The words hung in the air like a physical weight that had suddenly settled on the entire conference room. More than double the size of New York City. I felt my brain trying to process the sheer scale of what they were asking, while simultaneously realizing that my confidence from the previous day's park restoration had been based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the scope involved.
I turned to look at President Santos, giving her what I hoped was a clear expression of "are you kidding me?" The look I was aiming for was somewhere between incredulous disbelief and the kind of betrayed confusion that came from realizing you had been severely undersold on the magnitude of a project.
Santos, for her part, was suddenly very interested in examining the various charts and maps around the conference room, her eyes darting everywhere except in my direction. She had the unmistakable demeanor of someone who was feigning ignorance about how a simple "environmental restoration project" had somehow transformed into an undertaking that would require reshaping an area larger than most small countries. In short, she knew she messed up and didn't want to make any form of eye contact at all.
Even Anthony and Evelyn, who were normally composed and adaptable in the face of unexpected challenges, were showing visible signs of shock at the revelation. Anthony's characteristic confident posture had shifted into something more rigid, while Evelyn's carefully controlled expressions had given way to genuine surprise that she wasn't bothering to hide.
The silence in the room was becoming uncomfortable as everyone processed the implications of what had just been revealed. We were expected to fix a park that was twice the size of New York City. The mathematical absurdity of the situation was becoming clearer with each passing second.
Even if I had a team of a hundred workers, the kind of comprehensive environmental restoration I had demonstrated at the small urban park would take months to complete across such a vast area. With a thousand workers, it would still require weeks of coordinated effort, assuming perfect logistics, unlimited resources, and ideal weather conditions throughout the entire project.
But I didn't have a hundred workers, and I certainly didn't have a thousand. I had myself, Anthony, Evelyn, and whatever local support the Brazilian government could provide. The reality was that even working without breaks for days on end, I might complete perhaps one thousandth of what needed to be done.
The math was brutal and inescapable. At the rate I had worked on the park restoration, completing Cristalino State Park would require months of continuous effort, possibly stretching into a full year depending on the specific challenges presented by different areas within the park's boundaries.
Months that we simply did not have.
The entire purpose of this mission was to secure Brazilian support for our coalition against the World President, which meant we needed to demonstrate capability and achieve results quickly enough to influence current political dynamics. Spending a year on a single country's environmental problems would render the entire diplomatic strategy meaningless.
Not to mention that Brazil wasn't the only country I needed support from. If I spent a year every time I wanted support from one of them then the World President would die of old age before I could even do anything.
Even worse, what was I supposed to tell Camille, Alexis and Sienna? That I was going to be gone for a whole year unexpectedly because I need to fix a park?
Looking around the conference room, I could see that this conclusion was being reached simultaneously by everyone present. The Brazilian officials were beginning to show expressions of dawning realization and disappointment. The enthusiasm and optimism that had characterized the early part of the meeting was draining away as the practical impossibility of the situation became clear.
President Santos looked genuinely sad, the kind of disappointment that came from realizing that ambition had outstripped practicality. The senators and environmental ministers were exchanging glances that suggested they were all thinking the same thing: they had overshot dramatically and would now have to face the consequences of their unrealistic expectations.
The morale in the room was reaching an all-time low. I could practically feel the collective realization settling over the Brazilian delegation that they had forgotten a crucial limitation despite all of my demonstrated skills and capabilities – I was still fundamentally a single human being.
Even if you take into account all my jobs, skills, experience, physical enhancements and potential. I was ultimately still limited by the basic physical constraints of being one person trying to address challenges that would normally require entire organizations working for extended periods.
Several of the officials began attempting to recover the situation, their voices taking on the slightly panicked quality of people who were trying to salvage a diplomatic meeting that was rapidly becoming a disaster.
"Perhaps we could bring you to a different park," one senator suggested, his voice carrying the desperate optimism of someone grasping for alternatives. "Something more manageable in scope, where your skills could be applied more effectively."
"Or maybe you could focus on just a small section of the state park," another minister offered. "Demonstrate the restoration techniques on a representative area that could serve as a model for larger-scale efforts." Fresh chapters posted on 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⟡𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕥⟡𝕟𝕖𝕥
"We could identify the most critical areas within Cristalino that need immediate attention," a third official added. "Strategic restoration that would have maximum ecological impact while being more realistic in terms of the time and resources available."
The suggestions were reasonable attempts to find workable alternatives, but they all carried the implicit acknowledgment that the original plan had been fundamentally flawed. In fact I could tell from Psychological Insight that they were on the verge of stuttering and slurring every one of their words. Everyone was essentially admitting that they had created an impossible situation by failing to properly scope the project before the meeting.
As the officials continued their increasingly desperate attempts to find face-saving alternatives, I found my attention drifting away from their specific suggestions. Perhaps I'm a lot more like Sienna than I thought since she also easily got distracted. Though hers was a simple rock paper scissors game while mine was a diplomatic meeting. My mind was working through the problem from a different angle, considering the skills I had acquired and how they might be applied at scale rather than just in terms of direct physical labor.
The Forest Stewardship skill wasn't just about individual tree management – it was about understanding ecosystem-wide principles that could be applied systematically. Environmental Awareness provided analytical capabilities that could identify the most critical intervention points within a large system. Wood Harvest Efficiency wasn't limited to individual cutting decisions but could inform strategic resource allocation across vast areas.
More importantly, my various coordination and management skills weren't constrained by the physical limitations that applied to manual labor. Patience, Integrated Team Leadership, and Decentralized Coordination could potentially be leveraged to create solutions that went beyond what any individual could accomplish through direct effort.
The officials were still offering suggestions and alternatives, their voices overlapping as they tried to find some way to salvage the situation. But I was no longer really paying attention to the specific details of their proposed modifications. In all honesty I found it somewhat pointless as whatever they think of now would be beyond last second and it would likely disappoint the Brazilian populace who were expecting more. Would these last second changes help the current park? Yes. But would they be worth it? Likely not. Even if I do the changes they are proposing the citizens of the country would likely be disappointed as they were promised more. I simply can't not do what the original plan was. Which was rather annoying to say the least.
So Instead of focusing on their words, I was thinking about the fundamental challenge they had presented and whether there might be approaches that none of us had considered yet. The scale was daunting, certainly, but scale problems often had scale solutions that weren't immediately obvious from a ground-level perspective.
"...or perhaps a pilot program that could demonstrate feasibility before attempting larger sections..." one of the ministers was saying when I realized I had completely lost track of their conversation.
The room fell quiet as I stood up from my chair, interrupting the flow of increasingly frantic alternative suggestions without really meaning to. Everyone was looking at me expectantly, probably assuming I was about to politely explain why their project was impossible and suggest some face-saving compromise that would allow us to accomplish something modest while maintaining diplomatic relationships.
Looking around at the assembled Brazilian officials, at President Santos with her expression of barely concealed disappointment, at Anthony and Evelyn who were clearly preparing for whatever tactical adjustment would be necessary to manage this diplomatic complication, I made a decision that surprised even myself.
"Well then," I said, my voice cutting through the uncomfortable silence that had settled over the conference room, "let's not waste time and get started."