Chương 688: A Gradient of Grey

Mariane and many other scientific experts gathered together in a large auditorium of the <Endless Library>. This area was usually used to present new ideas and discuss together, like a town square for the top professionals and crafters around the Empire. With the world revolving not around individual success but societal advancement, people were not afraid to share their ideas and have others mimic and evolve them. After all, recognition for being the one who first came up with the idea would always be given.

Every proposal, refinement, and breakthrough was recorded within the Library's merit archives, and contribution weights were calculated and permanently attached to one's professional record. Those who didn't cooperate were not only looked down upon by the entire scientific community but also often alienated. Not because everyone was a saint.

The reason for the alienation was both that it was lightly enforced by law, as misconduct became part of one's resume, and that no serious researcher wished to tie their future to someone whose name carried the stain of sabotage or intellectual dishonesty. With Liu Shu's buffs, which made a group work faster than an individual, connections with top geniuses and other successful crafters became a prerequisite for meaningful advancement. Isolation meant stagnation.

This subtle but structurally enforced distinction from traditional individual glory created the Empire's outwardly "altruistic" culture. Of course, competition was brutal. Now, though, the competition was done in groups, and those who basically wanted to spit on each other's faces were not few. Under normal circumstances, this would make sabotaging others rampant. However, this was a World Tree Empire. Research spaces were transparent by design. Experimental logs were shared, peer-reviewed, and archived.

Suspicious discrepancies did not stay hidden for long. And while Liu Shu did not interfere in petty rivalries, patterns of malicious intent were rarely able to escape her notice. They were the most intelligent people in the world. If they wished to win, subtle sabotage was a short-term tactic at best—one that destroyed collaboration networks and closed future doors. So even if they were petty, they restrained themselves and settled for pinching each other instead of stabbing their competitors' hearts.

It did not change how intelligent creatures thought. It did not make them saints or friends. Instead, it weaponized competitiveness, forcing rivals to out-innovate rather than undermine.

"You created a rock-throwing device? I'll invent a bow using your idea!" That was the most simplistic way of summarizing the scientific community in the Golden Sap Empire that Liu Shu ruled. Mariane stood on the podium, the voice-amplifying device in front of her carrying her words around the auditorium.

"I've called for the annual conference early because the Heavenly Willow has finally started working on the promised mix of technology and nature." She paused here, allowing her words to sink in.

"I know many of you have been trying to work on it, some with mild success, and others meeting failure. The Heavenly Willow, who awakened not long ago from her slumber, probably was unaware. Hence, she worked on something on her own and created… this." Mariane used one of her four arms to reach below the podium and pull out a 30-centimeter-long <Synaptic Root>. The hundreds of scientists below looked at that "cable-like root" with interest and confusion.

Mariane tapped the podium, and an image projector lit up, illuminating the white wall behind her.

"This is the description of this item." Everyone glanced at it, and after reading the few short lines, their eyes widened in stupefaction. Many who had been partially successful were even more surprised.

"Incredible…"

"Lady Heavenly Willow is, as always, a monstrous existence that keeps proving herself."

"This time, I thought I would be able to show Lady Heavenly Willow something beyond her scope… It seems I was overcome." Of course, not all were assenting voices. These people were neither yes-men nor mindless drones.

"It looks good. However, how is the production speed?"

"If this is to be the substitute for a technological cable, the materials must also be relatively common. Infrastructure eats up materials like nothing else."

"I admit it is a good step. However, will it even work better than cables? There is no real guarantee, right?" Mariane didn't interrupt. It was customary to wait a few minutes after presenting something so that everyone could mutter their thoughts and discuss among themselves. After listening for 10 minutes, Mariane smiled.

"Alright, enough. All of you have more or less created your own thoughts about it now. So, today… and probably tomorrow as well, we will be reading the six books Lady Heavenly Willow recorded the day before." While these people were busy with many matters, they knew that Mariane would not stop them here without reason. Mariane's reputation as the top rune master was acknowledged even by her fiercest competitors.

The mothkin was terrifyingly intelligent, and being the guardian of the library, her learning speed was mightily enhanced by the structure itself. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. In a way, Mariane was more of a mother to the Endless Library than Liu Shu herself.

"Let's start with the first one. <Synaptic Root Structure And Foundation>. This item, as you've seen in the description, is created by quite a few smaller parts, each with a specific function. However, diving into them without having an image of the whole is senseless. Therefore, even if you don't understand some nuances, please pay attention." Then, she flashed the book onto the large white wall through the projector, and they all began a collective class on the <Synaptic Root>.

