America: I'm causing trouble for environmental organizations

Clarissa's denial.

The scene fell silent.

Reporter Mike raised his hands above his head: "Why??"

"Oh~~" Thea gave a look that said, "I knew this would happen."

As for Jimmy, he instantly regained full health.

I was just about to say something sarcastic to Meng Ran.

But then Clarissa explained to Meng Ran, "Bane, your idea is great. However, Ford and GM just gave Project Team One a donation."

The aim is to promote some green and environmentally friendly projects. Therefore, our association will temporarily refrain from any protest activities related to them.

"Did you donate to the first project team?"

"Shit!"

"Their donations should be given to us!"

Indignant shouts erupted from the crowd, their tone far more sincere than during the protests.

In fact, Clarissa was also somewhat annoyed.

The fourth project team did all the trouble, but the first project team got all the benefits!

However, the first project team is the core of the association, and there is nothing she can do about it.

Meng Ran found everyone's reactions amusing.

As expected of a Western environmental NGO, whether it's truly environmentally friendly or not depends on whether they've donated money.

"Guys, let's pack up and end this stupid protest. We might be doing junk recycling for the next few months," Clarissa added.

The so-called recycling of old items.

Under the guise of "aid to Africa," they went to middle-class and wealthy communities in Detroit to organize donations of used items and small donations.

In reality, these items will eventually be transported and sold by middlemen.

Only a small portion of the "samples" were actually donated to Africa for photography purposes.

Within the association, only project teams that can't come up with good topics will do this "hard work" to barely keep things running.

Of course, Meng Ran had no time to think about these things at the moment.

Because, just as Clarissa announced the end of the protest, the system displayed a new notification.

The protest to protect bullfrogs has concluded.

[Body panel unlocked]

Soon, a page appeared in front of Meng Ran's eyes.

[Host: Meng Ran]

[Constitution: 9 (Consumes 100 Chaos Reputation Points → 10)]

Strength: 8 (same as above)

Agility: 9 (same as above)

[Mental Strength: 15 (Cannot be increased at the moment)]

[Reference: Median of healthy individuals of the same age: 10]

[Current available Chaos reputation points: 100]

[Current skill card draw chance x1]

As mentioned before, Meng Ran's initial physical indicators were based on the original owner's data.

Currently, it seems that being slightly worse than healthy people is still acceptable.

The only special thing about him is that, due to the influence of time travel, his basic mental strength is far beyond that of ordinary people.

This indicates that his memory, learning ability, and ability to perceive micro-emotions have all made significant progress.

The limitation is that if the physical fitness values ​​are not equal, Meng Ran cannot always maintain an optimal state, and using her brain too much can easily cause headaches.

After watching for a while, he didn't use the 100 Chaos Reputation Points.

Because using 100 Chaos Reputation Points to raise [Constitution] from 9 to 10 can clear all injuries and illnesses. It's like having an extra life-saving item.

Next, his gaze fell on the [Random Skill Card Draw] option.

Hold your breath and concentrate, call out with your consciousness.

[Random skill card drawing in progress...]

[Obtain "Beginner Intelligence Card x1"]

[Basic Intelligence Card Description: After use, it allows you to gather 3 random pieces of intelligence about a single target (the host must have had contact with the target before)]

'Three random pieces of information?'

"So, whether or not you can obtain valuable intelligence is purely a matter of luck?"

While pondering this, I suddenly felt someone push my arm.

Turning around, she saw Ita and asked curiously, "What are you daydreaming about? Aren't you coming?"

Meng Ran nodded, got up from the ground, and walked side by side with her toward their Buick.

But as he walked, his gaze instinctively drifted towards Clarissa's direction.

Clarissa had already gotten into the car, but hadn't driven away.

Through the windshield, you could see her sitting in the driver's seat, looking down as she flipped through a document.

"Hey!" Thea snapped her fingers in front of Meng Ran's eyes. "Why are you staring at her like that?"

"It's nothing." Meng Ran turned his gaze back to Thea.

To be honest, Thea's appearance is very much in line with Chinese aesthetic standards.

She was a little over 1.7 meters tall, with a tight waist, full hips, and a voluptuous bust. She had long, brush-like eyelashes and big, green eyes, and looked somewhat like a Xinjiang beauty.

Most importantly, its porcelain-white skin with a honey hue is very delicate.

It's much better than the thin, crispy skin of the American white people's bread.

Unfortunately, it's winter now, so we can't see much of the beautiful spring scenery.

"You're not planning to do what Jimmy did and try to pursue Clarissa, are you? Don't dream about it. A rich girl like her wouldn't date a poor guy like you."

"You seem to have a lot of issues with her?"

As they spoke, the two opened the door and got into the car.

"Before you came, the previous director had me mentor her for a month. She was just too soft-hearted. Even after becoming the director, she didn't achieve anything."

"I don't like this kind of spineless, privileged person. If I had her family background..." Thea didn't finish her sentence, her tone conveying a sense of disappointment at her lack of ambition.

