I became a god by treasure hunting after arriving 500 years early

And so it was that with multiple trade deals settled, Human 18th Civilization entered an unprecedented express lane of development!

Physical Technology and Idealism Technology, especially the strength of the craftsmen, saw all-around rapid development!

A year later, the grand creation project of the craftsmen finally drew to a close.

The reason was... there were no materials left.

Yes, the low-level materials that Shu Mi Dam Civilization had accumulated over the years were nearly exhausted, all transformed into equipment.

As for mid-level and high-level materials, without the inspiration to experiment, humans had not yet reached such a level of luxury...

But this year and more had indeed accumulated invaluable experience for human craftsmen.

And those 31 craftsmen from Shu Mi Dam Civilization ultimately stayed, living within Human Civilization as Strangers.

The collateral offered by Lu Yuan was a fist-sized "Sealing Resin," appraised at 3000 Spirit Essence.

This matter did not cause much of an uproar among the public; humans had grown accustomed to the sight of the unsightly Insect Soldiers, so a few larger Ratmen really weren't much of an issue...

An issue... these Ratmen are of noble status?

Conch Mother was once a Former Princess! Who doesn't have some backing?

What truly captured the public's attention was the great—"Moving Mountain Project"!

The publicity department had been warming up to this epoch-making project for a whole year.

Everything had been planned out, and now a female host, along with several expert scholars, formally announced the official establishment of the project on television.

"In order to breed more rare Extraordinary Animals and Plants and enhance the comprehensive strength of humans, it is necessary to build a large-scale ecological circle."

"We call this ecological circle Green Mountain, which can accommodate the planting of hundreds of Extraordinary Plants, the cultivation of more than 20 types of Extraordinary Animals, and three hundred species of Mutated Plants."

"Our goal is to make the nearly one billion ton mountain peak not far away levitate."

"This mountain will henceforth move along with Sky City."

A three-dimensional image of the mountain where the "Sky Pit" is located was displayed on the screen.

This mountain was indeed not bad, with a height of four hundred meters, fertile soil, dense forests, numerous caves, and a lake ten meters deep.

Under all-natural conditions, Extraordinary Creatures such as Snake Kings and Sky Scorpions could provide more output.

And the students' "Outdoor Activity Plan" could also continue in this mountain.

Well, from a certain perspective, this mountain was even more dangerous than the Pangu Continent.

As soon as the program was broadcast, it immediately caused a sensation among the public.

In classrooms of various schools, related segments were broadcast on televisions, with one class period specially allocated for students to watch.

The attractive host sat on the left side of the table, "This is a huge project, equivalent to building almost half of Sky City, and will require at least twenty years of time... Besides the Extraordinary Output, Professor Guo, what special benefits does this project bring us?"

The expert on the right said, "This is also a moment to test our industrial capacity and cohesion. Everyone should know about the classifications of civilizations; we are a very unique civilization... It seems very strong, but in reality, it's very weak."

"We possess a Sky City, an Opium poppy tree, and these are riches that only a Second-level Civilization, or even a Third-level Civilization, might possess..."

"But in terms of overall strength, we are truly just a First-level Civilization. Things that are picked up cannot be truly considered as obtained through our own strength."

"It's like getting a perfect score on a test by cheating; you can't consider it as truly achieving a perfect score."

Hearing this, the general populace couldn't help but be somewhat unwilling to accept it.

Especially the student population, who were even more indignant.

How are we just a First-level Civilization?

But that's the reality; until now, humans still can't ensure that every household has a TV.

Most people still watch television on the large screens in plazas or in the screens of great halls.

Mobile phones hadn't become universal either.

No way around it; without the ability to produce chips, how many mobile phones could a "Universal Factory" make?

The climb in industrial capacity indeed was very difficult, even more so than the development of Idealism Technology; it required a population and a market, needing continuous iteration.

But industrial capacity and Idealism Technology complemented each other.

"So, this Moving Mountain Project will guide our direction forward, allowing us to enhance our industrial capacity in practice. If we can successfully levitate the mountain, it means we are a bona fide Second-level Civilization."

The Moving Mountain Plan—the first challenge was to create a large foundation for the entire mountain!

This foundation was actually the largest part of the construction, estimated to consume five million cubic meters of cement and about one million tons of steel reinforcement!

Compared with the industrial Cathulhu, Daxia Country, this really was just a drop in the bucket; Daxia Country produced two billion tons of cement and one billion tons of steel annually!

But for Human 18th Civilization, it was as difficult as climbing to heaven.

Humans didn't even have a proper cement factory!

