usatvline Chapter 494 Efficiency
Chapter 494 Efficiency
After the planet healed, all that was left was some finishing work. Once the embers on Terra's surface had completely died down, the Necrons began to reconstruct the geology from the ashes. They built mountains, filled in ravines, and almost completely reshaped the landscape of the healed Second Terra, making its surface identical to the real Terra.
After that, the Necrons began to rebuild the oceans and atmosphere of Second Terra, adjust the ocean currents and monsoon belts, and clean up the remaining asteroids in space. When everything was ready, it was time to release life.
But this step has been delayed.
"Amazing." Howard watched the entire process carefully and sighed sincerely. Then he asked, "Is this the end?"
The second Terra that appeared before him was already very similar to the Earth or Terra in his memory. They had almost identical continental plates, the same oceans and clouds. The difference was that the continent of the second Terra in front of him was yellow-brown, with no plants growing on it, and naturally no life existed.
"After completing the reconstruction, we actually waited for quite a long time." The Hierophant also looked at the reborn Second Terra before him and said, "At that time, we waited, waiting for life to naturally emerge on this planet."
"Looks like you didn't get there in the end," Howard said.
"Yes, but within a thousand years of ecological stabilization, we discovered an aquatic fungus in an underground cave on Second Terra. However, its structure was so advanced that we concluded it wasn't life independently evolving on this planet, but rather some past fungus that survived Terra's destruction and long reconstruction, reawakening and growing." The Hierophant said, "We pay tribute to this resilient life, but unfortunately, it's not what we want. So after collecting samples, we thoroughly cleaned the planet to ensure no life remained."
Advanced or primitive in biology is not a strictly scientific term. It is usually used to refer to the adaptability of a certain organism to the environment. Saying that a bacterium is advanced does not mean that the bacterium has evolved intelligence or possesses some extraordinary abilities. It may just mean that compared with those primitive microorganisms, this bacterium has an additional chloroplast or mitochondria.
As the Emperor finished speaking, greenery began to appear on the barren Terra, covering nearly 70% of Terra's land area almost instantly.
This process would take hundreds of millions of years in the evolution of the Earth, but under the control of the Necrons, hundreds of millions of years are just a blink of an eye.
Howard: "Now that the Second Terra ecosystem has been established, how will you utilize the humans that Ms. Lia Weide has collected for you?"
Hierophant: "Their minds and memories will be cleansed and reshaped, and then placed on Second Terra. We will choose a certain point in human history for reconstruction. All these people need to do is repeat this history, survive, reproduce, repeat the old path, or create new possibilities."
The Queen spoke with a calm tone, but her calmness turned to indifference when she said the next sentence: "Until the day of harvest comes."
Howard was not surprised by this result, so he continued to ask: "What will you do?"
"The Black Stone Device," the Hierophant replied. "When the human population on Second Terra reaches a threshold, or for other reasons, we will activate the Black Stone Device to create a realm of silence. The vast majority of humans will die, and we will then further screen those who survive."
"We hope that there are truly soulless people among the surviving humans. However, since the beginning of this plan, we have gone through hundreds of iterations, but in the end, we have only screened out those who you call untouchables. We have never found anyone who meets the requirements, ever."
The Pope said it lightly, but behind these light words of hundreds of iterations are billions of human lives.
However, her words also revealed a key piece of information, that is, the Necrons also had no way to unconditionally screen out the Soulless. This also explained why Howard, a genuine Soulless, was wandering in front of her but she still did not tie him up.
The last time she wanted to kidnap Howard was because of his pancake-making skills, not because of his soulless nature. Zero is a very special mathematical concept. If there is no direct way to detect zero, then the only way is to pick out both positive and negative values in the set, which is what the Emperor is doing.
After listening to the Pope calmly recount this horrific crime, Howard fell into deep thought. The Pope misunderstood Howard's meaning and said, "Although you appear calm on the surface, I know that you must be spitting and cursing me in your heart. However, I don't care. Of course, I will forgive your disrespect."
"I am the monarch, guardian, and grand judge of Loroza. I am the leader of the Mechanical Immortals. The interests of the Mechanical Immortals are paramount. I respect those humans who sacrificed their lives for the experiment, but the experiment cannot stop until I get the desired results! No one can stop the revival of the Mechanical Immortals, and you are no exception."
"No, you misunderstood me." Howard interrupted the Pope's speech. "I didn't mean to curse you. I just thought about it and found that your efficiency is a bit low."
The Emperor: “Hmm?”
"Look," Howard said, motioning for the Hierophant to look back at Second Terra. "If I hadn't returned everything I learned to my teacher, it would have taken hundreds of millions of years for a planet to recover from its shattered state. But you sped up time, so in reality, it was accomplished in less than two minutes. Similarly, it would have taken hundreds of millions of years for plants to appear and cover the entire surface. Even with your seeding assistance, it would have taken tens of thousands of years. But in this demonstration, it was accomplished in the blink of an eye."
"The estimated number of humans in the seed bank is over ten thousand. Under suitable conditions, it would only take tens of thousands of years for the human population to grow from tens of thousands to tens of billions. So, logically, the time it takes for green plants to cover the planet's surface should be enough to harvest several generations of humans. Unless you just started your experiments on this Second Terra yesterday, the number of iterations should be far more than hundreds, right?"
The Emperor was indeed surprised by Howard's response and was stunned for a moment. However, Howard didn't stop talking. Instead, he continued, "Also, since you have the ability to get a Terra from another timeline, why not get a few more? Create a third, fourth, and fifth Terra. This would increase your efficiency several times over."