Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 423 - 421 My Idol of Worship

Chapter 423: Chapter 421 My Idol of Worship

Ding-dong!

The bell signifying the end of class rang, and the robot teacher didn’t linger, nodding farewell to the students before briskly exiting the classroom. Essentially, the entire education system wasn’t to cultivate talent but to nurture basic values.

This world didn’t need any special talents; it was enough for students to know how to behave, understand self-discipline.

The classroom was buzzing, bustling with far greater activity during the break than during lessons.

Almost everyone was dreaming of the future. Eighteen was a special age, the last to receive closed education in school. After that, they could choose the life they wanted.

This was also an element constantly emphasized by the school—have ideals! People shouldn’t be idle, lying in bed all day, either sleeping or playing video games, or just thinking about mating. If it really came to that, what difference would there be from a wild beast?

"Zhang Yuan, daydreaming again?" A boy named Ma Mingtao, with his careless manner, slapped Zhang Yuan’s shoulder, "After we step out of school, let’s climb Mount Everest together! That is my dream, to challenge my own limits!"

This society also implemented the system of both small and large families. In Zhang Yuan’s childhood, due to his not fully awakened self-awareness, he was diagnosed with a degree of autism, so these siblings took great care of him.

Even if the so-called "autism" had long since recovered.

Zhang Yuan smiled and said, "Climbing Mount Everest? That’s an easy task. Is your dream that simple?"

"With some training, one could complete it over a summer break. I’m thinking, maybe you should choose a bigger goal, like landing on the Moon, or Mars!"

"Isn’t there a Human Base on the Moon? Even though it’s pretty much deserted now, it would be good to go have a look!"

"Haha, you’re always like this, always wanting to go further!" Ma Mingtao laughed heartily. As a sports enthusiast, reaching the summit of Mount Everest was his greatest wish. Landing on the Moon or such was beyond the realm of sports and not about personal limits but the limits of an entire civilization.

At that thought, he began to sigh, "But it’s unrealistic. Our robots have stopped providing that service, and the Space Elevator is broken. We few people simply can’t do it."

"Difficulty only adds to the challenge... We could launch a rocket and go to the Moon," Zhang Yuan said with a smile. "We’ll ask the robots to produce the relevant parts, and we’ll make our own rocket."

"But that requires a vast amount of knowledge. Although there are blueprints for rockets in the database, we still have to design the entire control system ourselves. I’m no good with studies..." Ma Mingtao cocked his head, "If you can design the rocket, I’ll be the astronaut!"

The few boys around rolled their eyes. To them, the conversation between these two was bizarre... yet somehow intriguing.

They were quietly discussing some lewd topics, including "getting a girlfriend," "playing video games," "forming a Dota 99 team," and other matters like adult applause for love—topics with more allure^

Boys at this age were always in their most fiery years, especially with so many cute girls around... Girls in this era seemed to develop even earlier.

There were several couples in the same classroom, but most had not yet experienced the taste of the forbidden fruit.

Zhang Yuan had long become accustomed to this; after all, every man goes through such a phase, and there’s nothing worth criticizing or blaming them for. High school students naturally don’t have much life experience; it’s unreasonable to expect them to think like the elderly.

However, sexual education in schools was quite strict. Dating was not a problem and teachers wouldn’t interfere, but any sort of private intimate acts were strictly forbidden. Otherwise, the couple would be swiftly split up, with one sent to this city and the other to that.

During classes, the concept of "self-respect and self-love" was also promoted, which unavoidably left students feeling irritable and tormented, yet they had no choice but to restrain themselves under the deterrent of strict rules.

Zhang Yuan actually understood this kind of education quite well. As a species, humans naturally need to control their desires. In this society, there’s nothing demanding your action; the only thing you really need to do is to manage yourself and not indulge in reckless abandon.

"Zhang Yuan, are you planning to apply to university? It would be a shame not to, with your excellent grades," Wang Nana asked in the midst of their chat.

"University, huh... I’ll see how it goes," Zhang Yuan pondered, then responded with a smile. He felt that the technological ceiling of this world was unable to surpass the real world, so relearning everything seemed like a waste of time. He had already passed the age where he’d play the role of the model student, flaunting his academic prowess on campus.

"First I’ll take a look at what university is like. If it’s uninteresting and has nothing worth learning, I can always just drop out."

The university tutors were no longer robots, but actual humans.

Zhang Yuan’s plan was to first see what the university here was really like before considering his next steps, treating it as an exploration of the entire world.

Every aspect of this society, including its cultural institutions, was created by ancestors from a million years ago, resembling a sort of extrapolation of the final outcome of Earth civilization.

As for science, it had been stagnant for a very long time... or perhaps, technological development had reached a point where it was already sufficient. So the current humans at most expanded the entertainment industry, or cultural sectors such as music, movies, and games.

The universities of this era were no longer seen as sacred institutions. Therefore, Zhang Yuan was quite curious to find out what the experts were really researching... whether they were simply charlatans or genuinely pure scholars.

But ultimately, he wanted to understand this world more, to travel to different places, just like Professor Aiding on Earth, experiencing more of the cultural diversity of the entire planet. This world had many similarities with Kunlun Mountain, which might provide some referential significance.

Or maybe, he could take a trip to the Moon and see what that abandoned Moon Base was all about.

"Aiding? Who is Professor Aiding?" Wang Nana asked, puzzled.

Zhang Yuan realized he had let something slip and quickly bluffed, "He was an ancient social science professor, my idol... He traveled all over the world, the whole Solar System. Back then, every planet in our Solar System was inhabited by humans, not like now, with only Earth habited."

After searching on his phone, he indeed found the name "Aiding", which caused a faint sense of realization in Zhang Yuan’s heart.

However, he quickly dismissed these questions, reasoning that since this world was created by humans, it likely retained some historical traces of humanity in reality.

Wang Nana sighed, "Our ancestors were truly amazing... At the peak of population in the Solar System, there were even two hundred billion people! But for various reasons, the population on other planets withered away. Why do you think that happened? The decline from two hundred billion to just a few billion now is huge... yet history doesn’t explain this."

"I don’t know either. Perhaps it’s a big secret, waiting for us to uncover," Zhang Yuan said with a smile.