Post-Apocalyptic Survival Modpack

Chapter 150, Page 149: The Classroom

"Dig, build, blocks."

"This is the fundamental identifier of our world."

"Have you all remembered it?"

In a remote village, inside a classroom, a young lecturer is explaining and popularizing basic knowledge to the children.

The children sitting below listened very attentively, not one of them losing focus.

"We got it!" the children answered in unison.

"Next."

The lecturer paused for a moment before saying, "Students, we are about to begin our practical lessons. In the following lessons, everyone will be able to use the workbench."

"Great--!"

A cheer erupted in the classroom as the children, who had just learned to read, chattered excitedly, creating a lively atmosphere.

On stage, the young lecturer did not stop the children's discussion, letting the classroom fall into noise.

Only after the initial enthusiasm had subsided and the children had said most of what they wanted to say did the instructor gently clap his hands to draw their attention back.

Looking at the children below the stage, the young lecturer couldn't help but reminisce.

Back when I was about the same age as these children, the community had only been unified for a few years. At that time, the workstations were not accessible to everyone and were still subject to regulations.

However, with the passage of time, the change of eras, and the improvement of relevant regulations, the restrictions are no longer so great.

The new generation is unaware of the hardships of the past and enjoys many conveniences from birth, using all sorts of things they never dared to imagine before.

"Students," the lecturer raised his voice, a gentle smile on his face, "before you receive your workbenches, I have a question for you—do you know where these workbenches come from?"

The classroom fell silent. The children looked at each other, then shook their heads, and no one spoke.

Clearly, no one had told them these things before.

And now.

Seeing the children looking at him expectantly, the lecturer continued, "Many years ago, there were no workbenches in the world, nor was there the prosperity and wealth we have today. Most people lived a life where they couldn't get enough to eat, even in big cities."

"It was not until the appearance of the sage, the man now known as the creator craftsman or builder, that everything changed."

"He brought new rules to this land, giving people freedom to unleash their creativity."

As the lecturer spoke, he looked at the bright-eyed students below the stage and was filled with emotion.

If I were that age, at that naive stage, I probably wouldn't understand these words very well, and I probably wouldn't remember them either; at most, I'd have a vague impression of them.

But now it's different.

The efficiency of basic education and learning today far surpasses that of the past. These children, who are under ten years old, may seem innocent and curious, as if they know nothing, but the breadth and depth of their cognition and the knowledge they have acquired have already far exceeded that of their peers at that age.

This is progress.

So many years have passed in the blink of an eye.

The lecturer suppressed these thoughts, waved his hand, and activated the magic network to manifest projections.

Those are images of people using workbenches to make tools, and then using those tools to carry out digging and building activities, thereby transforming life and the world.

At the end of the video, three words appeared, floating in mid-air:

Rules, creation, freedom.

"Our sage—the creator of the world."

The lecturer said in a clear and inspiring voice, “He did not give us ready-made food and shelter, but he gave us the means to change the world—that is, to understand and apply new ‘rules’.”

After speaking, the lecturer walked to the side of the podium, where there was a wooden box. It was brown and looked unremarkable, but the children's eyes were drawn to it, and their breathing became lighter involuntarily.

crunch.

The box was opened, but nothing could be seen inside; it was just a black hole of nothingness.

The instructor paused, then reached out his hand, and a workbench appeared in his palm. With a thud, the workbench was placed next to the box.

In terms of sheer size, the workbench was obviously larger than the box, but everyone was used to this and didn't find it strange.

"This is the workbench."

The lecturer gently stroked the workbench with one hand and said, "Before the sage brought the new rules, people who wanted to make a stone pickaxe had to find suitable materials and then repeatedly polish and process them. Not only was it time-consuming and laborious to make, but it was also easy to damage it if one was not careful when using it."

"but now--"

The instructor opened the box again, took out three raw stones and two wooden sticks, and placed them on the workbench.

Soon, the silhouette of a stone pickaxe took shape.

The instructor reached out and grabbed, and in the next moment, a pickaxe appeared in his hand.

"Look, students."

The instructor said, "As long as we follow the 'rules'—that is, the fixed recipe and put in the right ingredients—the rules of the world will respond to us and help us complete the 'creation'."

In the sunlight, the stone pickaxe gleamed with a cold, hard luster.

The instructor held up a brand-new, angular stone pickaxe and showed it to the children.

"Wow!"

The children let out a unified gasp of surprise.

"This is freedom."

The lecturer said, "Today, we are no longer bound by the inherent material form."

“We can make planks from trees, sticks from planks, and furnaces from pebbles… one link after another, from nothing to something, from simple to sophisticated.”

"We can build houses to shelter us from the wind and rain, we can make tools to explore mines, we can grow crops, and we can raise animals..."

"We use our own hands, in accordance with the rules, to create our own lives."

"Thus gaining 'freedom'."

"This is what our great sage, the craftsman of creation, has brought us."

As the lecturer spoke, he displayed the six large characters again.

Rules, creation, freedom.

New rules, the power of creation, human freedom.

"Then, teacher."

When the story came to an end, a little girl raised her hand and asked curiously, "What exactly is the Sage like? Where is he now?"

"This is it."

The lecturer smiled gently; this question comes up with almost every class of students.

He thought for a moment and said, "I was fortunate enough to meet the Sage when I was your age. He was nearly two squares tall, about 1.9 meters, and looked very young, just like any ordinary person, with nothing different about him. But once you see him, you will definitely recognize him."

After answering the first question, the lecturer walked to the window, looked at this remote village—which, like any other place, was far removed from poverty—and said:
"But the teacher had only seen him once."

"Legend has it that after the sage spread the new rules to every corner of the world, he went into seclusion, and people rarely heard from him."

"Some say he has become the rules themselves, omnipresent, while others say he has gone beyond the world to explore a wider unknown."

"But wherever he is, the rules and wisdom he left behind are being passed down and continued through the workbenches in each of our hands, through every excavation and construction we make."

So, children.

The lecturer withdrew his gaze, his expression becoming more serious. He said, "We must remember that the workbench is not just a tool; it is also a gift, a responsibility, and represents the expectations of the sage."

"We hope to use it to change the world, and to create with our imagination and patience."

(End of this chapter)