Epoch of Twilight

Chapter 450: Political change (II)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Once Luo Yuan had adjourned, the meeting resumed.

Bi Jianping finished his cigarette and lit up another one. Suddenly the room was filled with smoke and its strong smell.

No one spoke for some time. The news that they just received from Luo Yuan was too shocking, to the point that they were lost for words.

When they thought of the extinction of mankind and how the earth would be destroyed, they felt desperate.

"The situation is worse than what we previously speculated. We have to prepare for a long duration of defense. What material reserves do we have now? Water and food, I meant," said Bi Jianping as broke the silence.

These two were the most important of all supplies – as long as they solved the problem of food and water, the city would not be in chaos.

"If the power supply still cannot be reinstated, it would be able to at least sustain for another three months." A vice mayor who was in charge of agriculture said, "Although agricultural areas can still operate, there is no sunlight to support the growth of the mutated plant. In addition, the water supply of Hope City comes from underground and it requires power supply too. It can be said that without power supply, the city would be a desolate one."

"It seems like it is imperative to restore the power supply." Bi Jianping said and looked heavy hearted.

"However, the power plants are thermal power plants that are built above the ground. They have already been destroyed but the debris can’t be found. We still have some steam turbine power generators in the warehouse, but where can we get the fuel? We are now trapped underground and are not able to get out from here unless we tear down all the houses in Hope City." A mayor who was in charge of industrialization said, as he deeply inhaled the smoke of his a cigarette.

"That would be a stop-gap measure." Bi Jianping said, "But even if we did tear down all the houses in Hope City, it won’t sustain us for long and we can only wait for the storm to subside."

At this time, the ground shook vigorously and a loud bang echoed at the top of their heart. Apparently, there were some collapses again. The quake lasted for ten seconds before it gradually died down.

The earthquake had occurred more than ten times since yesterday. It was too frequent to the point of familiarity. After a while, they continued the meeting.

"I think there is at least some food and water reserves that can temporarily ease the situation. However, the problem of keeping warm cannot be dragged anymore. The temperature has been dropping rapidly these days and it is expected to enter the winter season in the next two days. In the past, the weather has been warm throughout the year so everyone lacked warm clothing. Due to this, there could be a number of death cases caused by freezing." The marketing minister raised his concern on the foreseen crisis.

Everyone looked haggard but there was nothing they could do. There were still many clothing inventories but most of them were battle suits made of fiber, even the quilt was very light, almost weightless. Such clothing was definitely not able to protect them against the impending cold weather.

"I should also mention that since last night, the number of suicides has exceeded 20,000 people, and they are rather pessimistic now, coupled with the problem of freezing to death that was mentioned by Mr. Zhou Wenbo. I think we should be more vigilant." The secretary of the Political Committee, Li Feng, rubbed his eyebrows and said exhaustedly, "We also have a serious shortage of police officers – we have to urgently recruit a new batch."

Everyone was silent and felt helpless.

Today, Hope City had become a completely isolated island. Externally the environment was worse, while internally there was crowd panic. Thus, the situation had been as difficult as a taut wire. Now, it could still be barely kept ordered due to the inertia and the side effects of the truth.

If the power supply continued to be interrupted, darkness would be continuously enveloping the underground city. So, when winter came and constantly suppressed it due to depression and despair, the spirit of the residents in Hope City would collapse and they would end up breaking the rules and laws. At that point of time, it would be inadequate and exhausting for the few tens of thousands of ordinary police officers.

And that's only considering the ordinary people...

In Hope City, there were a lot of evolved humans and the Firearms Bureau. This department was completely independent of the municipal government. Both parties did not have any subordination. In the past, there was still the Reconstruction Area acting as the intermediator to coordinate and communicate, but now that the situation was all a blur, they could not be too sure of what the other party's thoughts were.

What was even more troubling being that the Firearms Bureau in Hope City was led by the very person who killed the aliens. Even if all the forces in Hope City were gathered, they were still not able to defeat that person.

Strength was the foundation of all power. Without power, the existing authority was shaken to its core and had become uncertain of their fate.

"I think we should pull Minister Luo in and not exclude him. At least with his existence, we would not need to worry about the evolved humans." Finally, the Minister of Organization, Ye Yong, started the topic that everyone had deliberately avoided, but could no longer be avoided.

"I think we can, but what position should we assign him to? He is at the rank of a lieutenant. At that level, his rank is higher than that of all of us. Besides, if we were to count on the achievements of human beings, no one could upstage Minister Luo. He saved mankind, and in one way or another, he also saved every one of us here." Bi Jianping interrupted.

