Darkstone Code

Chapter 1092 - 1090: What Does the Future Look Like?

"You have dark circles..."

Lynch, who was having breakfast, looked at Anna with a serious expression. "A mature person should be able to manage their schedule well, rather than... like this."

Anna almost spat out a mouthful of blood. Was it that she couldn’t manage her schedule well?

It was someone who wouldn’t let her sleep well, but she couldn’t explain it clearly.

She rolled her eyes and sat down at the dining table in the restaurant.

The other two girls and Austin were eating breakfast as if nothing had happened. The young maid stood by, offering service to everyone. No one could tell how wild their previous night had been!

"You don’t need to follow me today..." Lynch said. "I have other things to do, and it’s not convenient to bring you along. You can go to the company and try to handle some documents yourself, except for those that require my signature."

Lynch took a sip of his milk.

In the Federation, it only cost two dollars and ninety-nine cents a month to get a liter of fresh milk every day, which was a kind of benefit for this society.

But if you wanted extra, you either needed more children or had to buy it.

Buying would be slightly more expensive; two dollars and ninety-nine cents certainly couldn’t buy thirty liters.

Anna nodded. Lynch didn’t say where he was going, and she couldn’t ask.

The breakfast was slightly dull. The girls were exchanging some kind of information with their eyes, and even Austin joined in. She wasn’t used to it at first, but now she was.

Anna felt like an "outsider." These girls clearly didn’t intend to share certain secrets with her, and she felt hurt!

In the morning, Lynch took a car to the Ministry of International Affairs, having arranged to meet with Mr. Truman.

Due to the abnormal cooling this winter, the situation in Mariluo had also unexpectedly calmed down. In fact, the disaster in Mariluo was much more severe than in the Federation, far more severe than imagined.

"The front-line soldiers requested to retreat; they’re too cold." Mr. Truman seemed quite surprised when discussing this topic.

He, along with the people from the Ministry of Defense, never expected the "elite" of the Federation to request a retreat due to the cold, turning into a joke within the Ministry of Defense.

Recently, they’ve liked using phrases such as "I have to..., because I’m too cold" as jokes.

Lynch lit a cigarette. "How cold is it over there?"

Mr. Truman pursed his lips. "It’s more than thirty degrees below zero, with some areas already forty degrees below zero."

The two men in the room didn’t smile because they couldn’t find anything to laugh about.

Lynch knew what minus thirty to forty degrees felt like. Bupen had already experienced ultra-low temperatures of minus twenty degrees.

It is said that the previous night, around four or five in the morning, before dawn, the daytime temperature was slightly higher, but still not by much.

Under such circumstances, hundreds of people in Bupen froze to death overnight, and there could be more victims not yet discovered, such as those living alone.

One can imagine how terrifying the extreme cold Mariluo is experiencing now. Under such extreme cold, let alone fighting, just standing outside for a moment, if one’s hand touches the gun, the skin of the hand would stick to the gun!

Shooting?

If they could still control their fingers.

"Was it this cold over there before?" Lynch asked.

Mr. Truman shook his head. He had, clearly, done his homework during this period. "The lowest temperature in Mariluo used to be around twenty-four degrees below zero, mostly between ten to twenty degrees below zero, and the duration was less than a month or so."

"This year’s situation is also abnormal, and some meteorologists are studying why there is a global cooling, and we’ve sent some people to the Southern Hemisphere. Maybe the situation there is different from here."

People always pride themselves on having conquered nature, claiming to be the conquerors of nature. Yet, when humanity faces the true wrath of nature, they realize there’s nothing they can do!

They can’t reverse such extreme cold weather, can’t grow more crops in the field, can’t ensure flowers bloom all year round in the wild!

They only think they’ve conquered this world, when in fact, they haven’t even lifted the mysterious veil of nature!

They reached a climax without taking off their pants!

"The grain issue is becoming more troublesome. I heard you reached some agreement with the President, about the grain issue?" Mr. Truman shifted the topic to what they should be discussing.

Lynch nodded. "We talked about this before; I will find a way to import some grain."

"And the issue of grain prices—now with the global temperature anomaly, many areas where crops can be grown at this time are also affected by natural disasters, so grain prices will rise high."

"We don’t want grain prices to be too high, do you understand?"

