ALL NOVEL Chapter 378: Carefree
After Max's death, the human civilization he founded continued to thrive. The human population exploded, with the average couple having ten children at the very least!
Before the establishment of human civilization, infant mortality rates were so high that perhaps not even two out of ten children would survive to adulthood. In ancient times, even the children of kings and queens frequently died from diseases and various other causes, let alone ordinary people. Not to mention the added difficulty of frequent encounters with demons.
After moving within the protection of the wall, most families continued their habit of having many children. However, with far better sanitation, the availability of some form of healthcare, and improved public safety, many more children survived into adulthood. Gradually, technology advanced, and vaccines were developed for many deadly diseases. The development of vaccines marked a turning point. Before vaccines, a baby was at significant risk of dying from some virus, but after vaccines, the threat from most common viruses was effectively eliminated.
Many magicians also developed a variety of healing spells for those who couldn’t be treated with ordinary drugs. These advancements reduced human mortality to such an extent that it became nearly unheard of for someone to die before the age of at least 80. As long as one was only injured and not instantly killed, the advanced medical knowledge of human civilization would find a way to save them. If medical knowledge failed, magicians would step in to heal the person. Physical disabilities became minor issues; magicians would heal disabled people at no cost; unfortunately, most mental disabilities remained mysterious and untreatable; the brain is very delicate, and changing it to 'treat' a cognitive disability may completely change one's personality and effectively turn them into another person entirely.
Years ago, having a pair of horns was considered a sign of evil. However, after the establishment of human civilization, perceptions completely reversed. Having a demonic bloodline shifted from being a bad thing to something that every potential parent could only dream of.
Giving birth to a demon-born child happens entirely by chance. Even if both parents are magicians, the chances of their children becoming demon-born are the same as everyone else’s. This is because the demonic bloodline cannot be passed through the usual human means of reproduction.
Years passed like this...
...
"AAAA!" The sound of a woman screaming filled the air.
"Another push!" a male doctor urged the woman.
"I can't," she struggled.
The law of human civilization not only allows but also requires that at least 35% of all natural births be administered by male doctors. This may sound like a strange law, but the policymakers implemented it for a reason.
For years, childbirth had been dominated by female nurses and midwives. Despite having the capacity to help, male doctors had been prohibited from assisting. This was the culture of nearly all humans alive, and it refused to die despite significant technological improvements.
There were many excellent female doctors, nurses, and midwives, but not enough. The demand was high, and due to a shortage of talented women interested in assisting, some less qualified individuals were allowed to supervise births.
Supervising a childbirth can be either extremely easy or extremely difficult. In the first scenario, the supervising person barely has to do anything. However, in the second scenario, if the right person isn’t there, it can lead to disasters, potentially the death of both baby and mother.
The simple solution was to allow talented and interested male doctors to assist and supervise childbirths.
But the cultural stigma was too great. Therefore, to forcibly change the culture, the parliament of human civilization passed a law requiring 35% of all births in each region to be supervised by male doctors. Thanks to this law, after only a few years, the taboo around the presence of male doctors was completely shattered. Nowadays, it is seen as something ordinary and an everyday event.
Human civilization has applied similar cultural engineering strategies in many other areas. Many distant and rural cities that relocated inside the walls had very odd traditions. For example, there was a famous western city that had a tradition of cutting the left ear of male children when they turned nine and the right ear of female children when they turned twelve. As for the reason, nobody knows for sure. These 'cultural' traditions usually have no rationale behind them, and their origins are often unknown.
To eliminate these abuses, the Human Civilization passed laws mandating compulsory education for all children. If something bad happened to a child, the authorities would arrest the parents and demand an explanation. Because of all these efforts, those strange 'cultural traditions' have been eliminated.
Besides that, human civilization did not endorse a free market. It had a law mandating that universities accept at least 40% male and 40% female students from all racial backgrounds. Admissions were not purely merit-based; gender, race, and location were all factors considered. The only organization that was entirely merit-based was the military. Aside from that, nearly the entire civilian government considered other factors in its hiring practices.
"You can do it! Push!" The male doctor, a veteran with years of experience, urged the woman. In his judgment, this birth was not dangerous. Although the baby's head was slightly large, there were no other issues.
Mike, a ghost nobody could see, stood there and watched the entire process. He wasn't interested in watching a random childbirth; the baby being born was actually himself!
"Time is weird, man!" he thought as he watched the baby finally emerge.
"The will of the world reset the timeline, which means the things that happened in the past now should happen again. However, resetting the timeline is different from time traveling to the past. In a timeline reset, not everything will turn out exactly as before," Mike thought.
"Let me see him! Does he have it?" the mother asked frantically, hopefully.
"Don’t worry; give me a minute!" the doctor said.
The doctor was quite happy; it was a demon-born child, which meant he would get another bonus this month. He wasn’t surprised; he typically supervises around 400 births each month and has seen hundreds of demon-born babies. After ensuring the baby was fine, he handed him to the nurse and left to supervise another birth. These days, everyone is giving birth in hopes of having a demon-born baby, which has caused a shortage of qualified doctors.
Another nurse went out to bring the father inside.
“It’s a boy!” the nurse said to the father, who was waiting outside.
“Does he have it?” The father asked excitedly as he ran into the room.
“Congratulations! Your son has it; you are a noble now!” The nurse smiled and slightly bowed.
The father observed his son, specifically the top of his head, where two tiny horns were visible.
“My son is demon-born!” The father jumped up and down in excitement.
“Give him to me; let me hug him!” the mother said. The nurses and doctors had prevented her from seeing her son for more than five minutes, which greatly irritated her.
The father picked up the child, went to the mother's side, and handed him to her.
“Look at his beautiful tiny horns! They look beautiful!” The mother gazed at her son with loving eyes as she carefully kissed the little horns on his head.
"It's all happening exactly as it's supposed to," Mike sighed and walked out. On his way, he saw two agents from the Department of Demon-Born Management.
Mike had no interest in seeing it all again; he had already lived through it once.
"It's a pity I lost all my power; I can't intervene in the world at all!" he sighed. If he had power, he could have tweaked things a bit to make life easier for himself.
"If things go like this, the will of the world will reset the world once again; what would happen to me then?" he thought.
His current state was mysterious; he was neither alive nor dead. As long as there was a demonic bloodline in this world, he could not die. After all, even though the will of the world shattered him into countless pieces, those pieces were still his. Those 'demon kings' and magicians were all barely using a tiny part of his vast power.
"I won't disappear even after the next reset, but I wouldn’t be able to meet or interact with myself from other timelines. Everything would go on until I get strong enough to resist the world-will's oppressive force. Once I do that, I can finally merge all the timelines and fully take control of the world," he thought.
In his view, the battle was already won; the only chance the world-will could defeat him was if someone from outside came to its aid.
"Let’s just wait and see what happens!" Mike thought as he took things easy, walking from city to city and watching everything with a carefree attitude.