Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"Okay." Shangluo first looked at the confidentiality agreement. The confidentiality agreement was in duplicate, in Latin and Chinese. But this...

"Are you sure this is in Latin? And not translated for me?"

This was Shangluo's first time reading long passages of professional Latin literature on his own. But it seemed different from the Latin he had imagined.

Indeed, Phaethon had said before that the Romans used a large number of Chinese characters to write the technical nouns of various disciplines. Victoria had just mentioned that there was a word like "Son of Heaven" which was completely Chinese in both its writing and pronunciation.

But he didn't expect that there were so many - an entire page was almost entirely filled with Chinese characters. Except for prepositions, conjunctions, and the like, nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and the main bodies of all sentences were written in Chinese characters, without even any annotations.

Except for nouns, verbs and other words were not written entirely in Chinese characters. Latin affixes were simply added to the Chinese stems to express things like perfect and progressive tenses. These Latin words were written in uppercase Latin letters alongside Chinese characters.

And while there are many Chinese characters, this can seem a bit cumbersome. This is because Latin typically uses subject-object-verb order, with the subject and object first and the verb second. This reading order differs from Chinese. Furthermore, even if Latin words are jumbled, they can still convey meaning to a certain extent, as the relationship between the various sentence components is clearly expressed through "declension."

"Well, can you read?" asked Victoria.

"Well, I can guess based on the words. But I don't know how these words are declension, so I'm missing some key information. Generally speaking, I can only understand the topics being discussed in each sentence. When it comes to the verbs' direction and the nouns' attribution, I'm completely lost."

"That's true. After all, we only used Chinese characters to represent it, without changing the structure of Latin itself, so it's still quite difficult for you to read it."

"Speaking of which, why is this? I remember Phaethon mentioned before that it was because of something like the 'language of Eden'. What is that?"

"Hmm," Victoria nodded. "This is actually very close to the recipe for brewing a big dream. Do you want to know?"

"Tell me?"

"Another way to call it is the Clavis Sinica. We use it because the Romans clearly understood that we were a secondary civilization. In fact, not only the Latin Romans, but we Greeks also knew that there was the Mycenaean civilization before us, and there were civilizations far older than ours. Our writing has lost the most basic understanding of things. For example."

She thought for a moment. "Straightforward: hen, chick, and rooster—in Latin, these are three unrelated words. But if we use Chinese characters to represent them, we know they're all 'chicken.' As a secondary civilization, we've lost these 'Edenic cognitions,' but you still have them. In Chinese characters, Edenic information—ideas, meanings, definitions, abstract concepts—is still preserved. This is very important—in fact, we've even changed the spoken word for chicken to correspond to the characters for hen and chicken, respectively, and the same goes for chick and rooster. This makes sense."

"Then why don't you use Egyptian writing?"

"Because the Egyptians are too lazy! Egyptian writing has too many phonetic elements and a ridiculously small semantic element. And every one of them is a master of children's stick figure drawing. Learning it is useless. It's better to learn the Aurora script. It will fill in the gaps in Eden's information while making it easier to communicate with the Aurora people. Yeah."

She glanced at the agreement before her. "But even so, we've learned enough. I guess in a while, we'll be able to use the Aurora script as a written language, just like the Koreans. By then, you'll probably be able to understand it directly."

"Then you'll be the ones who can't understand it, right? Written and spoken Korean are completely disconnected."

"It's okay. These are all necessary sacrifices. Have you decided? If you have, you can sign."

"no problem."

As a rule, this oath was sworn to the river Styx, and it was a powerful oath binding even Helios himself.

He took out his seal, stamped it, and signed his signature.

"Okay, I'll tell you the recipe now."

Victoria breathed a sigh of relief. "Do you remember what I said before? I said this is very similar to the Eden script. So where are the records of the Eden script in your country?"

"Are you proficient in oracle bone script? The earliest systematic writing system is oracle bone script."

"The oracle bones have been buried in the ground for a long, long time, some of them have already weathered away. But what about those that record so much more information, everything about all life on Earth, past and present, melting their greatest dreams? Let me give you a hint: they're buried deep underground, carrying the deep dreams of all things that have passed."

