Chapter 433 Benchmark
Italy, Portofino, a bay town.
The canoe slid along the shore of the bay. The layers of white, shallow ice floes were pushed by the bow of the canoe and slowly slid away in one piece. The black marks left behind were like wounds on the ice reflecting the reflection of a child. The naughty face and the pale white sky behind it.
Lin Nian, who was passing by on the shore, stretched out his fingers and gently pulled off the white striped scarf covering his chin, exhaled a breath of cold air, and glanced at the father and child paddling on the canoe from a distance.
"I thought the climate in Italy wouldn't be too cold even in winter."
"Not really, the temperature difference from south to north in Italy is huge." Angers, who put on winter clothes and a plush scarf beside him, also stopped and looked there for a while, put his hands in his trousers pockets, and looked at the people on the water. The moving ice floe said, "People here always do this in the cold season. Unlike Venice, which has warm weather all year round, there will always be a period of time when the water surface freezes in Portofino. If the ice surface is not treated regularly, travel will be difficult." Causes great inconvenience.”
"Is the school board meeting held here every year?" Lin Nian looked back at the houses on the low hill in the distance. The heavy snow almost blended these houses into the mountains. When the passenger plane flew across the sky and landed, He hadn't even discovered the bay town.
"There is no fixed place. The next meeting may be held in Palau or Santorini in the Aegean Sea. The identities of the school directors are very special. They represent almost half of the Secret Party and the Supreme Council. The location selection is always very particular. It’s not just a slap in the face that we will hold the meeting at a nudist beach in Hawaii next time. But if you are careful enough, you should be able to guess the connection between Portofino and the school board. "Ange stretched out his hand and gently pushed Lin Nian's back, and the two continued to walk up the stairs towards the town on the low hill.
"The Gattuso family? I remember that Caesar's uncle is also a member of the school board. This area is within the scope of the Gattuso family." Lin Nian nodded and understood what Angers meant, "The Supreme Council only The meeting will be held within the authority of the school board.”
"In the past, we would choose the fortress on the top of the mountain. Did you see it? It's on the right side of the mountain, close to the cliff." Ange slightly bent over to Lin Nian and held his shoulders, pointing to the distance and seemed to be in the same place. On the white snow peak where the sky connects, there is a raised arc-shaped building. It is difficult to find because it is covered with snow, but the winding mountain road leading there helps Lin Nian find it at a glance. Got it.
"That fortress was built by the Gattuso family with a huge investment. The foundation is deep into the mountain, and the whole is connected to the entire low mountain that holds up the town. It is an out-and-out military-grade fortification. See that piece of snow Is there a pine forest? There are several anti-aircraft guns and radar devices hidden in it. There is also a joint-powered ship decorated as a fishing boat in the harbor of the bay, which is full of Tomahawk cruise missiles that can be activated at any time. There is also a temporary building behind the mountain. There is a military base, and a large amount of arms are stored in the arsenal deep into the mountain. If this island is surrounded, the enemy will suffer fire resistance for at least a month." Angers explained the layout of this bay town one by one. Lin Nian listened.
"A forceful attack is almost impossible." Lin Nian summarized what Angers meant, "The school board has almost no opponents here."
"When they reach a certain position, wealth and power just become a shell for them to protect their lives. Every year, a school board meeting is held, and there will always be someone who wants to do something while the seven school directors are here. Once they are allowed to If they succeed, the entire secret party will usher in the biggest earthquake in history." Angers said, "Each of them represents the dominance, economy, military and even political power of a part of Europe, just like the Gattuso family. The land we are now stepping on belongs to the Italian Republic. It implements a bicameral system, divided into the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The powerful and the civilian groups share the power of legislation and supervision of administration. If one day Italy wants to pass a bill that is beneficial to the development of the Gattuso family If the resolution is passed, it will be proposed in the House of Lords or the House of Commons, and then the bill will be discussed. At that time, there will only be one situation, that is, both the House of Lords and the House of Commons will agree to pass the resolution very quickly. This bill was quickly promoted and implemented.”
"Because there are people from the Gattuso family on both sides." Lin Nian said.
"The Gattuso family has many friends among the powerful people representing the nobility, and they are even one of them. Some members of the Gattuso family have many life-long senators, and they often appear in the House of Commons representing the common people. Inseparable from the shadow of the Mafia”
"The Gattuso family started from the Mafia." Lin Nian nodded to express his understanding, "They cover the sky with one hand?"
"They cover the sky with one hand," Angers said. "At least in this country, they cover the sky with one hand."
"What is the power of the other six school directors?"
"Excellent, or even worse. For example, the Laurent family leads the largest syndicate group in Europe, a leading international monopoly organization, mainly engaged in the mining industry and the financial industry. All the prominent capitalists in all European countries are in this group. If One day, the current head of the Laurent family, Elizabeth Laurent, said that she wanted crude oil to fall to a negative number. Then the next day, the international supply of crude oil would exceed demand, and the market would form a stampede. The value of crude oil would depreciate to an incredible negative value, and everyone around the world would buy in large quantities. Anyone who buys crude oil futures will lose everything overnight." Angers said lightly, "In a sense, the group of people you are about to meet are the top people in the world, seven such people sitting together. , one decision will affect the situation of the entire world. Do you suddenly feel that the people on the school board have so much weight now?"
"But principal, you can still move freely among this group of people."
"You have a saying in China that barefoot is not afraid of those wearing shoes." Angers smiled, "In their eyes, I am a barefoot butcher. They hold levers in their hands that can leverage the world's economy, but they use me to This old guy who is more than 130 years old has no choice. They can confiscate all my assets, my house, my hunting dogs, including my Maserati. They can take away everything from me, but they can’t take away their most important thing. The things I want, my knife and my blood, without the Maserati, I can still keep up with their cars by running and slamming the accelerator, jumping in from the sunroof and slitting their throats."
