Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 433 - 431: The New World Trend

Chapter 433: Chapter 431: The New World Trend

The next day, Zhang Yuan hastily bid farewell to the professors who were still arguing, and returned to the city where he was born. Partly to gather like-minded companions, and partly to boost his own influence.

His entire network of connections was in this city where he had grown up.

In this world, influence and notoriety were the greatest powers.

The goal of launching rockets had to be temporarily ignored; his main concern now was the proliferation of "Sakura" in the Western Cities, an almost unsolvable epidemic that was spreading its fangs continuously.

The societal white blood cells—robots—were indifferent to this issue, a fact that inevitably caused panic and concern.

A few ordinary people who learned of this issue felt repulsion, but even more were eager to try it. They believed that since robots had not identified it as a banned substance, why not try it themselves? Especially in today’s freedom-loving society, an individual should be responsible for their own choices as long as it doesn’t interfere with others; this was also a basic value.

The most difficult thing in the world is to change another person’s mind. To stuff the thoughts in my mind into yours is far harder than directly killing you. People with different stances trying to convince each other with words alone could argue for a lifetime and never succeed; taking direct action is the best choice, a fact Zhang Yuan was well aware of.

However, in this society, one couldn’t "take action." The fair and just robots possessed absolute force to block anyone attempting to "act" first.

Zhang Yuan pondered for a long time and still didn’t know how to stop the proliferation of Sakura. Although he had the Golden Finger, its power was limited to copying novels, music, games; it could generate influence, but could not possibly lead a world-level revolution. Jokingly, even Lu Xun could only curse people in newspapers; changing the world still depended on Mao.

He massaged his temples and sighed deeply...

...

In this society, there were also robot reporters. They faithfully and programmatically reported the news of a city on the internet.

Of course, not many people watched such news; generally, people didn’t care much about such political updates or about how much the population in the cities had increased or decreased.

Nevertheless, Zhang Yuan found that the Western Cities were increasingly featuring news about "Sakura." The number of people in bars, KTVs, and other nightlife venues had greatly increased, even the crime rate was somewhat higher than in previous years. The transient population in certain cities was increasing, while the entries on the "love whitelist" were gradually decreasing.

These were all abnormal phenomena.

Zhang Yuan remembered Ma Mingtao, who was traveling abroad and saw the latest photo his friend had posted, actually hugging two blonde girls on each side!

He hastily made a phone call.

"...The girls here are so enthusiastic! Haha, it’s truly worth the trip. The girls look great, and their figures are too! Everyone’s really warm here, you should come and hang out sometime!" Ma Mingtao was clearly in a state of excitement, thrilled by the forthcoming events, almost as if the girls were throwing themselves at him.

"What are you doing?" Zhang Yuan asked sharply.

Hearing Zhang Yuan’s icy tone, Ma Mingtao was startled.

"Don’t touch the Sakura there!" Zhang Yuan sternly warned, very seriously.

"I know, I know, these people are a bit off, and they act very strangely after taking the substance, very bold. But the robots don’t say it violates any laws, which I also find strange," Ma Mingtao rambled on, "...One shouldn’t drink things of unknown origin."

"Just don’t go trying it indiscriminately!"

Zhang Yuan felt slightly irritable and threatened his friend with brotherly affection before hanging up the phone with a worried mind.

That evening, Wang Nana bounced back from a date, and triumphantly pulled out a small jar of glowing blue liquid from her bag.

"Zhang Yuan, this is a drink my boyfriend gave me... It tastes especially good with syrup!"

At that moment, seeing the thing, Zhang Yuan’s heart skipped a beat, and he truly felt a tremendous force emanating from the era. The haze in the sky had begun to truly form, spreading around the entire planet within just a few days. Any new entertainment product, under the influence of the internet, spread extremely quickly.

When the entire world was about to be overturned, any personal effort seemed trivial.

With a pale face, he said, "You can’t drink it! I suggest you break up with your boyfriend."

"What? What?" Wang Nana felt like she had heard wrong, and sat in disbelief, eyes wide, "What did you say?"

"Break up quickly!" Zhang Yuan, feeling his tone was too harsh, said stiffly, "How can someone who does drugs be a boyfriend?"

"But... how can Sakura count? Even our laws confirm that it doesn’t!"

Wang Nana felt wronged; she had finally found a boyfriend she liked, how could she just suddenly break up...

"It’s just a drink, isn’t it? Drinking Coke or Sprite feels great too, doesn’t it? Seems no different."

"..."

Zhang Yuan stood up silently, looking through the balcony on the 182nd floor at the distant starlit sky.

The starry sky here didn’t have the Bright Galaxy, in the evening Venus and Mars could be seen, and at nine o’clock, Jupiter, just these few stars.

As for the rest of the real Constant Stars, there were none.

What a sad world, indeed.

...

In this season when the Sakura blooms, a new trend was rapidly fermenting in the world, spreading exponentially!

However, the vast majority of the public was unaware of this, indifferent to the changes happening outside, not caring about how the Western Cities were doing. Unless these ripples spread to them, then they would immediately follow the social drift.

Under Zhang Yuan’s persistence, Ma Mingtao, gloomily returned from the Western Cities; he couldn’t continue traveling and could only stay home playing games.

Eventually, Wang Nana did break up with her boyfriend, constantly in a state of melancholy, fuming at the sight of Zhang Yuan, wishing she could bite him. But there was nothing she could do, emotionally, she was still closer to Zhang Yuan.

Zhang Yuan sighed, since he couldn’t protect everyone else, he could only enforce some measures to protect his close circle first.

Even if they didn’t understand, it had to be this way.

...

In recent times, he had been constantly on the move; within the city, a small number of Awakened also paid attention to the changes in the world.

They too were hesitating whether to call on people to resist "Sakura" as it slowly spread. Under Zhang Yuan’s coordination, voices of various discussions grew louder.

Among these people, some were singing stars, others, best-selling online novelists; they had the capability to promote their ideas with their influence.

In Zhang Yuan’s world, where power and enforcement agencies were all robots, personal influence thus became the most crucial means of propaganda.