Chapter 955

For any country, choosing war is a high-stakes gamble.

If the gamble is won, then everything is fine. Just like the war currently breaking out, except for the federal continent and the Empire, eighty percent of the countries on the Tanfite continent, as well as surrounding regions and island nations, have gradually begun to be affected by the war.

This is the largest scale of participating countries in human history!

Some federal scholars and experts believe that as the war progresses, it is very likely that several countries on the Empire's side will also be affected.

Because the "stakes" are simply too high.

High to the point where neither side can afford to admit defeat.

It is like two players sitting on opposite sides of a gambling table; at first, they were only betting five or ten dollars, much like those border frictions.

Even if one admitted defeat, it would be nothing more than a nominal apology, or perhaps no apology at all, just a tough stance that things would remain as they were.

But as they invest more and more, now, in the past, and even in the future, the moment they put everything on the gambling table, it is destined that they will not stop expanding the scale until this gambling game drains their last penny.

Now more and more countries are being dragged in, and they too are standing at the edge of the gambling table, starting to place their own bets. So what comes next?

Once the Dantela Republic faces a possible defeat, will they request aid from the Empire?

This is very possible!

It would be nothing more than signing a series of treaties and clauses. A small group of people now believes that the Federation has set a very good example for the Dantela Republic.

They could completely learn from Slard, promising to cede the leading position to the Empire, and then have the Empire dispatch more troops and provide them with more material aid, making this war a "world war" in the true sense!

This possibility is very high, precisely because their stakes are too high; no one can afford to lose.

They could even sign all sorts of excessive clauses, only asking to break even.

As for the human resources, resources, and development potential of the country consumed in the war?

That is not a problem at all, but rather the consumption of internal contradictions.

For the ruling class, the initial purpose of the outbreak of war is to solve these contradictions: surplus population, the dissatisfaction of the lower classes with the acquisition of benefits, and various other problems.

The Federation is also very vigilant about this, vigilant about continuing to expand the scale and intensity of the war. After all, if this war continues to develop, no one knows if it will become the fuse for the destruction of the world.

We should be grateful that humanity has not yet invented weapons that can destroy itself, otherwise this would be the "final era" of human history.

The war currently happening within Rapa is the same; Diego decided to resolve the differences through civil war, which means he has actively sat down at the gambling table.

It is just that at this stage, for others, their participation is not yet that high, unlike Diego.

Diego can no longer afford to lose. Once he loses this civil war, it means he will die, and the Lavila family will become a thing of the past.

Except for Diego himself, no one else can feel his intense helplessness at this moment.

After all, for these ruling groups, Diego may have put all his bets on the table, but they have not.

The internal discussions have yielded no results, but the possibility of a real civil war continues to increase.

The federal ambassador stationed in Rapa issued a warning to the federal people in Rapa, warning them to try not to leave the city limits and not to go to dangerous places alone or with many Rapa people.

The atmosphere has also become more tense and explosive, just like the weather at this very moment.

You say it's good?

The weather is indeed nice right now; in the azure sky, like the purest sapphire, there isn't a single cloud, so clean that one would be deeply immersed just by taking a look.

A sun hangs high in the sky, emitting endless power and bringing hope of life to all things on the ground.

But if you say it's truly good, that's not necessarily the case.

The fierce sunlight is scorching, and the workers working under the hot sun are still wearing thick, double-layered clothes. It's not that they are sick, but simply that they are afraid of getting sunburned.

In Rapa, many things are taboos for ordinary people, things that absolutely must not be done or happen, and among them is getting sick.

The number of people who get sunburned and then die from infection is not small.

Not to mention every year, every month in Rapa, thousands or even more people have to choose to face death because they cannot afford expensive medical expenses due to illness or infection from injuries.

Therefore, the workers working on construction sites wearing two layers of clothes is actually a form of self-protection.

Those animals are also listlessly hiding in cool places, watching the crowds who are clearly suffering from the heat but still have to work.

A young Rapa boy dragged his weary steps back home from outside. It was already evening, the temperature had gradually become a bit cooler, and people had become a bit more spirited.

The two girls squatting at the door, the moment they saw him return from outside, their dirty faces immediately bloomed with innocent smiles.

"Brother..."

The two rushed over, adding a trace of a smile to the Rapa boy's face; perhaps this was the reason for his hard work outside.

His father was a riverbed gold panner, the kind of person who wore only underwear or nothing at all, jumping naked into sewage rivers to look for something valuable.

Such people call themselves "gold panners," but in reality, they are not panning for gold, just some trash that is as ordinary as can be.

But it is this trash that supported their family's life.

During one job, he stepped on a piece of steel on the riverbed, about seven or eight kilograms heavy, covered in rust.

