Welt Yang hadn't formulated this philosophy on a whim; he'd come to these realizations after truly understanding the integration of the new era.
Productivity, freedom, democracy, human rights—all of it stemmed from human action itself. Therefore, the true purpose of government was simply to maintain the material foundation for that action.
Justice was the interplay of rights and responsibilities between people, and morality was the distilled essence left behind by their collective experience.
With this understanding, Welt simply discarded all the superficial concepts and focused on guaranteeing just one thing: the upper and lower boundaries of human action.
And events proved Welt's foresight. With the foundation Academy City had already laid, his new "scripture" was a runaway success, quickly seizing the ideological high ground.
Welt had become a revered philosopher. Whether his infallible reputation would one day be shattered was anyone's guess, but for now, everyone was cheering his ideas.
Kiana now knew how to play these political games. She skillfully appropriated Welt's philosophical framework and quickly used it to craft a legitimizing manifesto for Academy City's council.
Noldrei soon learned of her work.
He wasn't surprised; it was merely something that was bound to happen in the future anyway. He just realized that if things continued down this path, the future humans of this world would walk the same road as those from his own time.
After inspecting the problems in the second Academy City, Noldrei dumped them all on a dumbfounded Theresa and made a cool exit. Theresa hadn't even had time to grasp the extent of the trouble her subordinates had caused.
The sudden workload caught her so off guard she couldn't even react. He wouldn't even give her time for bereavement leave, would he?
The chaos in the Far East society was gradually being suppressed. Any more turmoil, and it would only breed more thugs and lowlifes.
Academy City had indeed used outsiders to help clean up the mess in the Far East and deal with the shameless political opportunists, but that wasn't an invitation for street gangs to make a comeback.
Fortunately, Academy City showcased its combat strength and quickly cleared out these riffraff. Whether they lived or died and how they were ultimately dealt with would be up to the laws of Academy City.
They would likely be handled according to the principle of equal rights and responsibilities: they would be deprived of rights equivalent to those they had violated.
After returning, Noldrei sought out Welt Yang. Right now, Welt was the only one who could truly comprehend the circumstances of future humanity's development.
Ever since his inexplicable beatdown, the man had experienced something akin to a profound epiphany at Longchang; it was as if everything had become crystal clear to him.
Welt had plenty of work, but he was no longer focused primarily on Noldrei's activities. With Otto gone, a massive weight seemed to have lifted from Welt's shoulders. He radiated a subtle "I'm ready to retire" vibe.
"So, you're planning to call it quits?" Noldrei asked, spotting Welt's neatly organized office. He sat down on a nearby sofa and poured himself a cup of tea. After being here for so long, Noldrei had come to understand that drinking tea was a statement in itself.
"I think I understand why you only revealed the Gene Tree now," Welt said. "Only now can humanity understand how to use it correctly. But what the future develops into will no longer be in your hands. Is it really okay to just hand it over like this?"
Welt had never understood why Noldrei had scorned the use of future technology. The things he used were all technologies Schicksal and Anti-Entropy already possessed. But by simply using them in a different way, he could unleash entirely different societal forces.
Noldrei explained, "It's like driving a car in front of a primitive man. He'd be amazed by this unfamiliar animal, not recognize it as a car. The Gene Tree is, in essence, just a tool of control. In my era, we'd long since given up any hope for the genes of life."
"Unlike animals, humans are one of the few life forms with a tendency to worship their own creations. They imbue the things they create with their own emotions and experience hormonal changes in response. This includes the social rules they create, which fosters a desire for them to produce even more needs in the future."
"What I need is for you all to help me think of more paths forward. Welt, the things you've written are excellent. They could rule human society for tens of thousands of years. But when everyone has evolved to Kiana's level, this ideology will come to a complete end."
"At that time, this way of thinking will become its own opposite. Humanity will continuously seek meaning in their own actions, and the end result will be the constant creation of new humans who engage in the same activities as you, effectively replacing you."
Noldrei wasn't surprised by this eventuality; this was the core of his understanding. He had no intention of injecting memories into the locals, no thought of forcing technological progress, and certainly no bizarre ideas about killing everyone and redesigning everything from scratch.
All of those had been tried by future humans. If they had been useful, he would have used them himself. It was precisely because they were useless that Noldrei never even considered them.
Welt never thought that, after Otto, he would be the one to understand these things Noldrei spoke of. He now had a better grasp of why Otto had given up his position as Schicksal's Overseer.
"According to what you're saying, isn't humanity doomed?" Welt fell into a contemplative silence.
"They'll think of new solutions before it comes to that. Look, aren't I one of those solutions?" Noldrei had seen this kind of confusion countless times in the future. If they had been able to resolve this paradox, there would have been no need to create him and send him back in time.
"It's no big deal. It's just that the humans of this era haven't faced enough of this kind of conflict yet."
An unexpected question arose in Welt's mind. He asked, "Just how many humans are there in the future? To have accumulated such a vast Gene Tree? The things in the research institute are like tiny leaves and twigs on it."
"You're asking me a difficult question. The people of the future stopped counting long ago," Noldrei said after a moment's thought. "Planets are like dust in the cosmos, and on each speck of dust, there are many people who can terraform worlds and design new visions for the future."
"Even with all that, humanity hasn't even touched the edge of the universe. Trying to count how many humans there are would be harder still. Even future humans are very lonely and insignificant in the grand scheme of the cosmos."
Hearing Noldrei's words, Welt realized that the "universe" Noldrei spoke of was a completely different thing from the one he understood.
He hadn't forgotten about creatures like the Sugars. Judging by the state of humanity in Noldrei's universe, a Sugars probably wouldn't even have the right to speak.
Welt thought for a moment, then said, "Actually, we've encountered aliens. And if I'm not mistaken, the universe beyond Earth in our world is actually quite lively."