Doctor, I'm really strong!

As the head of the security department, her main job is to protect the safety of Rhine Life, so she rarely inquires about things outside of her job responsibilities. Overseeing the overall situation is what President Christen Wright should be doing.

The fact that she suddenly made such a huge mess was hard for Saria to accept.

As the president, Christensen couldn't possibly be unaware of this matter. If she was, then taking this step would imply her tacit approval, or even support.

Hammer shook his head wearily: "It's not just that. The company is now producing large quantities of PX nerve agent and selling large amounts of it to other countries to suppress labor movements. Similar things have happened in quite a few countries, and many innocent people have been killed..."

Seria clenched her fists. This was no small matter. She had to talk to Christen, or Rhine Life would go astray.

Just then, the roar of engines came from the sky. Saria and Himeru subconsciously looked up and saw twelve huge planes flying over their heads, heading towards the Fort Detrick laboratory.

"Is this a military-developed aircraft? It's huge!" Hamer asked in surprise.

Saria frowned, sensing that something was amiss.

However, they soon no longer needed to dwell on this issue, as these twelve aircraft were Tu-95s from the Community.

All the planes were carrying heavy bunker buster bombs and incendiary bombs; the bunker buster bombs knocked on the door, and the incendiary bombs cleared the area.

"Arrived over target airspace, bombing conditions are favorable."

"Target locked, prepare bunker buster."

"Deploy!"

Five-ton bunker buster bombs crashed into the Fort Detrick laboratory. With the guidance of the intelligent seeker, all twelve bunker buster bombs hit their targets precisely, followed by a barrage of incendiary bombs.

Unfortunately, a large amount of liquid Originium solution is stored underground in Fort Detrick.

These solutions are used to prepare reagents for biological experiments. To maintain their activity, they must be preserved in liquid form after being injected with a catalyst. It's important to understand that Originium itself is an energy crystal that can react with high temperatures, meaning it is flammable and explosive. Combining bunker-buster bombs with incendiary bombs, in the confined environment beneath Fort Detrick, creates a makeshift reaction vessel.

The blasted liquid Originium solution quickly became an accomplice in the chain reaction. In the blink of an eye, the entire Fort Detrick was blown into the air, and the relatively sturdy underground encapsulation structure was completely ejected and landed in the nearby freshwater factory.

The freshwater factory was also an unexpected disaster. The losses it caused were secondary; the main problem was that the highly active Originium on it contaminated the water source, rendering the land unusable and turning it into wasteland.

Everything happened so fast and suddenly that even five kilometers away, Seria and Himer could feel the earth-shattering power and the mushroom cloud rising into the sky.

Realizing the situation was bad, Saria immediately pulled Himer into the car and ran in the opposite direction.

It wasn't that she was unwilling to help, but in an explosion like that, it was impossible for anyone to survive. Moreover, she knew very well what was in the underground storage facility of Fort Detrick. If they didn't run now, they would all become infected as soon as the splashed Originium solution spread, and they would be unlucky enough to get acute infection.

"Headquarters, headquarters, this is Saria. Fort Detrick laboratory has been attacked! Fort Detrick laboratory has been attacked!"

While reporting the situation to headquarters, Saria quickly evacuated. The things she would face next were not something she could decide alone. Just then, many white snowflakes began to fall from the sky. As they drew closer, the two realized they were flyers with high-resolution photos printed on them, which read:

"Rhine Labs manufactured poison gas, harming innocent civilians; their crime deserves death!"

The signature is from the Terra People's Community.

Chapter 244: Setting Sail Again

(Second update. As a diligent author, could you please give me a like, comment, and share? (?ω?))

"Kristen, I need an explanation!"

At the Rhine Lab headquarters, Saria arrived at the president's office with the flyer that the community had thrown away. In the entire Rhine Lab, only Saria dared to speak to Christen like that.

After looking at the flyer, Christen said calmly, "Saria, we need funds. The military orders and collaborations are very important to us."

Saria immediately retorted, "This is no excuse for us to abandon our conscience!"

Just then, Ferdinand, the head of the Rhine Life Energy Department, walked in. Christensen had called him over because he was the one who was pushing for the production of PX nerve agent and the cooperation project with the military.