Fortunately, there was a Rize Civilization next door, and they did have a cement factory. Lu Yuan planned to dismantle their equipment and have the Universal Factory clone some, and then massively deploy it.

As for the steel plant and chemical plant, it would be the same.

The "Universal Factory" truly was like a divine artifact; although it was slow in manufacturing chips, it was quite fast at producing bulky machinery.

In this way, the industrial strength of humanity could be quickly replenished.

The second difficulty was the increased energy consumption; this mountain alone was nearly 90 million tons!

The Opium Poppy could not withstand much more energy consumption; physical energy must be used to replace Ideal Energy.

Of course, this could be resolved with nuclear power plants.

Lu Yuan was preparing to replicate a few nuclear power units as well, while taking the opportunity to look for uranium mines, dig up some, who knows, maybe later they could even make nuclear bombs!

There was also the third difficulty; after industrial deployment, a larger population would be needed, otherwise, the industry could not be maintained long-term.

But with a supernatural society, utilizing the automation production in Green Grass Paradise could greatly improve work efficiency. Moreover, with the output from Green Mountain, indeed more population could be raised to Level Two standard.

Lu Yuan's goal was to let the common people enjoy the benefits of the age. If there were too many people without enough resources to support them, and the new generation was all Level 1, contradictions would abound.

But piling everyone up to Level Three, we don't have the capability for that at this stage.

Thus, after comprehensive consideration, four hundred thousand might be a suitable number.

Also taking into account Level Two warriors, the average age was around 200 years.

The population born each year would increase to 2000-2200 people, which could basically maintain the long-term balance of the population.

...

After this segment was broadcasted, Lu Yuan clearly felt that there was a "Qi" brewing in people's hearts, spreading to every corner of society.

He was, in fact, a bit worried.

Apart from the first one or two generations who had quickly experienced hardship, the third generation had little suffering.

With the implementation of the Moving Mountain Project, it clearly shifted a large amount of production capacity, and some non-essential industries had to move to heavy industry.

As long as the clothes were wearable, there was no need for fanciness, and the prices of lifestyle products like bicycles and tricycles would also rise.

The overall quality of life might decline somewhat.

Even the working hours would increase considerably, a pure eight-hour work system wouldn't be possible to complete in 20 years.

He was indeed worried about this... After all, he had been a social animal himself, a programmer who had experienced the 996 lifestyle.

Putting himself in others' shoes, how many people would want to suffer and toil?

"Hey, why worry about this... I suggest you go to the canteen and listen to what the crowd is discussing," Old Cat said with some speechlessness.

Lu Yuan actually followed its advice, sneaking into the Big Food Bucket Restaurant, and protected himself with Different Space.

When the mealtime arrived, groups of people started coming here to eat.

"How can we only move one mountain?" The leader, a big man named Lu Shen, a worker from an engineering team, said, "Look at my name, and you know that I have to move at least two mountains in my lifetime."

The workers all laughed heartily, and another worker said, "Moving one mountain is hard enough, it'll take twenty years. It's not like building a house; it's incomparable, maybe you'll even have to work overtime every day."

Lu Shen slapped his thigh and widened his eyes, "What... Twenty years?! You scared me, I thought it was two hundred years."

"Working a bit of overtime is nothing. Commander Lu worked non-stop for six months to forge equipment, 18 hours a day. Those craftsmen even crazily worked for 20 months!"

The canteen was filled with an air of joy.

Then, sitting nearby, a scientist said, "If you don't mind the volume of work, we really could move two mountains, one for raising Extraordinary Animals and one for ordinary animals to bring down some agricultural product prices."

Lu Shen immediately beamed, "Good, good, good! That's great, I just love honey. The honey here is so expensive, a month's salary can barely buy a few bottles."

"Drink too much and watch out for diabetes!"

"How about moving three mountains? We could also establish a nuclear testing center. Nuclear bombs are awesome, don't we need to get one?"

"Or move four mountains, and build a large missile launch base... I'm going to suggest this to the upper council, we're really lacking that."

"Add another one, a mountain mine. There's quite a bit of coal here, and by moving a mountain, we can also solve the problem of industrial raw materials."

Lu Shen's eyes widened in shock, "Do you really want to stretch the work schedule to two hundred years?! Or should I change my name to Lu Mang?"

The crowd erupted in laughter again.

Their enthusiasm was like the red-hot steel water; everyone wanted to ascend to a higher level of civilization.

Just let the volume of work be even bigger!

Only Lu Yuan, hidden in Different Space, had complicated feelings.

He found himself, seemingly restricted by traditional thinking.

Why is it that work and overtime, though the same for everyone, felt different from person to person?

...