The Evil of the Human Circle

Tokyo.

Pure Land.

An Qingyu sat in the center of the main control room, surrounded by flickering screens. His gaze rested on every screen at once, and he remained motionless like a statue.

"Qingyu, you've been reviewing them for five hours straight. You should rest."

Jiang Er's figure silently appeared beside him. With a gentle wave of her hand, every screen went dark.

An Qingyu slowly closed his eyes, rubbed his temples with both hands, and let out a long sigh. His expression was incomparably complicated.

"So... I really found out something incredible."

"What did you find?"

An Qingyu said nothing. He silently stood and walked to the enormous floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the neon-lit city below.

"Jiang Er, tell me... how many kilowatt-hours of electricity do you think a country this large uses every year?" he asked.

Jiang Er froze. After hesitating for a moment, she answered, "Probably... around five trillion kilowatt-hours?"

"It should be far more than that." An Qingyu shook his head. "Then, how is electricity generated?"

"Nuclear power, natural gas, oil-fired power, wind power, hydropower? It should have all of those, right?"

"That's right, but haven't you noticed a problem?" An Qingyu said calmly. "This country is extremely lacking in mineral resources. Where do the natural gas and oil it uses for power generation come from?"

Jiang Er stood rooted to the spot.

"Or let me put it another way." An Qingyu paused. "Without fossil fuels, how do the power plants here generate electricity? Nuclear, wind, and hydropower alone simply cannot sustain such enormous electricity consumption."

"What's going on?"

"The answer is that the power plants here are nothing more than decorations. They can't generate electricity at all." An Qingyu glanced at the ground beneath his feet. "All the electricity they supply comes from here.