Chapter 187: The lives of barbarians don't count as human lives

Bruce's expression was grave, "The purpose is fine, but the method will cause big problems."

Afterwards he told the officer that he must speak with the president in person.

But this was rejected by the other side.

Bruce grew anxious, and with a stern heart threatened, "If you don't let me see the president, I will immediately terminate the project!"

The leading officer directly drew his pistol and aimed it at Bruce's head.

Ning Hai was startled and quickly stepped back a few paces.

Facing the dark muzzle, Bruce showed no fear, "The core data and research technology of time travel are in my hands; if I die, you won't be able to continue the research."

"Professor Bruce, think of your family," the leading officer said coldly.

Bruce's face changed slightly, yet he raised his head and said, "I think my family will understand me."

Just as both sides reached a stalemate.

A blond-haired man in a black suit walked unhurriedly into the conference room.

"Put down the gun," the blond-haired man ordered calmly.

The officer obeyed his words readily and promptly retracted his gun.

The blond-haired man glanced at Professor Bruce, then at Ning Hai, and with a smile said, "Professor, Mr. Ning Hai, please have a seat."

Ning Hai did not know this person; this was also their first meeting, but evidently the blond-haired man already knew something about him.

So he sat down in silence.

Bruce remained standing, frowned, and asked, "Who are you."

The blond-haired man sat down, lifted his feet onto the conference table, and said nonchalantly, "You can call me Mr. M. The president is very busy; whatever you want to tell him, just tell me."

Bruce knew he now had no chance to see the president.

Left with no choice, he could only ask, "Are you planning to loot the land beyond the Time-Space Gate?"

"Exactly," the blond-haired man said without beating around the bush, "We discovered the world from over two thousand years ago, and of course we must seize all its resources."

"Mr. M, what about the indigenous tribal inhabitants?"

"It's simple; they are all barbarians—drive them out if you can, kill them if you cannot. If necessary, that world must also become M Guo's territory."

"I knew it!" Bruce's veins bulged on his forehead, he braced his hands on the table, and shouted, "I oppose your approach!"

Ning Hai thought, "Now I understand why the professor was worried."

And everyone in the world knows how M Guo was founded and grew rich.

Indeed, after hundreds of years, the elites who control M Guo still maintain their ancestors' ways.

Facing Professor Bruce's outburst, the blond-haired man smiled and asked, "Professor, what do you think should be done?"

Bruce said without hesitation, "Times have changed; we should obtain the resources we need from that world through peaceful means."

"Peaceful means? Like what?" the blond-haired man said, crossing his fingers with a meaningful expression.

Professor Bruce glanced at Ning Hai, then spoke seriously, "On the other side of our Earth, across the ocean, the Eastern Huaxia Guo's approach is worth learning from."

"Is that so?" the blond-haired man narrowed his eyes slightly, "What is their approach?"

Professor Bruce said:

"Over the past few decades, more and more resource-rich but backward regions would rather risk offending M Guo to supply Huaxia Guo, because Huaxia Guo can help them improve their lives, and the people there are increasingly intolerant of M Guo's armed looting, which has caused M Guo to gradually lose its former dominance—don't you realize this?"

The blond-haired man curled his lip in a cold smile, "Of course we know."

Professor Bruce grew even angrier, "Since you know, why not develop another world this way? Must you resort to violent plunder? Aren't the indigenous tribes in that two-thousand-year-old world people too? Their lives are lives! Moreover, they are the rightful owners of that land!"

The blond-haired man gave a look of utter contempt, "I've said it before—those are just a bunch of barbarians; a barbarian's life doesn't count as a human life. That world from over two thousand years ago, the entire American continent had no nations yet, and even if a few empires had arisen on another continent, they could never be our match. We don't need to help barbarians develop in order to trade for resources."

"Mr. M..."

"Professor Bruce!" the blond-haired man's face suddenly darkened, "Would you, when gathering wild honey, build hives for the wild bees, feed them pollen, and only take the honey after securing their consent through these helpful measures?!"

Bruce argued earnestly, "We are dealing with indigenous tribal inhabitants, living human beings! Not wild bees!"

