Chapter 357

The sky was raining black, oily acid rain, and a wind similar to car exhaust blew in his face. Occasionally, an old newspaper would be blown up in the wind, and the date was from a month ago...

This world was more apocalyptic than the apocalypse. One couldn't see a single person on the road. Even the waitress who received Ye Nan wouldn't come out of the building; it was said that acid rain was a killer for women.

"Dad, this planet is such trash," Ripley, who had been silent, suddenly spoke. Even she didn't like this planet.

"Although this planet is trash, it is not beyond saving," Ye Nan gently stroked Ripley's hair, combing her hair for his daughter, "It only needs to clean up the pollution, and this planet can be inhabited. After all, a life-bearing planet is truly too rare, even if its resources have been exhausted."

"In the universe, there are countless planets. These planets are like water droplets in the ocean, too numerous to count, but these planets cannot be inhabited; they lack the necessary conditions. Therefore, life-bearing planets are exceptionally precious."

"But they don't cherish this planet at all," Ripley said stubbornly: "If this planet is precious, they wouldn't treat it like dirt."

"That's why we came," Ye Nan chuckled and explained to Ripley: "They don't cherish this planet, but we do."

In Ye Nan's view, these people of the so-called Federal Earth were simply stupid. They hollowed out the planet, cut down all the trees, and in the end, instead of thinking about cleaning it up, they were single-mindedly trying to find a new life-bearing planet and then continue to develop their so-called technology.

Unfortunately, life-bearing planets are not so easy to find. The universe is vast, and planets are countless, but life-bearing planets are extremely precious and incredibly rare.

If it weren't for Ye Nan, they might really find Pan Duola and then fight Pan Duola, and perhaps in the end, they could occupy Pan Duola and continue their civilization, letting themselves linger on. But now it's different. Ye Nan has come, and Ye Nan has already regarded Pan Duola as his own possession. He would never let Federal Earth obtain it. Don't look at how he plays conspiracies with Sodo on the surface; in reality, all the schemes and tricks are to deceive Sodo, with the purpose of letting Sodo lead him to find the planet's cutting-edge technology and then steal it.

"However, we still need to set up some things. At least before leaving, we must inflict some trauma on this planet," Ye Nan said to Ripley.

One year. He had a full year to set up on this planet. After one year, he would leave and return to Pan Duola to preside over the attack on the Na'vi. In his heart, Pan Duola was his foothold, while this Federal Earth would be the second home of the Space-Time Empire.

"Hmm," Ripley nodded. Although she didn't know what the setup her father mentioned was, nodding and agreeing with her father was always right.

Ye Nan held Ripley's small hand and strolled in the rain. If someone walked close to Ye Nan at this time, they would feel that there was no acid rain or car exhaust wind around Ye Nan.

The streets of New York were very different from the New York on Earth. In the streets of New York on this Federal Earth, there were buildings similar to those in the East, making Ye Nan think he had come to China.

"Dad, are these the buildings you usually like?" Ripley pointed to a building similar to the Tang Dynasty and asked.

This was a stone tower-shaped structure, about three stories high, presenting a dark blue color overall.

"Yes, Ripley, this is a building from an ancient dynasty in our East," Ye Nan said, "Come, Ripley, let's go in and take a look. Maybe we can use this as a breakthrough point, who knows..."

As Ye Nan said this, he pulled Ripley into the building. Upon entering, he discovered that this was a teahouse, but this teahouse was relatively deserted, almost empty. There was only one person, and it was a young Chinese man who was playing a game with great relish.

"Waiter, a customer is here," Ye Nan called out and casually found a chair to sit down.

"Oh." The waiter reluctantly left the computer, walked to Ye Nan, and said: "I am the owner of this shop."

"Owner?" Ye Nan looked at this young man, examined him carefully, and confirmed that there was nothing strange about him before saying: "Good, owner, do you have any tea or something like that here?"

The young man looked at Ye Nan, looked left and right, and seeing that Ye Nan didn't look like he was here to cause trouble, he said: "Are you kidding? How could I have tea here?"

"No tea?" Ye Nan asked strangely. Suddenly, he remembered the cover-like thing he had seen before and understood.

Even ordinary vegetables like Chinese cabbage needed to be protected by covers and carefully tended by many people, so delicate things like tea leaves must require even greater effort. Perhaps this planet did have them, but it was definitely not something a small teahouse could have.

"Sorry, it was indeed me being a bit rash," Ye Nan said with a hint of apology.

"It's okay." The young man's expression looked much better. From Ye Nan's words just now, he guessed that Ye Nan was someone used to drinking tea. In fact, there were indeed tea leaves on this planet, but tea leaves were generally offered to high-ranking officials or leaders of financial groups. In the black market, the price of tea leaves had long been hyped to 1.38 million Federal Credits (Note: a currency of Federal Earth, similar to the US dollar). Facing such high-ranking officials who could drink tea at any time, he couldn't afford to offend them. Naturally, he didn't know that Ye Nan was not a high-ranking official at all, but a person from another planet.

"I have some tea water here, all from good water, used to water the vegetable garden. You can try it."

"No need." Ye Nan refused the young owner's kindness with a calm expression, but in his heart, there was a faint feeling of sadness.

Humans, this creature that once boasted of being the spirit of all things, when did they fall to the point of using water for watering vegetable gardens as a treat? From the young owner's words, he could hear that the water humans usually drank was definitely not as good as the water for watering vegetables.

