Age of Cosmic Exploration Chapter 272

Before the three general universities finished being built, the third batch of 500 plus Homo Evolutis had started to awaken. The final survivor number was 490 people.

With the advancement of technology on the Hope, its medical science had also gotten far more advanced than when it was on Earth. Generally, if the person hadn’t lost his breathe for more than 10 seconds or the brain received irreparable damage, then the technology definitely could save the person’s life. Even if there was nothing but the brain left, as long as the brain was still functioning, then the person could be saved. That was the power of the 4th revolution's medical science!

However, the Homo Evolutis awakening didn’t seem to be controlled by modern medicine. Other than checking for amelioration of internal hormones, blood, physical condition, and genes, the stuff that caused the changes itself still remained elusive. Things like how to ensure the Homo Evolutis survived this ordeal or how to make the Survivors into Grade S Cosmic Adapters were mysteries as well.

Therefore, of the 500 plus Homo Evolutis, only 490 survived. After the importance of the Homo Evolutis was found out, this was more than a simple loss of life. Everyone sighed in regret. If this news was released into space, it would probably make all of the Level 9 space civilizations cry in tears.

Other than that, it was worth noting that of the 490 people, 23 were originally Survivors. They had woken up to become Grade S Cosmic Adapters. For example, Zhu Yi became a Seeker.

Of the 490 people, removing the 23 who were already in the Black Star Troopers, the remainder contained 262 male whose ages ranged between 28 and 40. Due to the effect of the genetic mesomeric resonator, these men were at the height of their health. In other words, other than a few cases, the Black Star Troopers would receive about 250 new members!

250 young men in their prime, all Homo Evolutis joining the Black Star Troopers, it was unimaginable!

The original Black Star Troopers at its maximum only had 150 people, and this was the best military unit on the Hope. No matter whether it was from the perspective of grounds warfare, ambush, zero-gravity combat, or piloting Prototype 003s, the Black Star Troopers were undeniably the Hope’s best fighting force. 150 troopers were enough to sway the tides of the battle, much less 350 troopers! This was going to be the envy of all the other civilizations.

Of course, not all the awakened Homo Evolutis were willing to answer the military's call, at least one-third of them gave multitudes of reasons to avoid it. Of course, the actual power of these Homo Evolutis had to be checked out first before any arrangements would be made. The government had to filter out the rare Whisperers, Thinkers, and Animas, and of course the All-Rounders and Deceivers as well.

The final conclusion was that there were no new Whisperers or Thinkers, there was only one new Anima, Luo Mao Miao. Naturally, there was no new All-Rounder or Deceiver. Most of them were Perceptors or Seekers. They made up 90 percent of the newly awakened Homo Evolutis. A small portion was found to be Sages and the rest were Survivors. All of this information was recorded within the Homo Evolutis Faction’s files and then was sealed.

After that, members of the Black Star Troopers’ recruiting department spent most of their time arguing with the Homo Evolutis who avoided the call. Until the first week, where the Hope’s fourth upgrade was put into motion, one-fifth of the Homo Evolutis refused to answer the call. This situation finally arrived at Yao Yuan's and Guang Zhen’s tables.

"…The Homo Evolutis who rejected the recruitment call were all from Country Z."

Guang Zhen sat across Yao Yuan with a drawn expression. They were in Yao Yuan’s captain’s room, and Guang Zhen was there that day to discuss the rebuild of the Defense Unit and Black Star Troopers. Guang Zhen brought up this issue of people avoiding the call then.

Yao Yuan was reading through a giant stack of documents. They involved matters pertaining to the three universities, civil affairs, updates from the Academy, and the Hope’s fourth upgrade. In other words, he had spent most of his days reading these documents, so there was no time for him to even rest.

When he heard Guang Zhen’s words, he lifted his head up in surprise. "This group of people is still so stubborn? Didn’t they hear about the better and improved version of the Black Star Troopers’ benefits?"

