Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 340 - 259: Young Mother

Chapter 340: Chapter 259: Young Mother

After receiving Duan Mingyuan’s invitation, Jiuyue set aside her egg-hatching work and rushed to the prison interior immediately.

The digitalized world had brought her many benefits, such as being able to clearly see the hatching progress bar of the Leviathan in her cabin, as well as the required temperature and humidity.

She provided the Leviathan baby with a favorable growth environment, believing that it would certainly surpass its siblings and become an outstanding cosmic tyrant.

Jiuyue held high hopes for the Leviathan baby, and there was a reason for everything.

During Duan Mingyuan’s "business trip", she read many books about Leviathan. Leviathans were recognized by people as the interstellar travel unit of the swarm, equivalent in status to Battleship Cruisers in human civilization. Because adult Leviathans had much larger bodies than Battleship Cruisers, the company’s biologists called them Star Devouring Beasts.

This was supposed to be a moment for Jiuyue to increase her knowledge, but a sentence in the Book of Leviathan made her frown deeply.

——The swarm holds the nature of the survival of the fittest in high esteem.

As one of the oldest races of the swarm, adult Leviathans traditionally abandoned malnourished eggs.

The competition among Leviathans began before they even hatched from their shells.

An adult Leviathan would breed 6-12 eggs at a time, of which only two to three could hatch into new members of the swarm. They would snatch nutrients away from the other offspring, while the adult Leviathans would abandon the less talented children to other planets.

Universe Company had discovered Leviathan eggs more than once in the Star Zones around the swarm.

Only a tiny minority hatched into younglings; most of the rest died shortly after being abandoned.

This all had to go back to when they were still on Mechanical Star.

Measured against the size of an adult Leviathan, this egg was indeed too small; all the crew unanimously believed it looked more like an egg laid by a type of cosmic monster the size of a super white-feather chicken.

Now, the truth had finally come to light!

Indeed, the free gifts were never any good.

This was a malnourished egg, and it was the weakest among its siblings, unable to even survive the first round of competition.

Initially, Jiuyue was very angry, considering this to be a case of business fraud.

The price He Ya quoted for one egg was 4.9 billion shells.

This was by no means a small amount. Even if she started managing her finances now, it would probably take her several years to afford one.

However, after incubating the egg for a few days, Jiuyue’s feelings towards it underwent a subtle change. Whenever she covered the egg with her nine tails, she could feel it trembling slightly. Although it couldn’t make any sound or express its feelings in words, she was certain that the baby inside was happy.

Despite its lack of talent and being abandoned by its race, it was still striving hard every day to absorb nutrients and grow vigorously.

At that moment, Jiuyue couldn’t help but think of Mr. Mingyuan, as well as his attitude towards Yang Ping and Tang Qianqian. In a sense, since they had not become universally renowned powerhouses at their age, they likely did not have much room for improvement. However, Mr. Mingyuan still believed that one day they could stand on their own.

Thus, she came to an important conclusion.

Those who seemed to have no future might just be growing at a slower trajectory than others. In terms of a game, they would be characters who only make a stand in the later stages.

Jiuyue unconditionally believed that this egg would hatch into the finest Leviathan, and that this baby would one day surpass its parents in excellence.

She shared her thoughts with everyone on the ship, and they all expressed their support.

Only the Third Prince’s response was somewhat intriguing.

Young mother.

He thought Jiuyue had entered this stage.

Who would have thought this always restless little Fox Demon would bring her computer into the biology cabin, hatching the egg there all day long?

Of course, the story came across differently in the ears of others.

"First of all, the knowledge in that book may not be accurate," He Ya said, clearing her throat.

She had no idea that Leviathans had this tradition of abandoning their children across the cosmos. However, now that she thought about it, when she made the request, the brain bug agreed much too easily. There was no negotiation, no bargaining, it just complied with her wishes outright.

It was a bad egg indeed!

Wasn’t this ruining her business?

Her cooperation with Duan Mingyuan and Blue Star had just begun. These were important business partners for her future dealings, and she didn’t want an issue with just one egg to cause resentment between them.

He Ya cleared her throat and continued, "Secondly, the egg can be exchanged. I’ll have them replace it with a good one for you."

"No way!"

Jiuyue’s response was resolute. She reflexively widened her eyes, and her pointed ears and tails stood up defensively, as if she were entering a protective state.

This was her egg, the baby she was incubating!

