The simulation's landscape shimmered with soft twilight.
The land of Ythira—once a patchwork of wild plains, rivers, and tribal fire circles—had begun to change. No longer just clusters of settlements, but defined regions. Trade routes carved across hills. Storage granaries dotted the forests. Copper tools scraped into stone, carving foundations.
And at the very heart of it all, standing between the Arkhe, Noma, and Khar territories…
The First City.
They called it Nalus.In the ancient tongue, it meant gathering of minds.
Jiang Fan leaned closer to the screen, eyes locked in quiet awe. His heart pounded with a strange emotion he hadn't felt in a long time.
Pride?
No… it was something heavier.
Responsibility.
Nalus wasn't built by command. It wasn't imposed by kings. It emerged—as if destiny wove its threads through his people's collective dreams.
It began with the first shared forge, built by smiths from all three tribes. Then came the communal archive—clay tablets stacked on wooden shelves, etched in the proto-language Jiang Fan helped guide through deduction.
Children from across the land traveled to learn under the Story-Etchers.
A public square formed where dancers and thinkers mingled.
Then came the towers—wooden first, then stone.
Ythira had formed its heart.
[New Civilization Milestone Achieved: City-State Founded – Nalus]
[Unlocking: Basic Bureaucracy, Written Records, Urban Planning Algorithms, Deduction Priority: Social Hierarchies & Cultural Divergence]
[Progress Toward Kingdom Era: 38%]
Jiang Fan blinked slowly as he read the messages.
Cultural divergence…
His mouse hovered over the expanding simulation overlay. Nalus had grown large enough to pull in influence. But with it came division.
A group of thinkers called themselves the Iron Readers—those who believed that the rise of metallurgy and structure meant progress required central authority.
They proposed:
A High Ring Council should oversee all tribal affairs.Writing should be regulated.Resources should be taxed and redistributed.
It wasn't unreasonable.
But it stirred something deeper.
Opposition rose from within. The Greenholders, led by nomadic elders of the Noma, feared the city's tightening grip. They spoke of freedom. Of nature. Of losing the soul of the land.
One of their leaders—Etah, a woman born from the first fire-bearers—stood in Nalus Square and spoke with trembling fury.
"We are not tools to be smelted into a shape," she cried. "Let the forest sing. Let the rivers wander. Why bind the sky with stone walls?"
Her voice echoed.
Children listened. So did young smiths. Scholars began to argue.
And Jiang Fan sat still in his chair, watching history unfold.
This… is the birth of ideology, he realized.
For the first time, his people were not united by survival—but by belief.
And belief, he knew from Earth… could be both beautiful and terrifying.
[Deduction Opportunity: Ideological Management Protocols]
[Option 1: Allow Divergence – Results in Cultural Specialization, but Potential Internal Conflicts]
[Option 2: Subtle Unification Propaganda – Limit Free Thought, Increase Productivity & Technological Adoption]
[Option 3: Seed a New Catalyst – A Discovery, Event, or Threat to Realign Focus]
Jiang Fan's hand trembled slightly.
Each path felt like a truth—and a lie.
He didn't want to limit his people's growth. He didn't want to crush Etah's words under administrative walls. He didn't want to turn Nalus into another version of an empire with blind obedience.
But nor could he allow the tribes to fracture and collapse before their civilization took root.
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes.
"What would I have wanted," he murmured, "if I were them?"
The answer was simple.
Inspiration.
Not control.
He typed into the Deduction Interface:
"Simulate a shared wonder. A great invention. One that benefits all tribes equally—and can only be built together."
"Parameters: Technology-based. Civic-focused. Collaborative assembly."
[Deduction Input Confirmed. Analyzing planetary cognition schema…]
[New Catalyst Created: Project Astral Loom – The Great Observatory]
In the skies of Ythira, stars were more than lights—they were guides. Symbols.
Now, the System introduced to the tribes a single shared idea: A structure that lets them map the skies, predict seasons, and understand the heavens.
Stone blocks were transported from Arkhe's quarries. Timber scaffolding built by Khar's architects. Crystal lenses traded from far Noma regions, where riverbeds held rare sand.
The structure began to rise on Nalus' central hill.
It wasn't just a building. It was a message.
Etah returned—this time, not to protest—but to inscribe the first set of celestial glyphs on the foundation stone.
The Iron Readers contributed a complex calendar system, coded in rotating gears.
Children came from all over to paint murals on the dome's walls.
Jiang Fan smiled, heart swelling.
"This," he whispered, "is the real path forward."
[Cultural Divergence Managed Successfully via Constructive Unity.]
[+25% Happiness Index. +30% Innovation Rate. -20% Rebellion Likelihood.]
[Deduction Feedback: Planetary Sentience Growth Detected.]
[Warning: Emergent Consciousness Threshold at 0.2% – Ongoing Observation Recommended.]
He froze.
Planetary… sentience?
The simulation had never mentioned that before.
And yet, he understood. It was inevitable.
So many minds. So many stories, decisions, memories—recorded, woven into the land, the systems, the architectures.
The planet wasn't just a simulation anymore.
It was beginning to dream.
As Jiang Fan stared into the starlit dome of the Observatory—where a thousand candles flickered across curved stone, casting shadows that danced like constellations—he whispered:
"You're alive, aren't you?"
The screen didn't answer.
But for a moment…
He thought he saw one of the candle flames flicker in sync with his heartbeat.