Chapter 343 - 318: Technology Open Source

Wakanda was indeed isolated, surrounded by mountains on all sides, but inside was a vast plain, very suitable for farming, even the water surged up from underground.

The land was unbelievably fertile, yielding as much as 1,800 per acre was not an issue, Lille even doubted that the reports on Wakanda’s soil were conservative.

Because Lille had not only read reports about Wakanda but had also looked into the recent conditions of the African Continent.

In recent years, the African Continent had been plagued with constant civil wars, these wars even seemed spontaneous, a vast amount of oil and mineral resources remained unexploited due to the chaos, cultivation was done one year and halted the next, with Sudan, the richest in resources, being the most violent, changing its government every 4-6 years was common.

This change was not an election-like change seen in Mei Country or other developed countries, but coups and civil wars—

Massive instability resulted in at least 2.6 million people facing famine annually, over 6 million lacking the economic or physical means to access sufficient food, with 50% of the population across the African Continent struggling to obtain food.

The actual situation was far more severe than what was depicted, as these numbers still averaged the data from Wakanda and its neighboring Central African countries, which generally didn’t experience famine.

These countries should have faced similar challenges, but under the massive and affordable food aid from Wakanda, they managed to maintain political stability.

While others relied on armed forces to stabilize order, Wakanda literally fed its neighbors into submission, showcasing King T’Chaka’s masterful political maneuvers, yet also the reality of their abundant food supply.

However, developing high-tech and other industries seemed somewhat unrealistic.

Because being a wealthy agricultural country, it still remained an agricultural one, barely stabilizing life for its neighboring brothers with great effort.

"...We haven’t gone without trying to develop industry, but the progress has been very slow, for two reasons,"

T’Chaka sighed, clearing up Lille’s confusion: Wakanda might only be rich in agricultural resources, but Central Africa as a whole was extremely rich in minerals.

It didn’t make sense not to develop.

"The first reason is... we opened up contacts with the outside world too late."

"Before that, you all... hid in the mountains and led a pastoral life?"

T’Chaka was a bit embarrassed but still nodded, "Colonizers did come to Wakanda, but they left quickly, taking with them a legendary treasure..."

"Vibranium?"

T’Chaka nodded, "Our ancestors only knew it as a powerful hammer that could perform miracles, we never thought about its other uses until outsiders published papers on its properties."

Lille’s mouth twitched—probably, this world’s Wakanda had just that small piece of vibranium, as he had recently concluded.

That piece of vibranium, after being passed around, last appeared during World War II, mounted on a War Mecha, the Hydra Crusher within the Roaring Assault Team.

As secrets were uncovered, people learned from some highly confidential reports that it was a material with potent energy...

In the hands of the Wakandan royal family through generations, it was just a remarkable hammer, a symbol of royal power, waved by kings through the ages.

Unfortunately, the king holding the hammer could not stop the bullets of the colonizers.

Thus... without scientific thinking, possession of a treasure might not necessarily yield its effectiveness.

Of course, saying this was akin to rubbing salt into T’Chaka’s wounds.

T’Chaka continued, "Colonizers brought a painful past to this land, my father, and his father believed that these rich lands would attract troubles, so they sequestered us in the mountains."

Then they became decoupled from the world—if they had a significant amount of vibranium, Wakanda could have developed its own tech, but in this world, they were still well-fed, though only just that.

Ironically, the colonizers never really noticed the land’s fertility because they burned everything around and left, busy dealing with vibranium.

After all, establishing plantations in the mountains of Wakanda, transportation of produce was quite problematic.

"After I ascended the throne, unlike my father, I began to explore the outside world, seeing the plight of our brethren, I decided to engage in international politics, which led to the formation of the African Union.

We tried to exploit minerals, develop industries, but starting from the very basic raw material exploitation, the outside world only sold us the most outdated machinery and technology.

Unfortunately, the mining costs were high, and the risks were great—not only production risks but also dealing with terrorists and some warlords’ attacks...

I don’t know how they do it, maybe advanced geological exploration technology or inside help, but they always managed to find our mines."

Precise positioning, advanced firepower, months or even years of efforts destroyed in one attack, it was indeed very demoralizing.

The already impoverished country faced even more difficulties.

So T’Chaka’s attitude was very humble, and Lille was not aggressive.

Infrastructure, public safety, healthcare, housing, these low-tech areas were left to the Wakandan government to handle, Lille did not compete in the low-end market, nor did he engage in large-scale land mergers or use financial tools to force the government to exchange powers.

In exchange, the special status of the Atlas Group would be established, with permissions to develop private security forces, numerous policy green lights, and international endorsements, among others.

It was hard to say which party benefited more, but for now, it was a win-win.

