Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

Meanwhile, Sherag, the apprentice priestess codenamed First Snow, looked at the woman with luminous blue eyes before her. She turned her gaze away from the sky and said, "I'm fine, nothing serious. Is the Snow Mountain Festival about to begin again this year?"

"There's still some time..."

"There's still some time..." A faint, listless sigh escaped her azure eyes. "There is still some time, but it'll be almost over..."

"Are you talking about the festival?" First Snow seemed to sense something was amiss.

“Yes, the festival is exactly the same every year. Can we do something special this year?” The woman smiled. “Why don’t we take advantage of the little time we still have and go out for a stroll together?”

"This……"

Above the snow-capped mountains, beneath the unchanging ancient rocks, the most complex and massive machinery and ancient electronic devices imaginable by modern human intelligence operate silently. Energy flows quietly on each piece of synthetic jade panel, and neutrino jets converge within a complex multi-curved antenna system. The thick mountain body seems to be impervious to these ghostly particles.

In the eyes of the "Snow Mountain God" linked to it, the stars and the earth are like ghosts, just thin and illusory shadows. As for the earth, she, who carries information, is also like a ghost, existing on the edge of existence and non-existence.

The particle stream, traveling at sub-light speed, easily penetrated the atmosphere, broke free from the shackles of gravity, and rose from the planet's surface like an invisible fountain, passing through the vast void and entering the red sun. After being reflected by the sun, it returned to the planet, transforming into the soft, illusory light on the snow-capped mountain.

It was like a dream of the snow-capped mountains, fleeting in an instant. Meanwhile, colorful flags fluttered in the town at the foot of the mountain, and the festive atmosphere gradually filled the entire valley like an overflowing lake. This scene had been familiar to them for generations.

"Live life to the fullest and see things you've never seen before, otherwise you'll think the whole world is only as big as Shelag..."

"Are you... trying to convey something?"

"Ah no, I'm just an ordinary maid. You're the priestess, aren't you? Or rather, the future saintess!" The woman blinked and vanished before Chuxue like a phantom.

No one knows how she appeared, nor how she disappeared, just as no one knows what was wrong with her, even though the first person to see her has been resting peacefully under the snow-capped mountains for a long time.

Do you want to leave Sherag?

"Do you want to? Don't you want to? Who can say for sure—" A sound seemed to come from the wind, but upon closer listening, it sounded like the monotonous echo of a wind chime.

"For me, the world really is only as big as Kjerag... I really want to see the outside world... What's different about it?"

However, all the antenna arrays are highly directional, and only at specific times each year, in order to track real-time information about the sun and any possible echoes from the eternally silent world, will there be a small angle at which the side lobes sweep across a small area around the snow-capped mountain before disappearing into ground clutter.

The howling wind and snow gradually buried any subtle anomalies on the snow-capped mountain. Inside the mountain, the magnificent matrix that had completed an information collection and processing process once again fell silent. It continued to observe everything about the snow-capped mountain and Shelag quietly and without words, as if the whole world was only this small.

"Achoo!" Nian sneezed. "Damn it, I can catch a cold too? This shouldn't be possible. This body isn't made of flesh and blood. It doesn't make sense."

Apart from finding a few sub-viruses caused by errors in the underlying architecture, nothing strange should have been found.

“No, it’s not a cold, but something touched me spiritually…” Nian tapped his palm with his fan. “Who could it be? It doesn’t seem to be from inside the matrix.” After all, the “god” who was once of one mind would not send out pulses in such a crude and inefficient way.

"Master Nian, are you still not going to do your work?!"

"Wait, I have something to do. I'll be there in a bit!" Nian replied, sending a message into the distance, "Xi, do you know if there are any new people awakening?"

"No, there's nothing wrong with the matrix consciousness wave, and the brainwave signal detection didn't detect any new active targets. What happened?"

"It's probably some kind of illusion, or maybe... never mind, just keep an eye on the signal nodes at all levels, there might be some other old stuff still alive."

After thinking for a moment, Nian added, "Someone who has always been alive, someone who is both different from and similar to us..."

"artificial intelligence?"