The blond-haired man scoffed, "Is there any difference?"

Bruce, furious at being unable to rebut that analogy, could only reiterate that if the military ever resorted to armed plunder, he would absolutely not cooperate in advancing the Time-Space Traversal Project, even if they threatened his family and his life.

Seeing his obstinacy, the blond-haired man patiently said, "Professor, don't forget—you are a person of M Guo, and M Guo's interests come above all."

"M Guo is already very strong!" Bruce said firmly.

"I don't want M Guo to still be, as it was a century ago, building a nation and growing rich by slaughtering indigenes and looting resources! Now we can completely obtain the resources we need gently from that world."

"As you, Mr. M, said, in that world no empire would be our match—don't you think we have even less need for violent plunder?"

"Moreover, besides us, no other country in today's world can reach there, so we needn't worry about others competing to seize it—right?"

"We are already civilized beings—why must we continue to do inhuman things?!"

After a barrage of rapid-fire questioning, Professor Bruce was exhausted, his face flushed and breathing heavily.

Ning Hai feared the old man's heart couldn't take it, so he quickly moved a chair behind him and helped him sit down.

Regarding the major split among M Guo's personnel, Ning Hai could not interject and did not want to, lest he drag himself into a quagmire; he only wanted to use this opportunity to rescue his daughter and wife from within the country.

His daughter's situation was easy to handle, after all it had not yet risen to the level of a criminal case.

Professor Bruce had already helped; his daughter would be fine soon.

But his wife had been convicted of attempted murder and tampering with a will, a more serious problem.

Moreover, although Professor Bruce also had the ability to use his connections to help, he refused, saying her wife had committed a crime, and one who commits a crime must accept punishment, so he would not give any further assistance in that regard.

Ning Hai calculated, helping the professor advance the Time-Space Traversal Project research on one hand while trying to persuade him on the other.

Who knows; after some time, the professor might, in recognition of his past merits and hardships, finally agree to help—even if it could only reduce his wife's sentence by a few years would be fine.

But as things stand now, if the professor and M Guo's high-level cannot reach a consensus, affecting the project's progress, this hope will come to nothing…

The conference room remained silent for a long time.

The blond-haired man waited until Bruce's emotions eased before speaking slowly, "Dear Professor Bruce, what you say has some merit. But don't you feel that M Guo's position as world number one is not so secure? You are also one of our elites; you shouldn't be like M Guo's lower classes, still naively believing that no nation on this planet can challenge M Guo's hegemony."

When he said this, the blond man glanced at Ning Hai with a meaningful look.

Ning Hai felt a bit flustered, and expressed his stance: "Mr. M, you know, I've been wanted by Huaxia Guo, and... I also obtained your country's nationality as a core participant in the trial project; I am now an M Guo citizen, and will always be."

The blond man laughed, saying, "Mr. Ning Hai, you don't need to be so nervous; I certainly trust you, I'm glad you can express your stance so clearly, rest assured, in our free country, you are the safest."

Ning Hai secretly let out a sigh of relief, squeezing out a pleasing smile.

"Mr. M, I certainly know that Huaxia Guo has now become our strongest opponent; their development speed is unprecedented, with a trend to surpass us," Professor Bruce said while thinking, "Because I have seen the miracles created by Huaxia Guo, I believe that their cooperative assistance with backward countries and regions is the correct approach; we should now learn from them and not be arrogant anymore."

The blond man said lightly, "So what do you think, given the current world situation, do we still have time to use their approach to win over the increasing number of countries in this world that side with them?"

"This..." Professor Bruce hesitated.

The blond man tapped the table with his finger and said, "I tell you, it's too late. Our top-tier think tank within the high leadership has drawn the conclusion that M Guo is rapidly declining, while Huaxia Guo's development trend remains fierce. Countless industries we once led globally are being successively surpassed by Huaxia Guo, and we are increasingly unable to cope."

Professor Bruce gritted his teeth and said, "Then let's cooperate well with Huaxia Guo; even if we lose the position of world leader and the ability to control the whole world, it's still better than opposing Huaxia Guo, especially since they are indeed striving to make the world more peaceful and beautiful."

