Chapter 33 033 The So-Called Eternal World Truth
The Hu family was relatively wealthy, but due to the limitations of the era, they couldn't afford the household appliances that would become common later. Of course, the commune wasn't fully electrified yet, so people were reluctant to pay electricity bills and still followed the ancient calendar, working at sunrise and resting at sunset, at most using kerosene lamps.
Without a rice cooker, Song Xiaoli couldn't make a cake using the simplest method. She could only rely on her knowledge from her previous life to design a makeshift oven and asked her grandmother and some strong people in the commune to help build it.
Given these conditions, it took more than a month to fire up the stove. However, the temperature inside couldn't be controlled as precisely as an oven, so we had to waste some food and see how long it took to cook different ingredients.
Sponge cake requires yeast, eggs, and wheat flour; it's a bit expensive, so it's something we try last.
At first, I didn't dare to bake it for too long, and when I opened it to check, it wasn't done yet. Then I overbaked it, and most of it burned and became inedible.
After trying more than a dozen batches on and off, I finally managed to stabilize the process by using a watch to keep track of the time. This ensured that the sponge cakes were cooked through without burning them too much; at most, they would become a little dry.
At this time, winter vacation began.
Song Xiaoli can finally carry a big bag of homemade sponge cakes and happily go to her grandma's house for a few days!
Her two older cousins missed her terribly and held her tightly, not wanting to let go. Her second uncle and aunt, who usually lived in the town dormitory, also took a few days off and brought their little cousin to play. The little cousin, still a tiny baby who couldn't even speak yet, also really liked to stick close to Song Xiaoli.
"Next time, I'll make a sponge cake without honey and with less sugar, and I'll make it for you~" Song Xiaoli coaxed the little guy, whose eyes, like black grapes, were fixed on his older sister with bright, watery eyes, constantly sending her sweet smiles.
My second aunt was watching from the side, smiling happily. "He still has a long way to go. Right now, we're only feeding him milk and haven't added any other complementary foods."
"Hehe, you'll get to eat it sooner or later." Song Xiaoli kissed her little cousin on the cheek, making the little guy so happy he wanted to clap his hands, but unfortunately he was dressed too warmly and their hands couldn't touch.
Song Xiaoli looked down at him, a strange tenderness appearing in her usually innocent and naive eyes. This was a child who had never existed in her past life, and she wanted to protect him too.
The rarely silent system ventured out for a stroll, observing the little one for quite a while. In the dead of night, while Song Xiaoli was still awake, it quietly told her, "The people around you have all stabilized. The newly added characters, who don't belong to the original history, aren't actually stupid or silly; they'll grow up normally. You can try expanding your scope of activities and try to directly influence more people or things. Perhaps the timeline will recover faster."
"I still don't quite understand what you mean by the 'Eternal World' trial..." Hearing the system's voice suddenly was undoubtedly a reminder to Song Xiaoli that she was not reborn, but living in a world similar to a virtual game.
Having followed Song Xiaoli for so long, the system probably knew her inner turmoil and quickly comforted her, saying, "Although the Eternal World has a completely virtual structure, that's not something you, who hasn't passed the trial, can access, so it's difficult for me to explain it to you clearly. But I can tell you definitively that the Eternal World we live in now is not entirely virtual."
"In particular, the longer you live here, the more influence you have on the people here, and then those you have influenced in turn influence even more people. These people, who were originally only restored from brainwaves, memories, or even what you call fragments of the soul, will automatically complete their personalities."
"When you were first sent here, some people had a distant relationship with you, and their thoughts and behaviors became rigid, like a fixed program. Only through the positive influence of you, the trial participant, will they become more and more like normal people."
"If I had to describe it, it would probably be like what you would call a soul that has been successfully summoned back to life."
Song Xiaoli listened quietly, pondering, while also recalling the people she had met. It seemed… “Was my cousin the only one who was completely reborn?”
"Currently, he is. I am monitoring the development of the entire world. In other places that you have not affected, things are basically being restored according to the original history. Only here has the first newly born advanced individual appeared."
When the system first appeared, it said that Song Xiaoli's trial mission was to restore the world line to its original state, restore the full human thinking ability of everyone who came into contact with her, and ideally, to influence all of humanity.
The system emphasized this point to Song Xiaoli again.
Song Xiaoli remained silent for a long time before asking, "In my past life, I was a researcher. If I achieve greater scientific accomplishments in this life and inspire the potentially brilliant people around me to achieve even greater things, it will naturally have an impact on the whole world. Would you consider this me fixing the timeline?"
