Page 37 I'm the boss because I have a harem of anime characters.

I'm the boss because I have a harem of anime characters.

Page 37

Of course, if you encounter a brain-dead idiot who insists on having them all, then you'll have no choice but to kill him on the spot.

Unruly children won't listen to reason; you have to guide them with kindness.

The upper city of the neutral teleportation node has demonstrated productivity very much in line with the interstellar era. Next, we should go and check out the lower city, which will be a little challenging.

The upper and lower city areas here only have logistics channels, not personnel channels. In other words, people from the lower city area are not allowed to enter the upper city area, and all the ore transported from the lower city area will be subject to culling operations.

This is a bit outrageous. These blood crystals aren't toxic or harmful substances. Even if they need processing, that's something a purification plant should do. What are you doing, with high temperature, then high pressure, and finally vacuum pretreatment? Are you trying to sterilize them?

"Perhaps an epidemic has started in the lower city, and similar situations are not uncommon."

The article briefly describes the inhumanity of some capitalist regimes. Simply put, if you have value, I will use you until you die; if you have no value, I will discard you. But as long as you can still produce value, I will accept it even if it is a deal with the devil.

There was once a free Earth colony that suffered from a plague. The solution of the local elites was to completely seal off the planet's landmarks and establish a new ecological colony in a synchronous orbit. However, the mineral resources below could not be wasted, so under the pretext of "providing vaccines and medicines," they made the lower-level people continue to work as miners until all the valuable minerals on the planet were depleted.

That planet ultimately became a plague planet, where deadly pathogens coexisted with the humans on the surface, transforming them into unique "bacterial people" with exceptionally strong vitality.

These fungal people were originally able to live a peaceful life of their own, but unexpectedly, a warship from the Free Earth passed by and discovered the unique value of the area. Then the fungal people suffered and became guinea pigs in various biological laboratories. In particular, after it was discovered that their blood could prolong life and repair genes, countless fungal people became living blood bags.

It's important to understand that these fungal people, apart from having slightly purple skin, are not much different from humans in other aspects. But even this tiny difference is enough for the Free Earth regime to label them as animals and then exploit them without restraint. Until the Resistance Moon liberated the planet, the local fungal people joined the Resistance Moon without hesitation and became berserkers who fought to the death against Free Earth.

Free Earth has always spared no effort in cultivating its own enemies. If they were even slightly human, they wouldn't be on the verge of being excommunicated by other races.

In reality, many races that outwardly cooperate with Free Earth are secretly connected to the Resistance Moon, because they know all too well what Free Earth is like. Compared to the Resistance Moon, which prefers win-win situations, Free Earth is practically a cancer on civilization.

The greatest tragedy of human civilization is that powerful military force is in the hands of barbarians.

Qin Shan wasn't afraid of plagues. He was already a sixth-tier superhuman (after all, he had an abundance of resources for cultivation and breakthroughs, plus the accumulation from his previous life. If he still had to level up at a snail's pace, he would be letting down all of humanity and his own efforts in his previous life). The sixth tier was the dividing line between superhumans and the seventh tier, and the enhancement it provided to superhumans was the highest before the seventh tier. For example, they could completely control their bodies, survive without relying on breathing, and maintain their lives solely through superhuman power. They could completely seal off their bodies and form an independent internal circulation based on superhuman power.

In this situation, there is no need to worry about bacteria and viruses. Even if they enter the body, Qin Shan can personally command his extraordinary immune system to kill them.

Fighting on their home turf, and with each immune cell having a brain and eyes, it's incredibly difficult for them to replicate their bacteria and viruses simply by attaching them to surfaces. They don't have that kind of advanced technology.

As for how to enter the lower city, with ninth- or even eighth-tier superhumans by your side, why take the conventional route? Why not just find a secluded spot and dig it up on the spot?

Section 79: Steampunk in the Lower Town

As we all know, the shortest distance between two points is a line segment.

What? You're saying American students don't know?

The concept of joyful education cannot be measured by traditional educational standards; the key is joy! (Knocks on the table)

"That works too..."

Banmian had a look of utter disbelief; he never expected that Qin Shan's solution would be to dig in place.

Under normal circumstances, it's impossible to succeed. For one thing, where would you put the excavated soil, especially since it's a straight up-and-down path? How would you get back up?

But if you can fly and transport the excavated soil away, then none of that matters.

With the spatial shattering skill combined with the dimensional portal teleportation, a depth of over 10,000 meters can be traversed in an instant.

It feels like digging a containment zone in Terraria.

During the excavation, Qinshan discovered the characteristics of the artificial structure. It was a composite structure, with a special structural filling every kilometer. It contained common sand and soil, special engineering cement, a large number of fixed alloy support structures, and even a liquid layer filled with a massive amount of gel-like nanomaterials.

Under normal circumstances, it would be absolutely impossible for an ordinary person to dig through 10,000 meters, but this place was run into Qin Shan and his group of unreasonable guys who were exceptionally skilled. They quickly dug through to a depth of 10,000 meters, and even reinforced it to make it a passage that could accommodate three people moving up and down at the same time. Even tiling the Great Wall couldn't have done it better.

