After breaking up with my girlfriend, I became a Great Sage of the Demon Clan.

However, it was inappropriate to say this to Zhou Yan. The other adventurers could only sigh in their hearts that only the abundant resources of the old era could have nurtured such a sweetheart as Zhou Yan, who was oblivious to the wickedness of people's hearts.

After Zhou Yan finished speaking, he walked to the library entrance and found a rock to sit on.

Not long after he sat down, a small white kitten came running from a distance, meowing. It rubbed against Zhou Yan's shoes and then chuckled as Zhou Yan picked it up.

-#♂∪柶肆叁々≥污§＝六∠>肆蒐＼索〔:“This is, a cat?”

A short-haired girl walked out from behind Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan stroked the cat's head and said.

"Hmm, you haven't seen it before?"

The short-haired girl crossed her arms and said.

"People can't even get enough to eat, so where would they find the extra resources to keep pets?"

Zhou Yan asked curiously.

"How do you usually make a living?"

Now that the sun doesn't come out, large swathes of vegetation are dying out, and the foundation of agriculture is essentially gone. Under these circumstances, what can be done to survive in such a tragic environment?

"It's a carbon dioxide starchification technology."

The short-haired girl leaned against the wall behind Zhou Yan.

"It seems to be a technology left over from the last era. According to the technicians, as long as there is enough energy, we can produce starch continuously."

Zhou Yan became even more curious.

"Then where does the energy come from? Where does unlimited energy come from?"

"It seems to be saying..."

The short-haired girl looked puzzled.

Old Wu, who had come out, chimed in.

"It's nuclear fusion. Our base has stable nuclear fusion technology left over from a hundred years ago. It is thanks to the unlimited energy brought by nuclear fusion that our base has barely been able to keep its food supply going."

Zhou Yan nodded knowingly.

"Sure, carbon dioxide to starch and nuclear fusion technology, infinite energy to infinite food, hey, as long as there is enough nuclear fusion, it's not impossible to recreate the biosphere of that time."

With human technology, as long as there is enough energy, it is not a problem to simulate sunlight with artificial light. If sunlight can be simulated, plants can grow, and if plants can grow, animals can also survive.

If this cycle continues, it won't matter if the sun doesn't come out.

"There aren't that many technicians."

Old Wu said bitterly.

"Our survivor base has a population of only 50,000."

Modern technology has long since moved beyond the days when one person could create a new era. Various industry segments have led to a situation where many high-end technologies require a large number of professionals to support and complement them.

Therefore, the underlying strength of large and small countries is different. No matter how powerful or capable a small country is, it can only become an expert in one or two industries because its population is insufficient to produce elites who can complement and cooperate in more industries.

Only large countries with hundreds of millions of people can have a diverse range of industries flourish and control a sufficient number of sectors, because a large population and a large number of researchers can create a virtuous cycle of mutual support.

Regardless of talent and education, the size of your population is a lock on the upper limit of a country, and there is no other way to break through it.

With a population of 50,000, let alone researching and developing nuclear fusion, Zhou Yan estimated that they wouldn't even be able to gather enough technical personnel to inherit the nuclear fusion technology.

If this continues, we might lose the technology of nuclear fusion.

The survivor base where Lao Wu is located survives entirely by converting starch into unlimited energy from nuclear fusion. Once the unlimited energy is lost, the base will collapse in no time.

Zhou Yan reached out and pressed his temples, then spoke to the short-haired girl beside him and the driver, Lao Wu.

"Your high-ranking officials have arrived and are now on the city's outskirts."

Chapter Ten: The Corpse of the Gods

Phoenix City border.

Three SUVs drove into the city in a 1-2 formation.

In the car at the very front, Shana was the driver, and a young man was sitting in the passenger seat. However, behind the young man were two elderly people with snow-white hair.

The two cars following Wu carried Misaki Shokuhou and Sakura Kinomoto, along with other high-ranking members of the survivor base.

After arriving in Phoenix, these high-ranking officials got up one after another and looked around the city.

Lu and the young man agreed that this place, which was originally filled with all kinds of ghosts and monsters and could almost be considered off-limits to the living, no longer had those fierce-looking ghosts and monsters that could give people nightmares. Instead, there were beautiful young girls who dared to go to the survivor base and immediately cause a sensation.

The vehicles passed by these beautiful young women one by one, and soon arrived at the city library in the city center.

Many investigators were standing outside the library. They felt much more relaxed when they saw that only three vehicles had arrived.

With three cars and fewer than ten people, it's highly unlikely they would launch a decapitation strike against Zhou Yan and Xiao Yanjun; they must simply be there for questioning and negotiation.

The four waiting SUVs stopped, and after the senior executives of his company got out, Old Wu walked up with an embarrassed look on his face and shook hands with his superior in charge of foreign affairs investigations.

The foreign affairs leader shook Lao Wu's hand and said with emotion.

"It's good that you're not dead, it's good that you're not dead, by the way..."

The foreign affairs leader leaned close to Lao Wu's ear and whispered something.

“I heard the specifics from Xiao Fang (the young man), who said that the real person in charge of this place should be the man wearing the chef's clothes.”

Old Wu said in a low voice.

"I think so too."

You should know that the entire city is filled with beautiful girls, and even the library is full of beautiful maid girls. Apart from Zhou Yan, the Little Yama who looks like a leader is actually a woman.

Normally, if Little Yama were in power, given his gender, the ghosts in the library and the city would be handsome men and dashing male servants.

