I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 542 - 542 541. Look up at the stars keep your feet on the

Chapter 542: 541. Look up at the stars, keep your feet on the ground_1 Chapter 542: 541. Look up at the stars, keep your feet on the ground_1 In the movie, the world was becoming worse and worse.

This sense of despair penetrated deep into the bones.

If Yang Yiwu were watching disasters like fires or car accidents, then he could hope for firefighters to come and rescue those people.

But amid this unprecedented natural disaster, Yang Yiwu really couldn’t think of even a sliver of a way out.

He looked out the window again, where the snow, carried by the wind, was blown high into the sky. The night sky was pitch-black; no stars or moon could be seen. As someone from the south, Yang Yiwu felt fear toward the winter of the north—the dark forests blanketed deep with snow, the pitch-dark night sky, and the silent snowy nights with the occasional howling of some animal. In the early days when he first came to this town, Yang Yiwu had difficulty sleeping.

After so much time, Yang Yiwu should have been used to such cold winters by now. But at that moment, the content of the movie reminded him of those nights when the cold wind and snow knocked against the windows, and it was still cold despite the heating.

Can humanity defeat typhoons and earthquakes?

Yang Yiwu felt it was impossible within his own understanding.

And the people in the movie were researching how to flee from the disaster rather than how to stop it. Even, according to Yang Yiwu’s understanding, this content about saving the world seemed somewhat laughable and preposterous.

The wormhole proposal might have a bit of feasibility, but the world in the movie seemed to have a rather low level of space development. Also, from some of the brief plot, background posters, and slogans, it was apparent that people originally had a negative attitude toward space technology.

“Teacher, why don’t they want to let people go to space?”

At this time, a student suddenly asked.

“Because for many people, they can’t even get enough to eat, and they have no desire to go to space at all,”

Yang Yiwu thought for a moment, paused the movie, and then replied.

“For example, our school wants better equipment, a better playground, and that also requires a lot of money. Do you think it would be better to use the money to let those uncles explore space, or to build a playground for us?”

A few children looked at each other, not knowing how to answer.

“Maybe, um, it’s better to build a playground?”

One of the students said weakly.

“If a playground is built, we can enjoy it, and the students who come after can use it too, but only people here would benefit,”

“Whereas if we explore space, the various new technologies developed in order to overcome the difficulties could benefit thousands, even millions, of people.”

Yang Yiwu explained patiently.

“Building a playground here is simple, but to build one in space requires much more technology. It’s like our studies; mastering the content from elementary school is certainly easy, but why do we still need to learn the content from middle school?”

The children looked at each other.

“Because we can make more money later?”

“To go out and see the world!”

“Because we need to take the college entrance exams?”

Several answers came forth.

“All of this is true; the reason we do not remain in comfortable environments, but continuously pursue new things, is because we want a better life, we want to do things that haven’t been done before. Easy tasks can be achieved at any time, but some tasks are fraught with difficulties. If we want to seek a better life, we must choose these difficult tasks.”

Yang Yiwu said this not because he had any dream of spaceflight or because he was speaking without regard to the facts.

It was because, in his career as a rural teacher, he had encountered such situations many times.

Oftentimes, what prevented the students from continuing their education was exactly this kind of mindset.

Most parents, having no education themselves and having lived through their lives, also believe that their children don’t need much schooling. They think it’s enough for the children to know a few people and be literate. Even if school doesn’t cost money and is funded by the state, they still think it’s better for the children to go work.

Being an ignorant and numb person is easy, while learning, encountering the world, and understanding its difficulties, is not.

Yang Yiwu hoped that when these children stood firm upon the Earth, they might sometimes gaze up at the stars.

He pressed the play button, and the story continued.

However, the plot that followed was somewhat unexpected to Yang Yiwu.

Several plans were thwarted one after another, while natural disasters kept occurring around the world. The path to saving Earth seemed to have hit a dead end.

He saw that many ordinary people had already given up hope, taking to the streets in search of a final peace, and some even chose suicide to escape a world destined for destruction.

A mood of despair was spreading.

Even in the research base, the man who was there from the beginning felt that something odd was happening around him. Many researchers hit research dead ends and began attempting things in desperation. Morals and laws could no longer constrain them; rather than heroes saving the world, these people more closely resembled devils pushing it to ruin.

Finally, even he himself became somewhat crazed.

On the other side of the wormhole, monsters appeared, and after a tense, thrilling, and terrifying battle, those insect-like creatures were defeated. But the other side of the wormhole could no longer become humanity’s new Eden.

People irradiated by the minerals indeed developed some superpower abilities, but shortcomings such as a shortened lifespan also appeared. Humanity definitely could not rely on such a state to escape natural disasters.

And the attempts at consciousness uploading, mechanical ascension, kept failing. Machines could hardly bear the load of a human brain, and the difference in structure led to the collapse of consciousness.

The more he watched, the more despondent Yang Yiwu felt.

Even those researchers who represented hope gradually succumbed to despair.

At this point, a sound suddenly came from outside the window, and Yang Yiwu immediately stood up to check. He discovered that a tree outside had been toppled by the heavy snow. That tree had stood outside the school for many years, long before Yang Yiwu even came there, and no one would have thought that it would fall on this snowy night.

Yang Yiwu felt that human civilization in the movie was like that tree; it existed before you came to this world and stood tall for many years, making you believe it would always be there. Yet nobody knows when a sudden calamity might topple that tree, leaving you utterly powerless.

He looked at the students, who were staring at the screen, and hadn’t yet experienced the bitterness that Yang Yiwu felt. They had seen too little and were full of hope for the future, thinking everything in the movie was fictional. But Yang Yiwu knew very well that these things, although not identical, were actually happening in the world every moment.

Suddenly, the tone of the movie brightened a bit.

Several despondent scientists seemed to have gained some inspiration amidst the disaster; they appeared to have found a way to save the world and started taking action.

Yang Yiwu thought that the story of the movie might take a dramatic turn for the better.

But he was wrong.

Awaiting him was a deeper abyss.