I'm the boss because I have a harem of anime characters.

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So, building a space elevator on one's own country's soil would be the least objectionable option for other countries.

The new Soviet Union even had a geographical advantage, as it could build the space elevator directly at the North Pole. Apart from solving the problem of low temperatures, the space elevator built there was actually more stable in terms of spatial structure than its counterparts on the equator.

Therefore, Tokyo University and the new Soviet Union announced almost simultaneously that, in order to ensure the smooth progress of international cooperation on the space elevator, the two countries would first conduct relevant technical tests in their own countries, and only after these tests were completed would they enter the international space elevator construction process.

Please rest assured, comrades, it will definitely be built, absolutely (new folder).

The international cooperation framework still exists, and negotiations between countries will continue. However, as everyone knows, the new Soviet Union and Tokyo University first need to build their own national space elevators within their own countries. The new Soviet Union directly chose the Arctic Ocean, while Tokyo University chose Lhasa, Tibet.

As for international cooperation, that will have to wait until the space elevators of the two countries are in place. In other words, this title of "first" can only be discussed between Tokyo University and the new Soviet Union. Other countries should just give up.

It feels like the cooked duck has flown away.

But the countries were not discouraged. On the contrary, they became even more enthusiastic about the University of Tokyo and the new Soviet Union. Even if they couldn't get first or second place, getting third place would be great. That was a ticket to the stars and the sea, and no one could refuse it.

Besides, the space elevator is a high-tech product, and its maintenance after repair is of paramount importance. I should hurry up and go to Dongda University and the new Soviet Union to learn from them, so that I can make a living as a maintenance worker in the future.

In this world, only a very small minority have lofty ambitions; most people are happy as long as they have enough to eat and wear.

"This level alone is not enough."

Qin Shan, the mastermind behind everything, was not thinking about how the United Nations could unite all of humanity, but rather how to truly integrate all of humanity on Earth into one nation, one people, and one belief.

Only through true unity, from the economy to the mind, can humanity's journey to the stars proceed more smoothly.

"Whether it's the Tokyo University or the new Soviet Union, we can take bigger steps. Some countries are superfluous on the map. Their rulers have neither the ability nor the talent to take care of their people. In that case, it is only right to punish the guilty and punish the innocent under the banner of righteousness. We can also squeeze out the remaining value from the United Nations."

Chapter 165: The Battlegrounds of Europe

Those who frequently attend meetings at the United Nations know that the UN is a product of the post-World War II order. To put it bluntly, it provides a forum for international disputes to be debated, with the approval of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Of course, you can't say it's useless. Without the five permanent members directly intervening, the United Nations can still play a positive role. Unfortunately, in the past, because of a certain black-and-white beast, the United States, which is inconvenient to name, it wanted to control everything in the world that was profitable, especially oil, a chemical product that started to breed mold.

But the situation is different now. The American Civil War has ended, Britain and France are in ruins, Europe is in chaos, and the East and the new Soviet Union have completed their second internal revolutions and have begun to actively export their economy and culture. No country in the world can stop the iron fist of the two super-socialist countries.

In the atmosphere of tacit understanding between the two countries, many things have become much simpler. For example, Zelenskyy is currently discussing with the University of Tokyo the return of territories occupied by Tsarist Russia, full support for the return of Outer Mongolia, and in-depth cooperation between the two countries. With both sides ensuring strategic mutual trust (under the same powerful backer), one is moving westward and the other is stabilizing the east, with the ultimate goal of planting red flags all over the world.

With the international situation undergoing drastic changes, the balance of power among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council naturally needs to be completely restructured.

However, if the UK, France, and the US were kicked out in the name of the United Nations, it would mean the complete collapse of the UN's five permanent members. After all, the five permanent members are the legal entities of the UN, so it is not possible to kick out the three permanent members who are no longer worthy of the title within the framework of the UN. Instead, these three countries should "voluntarily" hand over their powers as permanent members, in order to save face.

No, they've already kicked them out of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, what dignity is left?

Of course there is! At least you can save face, right? After all, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council have veto power. If the country in that position has no interests or policies of its own and acts recklessly, then that veto power can be used to deliver disgusting and rotten results.

When the Kuomintang seized the UN seat, they did many similar rotten things, which were extremely disgusting.

Neither Xinsu nor Dongda wanted to encounter the same thing again.

