Wandering Spaceship in Deep Space

Chapter 2: Donation of Assets

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

While his autonomous electric car was speeding down the road, Zhang Yuan took his time and calmed down his emotions.

They were in the 23rd century, a new era where IQ was of extreme importance. However, the aspect of ‘appearance’ was still as important between interpersonal relations. Good-looking people would definitely have certain advantages over their counterparts, be it whether they were male or female.

Zhang Yuan personally felt that… he was pretty good-looking. It was not due to narcissism, but instead, because his surrounding family and friends said so. In addition, he had pretty good luck with females throughout his life—this directly proved his earlier point.

As for the fact that he did not have a woman by his side, it was because he was already determined to become an astronaut from a young age. To achieve his ambition, he had consciously suppressed his urges in the relationship aspect.

“There are quite a number of girls who are chasing me instead…”

He had less than a month’s time of vacation left, and if he were to find someone in such a short period of time, it would be at most, a mutual attraction between hormones of the opposite gender. It was impossible for any heart to heart communication to happen in that short amount of time.

Of course, it was not difficult to find a woman just to have physical interaction. As long as they clarify in advance that it was just for fun, there would be hordes of ‘progressive women’ who were willing to have some interaction with ‘astronauts’. Moreover, this experience might even become a story they could boast about to their peers in the future…

In the current age where people’s mindsets were rather open, few would care if their spouse was a virgin or not.

However, Zhang Yuan was not fond of such unemotional hookups.

All of a sudden, his phone vibrated and upon checking, it was just spam.

As he could care less about such messages, there were numerous unread messages.

[Four of your contacts have categorized you as their ‘crush’ on Yue Mo1. As you have yet to register, this message is sent as a reminder… Kindly click on this URL to download…]

‘Tsk, an advertisement. So annoying.’ Even though it was already the 23rd century, such low-quality advertisements had yet to be wiped out.

“Oh well, forget it.”

Since he was not a veteran in relationships and that it was impossible for him to be completely heartless, there was no need to add on any emotional burden on himself before he left.

After he skipped that task on the bucket list, Zhang Yuan felt much more at ease.

Nowadays, autonomous electric cars all drove within an acceptable speed range on roads, making traffic extremely orderly. At that moment, almost all cars were advancing at the same speed, and there were no barbaric acts such as cutting lines or congestion.

In terms of driving, AIs were more reliable than humans. As a result, personally driving in non-emergency situations had become an illegal act.

Zhang Yuan was not born with a silver spoon so he did not own this electric car. The car he was riding on right now was something similar to a shared car available for rent on the roadside and since the car was on call 24/7, it was no different from his personal car.

Currently, there was a documentary about the history of space playing on the screen in the car.

“…we have gone through numerous difficulties and bumps along the way, exploration and development have always been the main focus of the current era.”

Zhang Yuan watched the documentary with interest.

It was undeniable that the technological advancement in the current era was much slower compared to what the olden days had anticipated.

In 1969, when Americans first landed on the moon, many scientists optimistically assumed that humans would colonize the moon by 2000, and by the time it was 2020, they would occupy the solar system and become a real interstellar civilization.

There were also assumptions such as humans discovering aliens from folklore, getting into conflict with another alien civilization, or even AIs gaining sentience and resisting against humans…

But, in the end, their assumptions had unfortunately not been met.

Nothing eventful happened throughout the 21st century.

There were no inventions of brain chips, a new bizarre era brought about by superior AIs, or technology that would allow immortality.

The cost of 3D virtual imaging technology was still high; AR glasses introduced in an attempt to replace mobile phones was popular for a period of time before it went obsolete due to inconvenience; the battery capacity of electronic products could never meet the demand; superconductor materials for regulating temperature was still yet to be invented.

No need to mention warp drives, wormholes, time-traveling, or anti-gravity, these sort of science-fictional concepts.

As humans lived a comfortable life, they seemed to have reached the upper limit of civilization development. The advancement of the internet had led to an illusion that the development of technology and science was still booming, which paralyzed the humans’ thirst for improvement.

