64 Strange Decisions
Looking at Marshal, one could tell that he had not faced a lie of this level. But Torterra in his previous life was fed up with lies of such magnitude. Even though everyone has access to the internet, people still believe what people with a lot of power tell them. This is the essence of lies of such magnitude.
If some political scientists or journalists tell you a lie, you will not believe it. But if the President of your country tells you the same thing and all the ministers and parliament confirm his words, then people will believe everything they are told. And the more unbelievable lie is, the more likely it is that people will believe it.
Usually governments of countries use it when they want to force their people to wage war against their neighbors. No one in their right mind would die to grab another piece of land that doesn't belong to you. But when people are lied to, their minds are twisted and they no longer know what to believe.
What's worse is that no one checks the information the government gives them. And even if they find an alternative source of information on the Internet, they will think that it is some kind of enemy propaganda.
Fortunately, this only works when the same people are in power for a long time. If there are at least free elections in the country and the government is constantly changing, no one will want to risk embarrassing themselves with outright lies, because competitors will immediately eat them.
Something similar is happening in this world right now. The World Council has everything under its control and can do whatever it wants. It is a good idea to have people from different countries in power, but not when these people can be brainwashed by aliens.
They don't need to control the entire planet, only those one with power. If the council says that the wall is something good, people will believe it. Even if they see that the Kaiju will destroy the wall, they will continue to build it because their brains will not be able to think of a way out of this situation.
What are the alternatives? Rebellion? Strike? Not everyone will be able to reach such a decision. Thus, lies turn people into brainless slaves who are incapable of critical thinking.
"If mind control is really present, they only need to control people in power. The rest of the world will simply have no choice but to believe, but we can give them the right information at the right time," Torterra said after much thought.
"We can't do anything about it now. But once we close the portal, everything will get out of control."
"They think that no one knows how to close the portal. And when we close it, what will they do with the cloning program? Or with this wall?" The marshal smiled as he said this. "Is that why you keep this girl on the island?"
"Yes…" Torterra wasn't sure of his answer. Although Yun could indeed provide truthful information to people, he just couldn't banish her after she made him the lighting and the TV in the house. Sometimes you have to be grateful even for the little things.
"The people who were involved in all of this will immediately fall in the eyes of the people after the portal is closed. The problem can arise only with those who behind the scenes pushed the World Council to such decisions. They will immediately begin to act to reopen the portal," said Torterra. Having come to this conclusion, it became clear that after the portal was closed there would be an internal struggle.
"After closing the portal, we will have very little time. By then, we need to prepare, and that brings us to the issue of funding." That was another issue Marshall wanted to discuss. "The budget shrinks with every Kaiju attack. I have a solution, but it's not the best. I contacted a merchant named Hannibal Chau. He is willing to finance us if we give him all the Kaiju we defeat."
"All of them? Does he even want the ones I defeated?" Torterra was not satisfied.
"Yes, he wants them all."
"Can we refuse him? The gold I find in the ocean will not be enough for us?"
"The gold will help us a lot, but I'm only using it for our unofficial projects..." Marshal didn't go into details, but it was clear that the jetpack was very expensive. Technology is also needed to allow for safe drifting with Kaiju.
"But sunken gold is not infinite in the ocean. If we have no alternative income, then we cannot refuse Mr. Chau." Marshal continued.
That's the problem... The money they give to the Marshal is barely enough to support the Jaegers, but we've accumulated so many projects over the years that if we don't find the money, we simply won't have time to do them. Exhaling heavily, Torterra could only offer his efforts to help the Marshal.
"Maybe we don't have enough resources on this planet... What if I can get the resources we need in space?" A strange idea occurred to Torterra. He can look for gold deposits on the ground as well, but it's really not that easy. He can't just dig. Can't he?
On the other hand, there are already known places in space where there is something valuable, but people cannot get it. All you have to do is fly in and pick it up.
"I don't think there's enough fuel in your jetpack to let you fly freely in space." Marshal's face was strange.
"All I need is for it to be long enough to travel to orbit and back. I think I can survive a fall from space. I just need something to slow me down before I fall so I don't cause a disaster. I'll figure out how to travel in space when I'm there."
"Then you need to upgrade the jetpack! I'll tell Mr. Chau that the deal only includes the Kaiju that killed the Jaegers."
"Although we are not allowed to use blue fuel for commercial purposes, but no one can stop you from flying into space. This can be our loophole, and we can make money not only by mining materials from asteroids. You can secretly put something into orbit and even build base on the Moon. Many countries will be able to finance such a project secretly from the world council," - many unique opportunities opened up for Marshal. Now he could travel the world and meet rich people with something to offer them.
That was the end of their conversation, and Marshall went back to his plane. The Titan remained in the corner of the room, continuing his thoughts. "Space flight? I never thought I'd have to do something like that. I wonder how I'll feel there."
The next day, Torterra went to work with his assistant gold diggers. Mr. Smith and Yun were sitting next to him, and they were discussing the most likely locations of the sunken ships.
"You're not going to post this information on the Internet, are you?" Mr. Smith asked the girl next to him. Although no one has been able to find and retrieve the ships for all these years, it was still not worth the risk. Self-made little Jaegers appeared in the world, and it is not known whether they can dive into the ocean or not.
"Okay! I won't," Yun somehow strangely refused to film and put the camera aside. She agreed too quickly.
"Okay… The ship with the most gold that we know of that sunk was the Battlein. This ship was carrying gold for the northern armies during the American Civil War. It sank in action somewhere in the area," Mr. Smith traced the area with a pencil. The search zone is located in the east coast of the USA. What he drew was immediately projected onto the wall for Torterra to see. (The ship is taken from the 2005 movie, Sahara)
"This ship was fully armored and looked like this." A picture of a ship was projected on the wall.
"This type of ship could carry 250 tons of cargo. If it was completely filled with gold, the value of that gold would be $14 billion."
"Can I have at least 0.01 percent of this money?" Yun asked with puppy eyes.
"No," Torterra replied sternly.
"Okay! Did you know that your name 'tortera' is Spanish for cake container?" Yun was obviously emotionally traumatized and wanted revenge.
"It's not exactly…" Mr. Smith wanted to clarify her information, but she cut him off.
"And that's not all! The word 'tortera' translates from Swedish as torture! It's completely in line with your nature. How can you torture me by showing me all this gold and not sharing it?" (Apparently no one in Sweden reads this fanfic, otherwise they would bombard me with comments that I am torturing their hearing with this name)
Looks like my name really matches my life, thought the Titan. Remembering the first fights and all the crap that happened to him, Torterra let out an imaginary tear.
"That's it! Come on. It's only gold. You're already making so much money from your videos, don't be greedy," said Mr. Smith.
"It's easy for you to say when you get 1 percent."
While they were arguing, Torterra got up and went to put on his jet pack. Why would he swim to the other side of the planet if he could fly? Although the US government won't be happy if it flies over their heads.
Putting on his jet pack, he left the room and stood on the edge of the island.
"Finally I get to see Oppa fly!" Torterra could hear Yun shouting something as she hid behind the wall.
He turned on the device and immediately used the maximum power.
BRR PPRRRRR
Fire erupted from the nozzles of the engines, and white smoke filled the island. Torterra began to lift off the ground and fly upwards, after which it changed direction and in a moment only a white streak of smoke was left of it in the sky.
Ahem-Ahem
"I didn't think there would be so much smoke." Yun coughed and waved her hands to clear the smoke.
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