The Big Economics Question

"The souls absorbed by it can only be freed by using my soul as the key."

"This is the only possibility."

"Even my will cannot change the rules of 'The Story of Minglan'."

"So."

Adam smiled expectantly, "Are you willing to accept the challenge?"

Narancia clenched his Riot Games tightly, and almost instinctively wanted to answer "I accept the challenge".

"Calm down!" Bucciarati grabbed Narancia's arm. "This is a trap."

"I know"

Narancia clutched his head in anguish:

"I don't have that kind of brains. Even Fugo failed. There's no way I could beat him."

"But I'm not willing to give up like this!"

It was Fugo who rescued him from his homeless life during the darkest moment of his life.

Now that Fugo's soul is imprisoned and becomes a collection, Narancia cannot bear it, let alone remain calm.

"Ha ha."

Appreciating this struggle and pain, Adam "kindly" offered a reminder:

"You'd better not come here to die."

"Anyone who can't even solve elementary school math problems is not qualified to be my opponent."

"You?!"

Narancia was initially angry, but then he helplessly lowered his Riot Games.

He knew that the other party's mockery was not wrong; he was not good at intellectual competition and had no ability to compete with Adam.

"What to do?"

Everyone was caught in a dilemma and felt helpless; the air was incredibly silent.

"I think," Abbacchio said, taking on the role of the villain and making the cruelest yet most rational choice, "We should just kill this bastard."

"Continuing to challenge them will only lead more of your companions into the trap."

"Withdraw in time," he paused, somewhat reluctantly, "To minimize the losses."

Losing an arm to survive is a traditional skill of Stand User, but what needs to be lost now is not an arm, but a human life.

However, even Bucciarati and Narancia, who were closest to Fugo, did not react immediately to such a cruel proposal.

Reality isn't a shonen manga; those objectively existing gaps can't be bridged by willpower and passion alone.

Now it's a competition of knowledge.

Narancia has an elementary school education; Mista a junior high school education; Abbacchio has a high school education; Giorno is currently in junior high school; Bucciarati dropped out of junior high school.

Fugo, who dropped out of college, was already the most educated among them. If even Fugo failed the challenge, how could the others possibly succeed?

Ultimately, they suffered from their lack of education.

"Let me do it!"

Amidst this atmosphere of despair, the only college student in the group who had actually completed higher education stepped forward.

Li Qing walked up to Adam with a serious expression and sat down. "Let me be your opponent!"

"Li Qing?!"

Giorno frowned, his tone grave. "Are you sure? What if you get involved too?"

"Don't worry, I've observed it."

"If nothing unexpected happens, I should be about 80% confident."

Li Qing answered calmly.

For the first time, he didn't activate the Digitization Mode during combat, but instead stared intently at the enemy with his naked eyes:

"Listen up, Adam! I, Li Qing, now formally accept your quiz challenge!"

"Good!"

A hint of eagerness flickered in Adam's eyes.

He glanced at Li Qing's hairstyle, which was very popular among highly educated intellectuals, and vaguely sensed an aura of wisdom about him.

This soul, seemingly containing a vast amount of knowledge, was precisely the spoils he had been hoping for:

"Very well, since that's the case..."

"Then let's stake our souls and begin this challenge!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the book that had just devoured Fugo's soul rose into the air once more.

It opened its pages, radiating a strange halo of light.

Chains of light pierced Adam and Li Qing's brains, and a projection screen subsequently appeared in the air:

"Round 1."

"Please ask your question, Li Qing. You have one minute."

"You go first."

Adam, in an eager tone, explained the rules to Li Qing again:

"If you can ask me a question that I can't answer, and then answer the question I ask, you win this challenge."

"Of course, the questions must be within the narrow scope of knowledge."

"It tests the knowledge that can be memorized. It is a foul to use personal questions to embarrass others, and it is also not allowed to solve math problems that require a lot of time to calculate on the spot."

"I hope you don't try anything clever and end up getting yourself killed like that brat just now."

"Clear."

Li Qing laughed, already prepared:

"This is a macroeconomic issue, isn't it formal enough?"

"Then, take my question—"

The thought was conveyed through chains of light, and a question subsequently appeared on the projection screen:

Q: What will be the world's second-largest economy in twenty years?

"Adam Cheever, please answer. You have one minute."

"What?!"

Adam's expression changed drastically:

"Twenty years from now? Isn't this just predicting the world economic trend twenty years from now?"

"How could you possibly have the right answer to a question that even top economists struggle to answer accurately? That's a foul and should be immediately ruled a mistake."

