The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-251

Chapter 251: Uploading Elves

The World of Prayers was still a failure after hundreds of years. The Elf Queen and the Assembly of Elders who built it had to admit to the public that it was a waste. However, the World of Prayers still had some unplanned results during its run those hundreds of years. Not everything needed to be so precise, only the hyperdrive would be affected by microscopic laws plus, many other things could still be tested under virtual conditions. The first batch of scholars who entered the World of Prayers created more advanced space equipment and an eco-dome maintenance device through simulation calculations. They also simulated a large number of projects on social and rationing systems. These results were still playing a huge role, and because of these results, the World of Prayers was not completely shut down instead, it was put to other use.

Although it was not a perfect laboratory, it was at least, a perfect virtual paradise.

The elves realised that the World of Prayers could greatly reduce their general consumption, so some of the less demanding daily studies were still be conducted in the laboratory. At the same time, the virtual world also allowed them to have sweet dreams and temporarily forget their boring reality. More importantly, after entering the World of Prayers, the energy-consuming, cumbersome and useless physical body could be discarded.

“One thousand years ago, we passed ‘The World of Prayers Consciousness Extraction Act’, allowing more elves to apply for permission to upload into the server,” Hilda said slowly. “Have I told you about this? As the dome’s environment was changing faster than the rate in which we could adapt, some floating isles reached a point where the older elves could not survive. A lot of elves had incurable diseases and we could not execute them just because they were sick. In the past, those elves who lost their ability to work due to infection, could only wait for death. But, after the ‘Consciousness Extraction Act’ took effect, they were sent to the World of Prayers. Those who are old, diseased, disabled, or just without social values for various reasons have to be uploaded. Their consciousness is extracted and then, uploaded into the server. After that, their bodies are destroyed and decomposed into natural resources. They are still alive, but they are not consuming anymore. On top of that, they can continue to contribute to Aerym’s society in a healthier form within the World of Prayers, such as doing research. Some of the less demanding projects can still be done in a virtual environment. Now, this is almost the destination of every Aerymian elf. Since we cannot leave a dead body out to consume air, we may as well break it down into parts of nourishment in the dome and elements in the plant.”

Hao Ren did not know what to say at that moment.

The virtual world was no stranger to him, whether he knew it from science fiction or from real examples like the Imperial Data Network. He was familiar with the concept. However, most civilizations created virtual worlds for entertainment, and a few for scientific research or lower energy consumption. But they were not as extreme as the elves of Aerym. Those civilizations would leave the body in a connector. The person would be waiting to wake up and face the real world again, but not the elves of Aerym: they only accessed the World of Prayers after their bodies lose the ability to work in order to abandon the physical body and keep the spirit working.

They did not even want to waste a breath.

“In fact, for many elves, the World of Prayers is actually a paradise,” Hilda said, and she suddenly smiled at Hao Ren strangely. “The sun is bright there, and the sky is wide. You can drive thousands of miles yet, not see any walls. There are also mountains as well as rivers that only exist in legends and movies. Every elf that has been uploaded into the World of Prayers would send back a word of thanks. They finally do not have to endure the exhaustion of reality.”

“Why not just let the whole nation go into the dream? I think this is a great temptation for all of you,” Hao Ren was very straightforward with his question.

“Because, it would mean that there is no hope.” Hilda spread her hands in despair and said, “That is running away from reality. The World of Prayers is not made to escape reality. Someone has to be in the real world. We have an old saying: hold on to the next day. We firmly believe that there is hope as long as we are still alive. That’ is why we managed to hold on until today. We never gave up trying to fly to other stars. The World of Prayers was built on this premise. If everyone is immersed in the sweet dream of rich resources, who will save our reality? The server will eventually crash and the servomechanism will be damaged sooner or later. It is a suicide that is prolonged and drugged by a sweet dream.”

In the end, she added, “Even if our world is going to collapse, I want to be able to watch it crumble, and not lose my home in my sleep.”

Hao Ren pondered and then asked, “But not everyone thinks so, right?”

“Yes, we are mortal after all. The Lotto Group is an extremist organisation that wants people to escape from reality. They want to let everyone into the World of Prayers to spend the rest of their lives there. Their core is a group of technical elites, descendants or apprentices of those scholars who built the World of Prayers. When the plan of the World of Prayers was declared a failure, and the Assembly of Elders discussed how to deal with the virtual world, a group of builders could not withstand the pressure. They released a lot of adverse things, which eventually led to the emergence of the Lotto Group. The group believes that the real world is hopeless, and that entering a dream can at least make everyone happy. They have been dormant for a while, but they were apparently stimulated after the accelerator exploded, and now, they are more active.”

“Can’t they just sneak in? Anyway, they can enter the World of Prayers as long as they lose the ability to work, why did they make it such a big deal?” Hao Ren did not quite understand and continued asking, “If they just wanted to escape reality, they could just sneak in. Instead, they did things in a big way and got themselves caught.”

“Because they do not want to escape from reality just for themselves. They actually want to change the whole Kingdom of Aerym.” Hilda shook her head. “The Lotto Group is not that simple-minded. Perhaps, I admire them from a different standpoint: they are motivated by the hope that all elves will be happy. But, that does not change their blind nature.”

One who has a reason to be hated would also have a reason to be sympathised for. It seemed that this was a group of idealists on the wrong path. In such a situation, one could not judge who was wrong so easily: Everyone held a noble purpose, no one was selfish, however they were in opposition of mainstream society. There was always a situation like this.

“Well, a group of idealists… If the resource problem was solved, they probably won’t continue to make trouble,” Hao Ren muttered. He raised his head and asked, “Do you have a minister who has gotten himself into this trouble?”

“The Lotto Group somehow controls the main memory of the virtual world. They built up their own power in the World of Prayers, and they managed pull some of the data-elves who support them into a place where they cannot be detected. I do not know what they are planning, but it is definitely a big move. The citizens of the World of Prayers are also our citizens, so Cardillon personally led a group of elites into the World of Prayers to investigate the situation there—but he has gone missing.” Hilda sighed. “I understand his actions. After all, he is already a late middle-aged man. His actions and brainpower are not as good as before, and he will soon exceed the value or consumption ratio line. He will be uploaded into the server in a few years time, but this is not the right time for him to go in there.”

Here’s an extra piece of information: The mental workers in the Aerymian society were “retiring” much earlier than the manual workers because their physical value to the society was less than that of their wisdom. Many mental workers, even if they were physically healthy, had to be extracted and uploaded when they were in their late middle ages. The upper class was no exception. Therefore, the elves of Aerym usually formed a family with those in the same field: To avoid this kind of premature parting.

Hao Ren realised that he may have another problem—He could not ignore the elves that had been uploaded into the server, whose bodies had been destroyed.

At this time, a tiny blue light suddenly flew towards them from afar. The MDT almost smashed into Hao Ren’s face. “Yo, I’m back!”

Hao Ren jumped aside and narrowly escaped the attack. He asked, “Done?”

“Yes, the spare energy pool is also full, enough for them to get the main line repaired. Now, the engineering ships are repairing that hole outside the floating isle.” The MDT got into Hao Ren’s pocket skillfully. “Oh my, I’m totally exhausted. I almost died…”

Hao Ren patted his pocket and said goodbye to Hilda. “I have to go back and think about this matter. Don’t worry, just focus on restoring order to your society. I will soon give you an answer.”

Hilda did not speak. She just lowered her head deeply.