Chapter 197: Kal'tsit, What Have You Done!
Theresa was very excited.
"Really? Truly?" She grasped Xia Yu's hand. "Tearing down a whole city..."
"No exaggeration," the Doctor spoke up from the side. "For a civilization capable of traversing the Sea of Stars, dismantling a city isn't all that difficult."
"Indeed," Kal'tsit nodded in agreement.
"The Sea of Stars? Such a romantic term," Theresa smiled upon hearing this. "If there's ever a chance, I'd like to go see it too."
"There will be a chance," Xia Yu said. "After all, the Doctor is here."
"The Doctor... the Doctor..." Theresa sighed softly. "To be honest, from the perspective of the Demon King, I never thought anyone would help the Sarkaz so selflessly."
She looked down at Xia Yu. "Please forgive my bluntness. After all, for so many years, the Sarkaz... have always been displaced and wandering."
"I think, rather than helping the Sarkaz, the Doctor is your true objective, isn't he?"
"True, the Sarkaz are just a matter of convenience," Xia Yu didn't deny it. She spoke up, "From the data we've gathered, every survivor of the Doctor's kind has their own unique expertise. Even within the Federation, they would be considered top-tier scholars."
"If we can secure a scholar like him, the help to our future plans would be immense. Sister Acheron already has a lead on the Scepter Computer. Once that thing is in our hands, we'll need people to analyze, research, and modify it."
"It's been tens of thousands of years. Since the last Great Annihilation, many emerging civilizations have begun to explore the starry sky. The Alliance is in a period of high-speed development. To be blunt, although it sounds grand, the territory we actually control is probably not even as large as humanity's during its peak."
"In this situation, a talent of the Doctor's level would absolutely be valued by the entire Alliance."
"But I assume you haven't spread word of my existence yet?" the Doctor asked.
"Correct," Xia Yu nodded. "Because it's not time yet. You should understand the reason."
"Fear, right," the Doctor sighed.
"Yes. With so many ruins of civilizations left behind by the Great Annihilation, how could any newcomer not feel fear upon seeing those 'tombstones'?" Xia Yu sighed. "Within the Federation, the Escapist Faction always holds the upper hand."
"Their proposition is to develop toward even more distant star systems, as if they're certain the Observer won't go there... Hah, they're just ostriches."
"Our civilization was born within a 'graveyard.' Everywhere the eye can see, there are 'tombstones' left by the Great Annihilation. But you know how it is—it's useless to say these things to people who've had the courage scared out of them."
"To tell the truth, the only reason our group has been able to explore freely for all these years is thanks to Sister Acheron's peerless martial might," Xia Yu shrugged. "Otherwise, we would have been shut down long ago."
"We have our own selfish motives too. So, can you accept that?"
"If Ed knew your plan, he would definitely love you to death," the Doctor sighed. "As for me, it seems I don't have many choices."
"Yeah, being woken up and forced into a 'choice of two'—no, being forced toward a dead end," Xia Yu looked at the Doctor with schadenfreude. "What choice is there to speak of?"
"What do you mean, a dead end?" Kal'tsit was no longer calm.
"Oh, my dear Doctor Kal'tsit," Xia Yu glanced at her sideways. "I'm sure he's very touched that you believe the Doctor can solve everything."
"But did you know? Even if in a child's eyes a 'father' is all-powerful, in reality, he isn't truly omnipotent."
Xia Yu teased, "Like how you woke him up wanting him to solve the Originium problem—not only can he not succeed, it would drive him driven insane by the pressure."
"Speaking of which, I really want to ask you: how did you feel so certain that the Doctor would help you upon waking up? After all, the Originium Project was his own achievement, wasn't it?"
"Do you know? Just now, when Theresa took us to see that flowerbed, what was the Doctor's first reaction?"
Xia Yu said with a giggle, "It was killing intent. He wanted to kill Theresa, whether that was his conscious intent or not."
"There is no doubt that the Doctor is a good person in every sense of the word. But your actions have placed this good person in an impossible dilemma. If he helps you, the Originium Project is guaranteed to fail. Wouldn't all the sacrifices made by the Prehistory civilization be completely in vain? After all, based on the current situation, the Originium Project is already the most reliable of those several plans."
