Meng Chao sucked in a deep breath.
Even if he had his previous life's memories as a foundation, he still felt that his worldview had been greatly impacted.
But once he calmed down and thought about it carefully, what Ye Xiaoxing said was not impossible.
If this were Earth, a short half a century would not have been enough for human civilization and human individuals to change in their very nature.
But this was the Other World.
Everything from the physical world to the mind was incredibly unstable. It was as if everything was growing at a rapid pace and evolving madly. Then, in the brutal process of survival, only the fittest survived.
Dragon City had managed to obtain so much advanced technology in just a short fifty years, unlock the secrets of runic symbols and spirit energy, and even produce superhumans who could fly freely above the clouds.
Who knew whether the satellite cities scattered in the depths of Monster Mountain Range could obtain their own fortuitous encounters?
"Meng Chao, you're a harvester, so you should be able to tell that many of the monsters shouldn't exist from a biological standpoint, right? For example, Seven-star Wolf Spiders are like the amalgamation of canine-type monsters and arthropod-type monsters. Can they evolve naturally in a wild environment? "
Ye Xiaoxing continued. "All the signs show that many of the monsters didn't evolve on their own. Instead … they're biological weapons created by the prehistoric civilization of the Other World.
"Of course, the prehistoric civilization of the Other World has collapsed a long time ago. Based on the results of the ancient ruins research center we set up under the Supernatural Tower, that was something that happened at least one million years ago. The current monsters are mostly driven by their animal instincts. They don't have great intelligence or the clear intention to completely destroy us.
"But no matter what, they have brains.
"They don't just have the brains of mammals. The Ultimate Sandworm also has a neural network that's complicated enough to contain intelligence.
"In other words, some of the high-grade monsters have intelligence based on their hardware.
"But aside from hardware support, they also need software, which is teamwork, division of labor, and tens of thousands of years of ideology and culture. That's why they can form true intelligence.
"This is why we haven't awakened to intelligence even though we've hunted a lot of Apocalyptic Beasts and discovered that their brains are very developed and have ganglia and sulci circuits that far surpass those of humans.
"The problem is, right now, we can't be certain just how large Dragon City transmigrated over. Is it just the main city area and the new cities in the suburbs, or has all the satellite cities transmigrated over, including the dozens of towns and hundreds of villages under Dragon City?
"You should know that even the smallest village has a population of a few hundred. It can form a rather complete human social system. Even though the sparrow is small, it has all the essentials.
"If this small village fell into the hands of a monster with mind control abilities and its brain hardware was so developed that it could contain intelligence, and due to various reasons, the monster did not eat all the villagers in a simple and brutal manner. Instead … it peeped into their brains, read their memories, learned their language, and learned Earth's customs, culture, social system, governance model, and warfare methods through them. In the end, it learned all of our advantages and weaknesses. Just how terrifying would the monster become?
"Or perhaps the monsters themselves don't have intelligence and self-consciousness, but the villagers who transmigrated here did a lot of things that went against the limits of morality to survive, such as eating their own kind's corpses. They were twisted by the cruel environment and turned into non-humans. Once they discovered Dragon City's existence, wouldn't they use the monsters' power to fight against Dragon City?"
"…"
Meng Chao thought about it and said, "No matter what, we're all compatriots who transmigrated together half a century ago. Are you sure that the residents of the satellite cities will definitely be hostile to us? Didn't you just say that the residents of Dragon King Town don't have much aggression aside from their love for the anime world? "
"Dragon King Town is a special case, because the Divine Tree that forms a symbiotic relationship with the residents there is a life form similar to a plant. The residents have been eating its sap for a long time, so their aggression has been greatly reduced," Ye Xiaoxing said calmly.
Ye Xiaoxing said calmly. "In truth, based on the deductions made by the sociologists of the abnormal beast research department, if other satellite cities have truly transmigrated into the depths of the fog and spent fifty years in the wild, there is a high chance that they will become hostile toward us and attack us."
"Why?" Meng Chao asked.
"It's simple. Think about the stories of the starships that escaped from Earth in science fiction," Ye Xiaoxing said.
Ye Xiaoxing said, "If you are the captain of one of the starships, you kill thousands of your own by attacking other starships, looting their resources, and embark on an extremely dark journey, only to discover a second starship that seems to be larger and fiercer than your own, and it even upholds the morals and laws of Earth, do you have a second choice other than to attack first?"
Meng Chao fell silent.
He had to admit that Ye Xiaoxing was right.
There were certain lines that once they were crossed, they could never turn back.
