Raising all of humanity: Starting with a backyard pool world

Chapter 23 [The First Era - Final Chapter: The Lonely God]

Several days after the sealing was completed, the autumn air was crisp and clear.

As Xu Ye stepped out of the old house, the sunlight fell on him, a long-lost, carefree warmth.

The flame that had been burning in his stomach for nearly a year had finally been extinguished.

My body felt light and agile, and even the air I breathed seemed to carry a sweet scent.

Won.

He survived.

Instead of the joy of overcoming cancer, I felt depressed and unhappy.

In the courtyard, the simple pond where Yuefu and Yinyou were born has long since dried up, leaving only some cracked soil.

Not far away stands the glass palace he built himself.

Anthill, now a silent mechanical palace.

Xu also took out his phone and opened the bank's app.

The numbers that were growing day by day because of Jiurang were somewhat dazzling in the sunlight.

It represents a life free from worries about food and clothing, the ability to renovate this dilapidated old house, and the ability to live a decent and comfortable life in this world.

But the number could not respond to him.

He turned off the screen and looked at the glass sanctuary.

In the past two thousand years of evolution (less than three days of real time), he was not just a high-and-mighty observer.

They sent down divine pronouncements, and they responded fervently.

They set out tests, and they used the wisdom of their entire civilization to solve them.

By plunging into the "Plague," they offered an answer called the "Gene Wedge" through a war that lasted seven hundred years.

I was troubled by their foolishness, amazed by their growth, and finally terrified by their wisdom.

But now, it's all over.

The only being who could "communicate" with him on a spiritual level, the wise king Kaz who almost saw through his divine disguise, was sealed away by him and reverted to the most primordial drop of liquid metal.

They won against cancer, but lost a world where they could "communicate".

He possessed the power of creation, yet he was a lonely figure without even believers or apostles.

This victory went unshared.

This new life went unnoticed.

Xu returned to his study, placed Kaz on the table, sat down, and opened the thick "Genesis Diary".

He needs to review the situation, just as the world in the pool ultimately ended in death due to exhaustion of resources, and the same will be true for Anthill.

Inside that glass palace, apart from the Nest City, there was hardly any original land and environment left. It had either been assimilated by the Nest City or devoured by the plague; in any case, nothing was left.

But Xu Ye was also fortunate that at least an antidote was developed before resources ran out; otherwise, he feared he would have died before the Kaz civilization.

My fingers turned the pages, returning to the first page of the "Antheril Era," and page by page, I revisited that epic civilization that lasted for two thousand three hundred years.

From the birth of Kaz, to the establishment of the hive, to the arrival of the plague, the final war, and... their "ascension".

After a long time, Xu turned to a new page and solemnly wrote the title at the very top of the page.

Reflections on the Failure of the First Age

I picked up my pen and wrote down the first point.

"I. The vulnerability of single-hero civilizations."

The entire Kaz civilization, all its wisdom, and all its decisions, are tied to the wise king Kaz.

This certainly brings extreme efficiency, but it also means that once the Kaz is corrupted, destroyed, or its logic is flawed, the entire civilization will collapse instantly.

The reason I finally activated [Epoch Rewind] was because this sole hero had glimpsed a truth that he shouldn't have seen.

This is a huge structural risk.

Second, the excessive intervention of "God".

Looking at the several "divine pronouncements" he had recorded in his diary, Xu Ye couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

Every time he offered a self-righteous revelation, it was a brutal interference.

From the trials of the stubborn rock to the shattering of the apocalypse, they solved the immediate problems facing civilization, but also stifled the possibility of them evolving on their own and forging a different path.

It's been like this since the beginning of the world in the pond, and it hasn't been corrected at all.

Every technological breakthrough they made was accomplished under his proposition, which in itself was a kind of shackle.

"III. The Fate of Tool Civilization"

This is the most fatal point.

Xu's original intention in creating the Kaz civilization was to cure his own cancer.

This is a "tool civilization" created for the single goal of "curing diseases".

When the "Gene Wedge" was created and the "Plague" was eradicated, their goal was accomplished.

What should a tool do next after it has fulfilled its mission?

The only option is to turn our attention to the Creator who gave it this mission.

To understand God, and ultimately... to become God.

This was written at the very beginning of their birth, an inevitable final fate.

Xu put down his pen and let out a long breath.

At the very bottom of that page, he wrote the final conclusion of this reflection.

"What I need is not another 'wise king,' but a 'god' who can share my loneliness and responsibility."

"This is indeed a way of distributing the sins, but it is necessary."

Xu Ye's gaze returned to the quiet test tube on the table.

Based on his recent reflections, he clarified the true purpose of this drop of "Wise King Kaz".

He picked up the test tube, walked to the glass ecosphere he had named "Sanctuary of Civilization," and opened the door.

This is not just a place where Kars is sealed away.

It will be the "museum of error samples" of the first era, and also the "golden finger production factory" of the future.

Xu gently placed the test tube on the model of the temple at the very top of the Nest City.

He gazed at the dormant drop of liquid metal and whispered:

"Your mistakes will become the cornerstone of a new era."

"Your legacy will be broken down into countless sparks and scattered across countless worlds in the future."

Having done all this, Xu Ye had a clear goal in mind. He took out a brand new blueprint and spread it on the table.

The blueprints abandoned the previous Anthill design route [with more complex terrain] and replaced it with a grand blueprint with clear zoning, serving a core objective.

Core objective: To create a decentralized Protoss civilization with management and service capabilities.

This civilization has no single hero.

It has only a limited number of administrators who act as network nodes.

Their purpose is to serve a higher level of creator and to manage the countless sandbox worlds that may appear in the future.

They are the Heavenly Dao of countless future worlds!

This can also be called the will of Heaven.

Xu Ye's pen moved swiftly across the drawing, clearly outlining each functional area.

He must go forth with a purpose, a methodology, and a long-term plan to usher in a new era.

This was the first truly meaningful application of his identity as the creator.

The outline of the drawings gradually became clear, and a world far larger than Anthill emerged on the paper.

Xu straightened up, looked at his masterpiece, picked up his pen, and wrote the code name for this new era at the top of the drawing.

[The Foundation of Heavenly Dao]

The First Age, End.