The Enlightenment

Another day dawned, and Yang Jieping lay sprawled on a mat woven from thatch, slowly opening his eyes. To be exact, the heat had woken him; inside, the air was stifling and oppressive, his hair soaked through with sweat.

"This damned weather—what torture!"

He grumbled helplessly, then hurried toward the artificial lake. It was the height of Great Heat, the hottest time of the year. Daytime temperatures pressed close to forty degrees, leaving Yang Jie, accustomed to air conditioning, struggling to adapt.

Along the lake’s edge, a group of fishermen brandished their spears to intercept fish carried downstream by the Tam River. The river’s bounty was abundant; baskets of unknown fish were constantly ferried toward the High Court.

Without hesitation, Yang Jie dove headfirst into the lake. The water was nothing like the chilled freshness of spring; it had been thoroughly baked by the sun, and now felt scalding. It was as though he was taking a sauna in a bathhouse.

"How do the fish survive in such boiling water every day?"

As Yang Jie splashed around, a familiar system chime rang out.

"Technology: [Structural Mechanics (Dark Age)] has been completed."
"Unlocked technology: [Composite Building Structure]."
"Unlocked production tool: [Waterwheel]."
"Unlocked production tool: [Wooden Crane]."
"Unlocked production tool: [Curved-Yoke Plow]."
"Unlocked building: [Windmill]."
"Unlocked building: [Wooden Bridge]."
"Unlocked building: [Signal Tower]."
"Unlocked building: [Siege Engine Workshop]."
"Unlocked building: [Technical Academy]."
"Unlocked new discipline: [Physics]."
...

Yang Jie quickly navigated the system, decisively adding [Physics] to the research queue, consuming five hundred technology points. He then had someone notify Old Sha to prepare for full-scale operations.

The research on [Structural Mechanics (Dark Age)] alone had cost Yang Jie twenty days.

During the Dark Age, the lords had not yet opened the system’s trading post, so these technologies could only be ground out slowly over time. Once the trading post opened, lords could use points to purchase technology from the system store for acceleration—but the prices were exorbitant.

As a seasoned player, Yang Jie knew well the importance of [Structural Mechanics (Dark Age)]. It was one of the prerequisite technologies for the key building [Technical Academy].

In short:

[Structural Mechanics] + [Intermediate Woodcraft] + [ZZ System] + [Market Economy (Dark Age)] = [Technical Academy]

The Technical Academy was so crucial because, once completed, it allowed the expenditure of one thousand technology points to directly purchase one of the most important early humanities movements in the system interface.

The Enlightenment!

Enlightenment: Spend one thousand technology points to systematize the tribe’s architectural disciplines, dramatically increasing research efficiency.

At first glance, it might sound cryptic, but Yang Jie, as an old hand, understood perfectly. Once purchased for one thousand points, the system interface would reveal a new icon: [Technology Tree].

Opening the technology tree, he would see the entire tribe’s technology system arranged in perfect order.

There were two columns, vertical and horizontal. The horizontal row at the bottom was technology, divided into [Production], [Military], [Rat Literacy], and [Nature].

These four branches of the technology tree intertwined vertically, each serving as both prerequisite and successor, the crisscrossing lines more complex than a CAD drawing of a house's structure.

The horizontal row unlocked buildings; once a technology was researched, the corresponding buildings on the right would automatically light up and become available.

This vertical and horizontal arrangement formed the blueprint of the ratfolk tribe's technology in the Dark Age.

[Production] encompassed all kinds of production techniques, new inventions, and production methods: irrigation, mining, papermaking, smelting, forging, and so on. It touched every aspect of civilization’s production methods and technologies—the deep roots buried underground.

If [Production] was the root, then [Nature] was the sturdy trunk. Natural sciences included all fields of science relevant to civilization, breaking the complex world into myriad disciplines: physics, chemistry, meteorology, electrical engineering, medicine, geology, mathematics, biology, and so forth. These disciplines together composed the world and provided rational explanations for all phenomena.

If [Production] was the deeply buried root, [Nature] the trunk that supported the tree, then [Rat Literacy] and [Military] were the spreading branches and leaves, and the fruits they bore.

[Rat Literacy], as the name implied, encompassed all rules and consciousness derived from social behavior: religion, social systems, laws, art, and more. These ideologies were the direct manifestation of [Rat Literacy].

Lastly, [Military] was the combined product of the first three, essentially a branch of [Rat Literacy]. But in "Tower Defense & Civilization," military technology held irreplaceable importance, so it was listed separately.

After completing Enlightenment, all technologies of the ratfolk in the Dark Age became clear at a glance—showing the significance of the [Technical Academy].

Moreover, after Enlightenment, a new technological achievement could be unlocked:

Technology Burst!

Technology Burst: Allows simultaneous research of two unrelated technologies on the technology tree. The two must not have a direct connection.

The meaning was clear: in [Production], [Nature], [Rat Literacy], and [Military], two different technologies could be researched at the same time, so long as they were not directly linked.

With Technology Burst, research speed instantly doubled, and Yang Jie’s ratfolk tribe officially entered a phase of rapid development.

As the saying goes, technology is the primary productive force—an unimpeachable truth. Technology fundamentally improves productivity and reduces production costs.

Enlightenment was the first watershed moment separating civilizations; from this point, the gap between lord players' civilizations began to widen.

...

Yang Jie continued to manipulate the system interface, instantly unlocking [Papermaking] and [Pottery] with a substantial expenditure of technology points.

For such productive inventions, as long as the prerequisites were met, they could be researched over time, or purchased directly from the technology well for double points.

Yang Jie had recently focused on development, accumulating a considerable reserve of technology points—enough to splurge.

Besides papermaking and pottery, Yang Jie scrolled through the system interface and spent another thousand technology points in the plantation to purchase cotton.

Although [Textile Technology] was not yet complete, it was necessary to introduce cotton early: not only to prepare for winter, but also because the animal skins were not only foul-smelling, but unbearably hot to wear.

Yang Jie sincerely longed for cotton clothing; with cotton beginning to spread, he accelerated animal husbandry as well. Everything was moving in a positive direction.

Lost in thought, he walked toward Victor’s office...