Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 128 Past Events Beyond Time—The Sleeper Act

In the three hundred years since human civilization clashed with the Trisolaran crisis, the Sleeper Protection Act has been like a reef repeatedly washed by the tides, recording the changes of time.

This law, born at the beginning of the Crisis Era, attempted to transcend the limitations of time with its provisions, but history has proven that nothing can remain true to itself in the torrent of time, and the Sleepers Protection Act is no exception.

In the first year of the Crisis Era, after Operation Guzheng concluded, the United Nations urgently lifted the ban on hibernation technology. This technology, originally intended for medical life extension, quickly became a strategic resource.

By suspending vital signs through cryogenic hibernation, humanity has, for the first time, "borrowed" time.

Elite scientists, military leaders, and key engineers are prioritized for hibernation pods, with the hope of being awakened in the future.

Humanity has yet to realize that this technology will completely rewrite the future of civilization; hibernators will no longer be sleeping individuals, but will become a strategic resource spanning centuries.

The initial legislation, hastily enacted, caused a huge uproar in society due to the ethical issues and legal risks associated with hibernation. The public developed a deep-seated fear and aversion to this technology, which represented a first in history of "unequal death." This was done to prevent armed sabotage by bio-authoritarian groups.

The clashes between “equal time” protesters and riot police became one of the most acute social contradictions in the early stages of the crisis.

Social conflicts only subsided after the commercialization of hibernation technology began. The wealthy, who had sufficient resources to enter hibernation, naturally stood in opposition to the protesters. Through the manipulation and amplification of public opinion, the wealthy gradually made people accept the fact of "inequality in death."

The human government at the time had the foresight to change the location of the hibernation base from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the South Pole.

Antarctica, this isolated icy continent, provided a relatively safe environment for hibernation bases for hundreds of years to come. Even during the "Great Depression," the chaos did not affect this frozen land covered in ice and snow, and the hibernators were fortunate enough to escape the chaos.

However, not all hibernators escaped unscathed. In the private sector, many private hibernation bases have emerged. At the beginning of their existence, these hibernation bases attracted the attention of many wealthy people with their strong security forces and advanced equipment.

These hibernation bases were destroyed during the Great Depression of the Crisis Century, a famous example being the refugee storming of the Stockholm Hibernation Center and the massacre of 137 well-preserved elite corpses.

They should have awakened on the eve of the final battle.

In the 38th year of the Crisis Era, the United Nations supplemented the Sleeper Protection Act, which emphasized the improvement of the property trusteeship system. Apart from a portion of the Sleepers' property being handed over to their descendants in the form of "sleep wills," most of the Sleepers' assets were converted into the basic currency of their respective countries and stored in the quantum database of the super artificial intelligence "MOSS".

Given humanity's heavy investment in space exploration, the "Great Depression" predicted by future historians is now inevitable.

This economic and social crisis caused by uneven resource distribution and declining quality of life cannot be changed by the powerful Wallfacers.

To further protect the rights of hibernators, human society has almost completely transferred the most important concept of capital, "finance," to the super artificial intelligence "MOSS."

Human civilization's behavior of entrusting its "piggy bank" to artificial intelligence out of fear of it being smashed has unexpectedly yielded positive results.

In "MOSS," finance achieves true absolute fairness. However, this absolute fairness, under the erosion of endless time, can easily lead to the emergence of "financial end producers."

However, humanity at the time clearly hadn't foreseen this distant risk. The assets of the hibernators stored in "MOSS" seemed to have evaporated from the human economic system. Only after the hibernators awoke would these "assets," accumulating interest at the lowest possible rate for hundreds of years, be returned to them. This accumulation of interest over hundreds of years brought the hibernators enormous wealth, leading to a post-crisis hibernator rich man boom and even triggering electronic fraud targeting them.

The Hibernator Protection Act also provides detailed guarantees for the basic rights of hibernators upon awakening, such as the [Hibernator Re-education Center] established by Section 45 of the Act. However, during the "Great Thaw," the rights of hibernators stipulated in the Hibernator Protection Act have been difficult to implement.

Apart from the fact that assets spanning two centuries were preserved intact by MOSS and handed over to the hibernators, most of the awakened hibernators were casually handed a book of instructions and then driven out of the thawing center.

The commercialization of social integration services has exacerbated the plight of those in hibernation. Unable to acquire social status and identity, most of the people of the Common Era have chosen to leave the underground forest city and move to the old cities on the surface.

All these factors combined ultimately led to the Hibernators, who, since the Common Era, had no choice but to band together for warmth, spontaneously forming a community of hibernators.

This phenomenon persisted until the late Broadcast Era, and until the arrival of the two-dimensional foil attack, the "AD people" from the Common Era could not fully integrate into that "prosperous" future era.

During the "Great Thaw," the amendment to Article 124 of the International Law on Earth attempted to reverse the plight of hibernators, but it became bogged down by the inertia of society, and discrimination and hidden injustices against hibernators still exist.

For example, the space force executing the "Support the Future" program, which dates back two hundred years, has been ridiculed as "old-fashioned ancient soldiers." Most of the space force members were just the lowest-ranking crew members before the apocalyptic war, which is an arrogant disregard for the ancients.

Apart from the Space Force, ordinary hibernators must pass an additional "Time Adaptability Assessment" when running for public office. This seemingly fair procedure actually places awakened individuals in the position of "Time Outsiders" forever. Whether it is Earth International or Fleet International, people of the Common Era have failed to obtain significant official positions in the government.

This situation only came to an abrupt end after the Swordholder's deterrence system failed and the Sophon issued a "reservation declaration".

Hibernation preserves both hope and solidifies mistakes.

Whether humans liked it or not, the Sleepers Protection Act had already completed its historical mission the moment that war of resistance began.

[Earth Civilization Museum Archive Access Record: The last visitor to this entry was Zhang Beihai, Commander of Starship Earth, in Galactic Era 2273]

ps:

This chapter is a side story.

Some may think this chapter spoils a lot of the plot, but that's okay, it's all part of the plan, so don't take it all at face value.

In other words, much of the content in this chapter is incorrect; do not take it as an outline! Do not take it as a plot preview! It is not me!
Both "Leave of Absence" and the "Past Events Beyond Time" series are side stories, not part of the main story. The side stories are written by other people, and there is no omniscient perspective.

The true narrative authors exist only in the "Author's Note" and the "Comments" section; everything else is fake!
…

Also, are my paragraphs too long and difficult to read? Should I break them down into smaller, more fragmented sections?

Supports fragmented, segmented reading (deduct 1 if you like) (I love ultra-short sentences, super-fast, smooth, ultra-thin, and imperceptible reading).
Support long, rambling articles (I love the feeling of reading long, rambling articles like chewing on a thesis, only to find myself not understanding them).
Supports fragmented fine-tuning (deduct 3 points).
Maintaining the status quo will deduct 6 points.
(The author, who was forced to frantically explain for fear of abandoning the book, shed tears of regret.)


(End of this chapter)