Chapter 121: Chapter 108: Hello, General !
Translator: 549690339
It wasn’t until he was sixty-five that he reluctantly returned to take charge of Whale Group.
However, Ward Owen’s influence on Whale Group was greatly diminished because he, the sole heir, was reluctant to take his rightful position. Chris Owen finally took Whale Group public in his later years.
In the waves of the market, although the Owens’ assets have been steadily growing, Whale Group grew even faster. By the time Ward Owen took office, Whale Group was a multinational conglomerate with trillions of dollars in assets, and the Owens’ controlling stake had already dwindled to 31.28%, no longer allowing Ward Owen to act recklessly.
Afterwards, Whale Group maintained its status for nearly a hundred years before it was defeated in the competition for new energy research and was swallowed up by another company, becoming a part of history.
However, Whale Group left behind even more scientific research achievements for all of humanity.
These were the changes Harrison Clark could see with his own eyes—the most direct and intuitive changes he made to humanity.
But there was another significant event in history that involved both Harrison Clark and Carrie Thomas.
The song “Self-Combustion,” especially its English version, triggered a terrifying upheaval at the end of the 25th century when the World Government had been established for less than a hundred years.
It was a revolution.
In the torrents of time, a Slavic man named Sergey was born in 2543.
Sergey was a genius scientist, a rare polymath in science, whose first half of his life left many epoch-making scientific research achievements.
On the basis of his research hypotheses, after nearly three hundred years of development, a major breakthrough was finally made. The results of this breakthrough were still in use in 3020, providing almost 100% of the energy supply for the entire human race.
In the previous timeline, there was no famous figure named Sergey.
Perhaps he was never born, or he died prematurely due to some external interference.
However, in this timeline, Harrison Clark could now see so many technological innovations. Sergey’s role was no less important than Whale Group and Yellowstone Research Institute, perhaps even more so.
However, Sergey’s main contribution was only in the first half of his life. At this stage, he was a researcher in a research institute under the World Government.
He was almost the only Chief Scientific Officer in human history who could oversee the big picture.
However, a year before his inauguration ceremony, he watched a movie that later generations considered very crudely made.
“Chaos Space.”
It was not the movie that changed Sergey, but its theme song, “Self-Combustion.”
According to historical records, after listening to this song, Sergey had new ideas about freedom and the future of humanity, which changed him overnight and eventually led to a scientific revolution on the day of his inauguration ceremony.
It was a real revolution.
He wanted to overthrow the rule of the military party.
He had many supporters.
He told his supporters that the World Government was a conspiracy.
He also told everyone that all humans were being infiltrated.
Although he couldn’t find direct evidence or write a complete proof formula to prove his conjecture, he smelled the scent of certain death from the fresh air.
A bloody war broke out, lasting nearly thirty years, with the total human population plunging from eighty billion to forty billion.
In the end, Sergey won.
Yes, his revolution was successful.
However, on the very day his revolution succeeded, the ninety-five-year-old Sergey chose to commit suicide by shooting himself.
Before committing suicide, he cried out in despair.
“Humankind has no chance of winning because everyone is involved. When I overthrew one infiltration, I found myself still part of the infiltration. It’s like living in this universe, and we can never break free from its rules.”
As expected, after Sergey’s death, the regime he led himself eventually became the new World Government, leading humanity forward again and to today. When Sergey committed suicide, he also believed that there was no essential difference between the two successive World Governments.
Therefore, although Sergey made great contributions, no one ever thanked him in their hearts.
Historians’ evaluations of Sergey’s merits and demerits are sharply divided. Some people believe that humanity would have been better off without him. But others think that without him, humanity would have been worse off. Both schools of thought are diverse, and a definite answer can never be found. Because of the damage caused by his successful revolution to humanity, everyone believes that Earthlings can no longer afford a second upheaval. The newly established World Government has become even more centralized, militarized, and turned into a stricter and more brutal militarized society.
In Harrison Clark’s present time, there is no such class as welfare recipients; instead, there are slums.
People at the bottom of the slums no longer enjoy any favorable treatment; they only have the lowest quality of life guarantee.
This is the real bare minimum that ensures people do not starve to death, and that’s it.
Even though the productive forces are still in surplus, this surplus is no longer distributed as welfare to the lower classes but is used to reward contributing workers and soldiers or invested in industries such as scientific research and military production.
The competition in this era is more brutal than in any other timeline Harrison Clark has ever experienced.
However, the path for the lower classes to rise has never been closed, because the World Government founded by scientist Sergey has set a highest principle from the very beginning.
Even though they know that everyone is being infiltrated and can’t figure out where the problem lies, everyone is entitled to learn all knowledge!