"Also, someone like you who drinks tea definitely wouldn't drink our water. Sigh. I don't know when I will be able to drink a mouthful of clean water," the young owner sighed, seeming a bit nostalgic and a bit lost.

"Do you regret it?" Ye Nan asked calmly, "Do you regret that humans destroyed this planet?"

"Regret, but what's the use of regret?" The young owner revealed a bitter smile, "Struggling in foul water every day, eating flavorless liquid food every day—I have long forgotten what the sense of taste is for."

Liquid food is a free food distributed by the Federal Government. It is like toothpaste, without any taste, but humans must eat it because it contains all the energy and nutrition humans need. Only by eating it can one survive.

This world is full of pollution. When the sky rains acid rain similar to black oil, people dare not go out. Only when the acid rain stops do they dare to go and collect food. Usually, they stay at home playing games.

"If I give you a chance to get rid of this life, what would you choose?" Ye Nan's fingers tapped on the table, making a thumping sound.

Through the conversation with this young owner, he realized he was wrong before. He used to always think about how to defeat the other side, kill the other side, and then occupy the planet. It was actually a wrong idea...

Any civilization will resist when facing an attack from another civilization, but this does not mean there are no others who know the times. For ordinary commoners, as long as they live well, it really doesn't matter who rules them.

If Ye Nan could win over these bottom-level people and let them live the life they had before Earth was polluted, they might directly overthrow the government instead of letting Ye Nan attack.

"Get rid of this life?" The young owner was stunned. He looked at Ye Nan in confusion, not understanding what Ye Nan meant. Taken literally, Ye Nan seemed to want to help him, but he didn't believe that pies would fall from the sky.

"If I could let you live on a planet before it was polluted, would you be happy?" Ye Nan added a sentence, "Of course, there is a price for this."

Sure enough, the young owner thought to himself. Then he became conflicted. The current life was not what he wanted, but if he had to pay a price, he was somewhat unwilling. After all, although the current life was a bit hard and his body was in poor condition, at least he still had his life.

"That depends on what the price is," the young owner said hesitantly: "If the price is too high, I would rather continue to live this life. It's better to live a miserable life than to die."

Ye Nan didn't show contempt for the young owner after hearing his words; instead, he said solemnly: "Indeed, even ants try to survive, let alone you haven't reached the point of despair yet. But if there really is such an opportunity in front of you, and the price is not very high, would you be willing to pay this price?"

"The price is not high?" The young owner thought to himself. If the price wasn't high, he would want it. After all, he had had enough of this damned environment and had enough of so-called online games. In fact, any game, if you play it for ten years, you will feel bored. After all, the people in this world are not very active in developing games because no one will invest money to play games, as 99% of people belong to the proletariat, living on government welfare.

However, he was not a person without schemes. He wouldn't jump in without reservation after Ye Nan drew a big pie. He needed to ask what the price was.

"I want to know what the price is. If it's a price I can't afford, I won't pay it," the young owner said.

"Support," Ye Nan said, "I intend to dominate the current government, so I need support."

Based on the scattered information Ye Nan had in his hands, the Federal Government was an interesting government. It was the people who chose the so-called representatives, and then these representatives chose the president. And the reason Ye Nan said it was interesting was because these so-called representatives were all heads of large financial groups. That is to say, the elected Federal President was actually the head of the largest financial group.

Ye Nan didn't know why this was. The information in his hands didn't have intelligence on this aspect. However, he still made a small plan: win over ordinary people, support representatives who were friendly to him, and then push his own people to the position of president, letting him announce the annexation into the Space-Time Empire.

In this regard, Ye Nan could be said to be familiar with the road. The only obstacle was the issue of the candidate to support, but this obstacle would soon be cleared.

"You want to be president?" The young owner said in horror.

What exactly a president is, many people actually know, but everyone has no interest in the presidential election. For them, participating in the presidential election is just being bored.

But now someone told him, "Come support me, and I will let you return to the life before the pollution," which instantly ignited the flame of passion in his heart.

"If you want me to vote for you, I will definitely agree," the young owner said. For him, it was just voting, and it didn't require any effort, so it didn't matter what the price was...

"No." Ye Nan shook his head, denying the young owner's words, "If it were just voting, I wouldn't make such a promise. You should understand that there are many people on this planet. If I made a promise to everyone, wouldn't I be a sucker?"

"Then what do you mean?" The young owner asked cautiously.

Although he knew that pies wouldn't fall from the sky, when Ye Nan denied it, he still felt a bit of regret in his heart.

"You do things for me, mainly contacting those people and letting them help me vote together. The more you contact, the better your treatment will be in the future," Ye Nan finally said his answer.

His current identity was an honored guest of Sodo of the RDA company. If Sodo knew he was winning over people from Federal Earth, Sodo would definitely be very uneasy. So, he couldn't come forward in this matter personally. Not only could he not come forward personally, but everything that might leak his plan could not be said.

He understood very well that restoring the environment was very influential. Once it spread, it would inevitably attract the attention of certain companies. When they investigated, the truth would be revealed. Of course, he wasn't afraid of being exposed, but it couldn't be exposed so quickly. He needed some time to prepare.

"You need to keep it secret and cannot say who you are winning votes for. I will give you the candidates when the time comes."

"I will try my best."

The young owner thought for a while and agreed. For him, winning votes was very simple. After all, even if he hadn't eaten pork, hadn't he seen pigs run?