Chapter 297 A Joyous Banquet

"Mr. Michael, is this the dinner you arranged?"

Looking at the...instant green cans piled up in front of her, Mei showed just the right look of disgust.

Mikael squinted his eyes and looked around without leaving any trace. The people who could sit at this table were all the mayors of various settlements in the Americas. They all looked a little embarrassed, but they were not unhappy. They were obviously behind their backs. Some consensus was reached.

Of course, the instigator of all this, Mr. Michael, the mayor of Third New Paradise City who was separated from Mikael by a meter, didn't care about this. He excitedly opened the can of beef in front of him at the first opportunity.

Even in summer, canned meat that has not been heated can be called a dark dish - at first glance, there are no pieces of meat at all, but a layer of yellow and white paste-like grease floating on the surface of the broth, which looks like bubbles. The water has not been changed in hot springs for ten years.

In such a state, the fishy smell was naturally unavoidable, but Michael himself couldn't wait to raise his fork, skillfully and accurately hit a large piece of beef through the layer of paste-like grease, and then quickly stuffed it into his mouth and chewed it.

If it weren't for his well-dressed appearance - wearing a tuxedo made entirely of hand-woven silk, with hair wax on his long blond hair, which shone with a light that could almost blind people's eyes under the light, Mikael would really You should think that this is a commoner who returns home after a hard day's work with the canned beef he received.

The house was empty, with no family, so he didn't say hello to others. There was no microwave or gas stove, and he didn't want to spend money to use the community's public kitchen. Besides, he couldn't wait that long, so he opened the lid of the can and started eating directly.

But all this happened at a high-level banquet after all. Although the hotel decoration was simple and elegant, there were no gold, silver or gems decorating the room, not even wallpaper. With only the white walls and the long tube fluorescent lamps commonly used in classrooms, it looks really simple.

But the table covered with white cotton tablecloth...

When no one was paying attention, Mikael picked up a small piece of sawdust and carefully observed the texture.

"Old elm...it's really luxurious."

Even in the pre-collapse era, old furniture made of elm wood was a valuable item with collectible value, not to mention in this era when the price of wood has skyrocketed, and even three-part wood clothes hangers can become high-end goods.

It's just superficial...

But seeing Michael feasting happily, even Michael himself felt a little dazed - is this really just superficial?

He quietly used the power of consciousness on Michael. Three seconds later, his eyes gradually became shocked, and then pity, anger and sadness came to his heart.

So that’s it, this man…

So, let’s change the plan again…

Just at this time, Michael overheard Mei's question. He raised his head that was almost buried in the can. Although his face was a little old, he was still handsome. His face was covered with the broth and meat from the canned beef. Grease looks ridiculous.

He lifted up the white cotton tablecloth and wiped the grease from his lips vulgarly. Even his colleagues who had agreed to act with him couldn't stand such an action. They all pretended to have phlegm stuck and said "cough cough cough" The voice warned him not to overact.

But he still turned a deaf ear. It wasn't until he wiped the grease off his face that he turned his head and replied slowly:

"Hey! Why don't you eat? Do the two special commissioners think this meal is too rich? Don't worry, this is all saved by me and the officials at all levels in the Third New Paradise City for a long time. Food reserves are available for everyone to eat today, whether it’s canned meat or canned vegetables, there’s everything you need!”

"hehe……"

Mei picked up a can of beef, weighed it twice in her hands, and let out two horrifying laughs from her throat.

How could she not see that the group of people in front of her were just pretending? It is also understandable that no one can figure out the character of the special correspondent from the headquarters. If the arrangement is too good from the beginning, what if they are not willing to join in the trouble with you? Doesn't that mean it's self-inflicted?

Instead of doing this, it would be better to arrange things a little worse at the beginning, and everyone pretends to be harmless. If you meet someone with a big appetite and get angry because of it, at worst, you can send more gifts and apologize, and everyone will understand. declared.

Of course, these are all understandable parts of human nature. It is not these that make Mei feel sad, but...

She counted in front of her a can of beef, a can of luncheon meat, two bags of vacuum-packed corn tortillas, a can of spinach, a can of green beans, carrots and corn, plus a pack of compressed vegetable soup waiting to be brewed.

The green packaging also has the logo of Fire Chaser printed on it. The two meat cans are small half-pound cans, and the two vegetarian cans are large one-pound cans. There are a total of eight burritos in front of everyone. So true.

