Chapter 867 — The Immortal Project

"Anything good carries the risk of being abused; the only difference is whether it has a chance to be controlled. Compared with Beiyila's life-exchange spell, which is so easily manipulated in private, at least the Immortal project, dependent as it is on the state apparatus, is easier to control," Gao Yang said, unsurprised by Norris's challenge, laying out his thinking plainly. "The Civil Affairs Office will establish a parallel set of management procedures to ensure that the 'Immortals' do not conflict with the social order of the real world—of course, this will likely take a long time, and over the long future these institutions will undergo repeated damage and repair. All of this must go into our considerations.

"And as the first Immortal, Norris, I apologize that we did not seek your consent beforehand—future Immortals will all follow the principle of voluntary participation, and the responsibilities, rights, and obligations following 'soul regeneration' will be explicitly defined. This too is a vital link in bringing the Immortal project under proper control.

"In addition, precisely to prevent the Immortals from affecting the social order of the real world, Norris, I will relieve you of your post as Minister of Agriculture. A successor will replace you in the real world through lawful procedure, while you may participate in a limited capacity in the affairs of the Civil Affairs Office as an advisor—we shall run things this way for a time, to observe whether such procedures are sound, and if problems arise, we can adjust them gradually.

"Finally, the Immortals who dwell within the Narrator neural network will also be bound by social order. You have already seen that this world has cities, and in time it will naturally have inhabitants as well—they are the 'users' who connect to the network as 'short-term residents,' and the Immortals, who are this world's 'long-term residents.' The Civil Affairs Office will establish administrative bodies in this special world similar to those of the real world, and in time you will find that living here is not so very different from living in the real world."

Norris listened intently to every word Gao Song said, trying as best he could to picture what kind of future that would be, only to find that even with the widened perspective he had gained over these years, he could scarcely keep pace with Gao Song's thinking. He could only vaguely imagine certain subversive, unprecedented "prospects"—the world split in two, the real world and the mental space within the network running in tandem, countless people living in both worlds at once, all knowledge and ideas exchanged and shared with unprecedented efficiency. The Undying existing within the network over the long term might even give birth to an entirely new "people," and one of the greatest challenges facing the future Cecil might well be bringing that new people into balance with the social order...

Some challenges were worth looking forward to.

And while Norris strained to conceive of the future, Gao Song's own thoughts were also churning.

The Undying Project... a bold and deeply ambitious plan.

Outstanding talents would be protected, precious knowledge put to more thorough use, and the project itself could serve as an immense reward and a source of inspiration for the hearts of the people—at first glance, almost nothing but merits.

But risk lurked deep within those exhilarating merits.

Just as Norris had feared from the very first—this subversive technology that granted the soul immortality would very likely clash with the existing social order, and one day in the future there was the danger of misuse and loss of control.

For that reason, Gao Yang had to lead the Administrative Office in drawing up a vast web of rules and regulations to constrain the Undying, tightly controlling the channels, preventing it from blocking the upward mobility of the real world, preventing it from damaging the relatively fair social order that had been so hard won, preventing it from becoming a vent for power running out of control...

Yet for all the risks, Gao Yang had still decided to set this plan in motion and make it one of the Cecil Empire's vital "reserve forces."

This world was not at peace, and humanity... amid an unpeaceful world, was not much of a formidable species.

The elves, with their long history and rich heritage; the dragons, whose individual power was monstrously overwhelming; the sirens, mysterious and mighty and deathless... far too many races surpassed humanity in innate endowments, and they possessed exceedingly advanced civilizations of their own besides.

Another trait they all shared was longevity—they were extraordinarily hard to kill.

Any individual of theirs who merely lived to adulthood could accumulate the knowledge and skill of several human generations.

Though at present the Cecil Empire was on good terms with all these powers, that could not let Gao Yang rest easy, for he still remembered how, not long ago, the dragonborn had seen through the Cecil Empire's investment plans and trade proposals at a single glance. Though the dragonborn had in the end agreed to join the Cecil settlement zone, appearing on the surface to have fallen into the Cecil's monetary siege, every sign indicated that the Grand Duke Balyang was no such thing as caught in a "trap"—if the dragonborn could see through the Cecil's investment plans from experience alone, then surely they were no strangers to humanity's little tricks in matters of currency either. Their light, offhand acceptance of the settlement zone could only mean... that they did not care.

The great dragons of Tarronde might well stand behind them; deep in their mountains might well lie "ancient superweapons" that all the humans of the continent together could not hope to defeat.

Gao Yang very much wished to maintain lasting peace with those races, but one saying he understood well: to want peace, one must have the wherewithal for peace.

The Cecil Empire needed some "special foundations" that belonged to humanity alone.