023. Frost-Plated District's Excellent Matching Mechanism
Li Aozi's first stop in Grant wasn't the capital directly. Instead, following Tianhuan's arrangements, he contacted the military attaché at the Tianhuan embassy, Jitsurō. The latter quickly sent a message directing Li Aozi to connect with the resistance organization arranged by SCIA.
Li Aozi believed that with his strength, the mission's difficulty shouldn't be high. Frost-Plated's recent policies and plummeting reputation, along with the collapse of the Derby exchange rate, had sparked widespread discontent. Grant, long exploited by Frost-Plated, was particularly enraged by the repeated grain extractions.
Logically, the Grand Duchy of Grant was like a rickety house; just one kick would bring it down.
However, upon finding the resistance organization, Li Aozi realized things weren't quite as straightforward.
The first issue was the sheer number of resistance organizations in Grant. Among over 20,000 independence advocates, there were 42 different organizations, including more than a dozen religious leaders.
Relying on such a fragmented group to achieve independence would leave any new government, at best, a precarious structure on the brink of collapse.
But that wasn't the biggest issue. When Li Aozi discussed military coup strategies with this leaderless group of Grant citizens, he came to fully appreciate Frost-Plated District's "excellent matching mechanism."
According to a militant leader named François, the Grand Duke held palace parties every Thursday, during which the Sulute Palace guards were reassigned to maintain order. François suggested that they could use gliders to infiltrate from above and shoot into the crowd to successfully assassinate the Duke and his officials, thus ensuring the coup's success.
Faced with this simple plan, Li Aozi casually asked a question:
"The artificial sun's height is 6,000 meters, limited by barriers, with most flights at an altitude of no more than 4,500 meters. What kind of aircraft can fly at 4,500 meters without being noticed from the ground?"
This question prompted a silence more profound than Li Aozi had anticipated.
After sleeping on it, a militant group called Bermudes proposed an improved plan: they would use an advertising blimp to solve the altitude problem while ground forces launched an advance attack on the Sulute Palace with artillery.
This seemed more feasible, but one problem remained unresolved.
Who would assassinate Grand Duke Gamos Luwenqi Grant, who had a Gamma-tier strength?
Although Li Aozi knew that Gamma-tier strength on Azure Star was somewhat inflated, whether due to drugs or sheer luck, Gamma-tiers were still formidable. Without resorting to weapons like fuel-air bombs—which couldn't be used in a city—they couldn't justify Frost-Plated military intervention.
The choice of assassin, therefore, became awkward.
In a country of 47 million people, the Grand Duchy of Grant had only thirteen Beta-tier individuals. On the day of the mission, one was abroad, six were Frost-Plated Law IV agents, leaving six others, one of whom was the Grand Duke's son, Marish Gamos Grant.
That leaves five, right?
Not so fast. Those five were the Grand Duke's personal guards.
Li Aozi couldn't hold it in any longer.
Even though he was from Arlanca, a vassal state of the Red Arrow Empire, it was clear that the matching mechanism of Frost-Plated District wasn't as competitive as that of Red Arrow District. Arlanca, despite its deficiencies, had 200 heavy fighter jets, 90 Beta-tiers, and 12 mobile armors stationed there—considered lacking in military ethics by Red Arrow standards.
Li Aozi, who initially thought he was coming to play an easy game, realized that the Tianhuan people had brought him over to play babysitter.
SCIA likely saw the severity of the situation and didn't want to invest more effort, so they had Li Aozi step in to help.
Li Aozi pessimistically explained the situation to the resistance, earnestly explaining that Beta-tiers would massacre a conventional army. Even if only six Beta-tiers were present on the day, how could a mere 200-strong assault team hope to complete the assassination?
However, the Grant resistance didn't understand the role of the superhumans. In their view, humans couldn't outrun bullets. One shot cripples, two shots kill, three shots make history. They believed their plan was already thorough. Although Li Aozi's presence boosted morale, the Grant citizens still thought he, as a Frost-Plated native, didn't understand Grant's streets and only needed to follow their lead.