T’Chaka fell silent for a while, then continued, "However, we still have some stable mineral resources now, tin, tantalum, nickel, cobalt, these common industrial minerals are exploitable, just the cost is quite high."

This high cost was a result of being backward in everything from mining to smelting technology.

The African Union under T’Chaka’s food supply was not prone to large-scale famines, so it was basically stable and did not randomly sell land resources to foreign companies. Overall, although poor, the political environment had improved significantly.

However, the remaining political costs were also spent on border security, and some areas were still unmanageable.

This was relatively good news, because in these industrial technologies, Lille himself had considerable expertise, and his team behind him was also highly skilled in materials and machinery.

Having a material basis meant that going to Africa wouldn’t result in too awkward a situation.

Technological upgrades were not a problem, but the key was whether their people could keep up educationally.

After some thought, Lille said, "None of these are issues, but I do have a question, how many qualified engineers do you think the whole African Union can provide?"

T’Chaka scratched his head awkwardly, "I believe our brethren globally include many qualified engineers, but in Africa..."

"This will definitely affect the speed of development, I have a proposal," Lille said, "Do you have a technology department?"

"Yes, but..."

"That’s fine, here is a method of skill teaching for brain-machine interfaces and virtual realities, I hope to add a clause in our medical cooperation contract to promote the technology of brain-machine interfaces.

Using brain-machine interfaces and associated teaching methods can greatly improve teaching efficiency and rapidly enhance the quality of the workforce."

"This..." T’Chaka looked at the stack of hard drives Lille had brought out, frowning.

Wakanda indeed had its own technology department, which had contributed many advanced agricultural technologies; their engineering literacy was up to par.

The brain-machine interface by the International Gene Cooperation Company had caused quite a stir in the scientific community, of which they were obviously aware.

And the message from the science department was: this technology is impressive but also dangerous.

Seeing the expression on the old king’s face, Lille made some judgments and continued, "You can take the hard drives back to review.

I can open source the technology to you, which is important, otherwise I might need to hire more foreign labor to match the development speed.

This might cause some unnecessary effects on our cooperation."

Open source?

T’Chaka was stunned, he knew about open-sourcing.

If it’s open-sourced... how do we maintain a technological monopoly?

Indeed, the African Union was very wary of businessmen, or so-called "capital," yet under pressure, they had to accept a somewhat gentler capital entry into Africa.

But a better businessman is still a businessman, isn’t he?

This again refreshed T’Chaka’s perception of Lille; he hadn’t expected Lille to be willing to open source such critical technology.

Brain-machine interfaces... Thinking about the science department’s assessment of the technology, it would be false to say he wasn’t tempted.

The dining table fell silent, and soon the old king made his decision.

"I need to take the data back to discuss with my advisors."

"Of course, you can," Lille nodded readily.

This decisive reaction convinced T’Chaka that Lille indeed had no tricks up his sleeve.

With that, the meal lost its flavor; he grabbed the hard drives, gave Lille a deep look, stood up, and heading toward Lille and Maya, placed his right hand on his chest, bowing slightly.

"It seems I must leave first, I will give you an answer as soon as possible—madam, thank you for the meal you prepared for us, I must go now."

A king’s gratitude left Maya somewhat flustered, but seeing Lille’s indifferent nod, she simply sat silently in her chair, doing nothing.

It wasn’t until T’Chaka had left the room that Maya finally breathed a sigh of relief, lightly tapped Lille on the head: "Why didn’t you tell me a king was coming to visit?"

Lille spread his hands: "Mom, what about a king? Is a king better than others? This is modern society; we are partners, not something...

like a king and a serf relationship."

Maya still found it somewhat unbelievable.

This feeling was like encountering a figure from childhood legends—for a Latovian like her, terms such as "king" and "president" carried too much weight.

In some ways, a king even seemed more formidable to her than a president.

She shook her head slightly, softly patting Lille on the back, "Son... talking with a king must be very stressful, right?"

Lille stuffed a piece of pork rib into his mouth, his speech a bit muffled: "It’s just like that."

Watching him like this, Maya suddenly laughed, "Clever from a young age, a king’s partner? Doesn’t that put you on the same level as a king?

If you were also a king, then I would be the Queen Mother. Speaking of which, your grandfather once mentioned that our ancestors had noble blood..."

Maya began to ramble, talking about the fantasies she’d often imagined in her childhood, of nobles knocking at their door, then returning to a grand manor as an heiress, and so on.

As for Lille—becoming a king?

He had never thought about it.

[ctOS Corporate Intranet Alert: Data Reception...]

[Frank: Boss, the first batch of data transmission is complete.]

[Lille: Good.]