So the question is, how can we smoothly persuade the UK, France, and the US to voluntarily withdraw from the permanent members of the UN Security Council, or relinquish their veto power?

It's very simple, just throw these three countries into complete chaos.

For any country with weak central authority, the arrival of supernatural beings is a disaster. Supernatural beings who cannot be deterred by the violence of a powerful state can easily bully ordinary people. If the country's government aids and abets such evil in this matter, then the entire country's order system will collapse at the speed of light.

Looking at the recent international capital flows received by Dongda and Xinsu, those wealthy people know all too well where the safest countries in the world are. The greed of capitalists and the operation of capital also require life to support them. If you can't even save your life, no matter how much assets you have, you'll just become someone else's granary.

New Suzhou and Dongda University welcome all these international capital and "international friends," but restrict them to certain cities. For example, Dongda University strictly verifies the identities of these people. Unless they are 100% certain that they have made contributions and shown kindness to Dongda University, the identity verification process is like a 50-year investigation. Maybe your grandson will have a chance.

However, we cannot leave these "international friends" without a place to live. Therefore, the University of Tokyo has developed several cities in the border areas of Southeast Asia and other countries. Those international friends who do not have permanent residency are requested to settle in these cities for a period of time. Once you obtain your domestic ID card and real University of Tokyo citizenship, you can then settle permanently at the University of Tokyo.

If you don't have this status but still want to settle down at the University of Tokyo, that's not impossible, but you'll have to pay for public medical services at private rates. I don't think you have any objections (let's see who dares to).

The same tactic applies to the new Soviet Union. Don't they know that security is the greatest luxury in the world today? If you're going to buy a luxury, you have to pay a reasonable price. The people of Tokyo University and the new Soviet Union worked themselves to the bone to finally have the good life they have now. If you come here and just take it for free, it's not reasonable.

We don't expect you to walk the Long March with us, but at least you have to pay the money properly. We even have to ask the National University of Tokyo and the new Soviet Union to accept it. If they don't accept it, they're looking down on us. We'll throw a tantrum, threaten suicide, and cry until we hand over the money.

It can't be worthless paper like the US dollar; it has to be real gold and silver. That's called sincerity. Do you understand sincerity? If you don't even have this much sincerity, how can you expect to come to the safest country in the world and enjoy life? You should take your money and go back to the PUBG region in Europe and America.

Adding fuel to the fire in this situation is as difficult as throwing a match into a basement filled with oil and gas.

With a loud bang, it can ignite a towering fire.

Now let's turn our attention to Europe, which has now become a land abandoned by God, and see if England and France there are rekindling their romance.

During the period when the United States was completely defeated, the European Union was indeed happy for a while, but this happiness was quickly transferred to other countries with the establishment of the new Soviet Union.

Some are born to be pigs in the wind, some are born to live under the lamppost. Watching Ze Sheng, who has completely abandoned darkness and embraced the light, exert his fatherly spirit in the territory of the new Soviet Union, sending batches of humanoids from Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia to the Gulag for private events, the EU realized that the feeling of being hung up by a lamppost at any moment has returned.

If this were pre-World War I Europe, there would definitely be a small-scale apocalyptic shock from the reckless Soviet Union, like the Paris Commune. If this were pre-World War II Europe, at least an interventionist army could be mustered. Even in post-Cold War Europe, there was still the United States as a supreme ruler who could lead troops eastward. But the current situation is that the EU's military is in disarray, and the United States is completely finished. Faced with the aggressive alliance of the new Soviet Union and the East, the difficulty of clearing this latest expansion of Earth Online is excessively high.

Europe is not without ruthless individuals who see the situation clearly and seek unity, but these ruthless individuals, faced with the vibrant and competitive internal contradictions of Europe, are truly at their wits' end – utterly numb from the pain.

If the difficulty of uniting allies can be categorized into levels, then Europe right now is at the hell level.

Although the United States is gone, the shadow it left behind remains. Various forms of diversity, gender identity, and even the legalization of marijuana are essentially irreversible. Reform is not impossible, but reforms involving the interests of those who have killed their parents are bound to result in death. What the European political arena lacks right now is a ruthless leader like Zhu Yuanzhang. Without the awareness of a Great Western King, nothing can be accomplished within the EU.