"Maybe, who knows?" After all, it was such a huge project, involving almost all of Terra's technology and resources. To say that there were no backup plans or spare parts, whether others believed it or not, she simply didn't believe it.

"Which one?" "Who knows which one it is? No matter which one it is, it's all uncertain in this day and age."

Nian seems quite optimistic. The more variables there are in Terra, the better, because stagnant water will eventually evaporate under the sun, and only flowing water has a chance of survival.

In the southern plains of Kazdel, the supplies mobilized to the utmost were like stones thrown into water, creating only brief ripples and raising suspicions of embezzlement. However, compared to the tens of millions of relief projects underway, these supplies were a drop in the ocean.

Production in the occupied northern territories had only just begun to recover, and now they were immediately burdened by the heavy baggage of the south. Even with all the maneuvering and maneuvering by the Doctor and Kal'tsit, it was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.

"It seems we have no choice but to cash out with hard currency..." The doctor remained silent for a long time before speaking, "The consequences of doing so will be extremely serious, almost equivalent to..."

"Drag the world into hell," the little tiger holding her daughter said, shifting her position. Of course, she knew the consequences, given her excellent business acumen.

“Yes, but I never repent for anything I’ve done or will do…” The Doctor clasped his hands in front of him. “This move is certainly advantageous to us, however…”

However, this would mean entering the battle for power prematurely, which is not a good thing, just like a reckless person stepping into the battlefield without being prepared.

"Then let's cash out. To be honest, we have a lot of hard currency. In fact, the simplest way is to over-issue it," Old Xia said. That's right, we now have enough hard currency as collateral, including Originium and Red Gold. Over-issuing it is the simplest way.

However, the problem now is that Kazdel's output has reached its limit, and foreign procurement raises another issue: whether the over-issued currency will be recognized in international trade.

If the crisis had occurred later in the South, and if the financial system had reacted more quickly, the crisis could have been significantly mitigated, and it could even have alleviated the Great Depression caused by the tightening of purchasing power in Terra.

Because Kazdel has enough gold and Originium to print money like crazy, and this money is not used to play financial games and become numbers on the accounts of the rich or meaningless gold in the vaults, but is transformed into goods in the form of orders and into workers' wages.

It was as if God had injected purchasing power and circulating currency into Terra's market, thus alleviating or even postponing the Great Depression.

However, due to political reasons, the currency of New Kazdel is not recognized at all and can only circulate internally, but internal circulation cannot generate more goods than its internal output value.

Therefore, there are two solutions. The first is to exchange hard currency for foreign currency, such as LMD, and then use LMD to make large-scale purchases.

However, this will lead to the appreciation of Lungmen Dollars, which, simply put, will result in a situation similar to "money being expensive and copper being cheap," with people selling off precious metals and buying up currency to hold.

Because the increase in value brought about by the appreciation of the currency itself has exceeded the value that could be generated by lending or consumption, simply put, currency has changed from a medium of exchange into a commodity that can be sold at a higher price. Everyone will rush to increase their holdings of currency instead of using it to buy things—because no matter what you buy, spending the money will result in a loss.

This phenomenon can fuel the appreciation of the currency itself, causing more people to refuse to invest and consume, or to require a considerable amount of interest and premium to consume in order to offset the losses.

Ultimately, the Lungmen Dollars released by the Xia Group did not enter the circulation market, while the precious metals they used to exchange for Lungmen Dollars quickly entered the market.

Even if a nuclear-powered printing press were to be turned on to offset deflation through massive monetary easing, it would still take time. Of course, in this scenario, Lungmen would likely benefit the most, while Kazdel would suffer a lose-lose situation.

The second method is direct hard currency trading, bartering. However, this presents a new problem: since this is a large-scale purchase, the payment for barter is in gold or Originium. The seller must convert the gold and Originium into currency to pay the workers' wages. As a result, the other party must frantically buy and collect currency on the market and convert the gold and Originium into cash.

The crisis was shifted, but it didn't disappear. It's just that this action was changed from being done by the Xia Group itself to being done by countless purchasing companies. The effect was the same: the value of gold and Originium in the market plummeted, dragging down the value of all commodities, while the currency continued to decrease, causing the currency to appreciate wildly. The profits from buying and selling itself could not at all offset the gains from cryptocurrency speculation.