When they heard about it, the facial expressions of some of them had slightly changed. They vaguely could sense that a storm was brewing and the decision made today would go down in history.

...

When Luo Yuan was on his way back, he could feel the chill in the air. It was April now, and it was supposed to be around 35 degrees, but now, it did not even come close to ten degrees Celsius.

He quickened his pace and walked towards his house. It was dark inside the house too, with only a few handmade lights lighting dimly in the living room.

But these dim lights had warmed up Luo Yuan’s heart, which had been cold and lonely since the night before.

After the few women saw Luo Yuan, they could not stop crying. Since the disaster last night and upon discovering that Luo Yuan was missing, they started to worry and was scared that he had possibly met misfortune. However, as his women, they had to bear with such fears and gradually get used to it.

"Well, don’t cry, everything's alright."

"Have you eaten? Let me cook for you," said Huang Jiahui, as she wiped her tears away.

Luo Yuan nodded his head. "I am not too hungry; just a simple meal will do."

Now in his body, he had two sets of energy systems – one was the cold fusion mitochondrial energy and another set was the energy that came from food digestion. The former had replaced the latter, thus to Luo Yuan, there was no difference whether he had consumed anything or not. The only thing was that he still could not live without water.

In the afternoon, there were government officers who consistently came to visit. In the past, they would bear gifts when they came, but this time, they were all empty handed, but with a respectful and extremely careful demeanor.

Luo Yuan was a bit confused but also sensed that the situation in Hope City had been turbulent and something was surging. In the evening, Wang Shishi who went out to the crowd suddenly ran back home in a hurry.

"Brother Luo, did you really exterminate the aliens and save the Reconstruction Area?" She asked him before she could take a breath, with a surprised look and eyes blinking in disbelief as if this was the first time she got to know Luo Yuan.

"How do you know that?" Luo Yuan looked surprised and shared that he did not tell his family anything about the alien yet.

"There are government servants outside who do the publicity. Don’t tell me that it is true, that there were aliens and you have killed them!" Wang Shishi exclaimed.

His villa was located in a remote area with only a few people living nearby. It was quiet and peaceful. He listened attentively and suddenly all kinds of subtle sounds were drilled into his ears. He was able to hear the story that was published by some people several kilometers away.

Huang Jiahui and a few people next to him were shocked and looked bewildered when they heard about what Wang Shishi had just said. As for the new comer, Ye Qiuyu, she was gasping in shock while she covered her open mouth with her hand.

Luo Yuan had no choice but to briefly share his encounter with the aliens from the beginning. After that, he did not care about the staggering look of the few women and started to harbor thoughts secretly in his heart.

The government was promoting him as a hero of mankind; the savior of the earth.

The people in Hope City was now anxious and feeling hopeless about the future. With the propaganda that the government created for him, he received an unwavering strong support in everyone's heart.

However, with such a campaign, it had more disadvantages to the municipal government of Hope City. As they publicized the achievements of Luo Yuan, it was also indicating that the power of authority had been shaken. This was also the reason in the past, where no matter how great the contributions Luo Yuan had made, he only received awards behind the scenes, with no social publicity. Therefore, there were only a few people in the top management that had a certain level of understanding of Luo Yuan, while the ordinary people knew nothing about him.

Apparently, the government had been unable to maintain the status quo and was prepared to hand-over the power and authority they had.

In fact, even if they tightly grasped onto the power, Luo Yuan would not force them to surrender. He was not someone who desired power and did not have much interest on dominating the Reconstruction Area.

However, although the current situation was seemingly safe, the real crisis was not over yet. Other than the long nuclear winter ahead, the spacecraft of the Glassians was likely to come again. He was fortunate to kill all the aliens this time, but there was no absolute guarantee that he would be so lucky next time.

The next time they came, the strength of these aliens would definitely be more frightening.

In order to extend the life of mankind, he could only think of a way which was to take the spacecraft of the Glassians and escape to the outskirts of the universe.

However, he had the highest authority in the spacecraft and unless he died, it could not be easily transferred just like that. At that point of time, any decision would need to go through him. To the government, rather than always being constrained and intrigued, it was better for them to hand over the authority.

In fact, the government placed more urgency than he thought they would, which also meant that the situation of Hope City was even more severe.

It was not even the second day. When it was six in the evening, all the executives of the municipal government came to his house together and had a closed-door meeting.

Other than the few attendees, no one would possibly know the content of the meeting. However, after the meeting, those people broke out in a cold sweat and looked pale, but also expressed pent-up excitement.

At first, Luo Yuan thought that the situation could still be delayed for at least a couple of weeks. He had never expected that the situation was so urgent, let alone to this extent.