This time Lynch didn’t hesitate and nodded. "I will control the grain prices in the areas I can control, but I can’t guarantee anything beyond that."

Mr. Truman breathed a sigh of relief, also lighting a cigarette, blowing out smoke as he spoke. "That’s enough."

Before Lynch arrived, he had discussed this issue with some other people. The Ministry of Agriculture had also summoned those people, but the effect was unimpressive.

Everyone involved in grains realized at this moment that the things in their warehouses would become more valuable than ever before, and having the government ask them to give up the pursuit of profit seemed like asking them to eradicate their families before committing suicide, which was impossible.

Not only were they not cooperating with the government on controlling grain prices, but they were also subtly taking measures to raise prices.

To make money—that’s their pursuit. As for conscience, morality, social responsibility, such things mean nothing to them—it’s like a fart that only makes them feel lighter after it’s released.

Lynch was different; he had a strong sense of responsibility.

This made Mr. Truman relieved. As long as someone first stood on the side of the Federation Government, it would be a bit easier to persuade others.

Mr. Truman’s face had a few more smiles but not too many. "Yet there’s fear that this climate could become the norm. Some say these are the traits of a small ice age, and it will get colder."

"If such a situation lasts for a long time, it will be a fatal blow to us, to all humanity worldwide!"

This is the gap between politicians and ordinary people. Politicians have already thought about global issues, while ordinary people are still thinking about what will air at the eight o’clock drama, and whether it will match their guesses.

Lynch smiled and shook his head. "No matter what, we’ll get through this. If it’s true, perhaps this ’winter’ will push the world’s peace process forward by a big step!"

Mr. Truman continued, "Or it might prematurely trigger a real world war!"

"With scarce resources and polar cold, people will flock toward the Equatorial region for living space. So many people, so little land, and the gap in food—only after erasing a large number of humans will the remaining people find space to survive."

"I’m very pessimistic right now, Lynch. You probably don’t know this, but more than two thousand people have already frozen to death in Bupen, and we haven’t dared to report it!"

It was clear that Mr. Truman was indeed very pessimistic, as he said, and the number he mentioned did shock Lynch a bit, but only to a certain extent, not to the point of being stunned.

Apart from the commercial center, the houses outside the city center in Bupen don’t have a unified or effective heating system.

Many families don’t have furnaces or heating systems because winter heating means an extra expense they don’t want to add two or three more bills every cycle to their budget.

Plus, Bupen had never been this cold before. Adding more blankets and burning more firewood could always get them through.

They never expected that this year’s lowest temperatures would be colder than sleeping in a freezer!

So, a large group spent their last bit of body warmth shivering through the night, then fell into eternal slumber without even knowing it themselves.

Added to which there are more unreported deaths, the situation is much worse than imagined, no wonder Mr. Truman remains so pessimistic.

If it does get increasingly cold in the future, the Federation people might have to abandon the Federation Mainland and move to Nagariel to live.

That is terrifying!

The conflict between the people of the Federation and the natives may lead to another extinction-level war, even if they did nothing wrong and did not offend the people of the Federation.

"This issue is too heavy, and whether true or false, we cannot change anything about it."

Lynch didn’t like pessimistic matters; they could be depressing. "You should think on the bright side; maybe humanity will unite and get through it together."

"Ha ha!" Mr. Truman looked at Lynch with an expression as if looking at an idiot. "Do you really believe that?"

"I pretend to believe it!"

Mr. Truman looked at Lynch as if reading a cryptic essay. "You’ve recruited some non-retired employees again. Now, as far as I know, the field number at Darkstone Security has exceeded twelve thousand. Did you foresee all this?"

"If the changes in the future world force us to abandon here, a brand-new world pattern could emerge. Are you preparing for that?"

Lynch laughed out loud after listening. "You should become a spiritualist. Was it a ghost that told you that?"

Mr. Truman also laughed at his own guess. "I just speculated a bit. You always do things that people find hard to understand, and then everything proves you were right."

"Like the airplane, everyone, every country knows about these things, but no one ever thought about deeply exploring the potential of planes; you, however, chose it."

"Some say you once said, ’My eyes can see the future,’ and now I’m starting to believe it."

"I really want to know, in your eyes, what the future Federation looks like?"