The shifts in social climate precisely prove many things.
But from Li Dong's personal perspective, the nation's various actions were all correct.
Because doing so, while making society somewhat more oppressive, at least maintained the existing order without letting it collapse, and prevented the emergence of rioters or similar threats.
A zombie virus alone wasn't enough to bring the entire nation to a halt or cause its collapse.
Moreover, the Great Xia Nation boasted over three million troops, seven aircraft carrier battle groups, tens of thousands of tanks, thousands of armored vehicles, and thousands of fifth-generation fighter jets, among other assets.
With millions of police officers and millions more patrol and security personnel, once the cabinet ordered nationwide mobilization, raising tens of millions of troops would be effortless.
Social order could be forcefully restored in an instant.
Unless aliens invaded or a meteorite directly struck the Eastern Continent where Great Xia was located, collapse wouldn't come so easily.
"Riot shields, riot forks, riot armor—I should order a batch of these for the security personnel at supermarkets and factories to prevent harm from successfully infected zombies."
With this thought, Li Dong quickly contacted a manufacturer specializing in such equipment.
Coincidentally, the factory owner was also awake and began negotiations with Li Dong.
Recently, most factory owners had been overwhelmed with orders and payments, their production capacity maxed out. They probably even smiled in their sleep.
With so much money earned, how could they not be happy?
Of course, these factory owners also sensed something amiss and used their profits to stock up on emergency supplies and food.
Some even built and reinforced basement shelters in their villas.
The massive spending stimulated the economy, creating a semblance of prosperity again, and GDP surged.
Many people found jobs, earned money, and were willing to spend it.
This might be humanity's last and most prosperous period.
Because a year later, such scenes would no longer exist.
All structures built by humans on the surface might become ruins.
...
The next day, Li Dong rose early, washed up, ate breakfast prepared by Aunt Liu, exercised for half an hour, and then began work.
The December budget was significantly higher than November's.
This was mainly due to rising prices of various supplies and raw materials, leading to a much larger budget.
Fortunately, the economic recovery and various stimulus measures during this period caused the stock market to soar, easing Li Dong's financial pressure.
Going all-in was a form of wisdom.
Under the influence of the information gap provided by Li Tiang, the Li family's cash flow didn't dry up—instead, it grew endlessly, as if it would never run out.
Apart from the tens of billions in the stock market, the Li family also had hundreds of billions in liquid assets, which was terrifying.
The elite trading team had almost all achieved financial freedom.
Consider this: even a Fortune 500 company in the country might not have hundreds of billions in liquid assets. This showed just how terrifying the stock market's money-making potential was.
Of course, many others were trapped in losses, some even losing everything overnight and returning to square one.
Making money was easy; losing it was just as fast.
Meanwhile, Li Tiang also planned to spend billions to build an AI supercomputer, as it would aid his future research.
For the first few months, Li Dong had been negotiating with executives from various high-tech companies in the country.
Now, they had finally reached an agreement.
Galaxy Spark Technology would send a team of engineers to assemble the AI supercomputer.
The total cost would be around five billion yuan.
Just the latest generation of domestically produced civilian GPU chips alone required 100,000 units, with each chip costing 20,000 to 30,000 yuan—far beyond what an ordinary person could afford.
Currently, there was enough spare space in some of the Shelter Base's buildings to accommodate this AI supercomputer, which was why the engineers were being brought in for assembly.
If they didn't assemble it now and missed the opportunity, once the apocalypse arrived,
there would truly be no second AI supercomputer available.
For now, Li Tiang could still rent AI supercomputers from tech companies.
But after the apocalypse, that might no longer be possible.
In addition, several ordinary supercomputers and supercomputer servers had also been purchased and assembled.
Even if the Shelter Base didn't need that many, they could be kept as backups.
Li Tiang also bought a large batch of various chips, graphics cards, and electronic components—
spending hundreds of millions at a time.
After the Extreme Cold Apocalypse, it would be nearly impossible for humanity to produce such high-quality, affordable, and reliable chips again.
Every chip that broke would be one less in existence—use them sparingly and cherish them.
Li Tiang even bought several of the highest-end 3D printers currently on the market.
He also acquired a few lithography machines.
Of course, these lithography machines were several generations behind the latest models on the market, so they were dirt cheap—selling for just tens of millions each.
And there were no restrictions on purchasing them.
Moreover, the wafers they required didn't need to be cutting-edge, and the related manufacturing technology was already very mature.
Of course, Li Tiang was well aware that he couldn't master semiconductor technology—these outdated lithography machines were just kept as backups.
He also wanted to see if, after the Extreme Cold Apocalypse, he could produce some outdated chips to replace certain equipment and tasks.
Because Li Tiang didn't have that many professional engineers, scholars, or scientists to support him in this endeavor.
Additionally, the domestic lithography machine manufacturers in Daxia were already highly advanced, with their highest-end models rivaling those from abroad, so no one would bother working with Li Tiang on this.
Just the supply chain involved in producing a single lithography machine was vast.
It required the strength of an entire nation, a complete industrial system, and thousands of enterprises or research institutions as suppliers—supported by hundreds of thousands of engineers across these organizations.
It needed the backing of scholars and scientists from all the country's top universities.
Having just a lithography machine wasn't enough—you also needed wafers, meaning you needed a wafer fabrication plant.
Expanding further, what you needed wasn't just a lithography machine and a wafer fab, but a powerful nation with a complete industrial system.
And you still needed photoresist and more.
So this was simply not something one person could handle alone.
Without all this, human technology would regress by decades.
And the Extreme Cold Apocalypse would set human technology back by decades.
"Young Master Li Dong, when I went out to buy groceries earlier, I saw several people on the street going crazy and biting others. It was truly terrifying, exactly like the mutated rabies outbreaks reported in the news."
Aunt Liu looked at Li Dong, who was working in the living room, as she spoke while carrying a large bag of items.
"What? Aunt Liu, you saw people on the street having fits and biting others? You weren't bitten, were you?" Li Dong set aside his work and looked up at Aunt Liu.
"Of course I wasn't bitten. I kept my distance." Aunt Liu shook her head.
"Aunt Liu, don't go out to buy groceries anymore. I'll arrange for deliveries directly to our door. Incidents like these attacks will only become more frequent." Li Dong pondered for a moment before speaking.
He thought to himself that living here wasn't very safe either.
He needed to arrange for fully armed guards to stand watch day and night to prevent the Infected from breaking in and harming his family.
"Alright."
Aunt Liu nodded. She didn't object—for her own safety, no one wanted to take unnecessary risks.
"I didn't expect Zombie-like attacks to appear domestically so soon. Things are getting more urgent by the day." Li Dong sighed inwardly.
Then he returned to handling the matters at hand.