Chapter 1606
Chapter 1606 - 1602: The New Era
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8 min read
The summer of 2005 was destined to be listed as a significant turning point in this world.
That year, the destruction of the great nation Aus signified to all humanity the threat this world was facing... Even a few years ago, even in enlightened kingdoms, there was still a semi-public and semi-concealed attitude toward extraordinary power and external threats.
You can spread it privately, I don’t mind, even allowing the existence of various small and medium-sized media organizations, but if the Official TV and radio propagate it, it’s forbidden.
This "still playing the innocent after committing the offense"... this pretended blindness and self-contradictory attitude was also the entire human society’s hesitant mindset toward the Extraordinary.
"...The situation, it shouldn’t worsen that quickly. At least we still have a decade, right?"
"Five years ago it was like this, maybe after another decade, we’ll still be able to maintain."
When the situation worsens, humans subconsciously deny the possibility of further deterioration.
𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
Conservatism is not the patent of a particular country; it’s the instinct of people refusing to face the worst possible future... Even though many people are aware that everything will get much worse, when that countdown isn’t clear, most people won’t pierce that paper window.
"Maybe, within my tenure/lifespan, things won’t deteriorate to that degree..."
Hence, it’s evident how difficult it is to make decisions like the Nirvana Plan that break all the old Orders, and how exceedingly rare they are in this era.
In the past, conservatives have always dominated because they could maintain the status quo, and the stable benefits that "Order" brought were their biggest talking point.
"If we disclose everything, it’ll bring about social unrest. What do we do when crime rates soar, and the economy hemorrhages?"
"The chance of becoming an Extraordinary is too low... Social equality would be completely lost, and when equality becomes a joke, who knows what will happen?"
"Are you sure about human rationality? Are you sure those people won’t turn to the Exotic Realm Evil Gods after knowing the truth?"
Too many reasons, too many excuses... and they are all real.
Consequently, even today, five or six years after Eastern Country used its Government Agencies’ advantage to forcefully implement the Nirvana Plan, a large number of Kingdoms still pretend there’s peace... Even though most of their citizens are well aware, they still pretend nothing happened; they don’t want their lives to be changed.
The ever-increasing superhuman crime, Evil Gods sacrifices, capital flight, and social unrest seem also to prove how much uncertainty "full disclosure of Extraordinary" would bring... Capital and the managers of society probably loathe the turbulence and uncertainty the most.
Do they understand that this is forcefully putting a lid on a fire? One day, everything will be unable to be concealed, and the old Order will collapse due to deception and concealment.
They’re just betting, gambling on delaying as much as possible, betting that the bomb won’t explode during their tenure...
"They lost the bet... Now in most countries, as long as there’s internet, the top ten hot searches are all about Extraordinary, Aus Battlefield, Exotic Realm Invaders. And at least half of the countries have ’Great Counteroffensive failed’ or ’XX Quasi-God died in battle’ in their top three hot searches. Ugh, Huaqi’s not like that, their top three are respectively ’Eastern Country held back the Great Counteroffensive’, ’Eastern Country stole Huaqi’s shipbuilding technology’, ’Eastern Country’s influence is expanding in Southeast Asia, suspected to become the biggest beneficiary of the War’..."
Witnessing Huaqi’s spirit that stays constant across time lines also mysteriously brought Lu Ping’an relief.
Eastern Country, considered one of the earliest Kingdoms to completely lift the ban on Extraordinary Knowledge, but to maintain stability in the tide, relied more on "tradition".
The Nirvana Plan was a gamble, but it seems like it has already won, with a large amount of strategic resources, Strongmen, and foreign world resources brought into the Eastern Country system, development in just five or six years surpassed the previous thirty years... Of course, the ensuing hidden dangers also surpassed those of the last thirty years.
But this time, when the Plane War exploded directly on the home front, beyond everyone’s plans, it dealt a severe blow to the conservative factions and Secret Keepers of various countries... Their conservatism and secrecy were proven to be foolishness, and they lost all of their bargaining chips.
So, Huaqi from across the sea could only resort to hysterical media manipulation to shift the blame... Due to some well-understood reasons, their X Potion was sold at a rock-bottom price of one million Huaqi Currency, bringing huge profits to pharmaceutical and arms companies, who planned to turn this into a long-term business.
This half-concealed state, this strategy of using celebrities to endorse and sell Superhuman Drugs, satisfied them with the profit margin.
But reality can never be twisted by how much you earn... Even if you can deceive some people for a short time, the pain of being bitten back by lies is doubled.
Huaqi invented the business of Extraordinary Occupation, and the major powers that controlled resources and development set the Order... Those who controlled the resources could truly arrange the lives of the Extraordinary clear and plainly, whether in the entertainment industry, mercenaries, or corporate bodyguards, in any case, you had to choose a power to join.
Those businesses surrounding the American-style Heroes did indeed make a killing and sold well, but they also became advertisements for selling the Extraordinary.
And for the real capitalists, they never work hard to provide the best possible products... If they can sell their goods at the highest possible price and turn short-term deals into long-term trades that the audience can’t abandon, the maximum profit is their only pursuit.
So, what to do? Very simple and straightforward: create monopolies, differentiate well, and increase the unit price as much as possible among the differentiated consumers.
Raise the entry threshold, selling one might make more profit than selling a thousand, then, just sell one.
Of course, the Black Market has similar offerings... but with about thirty percent awakening rate and around ten percent ineffectiveness, who would want to try.
The X Potion from the Eastern Country is also the affair of recent years, but in fact, it has become a best-seller in the Black Market, only the quantity is quite limited... After those goods crossed the sea, for some reason, the ineffective drugs in the Black Market also climbed to a fifty percent success rate.
And now, with the heavy blow from the Exotic Realm Invaders, Order also began to collapse.
"The frontline of the battlefield allows no lies..."
Especially among those Quasi-Gods who died in battle, and the existence of the "American-style Hero" who was crazily promoted by the media and enterprises, the one known as the Little Superman became the Dead Superman, and his mutilated corpse and unclose eyes became the photos that crazily spread as internet viruses.
"Fear" and "hysteria" spread wildly, followed by anger from the bottom of the heart... When the first arms store that sold X Potions was looted clean, it didn’t even make the news.
Meanwhile, Eastern Country’s X Potion had long since gone mainstream, anyone could buy it at a reasonable price with just an ID and immediate use... Along with the introduction of the latest technology, its price even dropped to a few thousand coins.
Of course, the actual cost was over thirty thousand, but it was subsidized by Official means after the Nirvana Plan, as the Eastern Country Government Agencies longed for the birth of more Extraordinary.
"The New Black Ships incident..." the people of Sakura Island, who had been hit by the "Black Ships," used a relatively appropriate metaphor.
The whole world has been awakened by this exotic "Black Ships."
On the other hand, in the battle of public opinion, the blame-shifting tactic of Huaqi did not get off cheaply... A large amount of evidence was released simultaneously, showing that when the Nirvana Plan did not yet have this name, the Eastern Country had resolutions to embark on this together with other countries, which were rejected every time.
Both sides, as always, continue to pass the blame to each other, at least having the upper hand in the domestic public opinion battle, just like before... But everyone knows, news is deceiving oneself, the era can’t go back.
"The era of Universal Extraordinary may already be not long after..."
And in this regard, the Eastern Country has already taken the lead, and Lu Ping’an’s "New Forestland" seems destined to become an important strategic focal point.
— End of Chapter 1606 —