"A spineless crook with connections?"

Meng Ran's expression turned strange.

Although the association is a large non-profit organization, it does not have many full-time employees.

For example, their project team only has 6 full-time employees, excluding Clarissa.

When it comes to actually doing the work, it mainly relies on outsourcing companies, as well as "volunteers" and "unpaid interns".

These full-time employees all have some connection with the association's senior management.

Even the original owner of this body, after completing her credits and graduating from the University of Michigan last December, was able to successfully enter the association as a full-time employee.

It was also because of his university professor's recommendation.

Otherwise, he would most likely just be an unpaid intern.

So, by that logic, none of the association's official employees are not connected through connections; the difference lies in how strong those connections are.

The association's top executives are a product of the "political-business revolving door."

Apart from the celebrities who endorsed the event, most of the others had worked in government departments.

Thinking of this, Meng Ran turned the car key, but his gaze couldn't help but drift back to Clarissa's direction.

But it would have been better not to look.

A virtual white exclamation mark suddenly appeared above Clarissa's head!

"What do you mean?"

"Could it be that she has a system quest that can be triggered?"

I quickly communicated with the system.

An exclamation mark really does mean that a task can be triggered.

However, what exactly the mission entails and whether you can successfully accept it depends on your own efforts.

This is really ridiculous.

The original owner and Clarissa did not have much interaction.

We can only try to have a tentative chat.

The seatbelt lock was engaged.

As Meng Ran opened the door, he instructed Thea, "Wait for me in the car for a moment. I'm going to talk to Clarissa about something."

Thea frowned slightly: "What are you talking about?"

Meng Ran didn't explain, slammed the car door shut, and walked towards Clarissa's car.

Based on previous information, Clarissa's task is most likely related to the project team's budget.

In fact, the association's funding mainly comes from three sources.

The first part consists of budgets for specific projects at all levels of government.

The second part is funded by BlackRock's "Special Fund".

The final part comes from donations from various "corporations" or "individuals".

These donations included both gratuitous donations and donations made by purchasing association merchandise, books, and other items.

In fact, a significant portion of these donations were obtained through extortion.

If you don't donate money, they'll use various methods like reporting you and protesting to make your business impossible.

Some large NGOs have more sophisticated methods, such as setting so-called "certification standards" and having companies pay for certification themselves.

This kind of thing happens all over the world.

"Knock knock~"

Meng Ran tapped her fingers on the car window.

Clarissa, who was looking down at the documents, turned her head in surprise.

The car window was rolled down.

"Is there something you need?" Clarissa wasn't aloof. Most of the time, she wore a polite smile.

Her slightly chubby, fair face had a sweet smile.

"Our project team seems to be encountering some difficulties. I'd like to see if there's anything I can do to help," Meng Ran said, carefully choosing her words.

Clarissa was somewhat surprised by Meng Ran's "volunteer".

She didn't reply immediately, but instead looked up at the project team members leaving the street one after another.

He let out a helpless sigh.

She then spoke to Meng Ran through the car window, "After you joined the association, I actually observed you. However, you don't seem as dull as I imagined."

"That's just the awkwardness of a newcomer. I'm... a bit slow to warm up."

As Meng Ran spoke, he glanced again at the white exclamation mark above Clarissa's head—nothing had changed, and he couldn't read any information about it using his consciousness.

Clarissa didn't notice Meng Ran's subtle actions.

Her slender fingers tapped the documents on her lap, making a "tap tap tap" sound.

After pondering for a moment, she said, "Perfect timing, there's something I really need your help with."

After saying that, she handed the document in her hand through the car window.

Meng Ran reached out and took it, then stood by the car with her head down, flipping through the pages.

The extraordinary 15 points of mental strength, far exceeding that of ordinary people, are now being put to good use.

He discovered that he could actually read ten lines at a glance.

My reading speed is several times faster than before, and my memory for the content is also much stronger than before.

"There are some things I can't say in front of the reporters, but actually, even with the donations from Ford and GM, the association's budget for this quarter is still 19% less."

Hearing Clarissa's words, Meng Ran did not look up.

He continued flipping through the documents and said, "You mean, all these budget cuts have gone to our project team?"

"Pretty much. In short, the association hasn't assigned us any topics this quarter, so we'll have to find another way."

Speaking of this, Clarissa's gaze swept over the documents in Meng Ran's hand.

"The documents you have are information about 'Garden Meat,' and I've found out that they want to fund an NGO in Detroit."

The initial donation budget is $15, and I'm trying to reach out to them to secure it.

15 may not seem like much, but that's not how you calculate the costs and benefits of NGO projects.

With this 15, we might be able to launch a new initiative. Through this initiative, we can attract further revenue and donations.

Moreover, this was in 09, and $15 was not a small amount, while Meng Ran's after-tax salary was only $1500.

"To secure donations, we first need to understand Garden Meat's purpose. They may very well want to promote vegetarianism in collaboration with NGOs, but..."

Clarissa did not continue speaking.

She felt that things weren't so simple.