The result of both methods is the same—catastrophic deflation. The only difference is that the affected area will expand wildly, which indirectly reduces the severity of the disaster.

Moreover, it's always faster for everyone to work together to over-issue the printing press than for Longmen to over-issue on its own. As long as the over-issuance speed is fast enough, this crisis can be turned into an opportunity.

Because these hard currencies are pegged to currencies, a large amount of money can be issued to inject purchasing power into the market.

However, there is a very important prerequisite: whether the money released by quantitative easing can enter the market for purchasing.

When currency depreciates wildly, consumption becomes the mainstream. Capitalists and bankers will not keep their money at home, but will take it out and convert it into goods and assets. In this way, money will circulate, production will continue, and economic activities will develop normally.

Therefore, in economic terms, appropriate inflation and excessive money supply are beneficial to production and economic development, which is also the original meaning and purpose of the financial industry. Appropriate deflation is also conducive to industrial reform, kicking out those backward and inefficient industries, forcing capitalists to carry out industrial reform, improve efficiency and new technologies.

These investments and returns, in turn, offset the consequences of deflation and inflation.

However, any financial phenomenon that gets out of control can have disastrous consequences—and are the governments of Terra now capable of weathering this crisis?

"Da Yan will probably only be able to barely survive by building dams. Ursus and Kazimir will suffer heavy losses, and Victoria will be half-dead even if she doesn't die..."

"Columbia's fate depends on luck; if they react quickly, they might survive. Dosoles, on the other hand, might seize the opportunity to break free from Colombia's control. For them, this isn't a crisis but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." The doctor roughly assessed the situation of the various nations of Terra.

To turn this crisis into an opportunity, we must quickly convert hard currency into over-issued money, thereby maintaining the price of hard currency and preventing a massive sell-off that would lead to a crazy appreciation of the currency.

At the same time, the excess currency must be distributed and become money in the hands of most consumers—there are many ways to do this, but the best way is often the most difficult.

That's the approach of the "New Deal," which involved crazy infrastructure construction and long-term development, distributing the excess currency to a large group of unemployed and poor people. This increased the total amount of assets, expanded and maintained production, and injected sufficient purchasing power. It was just a temporary measure, not a fundamental solution, but it could indeed save lives.

However, this requires a high level of government execution and coordination to ensure that the money is actually distributed and does not end up in the hands of the wealthy elites who want to hoard their own coffers.

If the latter scenario occurs, the country will only die faster, creating a sequence of "deflation-depression-inflation," a triple economic disaster that no country can withstand.

The other method is much simpler: inject funds into the poor, live beyond one's means, and use San Dezi's method—want cannons but not butter.

They invested the excess currency, and even the money they swindled from bankers, capitalists, and nobles by promising high interest rates, into military construction, and then waged wars abroad, using the profits from plunder to pay the interest.

As long as they can continuously find targets to plunder, they can continuously consume excess population, excess goods, and excess industries, and maintain this usurious loan to prevent bankruptcy.

As for what Terra will look like then, everyone can imagine it.

Chapter Ninety: A Salted Fish Turns Over and Leaps Across the Waves

Chapter 90

Procurement—what a comforting word in this economic winter! Faced with Kazdel's incomprehensibly large orders, even the Victorian merchants and Rembiton mine owners who were prepared to support warlords and the remnants of Theresis wavered.

Ultimately, the reason for supporting the Kazdel civil war is to obtain this dumping market. Now that the other side has already placed such a huge order with demand from half a country, is there any point in continuing the war?

However, there is a problem: Kazdel lacks sufficient foreign exchange reserves and its own currency is not recognized.

Therefore, it was proposed to settle accounts using hard currencies such as red gold and Originium, which is similar to the settlement of accounts using gold and oil in modern trade. In essence, it can indeed be used as money. For example, the US dollar is a settlement currency because it is pegged to oil.

