Chapter 2038 - 1598: The World Has Changed (Part 2)

Sun Duoxiang hurriedly tried to persuade him.

"No need, I want to take a walk."

Su Mo refused directly.

"Alright."

Seeing how insistent Su Mo was, Sun Duoxiang didn’t say anything more.

....

Not long after, Su Mo and Sun Duoxiang walked from the outskirts into Freedom City.

The two walked along the pothole-ridden streets, collapsed houses lining the way, and they could hardly see anyone.

Only every now and then they’d see a few people, sitting limply in front of the ruins with lifeless eyes.

Sun Duoxiang swallowed and explained to Su Mo.

"These people probably lost their family here and don’t want to leave."

Su Mo nodded slightly and kept walking inward. After a long while, there was finally a bit of life in sight.

Here and there, a few shops had opened their doors.

But on the shelves inside, only the simplest goods were for sale.

And around the shops, there were some guards with weapons.

Su Mo then walked into a nearby shop and spoke to an elderly man.

"Boss, give me a bottle of water."

"Here you go."

The owner took out a bottle of mineral water and handed it to Su Mo.

"How much?"

Sun Duoxiang asked quickly.

"Forget it, no charge."

The owner waved his hand.

"Thanks. By the way, boss, I see everyone’s getting ready to evacuate. Why aren’t you leaving?"

Su Mo didn’t stand on ceremony, twisted open the mineral water and drank as he asked.

"I’m old, I don’t feel like going. And my son stayed behind as a combatant. With these old bones, I’d even less likely leave."

The owner smiled as he replied.

Su Mo was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"Thanks for the hospitality, we’ll be going."

"Take care."

The owner waved to Su Mo and Sun Duoxiang; in fact, this was the first customer he’d received in over ten days.

Once everyone leaves, there will be even fewer.

Su Mo walked along the ravaged street, his expression growing more and more somber. He couldn’t help but recall the first time he came to Freedom City; back then the city was so prosperous, people everywhere.

...

Federation Parliament Hall.

Alles stood on the council platform, while below him the councilmen and major conglomerate representatives were arguing furiously.

"How come everyone else can evacuate, but our Baker Heavy Industry Group can’t? The quota you gave us is way too harsh."

"Why are half of our people being assigned to low-grade Transport Ships and Mother Ships?"

"We’re clearly the ones who contributed ships, so why is our own quota so small, with everything handed to the people below?"

.....

"Our Tianheng Group (Wang Family) also wants to apply for evacuation, we really can’t hold out any longer."

Wang Kui’s face was full of worry as he sighed to the companion beside him.

Sitting to the side, Lin Yaotian’s expression was taut, his face as ugly as it could get—the Wang Family had wavered too!

That meant that within the Five Dragon Heads, aside from the Ye Family, the rest had all clearly stated they wanted to leave.

In fact, even the Lin Family’s situation wasn’t much better; many within the clan also wanted to evacuate.

The problem was that it was impossible for everyone to evacuate. On one hand, the number of ships was limited; just settling the ordinary citizens was already an enormous struggle, let alone anything else.

You have to understand, it’s not as simple as cramming people in and being done.

This is a refugee migration. No one knows what that Star Domain they’re heading to is like, whether there’s danger, whether they can find a habitable planet.

If they can’t find a habitable planet, they’ll have to rely heavily on the ships’ ecological circulation systems—and those systems have an upper limit.

Another thing: the Federation’s elite Legions have to stay behind with Star Ring City. It’s not enough for just the troops to remain; all kinds of supporting personnel also need to stay. Even if they can receive supplies from Star Ring City, they still need their own logistics; otherwise they simply won’t be able to hold.

President of Alles rubbed his forehead; his head hurt badly and his ears were buzzing non-stop.

In the past few days they’d held no fewer than seven meetings, and not one had produced a result. Every single one had broken up in discord over various issues.

Just then, the main doors of the council hall were suddenly pushed open.

The previously noisy hall fell silent.

Alles also sensed something unusual and turned to look, only to see Su Mo appear at the entrance and walk straight in.

"Lord Su Mo is here!"

For a moment the councilmen present reacted, their faces all showing excitement.

The crowd in the aisles, who had been arguing just then, all made way for Su Mo, their faces full of respect.

Others might not know who piloted that VI-generation Biological Mecha, but it was very clear within the Federation. If Su Mo hadn’t rushed over in time to turn the tide, the Federation would’ve been annihilated.

So in their hearts, Su Mo was their pillar!

Seeing Su Mo approach, Alles immediately stepped down from the platform and went to greet him.

"Su Mo, you’re here."

"Yeah, I just arrived and already heard your arguments. I know it’s hard for everyone right now, but the harder it gets, the more we need to stick together!"

Su Mo turned and swept his gaze over everyone as he spoke.

For a moment quite a few people lowered their heads, looking somewhat unnatural.

Alles gave a bitter smile and said to Su Mo: "To be honest, you can’t really blame everyone this time. The Negative Universe is just too dangerous, so everyone wants to evacuate, but the evacuation slots are limited. On top of that, the Federation still needs a large number of elite strata and logistics personnel to stay."

After listening, Su Mo’s brows furrowed tightly; it was indeed a troublesome problem. But he still spoke to the crowd.

"Everyone, let me say a few words."

"Alright, Lord Su Mo, please speak."

The crowd replied one after another.