I Don't Agree to the Terms

"This world is truly developed," Gu Shanhai strolled down the street, watching the occasional zero-cost purchase events and the fires set by protestors marching from time to time, giving him an illusion of being in the beacon of the world.

On this planet, there was only the Navia Empire, and due to the absence of external enemies, the internal factions were extremely chaotic. Merely the classifications of gender had evolved into three hundred and seventy-two types, a complexity that astonished Gu Shanhai.

Regarding how he got here, of course, he followed the vanguard's Quantum Channel.

He had been there for almost a month before the first batch of vanguard members arrived. The reason he had to wait so long was naturally because the Empire's members of parliament were engaged in endless squabbles, otherwise gathering personnel would not have taken a month.

Correspondingly, the vanguard team also successfully discovered the immortal abilities of the mutated universe, which astounded them.

The discovery was simple: their teammates kept decreasing in number, dying and then coming back to life, leaving everyone bewildered.

Even if one was torn into pieces by monsters, they could still be revived by Ghost Energy, a fact that truly shocked them.

Later, because the number of mutated life forms was simply too vast and endless and they couldn't be completely eradicated, they had no choice but to temporarily retreat.

However, on their retreat, they also brought back a living mutated life form to their universe.

Of course, Gu Shanhai did not pretend to be that captured mutated life form. Instead, he strode back openly, first visited the research institute, and then left, casually usurping the identity of an orphan with no friends.

He didn't replicate his old trick of getting an identity card not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't.

This world was too developed, with an incredibly high degree of informatization; there was no existence of undocumented individuals.

If you claimed not to have an identity card, being undocumented, they wouldn't immediately process a temporary identity for you, but would instead detain you for further investigation to see what trouble you'd gotten into.

Another point was that the world's population consisted of Caucasians and Africans; Gu Shanhai being of Asian descent wouldn't fit in, and the issue could be identified at first glance.

Although the Navia Empire always emphasized equality, discrimination was still pervasive. In summary, the higher echelons were chaotic, and so were the lower echelons, observing various forms of pandemonium in action.

Thus, simply usurping an identity was enough.

Relying on the fetus changing abilities and size-shifting, he could easily disguise himself, even the technology of this world couldn't identify him.

"At present, I need to find a few factions to blend in with."

Gu Shanhai quite favored the Jile Sect, but they were too conservative. If he joined, he might just lead the entire Navia Empire on a path of chemical bliss.

When that time came, everyone would be floating in ecstasy, happiness levels forcibly maxed out, a state not even Utopia could match.

"Besides the Jile Sect, the Cyber Faction is also quite good. However, altering oneself is nothing; they could combine with the Jile Sect, turning into digital life, enjoying everlasting spiritual pleasure in a virtual world."

Gu Shanhai naturally had many ideas, but he needed to actualize them first, and therefore required the various scientific and technological knowledge of this world.

Luckily, knowledge in the Navia Empire wasn't monopolized, much of it was free, and one could download it using a personal terminal on the network, though slightly advanced knowledge did require payment, but the prices were extremely cheap.

Policy-wise, the Navia Empire naturally encouraged all citizens to learn and serve the Empire.

This benefitted Gu Shanhai entirely.

As for the extremely high-value knowledge, it naturally was not made public. This knowledge related to Ghost Energy, strategic military arms, and so forth.

"Most people don't seem to fully understand Ghost Energy, knowing only a bit about it."

Gu Shanhai quickly found news and literature related to Ghost Energy through his personal terminal. He hadn't forgotten what he came to this universe to do.

Besides deducing the Vermilion Bird, he was seeking the Ghost Energy—a manifestation of the concept of death—to use as data for deducing the Black Tortoise.

But while many knew of Ghost Energy, further investigation led to confusion, with nothing clear at all.

It was a highly confidential special technology within the Navia Empire.

Therefore, if Gu Shanhai wanted to access Ghost Energy, he could either do so stealthily or he could join the Empire and become a relevant person to legitimately make contact.

He had no intention of revealing his true identity or forcefully making contact.

The aberrant and bizarre served as a warning of the past; his level of strength being arranged in a world that appeared feeble was not the "First Era" wanting him to bully the weak, but rather because what he saw was only the surface. The true terror was hidden, involving it would certainly be life-threatening, and Gu Shanhai had no intention of taking such a risk.

"Virtual reality technology has already emerged, it's just not very effective."

Gu Shanhai browsed through several pieces of news, all officially released and dating back several years.

It was said that the Empire's research institutes had successfully developed it and were ready to put it into use, but then it just disappeared.

Upon further search, the company had gone bankrupt due to a lack of funding.

Gu Shanhai almost laughed out loud at this, finding it unbelievable how things worked here.

However, the most developed technology was probably that of synthetic humans. Synthetic humans were not true humans, but a special kind of people who were a combination of the latest intelligent machinery and flesh. They existed as slaves to humans, further eliminating the need for intelligent robots.