Unfortunately, some of the most crucial technologies had yet to achieve breakthroughs.

Ultimately, at the end of the 21st century, the depletion of petroleum worldwide had resulted in a terrifying energy crisis.

Moreover, two different world wars took place in succession which caused human civilization to retrogress by a century!

The entire 22nd century was gloomy, and it was later deemed as… the ‘Gray Age’!

In the documentary, the narrator used his deep, magnetic voice and said, “Fortunately, we have tided through the dark times. Through the exploration of the unknown, we have found a new direction…”

“Controllable nuclear fusion energy!”

“… with the successful ignition of the artificial sun together with the rapid development of the space industry, astrobotany, and nanomaterial, human civilization has once again entered a golden age!”

“In the latter half of the 23rd century, we will usher in an unprecedented era of interstellar colonization!”

This documentary raised the hopes of people and there were some parts where it was exaggerated. However, it would suffice to deceive ordinary citizens.

Zhang Yuan shook his head and chuckled.

Nuclear fusion did indeed bring about endless energy, which in turn also greatly changed the environment humans lived in. However, that did not mean everyone could enjoy a life of wealth.

Because petroleum was not only a type of energy source but also an important industrial raw material.

To give a few simple examples, without chemical fertilizers and pesticides, food production had been directly reduced by half.

So where did fertilizers and pesticides come from? Obviously from petroleum derivatives.

Additionally, without acrylic fibre, polyester, nylon, and vinylon, the prices of clothes had greatly increased, causing most people to be unable to afford them. As a result, they had to live out their lives naked.

So where did these chemical fiber products come from? The answer was oil derivatives.

Without petroleum derivatives such as petroleum solvent, chemical raw materials, and lubricant, more than 90% of the industrial factories were directly shut down.

The saying ‘petroleum is the lifeline of industries’ was not wrong in the slightest.

Even though nuclear fusion energy was inexhaustible, there were still extraction costs, transportation costs, and the maintenance costs of power stations that needed to be factored in. If they wanted to use industrial methods to forcibly synthesize inorganic compounds into organic compounds with the use of electricity, the costs were too high. It was much higher compared to the extraction cost of petroleum in the 21st century.

Until today, there were many people in small, poorer countries who could not fill their stomachs due to the lack of petroleum alternatives.

But fortunately, the booming development of astrobotany was slowly replacing humans’ reliance on petroleum.

Many industrial materials such as polymer fibers, ethylene, benzene, methane, and more were substituted by mutant plants found in space. Moreover, these plants can be planted on a large-scale basis.

Similar to how a president of a small country had exclaimed, “It’s all thanks to astrobotany that has finally allowed us to escape from a survival crisis! Thank you!”

…

An hour later, the autonomous electric car drove past the agricultural areas and the industrial areas before entering the urban area.

“Distinguished guest, you have arrived at your designated destination. Service time: 1 hour and 2 minutes. Fee: 43 yuan…” The system’s gentle reminder sounded.

Zhang Yuan paid the fee, left the car, and went back home.

“Home is still the most comfortable.”

He first went to take a cold shower before turning on his laptop. He then logged in to a public notary website and happily clicked on the ‘property donation’ button.

After thinking it through, he uploaded the deed to his house.

A piece of information popped up on the webpage: Location: 2236-9 Beiping Street, Donghua City. Room size: 163.3 square meters. Estimated value: 2865k federal dollars.

He was about to donate his assets to social welfare!

Zhang Yuan took a deep breath, feeling a bit reluctant. He felt like he was turning into a legendary philanthropist, who casually donated money to act cool…

“Urgh. I shall donate it, I’m just that noble!”

In actual fact, it was not because he had a good ideology or a good moral character.

Zhang Yuan had no parents or children. Since he had already made up his mind to leave Earth, what use was there to hold onto his property deed? Was he to bring these Earth assets together with him to the spaceship?

………