Chapter 188

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The year 2023 could be defined like this:

The worst crop failure.

Although crop failure swept across the world in 2021, this year has surpassed that record.

“The number of people suffering from hunger has increased by 100 million compared to last year due to food issues, and yields have dropped by 33%. From wheat to corn, all yields have dropped, and currently all prices are skyrocketing.”

So this is why my intuition had been urging me to stockpile food for a long time.

Thanks to that, we were able to make enormous profits, but honestly, I didn’t feel good about it.

No matter how much food we stockpile, we can’t rescue everyone who is starving, and it’s obvious that countless people will die from the crop failure in places our hands can’t yet reach.

“The problem is that one place has crop failure, while another has issues from too much rain.”

Rain wasn’t falling in a balanced manner, but pouring on only one side, making the situation even more serious.

“Global warming is indeed severe.”

“Yes. But almost every country is ignoring this problem.”

“But isn’t our Gwangwoon investing to solve this problem?”

“Yes. Through the Gwangwoon Foundation, we’re connecting globally and investing to solve global warming, but honestly there aren’t significant results. That’s why we have expectations for the ESG Association. They’re strictly checking carbon emissions in preparation for global warming.”

But many scientists have already said it.

That it’s too late to fix global warming.

So they’re just praying for the technological singularity to come quickly and solve all these problems.

“The one ray of hope is XPT, which was born from our Close AI. Right now, medical, media, construction, coding, and so on—various fields are training XPT. If the singularity comes there and superintelligence is developed…”

“We might be able to solve all the problems humanity couldn’t?”

“Yes. Technology to solve global warming, or even attempt things beyond that.”

I too was placing my hopes there.

The positive thing is that humanity achieved this level of development after discovering electricity.

The frightening thing is that the speed of technological development is getting faster and faster.

But if superintelligence is developed from XPT here, then we could achieve even more explosive growth.

“Please tell them to advertise more about global warming. The more we inform people about the severity of the situation through media, the more it will help.”

“Yes, President.”

“And please distribute food to places that urgently need it first. How much have prices risen now?”

“A whopping 25 times. They’re setting record highs, and all countries that aren’t self-sufficient are groaning.”

“Then please release the food we’ve stockpiled.”

“At current prices?”

If you’re thinking about profit, it would naturally be right to sell at 25 times the price.

But this is a matter of people’s lives.

How can money come first?

“No. Tell them not to take high prices. Sell at reasonable prices, and tell them to distribute to places that urgently need food first.”

“Yes. Then for Africa…”

“Sell at even lower prices there, or give it away free to places that need relief.”

“But President. Grains are currently being sold at 25 times the price.”

“Shouldn’t we minimize the number of people starving to death? Money is good, but we didn’t gather food in the first place to make money from people’s lives.”

“Ah… Yes. I was forgetting that important thing for a moment. I think sometimes that you, President, are truly a saint of this era.”

“That’s right. People really should know about our President’s warm heart. It makes me upset that people keep portraying our President as someone plotting evil conspiracies.”

I too have heard about conspiracy theories that I’m some kind of mastermind, that our Gwangwoon is at the center of every incident.

Of course, since they’re just conspiracy theories, there’s nowhere that officially takes issue with them.

But there were people who firmly believe these things and curse us.

But I think it can’t be helped.

Don’t they say that when your name and face become known, fans and haters naturally appear?

I believe the day will come when they too will understand my true intentions.

“By the way, President, haven’t we built many food warehouses in the Middle East and Africa? If the Middle East and Europe want to buy food from us, the fastest route is through Libya. The problem is…”

“Libya isn’t cooperating well, right?”

“Yes. Western Libya is friendly to us, but the East is not. Unfortunately, the East operates the port rights, and there have been various frictions with our Gwangwoon Shipping in particular.”

Libya is in central North Africa, and it’s the gateway connecting the Mediterranean, Europe, and the Middle East.

