Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 139 - 140: 120 Years of Cold War

Chapter 139: Chapter 140: 120 Years of Cold War

Having bid Li Zhendong farewell and greeted a few friends, Zhang Yuan headed to the registration desk and saw his long-lost teacher—Academician Ding.

“Zhang Yuan, by my calculations, we haven’t seen each other for a thousand years. In the blink of an eye, you’ve also become a ‘youth’ of over a thousand years old,” Academician Ding was in a good mood and made a small joke.

“Teacher…”

Zhang Yuan silently realized that Academician Ding had aged a lot; he looked to be a man in his seventies or eighties.

It was probably because he woke up more frequently than others. Fortunately, thanks to some longevity potions from the biological laboratory, people in their seventies or eighties didn’t age like in the past but stayed in the prime of their careers.

Academician Ding patted his shoulder, “This Grand Year is mainly for the preparation of the New Civilization History conference, which is in three months. If you have anything you want to say, you can bring it up then.”

“By the way, we’ve already looked over your doctoral thesis. It shouldn’t be difficult to pass the defense. However, a doctorate in New Civilization History is essentially like a doctorate in the sciences.”

Zhang Yuan smiled, “A doctorate in sciences should be fine, right…”

Another elderly professor also smiled, “Regarding the Psy function you proposed, I think it’s very valuable for reference… I have a few questions I want to ask you.”

The group talked for an hour about academic matters, as well as some recent events on Earth.

Considering it was the Grand Year, things were bound to be busier. Items such as nuclear power stations needed maintenance, and all aspects of spaceships would undergo comprehensive inspection, including communication devices and inventory checks.

“You’ve just woken up from hibernation and haven’t fully recovered. Rest for a couple of weeks first.”

“Get to know the whole spaceship, as well as the changes in Earth Civilization…”

Zhang Yuan nodded.

Half an hour later, Zhang Yuan returned to his own bedroom.

It was time to catch up on the latest developments in Earth Civilization.

He checked his luggage and found his mobile phone was broken and couldn’t be turned on, but his tablet still worked. He suspected that by the time he woke up again, he might not even be able to use the tablet and would have to settle for a very outdated black-and-white screen work computer.

Shaking his head, Zhang Yuan sat upright in front of the computer and took a deep breath.

He remembered that before his last hibernation, with Mars as the dividing line, the inner and outer political rings of the Solar System were caught up in a Cold War.

The main reason was the wealth disparity and resulting class conflicts.

The Cold War was merely a way of diverting internal conflicts.

He sighed inwardly, “I wonder if now, after five hundred years, the issue has been resolved. The Cold War couldn’t have lasted for five hundred years, could it?”

He opened an ancient report, “Hello to all Earth Era colleagues from the Golden Sun. I am Ding Quan, the president of the Deep Space Foundation…”

The familiar opening words brought a very comforting feeling.

Under the onslaught of time, Earth Civilization had long since changed; all the familiar things were gradually disappearing. The Deep Space Foundation had become the only trustworthy organization on Earth.

The report read, “Under the cloud of war, internal contradictions are gradually easing, and populist sentiments are surging.”

“It is with regret that I inform you, belonging to the inner ring of Solar System politics, the Deep Space Foundation… we’re no longer able to know the various data of the inner ring.”

Including economic data, Engel’s coefficient, Gini index, industrial index, and so on, the Foundation could only estimate these through external manifestations.

“Unfortunately, relying on the Cold War to solve internal conflicts quickly led to new problems…”

The first problem was the beginning of the collapse in Earth’s real estate prices.

War was imminent, and localized conflicts had already erupted on the Martian battlefield. With this risk-aversion in mind, real estate prices could no longer continue to rise, and with people only wanting to flee to Venus and Mercury, further away from the battlefield, the situation was exacerbated.

More and more people began to sell their homes on Earth, escaping to the safer planets of Mercury and Venus. Finally, one day, real estate prices began to crash.

The speed of the collapse was so frantic that even government departments hadn’t reacted in time to make decisions. In just one year’s time, many city homes had been directly halved in value.

The crash in housing prices meant that many people burdened with mortgages became negative equity overnight.

Since they were already in negative equity, why continue to pay the mortgage?

So, this group of negative-equity individuals simply defaulted, not wanting their homes anymore, they dusted off their bottoms and fled from Earth.

Now the banks were in trouble, reluctantly taking on a mass of bad assets that they were unable to dispose of in such a poor economic environment.

Furthermore, amid various asset transfers and bank runs, even the banks began to falter.

And when the banks collapsed, the financial chain snapped dramatically, and the rest of the industries started to fall like dominoes…

A tsunami-like financial crisis swept through the political circles on Earth, causing massive devastation to the entire economy!

The original political circles of Earth, relying on the heavy industrial bases on Mercury and the Moon, plus the deeply-rooted Earth, were much stronger economically than the external political circles, but after the financial baptism, their strength was greatly diminished, bringing both sides to the same starting line.

Zhang Yuan sighed deeply.

He opened the next report, which began with dire news:

“Hello to all Earth Era members, colleagues of The Golden Sun. I am Ma Tengfei, President of the Deep Space Foundation…”

“…I regret to inform everyone that due to the economic downturn, the Deep Space Foundation’s budget has been cut again. We temporarily cannot afford the exorbitant costs of sending out the next transmission.”

“I’m sorry.”

“We promise that when we have enough funds, we will find a way to send the next transmission.”

“I’m truly sorry.”

The President said “I’m sorry” many times.

To send massive quantities of information measured in petabytes on a light-year scale indeed requires a tremendous amount of funds.

Starting from this report, as time passed, the intervals at which the Deep Space Foundation sent information grew longer and longer. By now, nobody reminisced about the ambitious deep space plans of the past anymore; during economic downturns, everyone just looked out for themselves.

Zhang Yuan didn’t know how to describe his own emotions.

The Deep Space Foundation, once a towering authority, was finally facing its true decline amidst turbulent storms…

In various intermittent reports, it was revealed that the Cold War lasted a total of 120 years.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.

Destruction is always simpler than construction; while space weapons couldn’t destroy planets directly, they could easily obliterate various ecosystems.

For instance, just a few laser strikes could cause air leaks in the Space Cities, and there’s no way to intercept a laser; the massive Earth was essentially a moving target, and it was all too easy to use various weapons to damage the ozone layer, which could cause significant changes in Earth’s ecological environment…

Especially various gene and bioweapons, which were very low-cost yet had immense destructive power, it was far too easy to cause mass casualties.

Under such a tightrope situation, governments of all countries maintained restraint with tentative fear, and any localized outbreaks of war occurred only on Mars.

Just like the initial deterrent of nuclear arms, it’s when the nuclear bombs are on their launchers that their deterrent power is greatest. Everyone struggled economically but didn’t wish to cause a huge backlash that could lead to their own extinction.

And so, after 120 years, no one had managed to completely eliminate a side, and with protracted attrition, war-weariness in all regions had grown significantly.

Thus, the opportunity for peace finally arrived at a sluggish pace…

“Hello to all Earth Era members, colleagues of The Golden Sun. This summer is the year of glacial melting, and we have welcomed true peace! Thank you to the world, perhaps our civilization can still emerge from the trough.”

Zhang Yuan was invigorated.

A great person named “Quincy” had emerged on Earth, who delivered a speech for the ages. Under various coincidences, peace was truly rekindled across the entire world.