016. The Odd Little Country
Li Aozi's video went viral globally in a rather amusing way. Many people, at first, saw the yellow-and-black shared links sent by friends, intending to criticize them with righteous indignation, but upon clicking, they found themselves staring at Li Aozi's handsome face.
—Well, maybe it's not so bad after all.
Although Frost-Plated kept a tight guard, facing this kind of trick, where people were lured into watching Li Aozi's speech disguised as a short film, exposing the truth about Frost-Plated and Abyss Humanitarian's experiments, there was simply no way to prevent it.
In the end, Li Aozi found his video gradually becoming popular in an abstract manner, with various netizens using his link to prank others, even trending toward becoming a meme or a trope.
"Doesn't matter, I will become famous."
Li Aozi focused on the practical results; since the goal was achieved, whether he became a meme in Azure Star or not didn't matter. After all, he had already killed off most of Abyss Humanitarian's people, and at this point, the Frost-Plated authorities had no choice but to block the news and continue hunting him down, with a flood of bounty hunters heading to Triangle Town to take him down.
Did the lord care? Not at all.
Li Aozi didn't care either; after all, with a flick of his finger, Lord Auckland would have a large group of new miners. The lord not only didn't mind but would have to thank him.
The Frost-Plated people wouldn't get angry over something like this; on the contrary, Tianhuan, which had always coveted Frost-Plated's territory, was already itching to move at such a good opportunity.
Just two days later, a low-key convoy arrived in Triangle Town, and Lord Auckland received them. After a brief discussion, he sent a message to Li Aozi:
"The Tianhuan people have arrived."
Li Aozi put aside his work at the biochemical pool and changed into his Trash Old outfit, the persona he showed to the outside world, further solidifying this impression.
Even for Tianhuan, dealing with the three major external organizations required careful consideration.
Passing through the hall, Li Aozi arrived at the Auckland family's reception room, where two cold-faced guards with swords stood at the door. Tianhuan's bloodline was highly mixed, and due to the large influx of refugees from the outer world, their appearance and skin color made it impossible to distinguish them from people of the outer world.
The lord's guards, holding rifles, stared disapprovingly at the Tianhuan people in front of them. Noticing Li Aozi's arrival, they straightened up and saluted him:
"Mr. Li Aozi, you're here."
"Yes, Lord Auckland called for me." Li Aozi nodded, and the guards immediately opened the door for him to enter.
Sitting on the sofa in the reception room were two men in suits, one with a stern face and a prominent scar, clearly someone who had crawled through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. The other had a friendly appearance, with a constantly upturned mouth that made him seem kind.
Upon seeing Li Aozi arrive, Lord Auckland immediately jumped out of his chair, happily approached, and gave him a hug:
"Ah, Aozi, I'm really sorry to bother you at a time like this."
"No problem."
Li Aozi noticed that Lord Auckland deliberately called him 'Aozi' and gave him a big hug, even patting him on the back. Such affectionate behavior was clearly meant to show off to outsiders.
[He's probably trying to show that Triangle Town and I have a close relationship, aiming for strategic binding? No, more likely it's to maintain appearances in front of Tianhuan.]
Li Aozi didn't mind; he glanced at the visitors and asked:
"And these two are…"
"Let me introduce you."
Auckland pointed to the civil servant beside him:
"This gentleman is remarkable, the deputy director of the SCIA intelligence department of Tianhuan, Director Liu Deming. The samurai beside him is Jin Xiuming, a retainer of the Aoba family."
Liu Deming smiled warmly, stood up, walked over to Li Aozi, and extended his hand:
"The lord praises me too much; I am merely an ordinary administrative officer. Please take care of me."
The samurai beside him nodded slightly, still with arms crossed. Li Aozi couldn't be bothered to engage—Tianhuan's samurai class was more arrogant than the officials; they only obeyed their own family groups and had a habit of not saluting outsiders.
An intelligence officer accompanied by a samurai—this was no small setup. Li Aozi realized he had underestimated Tianhuan's determination to deal with Frost-Plated.
Although both were part of the Four Nations, Tianhuan and Frost-Plated were a bit too close, even if separated by over 3,000 kilometers of old-era seabed. However, the existence of Triangle Town revealed the hidden value of this seabed.
The forward cities of both countries continued to dig forward, all for resources. Given this, it was only a matter of time before the two countries clashed. Tianhuan and Frost-Plated almost constantly slandered each other on GTB over the forward city routes, neither looking any better than the other.
Lord Auckland of Triangle Town was certainly worried about a Tianhuan invasion, but Tianhuan was also a key importer and exporter for Triangle Town. For the data in Li Aozi's possession that could threaten Frost-Plated, the two Tianhuan representatives offered an irresistible tax exemption deal.
Over the years, the friction between Tianhuan and Frost-Plated had never ceased. Lord Auckland foresaw that war was inevitable, and if Tianhuan attacked Frost-Plated, Triangle Town would become a crucial hub, likely to be taken over directly.
