Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Chapter 767: No Future

Yuan Shawu became the biggest bully in the third-rate high school. No one dared to mess with her. Now, she could study in peace. Finally, her wish was fulfilled as she was admitted into the best university for Physician aspirants. She then took the first step to become a mad scientist.

At first, Yuan Shawu wanted to become friends with the many plagiarists in this world. Later, she devoted herself into scientific researching. She no longer even recognized the existence of these plagiarists. Let’s just leave them to their devices.

Instead, Yuan Shawu’s brother, Yuan Zhengzhong got along with them. These plagiarists were just too talented. They were the master of all trades, jack of none. They could give him all sorts of inspiration and advice, which indirectly helped him create many outstanding works…

As Yuan Shawu remained focused on her scientific research in the plagiarist world, she did not forget to transport the outstanding works of the plagiarists from the various parallel worlds, or the rewards system to the real world. She intended to give them real flesh and form.

Perhaps the unsuspecting plagiarists in this source world like Luo Chen, were unaware that Zhao Youyue was plagiarizing their plagiarism and sending them out to her real world. This was an interesting development.

Zhao Youyue was too lazy to even change their pen names. Note that they did not blatantly copy and paste the entire works. They had added their own touches to it…

Because of this, these plagiarists who were “standing on the shoulders of giants” would always feel that they were in the right. They were not plagiarizing, but instead, they were increasing the quality of the original work. They had more class and style than plagiarists who would plagiarize works in its entirety, claiming it was to spread culture.

However, to Zhao Youyue, they were no different at all. No matter how awesome they seemed to be in the source world, or how they have become great writers, celebrities, or directors, their works were still in the balls of her palms.

Yuan Shawu, who had been possessed by Zhao Youyue, did not walk down the path of plagiarism in this plagiarist’s source world. Instead, she took another path. The scientific route. As a result, she was a dazzling supporting character, instead of becoming just another main character.

This plagiarist source world did not have much potential. Its energy level was not special either. As a result, as Zhao Youyue ventured deeper into its truth, she concluded that it did not have much to offer, other than the work of those plagiarists.

Even her scientific research had encountered a bottleneck. Those who have read the “The Three-Body Problem” [1] would know that mankind’s scientific progress had a wall, and it was called “Sophon” [2]. Eventually, she discovered the deepest secret of this source world!

This source world was not just a “cultural desert.” It was a world with no future. Mankind had stagnated. It would never produce that kind of talented genius scientist in the research of basic science. This was a world where people ‘amused themselves to death’!

To hell with science. Everyone was more concerned about the various entertainment programmes, celebrity gossips, etc. Everyone’s dreams were not to push forward mankind’s development, but instead, to reach for the stars. The different type. They wanted to become wealthy tycoons who could do whatever they wanted…

Even those plagiarists were obsessed with fate and destiny, and how misled they were. They did not believe that science had anything to do with them. It was just everyone else thinking that the other person in the room would be the one pushing forth the development in science for them.

If such thinking was placed in the real world, that would be perfectly acceptable. Some genius scientist would always step up to the occasion. However, in this plagiarist source world, everyone would think the same, and none would end up being the hero. Whenever technology became advanced, they simply basked in the fruits of technological advancement. Such selfish hedonists. They simply did not understand that they were in a deeply flawed source world. Those researchers might just be a mediocre ‘NPCs.’ If the natives of this source world truly awoke and reshaped the world, they might be able to steer the ship in a new direction.

Obviously, this was impossible. After Zhao Youyue discovered the limitations of this world, she decided to abandon it. She placed “Yuan Shawu” on autoplay. She settled for transferring the cultural products from this source world to her own. This world would go on like that till the end of time, endlessly producing endless fantasies. No one would bother to propel it to a new horizon. They would only want to enjoy themselves every day so they would try their best to find a relaxing, yet high-paying job.

It was just like those people — perfectly young, healthy people getting interested in cryogenics so that they could go to sleep for as many millennia as it was necessary till science made biological immortality possible.

What if every single person on earth decided to get frozen in lonely, cold pods at the same time? Who would be left to continue researching? And if you left AIs and other devices to do the dirty work, did those lazy humans even deserve to be immortal?

That’s stagnation at its worst. As technology became more advanced, more fields would be developed and discovered, and more job opportunities to open, and more would need to rise above the call of duty and existence.

What if none answered the call? They would be a waste of resources and oxygen — they would be the start of mankind’s downfall.

Not a single soul in this world was concerned about the development of science and technology, since they all thought that there would always be that special someone doing it for them. They occupied themselves with dramas and celebrities and two-dimensional worlds. More plagiarists started turning up, plagiarising all sorts of plagiarized works, turning the world into a cesspool of pop culture. A civilization that amused themselves to the death had indeed been created!

Zhao Youyue was the only one who had discovered the truth of this world. Thus, she decided to give up on this hopeless, doomed source world. However, she would disclose the results of her research to the entire source world. She also conducted some secret research on the plagiarist characters themselves…

Obviously, this world was no longer worth her attention. She made her early exit.

Translation note:

[1] “The Three-Body Problem” (三体) is a science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin.

[2] “Sophon” (智子) is a fictional proton-sized supercomputer from The Three-Body Problem that is sent by an alien civilization to halt scientific progress on Earth.