192: Chapter 192 Civilization Factors

What on earth was the Oxygen Spiral Arm?

Why destroy it?

Gao Yuan was currently completely bewildered.

However, one thing was certain: higher civilizations had a purpose for domesticating humanity.

And it wasn't just to conduct an experiment; they actually needed to use humans.

"What is the Oxygen Spiral Arm?"

"There are four Spiral Arms in the Milky Way, and on these arms are countless star systems. The Spiral Arms are composed of gas, with an oxygen content exceeding 40%! If you want to enter the Galactic Center, you can only do so by traversing the Spiral Arms. The Spiral Arms can serve as natural wormholes, but robots cannot be used inside them. In Spiral Arms composed of gas, metal oxidizes at an extremely high speed! We have experimented countless times, but we have never been able to safely pass through the Spiral Arm wormholes. Once the metal oxidizes, biological organisms die immediately upon direct contact with the oxygen!"

Gao Yuan roughly understood.

The Galactic Center was the heart of the Milky Way. To enter it, one had to traverse the Spiral Arms, but various metal machines could not pass through the Spiral Arm wormholes!

Only biological organisms could. But therein lay the problem: these alien creatures were anaerobic organisms. Once they came into contact with air without protection, they would die. This became an unsolvable paradox.

Now, there were aerobic intelligent beings—humans. Humans were not afraid of oxygen and could safely traverse the Spiral Arms.

Gao Yuan continued to ask, "Then why hasn't humanity been used to traverse the Spiral Arms until now?"

"Because humans are uncontrollable. Once they enter the Galactic Center, they might strike out on their own!"

Gao Yuan's mouth hung open in shock.

No, it still wasn't right. It didn't make sense.

Higher civilizations had neither negotiated with humans nor controlled them to conduct experiments! They were fully capable of driving and controlling humans to do this.

The Real World was one thing; after all, it had only been developing for a few hundred years. With human technology, even if they entered the Galactic Center, it likely wouldn't be of much use.

But what about the Future World?

The higher civilizations had blocked their channels for spatial experiments and trapped them in the Solar System. This didn't add up.

"When does humanity become considered 'controllable'?"

Gao Yuan asked.

"Humans are never controllable! We have observed humans for many years and found that they will never follow a single rule and will never be satisfied. Such a civilization is demonic!"

This was hilarious.

Gao Yuan wanted to laugh. Since they were forever uncontrollable and recognized as demons, why not eliminate humanity instead of keeping them penned in?

"Then, is humanity useless?"

"We have formulated a plan. We intend to eliminate humanity when human civilization condenses a civilization factor. We will then absorb humanity's civilization factor and perform genetic modification on ourselves to create a batch of aerobic Arctic People!"

"What is a civilization factor? Why can't the genetic modification be done now?"

"The civilization factor is the root of the origin of every intelligent being, and also the root of sustainable development. A civilization that leaves its home planet will encounter an explosion of civilization factors. The civilization factor is also called the life factor; only by possessing the life factor can there be life! Every intelligent civilization has its own primordial civilization factor. Experiments that transcend one's own civilization factor will not succeed. If we cannot absorb humanity's civilization factor, then within the scope of our civilization, aerobic organisms are a paradox! Success would be fundamentally impossible!"

Gao Yuan broke out in a cold sweat upon hearing this.

"What produces the civilization factor?"

"Every star emits civilization factors. Theoretically, every star system has the potential to nurture life!"

"That means humans have civilization factors now. Why not destroy humanity now?"

Gao Yuan asked.

"civilization factor concentration is categorized into levels. Although every star has civilization factors, it doesn't mean every star can nurture life. Even if life is nurtured, it doesn't mean intelligent life will necessarily appear. The civilization factor level of humans in the Solar System is currently Level 1. Only when it reaches Level 2 will our absorption potentially succeed! Our civilization factor level is Level 3! If we absorb the current Level 1 human civilization, it won't be very meaningful!"

Gao Yuan understood...

It was still like raising pigs for slaughter.

The human civilization level in the Real World wasn't high enough; it was too low! Therefore, there was no danger of extinction yet!

He didn't know what level the Future World was at, but it clearly hadn't reached the higher civilizations' expectations yet.

Otherwise, they would have acted long ago.

However, Gao Qiu had said before that the higher civilizations had warned them not to perform space jumps, or they would exterminate humanity. If that was true, it meant the level of the Future World had already reached the baseline of their requirements.

Hypothetically, if the civilization factor the higher civilizations expected was 80 and the baseline was 60, then the Future World was currently at about 60. It wasn't the best, but it was usable!

"Is the civilization factor related to the level of technology?"

"The civilization factor is related to the level of technology, the population of the biological species, the degree of development, and the nature of the government! The more advanced the technology, the larger the population, the deeper the development of the home star system, and the more unified and stable the government, the higher the civilization factor!"

Gao Yuan understood...

No wonder there were so many people in the Future World; it likely had something to do with the higher civilizations. Otherwise, normally, the population couldn't have grown that fast! Also, humanity having a unified government was beneficial for increasing the civilization factor, and an increase in the civilization factor could also promote technological development... The larger the population, the deeper the development of the home star system...

Now Gao Yuan finally understood why the higher civilizations wanted to domesticate humanity.

Now the problem was: the faster Gao Yuan developed, the closer humanity came to death!

The civilization factor level of the Real World was currently only Level 1, while the higher civilizations were already at Level 3! Even the Future World barely reached Level 2.

The higher civilizations had already been at Level 3 a long time ago.

Back when Earth only had single-celled organisms, the higher civilizations could already perform interstellar travel and interfere with celestial bodies in other star systems. In contrast, humanity's truly rapid development had only lasted a few hundred years!

The gap was too vast...

Gao Yuan felt a sense of despair. Just then, someone approached.

He quickly pretended to start working.

"Jimmy, it's your turn to go up and patrol!"

"Okay!"

Gao Yuan actually wanted to ask: Earth had already implemented robotic equipment for patrols, so why did they still use snake-men to patrol here?

He silently walked toward the outside.

Someone approached, their snake tail swaying back and forth on the ground as they moved quite fast.

"Hey, Jimmy, where's Lu Yuan?"

"I don't know! He should still be up there!"

Gao Yuan said casually.

Lu Yuan was one of the two snake-men he had captured; he likely wouldn't be coming back.

Gao Yuan and this snake-man reached the surface one after the other. As soon as they stepped out, a wave of scorching heat hit them. Gao Yuan felt like his body was about to be cooked. Then, he noticed the snake-man next to him had a protective shield around his body that could block out the external high temperatures.

How was this done?

Gao Yuan wanted one too!

The snake-man looked at Gao Yuan, and the two of them stared at each other.

"Aren't you hot?"

"Hot..."

"Then why don't you turn on your protective shield?"

"I..."