"But if he doesn't help you, he's a good person who can't just stand by and watch a fledgling civilization be devoured alive by his own creation. He's been awake for a while now and has met many people."
"Watching these people go to their deaths—isn't that torture for him?"
"You know, if this continues, he'll be driven mad by this impossible predicament."
"So, Kal'tsit, what were you actually thinking?"
"...Is this true? Doctor?" Kal'tsit's voice trembled as she looked at the Doctor. "Did I really... put you in an unsolvable position?"
"It's not actually that severe..." the Doctor glanced at Kal'tsit with some embarrassment. "I can still manage my own emotions."
"Oh? Is that so?" Xia Yu gave him a meaningful look.
'I don't believe a word of that. Don't you know what Priestess did inside your body?'
"...I'm sorry, Doctor," Kal'tsit lowered her head. "It's my fault."
In her past memories, the Doctor was always someone who loved life, a complete contrast to the extremely rational Priestess. Thus, Kal'tsit felt that if the Doctor saw the Terra of today, he would certainly help.
The reason was the Doctor's past instructions and the original intent of the Originium Project.
'Originium will become a beacon formed by the condensation of our civilization...'
'If one day, other life forms in the universe return to this dead home, seeking a way to break the deadlock,'
'They will witness—that we were once glorious.'
'That we resisted.'
'That we sleep here.'
'And that before our annihilation, we passed a gift to those who came after—hope.'
Kal'tsit thought that Terrans were included in those so-called 'other life forms,' and thus it didn't violate the original intent of the Originium Project.
"But the Originium Project isn't finished," the Doctor sighed. "In the original plan, Originium was supposed to engulf the entire planet. The Internalized Universe could only be fully constructed then; that is the complete form of Originium."
"And now... for some reason, a deviation occurred in the Originium Project, resulting in a rampage in a form I cannot understand," he shook his head. "Although the Internalized Universe is being constructed, it is far from complete."
"Originium in this state cannot fulfill the dual goals of being a tombstone and hope."
In other words, the birth of Terrans was a complete accident. The 'ones who come after' were someone else entirely, and Terrans just happened to exist at this awkward point in time.
If the Originium Project cannot be completed, it means this 'gift' and tombstone aren't yet built, and such a flawed plan cannot block the gaze of the Observer.
Now, the Doctor has only two choices. Either stop the Originium Project for the sake of the Terrans, letting all previous efforts go to waste and gambling all hope on this fledgling civilization that hasn't even stepped off its planet.
Or, continue the Originium Project, completing it at the cost of all Terrans.
There was a reason the Doctor slept in the sarcophagus. In the plan, Priestess entered the interior of the Originium to perform the construction, while he would wake at the appropriate time to complete the final step of the Originium Project.
Then Kal'tsit acted, awakening the Doctor at this awkward timing.
If you were going to act, you should have either done it earlier—waking the Doctor as an insurance policy to make corrections when the Originium first went on a rampage. Back then, it was the era of the Teekaz, and Terra's little animals hadn't been given their Originium 'beauty filters' yet; the sacrifice wouldn't have been so great.
Or, you should have waited until the Originium completely engulfed the planet before the Doctor woke up. That way, he at least wouldn't have to bear such immense psychological pressure.
But Kal'tsit was probably quite confused herself. As a created domestic intelligent robot, she was basically useless in scientific research. Priestess never expected her to research anything, and the couple likely never told her the full scope of the Originium Project.
There was no place for her in the plan.
The only reason she could wander the land after all the members of Prehistory went to sleep was because the Doctor gave her freedom, letting her find her own meaning in life.
Then Kal'tsit wandered onto her path and spent tens of thousands of years in a daze. The once simple robot was now perpetually weighed down by misery.
The Doctor clearly realized this as well, and his gaze toward Kal'tsit was very awkward.
"This... isn't your fault," he shook his head with a wry smile. "We didn't explain it clearly."