Is this their standard for "almost"?

A few months ago, Mei witnessed with her own eyes in Rhine City those people who were carrying D-class supplies. In order to save flour and increase their satiety, they chose to add a large amount of sawdust and soil when making bread - human beings used to do this hundreds of years ago. They did this in order to survive, but those people never imagined that their descendants would have to rely on this kind of bread to survive hundreds of years later.

The resulting malnutrition, and even the misuse of Guanyin soil leading to eating to death are not uncommon.

Knowing this, and then facing the pile of food in front of me...

These things are the standard supplies of Fire Chaser, and Mei is well aware of their costs. The cost of a meal that these bureaucrats consider "almost" has already exceeded the daily meal of the anti-entropy members who currently have the highest food standards in Fire Chaser. Half the cost.

A deep feeling of powerlessness gradually spread in Mei's heart.

To be honest, she is not afraid of a single, bad phenomenon. Because even if it is a bad start, if you can turn it around with human power, you can still have a not bad ending in the end.

But manpower will eventually be exhausted.

Just like Mikael reminded her before - she can't personally manage two billion people.

She couldn't even directly manage the 30,000 people in Fire Chaser.

She must rely on the bureaucrats left behind by these coalition governments to effectively manage and... exploit the remaining two billion people on the planet.

Yes, although it sounds strange, she also knows very well that everything she does is a complete squeeze for ordinary people.

She needs these people to work and produce more food to feed themselves - given the current environment of the earth, there is almost no excess food left. For every person who is lazy, almost one person will starve to death.

She needs these people to work to produce more weapons and equipment to fight the Honkai Impact - Mikael can share a lot of work, but not all of it, excluding the astonishingly high demand for unmanned aerial vehicles and corresponding ammunition, which will soon be launched to The Moonlight Throne in lunar orbit and the Fourth and Fifth God Keys that are undergoing transformation are both huge projects.

She also needs these people to work. Only excessive labor can prevent them from thinking about more things, such as those religious trends that have become popular at some point.

As she mentioned before, the religious rumors advocating that the Americas are a paradise and that there is a Noah's Ark in the Americas are still tolerable, but some cults actually advocate that "Hengkai is a kind of salvation" and "Hengkai will bring mankind back to life". Returning to the arms of the Creator”…

It is obvious that the lethality of the latter is too great. It directly strikes the deepest doubt in people's hearts - since life is just a process towards death, since everyone is mortal, since there is nothing gained by living in this world. If you are happy, then why not accept death calmly and accept death as soon as possible?

So this kind of thinking spread uncontrollably.

For a moment, she thought so much without even noticing it.

Inevitably, and of course because she deliberately did not suppress it, her face became worse and worse. From being uncertain at the beginning, it now showed a hint of ferocity.

"Dr. Akagi, you seem to be looking a little uncomfortable."

Michael seemed to have not noticed her expression at all, and his words seemed to add fuel to the fire to Michael.

Of course, as the only person present who used his power to cheat and was able to know all of Michael's psychological activities, Mikael had an unreal feeling of wanting to laugh but not knowing whether to smile bitterly, ridicule or sneer.

Michael did not look at "Dr. Akagi" for any longer. He turned his attention to a group of his colleagues:

"By the way, why don't you eat it? Eat it all!"

"Ahem!"

The alderman with white hair and beard sitting on his left coughed heavily and said seriously:

"Young people are so impatient. How can you, the host, start eating in a hurry before the guests take action? Why don't you quickly apologize to the two special commissioners!"

Michael raised his eyebrows at the "white beard" in front of him. Their eyes met silently, and then Michael turned his head 180 degrees and looked at Mei on his left.

"Oh oh oh! Ahhh! I'm so sorry, Dr. Akagi..."

"No need to say any more unnecessary words."

Mei waved her hand, and from Michael's perspective, it looked like she was giving Michael a big slap in the face.

Of course this didn't happen. Mei just stood up decisively and sneered twice:

"Haha, I have seen the hospitality of the people in the American branch. Casper, let's go and see the place where the guardian of the gate of heaven has arranged for us to stay."

She bumped her heels back, making a screeching sound as the stool scraped against the floor tiles, and then walked toward the door without looking back.

