"My plan? What kind of plan can I have, other than trying my best to survive?" Perfikot briefly explained her plan. Despite putting all her effort into it, her tone inevitably carried a hint of resignation: "Use a year to build a Flying Airship that can cross the ocean, and within this year, conduct an expedition to the New Continent to confirm an appropriate location to build a shelter.
Then, in the second year, move with Grandpa Foster and my laboratory to the New Continent, just in time to construct the shelter before the land freezes completely by the third year. After that, we'll live as long as we can!"
Perfikot's attitude is quite understandable. When faced with such an apocalyptic disaster, there isn't much one can do to resist.
Even if Perfikot manages to build a shelter on the New Continent, how long it can last is something she herself isn't confident about.
After all, this isn't a naturally occurring disaster. The environmental temperature won't stop dropping once it reaches tens of degrees below zero.
Instead, it will continue to cool for three hundred years until the planetary core freezes and cools down, turning the entire planet into a dead silence before the apocalypse ends.
As a Transmigrator, Perfikot is confident in herself, but to prevent a planetary-scale catastrophe like this? She isn't a savior.
In fact, so far, the entire Victor Empire's preparations are just for the global cooling and extreme cold weather expected to occur within the next ten years.
Regarding this apocalypse that will freeze the entire planet, all they know is that some cause has triggered this catastrophe, and three hundred years later, the planet will fall into a dead silence.
Besides that, they know nothing.
How can they make adequate responses or even stop the catastrophe?
Only by surviving first can they have the leisure to find ways to stop this catastrophe.
Listening to Perfikot's plan, Eldest Princess Annie couldn't help but show some worry and anxiety. She furrowed her brows and asked Perfikot, "Perfikot, why did you choose the New Continent? Isn't the Empire's homeland better than the New Continent?"
Facing this question, Perfikot's face showed a trace of a sneer and she immediately retorted, "Annie Aunt, do you know how many people freeze to death every winter in Langton City?"
"Not quite sure, but I remember the Langton Police Station is responsible for transporting the corpses of those who died in the streets out of the city every day. They should have statistics, right?" Perfikot's question stumped Eldest Princess Annie.
Although she does care for ordinary citizens, and knows that every winter in Langton, poor people will inevitably freeze to death, she indeed doesn't know the exact numbers.
In fact, being aware that the Police Station handles corpses daily is already a sign of the Eldest Princess's concern for people's livelihood.
However, regarding this issue, Perfikot had specifically done some investigations. She spoke in a nearly cold tone, "The year before last, it was 1,457, last year it was 1,876, and this is just the number of those frozen to death directly due to the cold during winter counted by the Police Station.
If you include those who can still be buried in slums and other places, and those whose deaths are recorded as other causes but were actually triggered by cold-induced illnesses, this number will exceed thirty thousand."
This is a shocking number, causing Eldest Princess Annie to overturn her teacup.
Brown tea stains spread on the white tablecloth, forming unsightly stains, just like this painful number tearing apart the Empire's surface prosperity.
"This number... is accurate?" Eldest Princess Annie's voice trembled a bit.
"When I found the connection between the disaster and the cooling, I used my connections at Langton Royal University to have them send students to conduct investigations and statistics. The numbers may have some errors, but they are generally correct." Perfikot uprighted the overturned teacup but didn't care about the stains on the tablecloth, brutally saying to Eldest Princess Annie, "Annie Aunt, Langton City's official population last year was 2.31 million, the actual number might be around 2.5 to 2.7 million, out of so many people, how many do you think can survive this disaster? Empire? Crisis Response Committee? How many can you save?"
With the invention of the steam engine, productivity has been greatly enhanced, leading to industrialization and mass production which necessitated more labor in cities.
Thus, over decades, Langton City's population rapidly expanded from 1.2 million to today's 2.3 million under the influence of industrial development.
The city's size expanded several times, but the municipal construction and livelihood facilities didn't keep up, resulting in complex social problems along with the workforce.
"Can't save them, so just let them die?" Eldest Princess Annie understood Perfikot's meaning, but she couldn't sit by and watch these people being abandoned.
"Saving them might mean more people will die." Perfikot, although unable to live with being heartless, maintained nearly cruel rationality: "The Empire's homeland is a small island that relies heavily on overseas colonies constantly providing resources to sustain the luxurious lifestyle at home! Langton alone needs to import millions of tons of grain, vegetables, and meat every year to feed the citizens!
When temperatures drop so low that oceans freeze over, how will the Empire maintain material transport? Not to mention you're planning to lay rails on ice or dig out that boring land battleship project from the Army Department and convert it into cargo ships!"
"What about your Flying Airship? Didn't you say that it's a flying ship? If we build them in large numbers, can they be used for transporting materials?" Eldest Princess Annie's thinking was swift, immediately considering Perfikot's ongoing research.
However, Perfikot shook her head, denying, "It's not feasible, not to mention the high cost of Flying Airships. Even if mass manufacturing reduces costs, allowing you to actually have enough Flying Airships, as temperatures drop, crops can't grow, colonies won't be able to produce enough grain to sustain the Empire, they'll struggle to feed themselves.
And don't forget about heating? Minus forty degrees of extreme cold weather, the vast majority of buildings in Langton cannot withstand such cold.
Two million people's protective warmth, Annie Aunt, how do you plan to solve this? The Empire has no technical reserves for this at all!"
"Perfikot, since you could propose these questions, it means you must have some solutions for them, right?" Eldest Princess Annie switched to a rather formal attitude, asking Perfikot.
"Yes, but it's to no avail." Perfikot nodded in affirmation, then immediately offered a negative answer.
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