"oil?"

"Right. So you just draw a can of tar, grind up the black stone, and throw it in. The black stone will melt when it hits the tar, and then you can use it."

"Huh? That's it?"

"Yes, that's right. That's why I said it must be kept secret—this thing is almost like a recipe for alchemy. If you don't keep it secret, anyone who sees the recipe can steal the Black Stone and take it home to brew the Great Dream."

"Wow! Grinding up the black stone and throwing it in is almost like grinding up oracle bones and using them as medicine."

"Yeah, that's why I said they are very similar, very similar."

"But we later discovered that oracle bone inscriptions can be interpreted. So you..."

"There's nothing we can do about it. Let's grind it up and use it first. Once you throw it into the tar, the Great Dream will be brewed, and the human dream will melt into the greater dream. As for how to interpret it in the future, that's a matter for later. Anyway, let's use it first. Remember to add some tar from time to time, and do it frequently."

Chapter 364 Metabit

"So, your... oh no, our Pure Land actually requires burning oil?"

"Well," Victoria thought for a moment, "it depends on how you understand 'burn'. If it means burning, then no. Because there is no 'burning' process in this process. But if 'burning' is understood as large-scale consumption, then yes."

“How much will this cost?”

"We actually have a unit of measurement—called a 'metabit.' We chose oil as our 'fuel' because it contains the richest amount of metabits. This is because oil contains the dreams of countless deceased beings in the form of organic matter, and it is highly compressed. One metabit can support an intelligent life like you to run a minimum clock cycle in the Great Dream. Even now, Cyberlania consumes a large amount of tar."

“Is this a huge amount?”

"At the moment, the quantity isn't large, because tar tastes vary. First, it's important to understand that there's a huge difference between different oils. The dreams of lower-level organisms like microorganisms are incomparable to the dreams of dinosaurs. The more highly developed the oil comes from, the more metabits it contains. While the amount of oil that actually comes from dinosaurs is very small, at least a truckload of that much is enough to keep Cyberlania running for several days."

"That's quite convenient, isn't it? It's so economical?" Shangluo was surprised by how easy it was to use. After all, this was a city-level node, housing an entire city's worth of people. If this city existed in the mortal world, it would definitely consume far more fuel than just a tank of oil.

"This isn't even about saving money—you know why I said to use tar instead of gasoline? Because this process actually allows for oil refining. When the tar is poured into the Great Dream, high-quality fuel will float up, pure and free of impurities. This 'clear oil', to use an analogy, is pure enough to light a lamp for the Buddha."

"So, in terms of fuel consumption, it's not even that much. I was just thinking that the court has been trying to save fuel lately."

"I suggest you really use it sparingly," Victoria shook her head. "We're also wondering what to do when the oil runs out. While this floating oil can be burned, I think it has some use. For example, in the future, perhaps we could use it as a solvent to recycle the memories of living beings into tar, which could then be used to power the Great Dream. In that case, the oil would have to be recycled."

"Ah, what's this 'Memory Retrieval' thing?"

"I don't know either, but in principle it's feasible because it reverses the process of converting tar into clean oil, replenishing what was consumed. Of course, we have some backup plans, but we haven't used them yet."

"for example?"

"For example, whale oil," Victoria replied. "We've seriously considered using it, and as far as 'tar' goes, whale oil is undoubtedly the best. We don't use it now because whales have too many emotions, and unlike petroleum tar, they haven't been stored and 'fermented' over time, so it's unusable. But taking a step back, using renewable resources to supplement 'tar' consumption is feasible. And clear oil is the solvent we need then. Are you saving fuel?"

"Yes." Shangluo nodded. "We are trying to use ethanol as a substitute for fuel in our recent car races."

"You guys are really ahead of the times. I almost thought you knew in advance that oil would be very useful. What's your reason for doing this?"

"Because this world belongs to us, it's normal to be frugal with things at home. It's an old habit."

"That's a good habit. Then I suggest we speed up the plan and reduce the use of all fossil fuels as quickly as possible. Because they contain precious metabits, it would be a waste to burn them all."

"Yeah," Shangluo agreed. We should use fossil fuels while we can.