Mikael also stood up, smiled apologetically at the table full of city officials, signaled Michael to follow with his eyes, and then turned to leave.

However, before Michael could stand up, Michael turned back.

Everyone was startled by his move, and just as they were wondering what he was going to do, they saw a smile appear on his scary face, and the scars began to squirm like worms. He stretched out his hands, and the others were caught off guard. Under his eyes, he stacked the two cans belonging to him and Mei, and then pushed them in front of Michael.

"Let your people bring these. Oh, there's nothing else to eat anyway, so we can't waste it, right?"

Michael had no choice but to pick up six kilograms of cans and other food himself, and followed Mikael with careful steps.

"Bang--"

The door closed heavily, and the sound of footsteps was like the sound of drums on the shore heard when drowning. It was dull and distant, and soon drifted in an even more distant direction.

"Hiss... Dr. Akagi has a bit of a temper..."

I don't know who sighed, driving away the silent and cold atmosphere in the private room.

I don't know who lit the fire first. The small private room was soon filled with clouds and fog, and even the facial features of the people opposite the round table were blurred in the smoke.

"It looks like he's angry, but who knows if he's just pretending? It's like we've prepared all these things that even pigs won't eat. Aren't we also acting?"

As Whitebeard spoke, he picked up the can in front of him, weighed it like "Dr. Akagi" just now, and then threw it on the table.

"Speaking of which, Michael really tried his best to actually swallow this kind of thing."

Another short, fat man with a bald head walked to Michael's previous position, picked up the canned beef that he had taken a bite of, smelled it, then showed a disgusted expression and threw it into the trash can next to the table.

The cold broth flows from the can, squeezing against the plastic the trash bag is made of, making a slight "salad" sound.

"He is an illegitimate son of the family and lived in a slum until he was fourteen years old."

"Tsk, illegitimate son, he is also half of the noble blood... But, in other words, the other half of the blood in his body is unclear after all. Besides, what about the Lichtenstein family? They became a family a year ago. It’s history, it’s really a big joke to let an illegitimate child become the head of the family.”

"So, wild boar cannot eat fine chaff."

"Eh!"

Hearing this vulgar metaphor, Whitebeard raised his hand. Just looking at his age, one could guess his status among the city officials. With his action, everyone swallowed back what they wanted to say.

"How can such vulgar words be used against our colleagues?"

Keenly aware of the teasing in Whitebeard's tone, the dark, short, fat, and bulging man who looked like a tea egg immediately started talking in an extremely exaggerated tone:

"Then... Mr. Iroiger, how should we describe this youngest colleague?"

He respectfully put his right palm on his left chest and bowed deeply, as if the white-bearded Royger sitting in front of him was really a medieval "Lord".

Royger stroked his white beard with one hand, and instinctively touched the table with the other hand, but did not touch the wine glass.

"Don't worry, Xiaoniuhe, go ahead and tell the people in the logistics department that the dishes are ready to be served."

"Hey, okay!"

Everyone only saw a large tea egg jumping open the door of the private room and squeezing out through the crack in the door.

"Oh, that Dr. Akagi is really impatient. If only she had been more patient, she could enjoy a simple meal with us now, ah, don't you think so?"

"Yes, yes, women have bad tempers."

"The guard named Capas is even more funny. He was about to leave, but he turned back to take the can with him. Oops! Didn't you see the look in his eyes when he saw the can? It was as if he saw something. If Dr. Akagi had not left, he would have already opened the can, hahaha.”

"Humph, that's how it is for Qiu Ba. But it seems that life at the headquarters is very tight. How come you don't even care about this kind of thing?"

"Isn't that true? It is said that the money spent by the headquarters on arms development, production, and supplies accounts for more than 90% of the fiscal revenue."

"Is that an exaggeration? The number of weapons and equipment is indeed staggering, but it's not over 90%, right?"

"whispering sound!"

Royger shook his head, raised his index finger, shook it, and said with a look that seemed to understand the situation very well:

"Ordinary weapons and equipment naturally don't cost that much, but do you know how expensive a God Key is?"

"How expensive?"

"Stop being so pretentious, Master!"

"Tsk, as far as I know, there are currently two God Keys undergoing transformation work. One is said to be launched into the earth's orbit, and the other is related to the shelter below."

"Earth orbit? Satellite? Is it similar to the previous Moonlight Throne?"

