Chapter 352: Project Nuwa

Chapter 352: The Nüwa Project

The two figures over the sand table fell into a prolonged silence.

Lin Yu saw it clearly: Lin Xi had set a deadlock for him.

So long as they stayed within the rules, there was no way for the village's strength to surpass that of the monster.

There was only one correct course.

A total retreat, to hide.

Either keep the monster unaware,

or hide in a place it cannot reach.

The latter, of course, was impossible.

The monster's reach spanned the whole village; in the real world that would be the entire world.

Do you think you could simply leave this world?

Lin Yu already knew that humanity possessed the ability to abandon the so‑called “Earth” and soar into the boundless star‑strewn heavens.

Yet, in a cosmos as barren as a desert, where could any haven for mankind be found?

Even taking a step back, such a strategy proved untenable.

For the net the monster cast was meant to haul far more than just the “Earth” fish.

It was a net cast across the whole galaxy, and a single haul would annihilate countless, even millions, of civilizations.

“Is there truly no other way?”

Lin Yu asked, his tone tinged with a low melancholy.

“There isn’t.”

Lin Xi waved a hand lightly, and the sand table vanished.

Immediately, the two found themselves back in the void of space, looking down upon Earth.

This time, however, Lin Xi drew the view nearer, allowing Lin Yu a clearer sight.

“Now our conversation can formally enter its final stage.”

Lin Xi began.

“I think you now understand everything, and you have realized how immense and severe the problem before us truly is.”

“But I suspect that, even so, you still cling to a sliver of hope, do you not?”

“You still imagine that perhaps, somewhere we have not yet uncovered, lies a universal key that could solve all our woes, merely awaiting discovery, right?”

“Right.”

Lin Yu nodded emphatically.

Lin Xi smiled faintly and shifted the perspective down to the ground.

Then he spoke again:

“That, indeed, is a problem.”

“We have, too, weighed the same considerations.”

“Do we secure survival first, even if it means living incompletely?”

“Or do we gamble on that one in a million chance?”

“We chose the former.”

“Do not question our choice yet; first behold the two plans and the outcomes after countless simulations.”

As he spoke, the scene before their eyes began to flicker.

Cities rose from the earth like towers, growing ever more prosperous as time marched on.

Buildings climbed higher, vegetation yielded to human habitations, night lights coalesced into clusters of luminous halos.

Humanity entered a rapid development phase, as if the chance to break the net lay within reach.

Yet in a single instant, a dim flash streaked across the sky.

Immediately after,

the cities began to decay and vanish.

The lights faded, and vegetation reclaimed dominance.

Another cataclysm struck, and humanity was thrust back to the beginning.

——

Of course, not everyone perished in that cataclysm.

“We are but ants,”

Lin Xi said.

“Each time an elephant steps upon an anthill, it utterly crushes the home we have labored to build.”

“But it cannot completely exterminate us.”

“We will scrape our existence from the troughs beneath its foot, and labor anew to reproduce.”

“The anthill will be rebuilt once more.”

With Lin Xi’s dead‑pan narration at its most dispassionate, the human civilization below rose and fell again and again.

It seemed an unsolvable vicious circle.

Yet Lin Yu suddenly noticed that after each resurgence, before the next ruin, the scale of human civilization shrank a little.

Until the final iteration, humanity could no longer rely on the “legacy” to fend off the formidable threats upon the ground.

The last “person” fell beneath the monster’s claws.

Lin Xi magnified the scene. Lin Yu saw with stark clarity the fate of that final human.

His body was pierced, blood gushing forth in a torrent.

The monster greedily sucked the blood, tearing at his corpse.

Those beasts seemed oblivious to the meaning of this hunt; they only knew that they could finally feast on a full meal.

Yet they did not realize that what they were swallowing was the last fragment of a civilization.

Humanity was extinct.

Lin Yu’s gaze flickered faintly.

“Show me another outcome.”

He said.

When his words fell, the vision shifted once more.

A massive city sprawled underground, cold silicon chips glittering like stars across the void.

Coolant water streams through the trench outside the server hall, carrying away the massive heat emitted by the chips in operation.

This city has become a true “anthill.”

It runs silently, without a sound.

Hundreds of years have passed, yet the city still retains its original visage.

Yet it seems that something within the city has begun to shift, faintly.

More quantum chips are supplanting the silicon ones of centuries past, and more conduits are being erected.

The second city gradually takes shape, a cable of colossal girth binding the two metropolises together.

Immediately thereafter, growth erupts at an exponential pace.

The city's scale swells, and the numbers that signify its “computational power” climb ever higher.

Electronic lifeforms that dwell within the virtual city observe the world in their own way, perpetually reproducing through “cloning” within the metropolis.

Lin Yu furrowed his brow.

After a moment of contemplation, he asked:

“So this so‑called outcome is that humanity has completely abandoned its flesh?”

“No, of course not.”

Lin Xi shook her head, then continued:

“Haven’t you already seen our bodies?”

“I have?”

Lin Yu suddenly realized.

Those mountain‑city people!

He looked at Lin Xi in disbelief, and she nodded slowly.

At that moment, on the screen, the city’s development finally reached its terminus.

A dim flash never visited this world from beginning to end, as if that monster had utterly forgotten this place.

The perspective draws ever closer.

In an instant, a silhouette emerged from beneath the ground.

He wore the flexible armor that Lin Yu had once seen.

When he stepped into the sunlight, he removed the integrated helmet from his head.

A handsome face was revealed.

Lin Xi spoke:

“When the time is right, our flesh will once again tread the surface.”

“But that will be far in the future.”

“So now, do you understand what we are doing?”

“I understand.”

Lin Yu exhaled a long breath.

“It is a prolonged hibernation!”

“Indeed.”

Lin Xi nodded with satisfaction.

“Your phrasing is apt; it truly resembles hibernation.”

“Yet, we prefer to call this plan”

“the Nüwa Project.”

“In the future, the first one to set foot on the ground will already have a name.”

“He is called Suiren!”

(End of chapter)