With the final obstacle removed, the group finally entered the planet's true natural surface.

There is actually light here. There are a lot of artificial light sources on the dome of the sky, similar to sun lamps, but with more advanced technology. This system is the underground sunrise and sunset system, and its huge scale is very impressive.

There is a minor problem: some artificial lighting structures have clearly failed and are in a half-dead state, which has caused some areas to enter a state of semi-night or perpetual darkness.

"I feel like my worldview has been turned upside down. Your individual strength is so incredible that it's unreasonable."

Banmian, whose worldview had been shattered once again, spoke with a surprisingly calm tone.

After all, there shouldn't be anything more outrageous than this. If there were, then the strength of the Divine Continent civilization really needs to be reassessed thoroughly and comprehensively, and it is an existence that cannot be opposed.

"Admiral, the energy signal strength is strongest over there. Let's land there." Xiao Zhai, who had partially deployed her ship equipment, pointed in a direction. Judging from the lighting there, it was morning.

"Okay, let's go over there."

Soon, the group of five landed in the nearby forest.

"Even with artificial lighting, plants can still grow normally as long as the energy is sufficient."

Qin Shan and Lexington collected some plant samples, especially those plant types that seemed to not exist on Earth.

Many plants here, though they look no different from those on Earth, exhibit distinct characteristics of fungi, especially in areas with insufficient sunlight and humid environments. Moreover, the sunlight here provides not only illumination but also warmth. Areas lacking light are noticeably colder, and the darkness conceals a chillingly cold environment that is enough to make one's teeth chatter.

"Admiral, Zerg are approaching us."

Xiao Luo pointed to the twelve o'clock direction. The lighting equipment in that area was in a semi-dead state, making it very difficult to observe. However, under the mental perception and the ship's extraordinary radar detection, everything there had nowhere to hide.

The Zerg, numbering in the hundreds.

"There are fewer than three hundred of them..."

This number is so large that it could easily wipe out even a sixth-level superhuman like Qin Shan, let alone an eighth or ninth-level superhuman. It poses no threat whatsoever.

Especially since there are very few individuals among these insects that are above the first rank, they might not even be able to threaten a bare-handed Banmian. Although Banmian can't win a 1v300 fight, he can run away and fight a guerrilla war to wear him down. He can use the kite tactic frequently, and those insects will definitely not be able to catch up with him.

"Catch a few and see if the local Zerg have any unique characteristics."

Qin Shan waved his hand, the battle began, and then it ended.

They're just a bunch of weaklings, you can't expect any cool battle scenes. Just grab a few iconic specimens and the ship's machine guns can easily wipe them out.

Wow, I'm rich!

Qin Shan discovered that among the captured insect samples, one insect that looked like a queen ant had its abdomen filled with liquid blood crystals of very high purity, resembling a blood crystal collector.

“This one…” Ban Mian frowned, recalling some unpleasant things.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with him?"

After a moment of silence, Banmian said, "This insect has clearly been genetically modified by Free Earth's technology."

"Genetic technology? Modifying insects?" Qin Shan suddenly realized: "Oh, I get it. It's a modification done to turn the Zerg into pure blood crystal collectors, so they can exploit them at will, right?"

Banmian nodded and said, "It's just like you said. This kind of Zerg that looks like an ant queen is a product of Free Earth's genetic technology. Under normal circumstances, only the Zerg's mother hive gathers raw materials and produces blood crystals. The mother hive is a place heavily guarded by the Zerg, and it has considerable defense and firepower. It can also self-destruct. The existence of such biological structures is obviously an unacceptably high cost for Free Earth's regimes that collect Zerg resources."

"So they made some modifications to the Zerg's genes, and eventually degraded and downgraded them into this version of the mobile Zerg hive. Although the queen ant also has combat and defensive capabilities, they are obviously weakened, and the harvesting efficiency has increased dramatically. When harvesting, you only need to keep an eye on these huge and not easy-to-move queen ants. You can even release and raise these Zerg queen ants in a designated planetary environment. It is very cost-effective and is the type that those street lamp holders like the most."

"You don't like it?" Qin Shan asked half-jokingly.

"Okay, we actually quite like it too, and the Zerg don't seem to be opposed to this kind of modification. They already have similar individuals on some planets. Believe me, the scum of Free Earth definitely don't want to see those things."

Ban Mian shrugged. If genetic modification technology alone could subdue the Zerg, they wouldn't have become so rampant throughout the entire galaxy. Your modifications could be absorbed and transformed into a new race.

Genetic stability can be broken locally. The Zerg can use massive mutations to dilute genes that are unfavorable to them, fuse and recombine beneficial genes, and then use a massive number of mutated individuals to break through this constraint, ultimately resulting in a completely new race. They may not be able to gain much advantage when facing the overwhelming force of steel (the limits of biological production capacity cannot be compared with industrial production capacity, unless the organisms also undergo mechanical modification and fusion), but their tenacity is truly astonishing.

"So this," Qin Shan patted the queen ant, who was bound and unable to move by the extraordinary skill, and asked, "is it like a small mobile base?"

"More or less, but this one obviously hasn't mutated to that extreme degree."