"Well, the size and shape are similar, but this one is in Earth orbit. But do you know how many Moonlight Thrones the cost of this God's Key is worth? Twenty!!!"

"Isn't that equivalent to the total tax revenue of the past ten years?"

"Yes, but the Herrscher participated in most of the projects, which saved a lot of costs."

"What about that shelter?"

Royger smiled and said nothing, which only whetted everyone's appetite even more.

The reason why this old guy is quite prestigious among the municipal officials, and is even considered to be likely to accept the position of political administrator in America this time, is naturally part of the reason, but more importantly, it is because he always has endless fire-chasing skills. Moth internal secrets.

When did it start specifically? Everyone can’t remember clearly.

In short, everyone has Level 2 permissions, why does this old guy know so much? There's someone up there!

In that case, who else could he please?

"I can't say much, I can only reveal two points."

Everyone nodded hurriedly to express their understanding. Although they believed that there was someone above Royger, no one thought that the other party would tell him a complete secret.

"This shelter transformed by God's Key, the main body is made of soul steel, and it is expected to accommodate 50,000 people."

"Five...fifty thousand!!!"

"Hiss... Where do you get so much soul steel? If nothing happened to Rhine before, there would be a large amount of soul steel that could be used..."

"I don't know that."

Roiger wisely chose to end the topic. He actually knew more, such as the batch of soul steel came from the moon, and the Fire Chaser Moth had prepared a large amount of building materials and construction teams, ready to use the Second God Key to teleport to the moon for work...

But if these were said, it would not be a surprise for the group of people in front of him, but a shock.

He couldn't explain his accurate source of intelligence. If he said too much...To be honest, he seemed to have gone too far and said too many secrets, and it felt a bit difficult to end.

Fortunately, at this time, Niu He pushed the door in, and Roiger felt that this tea egg was so pleasing to the eye for the first time.

"Everyone, the dishes in the kitchen were prepared in advance, and they will be here soon. Wait a moment!"

However, it was embarrassing that his colleagues were either looking at their phones, staring at the table in a daze, or sneering at the cans, and no one paid attention to him.

"Hey, Niu He, come and sit here with me."

Roiger patted the seat where Michael had sat before, and Niu He was surprised and sat next to him trembling.

He felt that he should say something to liven up the atmosphere, but when he opened his mouth, his voice was still trembling with excitement:

"That...that...Master Roiger, you said before, how should we evaluate..."

"How should we evaluate?"

Roiger sneered, his expression became more and more exaggerated:

"Dogs - can't change eating shit!"

"Hahahaha!"

The private room was instantly filled with laughter, and soon, the kitchen brought exquisite dishes and bottles of fine wine to the table.

It is hard to imagine that in such an era, you can still see the scene of strictly dividing meals according to the dishes.

For Niu He, this is not the first time he has seen it, but he still can't recognize all the dishes.

In fact, he himself is also a commoner and is not interested in wine. Because he doesn't know how to drink it, he can only tell the difference between champagne and wine, so he simply doesn't drink it.

But the cheese pancakes and flounder salad served at the beginning are quite to his taste, and then the thick soup full of onion flavor, he accidentally slurped and made a sound, making everyone at the table look at him, embarrassed.

Then, with a refreshing vegetable salad and freshly baked bread as a transition, the next dish served was pan-fried foie gras with morels. He did not make a fool of himself this time, and followed others to eat bread with foie gras.

The main course was a pan-fried Greenland cod. This fish was extremely rare in the era before the collapse. Niu He seriously suspected that it was just ordinary cod with a fancy name. The taste seemed to be no different.

As for the few slices of black truffle on the cod, even if it was the second time he tried it, he still didn't dare to say how good it tasted. It was like the fishy smell of some kind of protein.

The last dessert was really incredible, caviar chocolate pudding, with foie gras, morels, Greenland cod and black truffles as the foreshadowing, the caviar didn't surprise him. What shocked him was the gold foil that covered the entire pudding, which emitted a sandy glow under the simple fluorescent light.

"Hey, Master Lloygel, do you think Mei has eaten these things?"

He asked suddenly.

"Pfft! Hahahahaha!"

The private room was once again filled with joy.

If someone passed by the corridor outside and heard the hysterical laughter coming from inside from time to time, they would definitely think that this was a -

incredibly joyful banquet.