Chapter 442 - 442: Darkness! (2)
In addition, different ranks of nobles and citizens have corresponding rights.
For example, nobles can marry unlimitedly, they have the priority in using public transportation, and receive priority in medical treatment, etc.
The emergence of the class system successfully ignited people’s ambition.
Some strive for fame, others for the future of humanity, and some simply want to marry multiple wives.
But no matter their motivation, they all contributed to the development of human society to some extent.
Consequently, schools also made corresponding adjustments.
First of all was the curriculum. Starting from high school, subjects were divided into arts, focusing on humanities and mainly studying entertainment.
On the other hand, science was focusing on natural laws and mainly studying the universe’s principles.
The ratio of these two fields often reached nine to one.
An unspoken rule in academia: those who truly want to go into sciences, while those who want to coast through life go into arts.
After all, even without working, one can live off the welfare system until death.
“This is too fast, isn’t it?!”
Zhao Yu found it unbelievable.
In the quantum world, he had encountered other civilizations, but none controlled by artificial intelligence like this one!
Moreover, this utopian society seemed fantastical. At the very least, among the many civilizations in the universe, he had never seen one like this!
Zhao Yu shook his head and didn’t dwell on this issue for long.
His main focus was on the original Zhao Yu’s family.
Their parents were not the hassle type, belonging to those who just coast through life. Amidst their leisurely living, they had nine children.
The reason for having children was because of the reward system established by the God of Wisdom; for every child born, the social welfare provision would increase.
The original Zhao Yu’s parents had nine children, allowing them to live a fairly good life.
Such behavior, driven by self-interest and remained only ninth-grade citizens the whole time, naturally made the family unit very unstable.
Each child, from birth to adulthood, had corresponding welfare systems in place, requiring little contribution from the parents.
For instance, the original owner had a good relationship with his parents until he was ten, but after that, he only saw them once every three to five months.
After high school, it was only once a year. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see them, but that his parents were busy vacationing and enjoying themselves.
Zhao Yu had eight older siblings, and their relationships were also not close. The oldest four, in particular, had only met three or four times since birth.
In this welfare society, upon reaching the age of 15, anyone could apply for independent housing, and before that, could be sent to a boarding school by their parents at the age of 7.
Thus, the original Zhao Yu’s older siblings had become independent early at their 15, applying for housing far and wide, scattered to unknown places.
In the original Zhao Yu’s memory, the majority of the families were functioning like this too.
Each couple had at least three to five children, or as many as ten or more.
“This population… it seems off…”
Based on his calculations, with society breeding like this, even if the early years weren’t so reckless, the population over just the past fifty years should have exceeded a hundred billion, even reaching a trillion.
He skimmed through the memories again, feeling that there were many odd aspects to this society.
For example, the school he was studying in now.
It was an arts-focused institution, where most students were just idling away their time.
The school was aware of this and didn’t care about grades. The key to graduation was not academic performance, but attendance!
The school didn’t mind whether you studied or not, but you had to be in the classroom during class hours. Otherwise, you’d lose credits. Insufficient credits meant not graduating smoothly, which would reduce social benefits.
Even though the original Zhao Yu didn’t study and only played around.
He still came to the classroom to sleep despite being tired, because attendance affected post-graduation benefits.
“No exams and only requiring attendance in the classroom?”
Zhao Yu scratched his head. This was the first time he had encountered such a peculiar society.
After understanding this, he looked at the students in the classroom and realized they were not studying but playing with their phones.
Especially the couples in the back row, who were constantly fidgeting. Luckily, the female teacher on the podium seemed used to it, continuing her lecture without paying them any mind.
“Whoosh-”
Just then, the classroom suddenly became pitch black.
The faces of nearly thirty students glowed eerily, like visitors from hell.
Zhao Yu’s heart skipped a beat, he quickly hide under his desk and calmed himself returned to normal.
He realized there was nothing wrong with those students. The classroom had simply gone dark, and it was the light from their phones shining on their faces. “What’s going on?!”
“A power outage?!”
The classroom erupted into noise.
Zhao Yu realized that it was daytime, the first class after the holiday break, probably around eight in the morning.
He turned to look outside the window, where there was a deep, impenetrable darkness.
“That’s not right, it’s morning, isn’t it?!”
“There are no lights on in the classroom either!”
At this point, the other students also realized what was happening, and the classroom filled with shouts and exclamations.
The teacher on the podium also seemed panicked, quickly turned on her phone’s flashlight function and shining it around.
“Ah—!”
Suddenly, a student by the window screamed, drawing everyone’s attention.
“What’s wrong?”
It was a girl who was now leaning into another girl’s arms, pointing at the window, her face filled with terror: “Outside the window…”