No one could stand by and watch their neighbor make money while they themselves lost money. So the factory owners and aristocratic bourgeois quickly formed new opposing groups and engaged in fierce battles with the traditional aristocratic factions that insisted on suppressing Kazdel.

For a country like Colombia, which has no need for such struggles, securing the most lucrative orders at the first opportunity included various alloy materials, production machinery, and even cargo ships. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence in Colombia, or even the world, knows that every piece of machinery sold at this time will become a competitor in the future.

But now it's a Great Depression. If we sell these advanced production machines, we can still survive, and we might not be the ones who die in the future.

However, if they choose not to sell in order to ensure the survival of their future competitors, they risk their own demise. This is a choice that wealthy and aristocratic individuals can make in a second—a simple one.

However, bartering is an extremely difficult activity to calculate profits from, and it is almost impossible for both parties to determine whether they have made a profit or a loss after the transaction is completed.

Therefore, prices will be adjusted very frequently. Large quantities of smelted red gold and densely packed pure Originium are sent out through the Syracuse Corridor and returned as various supplies urgently needed in the south.

This allowed Syracuse, which had only reached some tacit agreement with Kazdel, to quickly and temporarily escape the Great Depression simply by taking advantage of this transit economy.

After all, the cargo fleets and porters traveling back and forth need food, clothing, shelter, and other necessities. In addition, the costs of refueling, fresh water and food, as well as customs duties, all amount to a huge amount of revenue.

In trade, the two parties agreed to settle in LMD, but instead of paying in LMD, they would use Originium and Red Gold equivalent to LMD as payment.

In other words, the amount of LMD flowing into the market is basically zero, while the amount of gold and Originium equivalent to LMD flowing into the market is increasing dramatically.

The south of Kazdel was gradually pacified. With sufficient resources, suppressing rebellions and using both suppression and appeasement methods could be very quick. Once a place was captured and production and people's livelihoods were restored, it would be difficult for it to become a rebellious area again.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the situation was such that it was impossible to suppress the rebellion or appease the people. Even if surrendering meant not being beheaded, the landlords, gentry, and local officials would not give them a way out. Naturally, it was like trying to suppress one problem only to have another pop up, one after another, gradually exhausting the last bit of life force of the Ming Dynasty.

The doctor's approach was different. After suppressing a new area, he immediately organized disaster relief supplies to enter, distributing compressed biscuits, canned meat, and farm tools. He organized able-bodied men to clear the ruins and wasteland to prepare for planting. By quickly incorporating and integrating the people, they could no longer be coerced into regrouping.

After the initial suppression and reorganization were completed, honest and upright individuals with clean backgrounds were selected to enter the recruit camp for training, thereby cultivating a local recruit force. These individuals were familiar with the terrain and were more easily accepted by the locals. However, this would also bring some potential problems in the future. But compared to the tragic situation of half the territory falling, this price was still worthwhile.

"Ultimately, it was because Therese's regime collapsed too quickly. Other people's houses only leak from the top of the ship, but his ship was leaking everywhere."

"From the moment he abandoned the North, it was a ship destined to sink. No one could see that, including his men. On a ship destined to sink, those rats would no longer care about anything, only seeking to make a quick buck."

The doctor added, "So, how's the border closure going?"

"Skadi has already gone there with her men. Although hunters are not very good at fighting land creatures, we are very good at hunting."

Specter chuckled, "The Hunter Squad is in an awkward position within Kazdel's military. They excel at dealing with large monsters and sea creatures, but there aren't that many strange things here, and on the front lines..."

Even Skadi and Goredia stated that on the front lines, without terrain as cover to quickly engage the enemy, the only outcome would be being blown up before even seeing the enemy's face.

Therefore, in theory, the best use for the Hunters is to throw them into urban street fighting, or as Skadi would say.

In urban street fighting, she could single-handedly kill every legion in Kazdel except for the Yetis and Shieldbearers, at most suffering minor injuries herself.

Kazdel border. "How boring—" A young silver-haired girl squatted on a large rock. As a new recruit of the Deep Sea Hunters, she had just finished training when she was told that they were no longer needed here. Being thrown into a dry place like Kazdel was really upsetting.