The problem is that since the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in 2011, this place has experienced great turmoil and is now divided into West and East governments.

It wasn’t a big problem before, but after the leader of the Eastern regime changed, they revealed their intention for military unification with the West, and our relationship soured.

Their position is simple.

If we don’t cut off all exchanges with the West, we can’t use the East’s ports.

However, we weren’t there to help the Western regime, but purely to help people, as Foundation employees were dispatched, so there wasn’t really any relationship to speak of.

“But the East sees that as unofficial aid. In reality, the West is supported by the US and the East is supported by Russia.”

Looking at international affairs, it always splits into two.

American democracy,

Chinese and Russian socialism.

Libya, divided into West and East, is the same.

This too is a proxy war between America and Russia.

Such a tiresome division.

After all, everyone is the same species, the same life, yet everyone is busy fighting.

“What if we avoid the Eastern route?”

“The downside is it takes a long time. That’s why Gwangwoon Shipping also wants to use Libya’s gateway.”

Cost is one thing, but if shipping takes longer, that means more people will suffer in the meantime.

“…”

I was about to ask my intuition about this problem, but changed my mind.

This isn’t a matter of following intuition or not.

“Contact headquarters and ask them to negotiate with Eastern Libya as quickly as possible. If this route is blocked, the damage will be significant.”

“Yes, President.”

For now, my goal was to minimize the damage to people.

I gathered all this food not to make money, but to help people.

***

“Negotiation? Ridiculous. Do you think I don’t know Gwangwoon’s sinister intentions?”

General Hartar, who controlled the Eastern regime, scoffed.

“Gwangwoon is gradually conquering Africa. Now those demon’s hands are reaching our Libya too.”

“But General, even Saudi Arabia eventually surrendered to Gwangwoon, didn’t they? Because Gwangwoon controlled food during this crop failure.”

The Saudi royal family, who were initially stubborn about their pride, had no choice but to accept the ESG Association according to Gwangwoon’s will when food problems became severe due to the historic crop failure.

“There are also rumors that this crop failure was Gwangwoon’s plan. Actually, this year’s crop failure was severe, but it wouldn’t have been this serious without Gwangwoon.”

“This crop failure damage is large because of Gwangwoon?”

“Yes. Hasn’t Gwangwoon been indiscriminately and excessively sweeping up food since two years ago? Especially, they’ve built large food warehouses in Africa to store it. In places that aren’t easily accessible to others.”

There was a reason why they built massive food warehouses while encroaching on Africa with capital.

They deliberately built warehouses in places that are hard for other developed countries to reach, so they couldn’t forcibly take the food.

“But we don’t need to worry like Saudi Arabia. Although we depend on imports for food, as long as we guard this Mediterranean gateway, food will steadily come in.”

The reason Eastern Libya was so confident was their port.

Isn’t Libya’s port the place connecting Europe and the Middle East?

Especially, since most ships passing through here transport food, there was a massive food warehouse at the port.

In other words, although grain prices have all risen and food products are also skyrocketing, at least they won’t starve due to lack of supplies.

“But will we be okay? I heard Gwangwoon deliberately causes earthquakes…”

“Tsk tsk, do you still believe such nonsense rumors? Only Allah can handle nature. Natural disasters are the same. Before worrying about such useless things, perhaps pray once more…”

RUMBLE—!!

At that moment, the sound of thunder roaring through the sky made Hartar flinch.

“There’s a typhoon coming, right?”

“Yes. It hasn’t made landfall yet, but looking at the predicted path, fortunately it seems like it will veer away.”

“This typhoon’s name is… Daniel, was it?”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“We should pray to Allah that it passes safely.”

“Since Allah is protecting our Libya, it will surely be fine.”

Hartar nodded.

RUMBLE—!!

But the sky’s answer somehow didn’t seem ordinary.

***

“What’s collapsing?”

