Silence hung over the rooftop.
Everyone reacted differently after hearing Ciyutuo's report.
The widely experienced Chairman Netero continued stroking his beard, still unperturbed.
Pariston wore a mysterious smile, as though watching an entertaining show.
"A city that once existed, like a phantom lingering only in a handful of people's memories-"
Dio rubbed his chin and summed it up simply. "As though it had never existed."
"No, it's not that simple. In fact, a city disappearing into thin air has devastating consequences."
Ciyutuo swallowed and continued, "The most obvious impact was the direct economic loss, along with the administrative pressure of reallocating and replanning all kinds of urban resources. But the most painful losses came from the disappearance of the city itself."
"Having lost its satellite city, Dalatran declined steadily over the next ten years, until the entire Furla region lost its designated urban core. The population drained away, the economy regressed for twenty-five consecutive years, and the [Trump Card] mechanism failed completely-"
"That chain reaction wiped out a full five percent of the federation's projected gross product for the next twenty years."
At this point, Ciyutuo's eyes looked ready to bleed.
With such a devastating price, it was no wonder the incident had been so thoroughly suppressed.
If it really came to light, there was no telling where surging public opinion might drag the situation.
Dio exhaled, roughly understanding the logic behind it.
If he used his homeland from two lifetimes ago as an example.
It would be like a city in Sichuan disappearing, causing the GDP of Chengdu, which held the vast majority of the province's resources, to plummet into insignificance. A province's future would vanish, tens of millions of compatriots would weep tears of blood, and a nation's future would suffer an enormous blow in an instant.
But.