iers to ensure everyone’s safety!

But who would volunteer?

Granted, there might be quite a number that would be willing to pick up arms to protect his or her family or out of a sense of loyalty to the Hope.

However, one had to admit that such sentiments were limited to the first generation of Earth escapees. They had been through it all with the government, so they had forged a sense of loyalty in their common goal of seeking a better future for all human survivors!

The question was… could that loyalty be cultivated across generations? In the far future, when Earth was long forgotten, how many would still willingly join the army to protect its survivors… several thousand… or hundreds?

Therefore, instead of waiting until then, Yao Yuan had decided to introduce an obligatory military service when the public was still in line with the government’s philosophy. When there were more people to go around, they could revert to a voluntary service. Yao Yuan believed it was easier for the public to stomach an enlistment policy this way than the other way round.

Thus, Yao Yuan transformed the Hope’s military system. First, the obligatory military service was written into the law. Every man in the Hope under the age of 60 was on army reserve duty and could be scripted into the army if necessary. Exception was given to members of the Academy and the Workshop.

Changes were also made to the h.o.m.o Evolutis Faction. First, detailed a.n.a.lysis had to be carried out on new and future batches of h.o.m.o Evolutis to identify their power before they were conscripted. This was to make sure non-combative h.o.m.o Evolutis, like Whisperers and Animas, could be isolated to prepare them for training that would better suit their powers.

For example, the most powerful Anima then, Nian Xi Kong, had been honing her skill in the past few years.

As an Anima who could phase into what the aliens called the "soul web" with just singing, her power could bypa.s.s the creator’s particle. Information is important on the battlefield, especially when the enemy doesn’t expect you to have access to it. Therefore, Xi Kong had become a unique strategic advantage in combat. Her power allowed the troopers to perform simple, coordinated moves in combat despite the confines of the creator’s particle.

This was a strategic upper hand that shouldn’t be underestimated. Her power could practically give an army from a level 2 civilization an edge over an army from a level 3 civilization and even possibly allow them to emerge victorious.

This was the undisputed power of the Anima, even though she was behind the front lines. With the appearance of the creator’s particle, the Anima only became that much more important, giving her allies valuable leverage over the enemy!

The other non-combative h.o.m.o Evolutis, the Whisperer, was equally important to the Hope. However, their contribution wasn’t made on the battlefield but in the labs. The current 3 Whisperers, Ivan in the field of biology, Bo Li in the field of physics, and now Saburo in the field of pathology, were instrumental to the Academy!

Therefore, Yao Yuan propounded a selective conscription for the h.o.m.o Evolutis. Those that could better serve humanity elsewhere were not forced into the army, but the opposite was true for combat-made h.o.m.o Evolutis. On that issue, Yao Yuan gave no budging s.p.a.ce!

Reorganization of the military took about 10 days, and in that period of time, a great deal of progress had been done in terms of the excavation. For one, the Hope had been dislodged from its surrounding rock layer. Now they needed to continue digging upwards, but of course, they had to solve the biggest issue of a possible landslide first.

"...the experts’ opinion is to build more anti-gravitational units."

This was the answer provided by the team of experts when Yao Yuan met up with them.

"Build more anti-gravitational units?" A shocked Yao Yuan continued, "But why? The Hope’s anti-gravitational system is not broken. In fact, it is kept on 24/7 to keep the s.h.i.+p afloat."

The leading expert shook his head. "The new units are not meant for the Hope but the rocks currently piled up on top of the Hope."

The experts’ solution to the landslide problem was deceptively simple. The threat that the landslide posed was it could crush the Hope with its weight. The reason it would have weight was due to gravity. Therefore, if gravity was taken out of the equation, there would be nothing to worry about.

Yao Yuan paused to give it some thought before saying, "This would be a huge undertaking because you guys have to understand that the Hope’s surface area is not small. We would need to create a lot of units to cover such a huge surface. Furthermore, we still don’t fully understand what goes into the inner workings of this technology… And let’s not forget the energy that would be needed to keep them activated. You gentlemen surely have given me an interesting solution."

After discussing it with the Bo Li, Yao Yuan decided to adopt their solution. Even though it might eat into the Hope’s main power supply, since it could protect the Hope’s safety and at the same time allow a quicker excavation by enabling the use of explosives, Yao Yuan decided to go with it because the rewards that awaited them was, to quote Bo Li, "…I would like to see the sky and sea once more. Would you care to join me?"