“But I don’t want you to have the same status as me. What should I do?” Laplace said lazily, “There are only two minutes left.”

The iron coffin quickly pierced through the clouds, as if it was punching through piece after piece of sea surface, and the waves it stirred up crisscrossed and hit each other. That was the trajectory of fate.

“Tell me your…request.” An Ruijin said weakly.

“An Ruijin! We can’t…”

An archon wanted to say something, but An Ruijin stopped him with his hand.

There is no time.

“First, let all your secret party members voluntarily expose themselves,” Laplace said. “Yes, those hidden forces among the people that you are proud of, those ideological ‘elites’, let them voluntarily expose themselves… I have to remind you that I have mastered about two-thirds of the list in the past twenty years. If any of the secret party members I know of do not expose themselves, then the deal will be invalid.”

“Do as he says.” An Ruijin said into the headset.

All members of the secret party obeyed the order loyally. They immediately surrendered to the Valantian forces that had already blocked all areas of the Ark. Then, a series of gunshots were heard from the radio.

An Ruijin’s face turned pale, but he still looked at Laplace firmly and said:

“Then what…?”

“Tell me the key to launch your embryo chamber,” Laplace said lazily. “I know you have all engraved those numbers in your minds. No one can launch those embryos if you die, and no one can take care of them…Okay, give it to me, let me do it for you.”

“We…” The archons’ faces were almost as pale as marble and lifeless.

What is this? Giving civilization’s way out to this executioner in front of us, and letting him decide the future of civilization?

Without the Archons, what would happen to those embryos? Were they randomly launched to various corners of the continent, where the frozen adults would wake up under the care of machines, build a simple city with those few resources, and then quietly wait for the civilization headed by the Valantia family to rule everything?

They have no memory of pre-civilization, only a primitive urge to survive. They are born ignorant and remain ignorant until death.

“Reminder, there is one minute and thirty seconds left,” Laplace glanced at his watch. “Hurry up. If you die, all the embryo warehouses will be blown up by my people at the same time… At the end of your life, how about becoming a real archon despite your difficulties?”

Laplace’s last words broke the archons’ psychological defenses. They tremblingly gave out their keys one by one, then lowered their heads and silently stared at the wheelchair that was fixed in place.

An Ruijin was the last one to give out the key. Before he spoke, he closed his eyes and silently confessed to his ancestors.

“…”

Laplace sent the key to the Ark synchronously. After confirming that the launch programs of all embryo chambers were unlocked, he turned to the archons and said:

“Okay, let’s get back to the topic we started with and choose a location for your fire seeding site.”

After Laplace finished speaking, he changed the subject and pressed a switch on the table:

“No no no, I changed my mind. Let me help you choose! You first!”

He pointed at the [Consul] wearing a cherry blossom headdress and smiled softly:

“For the elegant ladies and the island civilization you are so proud of, the Eastern Islands are perfect for you!”

As soon as Laplace finished speaking, a hole appeared under the wheelchair of the [Consul] and she fell out instantly. The sound of rocket jets came from the wheelchair, pushing her towards the east.

Extra) Tower of Babel (Part 15)

That’s right, their wheelchair is a propeller. What a morbid design! It’s like a child’s joke!

A few seconds later, a deafening explosion was heard, and the expanding fireball became a beacon in the air, guiding the embryo warehouse on the Ark.

“Your death will become the fireworks of the new civilization,” Laplace smiled and looked at the remaining people, “Come on, let’s finalize it quickly.”

“You! Go fishing in the North Sea!”

“You! Go live as a savage in the mountains!”

He was like a naughty boy, controlling his destiny at will. A smile gradually appeared between the madness on his face. It was some emotion that had been suppressed for so long that was now overflowing wildly.

Two [Archons] flew out and exploded in the air. The light they emitted would guide the lost lambs and allow the embryo chambers to move in the direction set by Laplace.

“As for you, my dear Lord Anrejin Yad Persipence…” Laplace looked at Anrejin, “Do you have anything else to say? We will land in one minute.”

An Ruijin took a deep breath, his face twitching at the impending fate.

But he soon said to Laplace firmly:

“Laplace, eliminating the secret party does not mean your position will be stable. You think I created the secret party, but in fact it was the secret party that pushed me out. As long as there are people, there will always be voices of resistance. You can’t keep your position forever.”

He closed his eyes, awaiting his impending fate:

“I know that keeping the flame alive has never been important to you, but I implore you to look at them, at the people you normally wouldn’t look at.”

