Chapter 21: Consciousness Capacity
At present, the total population under Li Qingsong’s command had reached over 1,900.
These 1,900-plus individuals were scattered across the four bases and dozens of factories and facilities under Li Qingsong’s control. They worked day and night, tirelessly driving his overall technological level ever upward.
But it still wasn’t nearly enough.
So, Li Qingsong steeled himself and poured massive resources into a brand-new clone incubation factory. After several months of work, it was finally complete.
The factory, housed within a completely sealed structure in the same canyon, was now complete.
It stood five stories tall. The first floor housed the equipment and control rooms, while the other four were dedicated to incubation tank workshops.
Each floor was lined with 500 incubation tanks, for a total of 2,000 tanks across the four floors.
Currently, Li Qingsong had a total force of just under 2,000 people. Now, this clone factory could produce 2,000 Clones every six months, effectively doubling his manpower in one go!
Brimming with anticipation, a Clone under Li Qingsong’s control arrived at the incubation factory.
Before him was a hall of almost pure white, with a cold, clinical aesthetic. The hall was filled with rows of machinery and equipment, which continuously supplied power and nutrients to the tanks above.
A faint smell of disinfectant permeated the air. The entire hall was spotless and impeccably clean.
The Clone carried a small box. Inside were exactly 2,000 small glass tubes.
Each glass tube contained a single embryonic cell sample, processed by the highly advanced cell induction and gene-editing equipment aboard the Deep Space Spaceship.
This was delicate work. To prepare these 2,000 embryonic cell samples, Li Qingsong had to assign ten more Clones to the spaceship, just to get them ready before the clone factory’s completion.
Now, these embryonic cells were placed, one by one, into the 2,000 incubation tanks.
Six months passed quietly. Then, at the appointed time, the Clones drained the nutrient fluid from the incubation tanks and began moving the newly-born Clones, one by one, to a recovery room.
Fresh nutrient fluid was then pumped into the tanks, new embryonic cells were introduced, and the next cycle of growth and development began.
Li Qingsong’s attention, however, was not on the tanks. It was focused almost entirely on the newly created Clones.
The first Clone opened its eyes. Then the second, the third...
...until all 2,000 Clones in the recovery hall had opened their eyes.
Li Qingsong’s consciousness instantly extended to them. The next moment, he felt his mind "swell" once more, his information-processing capabilities, memory, learning capacity, and other cognitive functions greatly enhanced.
Problems that had accumulated from the Clones’ work—issues he hadn’t had time to process or contemplate—were solved in an instant with the addition of 2,000 brand-new minds!
The design blueprints for the heat-resistant steel mill Li Qingsong planned to build, the railway route plans for two new bases, the construction schematics for a new type of crane—all these and more were instantly resolved.
Of course, adding more minds solved problems of "quantity," not "quality."
Take the steel mill blueprints, for example. Given enough time, the existing Clones could have completed them. The new minds simply increased the speed and reduced the time required.
Problems that were unsolvable with his current level of technology remained so, even with 2,000 additional minds.
Even so, Li Qingsong was more than satisfied.
And one mustn’t forget that with 2,000 more brains, his capacity for learning and research increased in kind.
’When I encounter technology and knowledge I haven’t mastered, I can learn it, I can research it.’
’With this many brains, what knowledge is beyond my grasp?’
At the same time, however, the addition of these 2,000 new minds also gave Li Qingsong a sensation he had never experienced before.
It was like placing a heavy steel plate onto the bed of an empty truck; the weight was immediately perceptible.
And every truck has a limited payload capacity.
As he carefully examined this sensation, a realization dawned on Li Qingsong.
’I don’t know where this ability of mine comes from, or what principles it’s based on, but it seems the number of minds my consciousness can connect to simultaneously is finite. It isn’t limitless, as I’d previously believed.’
’Perhaps you could call it a limited ’consciousness capacity.’’
’I probably didn’t feel it before because the number of Clones under my command, and therefore the number of connections, was too small.’
’It’s like a truck carrying a small load of cotton—you can’t feel the weight at all.’
’But now, with 2,000 minds suddenly connecting at once, it’s like dropping a steel plate into the truck bed. The limit becomes tangible.’
For now, however, Li Qingsong could only vaguely sense this limit existed; he couldn’t yet determine its exact value.
It seemed he was still a long way from reaching it.
’In that case, I’ll put it aside for now.’
Li Qingsong made up his mind. ’I’ll worry about the capacity limit when I actually feel it approaching. By then, I’ll probably have a large enough population and the right technology to find a way to increase it.’
Setting the issue aside for the time being, Li Qingsong directed the 2,000 new Clones out of the incubation center.
Dormitories had already been built for them nearby. Moreover, 2,000 sets of food, water, daily necessities, clothing, and Space Suits had also been prepared in advance.
He had even prepared 2,000 new work assignments for them.
After just a single day of orientation, the 2,000 Clones were immediately put to work.
Time flew by, and the base on Ceres developed at an incredible pace.
In just four years, the scale of the Ceres base had expanded more than tenfold.
The total length of the railway lines Li Qingsong had laid across Ceres surged to over 2,000 kilometers, connecting a network of more than 200 sub-bases and mining centers.
Every day, hundreds of heavy-freight trains thundered across the cold, silent surface of Ceres, hauling tens of thousands of tons of various ores into the canyon.
Within the industrial base, Li Qingsong had built ten steel mills alone, with daily steel production soaring to over 20,000 tons.
In addition, the number of machine factories, foundries, chemical plants, agricultural bases, and more had also skyrocketed.
His total population also broke the 20,000 mark for the first time, reaching a total of 20,156 Clones!
But it was at this moment that Li Qingsong finally got a clear sense of his consciousness capacity’s upper limit.
’I can probably connect to a thousand more brains at most. After that, my consciousness capacity will be full, and I won’t be able to connect to any new Clones.’