It felt that the municipal government was sitting precariously on a powder keg that was ready to explode. No wonder there was no one trying to take over this hot potato.

In the evening, Luo Yuan entered the city hall and got into the mayor's office.

The first order was to convene all the electrical engineer survivors in Hope City and all laboratory researchers, as well as large numbers of workers. Then, he directly triggered the space-time bubble in the office and left Hope City.

An hour later, he returned from space and came back with a metal ball – about five meters in diameter – in his hand.

This was the deep fusion furnace that he removed from the first Glassian spaceship he conquered. Luo Yuan brought back all the relevant equipment and devices so that he could reuse the waste.

This Glassion fusion furnace was very high-tech and very safe to be used. When the energy output was stopped, it automatically initiated the sleep mode.

When he put it on the ground of the city hall, the researchers and engineers immediately went closer to take a look and on their faces, was a look of shock and excitement.

Each of the complex smooth surfaces, each of the specific materials and even the alien metal inscriptions had attracted and amazed everyone.

"Don’t be curious now. You have a lot of time to do research on it. Now, please start to test it but please be careful and safe." Said Luo Yuan.

The Glassian civilization and humanity were two completely different things and there was no one who had experience with nuclear fusion. They could not even resolve the thermoelectric conversion fusion furnace that was beyond the technological prowess of mankind.

However, there was no need to learn it. As power output device, its basic principles were the same, where all current passes through the positive and negative output. The more advanced the technology was, the easier it is to operate.

It had only three operation buttons. By just analyzing for a while, they had figured out the specific meanings of the several buttons on the text.

Sleep, shut down, and start.

When the fusion furnace shut down completely, it stopped working. In order to unlock the bunker, they could simply open it by just pulling the ring on the surface.

After the analysis by researchers, they found that the fuel inside was not ordinary hydrogen, nor the helium 3 that was used on human nuclear fusion, but an ultra-pure water. Of course, this was the deep fusion furnace, it did not matter even if they used normal pure water.

Apparently, the fusion furnace technology had been very mature in the Glass Planet and was widely used. Even the intelligent robots and smart bombs also came with a miniature nuclear fusion furnace. Thus, it was very safe and did not cause any danger as the engineers tested it. However, Luo Yuan thought that it was necessary for him to go to the spacecraft again to get the intellectual brain so it could translate Glassian language to Chinese and have it printed into a book so that he could conduct organizational learning.

It was foreseeable that the contact with Glassian equipment would be more frequent, so it would be easier if humans could understand the Glassian language. It was a prerequisite to fully understand the Glassian technology.

When it approached midnight, a large number of power engineers had begun to conduct small-scale testing. When lamps were lit up in the hall, it suddenly became brightly lit, as compared to the previously dim hall.

"Mayor, its maximum output power is amazing! The electrical current is almost endless. Fortunately, it can be automatically adjusted according to usage, otherwise, we will not be able to find a suitable transformer." A principal engineer at the power station who narrowly escaped from the disaster excitedly shared to Luo Yuan.

"When can we implement it massively?" Asked Luo Yuan. It was midnight now and the weather was getting colder. The temperature had dropped to almost -10 degrees Celsius. If the solution was still pending, it would be getting worse and potential freezing to death might just occur.

"Now, the network in Hope City was still in tense repair. Most of the bulbs and electrical circuit had been burnt due to the previous electromagnetic pulse from the disaster. We have to test and reinstall it all over again and can only restore the power generation when we are able to confirm that they are safe. It is estimated to get the power supply restored three days late in the afternoon." When the principal engineer talked to Luo Yuan, he was slightly nervous.

"It will be too long; our people will not be able to wait that long." Luo Yuan shook his head and waved his hand.

The Vice Mayor Bi Jianping who was directing nearby quickly came over. Now that he was in awe with Luo Yuan. It was completely a different thing to see as compared to the time when he merely heard about it. In just an hour, an alien fusion furnace appeared, and it fully justified what Luo Yuan previously said, proving its authenticity.

"It seems like we need to gather more workers and train a bit to repair the electrical network. During this time, we have to start up a plant to produce heating equipment and warm clothing. I do not want to people freezing to death. It is uncalled for."

The factories on the ground that were destroyed were the polluted metal smelting and chemical factories. In the underground area, there were more preserved factories. There was no technical difficulty to start the production of heating equipment.

"I will immediately go and implement it." Bi Jianping said quickly.

"Wait, one more thing." Luo Yuan stopped Bi Jianping. He looked serious and said, "Now the residents in Hope City is panicking and we cannot let them do nothing and be pessimistic in the dark. We have to keep them moving. You go back and discuss with the rest on what we can do specifically. It does not matter even if it wastes some materials."