NOVEL NEXT Chapter 108: Origin City
Fortunately, the module Rachel provided was extremely stable and fitting for this world, which Savior now calls Peaceland.
Everything went well, with no mass extinction.
...
Humans continued building their settlements, and just after a decade, the first modern cities began to appear.
Nothing is specified about the form of government in modern humans' default settings, but modern humans usually choose democratic ways of government.
Savior could have requested all these details to be specified in the default settings, but he didn't. He believed their peaceful nature would lead them to a good form of government.
Elves, which were traditional, went the tribal way.
Plantpeople and Beastpeople, both advanced cultures, ultimately ended up in an AI-scene-based government.
Savior is a fan of this form of government.
It is usually composed of two parts. One is the council of suggestions; the other is the Main AI.
The council of suggestions is usually, though not always, elected by the people, both old and young.
There is no minimum age; even one-year-olds can vote.
The council will 'suggest' goals for the Main AI to accomplish.
The Main AI plays the roles of the executive and judiciary. It directs all executive agencies to implement policies that accomplish the suggested goals. It uses data to find the most rational, but not immoral, way to achieve them.
The AI the advanced cultures use is incredibly advanced; it's tightly under control, and the nightmare scenario of AI taking over the world nearly never happens.
Because the AI uses rational means, it's immune from people's irrational emotions.
In modern democracies, many people fall victim to tribal mentality and see their side as good and the other side as evil. Advanced cultures solve this problem by using AI.
The AI also acts as the judiciary, so all criminal and civil cases are solved consistently and fairly. There is no human bias involved.
The dragons just remained in their lair and continued collecting treasures.
...
Year 100.
Dan is now the leader of Origin City.
Origin City, as its name suggests, is the first city built by humans.
The city includes all human races, not just one race.
Only elves live in racially homogenous tribes.
Humans, Plantpeople, and Beastpeople are advanced enough to see beyond their skin color or appearance. They aren't as short-sighted as traditional elves who, despite having a peaceful add-on, are uncomfortable with even other elf races, let alone other species.
Savor bought all human Races.
Alive designed all kinds of humans, with blue, green, white, black, purple, etc., skin colors.
Hair colors and eye colors are even more numerous.
There are slight differences between different human races, but they are not too far apart. No human race has pointy ears, for example.
Strangely, the most apparent way Alive differentiated between humans and elves is through the ears. It isn't easy to distinguish humans and elves without ears.
Human longevity is not shorter than elves; longevity is determined solely by the world's laws.
Elves are generally less fertile, though. Therefore, almost all civilizations that buy elves give them a longer lifespan than humans.
Plant people have incredible diversity; some look like moving trees, some look like green humans, some look like literal walking fruits, some like moving flowers, etc.
Plantpeople, by far, have the most appearance diversity.
Beastpeople are a combination of animal characteristics with a humanoid body. Some have tails, some a wolf head, some a lower body, etc.
All species and races can reproduce together.
Matters regarding who can reproduce with whom are determined by the world's law.
As all are designed by Alive, there won't be any genetic problems. A plant person who marries a human will have a half-human, half-plant child by default. That is unless world law specifies otherwise.
If Savior wants, he can set the laws so that the result of a child between a plant person and a human becomes an elf. He bought a license for all three and can have an unlimited number of them in this world, so there wouldn't be any problem.
He didn't do this, though.
He left the genetic laws untouched for now.
As of now, no species met any other, so these questions are for later.
He must still consider whether he should place specific genetic laws or allow default rules to play out.
The ending point of default rules is total integration.
Eventually, all will intermarry enough that there won't be any more human or elf species. All will ultimately blend into one.
Savior is not sure he wants that.
He likes some differences to remain.
For now, he decided just to watch what happens.
Humans, Beastpeople, and plantpeople will intermarry within their species's many different races. Savior predicts that the different races within a species will all be gone in less than 100,000 years.
Even if they are 'gone,' though, he still has the license, so he can bring them back anytime he wants.
Elves, though, are tribal, so they live in isolation.
They will only marry within their race.
Wood elves only marry wood elves; snow elves only marry snow elves.
Savior bought them because the module he got from Rachel included them; if he changed anything, it might have started a horrible chain reaction. Savior has seen enough suffering; he wanted to avoid causing more needless suffering.
He would have bought advanced or Modern elves if it weren't for the module.
...
The humans in Origin City had an election ten years ago.
It was a fierce competition.
In the election, Dan won, but only by 52% of the vote.
48% voted against him.
After this election, many felt so strongly about it that they decided to leave the city and move to other cities.