She still didn't understand the concept of world lines, but vaguely realized that perhaps this was a possibility.
"If your achievements are truly outstanding, directly or indirectly affecting 60% of humanity and over 20% of the natural environment, you will have already completed the trial with a high score. If you affect over three-quarters of humanity and nearly half of the natural environment, your score may even reach perfection, and you will receive some privileges."
"Privileges?" Song Xiaoli asked in confusion. "Didn't you say before that after I complete the trial, I will become the ruler of some world? A ruler is probably like an ancient emperor, able to do whatever he wants, right? Isn't that a privilege?"
"Being a ruler doesn't mean you can do whatever you want." The system realized it hadn't explained this to Song Xiaoli. "After you completed the trial, the AI made you the world ruler managing human history from 1949 to 2050. You're essentially just an administrator; you can preserve the memories of the world's cycles and query the surface information of natives and outsiders, but you still have to abide by the laws of the eternal world ruler, or you'll lose your ruler status. I can't reveal too much else for now, since you haven't completed your mission yet."
"Oh... then, what exactly are those privileges?"
"I can tell you this. The privilege is that you are given a private piece of land, and you can decide whether or not tourists are allowed to enter. The people inside are also directly under your jurisdiction. In addition, you can set up some guardians, who will be immune to any external harm. Even if they leave your private land, they will not be killed by tourists."
Song Xiaoli frowned. "Tourists? What tourists? Why would they kill someone?"
"Well, the Eternal World works like this. It's like a second world. In purely virtual worlds, human volunteers infiltrate as 'civilians.' In non-virtual historical worlds, it's generated by capturing brainwaves and other data from a specific period of time. The Eternal World accepts tourists. After choosing the world they want to enter, tourists line up and are then entered into batches by the Eternal World in the form of brainwaves. Tourists have a high degree of freedom; they can freely choose to have humans or other creatures appear in their chosen world, then play, learn about history, etc. The world's natives will automatically ignore any anomalies related to them."
"These tourists are all intelligent races, but not all of them are human. They may not be friendly to humans, and if trouble arises, they might just kill them. In particular, some races with special abilities may directly exterminate the world's natives, so that when the world restarts, the natives who were exterminated will not be able to recover."
The system hesitated for a moment, then gave Song Xiaoli an example: "In the history of the Eternal World, there was a particularly heinous incident of tourist chaos. That special race of tourists wiped out nearly half of the natives, causing that world to collapse directly... Anyway, although this kind of thing is rare, we must be wary of it."
Song Xiaoli, relying on her memories from the future, roughly applied these statements to the game and managed to understand some of them.
"In other words, I manage this world, and this cycle of one hundred years will repeat itself continuously. Each time it runs, the Eternal World will send out a group of so-called tourists who may have irreversible effects on this world?"
"Yes. If you can obtain the privilege, you can protect your most important people. The quota is allocated based on your performance. As long as you are exempt from the privilege, even if you are about to be wiped out, you will be protected by the Eternal World immediately. The Eternal World is very large, and the AI system does not monitor every world all the time. Otherwise, those tourists would not have had the opportunity to cause serious turmoil."
For the native inhabitants of this world, being killed by tourists in such a peculiar way is truly a soul-shattering experience.
Song Xiaoli bit her lip. She hadn't known these things before. She loved her family very much and didn't mind accompanying them through countless reincarnations of life. She wasn't afraid of being bored, but she was afraid that one of them would disappear from this world forever.
"I will try my best." She originally wanted to live an easy life and encourage those around her to work hard. Now she realizes that her own direct actions have the most significant impact, and she can no longer live a low-key life.
It just so happens that both her parents are teachers, so she has "backdoor" access to primary and secondary schools. Why not let her enter the school next year? If she performs well, she can spend more time with her family and try to skip a grade as soon as possible, enter the research stage quickly, and expand her influence on the world.
So, before the winter vacation ended, Song Xiaoli told her mother that she was very interested in learning and wanted to go to school.
“But you’re only six years old…” In the countryside, children usually start first grade at seven or eight, and some don’t start until they are ten. In Song Wanxia’s eyes, Song Xiaoli, this six-year-old little rascal, is still at an age where he needs to play wholeheartedly.
"I'm already six years old!" Song Xiaoli said, hands on her hips.
In her past life, she seemed to have started school at the age of seven, not much earlier than now. Besides, children in big cities generally start primary school after the age of six, so she can't delay any longer.
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