PFC Chapter 4411 Project Farstar (29)
Chapter 4411 Project Farstar (29)
Chapter 4411 Project Far Star (Twenty-Nine)
Humanity has now accepted that with their current technology, it's absolutely impossible to remove the nail. But the good news is that Martians didn't just spring into existence and immediately replace the human leadership; their development will take time.
Although the Martians did not say whether their growth and development rate was the same as that of humans, considering that the conditions on Mars and Earth are similar, we can assume that their growth cycle would not be much shorter, and their childhood period might even be longer due to their longer lifespan.
In other words, this problem can be mitigated. As long as the problem can be resolved before a generation grows up, human civilization is not entirely without hope.
Currently, everyone is dealing with their own internal problems, and the issue is still being handled on a national level. Since there's no other way at the moment, uniting would only increase conflict. It's better to study the issue separately, pool our wisdom, and perhaps one of the solutions will work.
Since we're transitioning from short-term to long-term work, we need someone to organize it. As we all know, the most efficient political system in human history is actually monarchical autocracy. Ideally, it would be a philosopher-king, but in the face of a formidable enemy, a less philosophical approach isn't necessary; the key is competence.
Because Congress held over 70 meetings in a single week, they realized that the current political system was incompetent at everything. Normally, they could get by with superficial compliance and mutual benefit, but not now. The sword of Damocles hung over their heads, and they only had one generation to solve the problem. If they didn't want to become slaves to the Martians, they had to find the most efficient method.
So when was the period when the United States was most efficient?
The young men looked bewildered, while some gray-haired old politicians were wide awake. They knew this process all too well; wasn't this a classic Cold War version being replicated?
Although they now have to outrun the growing Martians, it doesn't really make a difference, because that red giant really will hang them from lampposts, and the Martians really will trample them underfoot. As long as the consequences are severe enough, even if both legs are worn away, they'll still have to take small steps, big strides, and jog into the new era.
Moreover, based on the research of many scientists, three solutions have been proposed for how to remove the nail: namely, digging by diving, cutting it in the middle, and hoisting it from space.
In other words, the technologies they need to develop are: underground excavation technology capable of operating in the deep sea and penetrating the earth's crust; weaponry technology capable of cutting through such high-strength materials; and hoisting technology capable of operating in space. This competition, while not entirely different from the Cold War, is arguably identical in its direction.
Moreover, these three aspects basically need to be done in parallel. Since you can't just pull it, you definitely have to dig out the thing underneath; but to maintain balance, it's best to suspend it in space; cutting it is of course the best, as this can greatly reduce the weight of the thing and make it easier to pull out.
In theory, if it were truly slicable, cutting it off would seem to be the fastest method, since destroying it would render it ineffective. However, the technology behind this device is far too advanced; no one knows exactly where its central processing unit is located. Even if it were sliced like a radish, the part that actually functions might be the one embedded in the Earth's crust. Therefore, simply cutting it is useless; it still needs to be removed. Humanity also wouldn't allow any of its components to remain on Earth; complete removal is preferable.
Now that we've entered a Cold War-like phase, we naturally need a leader like Roosevelt. Back then, Roosevelt could lead them to escape the streetlights; today, who can lead them to escape the Martians?
In fact, there aren't many candidates, because compared to the Cold War era, the leaders elected now need to have one crucial quality: they themselves must be strong enough.
After all, the Martians aren't stupid. They've already infiltrated Earth to this extent; do you think they'd just stand by and watch you pull out the nail? Throughout the entire plan, they'll definitely cause all sorts of trouble and obstruction. Disrupting production is a minor matter; the key is that they'll definitely attack the core leader, which would be the most fatal blow to humanity.
They kill them one by one, one by one, and before long, humanity will be plunged into despair. Ironically, this method has a high success rate because Martians are physically stronger than humans, as seen in the Luther Manor murders: they kill in the blink of an eye, leaving no evidence.
Increasing security might be somewhat useful, but fundamentally, no human being can perfectly protect humanity from Martians. This isn't a matter of will, but of capability; it can't be solved simply by finding enough willing martyrs.
Not to mention, no one knows when a Martian might sneak in, and if one does, it's all over.
It's fair to say that the people in Congress have been incredibly stressed these past few days: someone makes a suggestion, and someone else refutes it, but you don't know if the person making the suggestion or refuting it is from Mars. Nobody can tell, and the arguments go on without any resolution.
