ALL NOVEL Chapter 382: Running Out of Energy
Most rank 10 worlds have no means of generating energy. They operate on a fixed amount of energy and stop operating once that energy is depleted. While it is possible to attach energy-refining formations to a rank 10 world, it isn’t economically viable. The cost of the energy refiners ultimately exceeds the value of the world itself.
Rank 11 worlds have more complete laws, and some may have energy refiners. However, since Rachel removed the chaos from the endless space in the universe, the energy refiners can no longer convert chaos energy into any amount of universal energy. Universal energy is extremely powerful, so even a tiny amount could sustain an entire rank 11 world. Without chaos, the generators now face the much more arduous task of absorbing void energy and other difficult-to-extract energy sources.
Rank 10 and rank 11 worlds are not intended for long-term use; they will eventually disappear, whether in a billion or a trillion years. Even if they can generate energy, their codes will eventually expire.
Rank 12 and 13 worlds, however, are different. They are constructed from universal laws, which endure as long as the universe itself exists. Their codes never expire, and as long as they have energy, they can continue to function for the duration of the universe's existence.
Technically, a universe has an infinite lifespan. It can only be destroyed by external forces. For instance, for a rank 14 entity, destroying a universe is a simple task, but a universe will not run out of lifespan. No rank 13 entity can destroy a universe because it derives its energy from creation itself. Only rank 14 entities, who also have access to creation energy, can destroy a universe.
...
Mike looked at the dimming sun in the sky and shook his head. Over the last few thousand years, the sun's light had dimmed even further.
"The world is decaying!" He was surprised at the speed of its decline. A few thousand years are nothing compared to the lifespan of a world.
"The world is bleeding! It’s losing energy," Mike, who had unlocked more of his inherited memories, diagnosed.
Nearly no creator would allow the will of a world to consume its reserves to eliminate invaders. Why? Because the will of the world lacks the necessary knowledge. A world is delicate, and if the will of the world depletes a critical resource and unintentionally damages a line of code, it could cause a ripple effect, leading to significant harm.
These days, world hacking and theft rarely occur, but in ancient times, when Rachel wasn’t the absolute ruler, many thefts happened. Even in cases of theft, world creators preferred theft over destruction. Once a world was stolen, the party who took it would usually compensate the original owner to avoid conflict.
At that time, Rachel entered the market and began hacking world after world without paying any compensation. This was one of the reasons so many civilizations turned against her.
"I can’t fix it!" Mike concluded after a moment of thought. Even if his inheritance were fully unlocked, he still wouldn’t be able to do it. Repairing the codes of an injured world is far more difficult than creating and coding a world from scratch. He didn’t have nearly enough skill to create a world, let alone fix one.
"At this rate, the world will run out of energy in at most 10,000 years. Once it does, the sun will go out, and the chaos energy outside will destroy the world," Mike thought. He still didn’t remember that Rachel had removed the chaos energy; that part of his inheritance remained sealed.
"I hope I’m not wrong," he thought. His calculations were based on the current rate of energy loss, but if the rate accelerated, the world could run out of energy even sooner.
...
Human scientists also noticed the sun’s weakening and frantically researched to find the cause and a solution. Unfortunately for them, a modern civilization that doesn’t even know what the sun truly is had no chance of identifying the cause or finding a solution.
In the last 1,000 years, all the oil and nuclear materials had been exhausted, with no recovery in sight. In the past, the will of the world gradually refilled minerals, including oil, but now it no longer had the spare energy for even that small task.
The world now runs on wind, solar, and hydropower, but with the sun weakening, total energy output began to decrease sharply. The UFKS urged citizens to conserve power. At first, there were many blackouts, but after building more wind turbines and dams, the immediate symptoms were temporarily alleviated.
However, addressing the symptoms didn’t resolve the root problem. The world itself was running out of energy. Even though the UFKS managed to temporarily solve the energy crisis, more issues began to arise.
Within 100 years, the wind turbines stopped entirely. The reason was simple: there was no wind to turn them. With the wind turbines no longer operational, energy output decreased again, leading to widespread blackouts. Hydropower became the only remaining source of energy.
Under normal circumstances, a society in such a situation would experience riots and social breakdown, but not in the UFKS. The billions of pet angels sprang into action, preventing their "owners" from breaking the law. They even took control of supermarkets and ensured equitable distribution of food.
Normally, the right to private property is respected, but with the world running out of energy, no one had the right to hoard the remaining food. All food had to be gathered and distributed equitably to sustain as many people as possible.
At least, that’s what Mike initially thought.
Soon, even the plants, trees, and all greenery began to die. The soil itself no longer had energy. The dams dried up, and the few hospitals that still had power lost it. With no rain, drinking water became scarce, and worse, even oxygen began to run out. In the big cities, the air remained polluted, with no wind or rain to clear it.
It could be said that without the intervention of the angels, the world would have descended into chaos by now.
Seeing the severity of the situation, Mike realized his calculations had been completely wrong. The world’s energy loss was far faster than he had anticipated. It wasn’t that the world was being stingy; it truly had no energy left.
"Weird! If there’s no energy, why hasn’t chaos infiltrated and destroyed everything?" Mike thought, puzzled.
"Wait, why didn’t I remember this before? There is no chaos! If there’s no chaos, then maybe..." Mike suddenly unlocked a piece of the big demon's memory inheritance, thought of a solution, and immediately acted.
The biggest challenge in leaving a world had always been chaos. Without chaos, even rank 9 entities could easily survive. With no chaos to guard against, Mike could create a temporary semi-world to carry billions of people to safety.
Time was short, so Mike quickly began constructing the temporary semi-world.
...
With food, water, and even oxygen running out, many people started experiencing severe health issues. Fortunately, they all had their angel pets looking after them. The angel pets flapped their wings and carried their owners to areas with better air, temporarily saving them.
Mike also took a moment to cast a divine spell that created tornados and circulated the air, significantly improving conditions in big cities that had nearly run out of oxygen. To temporarily alleviate the water shortage, Mike cast another divine spell that caused heavy rainfall across the world. These solutions were temporary, however. Mike would eventually run out of energy if he continued casting divine spells.
...
After a month of hard work, Mike created a temporary semi-world. It was very basic, with little defensive power. If any chaotic energy were present, this fragile semi-world would disintegrate at the first touch. But it should be enough to carry around 10 billion people. With the current population at around 7 billion, it would be sufficient to hold them all.
"Food, water, and oxygen! I’ll have to provide those from my own resources," Mike sighed. It wouldn’t be costly in the short term, but who knew how long it would take to reach another world? Endless space is vast; the journey could take billions of years.
"It’s best if they all freeze in time," he thought and immediately began implementing his plan.
...
After another month, he looked at the semi-world he had created and smiled. The space inside was time-locked. Once a mortal entered, they would be frozen in time without needing to eat or breathe.
"The consumption has decreased significantly. With this, we can travel through endless space for millions, perhaps even a billion years, without any issues!" Mike thought.
"Time to put them all inside!" Mike decided. Only 100 million people, mostly elderly, had died over the last two months. The high survival rate, despite the lack of food, water, and air, was due to the assistance of the angel pets.
Without those little angels, perhaps less than 1% of the world’s population would have survived.