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At this moment.

1668 9 Month 20 Day.

At the easternmost point of the Atlantic Ocean.

At the westernmost edge of Eurasia.

On a small peninsula called England.

On the outskirts of a city called Peterborough, at the edge of a playground in an unnamed town, a man with hair the same color as a circus clown calmly made a declaration.

An absolutely arrogant declaration.

Veronica remained silent for three minutes before slowly uttering five words: "...What do you want to do?"

Want to know? Hehe, I'll only tell you.

Li Chengzai carefully observed his surroundings, making sure there was no one within a ten-meter radius of him, before moving closer to the princess. He brought his lips less than 3cm from her pale pink earlobes and smiled sincerely, saying:

"Tell me, what if the vast majority of people in this world firmly believed that an alien civilization planned to destroy Earth? What do you think would happen to humanity?"

Three hundred and eighty-nine drops of camphor wood, two hundred years is too short!

Li Cheng's words sounded absurd, and in fact, they were absurd.

The success rate is uncertain.

The process is uncertain.

The outcome is uncertain.

No one knows whether it will succeed, how many people will think it's crazy along the way, or whether it will be ignored by future generations and forever buried in a pile of old books.

But what does it matter?

Should we refrain from doing something simply because it's not feasible, instead repeating the mistakes of our predecessors by gradually advancing technology and building a vast empire?

It sounds great, and it's highly feasible; countless time-traveling predecessors have proven this.

But dynasties do not last forever.

The British Empire, which occupies vast colonies, is in its twilight years and is only kept alive by an old woman.

Suwei, who embarked on another path for humanity, was torn apart, with his two elder brothers fighting each other.

The once-powerful nation, possessing two-thirds of the world's gold reserves, is now burdened with massive debt, plagued by disease, and its flag will never fall at half-mast.

Li Cheng lacked confidence that he could do better or more perfectly than these three countries.

If he had continued along the established path of the times, developing capitalism and carrying out the Industrial Revolution, the final outcome would have been nothing more than another empire on which the sun never sets, just with a different group of people and a few dozen or a hundred years earlier than before, at most two hundred years faster, since the knowledge he possessed would only extend to the 21st century.

But two hundred years is too short.

Placed in the endless river of history, it wouldn't even make a ripple; it's not even as good as a Magikarp.

Li Cheng thought so.

If a transmigrator simply lived out their life in a conventional and predictable manner, it would be too much like Magikarp.

After all, bourgeois revolutions can be revolutionized by others as well.

Steam looms and steam engines can be made by others too.

A vast empire, which has produced countless figures throughout history.

What is there that others can't do? Are you suggesting he unify the European continent? Forget it. Why spend decades toiling away for a goal that might not even succeed, and even if he does, it won't be of much use? Look at the vast plains of North America, aren't they much better?

So Li Cheng changed his approach.

What methods can be used to drive real change in humanity?

Li Cheng thought of two directions.

Those two directions are internal and external, respectively.

The internal aspect involves metaphysical transformations of human nature, social systems, and ideological trends.

This is the most fundamental problem. It can be said that once solved, not only will there be no more technological issues, but humanity can directly stride into the ultimate realm of universal harmony. Li Cheng immediately dismissed this, as it was far too difficult and beyond his capabilities.

Then all that's left are external things.

External factors refer to technological advancements.

This is also very difficult.

Because at the time Li Cheng transmigrated, humanity had already exhausted the fruits of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, consumed all the benefits of their ancestors, and raised the difficulty of mastering knowledge to a level that the brain could hardly bear—humans actually needed to spend decades of learning to reach the tip of one of the countless sub-branches of a large field.

By the time the research is fully understood, the person will be almost gone.

In this situation, the progress of human society can be said to have reached a bottleneck, and the rate of progress has slowed down to a regrettable level.

If there is no return on investment in science and technology, society will reduce its investment in scientific research, which in turn will further reduce the returns.

The resulting chain reaction is a slowdown in the pace of technological development—at the very moment when technological investment is most needed to overcome bottlenecks, the actual proportion of investment in technology is actually declining.

We need to resolve this predicament.

We can only continue to rely on technological progress until technology reaches a technological singularity, a technological singularity where technology can itself enhance the speed of scientific research—whether it's mechanical ascension, human instrumentalism, or superintelligence, in short, the original human body can no longer keep up with the needs of technological development.

Just like playing a game, what matters is the percentage increase in experience gain rate, which directly affects the speed of development.

Memory, thinking ability, calculation ability, imagination, expression ability, vitality... these most basic abilities really need to be improved.

External pressure can greatly push humanity toward a technological singularity that can significantly enhance its capabilities... Just like in World War I and World War II, an extremely powerful enemy can unite humanity in the face of survival, enabling us to reach that technological singularity that changes humanity itself as quickly as possible.