"Even for Dragon City, it's impossible for us to let all the satellite cities degenerate into inhumane demonic dens," Ye Xiaoxing said.
"We can tolerate the existence of Dragon King Town because they're harmless for the time being. It's just as you said. Killing each other and judging witches is something that happened in the previous generation. It has nothing to do with the new generation born from the Divine Tree." Aside from loving the anime world, the new generation hasn't committed any crimes that have crossed the line for the time being. Then, out of love for our compatriots and respect for the brand new culture, there's no need for us to execute any forceful measures against Dragon King Town. For the time being, we'll let them immerse themselves in the anime world and let them obtain pure happiness and peace.
"But if a satellite city is bound to a symbiotic relationship with a carnivorous monster or has developed the custom of cannibalism, burying people alive, or sacrificing humans to monsters because of the monster's influence, can we just sit by and do nothing?
"Don't say that it's impossible. We're currently in the 56th year of the New Era. In the long river of history, half a century is just a short moment, but based on the human reproductive age, even if you give birth to a child at the age of eighteen, three generations will be born in fifty-six years.
"On Earth, there's a saying that there's a generation gap every ten years. The evolution speed of the Other World is at least ten times faster than on Earth. In three generations, it's enough for us to form a civilization that we can't understand and cannot accept.
"If we think about it from a practical perspective, we can't allow others to sleep next to us. If we think about it from the foundation of Dragon City's existence and the beliefs of human civilization, we can't tolerate the existence of this demonic den. It'll ruin our great civilization.
"The problem is, we haven't discovered the existence of this demonic den for the time being.
"But as long as this demonic den exists, it'll be much easier for them to discover us. After all, Dragon City is huge. Since the era of the Great Expedition, we've left plenty of clues in Monster Mountain Range.
"As long as they still remember the art of war of mankind, 'attack first and gain the upper hand' will be their only choice.
Meng Chao broke out in cold sweat when he heard this. "Captain Ye, are you saying that … these deformed and mutated humans want to use the monsters' power to completely destroy us?"
"If they don't completely destroy us, they'll turn us into them," Ye Xiaoxing said.
Ye Xiaoxing said, "Among a hundred people, if one person has a tail on his butt, that person is a monster. But if ninety-nine out of a hundred people have tails, and the only one without a tail is a monster.
"These people can't turn back anymore. When they realize that Dragon City is too big and they can't destroy us directly, the most likely thing they'll do is to cause chaos among us and think of a way to drag us down with them so that we'll break the limits of human nature. In the end, we'll turn into them."
Meng Chao closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose gently. He just did not want to believe it.
But since he had the memories from his previous life, he knew better than anyone else that Ye Xiaoxing's malicious conclusion might be very close to the truth.
"Meng Chao, please don't blame me for thinking of our kind in the past as evil. When it comes to the clash of civilizations, kindness and malice aren't important. Even if the other party isn't evil and is full of kindness, treats us as one of our kind, and even wants to save us, there's still a possibility that a very intense conflict will break out between us," Ye Xiaoxing said.
Ye Xiaoxing said, "Let's take Dragon King Town as an example. Let's say that a peerless powerhouse was born in Dragon King Town by chance, and this peerless powerhouse discovered the existence of Dragon City. What do you think he would do if he was filled with goodwill and wanted to save us?
"Would he sneak into Dragon City and kill all the prettiest female celebrities in the city?"
Meng Chao was stunned. "What?"
"From the perspective of this Dragon King Town elite, women are all demons. The more beautiful a woman is, the more dangerous she is. If a woman shows her face in public, it will only incite men to kill each other, and in the end, the entire civilization will be destroyed. This isn't just his paranoid fantasies, but Dragon King Town's history. It's a mark he carved into his genes, and it's an indestructible belief that his parents taught him since he was young," Ye Xiaoxing said.
Ye Xiaoxing said, "Burn all the witches in the real world, make the Divine Tree bloom in Dragon City, and make all the men throw themselves into the arms of the Second-Dimensional Saintess. If this kind elite from Dragon King Town really wanted to save us, he would have thought of doing so and done so, right?
"No matter how we explain it to him, he won't be able to understand what a normal relationship between a man and a woman is. He will only think that we've been bewitched by witches, which will make him even more determined to burn all witches to death. He might even expand the scope of his attack and burn all couples. After all, the couples from Dragon King Town's perspective might be a witch and her loyal dog!
"This example might not be very appropriate, but it's good that you understand what I mean. Every civilization has its own logic that can justify itself, and they also have an instinct to expand outward and affect other civilizations. We can't avoid the conflict between us and the lost satellite city. Perhaps it has already happened."
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