After using it up, if you have to find a way to turn the oil back into tar, that would be troublesome. "Injecting" memory sounds like something very cruel.

"Like Mengpo soup?" Apollonia asked. "That's really cruel. Severing memories is like severing a person's identity and personality."

"In terms of reincarnation in the underworld, losing memories is indeed a step towards a new life, but it also means complete death. However, everything we do isn't to create a reincarnation cycle with Meng Po soup, but to allow everyone to enter the Pure Land and escape the suffering of reincarnation. If some are left outside to grow old, get sick, and die, exploiting their memories as fuel for the divine realm—wow! What a dark myth."

"But this dark myth is too hellish, isn't it? This is hell in the literal sense!"

[Speaking of hell, this is indeed hell. What are you going to do? ]

"Tsk, luckily we still have time, luckily we don't have to make this decision right now. After this, we'll have to see how things go. I don't really want to use whale oil or re-coked clear oil. Although when the time comes, I'll have to use it, whether it's barbarians or something else. Birth, aging, sickness, and death are all part of human nature, and I don't have any psychological burden. It's enough for us to stay in the heavens. But at least when there's a choice, I want to try a method that's less harmful to nature. I think it's still pretty fuel-efficient right now."

"Not necessarily," Apollonia reminded. "She just used 'dinosaur oil' as an example. The oil produced by advanced life forms like dinosaurs is very rare in the entire stratum. The vast majority is algae and microorganisms. I suggest you consider it as low-grade oil."

"This isn't 'low taste' at all. It's a headache. This kind of problem doesn't even exist when burning oil. It's all just a fire, so who cares about dinosaur oil, whale oil, algae oil, etc.? I always feel like this is..."

He realized it. "I'm just listening to thermal and hydroelectric power through headphones! There's indeed a connection. I'll have to experiment when I get back. The 'oil' we use is different on both sides, so maybe there really is a difference between wind power and hydropower. By the way, Victoria, how do you use these metabits in the oil? Is it just a matter of soaking them in water?"

"Yes." Victoria nodded. "You grind up the black stone and drop it into the tar, and the Great Dream will begin. During this process, the black stone acts like a catalyst. It doesn't consume itself, but the tar is consumed. Then, if you want to connect something, just soak it in the tar container. Is that a teapot? Just throw the teapot in, and the world inside will automatically start moving."

I'll take a break today, and there will be three more updates on Monday

Chapter 365 Tar

"I see, that's how it's supposed to be used. Hmm, this ice cream is pretty good."

"This ice cream is really good. Hey, Shangluo, what did you say just now?"

When Shangluo came back, the two sat in front of a mountain of plates, and each of them ate more than 10 bowls of ice cream.

"Good boy, aren't you two afraid of getting diarrhea after eating so much?"

"No way." Gao Shiyu didn't even burp. "We only realized after eating for a while that eating here doesn't make you fat at all. It's the same as not eating at all."

"So of course we have to eat as much as we can," Gao Qingyu added. "We usually practice very hard, so we can't eat anything we want. Here, eating is the same as not eating at all, so of course we have to take the opportunity to eat more."

"Everyone seems to enjoy visiting Alexandria. Do you want me to order some more?"

"No." Gao Shiyu waved his hand. "Even if it's the same as not eating anything, I can't eat any more. I've tried every flavor, and I don't think I'll crave any other ice cream for a long time. By the way, you just said that we need to consume 'metabits' to surf the Internet? How is it measured? For example, how many metabits are in a liter of regular gasoline? How long does it last?"

"Let me explain first," Shangluo reminded him, "I've already signed a confidentiality agreement. I'm telling you two because you're from the Water Department. According to the agreement, I can tell nine people. Roma still doesn't want too many people to know this news. So, you should try to keep it a secret. I'll only tell a few other people from the Thunder Department."

"I see." Gao Shiyu nodded. "So, roughly how many yuan in bits are in a liter of oil?"

"There's very little 'ordinary' tar. I'll tell you how much there is. The bottle Victoria showed me is their carefully selected, high-grade tar. It contains about 15 yuan per liter. Alexandria only needs one tanker truck to run for a few days. But that high-grade tar comes from dinosaurs."