Guang Zhen chuckled bitterly. "How could they not? The second version of the Black Star Troopers’ benefits has been posted all over the Hope. All Black Star recruits will be given the rank of corporal, and when they finish training and become actual troopers, their rank will increase to sergeant. Each small unit’s leader will be a second lieutenant, the middle-sized units’ leaders will be lieutenants, and each battle unit’s leader will be a captain or a major. At the same time, the troopers will receive the benefits his military rank entails. Other than that, the troopers will be enrolled into the national supply system. No matter whether it's pre or post retirement, dead or alive, as long as the trooper answered the call, his whole family will be entitled to government monthly support and massive tax cuts. This is all common knowledge by now."

Yao Yuan nodded and said, "With great power comes great responsibility. The Black Star Troopers in our foreseeable future… or perhaps for a long stretch of time, even when the Hope’s population reaches more than a million and the Defense Unit numbers grow to more than ten thousand, the Black Star Troopers will be the Hope’s main fighting force. Similarly, the greater the responsibility, the better the benefits, so we mustn’t mistreat our soldiers. However, this seems to go beyond the issue of benefits provided."

Guang Zhen responded with an affirmative nod. "That’s right. I’ve visited a few families that rejected the recruitment call, and since we are all Z Country men, they’ve revealed certain things to me… No matter how good the benefits, one needs to be alive to enjoy them. That is what they told me."

"Not only that." Yao Yuan shook his head. "There is also another key reason. When we were back on Earth, Country Z didn’t have a compulsory military service due to its massive population. Several hundred years of that system has instilled in their minds that military recruitment is optional. We mustn’t let this go on."

Yao Yuan stood up suddenly as his Thinker power kicked into high gear. The one-fifth of the Homo Evolutis who rejected the call were under many people’s scrutiny, and the people who were watching were waiting to see how Yao Yuan would react.

In reality, even though the Hope had left Earth about eleven years ago, the new generation hadn't replaced the original generation yet. The zeitgeist of the day still remained at the so-called "Earth Thinking".

This was not a defamatory word because it reflected reality. Be it language, religion, race, or culture, the Hope was delineated into many groups. The most obvious example was at the lower 4 residential levels, whose areas were separated into Asian streets, Westerner streets, and African streets. There were even European cultural spots, Country Z cultural spots, Middle Eastern cultural spots, Japanese and Korean cultural spots.

Even though Yao Yuan had the highest prestige and ruling power on the Hope and that power was accepted by 99 percent of its citizens, citing him as a good leader, not lesser than the great leaders Earth once had the fortune to welcome, many still felt he was too lenient towards County Z’s citizens.

One example of preferential treatment was the adoption of Chinese as lingua franca. This was a source of contention among the public for a long time and was finally settled when Yao Yuan chimed in.

However, the compulsory military service was something agreed upon by the majority of the Hope, thinking it as a compulsory measure. Now that it was being challenged by the Country Z men, Yao Yuan could already imagine the many European representatives rubbing their hands in a cartoonish evil manner, waiting for him to do something stupid and fail.

"How idiotic…"

Yao Yuan smirked and told Guang Zhen, "Ol’ Wong, go on and inform this group of Homo Evolutis that their choices now are either to face jail time under the charge of violating the Hope’s institution and sinning against humanity or they join the troopers voluntarily. Give them three days to decide, and don’t be too soft on them. The compulsory military service is a must, No matter what skin color or nationality you are!

"At the same time, the planned face-slapping project can also be initiated now."

The moment the face-slapping project was mentioned, Guang Zhen was stunned. He asked in a hurry, "Initiate the plan now? Isn’t that a bit too soon?"

Yao Yuan laughed. "No, the time is ripe. This group of Europeans is too dumb, crossing my bottom line so many times. If they were as reasonable as Speaker Matt, then I would have relented and catered to some of their demands, but they are nothing but swines that lust after power…

"The face-slap has to be harsh to let them know that their sins are equal to those of the Country Z representatives!

"Therefore, initiate the face-slapping project that has been in planning for the past 10 years!"

Chapter end