"Aus Continent has fallen? When did that happen?!"
Was this like watching drama only for it to hit home?
Before long, the news spread through Lu PingAn's entire team, drawing heated discussion and grave concern from nearly everyone.
Except Lu PingAn. He was still enjoying the show, and he was a little confused.
"Uh, why are you all so worked up? Isn't it just Aus Continent—Australia? Even if it falls, what does that have to do with us?"
Lu PingAn could not quite understand, until he was met with one stunned face after another.
"...We thought you were only pretending not to understand politics. You've always been quite sharp when it came to major policies."
"Oh, oh, oh, I get it. You want to hear what we think?"
Seeing this, someone offered him an opening, and Lu PingAn could only listen obediently.
After hearing just a few sentences, Lu PingAn understood. This was entirely the divergence between two timelines. After Pollution Prosperity around the 1950s of the last century, those slight deviations had continued to widen.
The butterfly effect had stirred up a typhoon, gradually changing the two worlds. Tiny differences had ultimately become fundamental geopolitical distinctions between them.
"Red Star never dissolved, though it inevitably contracted. The Stars and Stripes Federation remained powerful, but its sphere of influence was still mainly limited to the American continent and Europe, with only limited reach into Asia."
At their root, all these changes stemmed from one thing—external pressure.
When the world was plagued by widespread pollution, public security naturally became a problem, and the cost of expansion rose drastically as a result. The major powers only had the ability to handle matters close to home.
A world hegemon? Whoever wanted to fight over that mess should first focus on surviving.
Red Star