Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1581 Naked Mole Rat

"They acted really quickly this time. Has the problem been solved?"

"More or less," Shangluo nodded. "I think His Excellency Agassiz seems to be hiding something from me. But it's not a big problem; things should be resolved soon. Things are still progressing in Europe, and the decisive battle is probably just around the corner."

"That was the Europeans' decisive battle, but it could also be considered ours. After all, our decisive battle here was already over."

This world was unfinished for Rome, but completed for the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty's enemy was not on Earth, nor even a physical entity, but rather the heavens.

Destiny, fate, the way of heaven—in other words, the ultimate laws of nature.

Birth, aging, illness, and death are the great enemies of life. From the first budding life underwater to the giant beasts of the Stone Age—and even today, this remains unresolved. Because it's not a problem; birth, aging, illness, and death are the inevitable path that life has taken to reach its present state. If everyone were like the immortal jellyfish, neither born nor dying, then life itself could not undergo natural selection, and therefore could not evolve.

The reason we are entering this process now is that humanity no longer needs to rely on biological evolution to iterate itself. Anatomically speaking, late Homo sapiens appeared 200,000 years ago, and it has only been about 10,000 years since they left the Stone Age.

Evolution has brought humanity to its final stage, but the current state of human civilization has little to do with natural selection. Therefore, the absence of natural selection will not affect the future of human civilization. From now on, human civilization will continue to iterate through technological advancements.

Therefore, freeing humans from natural selection becomes a viable option.

This will drastically change the current social landscape. However, the Ming Dynasty has already made preparations for this—Shangluo's visit to Zhu Xianxi this time was to report something. Although it was only a short trip, the distance was vast, and it crossed the border.

The report itself speaks volumes. The “border” here refers to the border in the west, starting from the North Pole, running south through the Ural Mountains to the Arabian Peninsula and then to Antarctica, and in the east, starting from the North Pole, crossing the Great Plains, passing through the rainforest and the Amazon River, all the way to Antarctica.

Because the Ming Dynasty only recognized two "countries" in the world, namely the Ming Dynasty and Rome, only the boundaries of spheres of influence within the world could be considered national borders.

Even the title "Great Ming" was not to be used casually. The name "Great Ming," including the dynastic titles of various dynasties, referred more to the emperor's dynasty than to the political entity that had existed continuously within the land of China. In imperial edicts to foreign vassals, the emperor rarely referred to himself as "Great Ming," but usually referred to himself as "China." For example, when bestowing titles upon vassal states, he would say, "If you can fear the mandate of Heaven and respect China, then send envoys to acknowledge your vassal status and offer tribute."

Only high-ranking vassal states, such as Korea and Ryukyu, were allowed to use the title "Ming". For example, the official name of Korea was "Yuming Joseon" and Ryukyu was "Yuming Ryukyu". The "you" in "Yuming" is the same as the "you" in "youqiong" and "youxiong", meaning "or (domain)". It was a prefix in ancient Chinese used to express the power of a state, and this word was later extended to mean "state".

Only a few vassal states, long accustomed to the rule of the emperor and close to the Central Plains, were permitted to use this ancient ritual. Although theoretically the characters for "have" and "country" share the same origin, rhetorically speaking, "having a bright future" is a more sophisticated usage, humbly expressing respect to a superior nation. To open one's mouth with "the bright country" is tantamount to wishing for death.

In theory, all vassal states, except those of Rome, should be included in this system for evaluation.

This is the end of civilization. It is the final form of humanity on the path of civilization.

If this were a game, the results screen would have already popped up—the Ming Dynasty had achieved a complete victory in military, cultural, and economic spheres. What's happening now is just post-victory trash time.

—That's the biggest challenge.

Because this is not a game after all. When the game ends and you close the application, the once mighty civilization that dominated hundreds of rounds vanishes into nothingness. It is a flower: before you see this flower, it and your heart are both in stillness; when you see this flower, its color suddenly becomes clear: and you know that this flower is not outside your heart.

