Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 577 - 574: 50 Years

Chapter 577: Chapter 574: 50 Years

Just like that, the 25th year since the Human branch of the Radiant Galaxy reached the surface turned out to be another election year...

Due to a series of social welfare policies like "early retirement act" and "6-hour work day," which led to decreased work hours and a drop in efficiency, the additional shelters remained unfixed. Consequently, the two opposing factions began to blame each other once again for the mishap.

"Big trouble here, the large shelters are still not built!"

"We need to trace it all back to fifteen years ago!"

However, some sociologists were surprised to find that the public wasn’t as sensitive about building extra shelters anymore, and this moral high ground no longer held sway as it once did.

The factions endlessly shouted slogans at each other, attacking back and forth, fighting like it was a matter of life and death for decades. The people’s once-present sense of moral guilt had gradually vanished, even turning into slight repulsion.

If various media kept nagging about it every day, and yet years passed without completion, even if it were something truly beneficial, it was bound to generate stronger and stronger rebellious feelings psychologically.

Humans were ultimately a species adept at forgetting; having the additional shelter built well would naturally be best. If it couldn’t be fully completed, even half-built wouldn’t be bad, as it could still barely house people!

One simply couldn’t be morally blackmailed all day long—it was truly nauseating to watch!

This shift in social consciousness had left many of the more conservative thinkers distinctly unhappy. They thought that human civilization seemed to have undergone a significant change.

In the 25th year since reaching the surface, the Blue Ideology had reignited, forming a new third-party faction!

Lin Yingdong was the representative of this third-party faction, and he had never imagined that in just 25 short years, he would completely transform his own way of thinking.

"What damn freedom!"

"Continuing like this only turns us into a pile of living trash!"

"A bunch of walking corpses!"

He felt that if this murky chaos continued, the entire civilization would collapse!

However, only a minority were capable of changing their thinking. It’s difficult to transition from luxury to frugality, but easy to go from frugality to luxury. This third-party faction, at most, could yell slogans online. They had never governed nor had they ever won any seats.

They tried hard to make their voices heard, eventually shouting themselves hoarse, but not many paid attention. Instead, they were accused of being extremist radicals and were vilified by the media.

Lin Yingdong then realized that the tide of the entire society had already turned, and the opportunity was completely missed... Initially, the society’s pushback was fierce, as seen in the "6-hour workday" bill, which had sparked widespread debate, but later on, this pushback weakened substantially.

Each party competition and the bills introduced were gradually eroding the original social inertia. Humans are social animals, and if the entire society is changing, the thoughts of the vast majority change with it. This was precisely why the Transcendents were so rare; most people lacked independent thinking.

Time passed, and 30 years went by...

In this competitive environment, the ruling parties had clearly become smarter. In pursuit of power, they started to grant more freedoms to the people proactively. Otherwise, another party would introduce more tempting bills and seize the chance to oust them.

After fighting ruthlessly for such a long time and having tasted power, they would never admit defeat to the opposition.

People were not very satisfied with the six-hour workday, so it was simply changed to a five-hour workday, and then to a four-hour workday!

Everyone must have been happy with the four-hour workday, right?

It couldn’t possibly be reduced to three hours, two hours, or stop working altogether, could it? That would blatantly be a Sinking Civilization, and the people were still too wary to touch such a baseline.

Since work hours could no longer be reduced, there must still be other areas that could please the public... for instance, education?

On this remote planet, two immature political parties, without their own manifestos or ideologies, were simply pandering to the public for the sake of power.

"They have once again spread their influence over the students, reducing study time, promoting joyful education, etc. After all, students grow up and have voting rights too—they know who treats them well!"

"Of course, the children are overjoyed. Who wants to spend all day studying at school? Having an extra two hours to play each day isn’t bad!"

Next, they turned their attention to the highly sensitive topic of the Virtual World. This matter had always been strictly controlled, easily triggering public wariness and resentment.

So, they smartly skirted the rules to garner public favor.

"... increasing the annual tourism allowance in the Virtual World from fifteen days a year to twenty days!"

Each year, Virtual World Technology offered an experience allowance, allowing one to play games, travel in various worlds, or engage in activities like eating or skiing among many other things, but it all added up to just fifteen days a year—nothing more.

Now raised to twenty days, people naturally welcomed and were not annoyed by the increase.

"Then it was increased to twenty-five days, thirty days..."

It was just tourism inside, what was the big deal?

"Then they gradually opened up higher permissions in the Virtual World!"

The original Virtual World games, designed to prevent addiction, had many things that couldn’t be done in the real world, like flying through the air or the "superhuman mode"—those were impossible before, but now, they finally became possible!

"Following that, the minimum requirements to enter the Virtual World were lowered... originally only for those who were extremely aged, now, the standards have been lowered!"

"Fifty years, it took just fifty years!"

Listening to the roar of the middle-aged man on stage, Zhang Yuan’s heart sank repeatedly; he could already predict what was going to happen next.

He couldn’t help but sigh softly.

How tragically simple it was for a civilization to play themselves to death!

And so, in the fiftieth year, two competing parties suddenly realized that the government had lost control over the entire civilization. The public had begun to spontaneously pursue greater freedom; people no longer needed the government. What was the significance of so-called lousy policies? Did they require a government to formulate?

The reasons for this were simple.

On one hand, was the continual opening and alluring nature of the Virtual World.

On the other hand, there were fundamental changes in societal attitudes.

A person under an eight-hour workday regime had far greater self-discipline compared to someone under a four-hour workday. Those under an eight-hour workday, if they rested too long, would feel guilty.

Under a four-hour workday, from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM, the entire work task was finished, followed by heaps of personal free time.

With so much free time, what does one do with it?

Of course, rest and entertainment, with few using it to improve themselves.

People under a four-hour workday, if they didn’t work for a long time, wouldn’t feel any guilt at all. Instead, they gradually became more averse to work.

Take a simple example, a student who plays crazily over a weekend finds their knowledge rusty on Monday returning to school. Due to two days of intense fun, their focus greatly diminishes and they struggle to keep up in class, often taking a long time to readjust to a normal state.

The same goes for the four-hour workday; it’s not just the work hours that are reduced, but the personal state as well.

In an eight-hour workday, yesterday’s work and today’s work are continuous, and one can quickly get into the work mode after just a few minutes of adjustment.

In a four-hour workday, after substantial entertainment, people must spend a lot of time adjusting their state. Sometimes while adjusting, they realize half the day has passed, then the workday ends, and they have done nothing, and it’s back to rest time...

In such cases, what difference does it make to work four hours or none at all?

Time slipped away day by day, and the so-called "four hours of focused work, surpassing the past eight hours," soon became an empty boast, which then evolved into everyone slacking off during work hours or simply skipping work altogether since there were no important tasks anyway.

Work turned into a superficial formality.

The societal atmosphere collapsed in this way, and the two parties busy blaming each other were unaware of this matter; they gradually lost control over the society. Thus, the whole society evolved into a state of anarchy; in people’s minds, anarchy was the most "free" state.