Mythology: Ragnarok

Chapter 355 Defeat is decided

"Alright, guests from afar, today we'll have a good discussion about why I say your hometown is rotten to the core."

First, the confusion and complexity of language leads to a significant waste of energy on things unrelated to science. Unlike us, lower life forms cannot live for over a thousand years. Of course, if you were elves, this would be a different story, but you are not! You have an extremely limited lifespan, and within that limited time, your knowledge will grow ever larger. Future generations will need at least a large part of their own lives to inherit the wisdom of their predecessors and make breakthroughs on that basis. As a result, you will find that innovation becomes increasingly difficult. Even if you do your best to reduce education time and cultivate talents specializing in single topics, you still cannot move forward even one step. You only need to think about it carefully to understand how slow the development of civilization is under these conditions.

Your only hope for the future is to build a network system like the Dragon God's Treasury or the Dragon God's Gift. But civilizations capable of building such networks are at least technologically advanced enough to colonize interstellar space. Can you do that now? You can't even walk properly, yet you want to fly? There's a limit to your dreams, isn't there?

Secondly, you are not pursuing the path of genetic improvement. In other words, your population is still passively evolving under the ravages of the natural environment, just like those low-level animals in nature that have never developed their brains. This is very unfriendly to you who rely on technology, because with the benefits brought by technology, you will try your best to make the environment move in a direction that is comfortable for you, right?

What you call a comfortable environment is impossible to find in nature, which leads to a fatal problem: genetic degeneration! Think about it: without a harsh environment to weed out genes and traits unsuitable for survival, these traits will gradually affect the group over time. If you understand evolution, you'll understand what I mean. Your gene pool will become increasingly redundant and complex, your bodies increasingly fragile, your immune system increasingly ineffective, and your adaptability to the environment increasingly poor. And such a race, in the universe… is… garbage!

The Kingdom of Myriad Races judges a race as an advanced intelligent race based on only three criteria: 'whether they possess inexhaustible creativity,' 'whether they can rationally utilize resources and establish sound moral systems,' and 'whether they can evolve autonomously.' Only those who can achieve all three can truly be called advanced civilized races. Incidentally, can a race without the idea of ​​genetic modification evolve autonomously? Can a race with multiple language systems truly maintain its creative capacity indefinitely? Can a race that doesn't control commerce truly rationally think and establish suitable moral systems and fair resource allocation? You know perfectly well how far they fall short of these requirements.”

Xuanyuan Muze retorted, "Your conditions are simply unreasonable. How could any civilization possibly fulfill these conditions perfectly?"

Tagmirra roared, "These conditions weren't set by me. They were set by the universe, by the cruel environment, by the natural laws that don't allow useless people to live. It forces us to do this! The universe is cruel. It only gives you a short time. If you can't do these things, you'll die. And I advise you not to have any illusions. Competition in the universe is brutal. Just because you can't meet those conditions doesn't mean others can't. If you can't meet these conditions, someone will figure it out and do everything they can to meet them. And the civilization that does will stand out and crush you under their feet."

And then you will be invaded, slaughtered, wantonly trampled, and humiliated to death. But what can you do then? Locking yourselves up won't save you; it will only hasten your death and cut off your last chance to turn the tide.

Xuanyuan Muze retorted, "The relationship between civilizations in the universe may not be as tense as you think, and your theories may not be definitive."

Tagmira, enraged, retorted with a laugh: "So what? Is this your way of dealing with people? Gambling that the world is kind and full of light? Do I need to elaborate on principles like 'One should not have the heart to harm others, but one should not be without the heart to guard against others'? Are you going to gamble that your potential enemies are kind, that your enemies only want peaceful development and prosperity with you?!"

"Foolish! Utterly foolish!! This kind of thing will never happen under different moral values, different ideologies, different appearances, different genes, and different planetary living environments. Common prosperity might be somewhat possible on a single planet, but in the universe, it's pure wishful thinking. Our only common ground is the need for resources and the desire for the future. And those who waste resources and achieve nothing will always be eliminated in order to develop. We will not stop here... So the weak must die!!" Tagmira said, pointing at Xuan Yuan Muze, the meaning of which was self-evident.

However, Tagmira's anger subsided by half when he said this, so he advised in a gentle tone: "A truly qualified civilization should at least be like a hedgehog, with soft flesh facing inward and hard quills facing outward. You must understand one thing, my friend: 'There is no difference between good and evil without principles,' and those without principles, whether good or bad, are among the fastest to die in this universe."

Xuanyuan Muze leaned against the wall in despair and said, "Does 'morality' really have no meaning in the universe?"

Tagmira replied noncommittally, “Of course not friends, but you can’t misuse the word. The true meaning and value of morality is to unite us internally, to ensure fair distribution of resources and opportunities within us, to unite the entire race, and to unite us, who are originally insignificant, so that we can stand up to powerful individuals.”

As the great Dragon God once said, nothing in this world is meaningless; it's just that you don't know how to use it. Some things, when used well, can be your advantage; when used poorly, they can become your fatal flaw. The reason the Kingdom of Myriad Races has reached this point is because we have mastered this principle.

Xuanyuan Muze stood up and said, "Alright, let's say I admit what you said, but we can still improve so that there's no chance at all."

Tagmirra, however, judged like a convict: "My friend, don't forget my three questions. Your civilization is trapped in a cycle of certain death, and you have destroyed your own future."