In reality, there is no exit button here, nor is there an abstract player. After the Ming Dynasty accomplished everything on the path of civilization, it naturally had to transcend civilization, transcend Earth, move to the next track, and enter the next system.

What Shangluo is currently doing is preparing for the next phase. And in this phase, Rome is actually quite special.

The Ming Dynasty could have destroyed Rome long ago, but there was no need to. Rome has proven itself to be neither an enemy in the past nor in the present, and it is striving to prove itself to be no enemy in the future. They are allies at the "settlement of victory," having adopted the Ming system to varying degrees in military, economic, and diplomatic matters.

The question of Rome has never been very important in the past; it can be ignored as if Rome did not exist—and indeed, Rome has been quite transparent in many ways.

But now, there are some problems within Rome that need to be addressed.

Although Shangluo is currently handling the matter, Zhu Xianxi still needs to inquire about it because it concerns whether the ascension of the Ming Dynasty can proceed smoothly.

"Yes, that's true. Everything here is actually over. What's left is Rome."

"You just said that Agathocles seemed a little hesitant?"

"I guess there are some minor issues he doesn't want to tell me."

"So, where did your investigation lead?"

"We know about Oberon's death, and that he faked it, but we don't know exactly where he faked it."

"Really don't know?"

Shangluo thought for a moment and said, "I don't actually know if they know. But judging from Agassiz's behavior, they probably do know. It's just that they're a bit... how should I put it? A bit arrogant? They don't want to ask us for help."

"Let's guess then. What have those elves become? How are they behaving?"

"They turned into rats, and their physical condition seemed to be limited by that of rats. But their overall movement did not seem to be affected."

"The individual is weakened, while the whole remains at its original level—isn't that just becoming Gestalt consciousness? True social creatures, relying on pheromones to communicate, are still rats—so they've become naked mole rats?"

【Huh? ???】 Shang Luo was stunned for a moment, this guess
"That makes so much sense! It makes perfect sense! I think that might be it. Senior brother, how did you come up with that idea?"

"Hey, you've asked the wrong person."

"???"

"To put it simply, I know the answer, but I don't know the process—but that's okay, someone knows the process. I'll ask him to come and tell you, and I'll also confirm it with him."

After a while, Grand Secretary Wen arrived. Lu Huaiyang followed behind him, carrying his bag and teacup. As he entered, Lu Huaiyang also brought a stool from the storage room next door.

"Naked mole rats?" Grand Secretary Wen asked bluntly. "So those mountain spirits turned into naked mole rats? That makes sense."

"So, Grand Secretary Wen, you could guess that too? Why?"

“Alas.” Elder Wen shook his head. “Because it is a typical case in the ‘History of Thought’ by a professor in the Department of Social Engineering at our university—the naked mole-rat, a prophetic creature. It was predicted to exist by the theory of natural selection—or rather, by the theory of evolution, and it was later found.”

This was a course that Shangluo had never taken before, but it was indeed the content taught in the Imperial Academy.

This conjecture arose from the discovery that eusocial animals on Earth often originated from different sources—multiple origins within the same species and multiple origins in different species. This suggests that this is not merely an evolutionary coincidence, but also a survival strategy.

Social engineering has hypothesized that all previously discovered eusocial animals were invertebrates. Is it possible that eusocial animals also exist among vertebrates?

Based on this hypothesis, the research team first summarized the characteristics necessary for a social organism's survival strategy. These characteristics are not absolutely certain, but their relative probability of existence is quite high:
First, it must be safe; otherwise, it will just swarm together and become a food warehouse, like ants to anteaters, who can climb up and feast.

Although anteaters use ant nests as their food source, their survival strategy is extremely cunning, and their numbers are very small. Such predators that exclusively eat ants are not common across the globe. This is because even ants are relatively safe in the presence of anteaters.