This was the only different option Li Cheng came up with after a year of deliberation—an option that would truly change humanity.

Success rate?

That kind of thing doesn't matter anymore.

If he succeeds, he will truly change the course of human history; if he fails, he will forever occupy a corner in history books, and may even be made into various eye-catching popular science videos, such as "Hardcore Ruthless Man 99 - Who has deceived the world for three hundred years?"

All in all, it was quite interesting, wasn't it?

......

"I'm done speaking."

Li Cheng concluded his presentation with these three words.

It's really refreshing to have someone you can speak freely with.

After all, these are topics that can only be discussed with the most trusted people, but unfortunately, the people she trusts in her family are all unreliable. The only somewhat reliable person, Lavoisier, is not worth talking to her about.

As he pondered these thoughts, Li Cheng looked at the princess deep in thought with great pleasure. Looking at her focused face, which possessed a certain intellectual beauty, he found it pleasing to the eye and casually said, "Honey, this time I didn't lie to you about anything. I told you everything."

"?"

Faced with Li Cheng's flirting, Veronica glanced at him sideways but didn't say anything. Instead, she pursed her lips and asked, "What do you want me to do?"

Although there is a lot of information.

But it sounds really interesting, and it doesn't conflict with her purpose.

“Just continue doing what you’re doing, and I will continue to assist you, just like always,” Li Cheng said with a smile. “All you need to do is be the first to stand up and express your belief when, in some future year—maybe three, maybe five, maybe ten—when I stand up and make some statements that sound like I’m drunk, and everyone else is against it.”

"And before that—"

Li Cheng stretched and gazed at the distant city, a vast metropolis with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, where the royal army still held sway. "Look into the distance, my dear wife," he said, "Peterborough is still waiting for us there. Behind Peterborough is Cambridge, and behind Cambridge is London. Our journey will only just begin then."

"Before deceiving humanity, at least help complete the First Industrial Revolution and popularize some basic knowledge—science is not theology. What's the point of deceiving a bunch of people who can't even read and who dropped out of prenatal education?"

-And the end of the farce of the 390th page gave*

The two chatted for nearly an hour and a half, during which Li Cheng casually mentioned the concept of "civilizational tolerance".

Human civilization arose on an inconspicuous island in an endless void ocean. However, the island's resources are finite. Before the resources are exhausted, that is, before the "civilization tolerance" drops to 0%, a ship capable of crossing that void ocean must be built to reach a new island.

"Like Columbus?" the princess retorted.

“It’s a little greater than that, and a little more difficult.” Li Cheng spread his arms wide, which was the “little more” he was referring to.

"That seems like more than a little." The princess raised an eyebrow, looking ten years younger once again. If she raised her eyebrow again, Li Cheng would be shot.

"At the level of life, that's one point."

Li Cheng remarked with emotion: "Every step of life spans countless years. From the very first tiny segment of DNA millions of years ago, creating cells with independent consciousness, individual cells gathered together for survival, differentiating into various functions, eventually forming a multicellular organism with consciousness independent of its own cells. Then, humans gathered together for survival, differentiating into various professions to form society..."

"Do you think human civilization will eventually develop a consciousness independent of humanity?" the princess asked curiously.

Although she couldn't fully grasp the profound meanings behind each term, after listening to Li Cheng's long-winded ramblings, she learned to use these terms.

"I don't know, I can't predict the future," Li Cheng shrugged.

"I thought you knew everything," the princess said regretfully.

"How could I know everything? For example, right now, I don't even know whether my next child will be a boy or a girl—well, if you ask me, I think it should be a girl." Li Cheng glanced at the princess's lower abdomen, which looked quite flat. It would probably start to show some curves after 3 to 4 months.

"Why?" the princess asked in return.

“Because I already have a son, and based on my own experience as a son, daughters are more obedient than sons,” Li Cheng said, turning his gaze away with conviction.

"Then I'll guess it's my son."

Her Highness could only choose another possibility, since the probability was fifty-fifty anyway.

“Guessing is no fun, how about we add some stakes?” Li Cheng suggested. “For example, if I lose, I will… well, I will grant you one request, within a reasonable range—and vice versa, if you lose, you also grant me one request, within a reasonable range.”

"can."

So the two of them immediately made a pact to reveal the answer nine months later.

However, compared to the answer to this riddle, some other little things will happen during these nine months.

[August 1668]

After spending two months annihilating most of the King's army, the Princess's army captured Peterborough.

[August 1668]

Cambridge was captured.

[August 1669]

They captured London.

Unfortunately, King Edward VII had made preparations in advance when Peterborough fell, and three years before London was captured, he left through a secret passage and fled to a small coastal town.