Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 426 - 424: The Mountain Is Just There

Chapter 426: Chapter 424: The Mountain Is Just There

After bidding farewell to his enthusiastic older sister, the three of them took a train to their first destination after stepping out into society—Mount Everest.

Scaling Mount Everest was a dream Zhang Yuan hadn’t accomplished in his previous life, and the fact that he could fulfill it in this life filled him with anticipation.

The train slowly started, leaving the city he resided in, East Sea City.

After such a long time experiencing it, Zhang Yuan had gradually come to understand the truth of this world: it was a world extremely affluent with abundant material resources, yet devoid of grand dreams.

Individuals might have their small personal dreams, but there were no collective grand dreams; people were indifferent to politics, to the changes in the world, focusing solely on what they liked.

Girls like his sister could happily spend their days nurturing flowers and doing things they enjoyed, based on their hobbies.

However, when it came to the grand dreams of civilization as a whole, they simply didn’t exist.

This feeling was somewhat akin to the "anarchism" that had been popular in the past; this world did not have a powerful government to organize various large-scale projects, including space engineering and water conservancy projects. Or rather, all the grand projects that people needed had already been completed years ago: bridges, subways, stadiums, parks, dams. The only thing needing to be done was the occasional repair, something robots could handle.

People also highly approved of this way of living, considering the government nonessential to life. It was a common belief that the government was a coercive force that led to compliance, and compliance was the source of all evil.

Of course, the necessary laws were still needed; otherwise, society could easily fall into complete disarray. These laws had been established long ago, sustaining millions of years of social prosperity.

Undeniably, with the absence of survival pressures, everyone was rather simple-minded, and the crime rate wasn’t high. Men who couldn’t find wives could turn to robot girlfriends to satisfy their desires, and aside from the insane, few would ruin their lives for a fleeting pleasure. The robot system had sufficient power to maintain the societal structure, chemically castrating any offenders within minutes.

Furthermore, the values instilled by the school’s education influenced every aspect of a person, and there weren’t too many troublemakers who liked to challenge the laws set down by ancestors.

"How did this world come to be? Could it be that just because it is a Virtual World, it could emerge out of nowhere?" It was truly strange, very strange, and this was the question Zhang Yuan was most curious about, "Or is it the result of natural evolution? But this ancient truth has somehow vanished into the river of history."

It seemed like a utopia, ethereal and without origin.

"But can it really last? There is no such thing as fairness and justice in the world, nor is there a perfect law. What happens if something occurs outside the scope of the law?"

"You don’t need to worry about that!" Ma Mingtao, listening to Zhang Yuan’s concerns, cursed irritably, "Don’t think you’re the only smart one, Zhang Yuan. Our ancestors were far smarter than you! There’s nothing new under the sun; what you can think of, others have already thought of before. What you are doing now has definitely been done by others, over a hundred times!"

"If someone commits a crime, the robots just need to compare past data, find similar cases, and then the sentencing can be done. No matter how melodramatic the case is, there’s always a similar prototype."

"That makes sense... Since the world isn’t progressing, it’s essentially spinning in place." Zhang Yuan shook his head, giving up his wild thoughts.

In half a day’s time, as the train reached the highlands and due to the lack of oxygen, everyone’s face took on a slight tinge of highland red. Eighteen was undoubtedly the age of peak physical strength; with physical education classes every day at school, those with a normal body were required to exercise regularly. If a few years passed with lax physical training, one’s body might become weaker than it was now, making it even harder to ascend Mount Everest.

"Please register your information and pay a fee of 5,000 yuan per person. We will arrange for a robot guide and related training for you," said a waiter with green eyes and a professional smile.

"No problem."

The three of them arrived at the base camp on the south side of Mount Everest, panting heavily, "huff huff huff." Here, they were to undergo about two months of physical fitness adaptation training to let their bodies gradually adapt to the oxygen-deficient environment before attempting the climb.

All the guides were robot guides, and occasionally they would see a few fellow climbers with whom they exchanged friendly greetings.

This was where the robots far surpassed humans in terms of physical ability.

A single robot guide could carry more than two hundred kilograms of supplies, possessed enough strength, and medical knowledge to maintain the entire climbing team. Should anything happen during the ascent, they were capable of saving lives.

...Even on the summit of Mount Everest, they could literally carry a person back down alive!

That was definitely not something human guides could achieve.

Just like that, two months quickly passed...

"Why climb mountains, because... the mountain is there!"

When the three had completed their grueling training, Ma Mingtao shouted out loud, very immaturely, incredibly excited that they would formally begin the ascent tomorrow.

Zhang Yuan, too, felt his body had become much stronger than before. He asked, "What do you want to do after climbing the mountain? You need to find something to keep yourselves busy; lying in bed all day like a couch potato isn’t good. People should have dreams, even small ones."

"You asking me?" Wang Nana held her cheeks in her hands, still sporting a bit of the high-altitude flush, "I want to open a pet shop like my sister, raise some kittens or puppies, bunnies are good too... Of course, not too many, I’m afraid I couldn’t care for them all, it would be terrible if they died."

"That sounds pretty nice too, I like turtles the best. You should open a turtle shop, you wouldn’t even need to feed them every day." Zhang Yuan nodded in agreement.

"Why turtles... They’re not cute at all," Wang Nana said with obvious disdain.

"They live long, not easy to die."

"I want to travel all over the world!" Ma Mingtao exclaimed loudly, "I’ve heard that cities outside, their culture is quite different from ours. In some Western cities, you know, the social atmosphere is very open, and when they see people from the East... Haha!"

He made a knowing expression that all men understand. However, Wang Nana twisted his arm in annoyance, making him cry out in pain.

Most people actually don’t have any dreams, they just want to break out of society to be free, and then live their mediocre lives to the end.

People like Wang Nana and Ma Mingtao were already doing well, at least they were able to find something to do.

Even though schools emphasized, "Have dreams," "Be aspirational," and so on, human’s innate inferior nature seemed to be the bigger issue.

But as for these matters, Zhang Yuan had seen plenty. He had been the Captain of Kunlun Mountain and had witnessed more of the darker aspects of humanity than most. Even with the cultural atmosphere of Kunlun Mountain, there were still lazy ones to be found, so what more of this stress-free civilization?

And in different regions, cities had various cultural systems, even if all educated by robot systems, there were still some differences. Perhaps this was due to the differences in the ideals of the "ancestors" who created this society.