PGVCW 3

 

Playing God in Various Catastrophic Worlds Chapter 3

By

siofra

Chapter 3: The Salvation Plan

[They’re looking at my mental pollution value.]

Xia Wang’an was quite pleased with everyone’s expressions: [Look at their shocked expressions. Who would have thought my pollution value would be this high, even higher than the highest score recorded in the history books?]

007 also chimed in enthusiastically to celebrate: [The host is number one again! The host is amazing!]

Xia Wang’an grew visibly even happier.

The recorder accompanying her had undergone a brief training session prior to arrival, knowing that his task was to make Xia Wang’an feel comfortable and to understand the savior as thoroughly as possible.

Seeing his opportunity now, he immediately smiled and asked, “Classmate Wang’an, did 007 say something?”

“007 is praising me.” Seven parts smug and three parts reserved showed across the girl’s slightly childish face.

The recorder made a mental note under [likes being praised], while matching it with an expression of “Oh my, what kind of thing made the system praise you, let me listen in so I can praise you too”.

“What is 007 praising you for?”

The corners of Xia Wang’an’s mouth curled up higher, and her chin lifted slightly: “My mental pollution value is a full five thousand plus. 007 is praising me for being number one in the entire country.”

The recorder, who had already prepared all kinds of flattering vocabulary in his head: “……”

In Great Xia, even a five-year-old child knew that mental pollution meant chaos, madness, and slaughter.

A pollution value soaring to national number one… Is this supposed to be something worth celebrating???

Yet seeing that Xia Wang’an’s face was plastered with I’m ready for you to shower me with praise, the recorder remained utterly professional, smiling like a blooming flower and praising her with a trembling voice:

“That’s incredible! A pollution value of over five thousand! I have never heard of such a terrifying… no, a shockingly astonishing number!”

Praised once more, Xia Wang’an modestly waved her hand:

“It’s just a tiny bit of talent and a tiny bit of hard work. I still need to keep up the momentum, study hard, and not give anyone else a chance to catch up to me.”

The recorder: “……You, you’re truly diligent.”

Xia Wang’an swapped out the test paper she had finished writing and placed another one down: “After all, I’m going to save the world starting next month. If I don’t work hard now, I won’t have the time later.”

With that, the girl once again furiously buried herself in writing.

“This is classmate Xia Wang’an’s brainwave state—extremely chaotic and dangerous. Placed on anyone else, this state would cause them to go mad on the spot, generating intense destructive and murderous tendencies, yet not a single bit of it manifests in her.”

Great Xia’s top mental pollution research experts rushed to the meeting site in the shortest time possible.

“We used every available technology, and the deduced result is that it’s impossible. So only one answer remains.”

Someone chimed in: “Her ability.”

“Yes, we’ve watched the video. Classmate Xia Wang’an is aware of mental pollution, but she firmly believes she will not be invaded by it.”

“She made a setting that she won’t be affected by mental pollution, so the setting became real.”

An expert at the head let out a sigh: “It’s like a miracle.”

The individuals present had spent a major part of their lives studying mental pollution, its causes, treatment methods, and suppression methods. Yet no matter how hard they tried, the final conclusion they always reached was “mental pollution and rational thinking cannot coexist.”

Even if mental pollution was temporarily suppressed, it would ultimately still backfire.

And now, a living, breathing example stood right before them: this girl with the country’s number one mental pollution value was not only clear-headed and quick-witted, but could also continuously crank out stacks of test papers without a single moment of rest.

One expert looked at the girl frantically doing test papers on the video screen. Triggered by the sight into memories of painful cramming during school days, even he—despite having graduated long ago—couldn’t help shivering:

“Is there any possibility that her current behavior of crazily doing test papers is actually a manifestation of being eroded by mental pollution?”

“Whose manifestation of being mentally polluted is doing test papers?”

Another expert explained: “Besides, all the teachers who taught classmate Xia Wang’an have consistent accounts—she has always loved studying, has been number one from childhood to adulthood, and is an absolute top student.”

Having said that, she looked at the stacks of completed papers on the screen and couldn’t help falling into deep thought.

Seriously speaking, the people present were all top students back in school, having experienced blatant favoritism from schools or teachers and eaten those unpalatable but filling black potatoes.

But someone who loved doing test papers to this degree? That was indeed a first.

While they were running various deductions here, the [Salvation] meeting was simultaneously underway elsewhere, proving even more intense and complex than the debate on their end.

Once Xia Wang’an gathered enough Faith Power, she could indeed change the world.

The problem, however, was that present-day Great Xia simply could not muster the Faith Power she required.

Ever since the cataclysm began, the human population had suffered drastic drops, and nations that perished entirely were not in short supply. Even if people didn’t die in the early stages of the catastrophe, they slowly perished bit by bit amid mutants, starvation, and bitter cold.