In reality, the EU's framework itself has many problems, but these problems were previously masked by the rapid development of the world economy and the benefits of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The developed countries, led by the US and the West, reaped huge profits during that Cold War and were so happy that they forgot who they were.

But the benefits will eventually run out, and good times will eventually come to an end. Being an ally of the United States is even more dangerous than being an enemy of the United States. Putting aside everything else, the pit that the United States dug for the European Union is enough to make Europe continue to suffer from the various problems caused by social division in the days to come. After all, the United States is best at dragging others down.

After all, the US principle has always been: rather than getting itself into a vicious cycle, it's better to ruin others.

With the arrival of the Abyss, the emergence of the Extraordinary, and now Qin Shan's lifting of the ban on the Extraordinary, the conflicts in Europe have exploded exponentially. News of various Extraordinary individuals massacring factions and organizations they dislike is commonplace. The European public, who were once shocked by the shootings in the United States, now sees massacres of hundreds or thousands of people on the news every day.

The death toll is already so staggering; the number of injured is even more terrifying.

Because the awakening of superhumans is completely random, the middle and lower classes, which have a larger base, tend to produce more superhumans. These superhumans, under the Western social system, especially the current Western social system, will more or less be dissatisfied with their own government.

In the past, when people were dissatisfied, they would at most hold marches and protests. As long as their lives didn't deteriorate to the point where bread cost 500,000 a dollar, they could still tolerate it.

However, the current situation is that the European economy is collapsing, and many people are struggling to make ends meet. The emergence of superhumans has given many people who are dissatisfied with society the opportunity to take to the streets with cannons.

It's obvious what kind of things someone like that would do.

Unsurprisingly, these individuals began to clash with their country's law enforcement agencies. Apart from the four European countries of Britain, France, Germany, and Poland, which were able to suppress lawless superhumans to some extent, other European countries were basically in a state of passive submission. This attitude directly led to further divisions within their countries, with many superhumans declaring independence and establishing various nations based on their own powerful military force, organized by community or village, and then planning these nations according to their own ideas.

Sexual minorities start playing their rainbow society, while conservatives begin to pursue their pure world. The two sides are like oil and water, often breaking out at the slightest disagreement, frequently dragging a large number of innocent people into the fray. In this environment, superhumans who awaken will immediately start new vendettas, constantly expanding the scope of the conflict, and ultimately dragging the entire country into hell.

Small countries are powerless on this issue, like Belgium, which changed seven extraordinary prime ministers in a single day.

You asked how it was changed?

Of course, the new leader eliminates or defeats the previous leader, then seizes power by force and begins to manage the entire country.

So the question is, do these people have the ability to govern a country?

Who knows? In any case, those who come to power are the ones with the biggest fists. There is absolutely no political stability. The previous prime minister was speaking on stage when he was dragged off and beaten up the next second. Then the new prime minister, with blood on his hands, took over. This is the current political ecology of small countries. The smaller the country, the more chaotic and deadly it is.

Unfortunately, Europe is full of small countries. Even the four militarily stronger countries, Britain, France, Germany, and Poland, are essentially small countries with very small territories.

So when Qin Shan decided to plunge them into chaos, almost overnight, the whole of Europe became a battlefield of the supernatural, and no one knew that this dark age would ever end.

Chapter 166: Has Something Happened on the Moon?

Everyone knows about the window effect, so if you have the ability to demolish the house, there are plenty of people willing to help you remove the windows.

The Western world, which plundered the world for centuries and then lived off its past achievements for centuries, is heading towards its end in the 21st century. This is their inevitable fate.

For civilizations, the competition is never about who is stronger, but about who is more resilient.

To put it more bluntly, those who prefer a slow and steady approach to exploitation last longer and are larger in total than those who exploit to the point of exhaustion. However, very few people have the long-term vision; at most, they only last one lifetime before their policies end with their death.

Many strongman-led states in the world have risen and fallen because of this very principle.

The University of Tokyo and the new Soviet Union have proven to the world that if you want to create truly powerful tech giants, you need a centralized social system. The government must hold a gun to the heads of these large companies and force them to move forward. Otherwise, if you can monopolize this way of making money, who would want to stand up and sprint every now and then? Everyone prefers comfort, right?

Whether it's a nation or an organization, consensus is essential. When capitalists' greed becomes an obstacle to capital appreciation, and when vertical society becomes the basis for their rule, then capitalists become the enemy of capitalism.