An Ruijin’s tone was sincere, as if he hoped to make this arch-enemy-like figure repent at the last moment, or perhaps he just wanted to appear less embarrassed.

Laplace just smiled and pressed the button:

“Your last words were boring.”

An Ruijin flew out of the iron coffin and flew quickly towards the mountains behind him. After a long time, the sound of explosion was heard from the sky.

After the four consuls had left, Laplace snapped his fingers, and the shuttle instantly flew over the conference room. Several steel cables equipped with anti-thrusters accurately hit the top of the conference room, and began to slow down the falling iron coffin.

The transparent walls on all sides closed, and the room became dark. Laplace was still sitting at the long table, his previous madness had disappeared, and only calmness remained on his face.

In the darkness, he recalled the last time he sat here. At that time, he fought against four archons alone. He was high-spirited and unruly because he knew he had nothing to lose.

That day, when he walked out of the conference room, Elizabeth was waiting for him at the door. He hugged Elizabeth and kissed Elizabeth, explaining his only expectation in the days after the end of the world.

There was a vibration sound, and the iron coffin fell to the ground. The lights in the room came on again, illuminating the door directly opposite the long table.

Laplace knew that after opening the door this time, he would not see Elizabeth again.

“…”

Laplace stood up and waved his hand. The soldier in the corner of the room followed him to the door of the meeting room.

The door was open, and a cool breeze with the smell of dew blew towards him. Laplace stepped out of the door and stepped on the grass-covered land – a vast grassland spread out before his eyes, the deepest grass could even submerge a person’s waist, and when the breeze blew, the grass tips slowly surged like waves at night, and it was like the pleated long skirt that Elizabeth wore at the ball, dancing and stirring Laplace’s eyes that had been closed in the dark for a long time.

“The oxygen content is 21.3%, which is suitable for survival.”

The soldiers spread out, measuring the parameters of the air, but Laplace remained motionless. He raised his head and looked towards the overcast sky. Fine raindrops were falling, dripping on his face and sliding down his cheeks. This was the first time Laplace had felt rain in twenty years.

With a roar, a shuttle slowly landed on the grass, stirring up layers of grass waves. Shelby jumped off the shuttle and handed a black coat to Laplace:

“A city will be built here, right?”

“It’s not just a city, it’s civilization,” Laplace said.

He put on his coat and touched his face with a refreshed look. His silver eyes reflected the projection of the Tower of Babel.

He wanted to gather everything together at the top of the tower, and then he would overlook the earth.

“This civilization was born for truth, and I named it… [Academy].”

Bigger waves came from afar, and the Ark finally landed on the ground for the first time after sailing in the sky for twenty years. The fire of civilization crossed the sea and took root in the land called Ademir Continent.

……

“…”

The wind and snow blew across the rocks. In this nearly eternal wind and snow, the stones had become accustomed to the sound of the wind. If a place is left without any foreign objects intruding for too long, everything here would solidify and remain unchanged forever.

But suddenly, the sound of the wind here started again – an external object passed through the blizzard and fell into the snowdrift, motionless. A momentary flame sprang out from the wreckage of the external object, but was quickly drowned by the wind and snow.

The stones don’t care about any foreign objects intruding. The continent of Ardmir has always been isolated from the outside world. Twenty years ago, there would occasionally be strange flying objects flying overhead, observing the patterns on these ancient stones through the wind and snow. The stones don’t care about other people’s observations, as these observations are insignificant. Some scientists from the Great Union would use the rarely developed characteristics of this continent to write articles and write a few papers or plans to defraud funding. Those flying objects that passed by were just tools for them to collect materials.

But stones are stones after all. What they don’t know is that quietly, a fire is about to be started in the snow.

“…”

The wreckage was slowly pulled apart, and Enrique Ad Persiphons stood up with difficulty. His face was pale, perhaps due to blood loss or cold.

But he knew he was going to die.

Before entering the meeting room, he put on the factor shield in advance, intending to prevent assassination, but he didn’t expect that it would save his life in the end.

Unfortunately, he didn’t live long, and he fell into the mountains on the north side of the Ademir continent. This mountain range is called Wanren Mountain. Except for top hunters and groups of prey, nothing can survive in it.

Even if he walked out of the snowstorm? Now that the secret party was gone, he could not create a wave by himself, and in the end, he would not have a good ending.

