’s surface, violent reactions were happening as usual, releasing light and heat.
Deep in the distant cosmos, chunks of shattered planets from a battle between two powerful civilizations became meteors hurtling further into space.
Inside Huaxia Nation, at the entrance of Lingchuan City’s largest municipal hospital, a newlywed husband and wife walked nervously towards the newly established ‘Department for Human Reproduction Device and Artificial Womb Technology Application’.
Before anything truly came to pass,
the world still remained calm.
…
“You’ve come for a child, right? Actually, you’re the first couple scheduled to use the Human Reproduction Device at our hospital. Other appointments are later than yours.”
“Our hospital is one of the country’s first group to get the Human Reproduction Device. Maybe your child will be the very first one conceived using it after it became available.”
The current year was 31 of the Common Era.
After completing its second phase Clinical Trial at Research Institute 011, the Human Reproduction Device began its initial rollout.
And partly benefiting from its location—”being the first to benefit due to proximity”—hospitals in Lingchuan City were among the early recipients of the first batch of mass-produced Human Reproduction Devices.
In Lingchuan City Hospital, the Department for Human Reproduction Device Application was basically remodeled from what used to be the Obstetrics and Gynecology department.
Considering professional procedures needed before placing a fertilized egg into the Human Reproduction Device,
and to prevent misuse of the Human Reproduction Device,
after it became available, it wasn’t sold or rented to individual families.
Instead, restrictions were imposed, requiring the Human Reproduction Device be used only at designated locations and for designated purposes.
Basically, it could only be used within authorized hospitals or facilities of the Social Upbringing Bureau.
Every single use of the Human Reproduction Device had to be fully documented. Babies born from it had their gestation period, birth date, and the device’s serial number recorded in the hospital’s files.
Considering each activation of the Human Reproduction Device consumed almost a whole batch of a specific nutrient solution,
the use of this nutrient solution was also strictly controlled. Hospitals and the Social Upbringing Bureau were required to log every usage.
This approach aimed to minimize misuse to the greatest extent.
Hearing the doctor’s words,
the newlywed couple seemed surprised.
“We made the appointment six months ago, right when appointments became available. We’re the first?”
“Yes, at least at this hospital.”
“Please show me your marriage certificate and ID cards. Also, if you don’t have recent physical examination reports, you’ll need a full-body checkup before using the Human Reproduction Device. We need to ensure both of you are in good health. I assume you want your child healthy too.”
Although they were the first couple seeking this service (utilizing the device), the process clearly followed training, avoiding much confusion.
“Here are our documents. We did get a full physical exam after the appointment was confirmed. We did it here at this hospital earlier.”
“Please wait a moment while I confirm your examination reports… Alright, both of you are healthy, and the pre-gene collection preparations are complete. Please sign this consent form here.”
“I must inform you, the gestation period for a baby in the Human Reproduction Device is longer than a natural pregnancy. If the fertilized egg can be placed into the device today, your child will arrive about 62 weeks from now.”
“The baby’s condition at birth will be comparable to a natural baby about two or three months old. This helps them safely pass what would have been the most fragile period after birth naturally. It will also be much easier for you to care for the baby.”
“Really? Can’t we let the baby develop until it’s like seven or eight months old, or even one year old?”
The husband blurted out his question, only to be sharply pinched by his wife beside him.
“…No, of course not.”
The doctor paused, momentarily speechless, then shook his head.
“While people say the Human Reproduction Device offers truly pain-free childbirth, it’s not that ‘pain-free’. The entire year before turning one is crucial for children starting to learn language and understand the world. Professor Qin Yu and his team definitely considered this during development. Delayed birth by two or three months beyond term is likely the optimal choice.”
Once the doctor invoked Professor Qin Yu, the couple dropped their idea.
Instead, after a brief pause, the doctor asked another question.
“…You’re aware of the Social Upbringing Bureau, right? Could I inquire if you’d be interested in donating your genetic material to them? Babies born under the Social Upbringing Bureau program wouldn’t require you to raise them.”