Surprisingly, capitalists who monopolize a certain industry have become an obstacle to capitalism at this time. In fact, in the eyes of real capitalists, these large capitalists who have already monopolized land have become technological barbarians, with no market, no competition, and no freedom, just like the Holy Roman Empire.

Therefore, when capitalists reach the pinnacle of power, that is actually when they are furthest from capitalism.

To tell an even bigger joke, the American military-industrial complex is actually more patriotic than American financial capitalists.

The reason is very simple. The military-industrial complex is a high-tech industry, an industrial group at the forefront of society, and one that will fight to the death on the battlefield. Industrial capital cannot be easily packed away and taken away. Their factories, workers, technology and so on are deeply tied to a country. They are truly bound to the United States for life and death. They are the kind of semi-harmful bacteria (half of which are still beneficial, so we should look at it dialectically) that will die if the host dies.

Therefore, the biggest enemy of the US military-industrial complex is actually US financial capital. Because of their deindustrialization, they have destroyed the US's technological foundation, its huge skilled workforce and engineering community, and they have also excluded foreign engineering groups that are crucial to the US. People who are willing to help the US are no longer willing to come. The sophisticated egoists cultivated under the American spirit even feel despair towards the US. In such an environment, even a divine hen cannot lay eggs.

If Qin Shan hadn't forcibly activated the extraordinary entity, a realm completely unknown and uncontrollable to the United States, directly impacting its internal conflicts, the US military-industrial complex would most likely have clashed with US financial capital after Trump took office. Even if it wasn't a life-or-death struggle, they would at least have had to vie for a new leader, one who wouldn't be a scumbag who would run away with his pants down.

Now let's look at the situation within the United States: which is worse, the military-industrial complex or financial capital?

Actually, they're all pretty scumbags, but the military-industrial complex is more like me—a scumbag, but someone who still sends money home on time every month. I don't have much of a sense of responsibility, but at least I still have some.

But financial capital is all about where the money is; it can sleep with whomever it wants, and whoever it wants to sleep with will be slept with. It's like a master shrew who will sleep with anyone as long as they get benefits. "My lord, come and play."

Europe naturally faces the same problem, but the fragmented nature of the EU means that the European military-industrial complex exists in a dispersed manner across various countries, and the influence it can exert varies depending on the size of the country. For example, the influence of Germany's Rheinmetall is definitely much stronger than that of Sweden's; the products they can manufacture are on completely different levels. This is the military-industrial influence brought about by a country's comprehensive strength.

A strong industrial nation is inevitably a strong military nation; if the industrial sector falters, the military sector will also decline drastically.

This is why European countries were completely unable to contain the superhumans after they ran rampant. Look at Britain; the Irish resistance movement has been going on for so long, and the suppression efforts have been far from effective—they've been utterly useless.

Furthermore, its origins can be traced back to the British Empire, when the vast colonial empire couldn't even resolve its own internal issues. By the 21st century, separatist tendencies have begun to emerge in various regions, which seems unbelievable to us.

How can such a tiny place cause division? Were the rulers of this country raised on shit?

It's not hard to understand why a troublemaker likes to eat shit; after all, it's normal for some shit to end up in his mouth while he's stirring it. Look at the state of the Thames River now—what's the difference between it and Paris in the 17th and 18th centuries when it was covered in mountains of shit?

There's a reason why Europeans like poop.

But not all European countries like poop; there are quite a few clean countries, like Eastern Europe.

The countries that the Soviet Union covered back then were quite anthropomorphic in the public sphere.

Some countries are dead, but still live on; some countries are alive, but others cannot live well.

What an irony! What a tremendous irony!

Since Europeans have become far too spoiled (especially those in Western Europe), let them relive the horrors of medieval rule. Qin Shan wouldn't indulge these spoiled brats, but smashing everything down and lowering everyone's expectations to the bare minimum would be easy, especially given the current chaos in Europe.

However, to control the spillover of this chaos, at least the borders of the new Soviet Union must be strictly guarded. Any foolish superhuman who dares to cause trouble in the territory of the new Soviet Union and the East should be killed.

Which official failed to handle this matter properly, or even colluded with these superhumans? The Avengers wiped out their entire clan!

