Chapter 14 Gambling
Zhou Cheng also quietly looked at the huge world map. He saw that on the map, green dots kept turning red, and red dots kept turning green.
The change of the two colors seems to never stop, just like the stars in the sky constantly twinkling.
"In most cases, these faults can be resolved by local residents themselves. But if they cannot be resolved, professional maintenance and construction teams will be needed.
There are about 400 such construction teams worldwide, with a total of about 100,000 people.
They are the last line of defense to ensure the stable operation of the cradle and play a vital role."
The top decision-maker slowly said, "These 400 construction teams represent almost all of our current mobile engineering resources. However, facing tens of thousands of cradles, these mere 400 construction teams are simply not enough. Far from enough."
The top decision-maker shook his head gently and sighed, "According to statistics, an average of approximately 10,000 people die every day directly or indirectly due to the inability to repair urban infrastructure in a timely manner."
Zhou Cheng's pupils slowly shrank.
He had long known that human civilization was in continuous decline, and that the rate of decline was accelerating.
Everyone knew about this. Zhou Cheng had known about it since he was in elementary school.
But he didn't expect that human civilization had declined to this extent.
The great human civilization has changed the entire face of the earth in an unprecedented way. At its peak, it even completed the great feat of landing humans on Mars. Moving mountains and seas is a piece of cake for human civilization... But at this moment, the mobile engineering force it can mobilize is only 100,000 people.
Moreover, these 100,000 people are all responsible for the important task of maintaining the normal operation of the cradle and cannot be moved lightly.
Has it actually declined so much?
The top decision-maker said calmly, "On the surface, our civilization still has a population of one billion, which can be considered large.
However, there are some statistics you may not be aware of.
Among these one billion people, more than 100 million are bedridden all year round. Not only can they not provide any help to civilization, but they also need manpower to care for them and require a large amount of resources to support them. They have become a burden on civilization.
At least 500 million people are physically restricted.
They can barely take care of themselves and do not need any additional help from civilization, but it is impossible to expect them to contribute productivity.
The remaining hundreds of millions of people, while generally healthy, still suffer from a variety of minor ailments. There's nothing we can do about it; they're getting older, after all.
They are mainly distributed in key positions in various cradles, such as planting buildings, energy plants, data centers, hospitals, food factories, pharmaceutical factories, and sanatoriums.
If the 400 construction teams are used to deal with emergencies, these people are the standing force to maintain the normal operation of the cradle.
And... as time goes by, the situation is rapidly worsening. After all, the older you get, the greater the chance of physical problems.
This is the state of our civilization.”
After the top decision-maker said these words, he fell silent.
The only sound in the vast hall was the tapping of keyboards and mice. The twenty or so government officials remained silent.
Zhou Cheng was also silent, but his brain was working rapidly.
The Yangjiagou ruins hold the only hope for saving human civilization at this stage. It is imperative to increase manpower and invest more human and material resources in excavation.
The key question is how much resources to invest in this hope and how much stake to place.
At this moment in human civilization, if we want to squeeze out tens of thousands of people to participate in the excavation of the Yangjiagou site, can we do it?
The answer is of course yes, as long as you are willing to pay the corresponding price.
Then this incident essentially becomes a gamble.
How much is humanity willing to pay to gamble on the hope that "more crucial clues can be found from the Yangjiagou site, thus saving human civilization"?
If the probability of this hope is higher, reaching 80 or 90, or 60 or 70, or even just 20 or 30, then needless to say, decision makers will immediately make up their minds to take this gamble at the cost of the deaths of many elderly people.
but……
Ask yourself and evaluate yourself. Although it is now highly likely that the Yangjiagou tribe suffered the same disaster as human civilization, even so, does the Yangjiagou site necessarily contain clues or information that are useful to humans?
No.
This probability was still very low. After all, what clues could one expect from an ancient tribe in a state of ignorance, one that believed the catastrophe was caused by the "Moon God depriving them of their fertility" and whose solution was to "sacrifice pregnant women and animals to appease the Moon God's wrath"?
The idea of "giving 100% effort for a one in ten thousand chance" can only ever be an ideal state.
Because hard work also comes at a price, and that is human lives.
Looking at the bright spots on the screen that kept changing colors, Zhou Cheng seemed to see water towers, power plants, hospitals, and power lines.
Water, electricity, power grids, water networks, internet networks, roads, gas, and other essential elements form the skeleton of a cradle. Human civilization, already in its twilight years, struggles to survive within this cradle.
Although the human civilization in its heyday has left enough heritage, enough cradles and enough spare parts for the human civilization in its twilight years, it is still very difficult for the aging human civilization to survive.
In a trance, Zhou Cheng felt as if there was an invisible pressure coming from all directions, from every cradle and every city, pressing down on him, making it difficult for him to breathe.
He knew that his opinion at this moment held great weight in the minds of decision makers.
In a sense, the decision of life and death of countless elderly people has fallen into their own hands.
Under this invisible pressure, after thinking for a long time, Zhou Cheng finally sighed softly.
"Your Excellency, the Supreme Decision-maker, I believe that with a thousand construction workers, along with the supporting machinery and logistics personnel to provide supplies, the excavation speed of the Yangjiagou ruins should be able to meet our expectations."
"A thousand people?"
The top decision-maker nodded slowly: "I think so. What about you?"
He looked at the other decision-makers and senior officials accompanying him.
In silence, arms were raised.
Passed unanimously.
"Okay, then, let's have a thousand people. It'll take a few days to gather the personnel and supplies. During this time, Zhou Cheng, you should take a good rest. Life in the mountains... has been tough on you."
The highest decision-maker patted Zhou Cheng on the shoulder gently and turned to leave with the top leaders of the civilization.
The mobilization of just a thousand people was already a major event for human civilization in its twilight years. There was a lot of work that needed to be done, and he had to plan it personally.
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