Hao Ren was back at the VIP guest room with the MDT in his hand. Lily and Vivian were sitting on a bench while Y'zaks was standing by the window, staring blankly outside. But when he entered the room, everyone stared. He placed the MDT on the table and said, "We can't keep staying in this place."
Lying on the bench, Lily stuck her tongue out. She looked half-dead. When she heard Hao Ren, she looked up and asked in a daze, "Are we switching to new rooms? This place is pretty nice though..."
"That's not what I mean. I'm talking about the elven floating islands." Hao Ren flung himself onto a bench. "The way I see it, things may fail anytime. The fate of a billion lives is pawned on old junk that have long passed their expiry date. By luck of the draw, they may be able to prolong it another three to five hundred years, or three to five days if their luck runs out. All in all, this place is damned. Speaking of which, how are you guys doing here?"
Lily lay listlessly on the bench with her sloppy tail falling to the side—a rare sight for the hyperactive husky. "Is your stomach hurting from overeating?" Hao Ren teased.
"I was helping with the disaster relief." Adjusting her posture, Lily gave her limbs a needed stretch. "I'm dog-tired..."
The girl looked really exhausted, and she was not in her right state of mind.
Despite participating in the relief effort and coming back tired, Vivian was in a much better shape than the husky. She joined Hao Ren in the discussion. "What's your plan to help the elves?"
"I've got to help them one way or another." Hao Ren nodded, and began to spill his guts. "I was thinking of giving them some technical drawings. Hi-tech drawings are contraband, but hyperdrive engines are so common in the Macroworld, they're everywhere. Even so, I'm doubtful that they'll have the time and the ability to build the spacecraft. So, I thought I could raise some materials for them. However, I realised that this isn't just a poverty relief program for a few mountain villages but a billion elves. I could never raise enough resources."
"Even if you could raise enough resources, it's useless," the MDT said. "How much do you need to give? A hundred-year or a thousand-year supply? Keep in mind that if you'd like to keep them afloat until they're finally capable of interstellar travel, you'd need to haul an entire planet over."
"That's why I think they better move." Hao Ren smacked his hand on the table. "I was limited by tunnel vision the entire time until this idea popped up: the migration of a civilisation may sound ridiculous, but from the perspective of the Macroworld, it's no big deal."
Vivian was astounded. This was obviously beyond her comprehension. She decided it was better for her to just shut up and listen like a dog.
"After all, it doesn't matter how much material and what technology you provide, it simply won't tackle the root cause of the problem, which stems from the environment of this godd*mn place. The only thing they need is a resource-rich place where they can migrate to and continue to develop their own civilisation. Not having to beat their brains out, trying to understand other people's technology will be good for them in the long term too..."
The MDT could not help but twinkle with praise. "Very good. Now you're able see things from a long-term perspective. The key to preserving the diversity of civilisations is for all potential civilisations to thrive according to their own trajectories; giving them a piece of raw land is much better than spoon-feeding them with things like a hyperdrive. Currently, we only have one question left: where are they going?"
Scratching his head, Hao Ren said, "Certainly, there is a place for them in the vast universe? I would guess so."
"Take your sweet time to survey." The MDT flipped mid-air. It liked to do mid-air flips as a way to mock people. "Firstly, it's got to have suitable temperature and gravity; secondly, it must be in an outcast region of the universe; thirdly, it should have a carbon-based ecosystem in place because the Aerymian elves have no more ability to create a new ecosystem from scratch, at least for the next few hundred years considering their current level of technology; last and also most importantly, there mustn't be an existing civilisation sharing in the ecosystem of the new planet—not even apes with the slightest sense of literacy. There's a scanning probe on the Petrachelys, but I'm not sure if you can find a suitable place to scan in the universe."
Feeling upset, Hao Ren pulled at his hair frantically. "I know. That's why I came up with a plan first, and then I'll think about the details later."
"In that case, put on your thinking cap, quick! I've just performed a scan on the island chain; there are at least three isles having hidden energy problems. They have the least population. God knows when they're going to explode. The elves themselves know though."
Hao Ren flung himself onto a chair, and started thinking hard and long. Just before his brain burned out, a planet with oceans and forests came to his mind. It was habitable, yet it had no native civilisation.
"Peatopia!"
Vivian and Lily were dumbfounded. "What the heck is Peatopia?"
Hao Ren hemmed. "I'm talking about the planet where I picked Lil Pea up earlier. It's uninhabited, quite suitable for the elves. Maybe the atmospheric environment is different from the dome, but it shouldn't be a problem for them to adapt. What do you say?"
The MDT was silent for a moment, then it reminded him, "Do you know that the Space Administration has a very strict set of rules on this? Unless a particular civilisation has developed its own trans-world navigation technology, or its a travel of colonial nature, under no circumstance is a race allowed to migrate en masse to another civilised universe. As an inspector, when you place a race, which has no ability to perform trans-world travel themselves into another universe on your own, it's a very sensitive issue... bloody sensitive issue."
Hao Ren was immediately dumbfounded.
The MDT continued, "What I'm saying is that even though under normal ciscumstances, this is under strict control, and sensitive, it doesn't mean that it has never happened before. After all, Aerymian elves are facing an extinction-level threat to their civilisation. They deserve all the help they can get; the threshold of the regulations would be lowered, and they'd probably have more flexibility in eyes of the law too. For example, after the urgent expansion 10,000 years ago, the Macroworld needed a more flexible management method to operate, thus regulations were laxly enforced. So, you may want to think openly and try to understand the spirit of the law; do you know what's the core spirit of the law?"
Hao Ren thought about it for a while, then he said, "To not endanger other civilisations? To not help a civilisation at the expense of another—that I remember."
"That's right. Under this premise, as long as you follow the procedure and have a reasonable explanation, nobody's going to raise an eyebrow. It may even be considered a merit if you do it beautifully."
"Just tell me. Don't create suspense by beating around the bush."
The MDT lightly knocked Hao Ren's forehead. "What's your job?"
Hao Ren was stupefied. "Me? I'm an inspector."
"That's your part time job. What's your main role?"
Hao Ren took almost half a day to think about it before replying, "Landlord?"
"Then haven't you understood anything?"
Hao Ren pondered again, cold sweat suddenly trickling down his back. "Wait a minute, How can I? I don't own the planet..."
"Why not? After Madam Raven created the planet. She left it in the natural universe. Since then, no intelligent being has ever visited the planet; the only beings that passed-by the planet before were the gnomes—the courier guys. But, they never landed. You are the only person who has ever landed on that planet, and conducted surveys for intelligent life. Your survey work has been recorded into the database. Legally, you don't own the planet. However, before any other intelligent life makes claim with proof that they have occupied the planet before you, you are the preferred explorer. As an explorer, you have the rights to build outposts, bases, and extract resources. Of course, you couldn't possibly manage everything on your own, so—"
As the penny dropped, Hao Ren's eyes opened. "So, I need a billion Aerymian tenants to look after the house..."
"What a teachable fool."