This piece of rusty scrap iron sold for a good amount of money, greatly easing the tense family financial situation.

But they didn't know that when his father's foot stepped on this piece of scrap iron, which had been cut from somewhere unknown, it was punctured by it.

At the time, he didn't pay attention, just simply cleaned it with not-so-clean well water and wrapped it with a small piece of cloth, which was considered treating the wound.

A few days later, he started to have a fever, then convulsions, and soon the family watched him die on his bed in a daze.

An old man in the slum district said their father had offended the River God, so he was cursed by the River God and died under the curse.

This also led the Rapa boy, who had originally planned to become a riverbed gold panner like his father, to be forbidden by his mother from going into the river.

Their family had already lost their breadwinner and could not afford to lose another.

So for a long time, he could only find odd jobs to do everywhere, five dollars today, ten dollars tomorrow.

This money wasn't even enough to fill their stomachs.

So his two younger sisters were only wrapped in some clothes he had worn out, and they didn't have their own clothes.

Perhaps the hugs and laughter of his family washed away some of the dust on his soul from his exhausting work. He picked up his two younger sisters and walked toward the tent where they lived.

His mother was making dinner, a kind of food he didn't know how to name himself.

Using some edible grass leaves and roots, the fibers of these things are hard to digest, so it's not easy to feel hungry after eating them.

Then, tree wheat flour produced by the wheat flour tree is mixed in, a little oil is added, kneaded hard, and then continuously heated.

The starch of the tree wheat flour will gradually form a ball. After forming a ball, it is mixed with these other things and then pinched into round balls one by one. This is their dinner.

Honestly, it's not very tasty; you need to drink a lot of water after eating it, otherwise, it's easy to get constipated.

But it can provide some necessary things for survival and can also provide a feeling of fullness. This is the food of the poor.

Unlike the rich, they never consider taste, color, or aroma; they only consider whether they will be bothered by hunger.

After simply eating a few balls, he felt a bit full. These things cannot be chewed because once chewed, you can't swallow them anymore; you can only dip them in a little oil, then swallow them in one gulp, and drink some water.

It's not that the young man was full, but he knew that he had eaten enough because his sisters and mother hadn't eaten yet and were waiting at the dining table.

Only after he, the breadwinner, was full would they eat.

Although it wasn't tasty, dinner was still a rare warm moment for the family.

He took thirty dollars out of his pocket and handed it to his mother, which made his mother's eyes widen, "Where did you get so much money?"

She asked while flattening the money, smoothing it out, and after counting it twice, she put it away.

The young man giggled and said, "I found a good job today, helping people move things at the construction site in the factory area over there."

"If I don't eat the food they provide, they can give me thirty dollars." "If I eat the food they provide, it's only twenty dollars."

"I thought that it wouldn't cost ten dollars for me to eat alone, so I came back to eat."

His mother seemed to think of something, "Is it the federal people's construction site?"

The young man nodded, "Yes, it's the federal people's construction site."

In the slums, there are some rumors about the federal people. Some say that federal people have to eat people to survive, and others say they have to drink human blood to survive.

In short, demonizing and uglifying the federal people has become a kind of political correctness. It is hard for anyone to figure out where these rumors started, but it is indeed widely circulated among the people.

Some people don't want civilians to have too close contact with federal people, but this can only be said to be the delusion of these people.

As more factories begin to be built and start production, the contact between federal people and Rapa people will only increase.

"Since they give you so much money, you must work hard!"

His mother exhorted him, and then thought of something, "By the way, when you hadn't come back in the afternoon, some federal people came over and said some things."

"They said they planned to handle something for the locals living in our area...", she paused, seemingly searching for a fragment in her memory.

After a few seconds, she found what she was looking for, "Yes, identity cards."

"They said they wanted to help us handle identity cards, register our personal information, etc., but everything is voluntary."

The young man heard about this. When he was working, he heard those formal construction workers say that in the future, when federal people recruit workers, they will give priority to locals with identity cards.

Only when locals in this situation are fully recruited will they go to recruit those locals without identity cards.

And after handling the identity card, the income will increase by a few dollars to dozens of dollars—

This depends on the income level of the person handling it.

Like a worker who only has five hundred dollars a month, after having an identity card, it might increase from five hundred dollars to five hundred and fifty or six hundred dollars a month.

And those skilled workers who can earn two or three thousand are the only ones who might go from two or three thousand to three or four thousand or a few hundred more.

"Did they say where to handle it?", he asked.

His mother frowned and thought for a while, "Seems like by the river."

The sky gradually darkened, accompanied by the chirping of insects, and the slums began to become lively, and the atmosphere of life began to permeate.