Mariane would not blurt everything at once like a reading robot. Instead, she paused sometimes, hearing questions and answering them with her knowledge. Liu Shu observed everything. The reason she didn't participate is that she didn't want to rush this. She didn't want to speak her ideas, which might become too deeply ingrained in some of her top scientists, just because they came from her own mouth. So, instead, she allowed them to ponder, deduce, protest, and sometimes show skepticism.

Those traits made them true scientists. Someone in their position needed to question, absorb information, and also know how to rectify themselves when information was proven. Asking questions was not a problem in the slightest. Being contrarian was not bad either. After all, if your ideas collapsed when people questioned them… what value did they have in the first place? Ideas that collapse under scrutiny were not theories; they were shallow beliefs.

Mariane, being extremely familiar with these old timers she almost shared fistfights with, continued reading and discussing with everyone. The session that was supposed to only last one day stretched on, and even a week later, everyone was still in the room, only with dark bags under their eyes. Liu Shu's books were extremely revolutionary, yet they weren't idealistic. It was clear that, while writing these books, Liu Shu's theories were deep-seated in reality.

Some top scientists even thought that the <Synaptic Root> could be further refined. The listening World Tree agreed with those thoughts. After all, this one cable was a "prototype." Liu Shu knew that if she wanted to cover every house, light, structure, and basically every nook and cranny of society with them, she needed not only to perfect them but also to make them easily upgradable. What was the most important part of an infrastructure?

In Liu Shu's mind, it wasn't its sturdiness or quality; it was the infrastructure's ability to be modified, upgraded, and fixed. Without easily fixable infrastructure, every small problem could snowball into a city-wide catastrophe.

"They are quite cute." Liu Shu chuckled as she saw an old man punch another in the face while shouting that they were a fool. Some young people nearby were also quite heated, pointing and insulting each other as if the other party was not another hyper-intelligent scientist but an ignorant fool that failed even the most basic education. Their aggressiveness showed passion. Moreover, they weren't using their true strength to fight. It was more symbolic than anything else.

Even the female scientists, who usually fought more with sharp words than punches, sometimes started a catfight and pulled each other's hair. Liu Shu laughed, happily watching the people while working on the next step of her new technological ramification.

"Alright, while these adorable ones are discussing, let's make the prototype of the next, and probably most important, component of the structure." Liu Shu looked at her list.

"Computer Technology relies on: Cable, Switch, Logic Unit, Memory Unit, Clock, Processor, Energy Source, Storage, and Network. Anything else is either a branch of these paths or a combination." Liu Shu smiled.

"I've created the cable, and while it is in its prototype phase, the refinements won't really change the foundation I've built. At most, it will build upon it and refine it." Her eyes moved toward the second thing on the list.

"Switches… Here is where the very foundational problem I thought about exists. Technology uses transistors as the switches, whose structures are easily downloadable. Modern technology has billions, if not more, of transistors per square millimeter. They are cramped, almost like atoms, which allows complex and incredibly fast calculations." Her roots pondered how to improve this technology. This process was not easy in the slightest.

"I don't want my nature-attuned technology to be a white and black string. I want it to be a… gradient of greys." Her eyes flashed with many thoughts, focusing not on the compactability of the "switch", but on the concept itself. She didn't mind that her initial technology could not even hold a candle to modern technology. In the first place, it was not supposed to.

After all, that technology had existed for who knows how long, with countless minds working to improve on the concept and reach incredible depths Liu Shu knew she was currently incapable of. But compared to them, she had an advantage. Liu Shu was not building a strictly "new" path. She was trying to modify an existing one. The difference in difficulty between the two was nothing short of abysmal.

"Grey… nature…" Liu Shu muttered.

"Transistors are the… cells." After many days of thought, her mind finally constructed that sentence.

"Cells… greys… instructions…" The more she thought, the quicker her mind connected different sciences and built upon them.

"Not a transistor. It doesn't go from one state to another and back. It… develops. It… adapts. Yet, it doesn't… think." Activating Little Fatebrushing ability and building upon Little Ingenuity's abilities, Liu Shu began moving her minuscule tendrils to create what she needed. Trial and error followed, with materials burning down one after another. Some were partial successes, others complete failures, and others false successes that eventually became essentially indistinguishable from the original transistor.

After a while, the system rang. [Congratulations! You've created a <Gradient Cell>.] Liu Shu smiled happily and opened the item.

[Level 1 Gradient Cell (Low-Grade Flawless Level)] - Skill: It interprets energy and changes accordingly. Allows signal redirection & state change. If energy exceeds baseline → increase internal state. If repeated pulses occur → strengthen output. If conflicting signals arrive → dampen response. If no input for a period → decay state. Note: A genius creation from the best crafter of the Golden Sap Empire. The <Gradient Cell> acts like a living cell, and it is able to work without thought but as a collective.

This item is the one that the creator believes will replace the most important basic technological structure, the transistor.