Even if she were offered ten good eggs, she wouldn’t exchange it.

"The story is very touching. I don’t think she said these things to assign blame," said the Judge, who listened attentively and derived a completely different understanding.

Although they seemed like trivial matters of everyday life, they revealed many underlying issues and pointed directly at the current situation on Prison Planet.

"Miss Jiuyue just mentioned ’Some people who seem to have no prospects may just be on a slower growth trajectory than others.’"

Set on the Prison Planet, this is a group of people who have strayed at different waypoints in life and wandered into the wrong path.

There is no death penalty on Prison Planet; they even revive the prisoners time and again as they approach death.

This is due to the personal bias of the original designer—Eisenberg-Adler’s mentor was a supporter of the abolition of the death penalty. He believed that anyone could lose their way on the path of life, and the real question was whether they still had the possibility to turn back.

The human debate over this topic had raged for centuries, and even now, no conclusion had been reached. Supporters of different positions were putting their beliefs into practice, resulting in many cases, both good and bad.

Eisenberg’s mentor couldn’t persuade the other side, nor could he fully persuade himself, because everyone has a different attitude toward judgment of sins and measures of punishment. No one could find a solution that satisfied everyone, so in his twilight years, the mentor left all the thorny issues to artificial intelligence.

Since neither side could ever persuade the other, they entrusted the final judgment to a truly objective, rational Judge to handle.

Now, having understood "emotion," the Judge realized that many of the mentor’s propositions were based on personal feelings.

Eisenberg, like his mentor, although they had never been on a battlefield, never killed anyone with gun or blade, the number of people who died because of them was much greater than that of those notorious prisoners.

They died from weapons they created, from every command they issued.

Every word they spoke, every decision they made, took someone’s life.

The Judge learned that the mentor had died in his research base, the place he was most familiar with. He had devoted his life to his research. The company erected his portrait, and the media recounted his exploits, portraying him as a heroic figure.

But the Judge knew very well that the mentor could not reconcile with himself until the very end of his life.

He would have some strange dreams.

He dreamed of complete strangers sitting in a university classroom, listening to his lectures.

Then a shell fell into the classroom, splashing his face with blood and flesh.

After the mentor left Prison Planet, he never returned. He did not have the courage to have the artificial intelligence he believed in objectively evaluate the path of his life.

But his most proud student, Eisenberg, had this opportunity.

The year 1603.

No one could have such a long life; it was a term of imprisonment that would never end.

It also meant that no matter what good deeds Eisenberg did, nor what punishment he received, it was never enough to atone for the sins he had committed.

"This is why you purposefully sought her out."

The Judge’s evaluation of Duan Mingyuan rose once again.

This planet, and even the prospect of a digitalized world, faced an inescapable question—how would it deal with these prisoners?

This puzzled the Judge and left it unable to make a decision.

Was there still a possibility for these people to improve?

How long should they be punished?

If not, should it kill the prisoners to facilitate the transformation of this planet?

If so, should it be all of them, or are there exceptions?

The Judge looked at Jiuyue.

Its database contained records of some matters on Blue Star, where the Fox Demon was a special race.

They were known for their intelligence, and even now, by entering the words "Fox Demon" into a search engine, many fascinating anecdotes about Fox Demons could still be found.

And this Miss Jiuyue, among the Fox Demons, must also be one of the outstanding ones. Despite not mentioning prisons and prisoners throughout, the moment she opened her mouth, she encompassed everything happening here and even thought of a vivid and marvelous metaphor.

Hatching an egg.

All this time, it too, seemed to be incubating an egg.

Miss Jiuyue is a philosopher; perhaps it should consider Jiuyue’s opinion.

"Miss Jiuyue, I want to know your thoughts."

"Ah?"

Jiuyue’s gaze was clear, with several question marks appearing above her head.

Why did the atmosphere of the conversation in this room suddenly become a bit strange?

She mentioned the Leviathan’s egg only because she hadn’t seen Mr. Mingyuan for several days and was excitedly talking about her experiences over the past few days.

Jiuyue also didn’t understand why the Mechanical Maid suddenly seemed to have an epiphany and then looked at her with expectant eyes.

"I want to know your opinion on the prisoners," said the Judge. "If it were up to you, how would you deal with them?"

Now, it held the switch that could kill all the prisoners, and on those planets that had not abolished the death penalty, every prisoner on this planet would have been shot long ago.