The young man sat at the door of his house, watching his two younger sisters while listening to or occasionally participating in the idle chatter of the neighbors.

This is one of the few pleasures and leisure activities for the poor in Rapa. Everyone sits together, or sits at the door of their own house, and talks about some things they encountered at work during the day.

The most popular ones are those who can go to the city center to work. They will talk about things that others can't imagine at all, such as what it's like in the mall, or that there are free, clean direct drinking fountains on the side of the road in the rich area.

The boy didn't know what a direct drinking fountain was. Later, after hearing someone explain it, he realized it was clean water that could be drunk directly!

You know, clean water in Rapa costs one dollar a bucket, and it's limited every day. If you go late, there's none left!

Because rivers, including groundwater, contain a lot of trash and things he doesn't know about, anyway, you can't drink it casually, or you will get sick.

If you tell them the water is very dirty, they may not listen to you.

But as long as you tell them that drinking it will make them sick, they will be obedient.

The power of poverty is great enough to easily change a person's living habits!

Through the idle chatter of these people, a world he longed for but didn't fully understand slowly unfolded in his mind.

He really wanted to go to the rich area once, but he knew he couldn't go there for now.

There are many police patrols in the rich area. If you don't have a set of clothes that look at least clean and tidy, they will drive you away from inside with the wooden sticks in their hands and beat you.

Because poor people are not allowed to enter the rich people's territory without permission.

Just like the Rapa Hotel, even if Lanse is the inviting party, those civilians and poor people are not allowed to enter the hotel.

As for the escorts?

That's another matter; after all, foreigners like it.

What could be more important than satisfying the physiological and emotional needs of these foreigners?

Whenever talking about these things, the boy is always full of expectations and yearning.

Today they talked about some things again, and as they talked, they talked about the identity card matter.

"This identity card cannot be handled casually!", a neighbor uncle suddenly expressed his point of view.

People around were talking about this, and were immediately attracted by his words.

This uncle is forty-seven or forty-eight years old, which is considered a relatively long-lived person in the slums.

Previously, the Federation had also reported some things about the poverty and backwardness of the Yalan area, and some federal people were very worried about whether their health could be guaranteed.

In fact, they considered too much because most Rapa people don't live to the age they are worried about.

Being over forty years old is a one-hundred-percent old man here. He can live so long, naturally, he has things that make people convinced. People always subconsciously look up to people who live longer, hoping that they can also live longer.

"This is a conspiracy of foreigners. These blood-sucking foreigners want to use these identity cards to set the dishes!"

"Just like the farms in the rich area, those rich people will make marks on the healthy and strong pigs, cattle, and sheep. When they want to eat, they will choose from them."

"The purpose of them making identity cards for us is also to kill us when needed!"

He said it as if it were true, and some middle-aged people were clearly half-believing.

The Rapa boy couldn't help but laugh after hearing it, "Uncle, I have been working on the federal people's construction site recently. They don't drink blood, and they don't eat people."

"They are the same as us, they have to eat, but their food is much better than ours."

"There is beef, fish, and bread made of whole wheat steamed wheat kernels and wheat flour."

Speaking of this, the attention of the people around was immediately attracted by the boy, which made the old uncle somewhat ashamed and annoyed, "What do you know!"

He doesn't like his authority being challenged, but people's attention at this time was not placed here. They began to ask the boy what those federal people look like, and their usual performance.

At this stage, the social underclass who can contact federal people is still a minority. On the one hand, investors and tourists from the Federation or other countries will not risk sneaking into these slums.

Secondly, because the city center and the rich area do not allow the untouchables to enter, they cannot contact each other.

Occasionally, some who can work in the city center or the rich area will not risk contacting federal people. Who knows if this is something the masters don't like?

Accompanied by the boy's idle chatter, that uncle was also quickly attracted by the stories he told.

Happy times are always short. When it was past seven or eight o'clock, the temperature had dropped to a temperature suitable for rest, and people also returned home one after another, preparing for tomorrow's work.

Of course, there are also some people working on the bed; after all, this is also considered one of the few low-cost entertainment activities.

But it also has a fatal disadvantage, that is, once pregnant, it will become a big trouble, so everywhere in the slums, there will be this indescribable smell. They handle it casually on the ground, on the wall, and even on the street.

In the middle of the night, no one will go to peek at these things.

The young man also slept with his family. What he was thinking about in his mind was that he should ask tomorrow whether he should handle an identity card.

He longs for a stable job, which can improve the situation of him and his family, at least let his two younger sisters have their own clothes, and let them eat a piece of meat, even if it is a piece left over by the rich.

Accompanied by these longings and the yearning for the outside, he slowly fell into his dreams.

(End of chapter)