Before the election, all humans, regardless of the city, were highly harmonious.
But after what happened ten years ago, they began to care about their city more and see other city residents as 'others.'
The election was about whether they continue to have elections or not.
Voting for Dan was for him to remain the leader for life, and voting for Bob was a vote for continued elections.
Dan was extremely popular among Origin City residents, so he won. In effect, he became king.
There would be no more elections.
Many people felt they couldn't live with the results, so they left.
Fortunately, no one fought and died. Everything remained peaceful.
But their relations received a great hit.
...
Year 150.
There are many more human cities now.
Origin City is the biggest city, but most of the human population lives outside the city now.
Dan is a good leader.
He remained fair-minded, and the city continued its advance under his leadership.
There are 10 other major human cities, and eight of them picked the election system to choose their leaders.
The ninth chose a weird council+mayor+governor combined with a bit of a monarchy that is very complicated as a compromise between different factions.
No war happened.
Everything went peacefully despite their strong disagreements on many matters.
...
Year 250.
The number of major human cities is now over 200.
Humans are expanding rapidly, but there doesn't seem to be an end to this desolate land.
Now, only 10% of the human population lives in Origin City. Still, this is a huge number.
When the first humans arrived, the population was only around 10,000!
In just 250 years, humans went from 10,000 to 1,000,000,000!
This shows how much effort they put into expanding humanity!
It's primarily because most have twins and triplets, low mortality rates, and no lifespan limit.
More than a hundred million people live in the city!
There are many high-rise buildings, hundreds of floors tall.
Managing the city is extremely challenging.
Fortunately, modern humans are good at complicated things.
They planned everything from the early years, so even though the city is enormous, one can still find green spaces everywhere.
Trash collection and public sanitation are perfect. The city is very well-managed.
Dan always hired the best people to run the city.
None of the other cities can match Origin City.
Maybe choosing one wise and competent person to be a leader is better than changing the leader every few years after all.
...
Year 1000.
The population of Origin City is now at 3 billion.
The city's birth rate dropped to very low levels centuries ago, so most people now in the city have emigrated from other cities.
Many other human cities are struggling, so people risk it and immigrate to Origin City.
For now, there is nothing like borders.
Origin City even encouraged them to come, as its birth rate is low.
People don't die of old age, but nearly no one bothers to have children.
Leaders of origin have always had expansionary policies, and with a stagnant population, it's hard to expand.
The best talents of the other Cities heard how their lives would be much better if they moved to Origin City, so they did.
This brain drain made the other cities even worse. If a city continuously loses its best and brightest, what happens? Nothing good! And the leaders of the other cities saw this.
This way, the first borders emerged.
In contrast to many other worlds, these borders were not to keep people out but to keep them in.
They placed strict limitations on people leaving, using all kinds of ways, from putting up a bond every time someone wanted to leave the city to not permitting people to leave with their family, etc.
In short, it didn't work.
People continued trying to move to the origin city where their lives would improve.
...
Year 2000.
Origin City now has 7 billion residents.
It's a very well-run, clean, and colossal city.
Despite this, less than 1% of the whole human population lives in this city.
Humans have continued expanding for two thousand years but never reached the 'end.' It's as if there really is no end to this land.
The original 10,000 people who first arrived here are now an absolute minority, but they hold disproportionate power.
Especially in Origin City, they hold nearly all the powerful positions.
Some complain about this, but most don't mind. After all, they can see how their lives are much better than the other cities.
Many other cities came forward a few centuries ago, and Voluntary became Origin City's subordinates. They saw the writing on the wall; trying to make it themselves would not work.
Bob, who lost an election to Dan many years ago, was the most prominent advocate. He is now a fan of Dan.
After all, he saw firsthand how other cities failed, and Dan succeeded.
Bob is now thankful he lost that election.
The Origin City is now the center of a great empire, with Dan as the Emperor. Of course, Dan himself disagrees.
He said that he is only a director, nothing more. But it's a fact that Dan holds all the power.
Fortunately for everyone, he is a legendary character who doesn't care about money, fame, or power. He only cares about running the city well and helping people prosper.
...
Year 10,000.
The population of humans is now so great nobody knows exactly how many.
Finally, some humans hit the edge of the world. At least, this is how they thought.
They later realized that the entire time, they were only on one continent, among who knows how many.
This news was like a bomb.
Many scientists began to speculate, trying to explain what is beyond the oceans and continents and where its end is.
But there are other news.
An event that terrified everyone.
Exactly in year 10,000 ...
Humans began to age and grow old!