Qin Shan nodded, then opened the dimensional gate and threw the captured samples into it. North Carolina and Saratoga were in charge there, so there would be no problems.

The group then flew towards the city (on Mrs. Leigh's plane), from where they could see a large area.

It is also a place with normal lighting. The more people there are, the more prosperous the city becomes. Places far from the city are basically in a state of semi-sunset (the artificial sun above is broken, so it gets some light from other directions). The boundary between light and darkness is the boundary between civilization and barbarism, which looks just like the Dark Souls world where the fire is extinguished.

No, in the Dark Souls world, it really went dark after the fire was extinguished, but here it's a mixture of light and darkness.

Before actually entering the city, you need to understand the local language and culture. Although the local language is not much different from the language used on Free Earth, the upper and lower city areas are completely blocked off. The result of evolution in the closed environment is that the languages of the two places will become increasingly unfamiliar. At most, there will be some similarity in the written language. But if enough time passes, the accumulated errors in the written language will make the two isolated civilizations completely unfamiliar with each other, even if they were once from the same place and their cultures were passed down from the same civilization system.

After all, the same rice feeds a hundred different kinds of people, and the same is true for civilization.

Entering the city directly would be too conspicuous, so the four chose to land near a village and secretly observe the locals' clothing and language. With the learning ability of superhumans, even if Qin Shan were just left here, he would be able to communicate normally with the locals within a week, even to the point of almost identical dialect accents.

Of course, there is a simpler method, which is the language translation module of Free Earth. This is a specially developed language AI system. However, Banmian's version is offline. Resistance Moon also has similar technology, but Banmian certainly does not have such equipment now and can only use the North House modified and analyzed version of Free Earth technology.

There's no need to worry about computing power. Don't forget that there's a massive computing array at the island base, plus the strong artificial intelligence that North Carolina has configured itself. The language deciphering work will be completed quickly.

Comparing the language structure of the city on the ground with that of the mainland, the difference is roughly the same as the difference between Qin seal script (small seal script) and modern simplified Chinese characters.

The pronunciations are completely different, and overall it can be regarded as another civilization that evolved independently.

The locals' appearance is closer to that of Central Asians, which is due to the overall convergence of artificial lighting. On the other hand, people living in the dark areas (local term for areas where light can be barely seen, but which are generally in the twilight) have lighter skin.

That's because of the lack of sunlight. After all, all things grow by the sun, and it's very dangerous to live without it. If there's no sun at all, people will really die.

Qin Shan was truly amazed by the current level of technology of the local people.

Come and experience the advanced yet classic magical steam technology. The locals used blood crystals to create a unique steampunk technology system, which Qinshan is willing to call Warhammer Steampunk.

You can see lumberjacks clad in heavy steam-powered armor, various steam-powered vehicles crisscrossing the streets, and even multi-legged mechs chugging along, all powered by blood crystal technology. And the locals... they're actually using a kind of supernatural flame to burn blood crystals like coal!?

What a waste! It's like feeding pigs a plate of white rice in front of people from China! Nobody can stand that! I have to teach you a lesson about why you can't waste food!

As for whether these technologies are worth learning from, buddy, do you have some irrational obsession with this kind of inefficient, wasteful behavior, like using Iron Man's reactor to boil water for your own family? If their technology were even slightly more normal, they could be launching a counterattack on the ground by now. This is clearly an abnormal, inefficient, and wasteful technological system.

The local food is quite good, emphasizing freshness and offering a wide variety of dishes. Judging from the food in the restaurants, the people here are basically on par with Britain during the British Empire era in terms of living standards. At least there is an abundance of black bread, and it would be quite difficult for a healthy person to starve to death.

But that's all. You have to understand that they burned blood crystals. Thinking about it, Qin Shan felt angry for them.

Next, the group will go to the city to take a look. If there is nothing worth looking forward to in the city, then they should leave, as staying here any longer would be a waste of time.

Just then, the sound of a bronze bell being struck rang out. After a brief pause, the diners in the restaurant immediately rushed out and ran towards the source of the sound.

Banmian nodded and said, "It's just like you said. This kind of insectoid that looks like an ant queen is a product of Free Earth's genetic technology. Under normal circumstances, only the insectoid's mother hive gathers raw materials and produces blood crystals. The mother hive is a place that is heavily guarded by the insectoids. It also has considerable defense and firepower and can self-destruct. The existence of such biological structures is obviously an unacceptably high cost for Free Earth's regime that collects insectoid resources."

"So they modified the Zerg's genes to some extent, ultimately degrading and downgrading them into this version of the mobile Zerg hive. Although the queen ant still has combat and defensive capabilities, they are significantly weakened, and the harvesting efficiency has increased dramatically. When harvesting, you only need to keep an eye on these huge and immobile queen ants. You can even deploy and keep these Zerg queen ants in designated planetary environments. It's very cost-effective and is the type that streetlight ornaments like the most."

"You don't like it?" Qin Shan asked half-jokingly.

"Okay, we actually like it quite a bit, and the Zerg don't seem to be opposed to this kind of modification. They already have similar individuals on some planets. Believe me, the scum of Free Earth definitely don't want to see those things."