Chapter 499: The Melting Emperor
[Shocking news! The banquet for all the empire's dependent states is about to be held, and White Ghost suddenly released a live broadcast preview! ]
【The White Ghost is really not dead! 】
【The White Ghost is coming back soon! 】
The huge Sherman Empire, all portals, regional websites, and hot search terms on social media were "reshuffled" within ten minutes.
White Ghost suddenly released a live broadcast preview through White Ghost's only designated official media - White Ghost Galaxy Fan Club, which immediately made the somewhat quiet Empire's online world boil again.
There was official silence in the Sherman Empire.
In and outside the Imperial Star Circle, people took to the streets. There was no parade, but they just ran through the streets, shouting for the return of the ghost.
But soon, the White Ghost Galaxy Fan Club took the initiative to cool down the situation and issued a simple announcement.
[White Ghost has not yet completed its reorganization.
[But what is happening in the empire is no longer something that the White Ghost can tolerate.
[The prosperity of the empire should not be built on the basis of the bloodsucking of its dependent countries and the misfortune of tens of billions of people in each dependent country.
【The empire should respect every political system, whether strong or weak.
[During this live broadcast, there will be no direct voice from the White Ghost, but we will show the latest status of the White Ghost for those who are concerned about its condition. ]
This announcement was pushed to the top three positions on major trending search lists by Lu's own internet trolls.
White Ghost's political statement successfully focused the attention of the people of the empire on the Jinrong Star dinner which had officially begun.
Fifty minutes left before the live broadcast.
Although the Sherman Empire remained officially silent, several princes, emperors, and officials who attracted much public attention jointly issued a "Letter to the People."
The announcement explains:
The relationship between Sherman's empire and its dependent states was based on the suzerain treaty, which was recognized by all dependent states;
The Sherman Empire provided military protection and economic assistance to its vassal states, but never coerced them politically.
Today, the Sherman Empire is facing a crisis that occurs once in a thousand years. The vassal states extend a helping hand, which is a respect for the suzerain state and is also a clause clearly stipulated in the suzerain state's treaty.
When the empire returns to normal order, it will continue to provide protection to these vassal states.
This is not so-called bloodsucking, it is just the normal circulation of resources and the guarantee of the happy life of the people of the empire.
In addition, the second half of this announcement directly attacks White Ghost.
Because there are too many supporters of White Ghost, they dare not curse directly, but just make some statements in secret.
'The competition between interstellar regimes concerns the security and development of each regime. Sometimes this competition is extremely cruel, and truly responsible and accountable individual members should consider the issue from the perspective of the regime.
'Are some of the so-called heroes of the empire still on the side of the hundreds of billions of people in the empire?
'We need to question this.'
After the release of this "Letter to the People", the direction of public opinion seems to have changed somewhat.
——Behind the scenes are naturally the Empire’s official navy and the Empire’s aristocratic interest groups who are organizing team building.
However, just as they were about to sway public opinion, Xiaolu took decisive action.
Forty minutes into the live broadcast countdown, the White Ghost Fan Club once again issued a brief announcement.
[The interests of the collective are not the interests of the small group, and the interests of the small group are often based on the exploitation of the entire collective.
[The empire sucks blood from its dependent states in order to guarantee military spending, external expansion, and the plunder of interests . The people benefit less than 3%, while the main aristocracy benefits 30%. The Sherman family and its affiliated forces will take away most of the wealth that should belong to the people and the people of the empire's dependent states.
[The emperor of a vassal state can be regarded as a great noble outside the borders of the empire.
[Please stop this persecution. The largest wealth group in the empire is the great aristocratic forces within the empire. Instead of sucking blood from vassal states and persecuting hundreds of billions of people, it is better to break up the aristocratic forces. The empire can smoothly survive ten crises.
[The source of the crisis is the greed of the great nobles! ]
This has already started a head-on confrontation.
The imperial authorities have long adopted various methods to try to block the White Ghost Fan Club's channels of expression, but many technical teams of the imperial military have reached a unanimous conclusion - unless the imperial network is completely paralyzed or completely frozen, they cannot completely block the White Ghost Fan Club.
If the Imperial Guard system is not activated, they will have no advantage in domestic public opinion.
The two voices from the White Ghost Fan Club became two sharp swords.
With the help of these two swords, the New Federation, the Free United States, and the Guel Alliance began a comprehensive encirclement and suppression of the Empire's official navy.
There were new demonstrations across the empire;
Public opinion, which had been forcefully suppressed by the imperial military, began to rebound again.
All the major forces in the Milky Way have concluded that White Ghost wants to use this method to stop the Empire from sucking blood from its dependent states. The current public opinion offensive is already the "climax" of the night.
However, except for Yang Ming who was sitting in the emperor's bedroom of Ilando Star, and a few executors of the "Challenger" plan such as Lu, Molly, Mimili, and Kolev, no one knew that these announcements and live broadcast previews were actually just some scraps.