"Yeah," Gao Shiyu nodded. "Then where can we get the oil made from dinosaurs? If we can't find it, we can use ordinary tar. How much is the ordinary tar?"

"Victoria showed me a bottle - it was, like, 29 bits per litre."

"29 versus 15? That's not even a fraction!"

"That's an extreme case, but sometimes you have to take it into consideration. After all, many fuels that look identical can have vastly different 'usability' in terms of Yuanbit. Regular gasoline is generally around 5000. While that's still a fraction of 15, it's still usable."

"You mentioned earlier that they also tried whale oil?"

"Yes. The content of whale oil is around 12 per liter, and it probably varies depending on the species of whale. The Romans didn't test every type of whale, but all of them are of high quality, comparable to the finest tar."

"So." He swallowed, "What about the human?"

"I don't know. They haven't experimented with it. Their experiments stopped at whale oil. In actual use, the whale's rich emotions have already had a significant negative impact on the dreams created. The whale's dreams are directly reflected in the generated dreams. I don't dare to imagine what it would be like if a 'human' was injected into it."

"By the way, what exactly does the metabit correspond to?"

"Yes, time," Shangluo replied. "Because human life needs to progress, time must progress. Therefore, in the spiritual world, where time doesn't advance on its own, some 'fuel' is needed to propel time forward. That's why we mentioned the need for dinosaurs, because they possess a higher level of consciousness, and their time is precious. The same is true for whales; the time they experience is very useful. However, not all creatures have the same complete perception of time as we, the advanced dragons and beasts."

"We need oil?"

"Yes, and you need oil. Dinosaurs didn't have much oil, but there were geological changes. Whales have plenty of oil—but their rich emotions are unnecessary in dreams. Carrying human emotions is enough; adding whale emotions would be too crowded. If we can find a way to simulate the 'fermentation' process in the strata, then whale oil could be used. But personally, I don't want to kill whales."

"So what do you think of lard?"

"Lard? Hey?" Shangluo slapped his head. "Lard is certainly okay. But what's the world of pigs like? It feels weird. I'll try to refine some later. Tsk, why do I feel like I can load different scripts into it? Lard, beef tallow, mutton fat, fish oil."

"And duck fat. Yingtian's duck fat sesame cakes are pretty good."

"This is all butter and duck fat, I'm getting hungry just hearing about it." He thought of the steamed bread in his bag. But now was not the time to eat. "Let's go back. I can start building the server when I get back."

"Okay. Today?"

"Alright today! Try to get it done today. I have to go talk to the Emperor."

"The old place?" Zhu Ling was still sitting in Zhu Xianxun's office.

"Yeah, the old place. You came in unexpectedly and made an appointment, so he had no choice but to let me receive you."

"Okay, then the old place."

Next to the panda park, he and Zhu Ling got out of the car.

"What are you going to have me do today?"

"Just help me chop some bamboo today. I heard you have some powerful magic weapon?"

"So you want to see the magic weapon? Just say it."

"Because magic weapons are weapons, we have to find a place for you to demonstrate them. Show me quickly. I want to see what kind of magic weapons powerful Qigong practitioners use."

In the bamboo forest, Shangluo took out the scroll.

"You have so many!"

"Let me see which one I can use to cut bamboo. This one won't work. This one won't work."

"What is this?" Zhu Ling pointed at one of the swords.

"That one is Huang's Death. This one, hey, this one seems to work. Let me try it."

According to Victoria, this is a "perfect sword" that can cut anything it really wants to cut. Caesar once used it to cut people, but Shangluo

Shangluo currently had no way of sending the killing intent to anyone. After all, he didn't have any enemies, and he didn't really want to kill anyone.

But bamboo was different. Killing it for Fu Fu's dinner was no big deal. After all, bamboo was one of those plants that, even if it turned into tar, wouldn't yield much.

He pulled out the Yellow Death from the sword manual and put the bundle back. He swung the hilt of the sword in a circle, finding it quite comfortable in his hand. The sword didn't feel like he'd just started using it, but rather like he'd been using it for years.

Chapter 366 Sword Test