Thomas was somewhat embarrassed. He coughed twice, trying to maintain his composure. "Do you have any suggestions for revising this plan?"
Before Elder Zhou could speak, Zhang Tianyuan was already shaking his head.
This is a limitation of the times.
This was the only solution Thomas could come up with.
Elder Zhou calmly replied, "I don't want to revise this plan; rather, I believe it's not feasible."
"Based on your description, ten arks can only carry a maximum of one million people, while we have 1.3 billion people, which is far from enough..."
"Wait a minute!" Thomas interrupted Elder Zhou with a look of utter disbelief.
"You're not planning to save everyone, are you?"
Thomas couldn't help but stand up from his office chair, holding the phone in one hand and the receiver in the other, and walk around the desk in circles.
Adrian and his deputy Carl, who were waiting in the office for the outcome of the meeting, immediately became tense.
The call didn't seem to go smoothly; their boss was so irritable.
"They wouldn't really refuse to cooperate with us, would they?" Adrian, a political novice, whispered to Carl beside him.
The other person shook their head, their chubby face jiggling slightly. "Impossible. Cooperating with us is the best solution."
"Perhaps they just want to take the opportunity to get a better price; there's a saying in their country, 'to raise prices while sitting on the ground.'"
Adrian seemed to understand, but he knew that if the other side didn't cooperate with them, the Ark Project would be greatly hindered.
If Ark Project were to be undertaken in another country, it would be impossible to conceal such a massive undertaking, and it would be impossible to build ten ships at once.
"If they don't agree, then we'll have to scale back the project, and then we won't even be able to save a million people."
Adrian clenched his hands tightly and prayed silently.
Thomas, who was spinning around on the other side, controlled his emotions and tried to persuade Zhou Jianhai on the other side:
"We all want to save everyone, but you and I both know it's impossible."
"Furthermore, Ark Project is merely a precautionary measure, intended to preserve the spark of civilization. Perhaps our calculations will be flawed, and the Earth will gradually calm down, allowing us to pretend nothing ever happened..."
Through this conversation, Elder Zhou already understood the mindset of Thomas and his group.
He glanced at Zhang Tianyuan sitting beside him, and felt a pang of emotion.
If it weren't for the Mutual Aid Society, he might have agreed to the plan.
Because although Thomas had selfish motives,
The objective reality he described certainly exists.
But times have changed.
He interrupted Thomas's rambling again, speaking with a calmness that Thomas hadn't expected:
"We have a way to save everyone, not just our citizens, but everyone on Earth."
Thomas stood there stunned, then slumped back into his office chair, his brow furrowed with worry. He felt like he was in a movie.
A post-apocalyptic movie.
As the protagonist, he is working hard to defeat various "villains" in order to save the world.
"What's the plan?" Thomas, clinging to his last glimmer of hope.
However, Old Elder Zhou and Zhang Tianyuan exchanged a glance, and after shaking their heads slightly, Old Zhou said, "Let's wait a little longer. We will inform you at a suitable time. And you don't need to worry, I can guarantee that time will come soon."
Thomas was completely baffled.
He couldn't understand Zhou Jianhai's thought process at all.
Is this some kind of plan to wait for the end of the world to come, and then tell them that as long as they chant Harry or Amitabha Buddha, they will be safe and sound?
Thomas was so agitated he was furious.
He wanted to continue, but Elder Zhou didn't give him the chance at all; every word he said was like punching cotton.
The informal call between the two ended quickly.
" Thomas on the other side wants to get us involved in Ark Project..."
In the office, after hanging up the phone, Elder Zhou recounted the conversation to the others, concluding with the outcome. "I didn't agree to any of his requests; I just wanted to put up with him."
Zhang Tianyuan nodded, understanding what Elder Zhou and the others were thinking.
Previously, preparations for the large-scale evacuation within the country were not yet complete, so we did not want any setbacks and wanted to avoid the shadow of war as much as possible.
But things are different now. In the 2012 timeline, domestic evacuation preparations are quite thorough.
This marks another turning point where offense and defense switch roles.
Therefore, it's time to consider evacuating from overseas.
The simplest and most important point.
Before evacuating them from abroad, their weapons must be disarmed. Otherwise, regardless of whether they cooperate with the evacuation, these people will become kings and tyrants once they arrive in the Legend World.
But you can't do that just by talking.
Those people don't understand human language at all.
So the only option is to wear them down slowly.
To disrupt their refuge plans, completely throw off their previous arrangements, prevent them from launching the Ark Project, and increase their sense of pressure from the apocalyptic catastrophe.
Even
Conversely, we can create a war cloud over them and exert enormous pressure on them.
Let them experience what it feels like when the world is about to end, and there's no time to escape, plus the fear of being attacked.
Finally, when they could no longer bear it.
Then reveal the real evacuation plan, making them realize that they can only keep their weapons or their lives, plus some divisive tactics.
It's easy to let them know which one is the wise choice.
Thomas's reaction after hanging up the phone was exactly as Elder Zhou and the others had predicted.
If it weren't for the need to maintain composure in front of his subordinates, a frustrated and worried Thomas would have smashed the phone.
Seeing his boss's expression, Adrian knew perfectly well what the outcome of the meeting would be.
His mind went completely blank for a moment.
He never expected his work to go so badly.
First, she wanted to announce the apocalypse, then she witnessed the death of her colleague.
Just when he suppressed his conscience and decided to mind his own business and ignore whether others had tickets to the Ark, the crucial Ark builder suddenly became completely uncooperative.
Well, now we can't even ride the Ark.
He suffered for nothing for so many days...
It turns out that in the end, we all have to die together.
Adrian sat down silently, covered his face with his hands, and bit his lip in melancholy.
Even Carl, who considered himself a seasoned veteran, was stunned and stood there dumbfounded, not knowing what to do.
Thomas calmed down and first recounted the details of the conversation, including the mysterious plan that Elder Zhou mentioned at the end, which could save the world's population and would only be revealed at the right time.
But nobody held out hope.
Whether it's Carl or Adrian.
They all knew that disaster drills had indeed been conducted and major railway repairs had been carried out throughout the past year.
However, this is meaningless in the face of a highly probable apocalypse.
Thomas had previously solicited evacuation plans, including going into the sky, going into space, sailing a ship, and sailing a submarine.
They didn't dig tunnels or build fortresses.
Because everyone knows that earthquakes and tsunamis can destroy everything that comes into contact with the earth.
So what's the point of building so many railways?
Where can it run to?
After briefly explaining the results, Thomas began to arrange the new tasks.
Cultural relics, genes, seeds, biological samples, equipment, materials...
All high-value goals should be saved first.
"Prepare like this for now. I'll try other means to get them to agree to implement Ark Project."
This is how Thomas responded to his subordinates' questions.
He's no good person.
That's not the case, at least not for people in other countries.