"Principal, at your age, can you still rely on your spirit to compete with the speed of a car?"
"It won't work on long distances, but I'm still somewhat confident on short distances, as long as they don't cheat and run away in a formula car."
"If you want to escape from time zero for a short distance, you probably have to take a rocket, but that thing also needs ignition time."
"Well, I have never tried to race with a rocket." Angers suddenly fell into thinking, "And with the financial resources of the school board, buying a rocket does not seem to be a big problem. They even have their own satellite."
"What they possess is unparalleled financial resources and power in the world, but what you possess is absolute force in the world." Lin Nian smiled lightly and brought the topic back, "Your relationship has never been better. In a sense, they are actually equivalent.”
"What about you, Lin Nian? Do you have the confidence to talk from the same position as them?" Angers asked, glancing at Lin Nian who was climbing up the hill next to him.
"Principal, your words are equivalent to making yourself the benchmark for measuring 'force'. What you mean is that if you want to truly put down your burdens and talk to the school board on the same level, you must at least stand in your position first. Come on." Lin Nian suddenly lowered his head to avoid a snowball flying from the street. While they were talking, they had already reached the small town. Many children in cotton-padded clothes were running happily, followed by hounds sticking out their tongues, playing a snowball fight with each other. A few cars with anti-skid chains on their tires were driving towards the short slope. , honking the whistle and switching lights in the light snow.
"How many steps can your 'Set's Moment' climb now?" Angers raised his hand to catch a snowball flying towards him. The snowflakes passed by him. He put down his hand and squeezed the snow and looked away. Naughty children on the street in the distance. This group of naughty children wearing bearskin hats couldn't help but jump up excitedly when they saw the old man's vigorous skills. A few of them continued to bend down and pinch snowballs for fear of chaos, hoping to compete with the old, one and the young. A passing traveler had some fun.
"At what level can I compare with you, principal?" Lin Nian did not directly answer Angers' question and kicked the ball back.
"This depends on the person. I have never really possessed the word spirit of 'Snap'. My understanding of 'moment' is limited to discussions with friends and asking for advice from students. The level of this word spirit is different, and the expression of it is different." The effect also varies from person to person." Angers thought for a while and said, "But if my guess is right, you should know enough about 'Time Zero', right?"
"I've used it many times and I have a rough understanding of it." Lin Nian stopped and bent down to pick up the snow on the ground.
Angers also stopped beside him, turning his head to look at the snowy street scene that had paused for some time, with a look of surprise on his face. Passers-by on the street, wrapped in cotton-padded clothes and exhaling the cold air, slowly climbed up the low slope. All the cars were parked in the snow. The coffee cup in the hand of the lady sitting at the table in the floor-to-ceiling window of the low-slope roadside restaurant was frozen. The naughty children in front of the window were still bending down to collect snowballs, with smiles on their rosy faces.
He just watched as Lin Nian pinched up a ball of snow, then threw it out and hit several naughty children on their faces. After this simple move, everything suddenly returned to normal!
The car horns beside them suddenly honked, and they slowly drove past with their lights on. Passers-by stepped into the snow with raised steps, and a group of naughty children in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows suddenly turned over and sat on the ground. , his face was covered with white snow, his eyes wide open and he didn’t know what happened.
"Can you use it freely now? I thought this technique can only be used when you are refining your bloodline." Angers seemed a little surprised when he looked at all this and nodded slightly.
"There are some personal reasons that I won't go into details. What does the principal think? As a veteran of 'time zero'?"
"It's a bit immature, but the future is promising. In my opinion, I can cut 1 second into 50 parts and slow down the flow of time to about 1/50th of a second. What about you?"
"About 1/40, right? It might be slower. After all, 'Time Zero' is not my specialty. Rather than working with a team, I prefer to compress the field to just one person." Lin Nian clapped his hands and talked to Angers Together we continued to climb forward, passing the group of children who were stunned by the snowballs.
"Your 'Setsuna' should be able to climb to the ninth level now?"
"Absolutely." Lin Nian pondered for a while, then looked up at the snow-capped mountains, "How about taking this opportunity to compete?"
"Comparing to what, a sprint?" Angers glanced at Lin Nian with interest, "No one has ever asked me to race before."
"The ninth-level instant is only a 512-fold gain. The data is very exaggerated. However, the actual gain will be greatly diluted due to the environment and physical condition. But if we benchmark it against your time zero, principal, the difference shouldn't be too big?" Lin Nian looked at Angers asked.
"You are very confident." Angers couldn't help the smile on his face, "You are only a freshman now. If you wait until your senior year, won't you have to move into my principal's office?"
"Maybe sophomore year will be enough, or today?" Lin Nian couldn't help but laugh.
"Young people are indeed very energetic!" Ange sighed. When he was sighing, he had already started to roll up his sleeves like Lin Nian. The hot blood fell on their arms and almost instantly melted into snow and evaporated into gas. .
Just as the two slowed down and began to twist their arms, legs and feet to warm up, a silver car quietly stopped on the roadside next to them. The car lights switched from high beam to low beam, flashed three times quickly and then went out. .
Lin Nian, who was about to warm up, stopped because he saw Ange beside him also stopped. The feeling of being both a teacher and a friend faded away, and was gradually replaced by a sense of kindness?
The silver car's logo is the silver goddess of celebration. Even Lin Nian, who has limited understanding of luxury cars, knows this brand. It shouldn't be a coincidence that a car worth tens of millions of dollars parked next to them, but the appearance of such a car at this moment is even more intriguing.
ps:1/5