Chapter 1 He's Got a Face!

Hao Ren looked in the direction of the sound and saw a tall man in a gray-white uniform standing a few meters away. Most people here were wearing the same clothes, and the man's face was unremarkable. Hao Ren didn't remember him. However, the man walked over and, after looking at the image projected by the data terminal, repeated, "Nolan?"

"You are..." Nolan looked at the stranger in confusion. "Do I know you?"

"I'm Ulanov," the stranger paused for a moment before reacting. "I don't think I've met you in this form."

"Ulanov?!" Hao Ren's eyes widened as he looked at the tall, healthy man in surprise. He really didn't expect to meet him again in this situation—both reasonable and unexpected. "I really didn't expect to see you here... I almost didn't recognize you with a face!"

Ulanov's expression stiffened for a moment, and he touched his face with a wry smile. "It's not like I was born with a mask. Ah, meeting you reminds me of those 'dreams,' truly disorienting memories... Oh, should I be calling you Lord or Governor of the Planet now?"

Ulanov's expression was a little strange as he looked at Hao Ren, his smile tinged with embarrassment and helplessness. "I just came from the Social Adaptation Department and heard the teachings of the 'Root of Origin.' You seem to be the owner of this planet."

To be honest, like other newly awakened Draum, he didn't quite understand the situation, but unlike the other Draum, he had met Hao Ren before and spent a long time with him, which made him particularly at a loss now. Hao Ren didn't feel anything about it. He waved his hand, "Whatever, I'm just an adventurer. This planet is just a temporary stop for me. I've already given this planet to the Draum as their new home. You can do whatever you want here, I don't care."

Ulanov shrugged. "Easy for you to say."

"Just listen to him," Nolan said from the side. "That's just how he is. Besides, he's richer than a planet. How much more polite can you be with him?"

Ulanov looked at Nolan in surprise. He felt that his "dream supervisor" seemed to have changed a lot after not seeing her for so long.

"It's a rare coincidence," Hao Ren patted Ulanov's arm, signaling the others not to stand there like fools. "Let's find a place to chat."

The group went to Ulanov's current temporary residence, a small house near the central square of the town. There were a dozen such houses around the central square, all built with simple wooden boards, specifically for those who had just recovered from the Blood Pool and could not immediately return to their social roles. Ulanov would live here until he "graduated" from the Social Adaptation Department, after which he would be assigned to other parts of the town, either to engage in production work or to study some simple mechanical devices—ones that could be used now and built from locally sourced materials.

"There's a shortage of manpower everywhere. Strong adults are coming out of the Blood Pool every day, but it's still not enough. We need to establish stable and safe settlements in various places, store enough food before the temperature drops, and reinforce the towns. These houses are too fragile," Ulanov said about his life here, or rather, what he had just heard from the Social Adaptation Department. He looked out the window of the small house, where he could see the Blood Pool in the central square and the silver-white alloy antenna tower standing in the center of the town. "I might be going to the construction site by the river. This town is next to a river, and our people are trying to make use of it. With the materials at hand, maybe I can build a water mill before winter comes to this planet, so the green tree seeds collected from the forest can be shelled and preserved in large quantities. We plan to use those tree seeds as our staple food."

Hao Ren looked at Ulanov's slightly tired expression. "How are you doing?"

Ulanov rubbed his temples. "There are some memory problems. You know, I just woke up from a very long nightmare. They said my brain is re-categorizing the real and dream parts. The most difficult hours have passed, but they say there will be some mild symptoms in the next two days. I can still remember fighting as a soldier and being a musician in the dream, but I also remember a long time ago, lying in a soul extractor, uploading my consciousness to the Ark... I can't believe that was ten thousand years ago."

"Your planet..." Hao Ren hesitated a little when he brought up this topic.

"I know," Ulanov smiled. "We all know. The 'Root of Origin,' oh, you should call Him 'Draum,' He instilled everything that happened into our minds. After we wake up, we must first understand the situation. To be honest, that scene was unbearable, but what's done is done, we can only look forward."

He laughed to himself. "Actually, we're very lucky—at least we all survived and got a new home. The original Ark project didn't anticipate that kind of situation. To be able to survive in that situation, we should thank the Goddess's blessing."

Izhaks casually asked, "You still believe in the Creator Goddess?"

"Of course, why not?" Ulanov said as a matter of course. "Oh, although the dream has confused many people's minds, the initial memories come back after waking up. Of course, we remember who we prayed to before entering the Ark."

"Pray?" Hao Ren seemed to have heard a very concerning word. "You said you prayed before entering the Ark?"

"That's right," Ulanov didn't understand why Hao Ren was paying so much attention to this. "The Creator Goddess is our core belief. No matter what stage society develops to, the church is an important part of us. We should pray."

Lili's ears perked up, and she poked Hao Ren's arm. "Landlord, Mu Lu didn't say..."

"I know," Hao Ren waved his hand. "Mu Lu only knows part of the truth, after all, he's not omniscient and omnipotent. I'll ask him about this when we get back. By the way, is there any problem with your life here?"

Hao Ren's last sentence was still directed at Ulanov, who smiled and nodded after hearing it. "As you can see, basic living is okay. The AIs responsible for maintaining the antenna tower on this planet helped build some houses and most of the necessities of life. These things—"

Ulanov pointed to the clothes on his body, a synthetic fabric garment manufactured by the AI factory, cheap and extremely fast to produce. "Clothes, medicine, some tools, and food are all provided by them. The people in the town walk to a distribution point one kilometer away every morning. There's a large platform there, and a robot covered in mechanical tentacles will drop a fixed amount of supplies there. But we have a full 1.6 billion people to return to the real world. We can't rely on the AI factory to feed us all, so we're also trying to rebuild our own production system."

Ulanov pointed to the small house where everyone was. "The strong men are responsible for building houses, and the women are studying plants and animals. 'Draum' is replicating the species we are familiar with to this world, but in order to adapt to the environment of this planet, many species have changed, and we have to re-recognize them. I also heard that they are going to limit the speed of releasing people from the Blood Pool recently, because the supplies can't keep up. Although the source blood can make trees and crops mature quickly, it is still impossible to maintain the survival of 1.6 billion people in a short period of time. We can only leave most of the population in the virtual world first, so that the nature in the real world can grow healthily."

Hao Ren listened carefully to Ulanov's description of the current situation. He felt that this was very valuable knowledge—a civilization starting on a strange planet, a group of people with nothing rebuilding society with the limited support of an alien factory, the way the Draum and his autonomous machines interacted with each other, and the ruins of the Tanagoth civilization. These were areas that were usually difficult to access.

Hao Ren felt that he needed to accumulate all the experience, after all, as someone who caused explosions wherever he went, he really didn't know when he would encounter a more wicked mission...

Just then, a small commotion coming from the central square suddenly interrupted the conversation between Hao Ren and Ulanov.