“It’s Libya. The typhoon that was heading toward North Africa has struck Libya. Originally, the typhoon was supposed to veer away, but it deviated from predictions and caused considerable damage.”

Typhoon Daniel that made landfall in Libya.

It has become the worst typhoon of the year so far.

“The Libyan government announced the death toll as 5,000, but it’s actually over 30,000. It could be even more.”

“That many?”

“Yes. Two dams in Libya collapsed, making things worse. Especially the East has suffered fatal damage.”

The typhoon striking was one problem, but two dams in Libya collapsing caused even greater damage.

“Plus, the warehouses at Libya’s Eastern port were all flooded or collapsed, so that port can’t be used for the time being.”

Libya is a country that makes money from oil.

Especially, the reason the East was stronger than the West was because of the port.

Here, they traded oil, weapons, and food to build power.

That core port of the East was destroyed by the typhoon.

“………..”

Anthony, who was listening to the report, stared blankly at the map.

“There’s something I haven’t understood for a while.”

“What?”

“This Eastern Libya. After General Hartar took power, he became quite arrogant. Daring to challenge Gwangwoon and defy their will. It’s been years now, but Gwangwoon never took any notable action until now.”

It was behavior unlike Gwangwoon.

“But at this time when the worst food crisis in history has struck, the Eastern Libya connecting the Middle East and Europe has been paralyzed by a typhoon… How much damage will the Middle East and Europe suffer if this is blocked?”

“We’ll need to calculate the numbers, but… it will be quite severe.”

“Right. Then what will the Middle East and Europe do?”

“They’ll have no choice but to cling to Gwangwoon even more. Self-sufficiency has its limits.”

“Exactly. In other words, Gwangwoon can now control the Middle East and Europe with food. What was impossible just by stockpiling food until now has become possible with that one typhoon.”

What does that mean?

“Could it be that you think this typhoon is…”

“Don’t you think the timing is curious? They call it the butterfly effect. They say a butterfly’s light wing flap can cause a great typhoon on the other side of the Earth. What if Gwangwoon targeted this?”

“You’re saying they deliberately created a typhoon to strike Libya from years ago?”

“There’s talk that this crop failure was also manipulated by Gwangwoon. I think it’s fully credible. This is a place that caused artificial earthquakes that everyone said were impossible. Do you not think Gwangwoon could cause crop failures and typhoons? Especially when orders have come from headquarters strategy team to resolve the Eastern Libya issue—this typhoon happens?”

A shiver ran through his body.

It’s difficult to cause a strong earthquake even by detonating thousands of nuclear bombs.

But they caused that supposedly difficult artificial earthquake twice.

For them, manipulating weather and causing typhoons would be nothing.

“They say the most terrifying weapon in the world is nature. There’s no evidence of who caused it, but the destructive power is tremendous. Look at Libya now. The regime is shaking.”

Eastern Libya is currently in a state of tremendous damage.

Their proud military couldn’t block the typhoon either.

“They conquered Morocco with earthquakes to gain a foothold to strike Europe, and now they’ve conquered Libya with a typhoon to cut off food supply lines to the Middle East and Europe. What does this mean?”

“That Gwangwoon deliberately caused the food crisis.”

“Right, various financial crises, crop failures, and typhoons—they all connect to one thing. Now the Middle East and Europe can’t survive without Gwangwoon’s help.”

Through multiple financial crises, they seized their money and media, and finally they’ve gotten their hands on food supply.

Now, whatever Gwangwoon says, Europe has no choice but to follow.

And for that to happen, Sentinel’s role was also important.

“What about the factions in the East that have our support?”

“They were damaged too, but since the current ruling power can’t even gather the military, they see this as the optimal opportunity to overthrow the regime.”

“Then let’s start with our people dispatched there and first remove this Hartar.”

Don’t they need to firmly take control of Eastern Libya to complete the picture Gwangwoon wants?

Not saving people through food, but controlling everyone—that kind of Gwangwoon utopia.

End