The blond man sneered, "When M Guo can no longer dominate the world, those insatiable top-rich people and conglomerates of M Guo will no longer be able to scrape wealth from the whole world; this is harder to bear than letting them die. Do you think those who control M Guo can accept that?"

Bruce's face looked grim; he wanted to say something but didn't know how to respond.

The blond man continued, "Thank God, we have now found a world not yet heavily consumed by modern civilization; its abundant resources can help M Guo continue to firmly control the globe. Moreover, now we can only keep up with or even surpass Huaxia Guo's development speed by plundering. Professor Bruce, it's not that I refuse to adopt a peaceful, gradual approach; it's that our great M Guo simply doesn't have that much time left. But I can do my utmost at that time to reduce casualties among the ancient people of that world."

After saying that, the blond man's face showed an expectant look as he quietly watched Bruce, hoping to make this stubborn professor change his attitude.

Bruce pondered for several full minutes, then slowly rose, adjusted his glasses, and spoke solemnly:

"I know all too well your kind; once you start plundering, you will never spare the people of that world. You will use modern weapons to wildly crush that world, which lags behind us by over two thousand years, recklessly draining every usable resource, while over there, no force can stop you."

"If it requires sacrificing the lives of all humanity in that entire world just to maintain M Guo's so-called world leadership here, I'm sorry, I cannot do that."

"Mr. M, please leave and inform the President that the time-space travel project is hereby terminated; I will dissolve the lab and destroy all related data."

These words made Ning Hai's face change color as well.

But the blond man remained calm, only a fleeting glint of cold light flashing in his blue-gray eyes.

After saying that, Professor Bruce left the meeting room directly.

Ning Hai hurriedly rose to chase after him, but after a few steps he stopped, returned to the blond man's side, bent over with a smiling face and said, "Mr. M, Professor Bruce just hasn't figured it out for the moment; I'll go persuade him, rest assured, he has devoted his life to researching Time Travel, so it won't just end like this."

The blond man showed an appreciative expression, saying, "Mr. Ning Hai, aside from Professor Bruce, you should be the person who understands best the Black Sphere capable of opening the Time-Space Gate, right?"

Ning Hai thought, that thing even Professor Bruce hasn't figured out its operating principle, and the current way to activate the Black Sphere is something I, the trial team, plus the confidential data provided by Bruce, have gradually figured out bit by bit, so that statement is not wrong.

Thus he nodded repeatedly.

"Yes, even in some practical aspects I know better than him; aside from some core data, I still need him to provide it to me."

The blond man curled his lips into a smile upon hearing that.

"My dear Mr. Ning Hai," he said, standing up and patting Ning Hai's shoulder, speaking meaningfully, "I hope you can completely persuade Professor Bruce to comply with our arrangements; if you succeed, I can guarantee that through diplomatic channels you will soon be reunited with your wife and daughter, and in the future your whole family will be able to enjoy a prosperous and free perfect life in M Guo."

Ning Hai's eyes widened instantly, overjoyed, he said, "Yes yes yes! I will definitely do it!"

The blond man took out a card printed with a phone number and placed it in Ning Hai's chest pocket, saying, "Then Mr. Ning Hai, I await your good news."

The blond man then left with several officers.

Ning Hai was so excited his whole body trembled; he ran back and forth in the meeting room several times before calming down.

Although I don't know exactly what position Mr. M holds, from the situation just now he is at least a person of great power beside the M Guo president.

If I manage to cling to this thick thigh, there's no need to hope for Professor Bruce's help.

Ning Hai carefully kept the contact information given by the other party close to his person and hurried straight to Professor Bruce's office.

At this moment, Professor Bruce was slumped on the sofa, puffing one after another on a strong cigarette.

Seeing Ning Hai rush over excitedly, he supported his forehead and gave a firm reminder:

Ning Hai, if you are trying to come and persuade me to follow Mr. M's arrangement, then say nothing at all; please do not disturb me. I do not want this matter to affect the friendship between us.