“Probably not?”
The couple hesitated for a moment before shaking their heads.
The doctor nodded and didn’t press further.
“Okay then. With all your documents in order, you can proceed to the collection room over there.”
Not long after,
the couple left the hospital.
They held a slip of paper listing their basic personal information.
It included an assigned code for their collected genetic material, the serial number of the Human Reproduction Device to be used,
and told them to return to the hospital to collect their child in 63 weeks.
It wasn’t a formal certificate; they could just use their ID cards to pick up the child then.
Standing by the roadside outside the hospital gate, both husband and wife seemed a little dazed.
They looked at each other, then back at the slip in their hands.
“We… we just had a child?”
The wife instinctively glanced down at her own stomach.
For the couple, their part in the Human Reproduction Device pregnancy process was over.
The traditional experience of having a child was broken. No ten months of pregnancy. No birth pains.
No pre-delivery suffering or post-delivery recovery.
Just a 63-week wait.
During those 63 weeks, they could still go anywhere they wanted, do anything they pleased.
For the couple, the feeling now was very strange.
They knew their future child might already be starting its existence in a hospital elsewhere.
But they felt nothing. Without that slip of paper, there was no sense of reality.
It felt just like the moment they had left home that morning; nothing had changed.
“Honey… do you think we can still claim maternity leave and paternity leave?”
“…That’s a good question.”
In many ways, this couple represented countless others across Huaxia Nation that day.
Even on the first day ordinary citizens got access to the Human Reproduction Device, multiple couples surely secured appointments to use it nationwide.
At the same time, the Social Upbringing Bureau certainly continued its work steadily, fulfilling its duties.
The world kept changing under a new, era-defining technology.
…
Year 32 of the Common Era.
The Human Reproduction Device became far more widespread.
For most people who might have still had worries about it, those concerns had now vanished.
That year, across Huaxia Nation, the way nearly all newborns arrived in this world
shifted from natural conception to incubation within the Human Reproduction Device.
This even included many people from beyond Huaxia, like North Bear Nation and Moon Nation,
who traveled long distances specifically to use Huaxia Nation’s Human Reproduction Device.
However, due to various reasons, using the device was basically half-free for Huaxia citizens,
while those from outside clearly didn’t get such a discount.
Of course, this didn’t dampen the device’s intense popularity.
Putting aside the debate over Collective Social Rearing,
the benefits of the Human Reproduction Device were almost visible and acknowledged by nearly everyone worldwide.
Even though some odd individuals stubbornly insisted natural birth was better, willing to endure the pain of ten months’ pregnancy,
they were largely becoming irrelevant.
Meanwhile, the Social Upbringing Bureau,
after two years of groundwork,
managed to seamlessly shoulder the responsibility society entrusted to it that year:
Only 5.6 million children were born through traditional family units,
while the Bureau filled the gap, providing Collective Social Rearing for an additional 3.4 million.
It was foreseeable that these children, upon growing up,
would form a substantial portion of the entire society.
This matter was also somewhat connected to Qin Yu.
After consulting his opinion,
the authorities gave Qin Yu the honorary title of Deputy Director within the Social Upbringing Bureau.
He wasn’t directly involved in any bureau affairs; it was more like being a mascot.
The public largely approved,
considering Qin Yu was the inventor of the Human Reproduction Device.
That same year,
following the widespread adoption of the Human Reproduction Device,
Qin Yu also prepared to undertake new projects beyond its development.
…
He pondered long over what to pursue next after the Human Reproduction Device.
It wasn’t that he lacked answers—
his Super Brain kept his thoughts flowing smoothly.
He just hadn’t made a decision yet.
Currently,
the 2611 Longevity Injection solved part of the human lifespan problem.
The Human Reproduction Device and its Artificial Womb Technology addedrely addressed the propagation and potential restart of human civilization.