Therefore, the mayors and governors of various cities on the western border of the new Soviet Union are promoted very quickly. After all, they are really risking their lives for promotion. All promotions within the new Soviet Union take priority for officials from certain places, while those from other places are relegated to the back.

The new Soviet Union will follow this model from now on. Unless it is wartime and an emergency promotion is needed, all officials will start from the village head level. All civil servants will be assessed by first going to the grassroots level. Civil servant positions in the city will be reserved for those who have been to the grassroots level. Qin Shan personally drew a red line on this issue. Anyone who dares to use back channels on this issue will have a family tree that is too thick and needs to be slimmed down.

"That's it, gradually achieving the effect I wanted."

Inside the room, Qin Shan, who had just awakened to the power of the world, felt it was time to relax and enjoy the company of a beautiful woman.

Just as he and Lexington were starting to lose some of their clothes, Saratoga walked in.

It's a pity I didn't come here to join, because...

"Admiral, urgent intelligence from the moon."

Section 167: The Moon Is Calling

If we broaden our perspective beyond Earth, then Earth is merely one of the more important pieces on the chessboard of the solar system. The solar system has eight major planets plus Pluto (a dwarf planet), and a more distant tenth planet.

Let's ignore the furthest little guy for now, and we don't even need to pay attention to places beyond Mars. Humanity on Earth doesn't have enough high-tech people to fill the entire solar system, so even if the war escalates to the star system level in the future, the focus of the struggle will be the area from Mars to Earth, which can be called the "Mars-Earth chessboard".

In this strategic game, the moon is Earth's satellite, a defensive tower, and a transit station, much like the outer fortifications and barbicans in a city's defense system. Therefore, the strategic deployment of the moon is equivalent to protecting and deterring Earth.

Because the moon's gravity is weaker, launching spacecraft from the moon is cheaper. Of course, the initial construction costs on the moon are very high, and there are concerns about the effects of the lunar environment on humans if one were to reside there permanently. However, the emergence of superhumans has solved these problems. Their extremely strong adaptability to outer space is enough for superhumans to adapt to the environments of most planets. At the ninth level, landing directly on Pluto is not a problem; Qin Shan went there back then.

Now that a gate to the abyss has appeared on the moon, Qin Shan naturally dressed immediately and headed to the moon.

At this moment, the Gate to the Abyss was gradually taking shape in the lunar sky, causing panic at the lunar base. Fortunately, aid from Shenzhou arrived quickly.

Who is in charge here?

Qin Shan, who had seemingly descended from the sky, began to ask questions in a pretentious manner.

Qin Shan's attitude towards these exposed Abyss Gates is to handle them openly, treating them as special open instances. Especially since this Abyss Gate is located directly on the moon, and the timeline doesn't match his previous life, he needs to study it even more carefully. After transforming and closing it, he should maintain its existence to a certain extent. If possible, it would be good to throw some enemies from other worlds into it for practice.

Combat in extraterrestrial environments is a huge topic, and the sooner it is studied, the better.

"Mr. Qin, hello, I am Li Zheng, the person in charge here."

Those who came with Li Zheng were all wearing the new version of lightweight protective suits. The purpose of these suits was to prevent radiation and dust from being brought back into the rooms. Each entrance and exit of the lunar base had a dedicated automated treatment area where dust and radiation were cleaned up before the protective suits were removed, allowing entry into the lunar base. The lightweight protective suits also served another purpose: to prove that the other party was a superhuman.

Because this lightweight protective suit is actually a type of flexible exoskeleton, using special nano-muscle fibers as materials, it has excellent defensive performance. When paired with a battery pack, it can operate efficiently for a long time. However, it lacks an internal life support system, and the internal and external pressures are completely unbalanced. Only the superhuman beings with their incredible environmental adaptability can handle it. For ordinary people to wear this to walk on the moon would be tantamount to suicide.

However, thanks to the new materials, the protective suits worn by ordinary people are much lighter, at least half the weight and two-thirds the bulkiness of the previous style. With the same flexible exoskeleton, outdoor work is not a problem at all.

Wearing it is also very convenient. Just lie down in the configuration cabin, and the base's changing system will automatically change you into the appropriate outdoor protective clothing based on your identity information. The whole process takes no more than ten seconds.

Of course, superhumans have an even more awesome way of doing things: rushing out without even wearing protective suits. They can do it, but ordinary people shouldn't try it; they'll really die.