"So, you should thank me," Xia Yu looked at Kal'tsit solemnly. "If I hadn't stepped in, you'd just be waiting to see what the Doctor would do after being driven mad by an impossible dilemma."
"After all, as long as we are here, the survival of the Terrans is no longer an impossible situation. At worst, we can just move them to a new home. Talos II is quite scenic, too."
Simply put, for a true interstellar civilization, the trolley problem placed before them simply doesn't exist. They really can save the people on one track and move them somewhere else before the trolley runs them over.
Of course, Xia Yu didn't have that capability right now, but when it comes to drawing big cakes, you just have to draw them.
Anyway, if moving the Terrans doesn't work, moving the Originium is the same.
If it just needs to swallow a planet, the biggest problem now is that Terra lacks aerospace technology. But moving the stuff doesn't require technology on their end—couldn't they just find a deserted planet for it?
Actually, the researchers of Prehistory weren't evil people. The Terra they chose was originally a deserted planet; they figured since no one was there, they might as well make use of it.
But who could have guessed that after the project began and everyone fell asleep, the earliest Teekaz civilization would suddenly sprout from the ground? Then the Teekaz touched the Originium, the Originium began to rampage, and those little animals that came from the planet Talos II on spaceships were all given Originium 'beauty filters.'
When the Doctor woke up and saw a land full of demi-humans, he was stunned. He thought, 'Didn't we specifically look for a Wasteland back then? Did these people pop out from the cracks in the rocks?'
Kal'tsit's face stiffened. Following the logic, she realized it really was the case.
"I'm sorry, Doctor..." She couldn't even lift her head when she looked at him.
"Alright, that's enough venting. It's time for some real business," Xia Yu clapped her hands, drawing everyone's attention. "What do you plan to do about the food in my hands?"
"Oh, right, I treated over a hundred thousand Infected in Lungmen and then opened several companies to settle them down. But the goods produced by their labor... tsk, I doubt anyone would buy goods from an Infected factory."
Xia Yu curled her lips. "But that's perfect. I assume the Sarkaz don't discriminate against the Infected, right?"
"Are you talking about international trade?" Theresa's eyes lit up instantly. "We don't! Which Sarkaz would possibly discriminate against the Infected!"
"May I ask what kind of factories they are?"
"One for primary food processing, and one for manufacturing mobile platforms," Xia Yu said with a smile. "I assume you'll be very interested."
"That is wonderful!" Theresa grasped Xia Yu's hand with a bang. "We are extremely interested!"
Setting food aside for a moment, those mobile platforms were truly good things!
The dilapidated state of the Kazdel city area was something the Sarkaz had scraped together using the strength of their entire race. It wasn't that they didn't want to live in a new city area.
They just didn't have the capability!
"It's just... will Yan's side be... regarding such trade..." Theresa was still a bit worried.
After all, with Kazdel being such a desolate place, there really weren't any formal trade channels.
"Don't worry, they won't dare to cut it off," Xia Yu smiled. "After all, my dear Sister Tarnished is still nominally in the sea territory to the east of Yan."
"And currently, the era of massive infrastructure within Yan is gradually ending. The previously saturated production capacity is becoming a surplus, and many factories are worried about future orders. As long as taxes are paid, they don't care who the buyer is."
"If a factory doesn't have orders, it will stop working. If it stops, people lose jobs. Unemployment leads to economic stagnation, and stagnation leads to even more unemployment. So even if only to protect the employment rate, the Yan government won't make things difficult for such large-scale exports."
"After all, mobile platforms and basic grains aren't really considered vital strategic materials. Anyone with a bit of industry could make them. Look at Yan's neighbors: Higashi is their little brother, Ursus industry is doing well, and Rim Billiton is a major mining power."
"It's only you Sarkaz who are dirt poor with a vast market."
At this point, Xia Yu looked at Theresa and said meaningfully, "The problem now is: first, do you have money?"
"Second, the reputation of the Sarkaz is truly bad... Just my small convoy traveling from Lungmen to Kazdel was intercepted by bandits thirteen times... How could anyone dare come to do business with you?"
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T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me.
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