Great Xia was considered one of the better-off cases. Following the cataclysm, while rapidly constructing bases, fighting mutants, and rescuing citizens everywhere, the nation had already preserved the largest population among all countries across Blue Star.

Therefore, at the outset, the recorder who asked Xia Wang’an how much Faith Power was needed to alter the world’s operating parameters had harbored a fair bit of confidence.

Until Xia Wang’an replied: “10 billion!”

She had even tried hard to recall: “I remember it very clearly because the world I went to had a massive population, and my Faith Power shot straight from 5.8 billion to 10 billion in an instant.”

The recorder: “……”

The entire current population of Great Xia was only 200 million.

Even factoring in survivors from other countries, it was estimated that the entire Blue Star could not scrape together 300 million people.

“Making the entire national population believe in a setting” to achieve the goal of saving the world—that possibility was voided.

Thus, they really had no choice but to follow what Xia Wang’an did in her past life: gather Faith Power across various worlds, with the state providing backing from reality.

Reality is not a novel; a high school student like Xia Wang’an couldn’t just step forward one moment to declare, “I am reborn, following me can save the world,” and have the state brainlessly pour all national resources into prompt action the next.

In fact, if not for the percipient [Qiming] first perceiving that time had indeed been reversed, and Xia Wang’an having demonstrated abilities at age two, the state would at most have attached some importance to the prophecy of a “mutant invasion”.

Now, believing was one thing, but whether to truly stake everything on [Salvation], and by what method to execute [Salvation], was an entirely different matter.

With resources already depleted to the bone, citizens growing increasingly desperate, and the mutant front demanding deterrence to hold the line, modern Great Xia was at its least forgiving era for mistakes.

To put it bluntly, Great Xia’s remaining resources were no longer sufficient for trial-and-error. If the [Salvation] plan were activated, other ongoing or backup plans could not continue.

The plan currently underway was [Relocating humanity underground to live beneath the surface from now on]. To put it without exaggeration, over the past decade, the state had poured the vast majority of its resources into the [Underground] plan.

Even the common populace knew of this plan, waiting with the hope that “once the underground project is complete, we’ll be completely safe”.

If it were halted now, all previous efforts would be destroyed in a single stroke.

“The underground project is proceeding smoothly. I object to terminating it now.”

“She is just a child, and moreover already mentally polluted. Placing the hope of the entire nation on an individual is far too risky.”

“The underground plan has become the hope of the common people nationwide. Halting it at this moment means the first thing we’ll face is widespread despair among the populace, which will very likely trigger large-scale mental pollution incidents.”

There were no small number of people opposed to executing the [Salvation] plan, and everyone could state practical reasons. The primary and most blunt reason pinned to the forefront was:

“We only have two types of unpolluted seeds left.” The white-haired elder stated this sentence with something approaching calm.

“If we terminate the underground plan now, within half a year at the earliest, or a year at the latest, those remaining seeds will also be polluted. By then, humanity will truly have no choice left but to await death.”

As soon as these words fell, the people who had been enthusiastically voicing their viewpoints just moments before quieted down.

Compared to ordinary citizens, these individuals were both fortunate and deeply unfortunate. Their fortune lay in not having to worry about missing meals or fearing mutants that could strike at any second.

Their misfortune lay in the fact that while ordinary citizens still harbored hope for the future under media propaganda, these leaders were painfully aware that humanity had run out of hope.

——”Everyone.”

The Chief, who had remained silent throughout, finally spoke.

Her voice wasn’t loud, but amid the absolute silence, it stood out with exceptional clarity: “Our world has already been destroyed once.”

The elder glanced around. Seeing that everyone had turned their gaze toward her, she continued: “Though we don’t know why time could be reversed by ten years, what we can confirm is that in the original timeline, classmate Xia Wang’an didn’t make it home.”

She lifted a document—it was precisely the [Underground Plan].

“Without her, we undoubtedly did everything we could before the world’s destruction, but that still failed to avert the end.”

“In truth, we all know that whether it’s the [Underground Plan], the backup [Ocean Plan], or the [Space Plan] which carried high hopes but proved impossible to execute due to resource depletion, none of them could truly salvage everything in the end.”

The elder gently laid the document down, her tone devoid of heavy fluctuation, maintaining an almost serene composure:

“And now, we have gained an extra choice—one that failed to appear in the original timeline, but which might just save everyone.”

She stopped talking, yet the assembly remained wrapped in silence.

After a long pause, someone pressed the green button before them: “I approve of the [Salvation] plan.”

Another green button was pressed: “I approve as well.”

“Approved.”

“Approved.”

Green button after green button lit up. Naturally, not everyone agreed, but even those who refused to consent stopped attempting to obstruct others.

Humanity had endured suffering for far too long; given a glimmer of hope for survival, who would willingly give it up?

