Chapter 384 - 182: The Opening Blow (2)

Chapter 384: Chapter 182: The Opening Blow (2)

[College Drone in South America: Even if he wins the Nobel Prize, I’d advise him not to go abroad. I’m over here in Rio de Janeiro and just saw more than ten guys taking a leap. His breakthrough wiped out a whole bunch of people playing the grain futures market.]

[Civil Engineering Beast of Burden: My sincerest thanks. Civil engineering is saved!]

[Zhang Beihai: He’s a shoo-in for academician. As for the Nobel Prize, he can do without it.]

[Ma Ni: While this is worth celebrating, the shortcomings of the Immortal Soybeans remain a problem.]

[Wallbreaker: @Ma Ni, has it ever occurred to you that this shortcoming might be intentional?]

[Humanity Will Not Thank Luo Ji: The Nobel Prize is just a Western tool. There’s basically no way Jiang Miao can go abroad now. Forget ABCD—if I were America, I’d blow up all of Stockholm just to get Jiang Miao.]

[Born Lover: @Humanity Will Not Thank Luo Ji, that makes sense. Jiang Miao must be in grave danger right now.]

[Jiaoji: You guys are overthinking it. All entrances to Magong Town have strict security checks now. It’s hard to even get within a hundred meters of Jiang Miao. Plus, he keeps a low profile in his daily life, and his security detail is top-notch.]

[Foreign Language Enthusiast Dean Chen: A little bird told me that Hendong is preparing to reopen the Du case.]

[Dark Horse: @Foreign Language Enthusiast Dean Chen, what Du case?]

[Astronomy Enthusiast Sun Liancheng: @Dark Horse, just search "Hendong Du Case." Simply put, some PhD supervisor forced Jiang Miao’s wife, Lin Shuya, to quit, making her abandon her doctoral degree. Go to the Hailufeng Company’s official website and check out Lin Shuya’s bio. The section about her studies at Handong University is completely blank. Her honorary doctorate was awarded by Lion Mountain Agricultural University.]

The Chinese internet was abuzz with discussion.

Meanwhile, on social media sites outside of China, the topic’s popularity was also skyrocketing.

For example, on YouTube, an influencer who frequently reposted news about current events in Cyrus quickly shared the related news video.

However, compared to the comment sections in China, the ones abroad had a much higher proportion of personal attacks and conspiracy theories.

Of course, there were also plenty of rational people among the foreigners.

The comments section was, to put it mildly, a mixed bag.

Below the shared news video:

[Caesar the Great: Despicable, shameless thief! This Dr. Jiang definitely stole the technology from us in America.]

[Andre the Truck Driver: @Caesar the Great, hilarious. You don’t even have this technology yourselves, so how could anyone steal it? Oh, I get it. You must be talking about technology from America in the Marvel Universe, right?]

[Cuckold King: I object! If this technology gets widely adopted, it will be an absolute ecological disaster. Earth’s deserts are an indispensable part of the ecosystem.]

[AK Master of Ibo: I hope we can import it into Xiba. It could solve our food crisis.]

[Kudo Ran: Whatever. East Japan is just dad’s colony anyway.]

[Open-Source Iron Man: Fantastic technology. Perhaps it could be used for developing Mars in the future.]

[Thomas Fan: Are our scientists sleeping on the job? Does Europe even have a future?]

[Desert Tycoon: Flight booked. Arriving tomorrow.]

[Eco-Friendly Beauty: OMG! This is an evil technology! The person who invented these soybeans is so evil! His invention is just like that of Leo Hendrik Baekeland, who invented plastic—it’s absolutely terrible.]

[Flatbread of the Nile: @Eco-Friendly Beauty, you bunch of hypocrites. You waste tons of food and resources yourselves but drone on about environmentalism all day. If you’d ever experienced real hunger, you wouldn’t be talking out of your ass!]

[Shepherd of the Hindu Kush Mountain Range: We should be able to grow these soybeans over here. If we could get them, our food supply could become self-sufficient.]

[Furious for Silicone: Smnida! These soybeans are genetically modified. There are definitely safety issues. I’m not eating this stuff. Everything from Cyrus is trash.]

[Land of Pickles: @Furious for Silicone, you should check where the kimchi you eat all the time is made.]

[Johnson Keynes: The South American soybean industry is toast. They really live up to the name "Developed Nation Crusher." Now they’re even crushing South America, hahaha!]

[Antonioni Hooker: @Johnson Keynes, heh. And you think America is fine? Besides, most of the large-scale grain production in South America is controlled by the ABCD companies. What’s that got to do with ordinary farmers like us? It’d be better if ABCD went bankrupt.]

[Hair-Losing Expat Student: So glad that technology is in the hands of a civilized nation.]

If the internet was a chaotic free-for-all...

...then the various powers in the real world were no less frantic.

The ABCD companies held emergency video conferences overnight.

They didn’t just hold internal meetings; the four companies also communicated rapidly amongst themselves, even reaching out to the financial consortiums backing them.

Noah A. Locke, the new head of the recently devastated Locke Consortium, sat with his brow furrowed during an internal video conference among America’s ten largest financial groups.

Little Robert McCormick, the acting head of the Chicago Consortium, had a grave expression on his face. "ABCD and the major investment banks have taken a severe hit," he said. "Estimated losses could exceed 50 billion US Dollars."

Among America’s major financial groups, the Chicago Consortium had extensive holdings in the agricultural sector, so Little Robert was already feeling the pain acutely.

Of course, the other groups weren’t faring much better. The Morgan Group, the Locke Consortium, and the First Bank Consortium, in particular—all groups with massive operations in the financial sector—had been dealt a stinging blow.