Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 501 - 499 Interstellar Capitalist

Chapter 501: Chapter 499 Interstellar Capitalist

When talking about these issues, Zhang Yuan couldn’t help but recall that virtual world. He had lived there for eighty years and witnessed a very complete history.

An elderly man striving for revolution moved into an urban high-rise and started using electric lights. This old man had never seen electric lights before, and to him, they were a miracle. The nation that bestowed him with electric lights was divine, a great faith.

Thus, he volunteered to work in the frontier, to help more people, and to progress the nation and develop society.

But what about the generations that followed? Born with televisions, telephones, tap water, and compulsory education, these things became necessities of life for these people—naturally expected, not requiring gratitude, nor considered miracles. These people desired more—better clothes, larger houses, personal cars, and various electronic products.

At this time, very few people were willing to work on the frontier, and no one wanted to live with herders or live a low-income lifestyle. And so, gradually, the nation stopped progressing.

This ideological shift was a force of the era, brought about by the entire age’s social trends, not something a single great individual could have changed. The proletariat was great because they were willing to struggle to change their destinies.

For interstellar civilization, society was affluent, and class struggles had almost disappeared. However, a similar rogue class still existed; they did not engage in production or labor, believing that society’s productivity was sufficiently developed and asking, "Isn’t it just fine the way it is now?"

The New Human Civilization dealt with this rogue class by sending them directly into the Virtual Space to enjoy a beautiful life, thus ensuring the purity of society.

However, other interstellar civilizations didn’t have this capability without virtual space technology, dealing determinedly with their own people would definitely cause social chaos. Moreover, defining who belongs to the "rogue class" was challenging.

Moreover, the New Human Civilization was not without its own problems. A vast majority of citizens had never faced hardships and did not understand the true nature of humans; they believed that efforts naturally lead to rewards.

Social progress was good, no problem—the technological dividends brought by auxiliary brains and trade markets would not cease in a short time.

But once these dividends were exhausted, a prolonged stagnation lasting hundreds, even thousands or tens of thousands of years could occur, and the citizens of this generation of New Humans might not have enough strong willpower to overcome this stagnation.

As he discussed these topics with his peers, everything seemed to clear up.

One interstellar diplomat sighed deeply, "Most civilizations in the trade market are actually civilizations with technological stagnation. They appear to be quarreling, conducting experiments with large instruments in the market, but they have long since stagnated."

"The interactions between them are also insufficient to foster development because they have been in the trade market for tens of thousands of years, and whatever they could share has been shared long ago; what they cannot share, they still refuse to share."

"The first wave of interactions was certainly effective. But the second, third, fourth waves might just be the same old content going round and round. Then, lamentingly, ’Ah, trade is beautiful, technology has advanced again.’"

"At least the New Human Civilization, with such a mindset and having traded so much, will always feel it has progressed; surely, it can’t regress, can it?"

Zhang Yuan said with a wry smile, "That’s not exactly true; our progress is real, not just an empty boast."

Having waited for hundreds, thousands of years, a new interstellar civilization arrived, and everyone flocked to see if there was new knowledge and again felt they had progressed.

What was more frightening was, the longer the stagnation, the more restless the entire civilization became; the original academic environment had entirely vanished. In this comfortable trade market, there was no need to worry about those crazy Level 5 Civilizations forcibly imposing their ideologies, nor about survival issues.

Even the craziest Level 5 Civilizations wouldn’t provoke the neutral trade markets, as these markets were under the protection of the Sixth Level, the Amoeba Civilization.

Even though a Huantai Civilization was exploiting and draining them from above, it didn’t matter, at least on the surface, the services of Huantai Civilization were incredibly satisfactory!

The Huantai Civilization truly didn’t care whether you were a third-level civilization or a Level 4, they treated everyone like VIPs, often providing small favors.

At least, Zhang Yuan did not feel any discomfort in his interaction with Huantai Civilization; it seemed like a trustworthy entity.

It was simply terrifying!

Zhang Yuan finally understood why the Huantai Civilization had decided to relocate their trade market!

Because these damned fellows who had lingered here for a long time were all useless.

After operating for such a long period, the interstellar civilizations in this part of the space had all been attracted here.

And after such a long time, these interstellar civilizations had lost any value for use, having been almost completely figured out by the Huantai Civilization. You use my instruments for experiments, and conduct transactions through my platform, how could I not know the knowledge involved?!

Of course, after sucking you dry, the Huantai Civilization wouldn’t annihilate you but would rather amicably issue a statement, simply relocating the trade market to some other distant area, using their good reputation to lure yet another batch of civilizations and start draining anew.

New civilizations, always bring new knowledge.

As for the civilizations left here, who cares about your life or death!

Such a grand...

Move indeed!

This is just a replica of the capitalists on Earth, using what is useful and kicking aside what is not!

Realizing this, Zhang Yuan couldn’t help but sigh deeply, reflecting on how truly no Fourth-level Civilization was easy to deal with. Behind anything, more complex interests are always hidden.

At that moment, the Foreign Minister Chen Mu quietly walked in through the door. He was giving this transaction great importance, as it involved the safety of humanity itself, and all surveillance systems were fully operational. Having some free time now, he simply decided to come and check.

"How is the experiment going?"

"It seems to be going smoothly," Zhang Yuan replied. The six men and women in the laboratory were engaged in intense work, and whether there were any results could not be known in just a short while.

Tos Civilization had not conducted any tricks during the whole process; in short, there had been no problems.

After pondering for a while, Zhang Yuan asked, "Have you guys figured out why the Huantai Civilization’s trade market is relocating?"

Chen Mu frowned slightly and shook his head softly, "We don’t know. That’s an internal matter for the Huantai Civilization. We couldn’t possibly unearth their real reasons. Besides, the Huantai Civilization had given everyone a three-thousand-year notice. Any scientific experiment could be completed in three thousand years."

Zhang Yuan shared his suspicions with Chen Mu, whose expression slightly shifted and fell silent for a while.

Finally, he said, "Your thoughts are interesting, but... it’s a scheme done in plain sight; there’s no way to blame the Huantai Civilization."

"If our civilization has become corrupt and lazy, it’s not possible to blame this trade market. Are we supposed to leave the market and develop on our own? That would only be slower, not faster."

"Yes, that’s true."

There are more clever people in the world than just him, and precisely because it is a scheme done openly, even if it’s seen, there’s no way to avoid it. Wandering alone in space might encounter some minor opportunities, but most likely, one would only meet some low-level natives, wasting time needlessly.

Thus, the diplomat from the Tos Civilization lamented: The trade market is about to dissolve; it’s a misfortune, yet also a different kind of fortune.

Whether the bubble exists or not, there will always come a day when it bursts. It’s just unknown whether it will burst tomorrow or ten thousand years later.