Seeing the tense atmosphere in the office and the promotional leaflets on the president's desk, Ferdinand immediately understood what was going on. He stepped forward and said, "Director Seria, although we produced the P nerve agent, we don't know what the military is doing with it. Just like a knife seller can't be held responsible for someone being killed by the knife he sold, we can't be responsible for the products we sell. The actions of our customers are not within our scope of responsibility."

Saria turned around and said coldly to Ferdinand, "Tell that to the Community!"

Ferdinand shrugged. Clearly, this matter couldn't be brought up openly. Whether it was sophistry or justification, the onlookers weren't fools.

This kind of talk is only good for fooling those who are not involved and those within the group. As for the parties involved and the victims, the community doesn't care about your opinions. I'll just wipe you out. If you have any complaints, talk to the King of Hell.

Christen stood up and said, "The PX nerve agent incident was indeed a mistake on my part. We will no longer supply the military with P-sector nerve agents. Consider this loss a lesson. Saria, I assure you, Rhine Labs is still the Rhine Labs you know. We will not go astray."

Seria sensed something was amiss, but out of trust for her old friend, she chose to believe Christensen.

"That would be great, I'll get back to work now."

After Seria left, Christen looked at Ferdinand, who knew what the president wanted to hear and replied with a smile, "The formula and production process for PX nerve agent have been packaged up, and this is the price offered by the military."

Christen took the contract, looked at it, and nodded in satisfaction.

Although a large laboratory was lost, the military's offer was enough for Rhine Labs to build two more high-standard Fort Detrick laboratories. Moreover, this incident will make the military trust Rhine Labs even more.

At this moment, Ferdinand spoke up: "President, the military is also very interested in Project Flame Demon."

Christen asked, "What price are they prepared to offer?"

Ferdinand: "The military is willing to provide no less than 20 billion LMD in funding, and at least 50 million LMD in aid for our launch program, plus a low-interest loan of 5 billion LMD."

The Lungmen coin is an internationally recognized unit of currency. However, each country has its own monetary system. Therefore, the Lungmen coin is used as a reference value for the value of a certain project. When it comes to actual payment, the settlement is based on the exchange rate between the Lungmen coin and the country's precious metal currency.

However, it's hard to say how long this system can be maintained after the community gains control of Lungmen.

After all, Lungmen Dollar is not a hegemonic currency. Its value lies in the mutual recognition and financial credibility among major powers. If all countries consider it worthless, it will become worthless overnight.

Christen fell silent, not because she was dissatisfied with the military's offer, but because the progress of Project Flame Demon had encountered a bottleneck.

To seize the power of a god with a mortal body is an extremely risky challenge. Although Rhine Lab's Balrog Project has been progressing for some time, it is still largely a gimmick. It may be possible to use it to obtain subsidies, but if the military actually asks Rhine Lab to produce a demon that can be used on the battlefield, Christen can only say that anything is possible in a dream.

But the large financial investment is indeed very tempting, as it could allow Rhine Life to take another step forward.

With that in mind, Christensen made a decision.

"Tell the military about the difficulty of advancing Project Flame Demon, the more difficult the better. If the military is still willing to invest money even so, we can show them our preliminary results first."

It's true that Project Flame Demon has hit a bottleneck, but Rhine Labs hasn't come away empty-handed. The military's needs have always been simple, crude, and direct: as long as the weapon meets the required performance standards, the military doesn't care what the weapon is made of.

"Understood, President."

On the other hand, the bombing of Rhine Life by the Community naturally drew protests from Colombia, but that was all.

Even the voices of protest were carefully controlled, with words like "regret" and "hope" used in press releases.

Words like "peace" and "future" are just empty words; don't take them seriously.

It's no wonder Colombia is being so cautious. The thought of Rhine Labs' Fort Detrick laboratory being destroyed by twelve behemoths flying overhead makes Colombian political and business leaders extremely uneasy. They're afraid of angering the community and sending planes to their mountain brethren, which would cause huge losses, as their cities have no ability to withstand strategic bombers.

After reading the Colombian newspaper, Liu Jiuli simply smiled and said, "The weakness of the bourgeoisie."

Even if this matter is temporarily put aside, the two countries will not have any excessive confrontation over a laboratory. Just look at the map and you'll see that Colombia and the Community of Tera are far apart in terms of spatial distance. When there was a coalition before, Colombia was only half-hearted in its efforts. Now that the coalition has been disbanded, it's unlikely that Colombia would dare to provoke the Community, which just beat up the Eight-Nation Alliance, unless their leaders are corrupt and have been brought to power by rapists.