So Lao Wu guessed that the real person in charge of this place should be Zhou Yan, because the beautiful girls that these ghosts transformed into were all made according to Zhou Yan's tastes.

Unless Little Yama is a man disguised as a woman.

"very good."

The foreign affairs manager released his hand from Lao Wu's.

A beautiful girl with long, straight black hair dressed in a maid outfit walked out of the library, approached Old Wu, and spoke in a cool voice.

"Everyone, the host is already waiting for you in the conference room. Please follow me."

The high-ranking officer from the survivor base straightened his clothes, which he might not wear for a year, and led them into the library, accompanied by a long-haired black-haired maid.

The library has more maids who regularly clean and maintain it.

Some maids were mopping the floor, some were wiping the windows, and some were cleaning the stairs.

The higher-ups from the survivor base twitched involuntarily with each glance they cast at a maid.

Each of these maids is comparable to the top combatants in their base, yet in this library, they merely wear beautiful clothes and do the most menial work.

And not just one, but ten, twenty, and who knows how many more we haven't seen. Nine

What kind of monstrous force could possibly possess so many beautiful and capable maids? (Ling)

The group arrived at the conference room.

After entering the conference room, the higher-ups of the survivor base finally met the little girl, Little Yama, whom the young man had mentioned. Even if she wasn't the person in charge behind the scenes, her status was definitely not low.

Upon seeing someone enter, Little Yama stood up from his seat. Because he was rather short, he was even shorter when he stood up than when he was sitting.

Of course, Little Yama didn't care about these things, and instead reached out his hand.

"Please be seated."

There were eight high-ranking officials from the base who came to negotiate. They were seated on both sides of the conference table, four on the left and four on the right.

Little Yama spoke to the beautiful girl with long, straight black hair who led the people in.

"Go prepare some food for our guests."

The maid, Yukinoshita, bowed.

"Understood, sir."

Yukino went out, and within half a minute, more than a dozen maids came in with drinks and food, placing them in front of different people.

Apart from Little Yama, everyone present had a change in expression.

As high-ranking members of the survivor base, they were entitled to spend more energy and food to raise a cow, sheep, or pig for themselves, but they only dared to eat meat and drink milk during the New Year or on their birthdays.

Now, it seems that Little Yama has unlimited beef, milk, and drinks.

The director of the research institute, who was sitting at the last seat on the left, cut a piece of steak, put it in his mouth, and asked a question.

"Where did all this meat and drinks come from?"

"These are all minor matters."

Little Yama glanced at the elderly people below. In this apocalypse, many young people couldn't survive, but the people in front of him looked to be in their seventies or eighties. It was clear that they were doing well in the survivor base, at least they had no worries about food and clothing.

"What I want to know now is the information that the government of the Eastern Xia United States has collected."

An old man to Xiao Yanjun's left, who was in charge of allocating resources at the survivor base, chimed in.

"And the price? Miss, what price are you willing to pay for our intelligence?"

Little Yama propped his face up with one hand and turned his head to look at the old man.

How is your life going?

elder:"……"

Little Yama clapped his hands.

Outside the door, Shana, Misaki Shokuhou, and Sakura Kinomoto all came in and obediently stood next to Koen-kun with their heads down.

He had the demeanor of a meek and submissive servant.

Little Yama shook her coffee spoon and said casually.

"You'd better understand one thing: I need you to provide intelligence, not to bargain, but as an order..."

"certainly……"

Little Yama's tone turned cold.

"If you're curious, you can try it. It will take me several maids to destroy your survivor base."

Diplomacy is an extension of politics, and politics is about using force.

In other words, you can only place bets on the political gamble if you have enough leverage. No matter how much righteousness you claim or how eloquent you are, it's all in vain if you don't have enough leverage.

Little Yama happens to possess a weapon that the group of old men on the other side cannot ignore: absolute violence.

"We're all human, no need to search: Ba [Wuqi ∮·Liu ≡≈塶毶4, 'It seems like we're talking so stiffly.'"

The chief of staff of the survivor base stood up and gave Little Yama a fawning smile.

"This lady, um..."

"Just call me Xiao Yan. I don't care about your names. Just give me the information about the Eastern Xia Federation."

The chief of staff turned to look at the manager of his information department. The manager was an elderly man with a receding hairline and a somewhat obese build. In this post-apocalyptic world, such a physique could only mean that this person held a high position and treated himself well.

The old man took out his briefcase and pulled out a stack of documents made of cloth as writing materials.

"These are the materials we copied by hand. The original materials were badly oxidized and could not be transported over long distances, so we had to use handwritten copies instead."

The documents were handed from the old man to Little Yama, who picked them up and looked at them.

The contents were numerous, mostly agricultural products from the Eastern Xia United Kingdom. Electricity prices had skyrocketed, increasing dozens of times in just one week, while electricity prices were even more dramatic, jumping from three cents per kilowatt-hour to fifty dollars per kilowatt-hour.

This exaggerated increase in the cost of living directly paralyzed the entire Eastern Xia Federation.

As for the cause of the paralysis, Little Yama found a record.

"We've already gone to Dabie Prefecture to search for the Vermilion Bird. Search: Chirp...Tai! 彡⊙↓五℃¨Azure Dragon..."

"Search personnel are missing..."

"Dabie Prefecture is shrouded in black mist, and no means can detect what's inside it..."

"The country has begun to fall into civil war..."

After flipping through the document, Little Yama found that there wasn't much useful information. The most useful part was that government officials seemed to have gone to Dabie Prefecture to look for the Vermilion Bird and the Azure Dragon, but none of them returned.