Li Qing strolled through the streets of this era.

He quickly discovered that this civilization's early ancient period of history was surprisingly similar to the modern society of Earth's civilization.

It also had skyscrapers made of reinforced concrete, various cars on the road, rural dirt paths, and the early stages of the internet were beginning to be built.

The only difference was the aesthetic style of the buildings, and these aliens' attire was very different.

Li Qing kept observing, bought a bowl of what seemed like rice from a roadside food shop, tasted it, and continued to look around, walking on this land.

"It seems the stages of planetary civilization history are similar."

"Come to think of it, when it reaches a certain period, it will use soil, iron, and build skyscrapers; this is something every planet must experience, and eventually, they will build rockets and satellites in an attempt to explore the starry sky."

Li Qing found it amusing.

"It seems I am a true oddball; previously, I was ultimately naive, thinking extraordinary civilizations in novels existed, stubborn and unconventional, flesh and blood resisting interstellar spaceships."

He quickly flipped through a book on alien exploration from this era.

This era's scientific book "The Possibility of Life in the Cosmos, We Are Not Alone," was filled with fantasies about the universe, much like Earth's era:

[We believe that the intelligent races in the universe essentially share similar styles: erect humanoid, erect spider forms, and are the two shapes most suited to building tools during evolution. Without these body types, they can't use tools to forge their own paths...]

...

Li Qing blinked.

That is indeed the case. As a presence from a cosmic species of evolution, Li Qing understood this point better than anyone; these are indeed the two most rational body structures.

If you don't have hands, what do you use to build tools?

He looked at a certain magazine.

[According to a reporter's interview, the work at the Xisheng Empire is very hygienic, and the toilet water is clean enough to drink…]

How do I put it?

The magazines, newspapers, were filled with a thick aura of the era.

The game "Primordial Era" clearly feels like a corridor of historical civilization, with all its periods visible here.

They were off guard, their own details were thoroughly exposed to themselves.

So Li Qing also eagerly started reading, as if he found something interesting.

The next few days, Li Qing wasn't in a rush to do anything.

More haste, less speed.

The faster he moved, the more likely something would go wrong.

Eight out of ten times, the biggest secret is right here; understanding this game world is to understand this mysterious civilization.

He was scared by that terrifying will!

Better to lie low for now!

Thus, every day he leisurely became a newbie doing daily tasks, doing odd jobs in a modern metropolis in the Newbie Village, working, delivering parcels, delivering takeout.

The various daily tasks were quite nice.

Li Qing mainly delivered takeout.

Because it can trigger many interesting personal side quests.

The currency in reality and the game was interchangeable, meaning game coins earned by doing tasks here could be used in real life.

Running takeout for over ten days, Li Qing earned 3123 yuan in paper money.

He could buy some nutritional fluids in reality, get some synthetic meat to improve his life; if he accumulates a few years' wages like this, he might even be able to exchange for a better nutrient pod in reality, or even buy a house in a more comfortable luxurious district.

And Li Qing also began to realize one thing:

"With advanced technology, in reality, there are already no labor jobs, but to prevent these lower-class people from idling, they're forced to create work overtime in a virtual world, issuing wages..."

"Move bricks in the virtual world, continue consuming their time and spirit, work nine-nine-six, then give a little wage sweetener, making them have no time to revolt!"

"No doubt, this is a capitalist society; ruling the common folk is truly cunning."

He was just amused, ready to start taking serious actions.

But Li Qing felt a sense of discord.

Since it's so troublesome to herd the populace, with their emotions to tend, housing, and game time to provide, and revolutions to guard against, why bother keeping so many people?

Just killing them off directly, isn't impossible!

This society is different from Earth.

The labor force is long since unneeded, there's no fear of low birth rates or aging population...

In capital's eyes, why maintain you useless bunch?

They can't be used as leeks now anyway.

Wouldn't it be better to have a batch of leek robots work instead?

"So why did they establish this game, create a Second World, raising so many people here?" Li Qing pondered, looking beyond the appearance to the essence:

"The capitalist's sole objective is to treat them as a new crop of leeks on another level."

Until he witnessed an incident.

A delivery player suddenly got hit by a car and died.

Li Qing felt his soul being torn apart and harvested, mysteriously sent to some enigmatic place.

"I see now. This is a world constructed by the Consciousness Wave, where one's soul roams... They're harvesting one player's soul after another."

Li Qing immediately understood everything.

It's also like raising pigs, herding the Lower City District civilization...

These guys can't come to the real world, so they've established a more inferior "spiritual virtual world," herding an even lower-tier Lower City District civilization, right?

"That's feasible."

Li Qing frowned, giving a cold smirk, "They indeed have no defenses, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to figure out their backgrounds."

This civilization is extremely advanced, clearly reaching the level of consciousness, super high-level Consciousness Waves, energy waves.

Here, it was evidently the true soul world.

If reality is a 3D world, then this is a 2.5D world; though not exactly an apt analogy, it indeed gets close to reality.

Long confined, with scarce resources, they were forced to develop a completely new technology, constructing a more inferior virtual civilization.

And even constantly promoting this world's civilization explosion, eventually achieving even higher technology, capable of breaking out and retaliating to the main material plane!

Li Qing suddenly felt a chill growing in his heart, viewing the opponent more highly.

Indeed, they must not be underestimated.

This is a true monster; underestimating this behemoth that has been lurking in Subspace for billions of years would result in certain death.

"I initially thought they were trapped back then, no material, and their technology completely stagnated... belonging to a civilization that crossed half the threshold of Divine Upper."

"But they actually use this method of herding, meaning their technology never stagnated from start to finish."

"Their estimation is that they have already transitioned from a threshold civilization to a mature horror civilization of Divine Above..."

"Just that with material shortages, possibly there's been a tech explosion, but in reality, completely lacked enough resources..."

This civilization is definitely not simple.

The Divine Upper Civilization, even a quite mature Divine Upper Civilization, the level of maturity attained over these years remains to be explored!

Li Qing suddenly recalled the massive entity he had sensed.

In an instant, he would be pinched to death.

There's no mistaking that feeling...

"Initial probing, and roughly can begin to take action."

Li Qing mused for a moment, "Here, it can be completely treated as a real solidified world... The people here are all real True Persons, with their own souls, logging into the game can be like crossing into an Otherworld."

The terrifying technology of this level is something that even Li Qing finds a bit hard to comprehend the principles of.

And this Second World perfectly conforms to the Real Universe's laws, the computing power needed is no wonder run by that mysterious behemoth.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.