Therefore, Auckland tightly clung to Li Aozi, hoping to leverage Li Aozi's identity and the information he held to gain protection.
This little scheme was no big deal, and Li Aozi was happy to maintain Triangle Town's neutrality. After all, this was his future base, and staying neutral wouldn't provoke Tianhuan or Frost-Plated, allowing his business to continue flowing between the two countries.
"Pleasure to meet you." Li Aozi shook hands with the other party. "Director Liu, I'm a straightforward person. I know why you're here."
"Oh, Mr. Li, you're mistaken." Director Liu chuckled, "We came with the friendship of the Tianhuan people. You might not know, living in the outer world, but you have now become a national idol in Tianhuan."
Li Aozi forced a smile and said nothing.
He was well aware that regardless of their ethnic background, once people integrated into Tianhuan, they became two-faced. They especially loved to praise others to the point of bewilderment, making them feel invincible, only to suddenly pull the rug out from under them, pushing them off their pedestal.
This despicable atmosphere was common among Tianhuan's lower class, but the upper echelon was skilled at manipulating emotions, making it something to guard against.
Seeing that Li Aozi wasn't interested, Liu Deming didn't feel awkward. He signaled his secretary to open the briefcase and take out a large-capacity storage drive:
"This is a small token of our friendship. Please accept it."
Li Aozi took the drive, and a system prompt immediately appeared:
[Item Name]: "Omega Energy Refinement Theory"
[Type]: Information Carrier / Professional-Level Supernatural Knowledge
[Quality]: Common Durable
[Attribute]: A USB drive containing specialized knowledge.
Prerequisite: Limited to [Mutant] profession
[Description]: The carrier itself is not important; what matters is that it contains detailed steps on how to extract and convert energy from cells and genes using Omega Energy.
Learning this knowledge will grant Omega Energy users greater power, further unlocking their Omega Energy potential.
Effect 1—By continuously releasing Omega Energy, you can more quickly increase the development level of Omega Energy.
Effect 2—Your core Omega Energy development level +1
Effect 3—Some Omega Energy can evolve into new application branches.
——————————————
This was not just simple knowledge.
According to the classifications in Star Abyss, knowledge is ranked from lowest to highest: Basic, Advanced, Professional, Elite, Theoretical, Fantastical, Fictional, Ultimate, Supreme, with an additional layer of Forbidden Knowledge unique to narrative civilizations and societies, totaling 10 levels.
What does professional knowledge mean on Azure Star?
It's akin to the importance of fertilizer in agriculture—crucial to production.
Li Aozi couldn't help but admire the Tianhuan people's thoroughness. They had deeply researched his background and probably spent a lot of money to gather intelligence in Frost-Plated.
This was indeed something that could move him, and frankly, since it was given freely, there was no downside for him.
"A small token." Li Aozi said playfully, "I see your country is determined to obtain the Abyss Humanitarian data."
"No, no, no, compared to Frost-Plated, what we want more is you, Mr. Li."
Director Liu's words were ambiguous, but the subtext was clear:
—Within Tianhuan, they wanted to leverage Li Aozi's current status to continue operating in Frost-Plated.
Li Aozi was already used to being hunted daily by bounty hunters as a wanted criminal. This identity was even more suitable for operating in the black zones, helping Tianhuan deal with some troublesome targets.
Li Aozi's impressive record and strength were also highly valued by Tianhuan.
In Tianhuan, paying for war and making money from war was common practice. Dressing up mercenary work as something noble, Li Aozi didn't even know how to respond.
One could only say that Tianhuan people had always been consistent in not being humane.
"Giving you the data isn't a problem, but killing people still costs extra—I'm curious, though, with all the samurai and security teams in Tianhuan, what target requires my intervention?"
Li Aozi asked curiously.
"Mr. Li, do you know the Grand Duchy of Grant?" Director Liu didn't rush to answer but instead asked.
"Yes, it's a vassal state of Frost-Plated. Thanks to its abundant geothermal energy, tourism is booming, and it's also Frost-Plated's most important plantation and food-producing country."
With the higher education knowledge from Yavanna's agent, Li Aozi had some understanding of such small countries.
Historically, the Grand Duchy of Grant was a colony of Frost-Plated, once a famous tourist destination in the old era. With fertile land backed by volcanoes and vast forests, even after Azure Star was enveloped by Calamity, it still had enviable geothermal energy, always considered a nation born with a golden spoon.
Due to its excellent geographical environment and agricultural resources, the Frost-Plated people never gave up their control and colonization of Grant, exploiting it to the fullest, squeezing every drop of blood from the Grand Duchy.
However, what surprised Li Aozi was that the Grand Duchy of Grant was tens of thousands of miles away from Tianhuan. If Tianhuan wanted to intervene in a colony, it should be looking at places like Modesha or the White Crystal United States, which were already pro-Tianhuan and had a supportive population.
"Yes, precisely that Grand Duchy of Grant."
Noticing Li Aozi's confusion, Liu Deming smiled and explained:
"We want to hire you to help the colony gain independence."
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