They are simply exerting pressure;
At this moment, under this pressure, the empire has begun to speed up their pace of harvesting.
In Edwang's bedroom, Yang Ming stood by the windowsill with his hands behind his back, looking out at the garden below.
"Lü, how's the party going?"
"The speeches of several guests were cancelled at the last minute. They should have taken out the blood-sucking treaty in advance and started the signing process."
"Tsk," Yang Ming shook his head, "Control the pace, don't let them go too fast."
"Understood... All Terminators are ready..."
"Lv, I'm actually a little hesitant," Yang Ming whispered, "If we do this, will it damage Edwang's reputation? I don't want his reputation to be tarnished."
"Boss, it's too late for us to change the plan now."
"Just keep moving forward," Yang Ming sighed, "I just...it's okay, Edwan shouldn't blame me."
Lu asked softly, "Would you like Emilia to come and keep you company?"
"Okay, let her come over. It would be nice to watch the fireworks together."
…
Sherman Empire, Jinrong Star, banquet venue at sea.
The music suddenly stopped, and the dim lights that were originally used to create an ambiguous atmosphere gradually became blurred.
The crowd on the dance floor walked to the edge of the dance floor and took their seats. The several mild epidermal cell exchange ceremonies that were originally in progress were also forced to come to an end.
The round stage in the middle of the dance floor slowly rose, and the second-ranked elder of the Sherman Empire's Senate and Prince Kinov, a representative of the Sherman Empire's nobles, walked towards the stage, one on the left and one on the right.
They opened the most important event of the banquet.
The twenty or so emperors of vassal states and a dozen heads of government of small political entities who were sitting in the most prominent positions in the meeting hall were all a little nervous at this moment.
They certainly know the exact procedures for today;
But they didn't know what kind of treaty was waiting for them.
The leaders of those vassal states that had long been at odds with the Sherman Empire looked extremely unhappy at the moment;
The leaders of the dependent states that depended on Sherman's empire for survival were mostly nervous.
To put it bluntly, the vassal state system is the empire's "raising dogs and killing dogs". The leaders of vassal states in the latter situation all hope that because of their previous complete loyalty, they can get a little relief today.
The spotlights came down, and the elder and the prince sitting on the round stage in the center of the dance floor smiled gentlemanly and charmingly.
When the Sherman Empire does such dirty things, it must try to beautify it as much as possible.
The elders praised the history of the great empire;
The Prince asked all to rise and pay the deepest respects to the present Emperor of the great Sherman Empire;
Then, they raised their butcher knives in unison.
"...I think everyone has a direct understanding of the power of the Empire. This political system, which has existed for tens of thousands of years, has made an indelible contribution to the prosperity of human civilization in the Milky Way."
"Interstellar political struggles are extremely cruel. A political system is a civilization, and every civilization wants to obtain more resources so that they can become more powerful, feed more people, and then go looking for more resources."
"Our Sherman Empire completed this expansion process tens of thousands of years ago."
"In the following tens of thousands of years, our territory has hardly changed. We have abandoned many administrative stars and resource stars, and developed more administrative stars and resource stars. From this perspective, the Empire is definitely the most peaceful and stable political system in the Milky Way, and it is also the political system that has made the greatest contribution to human civilization."
"But there will always be new forces rising up and wanting to challenge us."
"They are in a cycle of expansion, and they regard exporting their own civilization's culture and ideology as justice, and they take pride in plundering more resources."
"They don't know that we experienced all of this tens of thousands of years ago. They always say that we are backward, but it is they who are actually backward."
"Now, the empire has encountered some difficulties... Although it is a bit difficult to talk about, the imperial hero trained by the empire has deliberately detonated the class conflicts within the empire."
"Every political system has class conflicts, and our empire is actually one of the political systems that respects public opinion the most. In this respect, it is much stronger than the New Federation, which implements a policy of keeping the people ignorant and controlling public opinion."
"When problems arise, we must solve them. The New Federation has become our biggest threat. Continuously bleeding the New Federation and causing its national strength to decline rapidly is our most critical decision to resolve internal and external conflicts."
"Today, we have gathered your Majesties and leaders here to discuss how to solve these problems."
The butcher knife began to slip.
Prince Kinov sighed deeply and said seriously:
"I believe you all understand the Empire's difficulties, and our promise to you will never fail.
" First, you will receive a contract that we tailor-make for each of our affiliated political entities."
At the edge of the venue, two teams of etiquette ladies walked forward and placed metal contracts and special laser pens in front of the emperors of the vassal states.
Many people hesitated before lowering their heads to read carefully.
You could hear a pin drop in the entire banquet hall.
About thirty seconds later...
"impossible!"
A wealthy old man with gray hair shouted in a trembling voice:
"Does the Empire no longer need us to exist? We have been paying the Empire our annual silver in full! We still have 2.6 billion people! We... we can't do this!"
