Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 120 - 121: Over 180 Years of Beef Jerky

Chapter 120 -121: Over 180 Years of Beef Jerky

This reality simply detonated the entire world.

Think about it, every major nation was in the midst of a population crisis, merely laughing at each other’s misfortunes. Now one country suddenly broke free from this predicament, how could other governments resist the temptation?

Thus, governments everywhere were itching to act, and the various rumors that were once rampant had all but halted. Even the official media had started to promote the safety of robots raising children, preparing to first gauge the public’s reaction before proceeding.

When Zhang Yuan learned of this news, for some reason, he felt slightly heavy-hearted and a bit uneasy.

As the anticipated facts truly unfolded, he once again felt vaguely worried.

The Artificial Intelligence remained as he knew it, simply more advanced, and there was no possibility of it developing self-awareness or rebelling. He didn’t know what he was worried about.

But their spaceship was already 1.2 light-years away, what could they do?

Their spaceship was incapable of interfering with any part of Earth Civilization’s functioning.

Only the Deep Space Foundation was still diligently fulfilling its duties, sending one report after another.

Zhang Yuan stood in his office for a long time, letting out a long sigh…

…

Visit ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com for the 𝑏est n𝘰vel reading experience.

That day, after he finished his work, he returned to the living area.

Zhang Yuan suddenly found a girl squatting in a corner, crying softly, as if she had encountered some sad story.

This situation was all too common; one could stumble upon it every few days…and he was no longer surprised by it.

Even he himself had gone through the same experience initially and could understand.

“…Hello,” Zhang Yuan opened his mouth, realizing he wasn’t very good at comforting people, and quickly shut it again.

Usually, he would just hand over a tissue and then silently accompany the person from a short distance away.

It wasn’t that he was idle or trying to flirt, but this sort of accompaniment had become an unspoken rule.

There were so few people on the spaceship, they had to look after each other to get through this hardship.

It is said that companionship can share pain…although he hadn’t felt this to be true initially.

Anyway, just standing there was a waste of a little time.

Zhang Yuan had one major flaw; seeing others cry didn’t tug much at his heartstrings…not that he lacked sympathy, but often he would drift off in thought, pondering over other issues, and appear a little absent-minded.

Relatively speaking, his willpower was quite strong; he could endure many things on his own strength. So he didn’t know what to say or do in such situations.

He just stood there silently, watching the girl cry, while contemplating the origin of this “rule of companionship.”

After thinking for a while, he suddenly felt that this “rule of companionship” was likely a pre-established rule rather than something that had formed spontaneously.

Spontaneous?

Don’t imagine humans to be too virtuous!

In such oppressive environments, it was more likely for domineering, criminal groups to form spontaneously. Much like in times of conflict, when countless stories of humanity’s innate evil emerge.

It was unlikely for such a relaxed and friendly atmosphere to form by itself.

So, the management had already done a lot of work in advance.

“Indeed, being a Captain isn’t so easy,” Zhang Yuan mused to himself. Those group activities were also held to maintain such an environment.

Essentially, this involved some concepts from game theory, such as the well-known Nash equilibrium.

Social norms and the Nash equilibrium are deeply linked, with one idea being that a sense of trust fostered by strict moral rules can lead to economic benefits.

Dominant groups are a spontaneous form of social norms, with survival as the basic instinct and extremely low efficiency.

The overall benefit derived from such inferior norms is incomparable to the current relaxed and friendly, artificially created norms.

Therefore, in these difficult times, everyone instinctively restrains their darker nature, carefully maintaining this social norm.

No one wants to easily reveal evil thoughts because once exposed, they would be shunned by everyone.

“The higher-yield choice in the prisoner’s dilemma… a wise choice.”

Zhang Yuan reflected thoughtfully, having grasped this point, he then considered some issues related to the New Civilization History.

Predicting the future development, both game theory and the overall psychology of humans are quite important…

“Regarding the conversion of human psychological choices into probability issues…”

“What are you doing? What was that look just now, do you think I’m an idiot?!” The girl squatting on the ground suddenly stopped crying, lifted her head, and looked at Zhang Yuan with indignation.

Zhang Yuan’s gaze faltered for a moment, and he quickly said, “Ah, sorry! I didn’t mean that, really, I was just lost in thought.”

The girl was quite pretty and seemed familiar. After a moment’s thought, a name popped into his head.

It was Reporter Lin, Lin Xuanyuan, who used to interview him frequently!

“Reporter Lin, did you just wake up from hibernation? Don’t be sad, would you like to have dinner together…” As soon as he said it, Zhang Yuan felt stupid. It was as if he was trying to take advantage of her.

Lin Xuanyuan was a bit stunned, then laughed at his silly words, “Thank you for the offer. I’m not in the mood to eat right now, I don’t have an appetite.”

Since they had met a few times before, and she knew Zhang Yuan had a rather unique way of speaking, she wasn’t really angry.

Meeting an acquaintance was much better than dealing with strangers.

“How can you not eat?”

She was silent for a while, then said, “Sigh, I woke up to find… that my parents had both passed away, and there’s no one left of my relatives and friends on Earth. It’s really quite hard to accept all of a sudden.”

As she spoke, Lin Xuanyuan’s eyes reddened again, and she covered her eyes once more.

Zhang Yuan pondered for a few seconds, then said, “Everyone has felt this way. You must have prepared yourself mentally before going into hibernation…”

Lin Xuanyuan wiped her tears and peeked at him through her fingers, “Being mentally prepared and it actually happening are two different things. I can never see them again, never.”

Zhang Yuan said, “Everyone has a past, but farewells among adults are always silent. The jostling, merry-making collective emotions, the carefree and unsuspecting deep comradery of youth, exist only in one’s teenage years…”

Lin Xuanyuan was taken aback.

Zhang Yuan wasn’t quite satisfied with his own attempts at consolation, which had ended up being sterner than he intended. After trying to comfort her to no avail, he had no choice but to withstand the pain and pull out his trump card.

“Wait a moment!”

He went back to his bedroom and took out his treasured beef jerky, aged for over one hundred and eighty years!