In reality, superhumans didn't need to outrun bullets; they just needed to outrun the time it took to pull the trigger. With a ton of armor, they could crush opponents into pulp. And when facing a Ranger-class firearm specialist, you might think you're in a shootout, but the little pistol is firing cannon rounds.
Li Aozi was at a loss.
For a moment, he understood why Grant had been colonized for so long. A resistance group with no unified organization, no iron-fisted leadership, and no clear understanding of the power disparity couldn't save the country on blood and justice alone.
So, Li Aozi decided to act independently of the Grant resistance.
He planned to eliminate the Beta-tier strongmen one by one, according to SCIA's information, to ease the pressure on the resistance.
First on the list were the Frost-Plated agents. Li Aozi activated the Gravity Omega's [Mode Two: Distortion], boldly walked into the Law IV office, found two Beta-tiers, and without much conversation, snapped their necks with gravity, incinerated their bodies, and left without alerting anyone.
However, after that, Li Aozi's luck seemed to run out. He spent the entire night roaming, only to find that the Frost-Plated agents had returned to report to the Frost-Plated embassy—an untouchable territory.
Since the embassy was considered sovereign land, Li Aozi didn't want to provoke Frost-Plated's mecha troops into invading, so he sought another target.
Without alerting the guards, he infiltrated the Sulute Palace and planted bombs provided by the resistance in the Grand Duke's office, but the Duke had left early, leaving Li Aozi waiting in vain for two hours. He abandoned the assassination attempt and turned his attention to the Grand Duke's eldest son, Marish Gamos Grant.
According to SCIA's intelligence, Marish was a notorious womanizer who often visited a villa arranged by his subordinates to indulge in pleasures, staying there for at least seven hours each time.
However, after waiting for three hours at the villa, SCIA agents informed Li Aozi that Marish's wife had returned home. As a henpecked husband, Marish had happily gone home to be with his wife, and the couple was now shopping in the city center.
What happened to the playboy? How did he suddenly become the king of faithful love? Don't back out now—your perverted soul is burning!
After all the fuss, SCIA, seeing how diligent Li Aozi was, invited him to the Tianhuan embassy for dinner the afternoon before the operation to discuss strategies.
While Li Aozi was deep in conversation with the SCIA agents, a cannon shot echoed down Silpaya Street, and Li Aozi and the Tianhuan representatives exchanged confused glances.
A few minutes later, the Tianhuan ambassador awkwardly informed Li Aozi:
"It seems the resistance got the date wrong. The original plan was to launch the coup on Thursday afternoon. But today, the guards were temporarily reassigned to maintain order in the square, so they decided to act ahead of schedule."
By the time Li Aozi realized what was happening, it was too late. Tanks and armored vehicles had already rolled onto the streets. The coup team, attacking at the wrong time, stormed the Sulute Palace when few high-ranking officials were present. Instead, they ran straight into General Mobis Kolintara and his 29 Alpha-tier soldiers, who were there to discuss national defense with the Grand Duke.
Thus, Li Aozi's first assassination attempt ended in an unexpected but unsurprising failure.
[news]
「New work titled:Ember Dragon」
「Description Story:
This red dragon came from the vast wilderness, coveting all the powers of the world. He has held countless titles: Mountain Fury, Purgatorial Calamity, Red Emperor, Ember Dragon…
The world trembles under the shadow of the great dragon. He ignited the surge of the magical industrial revolution. In the empire he established, wyverns roar, cannon fire resounds, steel behemoths appear in the sky and on the earth, and disasters from other worlds run rampant.
"Submit, or die."
Cassius spread his sky-shading wings, looking down upon the trembling humans, elves, and dwarves beneath him, and spoke thus.
...…
A story of a red dragon with a built-in player template conquering, ruling, and transforming another world.
(Pseudo D&D, Fourth Catastrophe, Red Dragon)」
「The update schedule from chapter 1 to chapter 56 is as follows:Eight chapters per day, one every three hours. It is also available on Patreon until chapter 246.」
Publication starts from November 25th at 00:00 GMT
[news]