As he spoke, his voice suddenly choked with emotion.

Because after Li Qing raised this question, the absolutely impartial "Truth Machine" did not rule that Li Qing had committed a foul.

In other words, Li Qing knows the correct answer to this question.

"How is this possible?!"

Adam couldn't help but begin to doubt the meaning of life.

Li Qing sat there calmly, mimicking Adam's earlier demeanor, and mocked with a disdainful expression:

"What? You only know how to recite economic theories, but you can't predict economic trends?"

"They even claim to be superior in wisdom. If you don't know how to apply it, knowledge that you just memorize is utter garbage!"

"You?!"

Adam unconsciously clenched his Riot Games, the veins on the back of his hand bulging and writhing like snakes in his anger.

Li Qing's words inadvertently touched a void in his heart, reminding him of his past:

He was a genius, a child prodigy.

To Adam, these idioms from ancient Eastern countries—"photographic memory," "extensive knowledge," "knowledgeable in astronomy and geography," "versatile in both Eastern and Western learning," and "profound knowledge of the past and present"—seemed tailor-made praises for him.

He can remember all the books he has read, including the punctuation marks placed by the author on every page and in every paragraph.

He could remember all the knowledge he had heard, including the tone of the teacher's voice in every single lesson.

In Adam's view, since he already possessed the wisdom to stand at the pinnacle of humanity, he should have a position that surpasses that of others.

He didn't even care about this level of life, which included being "in the US and just getting off the plane."

Of course, this was just Adam's own fantasy.

In fact, this so-called genius, who had been adored by thousands since childhood and was known as a child prodigy, was expelled by his advisor when he was just starting his postgraduate studies.

The professor's statement was:

"You only know how to memorize, but you know absolutely nothing about creating and applying knowledge. You think you have a vast amount of knowledge, but you're never truly proficient."

"Fragmented knowledge is completely unsystematic; in the end, it's just a pile of garbage!"

"People like you shouldn't be wasting their time in the lab; they should be performing 'acrobatics' on TV."

The stern professor mercilessly shattered Adam's illusions.

But Adam refused to wake up; he went mad from the humiliation of being thrown out of the house.

In order to prove that his wisdom was superior to that of others, he began to indulge in a boring question-and-answer game—gradually, after awakening a strange power, this question-and-answer game became the sole meaning of Adam's existence.

He derived immense satisfaction from his repeated victories, using the souls of his opponents to define his own triumphs.

And now.

At the height of his success, Adam heard that same mockery from Li Qing again. "The knowledge you possess is nothing but rubbish."

"Hateful!"

Adam shouted angrily:

You will pay the price for what you said!

"It's just predicting economic trends, I... wait."

He seemed to suddenly realize something, and his emotions calmed down slightly:

"You almost fooled me."

"If you think about it carefully, predicting the world's second largest economy twenty years from now is actually not that difficult at all."

According to the theory of Italy economist Pareto, 20% of the population owns 80% of the social wealth, which is the famous Pareto principle.

This law applies not only to a particular country, but also to the whole world: developed countries, which make up 20% of the world's population, control 80% of the world's wealth.

Social classes have become rigid; the poor will only get poorer, and the rich will only get richer.

The economic powerhouses of today will only become stronger in twenty years.

The remaining poor countries are all peasants despised by the West, and are the leeks harvested by economic powers in the market. Do they want to defy fate and change their destiny?

The Asian financial crisis two years ago proved that it was simply wishful thinking!

"Hehe."

"We have all the high-end technologies, and the market share that could be divided up has already been taken."

"Unless there is a third world war, the status quo of our old-line developed countries dominating the world will never change!"

After careful consideration, Adam finally came to an answer:

"Twenty years from now, the world's second-largest economy will still be Japan!"

As soon as he finished speaking

A hint of disdain appeared on Li Qing's lips.

The 3D screen flickered for a moment, then displayed the following subtitles:

"Incorrect answer."

"Correct answer: Dragon Country."

"What?!!"

Adam's expression changed drastically, his eyes widening like a bull's:

He had considered that Wano Country, which was currently far ahead, might be overtaken by England, France, Germany, and Italy, but he never imagined that the country would become the second-ranked player!

This is 1999. In Western media at this time, that country was portrayed as a weak entity on the verge of economic collapse the very next day.

Adam had read countless articles and books on economics, and not one of them was not pessimistic about China.

Now, faced with the correct answer given by that "Truth Machine," he couldn't help but question life once again:

How so?

I was supposed to break down!