Chapter 235: 234 Clouds Over the Future

Faced with the two choices Hearing Li Ang had offered, the freckled prince, for once in his life, managed to show a bit of spine.

He neither chose to hand over the information directly, nor chose to take Hearing Li Ang's slap head-on; instead, relying on his own courage, he successfully blazed a third path…

First, he took a good beating, then tearfully handed over the information about the future.

Tell me, what on earth were you after?

Looking at Watching Watching Qiaoshuya, whose face was a mess of snot and tears but who was still clutching his swollen cheeks and glaring at him with indignant fury, Hearing Li Ang couldn't help but sigh, feeling that this time he had perhaps gone a little too far.

Although he already bore the title of prince and had begun running around causing trouble everywhere, the freckled prince was actually younger than his own sister Anna, hadn't even grown a beard yet, and was genuinely still just a half-grown child. For him to not only use force to beat the boy, but even rob him of his "things," was truly a bit immoral.

But with the future of so many people in the kingdom at stake—possibly even the safety of the Watch Palace, and the fate of all humanity—such critical intelligence absolutely could not be let slip… Next time Watching Watching Qiaoshuya acts up, he'll just have to hold back and beat him one less time, treating it as an advance payment for this occasion!

While the freckled prince was sniffling and beginning to write from memory, Senior Jerry had already returned to the Bureau ahead of time. Having made his "advance payment" decision, Hearing Li Ang took out the ram's head, asked the freckled prince a few questions to confirm the information was true, then directly took out the 【Plague-Blood Bandage】 and wrapped it around his face to reduce the swelling, before quickly leaving the palace, hailing a carriage, and heading toward the Cleanup Bureau.

……

So that's how it is…

After unfurling the future intelligence Watching Watching Qiaoshuya had written from memory on the carriage and quickly skimming through it, Hearing Li Ang finally understood why the kingdom of the future had not chosen to cooperate with the Korok Kingdom, but had instead refused the joint "mineral" development request, ultimately leading to the Korok Kingdom coming to their doorstep.

Because the so-called "energy minerals" the Korok Kingdom's scouts had discovered in the kingdom were not actually minerals at all, but rather dozens of underground lava rivers stretching over a hundred kilometers, along with eleven extinct volcanoes distributed across two counties of the kingdom!

His own "home" county of Bobby Laien, and the county of Merino, famous for its wool production, both sat atop a special "hotspot" in the earth's crust, with nearly inexhaustible thermal energy beneath them. If these volcanoes were fully exploited, they would be enough to satisfy over eighty percent of the Korok Kingdom's energy needs.

But the problem was that the extraction method proposed by the Korok Kingdom was unimaginably crude—not only would it require re-digging open all eleven extinct volcanoes, it would even require multiple deliberate detonations!

If the kingdom had truly reached a cooperation with the Korok Kingdom, not only would the residents of the two counties need to be relocated on a massive scale, but the volcanic ash and smoke spewed out after the eleven volcanoes erupted would, under the influence of the monsoon, drift westward and blanket most of the kingdom.

After that, not only would Bobby Laien County and Merino County become unfit for human habitation, but the kingdom's tens of thousands of large farms and ranches would all be affected by the volcanoes, suffering terrifying-scale production cuts or even total crop failures, leading to a massive famine lasting several years.

Beyond that, the crustal shifts caused by the detonations and the subsequent extraction activities could also bring intermittent earthquakes and widespread ground subsidence. Faced with consequences of this magnitude, no matter how much the Korok Kingdom offered, the kingdom simply could not agree.

So… one side was determined to have these underground energy resources, while the other could not accept the consequences of extraction under any circumstances. With their core interests in direct conflict, naturally the only option left was to resort to force and communicate directly with fists.

And although the Korok Kingdom had a very small population, the hardness of their fists was beyond what the kingdom could match. Once the two sides began "communicating," the situation was destined to be one-sided. The kingdom had almost no ability to fight back on a large-scale battlefield, and after the princess—the most steadfast resistance faction leader—was killed, it nearly collapsed entirely, teetering on the brink of national destruction.

After finishing reading the intelligence related to the Korok Kingdom's invasion, the doubts Hearing Li Ang had harbored about the future were partially resolved.

No wonder middle-aged Watching Watching Qiaoshuya, even at that point, hadn't run away but had chosen to brace himself and negotiate with Hearing Li Ang under the encirclement of the rebels, hoping to persuade him to attack the boarding tower and kill the Korok Kingdom's scouts—because this was the most likely way he could think of to avoid that future.

And as things stood now, he really did have to make a trip to the boarding tower. Even if he didn't directly kill those Korok Kingdom scouts as middle-aged Watching Watching Qiaoshuya had suggested, he still needed to bring along the Phoebe sisters, who could modify memories, to prevent the "mineral deposit" intelligence from being sent back to the Korok Kingdom and triggering the subsequent invasion war.

Additionally…

Looking at the dark future recorded by the freckled prince—smoke-choked skies, ash blanketing the ground, the kingdom's population cut by more than half, and nearly sixty percent of the people suffering from lung diseases—Hearing Li Ang's brow furrowed deeply.

Since this future had truly occurred, it meant the Cleanup Bureau had not intervened, and had indeed abided by its agreements with the various kingdoms, only handling anomalous situations and never interfering in matters outside the anomalous scope.

Based on what he had personally witnessed today—the various branch bureaus of the Cleanup Bureau each doing their own thing, and being little more than a scattered mob when not engaged in large-scale operations—such an outcome was indeed quite possible.

Not to mention those branch directors who had been deeply tainted by the anomalous, giving off a feeling that they were beginning to step outside the bounds of "human"—even the few directors present had reacted with notable indifference to the massive casualties Director Aquarius had privately caused.

The only one who might have intervened, Director Taurus, was about to ascend to the Palace next year. So when the Korok Kingdom invaded, the only ones likely to pay attention to the matter would be the Virgo Branch and the Gemini Branch.

And judging from Director Aquarius's brain-swap surgery, the Gemini Branch's relationship with the Korok Kingdom seemed "quite close," making it unlikely they would step in to stop it, so…

Where's the Director? What is the Director doing?

After mulling over his own Director's style of conduct, Hearing Li Ang's brow furrowed even deeper.

Although the Director was rather unreliable—teasing people when sober and completely checking out when drunk—the Director was genuinely a good person on the "good side." Even if they couldn't directly intervene upon seeing such things, they wouldn't truly do nothing at all.

Yet in the future Watching Watching Qiaoshuya had written, there was almost no trace of the Virgo Branch at all. Even Director Aquarius, who had failed to replace Director Taurus in ascending to the Palace, had made several appearances, but his own Director seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth, as if never having appeared at all—even the entire Virgo Branch had gone completely silent.

Based on his understanding of the Director, this situation was absolutely impossible. So… in the future where he hadn't appeared, had the kingdom perhaps encountered some extremely serious large-scale incident that caused the entire Virgo Branch to suffer heavy casualties, or even…

"Woof! Woof woof!"

Just as Hearing Li Ang was clutching the intelligence written by the freckled prince, pondering what had gone wrong, an urgent dog bark rang out by his ear.

Hearing Li Ang turned his head in surprise and saw that it was Senior Jerry's beloved dog… companion, Ms. Lisa—this… this adult golden retriever was poking its head out through the carriage window and stuffing a hastily scribbled note into his hand.

'Come back quickly, something's happened at the Bureau!'?!!!