Chapter 58: True Madman Nature

Sentosa, Universal Studios.

Outside the entrance of the brand-new "Starship Dream Empire" attraction, Xirui wore a shoulder-baring little dress, topped with a massive bow inlaid with large black and white diamonds. Wearing an infantile smile that suggested she was fantasizing about traveling back in time from age twenty-five to fifteen, she lifted her chin, basking in the flattery of her fans.

The fan club, composed primarily of adolescent boys, had been purchased by Xizhi Jie.

The grand spectacle of today’s turnout had been purchased by Xizhi Jie.

Even the attraction itself had been purchased by Xizhi Jie.

As a young heiress with a billionaire father, besides showering male live-streamers with virtual gifts, Xirui’s second greatest hobby was dabbling in web literature.

In an era where economic growth points were increasingly scarce, if a wealthy heir was willing to pay to achieve fame, numerous vendors would beg and plead for their business.

Xirui’s nonsensical web novel, *Starship Dream Empire*, had bought a million followers and a publishing book number for three hundred thousand. An additional four hundred thousand bought a handful of niche industry awards, and another three hundred thousand got her review articles published across various online media outlets in China, earning a "special recommendation" from science fiction grandmaster Liu Cixin.

Yet, a neat sum of one million RMB was something an ordinary family's wealthy heir could afford, so Xirui was naturally unsatisfied.

Thus, riding the coattails of Singapore's seventieth National Day, Xizhi Jie shelled out three million Singapore dollars to buy a plot of land in a corner of Universal Studios. Based on Xirui's web novel plotlines, he built an immersive 5D movie amusement ride modeled after *Transformers*.

Today was the opening ceremony. Xizhi Jie spent another sum of money to buy popularity, finally managing to make this project—whose nature was entirely unknown to international tourists—generate a long queue that looked very prestigious for photos, forming a sharp contrast to the desolation of the nearby "Revenge of the Mummy" roller coaster.

"These old-school film studios really have fallen on hard times, huh? Just throw some money at them and you can host a party right on their turf," an event planning company employee said, folding his arms and shaking his head with a sigh.

"What else did you expect?" his colleague retorted with a sneer, while replying to site photos sent by their financial backer. "More and more people prefer staying home to chat with AIs, or binge AI short dramas and AI novels. If they didn't rely on wealthy misses spending money to buy happiness, how would amusement parks survive?"

"Quit gossiping about the rich!" their supervisor barked from behind. "Mr. Xi is arriving. Hurry, tell the media, photographers, and the fan club to perk up. Even if they have to fake their excitement, make it look convincing."

...

In the afternoon, Hera met Xirui at the Xi estate as she returned in high spirits, along with the fair-skinned, blonde little beauty by her side.

The young beauty had a Ukrainian mother and a British father, making English her native tongue. When Xirui studied abroad in Britain, she helped Xirui with her English homework and essays, thus becoming Xirui's "bestie." This time, coming to Singapore to attend the Universal Studios event, she was staying at the Xi estate.

It was rare for Xirui to wake up before eleven in the morning. Having completely exhausted her last drop of dopamine, she naturally defaulted to her usual self-centered habits, ditching her old schoolmate to take a beauty sleep.

Xizhi Jie, adopting the demeanor of a refined Eastern elder, chatted idly with the young Ukrainian beauty for a quarter of an hour, then instructed the housekeeper to lead her to the garden to enjoy afternoon tea and watch robotic performances of Russian ballet repertoires.

The tycoon himself leisurely walked toward the experimental building with Hera.

"That girl has decent insight," Xizhi Jie began. "At such a young age, she's already made up her mind not to marry a man. Why don't you connect her with the fertility center in Phnom Penh? Didn't she just say she wanted to freeze her eggs?"

Hera turned her head, making no effort to conceal the profound meaning in her eyes.

Xizhi Jie looked at her and said dismissively, "That's right, I’ve taken a liking to this girl's eggs, and eventually, I want her to be just like you. Ahem, no, no, you are my right-hand woman; as for her, I'm simply interested in her genetics."

"Why her?"

"She's a good-looking beauty among Caucasians, and her intelligence is acceptable, too. Eggs like hers are worthy of combining with my sperm, traveling with us to the end of humanity, and after being modified by higher extraterrestrial civilizations, greeting the new world."

Hera stepped across the neatly trimmed lawn the robots had just mowed, and pursued the question with an unrippled tone: "Are you... trying to collect stamps across every race?"

Xizhi Jie smiled with a curl of his lip: "Why not? Hera, I remember over a decade ago, back in China, there was a guy who made a fortune in gaming, traveling all over the world to find egg donors and surrogates, giving himself over three hundred sons of every skin color. If someone with his education and that kind of bear-like appearance could pull that off, why can't I? I am far superior to that man; I am a philosopher, and furthermore, I don't have an obsession with bearing only sons—either gender is fine."

Hera raised her head: "Hundreds of children sharing the same father—this is a crisis of human ethics."

"Ethics? When humans are extinct, who talks about ethics?" Xizhi Jie maintained his good-natured appearance. "Hera, it seems that although you aren't angry with me anymore, your mind hasn't entirely turned the corner. The future where we move toward a two-way journey with extraterrestrial civilizations will not have current humanity as its main body, and thus will not be governed by the rules of this present civilization."

Riding the arrogant mood of this scoundrel, Hera adopted a teasing tone to probe further: "India is known as a museum of races, and New Singapore has so many people of Indian descent—do you have a target in mind?"

"I do. She's also smart and pretty, like... well, like Wen Hui. I'll tell you in a bit."

Hera sneered: "Miss Wen is also a target for your self-built genetic empire. I knew it."

"Feeling uncomfortable in your heart? Because she's also Chinese?"

Hera was practically nauseated to the point of exploding.

If back then, when she and her senior schoolmate Fan Zhiheng discovered Xizhi Jie's secret and entered the game with the mindset of lonely heroes to investigate, they still believed Xizhi Jie possessed undeniable intelligence, now, in her eyes, Xizhi Jie was nothing more than a pathetic wretch whose mindset had become distorted due to extreme inferiority.

Born into humble origins with straitened and impoverished circumstances.

The liberal arts major he studied had been discarded like worthless garbage by the world amidst the AI wave.

After selling himself to become a live-in son-in-law, his personal dignity suffered continuous humiliation.

This interlocking sequence of experiences transformed a young man whose psychological core was already unstable into a complete madman.

The ridiculous part was that signals from an extraterrestrial civilization had actually been intercepted by such a madman, just as he rose to the list of the world's wealthiest individuals through the artificial intelligence track.

Hera, a believer in God, increasingly believed that this was the true Lord using a brand-new mode of suffering to temper the mortal world.

Suppressing her anger, Hera put on an emotional mask and said to Xizhi Jie with a slightly spoiled, dismissive tone: "I'm not going to get jealous just because you've set your sights on Miss Wen's genes. I don't have romantic feelings for you, nor am I afraid of having my power usurped. On the contrary, I feel that if the Earth eventually becomes a colony of the extraterrestrial commanders, you should already start screening regional governor officials now. Surely you aren't really going to rely on artificial intelligence like Stone Tiger, are you?"

Xizhi Jie said with satisfaction: "Since you can have such foresight, you truly are the comrade who converted to my cause earliest. By the way, Miss Wen seemed to have gone to attend the memorial service for that suicidal Indian young man. Ask her how things went."

"Alright. Then, once Xu Jiayi's organization is dealt with, what do you plan to do with the future robots in the building?"

"Naturally, I plan to try installing Stone Tiger's 'anti-maternal instinct' program."