Someone spoke up, and other emperors spoke up:
“This is too harsh!”
"When we faced the threat of the Zerg swarm, the Empire did not help us. Now, the contract given by the Empire requires us to hand over the ownership of all our resources and industries... We are a vassal state, not a slave state!"
“Is the Empire’s move too radical?”
"Have we lost any value in the Empire's judgment?"
There was suddenly some noisy discussion in the banquet hall.
Some people groveled and begged for leniency from the empire;
Someone pushed the contract to the ground, his expression full of coldness and hardness;
Some people tried earnestly to persuade the empire's nobles to show leniency and retain some decency and dignity for their country.
Revill sat in the corner and carefully watched the "farce" in front of him, sighed slightly, and clinked glasses with his buddies around him.
Several of the young nobles whispered:
“What if they don’t sign?”
Revil smiled and said, "In business, you will definitely ask for a high price and pay it back on the spot. The Empire will definitely reduce the price a little. If you ask for sixty at the beginning, they will have the same reaction. But if you ask for two hundred at first, then reduce it to sixty later, and then promise that they and their descendants can live in the Sherman Empire and obtain some titles, then most of them will gladly accept it."
“That’s basically the routine.”
“These small countries are so sad.”
"Look, look over there," Revell pointed to another corner.
There, Her Royal Highness Princess Rona, who was dressed in her best attire to attend the banquet, stood up with a group of deputy directors of the Foreign Affairs Bureau and walked towards the emperors of the vassal states they were responsible for.
Princess Rona, with a relaxed smile, sat down next to Adwang, who had remained silent, and said something in his ear in an intimate manner.
Revelle raised his eyebrows slightly.
There is indeed something wrong with His Majesty Edwan.
He betrayed his country and the Luofeng Alliance?
If that's true, then it's just too... indescribable.
Under the spotlight, Princess Rona whispered in Edwan's ear:
"The contract you got is the most demanding of these. Do you know what to do?"
"Of course," 'Edwan' chuckled, "Isn't the meaning of my existence for now?"
Rona smiled gently: "How about having a drink with me tonight? I'm very curious about you."
"Oh, this... we are different, Your Highness," 'Edwan' frowned slightly and whispered, "Let's talk about this contract. If I sign it, not only will the Falling Wind Empire suffer a huge blow, but the Falling Wind Alliance will also become the Empire's possession. Is that right?"
"This is a piece of fat meat. If the Empire can swallow it, it will gain the necessary energy to survive this crisis."
"But, isn't it too unjust to implicate those innocent members of the Luofeng Alliance?"
Rona's pretty face turned a little cold: "Put yourself in the right position, Edwang."
"Of course, oh, of course I will put myself in the right position and sign it," 'Edwan' sighed softly, "But I still feel that...are the people of the vassal states inherently inferior to the people of the empire? Or is it that, whether it is a vassal state or the empire, the common people are equal, and everyone is the livestock raised by the aristocracy?"
"It's pointless for you to think about this," Rona said gently, "Now, it's time for you to stand up and announce that you accept all the conditions."
'Edwan' nodded.
He pursed his lips tightly, read the first few pages of the contract again, then smiled bitterly and slowly stood up.
“Does independence entitle you to the basic right to survival?”
He muttered, slowly getting up.
The fixed-point loudspeaker had locked onto the mouth of 'Edwan', and all eyes were looking towards the emperor of the empire's largest vassal state.
'Edwang' said: "I like it..."
Buzz——
Ping ping ping!
The banquet hall was filled with piercing noises, and the sounds of crystal tableware shattering rang out one after another.
'Edwan' looked surprised, he was the source of the noise.
He raised his hand and touched his face, and the blood-red simulated flesh stuck to his fingers;
He looked down at his chest, where a mass of 'flesh and blood' had exploded, revealing the silver-white metal structure inside.
The hands and feet made of bionic material began to dissolve rapidly like melting wax figures.
'Edwan' turned his head to look at Rona and said in a trembling voice:
"What's wrong with me?"
Rona's face turned pale and she dodged to the side in a panic, fearing that she would be contaminated by dirt.
For a few seconds, you could hear a pin drop in the entire banquet hall, but then there were screams. Seven emperors of vassal states also stood up in panic, and their bodies began to melt synchronously.
In Lu's mind space, hundreds of avatars in different costumes were busy behind virtual control consoles.
The subject of the law curled his lips slightly and pressed the button in front of him.
The video of 'Edwan's' body suddenly melting away, revealing his mechanical body, appeared simultaneously on the servers of the intelligence departments of major political entities in the Milky Way.
At the same time, the clones around Lu have started a series of operations.
Before the top brass of the New Federation CIA had finished watching the video, it was spreading at an extremely fast speed to the cyber world inside and outside the empire through the channels of the New Federation CIA's subordinate agencies.
This is their first wave of attack.
