108: Chapter 108 Level Two Civilization, System Upgrade

Time flows like a river, and the years pass by like a shadow.

Thirteen years later!

"Congratulations to the host's civilization for reaching Level 2 Civilization. The conditions for a system upgrade have been met. Would you like to upgrade?"

Su Fan was in the courtyard with Zhou Xiaoxiao, playing with their son, Su Mingxia, when the system's voice suddenly resonated in his mind.

"Xiaoxiao, you watch our son for a bit; I have some work to handle."

"Alright, go ahead." Despite thirteen years having passed, Zhou Xiaoxiao still looked like a young girl.

Being in her forties seemed insignificant when compared to a long lifespan of 1,000 years.

Su Fan was inwardly excited. It was now the year 2046. He remembered that the last time the system had refused to upgrade was in 2029; a full seventeen years had passed since then.

"Seventeen years!"

"Do you know how I've spent these seventeen years!"

Su Fan grumbled silently to himself.

Over these years, he and Zhou Xiaoxiao had grown tired of just being a couple, and they finally had a son six years ago!

"Asking the host again, would you like to upgrade?" the system's mechanical voice sounded once more.

"Upgrade!" Su Fan returned to his study and confirmed without hesitation.

"System upgrading. Estimated time: half an hour. Host, please wait patiently." As the system finished speaking, the interface in Su Fan's vision turned into a progress bar with a percentage.

The system was as considerate as ever, providing a visual representation of the upgrade progress.

Give it a thumbs up!

Half an hour passed quickly.

"System upgrade complete. Current system level: Level 2."

"Host, please keep up the good work and strive to increase the civilization level."

Su Fan excitedly opened the system interface. Sure enough, in the system's Black Technology Mall, all Level 3 Civilization black technologies had been unlocked.

"One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million!"

Su Fan's heart pounded as he counted the prices of the black technologies.

"System, I knew it. Level 3 Civilization black technologies start at a million!"

"The host need not be afraid. This is only a Level 3 Civilization; the most expensive black technology is only 9.99 million influence points, definitely not exceeding ten million."

After this upgrade, the system's voice was no longer as mechanical and sounded more like a human's.

"System, can you give me a hint about how many influence points are needed for Level 4 Civilization black technology?" Su Fan asked expectantly.

"This question does not involve classified information and can be answered," the system said indifferently.

"Level 4 Civilization black technologies start at 100 million influence points."

"Holy crap!" Su Fan exclaimed. "How did Level 4 jump to 100 times the cost of Level 3?!"

"Wasn't it always a ten-fold increase before?!"

"The system declines to answer," the system said coldly.

"Fine, I won't worry about Level 4 for now. Who knows how long it'll take to get there. Let's look at the Level 3 technologies first." Su Fan began browsing the system's Black Technology Mall.

"Advanced Artificial Intelligence—I'll exchange for and extract this one first."

"Advanced Artificial Intelligence, valued at 3 million influence points. Would you like to exchange and extract?" the system prompted.

"Exchange and extract!"

Having already reached the level of a Level 2 lifeform, extracting this black technology only took Su Fan ten minutes.

He only felt a slight warmth in his brain, which didn't interfere with his ability to do other things.

Aside from having greater computing power, better intelligence, and concurrent calculation capabilities, the Advanced AI didn't seem to have any other new abilities.

Su Fan continued browsing the system mall.

Although every Level 3 Civilization black technology started at a million influence points, Su Fan currently held over 10 billion influence points.

Level 2 Civilization black technologies only cost a few hundred thousand points each. As long as he didn't manifest them—or rather, didn't manifest the production lines—they were still very cheap.

Over the past dozen or so years, he hadn't used the Dimensional Ascension Manifestation function, so he hadn't spent much.

Furthermore, after over a decade of development, the population of the Xia Nation had reached 2 billion, so his influence points had been steadily increasing.

"System, exchange for Heavy Fusion Technology for me." Su Fan opened the energy category and took a fancy to Heavy Fusion Technology.

"Heavy Fusion Technology is valued at 4.2 million influence points. Would you like to exchange?"

"Exchan... No, I won't!" Su Fan suddenly changed his mind.

He flipped the Black Technology Mall to the spaceship category and found the D-class spaceships.

"System, exchange directly for the most expensive mothership—the Tianyuan Mothership."

"Respected host, the Tianyuan Mothership is valued at 9.99 million influence points. Would you like to exchange and extract?" the system inquired.

"Exchange and extract!" This time, Su Fan did not hesitate.

He had just thought of a system exploit.

Heavy Fusion Technology cost 4.2 million influence points and only contained the fusion technology itself.

However, the corresponding D-class spaceship technology included Heavy Fusion Technology, as the energy source for D-class ships was heavy fusion.

"Crap, I'm such an idiot. I only just noticed this exploit; I've wasted so many influence points in the past." Su Fan lamented, though he didn't exactly regret it.

"System, exchange for this Advanced Quantum Encryption Technology as well." Su Fan had spotted another black technology.

Advanced Quantum Encryption Technology could provide high-level encryption for the quantum technology of a Level 1 Civilization.

Without this encryption, as long as another civilization understood Advanced Quantum Encryption, they could crack the Xia Nation's quantum keys and the data in their quantum supercomputers in minutes.

"Advanced Quantum Encryption Technology, valued at 2.8 million influence points. Would you like to exchange and extract?" the system asked.

"Exchange and extract!"

If one knew quantum encryption, they knew quantum decryption.

Conversely, if an enemy did not possess Advanced Quantum Encryption, the Xia Nation could use this technology to directly breach the opponent's information network.

In a quantum information war, one could even directly seize control of a spaceship's systems.

One could even follow the enemy's "network cables" back to their home base and invade directly.

It could be said that Advanced Quantum Encryption Technology was both the safe and the master key for information warfare at the cosmic civilization level.

That was enough black technology exchanges for now. Su Fan wasn't planning on using Dimensional Ascension Manifestation this time.

Unless it was an emergency, manifesting them now would be counterproductive, as he would eventually need to independently develop the core technologies of a Level 3 Civilization to upgrade to Level 4.

There was no rush to exchange for Level 3 Gene Optimization Fluid; a 1,000-year lifespan was enough for now. He would wait a few years; there was no hurry.

The first thing to do now was to digest the newly exchanged black technologies.

Su Fan pulled out his communicator and called Zhang Qiling, asking him to come over.

After finishing the call, he left the study and went out into the courtyard.

"Su Mingxia!"

"Call me Daddy!" Su Fan said with a smile to his son, who was playing with toys.

His son was named Su Mingxia. He had chosen the name himself, and the meaning was simple: to remember the Xia Nation and the Xia Clan.

"Daddy!" Seeing Su Fan, six-year-old little Mingxia came skipping over with his toys.

"Slow down, slow down!" Su Fan scooped up his son and gave him a big kiss.

Ever since having a child, his life felt like it had gained something more, yet also like it had lost something.

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