Chapter 816 - 95: Flames of War (Part 3)

"It’s been three weeks since the dual presidency declared their legal power over the United States of America."

"We can see that the space airship has caused significant damage to Mei Country’s communication network, with the internet consistently overloaded and fragmented, impacting the global network to some extent."

"Since the war, the probability of issues with various information devices has increased severalfold compared to before the war."

"Let’s focus on the latest situation in Mei Country: the space airship continues to patrol North America, and the United Nations Security Council states this is normal security work."

"Various United Nations member states indicate that such armament exceeds the power the UN should possess, but Security Council member Alexander Pierce claims it’s necessary force to maintain world peace."

"Since the deployment of the space airship in North America, communications in the region have been silent for a long time, but we see communication is on the rise:"

"Several states report that since President Ellis’ new policies were enacted, local GDP has skyrocketed, increasing by 10%~25% compared to the previous month, as Mei Country is forging an industrial miracle."

"In stark contrast, in places like New York, the month-on-month growth has hit a new low, plummeting to -2070%, as the former world financial center experiences a massive economic regression, with the financial system’s collapse sweeping globally, and large numbers of investors flocking to the European market..."

"Today’s European news: Latovia is rebuilding its capital, but we’ve seen nothing so far."

"Several Nordic and Eastern European countries have reached an agreement recently, and they seem to agree with President Ellis’ statement: Lille Lee, Doctor Doom poses a thoroughly destructive threat to a stable environment."

"They believe that Latovia’s coup d’état could affect their border security, with some even suggesting that the coup d’état is supported by the European Union as a military expansion..."

"In summary, several countries, including Sokovia, have declared the formation of the Eastern European Border Security Military Pact, abbreviated as the Eastern Pact."

"The Eastern Pact states that to ensure the territorial security of each member state, they will take all measures to prevent Doctor Doom from threatening their border security..."

"Including military means."

All sorts of news are making headlines in an era of internet semi-collapse, where the once cheap internet traffic and communication methods have gradually become expensive, and most people can only hear the words of major media outlets.

Even in Europe, the price of internet traffic has increased more than fivefold compared to two years ago, and that number is still climbing.

Logically, products with high profits should attract investors to bet heavily, but not this time.

[Schulz: It’s not that we don’t want to restore communications. Our equipment experiences a rapid increase in failure rate after running for a while, and maintenance costs are too high.]

Relying on the limited communication lines, Speaker Schulz and Lille spoke once again.

There’s no choice but to communicate: now, the northeastern countries are planning to unite to attack Latovia, and not only attack, but also involve Europe.

However, before the official discussion began, Lille first inquired about the current network situation.

Receiving this answer, Lille instinctively felt something was wrong:

In the cyberpunk 21st-century twenties, with the rapid development of AI technology, the cost of maintaining network equipment continued to soar, primarily for the following reasons:

Social unrest, ongoing war, hardware and software running at high loads in overt and covert battles, significantly increasing failure rates.

But beyond that, the maturity of AI technology is also considered a primary reason for the increase in network maintenance costs: past network supervision reports show that abnormal device operations and major failures are often related to rogue AI.

According to numerous reports from European engineers...

There’s definitely something abnormal on the network; either Hydra is up to something, or... this world might also be facing a dangerous tipping point.

In a matter of seconds, Lille scanned through a large number of data reports.

[Lille: ...you need professionals to run and maintain the network.]

[Speaker Schulz: Your Atlas? I do want to find professionals; these loafing engineers can’t even identify the problems... Is this issue very tricky?]

[Lille: Extremely tricky, even I need time to determine the problem.]

These blunt words made Speaker Schulz choke for a moment, but Lille quickly added:

[Lille: But if you urgently need it, I can have Latovia assist you with some engineers.]

A country that just went from a backwards, fragmented medieval world into a monarchy helping the European Union?

Schulz didn’t say anything, but Lille knew what he was thinking because he completely skipped over this topic.

[Speaker Schulz: Let’s talk about something else; the European Union doesn’t want to fight, especially now... you’re a smart person, so I’ll get to the point:]

[Speaker Schulz: The issue with Mei Country has destabilized the global economy. We can’t afford to miss this opportunity by getting involved in a war with... northeastern neighbors.]

In the cyberpunk world, Mei Country also experienced decline, even fragmentation, so Europe rose up and maintained its leading position until today.

In reality, whether in the second position or when the leader is busy fighting and leaves the spot vacant, driven by interests, everyone rushes to take the position, secure it, and not find someone to fight.

Such a simple issue is clear to everyone.

[Lille: An issue everyone can see, but clearly, you also must assist us.]

[Speaker Schulz: Sigh... familiar taste, the situation changes like a nuclear reaction, completely uncontrollable.]

Just because everyone can see it, a leader busy fighting will certainly try to get someone to bring the runner-up into the fight as well.

For example, the third is a great choice... the bigger the gap between the third and the second, the better, because the second merely wants to maintain the status quo, whereas the third will definitely fight hard, otherwise, it has no way to surpass the second.

Then the third might also think, if only someone could help hold its own third, it would be great...

The Earth is big, but also small. Once a war starts, no one can stay out of it, so-called appeasement and prayers for peace are mere words to comfort the public from politicians.

With opportunities, everyone will surely jump in; those with resources exhaust every means to use those without resources, while those without resources use every means to trade people for resources...

To rise to the top, there is no other way.

[Speaker Schulz: We can provide weapons, munitions... but can your people really use these things?]

[Speaker Schulz: Forgive me for being blunt, they might not even be able to operate... a tractor.]

[Lille: I don’t want your ready-made weapons, I need industrial materials and machinery, as much as possible.]

[Lille: To the outside, you can claim it’s disaster relief and emergency construction supplies; you can also tell your citizens you’re not warmongers.]

[Lille: If you’re worried about political repercussions, you can broadcast the transport live, showing the world Latovia’s current situation.]

Simple material aid is far easier to mobilize than direct military aid.

Moreover, these things are mostly excess capacity at the time...

[Speaker Schulz: ...are you sure you only need these? Although I’m not very convinced about you, I really don’t want you to lose.]

[Lille: The more, the better, and it must be quick.]

[Speaker Schulz: The more, the better; if that’s your only request, it’s easy to manage.]

[Speaker Schulz: You will receive support, Your Majesty the King.]