94: Chapter 94 The Bait That Had to Be Swallowed

After a dozen hours of flight, the private jet landed smoothly at Aswan International Airport in southern Egypt.

As the airbridge lowered, a wave of heat mixed with sand and dust hit them in the face.

One hundred Pioneer walked off the plane, their faces showing the exhaustion of a long flight, but more so, curiosity and scrutiny toward the unknown world.

On the tarmac, Zhao Li, the Cyber Freedom Republic’s Ambassador to Egypt, had been waiting for a long time with embassy staff.

Seeing this well-equipped "advance team" of a hundred people, Zhao Li was incredibly moved.

He remembered clearly how difficult it had been just a few months ago when he brought a small construction team to this land.

And now, everything was moving in a positive direction.

All these changes had happened as fast as a dream.

"Welcome to Africa! Welcome to the Cyber Freedom Republic!" Zhao Li stepped forward and shook hands firmly with the leading captain.

After a simple welcome ceremony, the hundred people boarded over a dozen off-road vehicles and trucks in groups. Escorted by Egyptian military and police, the convoy drove grandly out of the airport, heading south toward that mysterious no-man's land—Bir Tawil.

After nearly a day of bumpy travel, as the convoy crested the final sand dune, a spectacular sight appeared before everyone.

In the heart of the vast desert, a futuristic silver-white building had already risen from the ground, shining with a metallic luster in the setting sun.

Around the building, dozens of massive construction machines were lined up neatly, like a pack of silent steel beasts.

Further away, rows of deep blue solar photovoltaic panels formed a massive phalanx, stretching for several kilometers, greedily absorbing the last of the daylight.

This was the General Post Office building currently under construction, and also the first coordinate point of "Oasis One."

"My God... this is truly spectacular!" Inside a car, an electrical engineer from Brazil muttered to himself as he looked at the scene.

Many of them had come prepared to gnaw on bread in tents.

They never expected that what would greet them was a modern base that had already begun to take shape.

The team from Huajian Group had long been waiting at the camp entrance.

The person in charge received them warmly and led them into the living quarters.

Here were rows of modular dormitories converted from shipping containers; though simple, they were fully equipped with air conditioning, internet, and private bathrooms.

A hearty hot meal had been prepared in the cafeteria, and pure water produced by atmospheric water generation equipment was available in unlimited supply.

"Colleagues, welcome to the 'Oasis One' project department," the head of Huajian said loudly. "From today on, we are comrades-in-arms fighting side by side! Our task is to let the world see a miracle within ninety days!"

All the doubts and anxieties of the Pioneer vanished at this moment.

They were replaced by strong confidence and high morale.

They quickly completed the handover and threw themselves into their respective posts the next day.

Some were responsible for maintaining the solar power station and the grid, some for debugging communication base stations, and others for maintaining those expensive construction machines.

For the first time, this land that had slept for thousands of years showed signs of stable human activity and had its own "permanent population."

Lin Zhou, far away in Beijing, watched all this through real-time video sent back from the site.

He knew that the two most difficult conditions for joining the Universal Postal Union had finally been met.

And on the third day after the first batch of citizens stepped onto the land of Bir Tawil, Qin Yue in Rome sent back exciting news.

Under the mediation of Vatican City and the transmission of "signals of goodwill," three more small African countries with Catholicism as their primary faith officially announced the establishment of ambassadorial-level diplomatic relations with the Cyber Freedom Republic.

With this, the total number of countries recognizing the sovereignty of the Cyber Republic reached thirteen.

Although this number was still insignificant among the more than two hundred countries and regions in the world, it proved the correctness of Lin Zhou's move to "leverage the Vatican."

The diplomatic breakthrough was like a shot in the arm, energizing the entire core team.

However, before one wave could settle, another rose.

An even bigger surprise—or rather, an even bigger challenge—followed closely.

That day, Lin Zhou received an emergency communication from Ambassador Zhao Li in Egypt.

The video connected, and Zhao Li's face appeared on the screen, his expression extremely complex, containing both excitement and an irrepressible gravity.

"Head of State! The Egyptian side has just conveyed a major... proposal to us through diplomatic channels!" Zhao Li spoke quickly, clearly very emotional.

"Speak."

"Deputy Minister Saleh of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt just had a secret meeting with me. On behalf of the Egyptian Government, he expressed their high appreciation for the 'constructive development work' we are conducting in the Bir Tawil region." Zhao Li paused and swallowed hard.

"The point." Lin Zhou didn't like listening to these diplomatic pleasantries.

"The point is, they promise that as long as we can successfully join the Universal Postal Union, Egypt—as a country with significant influence in the region and the incoming rotating chair of the African Union—will fully promote two things."

Zhao Li took a deep breath and said word for word:

"First, they will formally nominate and support us to join the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)."

"Second, they told me a key piece of information: according to the African Union Charter, a sovereign entity is eligible to apply to become an observer state, or even a full member state of the African Union, as long as it gains recognition from no fewer than twenty African member states!"

"Saleh promised that as long as we can get twenty 'recognition votes' from African countries, Egypt will be the first to nominate us for membership in the African Union!"

This news was like a heavy bomb exploding in Lin Zhou's mind.

The African Union!

That was an intergovernmental organization with over fifty member states and a significant voice on the international stage!

If they could join the African Union, the Cyber Freedom Republic would leap from being a "cyber-nation" to a real country recognized by an entire continent and possessing geopolitical influence!

This was the most important and solid stepping stone toward the United Nations General Assembly!

The Egyptians had cast a massive bait that Lin Zhou could not refuse.

"The conditions? What are their conditions?" Lin Zhou immediately calmed down; he never believed in free lunches.

Zhao Li's expression turned serious: "They didn't mention any conditions. But... just an hour before our call, the World Health Organization issued its highest-level public health emergency alert."

"An unknown, highly lethal hemorrhagic fever outbreak has occurred in West Africa. It has currently spread to seven countries, with over five thousand infected and a mortality rate as high as seventy percent. The WHO has named it—the 'Marburg-24' virus."