Secondly, the surrounding food must be plentiful, at least periodically, to avoid widespread infighting. Obtaining food must be relatively safe, like bees collecting nectar. Otherwise, considering the risks, probably no one would venture out to forage.

Most ants are at this stage early in their evolution, and carnivorous eusocial organisms that adopt a carnivorous strategy and prey on others are extremely rare. Once they adopt this strategy, such as wasps, their survival mode generally degenerates into a subsocial ecology. For example, worker wasps retain their reproductive capacity, and the differentiation between queens and workers decreases.

Given that there are no large-scale eusocial vertebrates on Earth, this creature should be at the same stage as honeybees that collect nectar.

There are many similar conditions, but one guess is very firm:
This creature must be, must be, must be an underground mole. That is beyond doubt.

The answer is simple: almost all eusocial animals build nests, and no tree is large enough for vertebrates to build a "beehive." If such a tree existed, humans wouldn't be blind to it, and we wouldn't be oblivious to it now.

Therefore, it can be inferred that this creature must live underground, and thus it must be a mammal. This is because among all vertebrates, only mammals can live entirely underground; amphibians, reptiles, and birds cannot.

If it is a burrowing mammal, it is most likely a mole, or another mole-like rodent.

"Wow, this is amazing!" Shang Luo exclaimed in shock. "This is too accurate!"

"It's not over yet," Elder Wen continued. "Actually, we can lock on even more precisely."

If it is indeed a mole, then based on its diet described earlier, it must feed on large root vegetables and stems of plants. If it ate grass roots, the amount of food would be too small, making it unsuitable for gregarious living. It must be large root vegetables that require the moles to work together to cut, carry, and drag them home.

Therefore, we can basically pinpoint the location of this animal to certain regions in Africa or the New World, because there are abundant plants with edible roots and stems growing there.

If we focus on these two locations, then we can be fairly certain that this creature is not very large—only about the size of a common field mouse, much smaller than a gray rat or bamboo rat. This is because those areas are teeming with predators like snakes, and the underground passages must be small enough to deter snake intrusions; otherwise, a single snake attack could turn an entire burrow into a food source, violating the first principle of "environmental safety."

Only when the entrance to the burrow is so small that even a snake cannot maneuver inside can the entire colony remain safe under the protection of a few brave individuals.

"Finally, we found the naked mole-rat under the hard clay of the African savanna. Almost exactly as we predicted, as accurate as drawing the target after shooting the arrow—it was a very small, root-feeding mole-rat. Of course, it's not a rat in the usual sense; the naked mole-rat is actually a creature closely related to porcupines and guinea pigs, but it's so small that it looks like a mole."

"So, you can guess that elves are also naked mole rats?"

"Hmm," Zhu Xianxi thought for a moment, "it's more like, when you asked me to guess, I immediately thought of 'guess the naked mole-rat,' and then I remembered that these elves can also turn into naked mole-rats."

"You could actually guess that!"

"That's science," Elder Wen shook his head. "If it weren't science, why would we teach this as a case study in intellectual history at the Imperial Academy? Science is about making bold hypotheses and carefully verifying them. The result may seem absurd, just like how you might think it's absurd that Liu Bang suddenly became emperor. But if you look closely at the reasoning process, it doesn't seem absurd anymore."

“Hmm,” Zhu Xianxi pondered for a moment, “So now that we’ve confirmed they’ve become naked mole rats—or some other kind of truly social rodent, Grand Secretary Wen, do we have any good ways to properly resolve this matter? Anyway, we don’t need to care what the Romans think; we just need to find out the truth and then get it done.”

"Then I suggest we proceed according to the previous plan—Shangluo, have you had any recent business dealings with Rome?"

"Should the movie 'Sending Wang Lingguan' be considered? 'Flying Yaksha' is about to start filming."

“Then this one. Just say you want to film in Rome—remember, find a place where roots grow and naked mole rats can survive, use a specific method. In Rome, for example, you can probably find the location of the elf in a potato field.”

(End of this chapter)