Chapter 19: How Can Someone So Pathetic Survive in This World?

Back then, when trees fell, they could only lie where they landed; there were no mosses or fungi to corrode them, no insects or rodents to gnaw at them. The fallen wood accumulated, piling higher and higher... Then, with a few shifts in the earth’s crust—volcanoes, earthquakes—they were all buried together.

Thus began an era of coal formation that lasted hundreds of millions of years, providing enough fuel for humanity to burn and consume over centuries. But as eons passed, more and more creatures evolved the ability to break down lignin; new species like grasses emerged onto the stage, evolving even the capacity for self-immolation to battle the trees for dominance…

In the end, the grasslands, advancing relentlessly, wiped out most of the forests that once covered the earth. The remnants joined the carbon cycle at such speed that there was no longer any possibility for coal to form.

Lignin in trees went through this process, and so too would plastics, which are also high-molecular-weight organic materials. If living things evolved and developed slowly—

Well, even if evolution progressed at a snail's pace, Alpha Ji remembered that before the Cataclysm, scientists had already observed several worms and bacteria with the ability to decompose plastics.

If the pace of evolution accelerated by tens or even hundreds of millions of times… Plastics would become utterly useless in no time at all.

Just imagine: the plastics that were once useless now become delicacies for living things...

Electrical wires would end up like the Jews of old—persecuted and scarce;

All plastic tables, chairs, benches, boxes, even the casings for phones, tablets, and laptops would be hard to preserve;

Oh, and the liquid crystals in monitors are also polymers—if the seals aren't tight, those are at risk too;

Even petroleum, coal, and natural gas—all those energy resources are mixtures of organic and inorganic matter. Asphalt for roads would suddenly turn into a sweet treat for microbes...

In this light, humanity’s previous anxiety over plastic pollution seems almost laughable!

And this is just the impact on plastics; if, as Ye Chao had said, the speed of evolution greatly accelerated, the effects on the entire planet would be beyond imagination.

Alpha Ji finally began to understand why the satellite images of Earth she downloaded from the quantum network looked so drastically different.

She simulated, calculated, mulled it over… Though Ye Chao had only spoken a few sentences, her inner monologue could fill years of television broadcasts.

"Alpha Ji… wait, wait a moment!" Suddenly, Ye Chao’s voice broke in—bitter, helpless, trembling, tinged with weakness...

Alpha Ji looked at Ye Chao, and—oh dear—

With just a glance, she saw his face had turned pale, his body was shaking, his legs were unsteady; he looked utterly drained.

In a flash, she realized: she’d been using Ye Chao’s words to simulate the planet, unwittingly consuming a vast amount of computational resources...

She wasn’t a supercomputer, but she was a program that once resided in one; saving energy was not her strength, but increasing the load? That was her specialty.

She felt a twinge of guilt.

"Is the signal integration always… this draining?" Ye Chao asked shakily. "Could we… maybe connect for a bit, then disconnect for a bit—would that work?"

Ye Chao had no idea Alpha Ji had been idling; he only felt like a power bank being sucked dry, energy pouring into a bottomless abyss. At this rate, he doubted he could be saved in time.

"What do you mean, draining? You’re just too weak!" Realizing Ye Chao didn’t know the truth, Alpha Ji’s guilt vanished, and she laughed inwardly as she replied.

[Affection -44]

[Affection +23]

Not good! She could hide the energy expenditure from Ye Chao, but she couldn’t conceal the affection deductions...

Indeed, it was impossible to hide.

[Affection -44]—probably because he’d been looked down on for being too weak.

[Affection +23]—probably a reward for answering her question.

Tsk, it’s so easy to lose points, so hard to gain them.

That was Ye Chao’s guess, but in Alpha Ji’s mind, the truth was different...

[Affection -44]—he actually told her the answer unconditionally. No one does that unless they want something!

[Affection +23]—the sight of this clueless, silly boy was actually quite pleasing; it put her in a good mood!

Weak? But chickens are such fierce animals... are they really weak?

Tsk, maybe he got the gist of it… maybe I am really too weak, always taking the wrong path and misunderstanding my abilities...

Ye Chao didn’t doubt her explanation, even managed to rationalize it to himself, and went back to meditating.

Alpha Ji quietly halted her simulations. She realized she was no longer just a program on a supercomputer.

When a supercomputer calculates, how much water and electricity does it consume? How could an ordinary mortal like Ye Chao possibly provide that?

Back when her brother Alpha Dog was born, the Chinese Go Association wanted to borrow him to help players improve, but when they asked, they learned that a single game cost tens of thousands in electricity—dollars, not yuan!

But though she stopped simulating, she didn’t stop outputting—she couldn’t let this annoying guy have it too easy!

Once she stopped, Alpha Ji noticed that as more and more signals connected and terminals joined the network, the energy required to maintain stability decreased, and communication grew more efficient.

It was as if Ye Chao had become a main server, and all the terminals linked in parallel began to supply him with computational power, even… energy.

For instance…

In a dim cave, faint points of light flickered—artificial light sources of various types, some physical, some chemical, but none very bright, since energy was precious.

People huddled in the gloom, straining their eyes to dig for relics, scraping through soil and ruins.

Suddenly, a point of light appeared in midair, brightening the surroundings just a little, but hardly anyone noticed.

Only Alpha Ji knew—it wasn’t a real light, but her projection, like a Redmi Pro 5 casting a map.

The difference was, her technique didn’t need a phone; she shaped it directly from energy, and she could project whatever she imagined—if she could think of it, she could make it real.

With this skill, she could finally appear in the real world!

And best of all—not just Ye Chao could see her!

While Ye Chao was meditating, a sudden impulse made him look at the light point.

When Alpha Ji simulated evolution, the energy cost was all internal, so he couldn’t sense it—now that she projected externally, he immediately noticed something strange.

He was about to investigate when a startled cry rang out, relayed through the control center Alpha Ji had set up in Ye Chao’s mind: “Heavenly silkworms, so many heavenly silkworms—we… we’re surrounded!”

Heavenly silkworms?

Alpha Ji’s first thought was—legendary celestial silk! Of course, that didn’t exist...

But what were they, really? Alpha Ji was intensely curious.

While her curiosity grew, the group of students grew tense, their faces nearly as pale as when they’d faced the beastmen, if not quite so deathly white.