Ultimately, as the countdown elapsed, the Chief looked at the vote tally before her and pressed the green button in front of her.

“I announce.”

“The [Salvation] plan is officially launched.”

In peacetime, the meeting could have concluded here.

However, with time pressing, the Chief made her announcement and immediately transitioned to the next meeting agenda.

“Divergent [settings] will only plunge classmate Xia Wang’an into confusion and aggravate her mental pollution. We need an identity setting that features a sound logic, can absorb massive amounts of Faith Power, and possesses inherent power.”

“Ideally, this setting should be able to radiate outward to other people, the entire nation, or even our entire world.”

“For example, classmate Xia Wang’an once visited an ordinary catastrophic world. Initially, she pretended to be a magician. After the local populace believed her, she genuinely acquired magical powers.”

“Following that, the more people who believed in this setting, the stronger her magic became. In the end, not only did she become the strongest magician, but people also believed that magic existed in the world, allowing her to smoothly transform that world’s operational rules into [magic can be practiced].”

“Ordinary citizens endowed with magic could each fight mutants, and could cleanse polluted food using potions, turning that world away from danger.”

Even when recalling a world she had never laid eyes on, a smile involuntarily surfaced on the Chief’s face as she recounted its successful weathering of the cataclysm.

“This is a hugely successful example, and the reason for its success lies in the fact that within classmate Xia Wang’an’s cognition, there were relevant settings concerning [magic].”

The elder sitting below her immediately turned sideways and anxiously asked:

“Relevant settings? Where did classmate Xia Wang’an acquire cognition regarding magic settings? Has she visited a similar magical world?”

The Chief calmly waved her hand, causing rows of characters to project onto the massive screen:

• Magical Girl War Against Mutants
• Magic Simulation System: Strongest Mutant Hunter
• After Falling Into a Meteor Crater I Became a Magician
• Reborn with a System: Strongest Magician

The questioning elder: “……”

Everyone else: “……”

The venue fell silent for three seconds.

The Chief maintained her calm demeanor: “Everyone must understand that classmate Xia Wang’an was merely a high school student before her transmigration; it’s completely normal for her to enjoy reading novels.”

She gestured with another wave of her hand, and the book titles on the screen instantly multiplied.

“With classmate Xia Wang’an’s consent, we extracted these novels she finished reading from her reading account on the web novel platform. Our next task is to comb through them to find a fully mature setting system like [magic].”

“Fortunately, time is relatively ample. Everyone can take a look and strive to draw setting inspiration from them.”

Novels such as After the Military Officer Dumped Me He Was Ripped in Half, Transmigrating to the 21st Century: Starting with a Bowl of Spicy Hot Pot, Waking Up in Ancient Times and Eating Like Crazy, The Daily Life of Transmigrating as an Ability User, and My Ability is Invincible, accompanied by flashy covers, appeared before everyone.

Important military and political figures ranging from a minimum age of 48 to a maximum of 87 stared at the pulsing books flashing across their optical brains and drew in a sharp breath.

——Then swiftly started reading them one by one.

No one proposed the suggestion of “why don’t we have someone else finish reading them and give us a summary.” For such monumental matters, they had to read the material themselves before passing judgment.

Yet—

“Why can a high school student who is only 16 years old and the top student in her grade read fifty-three full-length novels in a single year??”

An official who wasn’t all that old—only sixty-two—flipped through the books in bewilderment, while a seventy-three-year-old elder next to him remained entirely unruffled:

“Time is squeezed out, you see. Back when I was in school, I could eat those black potatoes provided by the school every day, and I still managed to watch a movie once a week, didn’t I?”

The sixty-two-year-old official had a sudden epiphany and resumed reading.

Not gonna lie, this book titled I Handed Over the Weapon System to the State was deeply engaging from its title down to its synopsis and content.

The more he read, the better it got!

——Outside the conference room.

Fully armed soldiers stood guard outside the door with stern gazes.

A few staff members lacking the requisite clearance worked while periodically glancing up at the tightly closed conference room.

“Hasn’t it ended yet after all this time?”

“After all, a great deal is at stake; the atmosphere inside right now must be extremely solemn. Ah, I wonder when I’ll ever get to participate in something like that.”

“Yeah, and who knows how at their wit’s end the Chiefs must be right now.”

The staff members sighed, and harboring fantasies of how wonderful it would be if I could go in and take part in such a meeting, they buried their heads back into their work.

Ability Research Institute

Having completed her daily target of fifty test papers, Xia Wang’an put down her pen with satisfaction.

The savior, who had just rewarded herself with test papers, decided to look into something else.

She opened her optical brain, tapped into the novel website, scoured the rankings, located a book, checked the synopsis, and her eyes lit up as she began reading with great relish.

On her optical brain, alongside the turning pages of the novel, the book title slowly scrolled into view.

——Those Years When I Was a Cultivator.