“…”

An Ruijin knelt in the snow, the cold gradually faded away, his body became warmer and warmer, even close to hot. This made him want to take off his clothes, but he wanted to die at least decently.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, a faint firelight penetrated the snowstorm not far away. An Ruijin raised his head and saw two… no, more than a dozen small fireballs moving forward in the snowstorm!

When the fireballs got closer, An Ruijin realized that they were actually people! They were mountain people covered in fur, and most of their eyes were as blue as the sky, and a few were as deep as the night sky, even though they had never seen the sky outside the snow.

After seeing An Ruijin, they started to chatter with each other. An Ruijin didn’t understand what they meant, so he could only yell at them:

“help me!”

Long ago, the Great Union proved that there were traces of primitive people in the mountains of the Ademir continent. But they did not go looking for them like they did to civilize the nomads on the Monkar steppes, because the resources on the continent were scarce and the climate in the mountains was too harsh, so there was no need to develop them.

An Ruijin didn’t know these mountain people, and even regarded them as possible enemies at the beginning of the [Spark] plan. But now, he had no choice, even if these mountain people regarded him as food in the winter, he had to give it a try.

These people have no civilization, but civilization has abandoned them.

“…”

The mountain people fell silent after hearing An Ruijin’s roar. They exchanged glances, and one of them, a man with black hair and black eyes, walked out and stretched out his hand towards An Ruijin.

It was not until Anregen later learned the language known as “Thebite” that he understood the meaning of this sentence:

“Don’t let the mountains eat you, outsider (Thebitten).”

……

Extra) Tower of Babel (Part 16)

“I see cities, endless, reaching out from the center to the sky.”

“The earth changed from grass to mud, from mud to stone bricks, from stone bricks to steel, covering the earth.”

“But the starry sky is still far away.”

“…”

Laplace opened his eyes. This was his fifth hibernation. According to the timeline, seventy-five years had passed since the Day of Judgment.

During these seventy-five years, the Odin Council headed by Laplace has been iterated several times, and everyone has faithfully carried out all the plans he designated and used those machines to build cities.

Seventy-five years ago, Laplace could not trust others to handle everything. He had to control everything in his own hands before he could sleep peacefully. But now it is different. He has mastered the technology to control those people.

A creation called [Deep Diving Cradle].

Those who were branded with the ideological imprint carried out Laplace’s plan day after day for ten years, and faithfully carried out the task of reproducing offspring, continuously passing on the genes belonging to the elite.

During these five hibernations, Laplace woke up in a different room almost every time. At first, he slept in a cellar built of stone, and when he woke up, he was already in a hospital with complete medical facilities. He was like a time traveler, constantly shuttling back and forth between eras, only issuing some orders at critical moments. In a blink of an eye, the city of Academi continued to expand, and soon countless small cities were derived.

This time, Laplace’s awakening was not accompanied by any important instructions. After waking up, he received a briefing from the artificial intelligence assistant that he was here to say goodbye to an old friend.

“…”

Laplace sat up and turned to look at the French window beside him. The city was in his sight. He was at the top of a building called the Academy Building. As the city expanded, the city where he first landed was no longer called Academi City, but was officially named the capital, Wezel. As for Academi, the name from the old world, it became the name of the new Odin civilization.

——Academi Federation.

A heart attack came without warning, and Laplace grabbed his chest, slowed down his breathing, and calmed his emotions. This condition would get worse every time he woke up from hibernation. According to his understanding of his physical condition, he would soon no longer be suitable for hibernation.

According to his waking age, Laplace is now sixty years old. For the elite class of Odin people who possess genetic modification technology, this age is not considered old. But Laplace’s body is constantly weakening, and he feels like he is dying.

The more he wanted to reach out to the starry sky, the farther it became from him.

“…”

Looking out the window at the increasingly prosperous capital of Wezel, Laplace finished a cup of hot tea and said:

“Take me to see Old Tom.”

……

Tom Filos had made great contributions on the Ark. According to Laplace’s promise, he should obtain hibernation resources after the initial stage of pioneering, so as to prolong his life in the future.

However, a problem emerged in front of everyone – hibernation had limitations.

The older a person’s physical age is, the less effective the life support system will be in maintaining his physiological functions in a hibernation state. This effect will continue to increase with the number of hibernations. Old Tom had exceeded this threshold early on. He refused to take the risk of hibernation and decided to spend the rest of his time in the newly civilized city.

“…”

Laplace walked into the ward and saw Old Tom lying on the bed, with instruments all over his body.

He saw Laplace come in, and with a slight smile on his face, he greeted:

“you’re awake?”