Even if human civilization later faltered, Qin Yu could use the device and the Doomsday Gene Bank to pull humanity back from the brink of extinction.
So, what should be tackled next?
Qin Yu felt it was time to boost productivity.
The two technological feats – the 2611 Longevity Injection and the Human Reproduction Device – had brought immense change and upheaval to the world,
steering it a bit closer to Qin Yu’s vision.
But their contribution to enhancing productivity was negligible, practically nonexistent.
And without gains in productivity, without an increase in the total resources available to human civilization,
many problems wouldn’t be solved simply by humans living longer.
Insufficient productivity and resources not only hindered what civilization wanted to do,
but also inevitably constrained what Qin Yu hoped civilization would achieve, no matter how powerful he was.
Take for example why Huaxia Nation set its annual planned birth rate at 9 million instead of higher:
it simply couldn’t squeeze out enough resources for the Collective Social Rearing of more children.
Like that psychologist had once said,
“What kind of civilization is safest? Besides being in a secure location, its own strength is crucial.”
Without raising productivity, civilization couldn’t grow strong.
Now, even if everyone lived to 180, humanity was essentially just a weak planetary civilization living slightly longer.
Before, you could describe it as a fragile home-world civilization.
Now, it was similar, just longer-lived.
Under these circumstances, boosting productivity increasingly became a task Qin Yu couldn’t delay.
The problem was… the work needed to achieve this didn’t quite fit his current identity.
To boost productivity,
the immediate areas he considered were threefold:
Advancing energy technology to increase the total energy available to human civilization.
Enhancing automation and Artificial Intelligence to directly improve human production efficiency.
Developing space exploration technology to increase the total resources humanity could access.
But these three areas seemed entirely disconnected from Qin Yu’s current role as a genius biologist and scholar in the Field of Life Sciences.
Qin Yu felt he might have a bit of an ‘image concern’.
The thought of suddenly transitioning from his present image into an Artificial Intelligence expert, an energy technologist, or a space specialist felt slightly awkward.
Of course, the ‘image concern’ was secondary. If he truly wanted to do it, no one could stop him, and people might even cheer him on.
But this life, his “lifetime” as a genius biologist, was the first complete lifespan he would genuinely experience.
Qin Yu still wished to see this particular existence through fully, without disruption.
And if he wasn’t ready yet to reveal his identity as an Absolute Immortal, or let civilization know such a being existed,
he would inevitably need to assume new identities eventually.
Though occasionally impatient, he truly had time on his side.
Different life experiences could easily be saved for future, much longer lifetimes.
There was no need to be bound to one identity.
He could reappear in the world under different guises again and again.
As long as human civilization endured.
He’d wanted to be a historian before too – should he cram that into the next few decades or hundred years?
In short,
the significant work of directly boosting productivity could be left to the future “Great Scientist Qin Yu”.
For now, Great Biologist Qin Yu should stay focused on Life Science.
While he couldn’t travel back up the river of time, floating downstream past the ages,
as an Absolute Immortal, he could constantly hit the reset button on his own life.
And, shape Human Civilization into the form he desired along the way.
Of course,
this was merely Qin Yu’s current thinking.
Maybe one day, he’d just drop the act,
wanting to see the world’s reaction to the presence of an Absolute Immortal,
or perhaps stage an “I don’t eat beef” moment, standing high above the world, forcing Human Civilization to bend entirely to his will.
For now, as a very young being amidst Absolute Immortality,
Qin Yu was merely being cautious as he sculpted the world.
He yearned for the world’s transformation towards his desired vision,
while also not wanting human society to stray too far from the familiar reality he knew.
…
However, even staying within his identity as a genius Life Science scholar,
while his contribution to boosting productivity or increasing total resources might seem less direct,
it wasn’t that he was completely helpless.
These were the actions Qin Yu, widely hailed as this century’s greatest scholar in the Field of Life Sciences, planned to take before his eventual “exit stage left”.