In the end, it wasn't just members of parliament arguing; almost everyone who could be considered part of high society or had dealings with the government and military was dragged into it. What appeared to be a brainstorming session was actually a way to create chaos and reduce the likelihood of the Martians manipulating the outcome.
In this extensive discussion, few useful ideas emerged, while plenty of useless nonsense arose, resulting in a fruitless and endless debate. Just when many had given up hope, an idea surfaced like a thunderbolt.
"What did you say?!" The presiding official in the center of the Capitol building stared blankly at one of the seats.
“I say, let’s choose Superman,” Schiller said calmly.
Unsurprisingly, almost everyone had a question mark popping up above their heads: "Dude, you mean we're going to choose a Martian to be the leader of the resistance against the Martians? Are you a Martian sent by the devil?!"
However, most of those who get in here are intelligent people; you can call them bad, but you can't call them stupid. Especially those cunning Cold War-era politicians, they immediately realized that there was some truth to that.
Of course, they didn't know that Superman was actually a Kryptonian, but even if he were a Martian, it wouldn't mean he was unusable; in fact, he might be more usable than a non-Martian.
The logic is this: if he disagrees with becoming the leader of the human side, it proves that he is a pure Martian; but if he agrees, it proves that he is not with the other Martians.
There is no option of pretending to agree and then causing trouble, because the damage he could cause by disagreeing would be far greater than if he agreed and then pretended. If he disagrees, humanity is completely helpless; the situation has reached its worst point. All the elected leaders could be assassinated, the plan to remove the thorns would be completely impossible to implement, the Martians would conquer Earth, and humanity would become slaves.
In this situation, there is no need for any pretense; all that is needed is to do nothing and wait for humanity to bring about its own destruction.
Conversely, if he becomes the leader, even if he really wants to cause trouble, as long as he agrees, he will become a pillar of support for some people. After all, everyone knows how strong he is, and people will have illusions about him. This will give humanity hope and enable them to take action.
In other words, if Superman is on the side of the Martians, then the choice that best serves his interests is to disagree; conversely, if he agrees, he is actually undermining the interests of the Martians, which proves that he is not with those Martians.
The politicians' thinking is that they don't believe Martians are all in one group, just as humans can never all be in one group. Even if most of them are united, there will always be those who disagree.
Among humans, there are good and bad people, some who can slaughter without restraint, and others who resolutely oppose genocide; therefore, we can assume that there are also Martians who oppose genocide, and only this group of people can help humanity win the victory.
Since they don't know any more Martians, Superman seems to be the kindest one, at least he has genuinely saved a lot of humans; and he seems to genuinely despise politicians' disregard for human life.
Politicians are experienced in this regard: they can clearly see who among the protesters who comes before them is seeking fame and who is genuinely opposing them out of a sense of justice. Superman is clearly the latter.
If he is kind, righteous, and compassionate, then even if he is a Martian, he would not agree to his fellow human beings' method of reproduction based on genocide. Therefore, he is a suitable leader for humanity, or rather, he is the best choice.
Assuming he is a Martian, he wouldn't be so easily killed by Martians, wouldn't need human protection, and would be capable of protecting himself; he is famous and influential, and if he stands on the side of humanity, he would rekindle hope for many; although he lacks political experience, politics is not the most important thing now; although he has never been a leader, past leaders are different from the current ones, and the requirement for a leader now is to be ruthless.
This brings us back to the point that Superman dislikes these politicians, but he doesn't hate them as individuals; rather, he hates the most unreasonable aspects of the system: bullying the weak, exploiting the people, and disregarding human rights. And the more he hates them, the more forcefully he will crack down on these issues after becoming a leader.
So, who did the punch land on?
Actually, they're not really politicians. To put it bluntly, politicians and the military are just doing the work, like ministers in the imperial court. Now is the time to get to work, and their survival is relatively secure.
The key is to distribute resources to the lower classes. However, a society's resources are limited. To enrich the poor, the rich must be made poor. In other words, to solve these problems, we must crack down hard on the rich.
Indeed, once the system evolves to its current stage, everyone will make the same choice as Roosevelt: to squeeze out the means of production from society like water from a sponge and reinvest them in production in order to develop productivity most efficiently and cope with the pressure brought about by the competition.