Zhang Qi's question plunged the entire venue into dead silence.
The only sound left in the air was the cold wind blowing from the central air-conditioning system.
The air it blew out was like an icy snake, silently slithering across the backs of everyone's necks and bringing a chill that seeped into their bones.
Beneath the enormous dome, these political leaders, whose every word and action could usually stir up storms across the world, now wore expressions of bewilderment and horror as they were forced into contemplation.
They had thought they understood the Trisolaran Civilization well enough.
But suppose the Trisolaran Civilization won the war and occupied Earth. Then what?
The Free Federation's representative, a man named Anderson, broke out in a fine layer of cold sweat across his forehead.
He could not help constructing that scene in his mind.
He should have had the greatest right to speak at this gathering, because Trisolaran society was a system that had pushed collectivism and utilitarian efficiency to their absolute limits for the sake of survival.
It shared similarities with the "optimal benefit solution" championed by their Federation. The difference was that capital and profit drove them, while survival drove the Trisolaran Civilization.
Then, once the Trisolaran Civilization occupied the fertile land of Earth and thoroughly solved its survival problem, would it change?
Would it become—gentler?
Anderson's knuckles turned white from how tightly he clenched them.
After only a moment of thought, a conclusion that chilled him to the core emerged.
No, that was probably impossible—
Because the Trisolaran Civilization's social structure and way of thinking had already been completely forged over hundreds of millions of years of suffering.
It was like a tree that had grown crooked from the sapling stage. If it had been intervened with while it was still