For the community, the most important task at present is large-scale infrastructure construction, especially the reconstruction of Steelgrad.

This great city bore the brunt of the war for the founding of the nation, and also inflicted the most damage. More than half of the Allied casualties were in the street fighting in Iron Grid. After the war, less than twelve intact buildings remained in the city, and these buildings were covered with the marks of bullets and cold weapons.

The steel city, scarred and battered, stands tall despite its devastation.

Steel Grid is the spirit and backbone of the community.

Reconstruction work has begun. Workers removed countless mementos from the ruins of Steelgrad and transplanted them to the newly built Steelgrad. The history of Chernobog has come to a complete end from this moment on.

It's time to develop a new five-year plan.

Section 245: Let's eat hot pot

(Because I've been quite busy lately, I'll try to update in the mornings. If I really don't have time, then I'll have to update only once a day. Please understand. Today is a double update.)

Future Science City

"Open the door, I need to check the water meter!"

"What are you doing? What are you doing! I'm a legitimate businessman!"

"Zhao Fugui, your treason has been exposed. Come with us!"

"You've arrested the wrong person! You've arrested the wrong person!"

"Enough talk, take him away!"

Every country has a group of spineless people within its borders. Ordinary people would never think of betraying national interests, but some people not only collude with foreign countries, but also think of using their acts of betrayal to gain more leverage.

During the War of Founding, the community was united, but there were some dissenting voices, such as those from private capital.

Private enterprises within the community may not have the scale or strength of those outside, but that doesn't stop them from selling out the country, especially those who trade with foreign businesses and act as middlemen. They are natural compradors. If you teach them a little about the idea that capital has no borders, they will immediately want to become global citizens.

After learning that the community was fighting against the Eight-Nation Alliance, many private capitals within the community panicked. They were worried that they would lose everything if the community failed. They never considered that the reason they had some capital now was because of the community's protection. Other countries were willing to buy them off because their country was a threat to them and worth paying for.

But you can't expect compradors to think about patriotism and love for the people; if they did, they wouldn't be compradors.

As a result, a group of people emerged who wanted to collude with foreign powers, but what they didn't know was that the Cheka had already been watching them.

As a time traveler from the land of China, I have encountered all sorts of unpleasant things in the five thousand years of history. The greater the pressure I face, the more likely internal traitors will emerge, especially those bourgeois who have abandoned production.

Therefore, after the war began, Liu Jiuli directly ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to focus on monitoring private capital in the country. All the goods they produced had to be secretly reviewed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Anything that was not up to standard was recorded in a black book, and anything that colluded with foreign countries was also recorded. They would be settled in a unified manner after the war ended.

Today is the day of reckoning. One by one, the scoundrels are dragged from their nests by the Cheka, publicly tried in the streets, and then thrown into the crowd, leaving their fate to be decided by the people.

Their fate is usually not good; they'll basically be beaten to death by a flurry of punches, then sparked on the spot, and buried in some random wasteland.

This kind of garbage composting makes people feel that the quality of food has declined.

At this moment, the person under the most pressure is Yun Teng. As a big businessman who made his fortune since the Red Guard Future Technology City era, he is a very influential person in the private capital of the community. The tea party was organized by him.

His biggest dream is to be able to influence government decisions like a major Colombian corporation, or at least have a place in the central power structure.

Therefore, he was very dissatisfied with the community's suppression of private capital and control over the financial sector.

The former limited his development, while the latter prevented him from accumulating capital quickly.

If a company can't make money in the stock market, how can it possibly grow at a fast pace?

But as a smart man, he was very clear about his position. Without the community, he would have been devoured by the big capital of Longmen when he was still a small businessman. The ruthlessness of those bastards was far more terrifying than that of the community, where you only need to pay taxes legally.

So when others chose to betray, he chose to side with the community and exposed all the compradors.

Such whistleblowing is a highly hated act. If the government does not protect or reward one's meritorious service after the matter is over, then one can no longer continue in the business world. Perhaps making a living through one's skills is a good alternative, as the skilled workers in the community are treated quite well.

In places with free competition, you can get things done for free on the spot; but in places dominated by state-owned enterprises, you can't develop on your own.

It's so tough being a petty bourgeois with no money or power.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

With a nervous heart, Yun Teng opened the door, where two Cheka officers wearing blue peaked caps stood.