Chapter 234 - 100: The Plan for a Direct Path to the Future

As Zero spoke, her body shone with a golden light. Her voice was full and resonant, no longer eerie and ghostly, but instead faintly carrying a sense of boundless immensity.

She was a burly woman with broad shoulders, strong and powerful, her frame as wide as a double-door refrigerator. Like a demon-quelling lord descending from the heavens, a walking catastrophe on earth.

After getting a clear look at her, Hyena’s brain seemed to short-circuit.

Pointing at her, Hyena was so agitated he was at a complete loss. After a long moment, he finally stammered, "A w-w-w... woman!"

"That sounds a little sexist," Duan Fei remarked from the sidelines.

"Duan Someone, I have only one request right now. Can you please stop acting crazy at a time like this?" Lone Ranger said, clutching his head.

Duan Fei glanced at Lone Ranger. "What’s wrong? About to burst out laughing? Can’t maintain that cool and aloof persona of yours anymore?"

"...Yeah, so please stop talking. I’m really about to laugh. PFFT PFFT PFFT..."

Zero and Hyena looked somewhat alike, but she appeared more holy and noble. The musculature covering her body put her on par with Anna, but it was more elegant and aesthetically pleasing.

Having dealt with the Clockmaker, her body slowly shrank. The Power from Gale’s contingency plan was fading, allowing the contamination within her to gradually return to normal.

Returning to her original spot, she gave Anna and Hyena a complicated look, then shook her head and said, "Gender is a minor matter. Thank you for coming, Hyena."

"I don’t think it’s a minor matter. Can you tell me..."

Zero waved a hand, cutting him off. "I think it’s a minor matter, so it is a minor matter. Thank you again for your help, Hyena, Anna, Lear, Bartender, and the two Descenders. Please wait a moment. The moral code has accumulated a great deal of contamination. I need to divert a portion of my processing power to deal with it."

After diverting some of her computational power to handle the contamination of the moral code, Zero said thoughtfully, "Fortunately, the situation isn’t too terrible. This part of the contamination is controllable, but other issues are more serious than I imagined. The wealth gap, the abuse of the moral code, the excessive power of corporate presidents, technological stagnation... In the time I was controlled by the Clockmaker, they were really busy, weren’t they."

With a soft laugh, the Level 9 Citizen looked at Hyena and said, "Hyena, you are my backup, but in a way, you’ve already become a completely independent personality. In my eyes, you are like my son. Although, you did manage to win over the person I most wanted to pursue..."

Zero let out a long sigh, making the atmosphere in the room even more awkward.

Of course, the awkwardness was mainly felt by Hyena and Anna; the others were just enjoying the show.

Duan Fei was even tempted to add, "It was your dream girl who made the first move," which he figured would have undoubtedly provoked Zero even further.

But he sensed that saying it would make the situation impossible to salvage, so he decided against it.

This, however, did explain why Zero had never been able to win Anna over, no matter how hard she tried. After all, some things just can’t be forced.

Hyena, feeling the killing intent in the air, quickly said, "Zero..."

"Call me Mother."

"Alright... Mother... Um, what is it you want me to do?"

"You grew up in this era, so what you’ve seen is more profound than I have. After all, those in the clouds cannot see the ground clearly. So I want to ask you: do you think the moral code needs to continue existing? Do corporations need to continue existing?"

As if worried Hyena couldn’t grasp the importance of this question, Zero pointed a finger, and a holographic button materialized in front of him.

"I have absolute control over this world. So if you’re willing, press this button, and I will make someone disappear completely. Just say the word, and I will kill them for you."

Hyena felt as if he were holding the launch button for a nuclear missile. He stared at it for a long time without moving.

Instead, it was Duan Fei who raised his hand and asked, "Does that include you?"

"It includes me." Zero nodded. "Back then, we challenged the major corporations, and after our victory, we established the moral code. I, in turn, resided high in the clouds, becoming a Level 9 Citizen. Our original plan was to use the moral code to regulate people’s behavior, with me adjusting it to manage the world and move toward a better future."

"But as you’ve all seen, I was only controlled by the Clockmaker for a short time before the moral code was abused into its current state. The rule now is even stricter than before. My existence not only failed to make the world a better place, but instead pushed it into a deeper Abyss."

"So, if you believe my existence is hindering the world’s development, then you can get rid of me and take my place."

After listening to Zero, Duan Fei nodded and said, "You know, for someone who sounds so selfless, you’re actually incredibly selfish."

"...Why do you say that?" Zero asked, confused.

"Hyena’s life experience is pitifully limited. Handing the decision over to him seems like a very noble gesture, but you’re really just dumping a huge mess in his lap and making him figure out the aftermath. You’re willing to do the killing, but not the burying. If that’s not selfish, what is?"

Zero quietly mulled over Duan Fei’s words before finally nodding in sincerity. "You’re right. Subconsciously, that was my intention. I was indeed running away from this problem. In that case, omnipotent Descender, as a despicable and incompetent ruler, may I beg for your help?"

"I’m very busy. I’m busy wasting time," Duan Fei said with an air of regret.

"During this period, I will direct the entire world’s productive capacity toward you. I know what you Descenders want. I can help create things that you can take with you."

"Suddenly, I don’t feel so busy anymore," Duan Fei said, stroking his chin.

Lone Ranger looked at Duan Fei, exasperated. "Duan Someone, can you at least try to hide your shameless nature a little? I’m ashamed to be associated with you!"

"I’ll give you a thirty-percent cut."

"...Guild Leader, I have always held you in the highest esteem!"

"...Despicable!" Duan Fei and Yan Yuan said in unison.

For anyone else, Zero’s request was an impossible task.

After all, this task would determine the future of the entire world and set its course. The slightest deviation could plunge it into a spiral of fruitless internal competition.

The task was so immense that many economists and sociologists could spend their entire lives on it and still fail to reach a satisfactory conclusion.

But for Duan Fei, this problem was actually quite easy to solve.

He was a man with a cheat, after all!

Over the past few days, he had figured out how to use his Talent and was becoming increasingly proficient with it.

He would treat the world’s development as one major task, then continuously break it down into smaller sub-tasks.

After getting the list of all the corporate presidents from Zero, Duan Fei just needed to run through the permutations of assigning different presidents to different sub-tasks and then select the combination with a one hundred percent success rate.

It was purely grunt work, and there was no upper limit. The more time he invested, the more detailed the plans and personnel selections would become.

And this plan would become a beacon, paving a broad highway straight into the future.