070. Mutual PUA
N4 narrowed her eyes slightly.
It was clear that she found this tone and rhetoric somewhat familiar, but Li Aozi's expressive face and subtly sorrowful gaze immediately tugged at the most tender strings of the human heart.
Who, man or woman, could withstand his stubborn yet melancholic gaze for more than three seconds without being moved?
Li Aozi knew exactly the mindset of Frost-Plated women.
He remembered how David Lin had once pointed out: (Frost-Plated women) didn't see themselves as true women but imitated the despicable behaviors of men from past societies—smoking, drinking, domestic violence, deliberately discriminating against men in the workplace, committing crimes, and engaging in harassment. They had a strong desire for control, leaving children to artificial wombs and nurseries while they went out to indulge, turning men into household machines and ATMs.
Few women realized that by repeating the actions of men from the past, they hadn't achieved any real progress or change but had instead become the new "patriarchal figure."
Due to advanced technology, Frost-Plated women often dominated the main productive roles, leaving men with only one function—to fight and die in wars.
Simply put, the viewpoint of David Lin's faction was: the hero who once slew the dragon eventually became the very dragon they fought against.
N4 exhibited many typical Frost-Plated female traits, or rather, Li Aozi had gotten used to thinking of Frost-Plated women as men, which made them easier to understand.
Li Aozi stepped in front of N4, slowly kneeling on one knee. With a tone that was slightly annoyed yet mischievous, he said:
"Ms. N4, I make this sincere offer to you with affection and joy. If you still don't trust me, then there's no point in continuing this conversation. Please, leave. No matter how sweet the coffee tastes, the aftertaste will still be bitter."
"Oh my, Mr. Li Aozi, look how anxious you've become. It's my oversight, I'm sorry for making you feel uneasy."
N4 was a master of diplomacy and didn't rush. Talking with her was far more challenging than dealing with the Professor.
The Professor was a rational person, but someone too rational often fell into the trap of theoretical and academic dogmatism.
N4 was different. She was eloquent, knew how to stir emotions, and was deeply shrewd. To top it off, she was beautiful. She appeared to take full responsibility for the miscommunication, yet she revealed no useful information.
Instead, she constantly demonstrated her strong personal traits. Her sharp features exuded power, and her words brimmed with "tolerance" and "understanding." Though she seemed to be apologizing, it felt like she was pacifying a child.
—Parental figure.
This term flashed through Li Aozi's mind, and everything suddenly clicked.
Yes, N4 gave off a strong parental aura.
Strong, intelligent, composed, charismatic, dominant.
For the first time, Li Aozi faced an opponent who was a six-dimensional fighter, catching him off guard, even though he was used to winning easily.
Even as he repeatedly brought up the landmine-filled matter of the Abyss Humanitarian Organization, N4 merely smiled knowingly, as if to say, "What's past is past."
Over time, the rationality of high [Intelligence] became more advantageous. If [Charisma] couldn't deepen favorability, it became increasingly limited.
"The Professor's death and the destruction of the Abyss Humanitarian Organization deeply upset me. If it were anyone else, I would have turned them into a specimen long ago—but you're different, you know? What you can achieve is far greater than anything the Professor created."
N4 took Li Aozi's hand, criticizing him while also praising him:
"You are the greatest Omega Energy user on this planet. The potential of your genes is displayed perfectly in you. If you support us, countless people will benefit from it, and science will advance tremendously. Humanity may even resist the calamities of the Calamity Armament and use biotechnology to counter nature's wrath. We could even step into the cosmos—and all of this depends on you."
Things were taking a turn for the worse.
Li Aozi took a deep breath.
He had to admit that both [Charisma] and [Intelligence] had their merits. [Charisma] made everything you said likable, but someone with high [Intelligence] spoke with far more depth.
Under the weight of her verbal assault, Li Aozi was gradually losing ground.
She wasn't wrong about anything, and she even subtly hinted at the connection between the Calamity Armament and Lord of Entropy.
"Li Aozi, perhaps you don't believe me, but this is for the progress of science. Your Omega Energy and genetic power may still have further potential to unlock."
N4 spoke with warmth:
"Don't you want to see that vast universe out there?"
"Join Abyss Heavy Industries."
"We can create an organization far bigger than the Four Nations, one with greater significance than the GTB, one that could change all of Azure Star."
She began to deliberately guide the conversation, attempting to persuade Li Aozi to join her side.
By comparison, Li Aozi found that using playful tricks might actually have more impact than this verbal fencing.
[Stay calm, Li Aozi, you need to stay calm.]
Li Aozi kept reminding himself.
The more intense the situation became, the more he couldn't afford to let his guard down.
He constantly recalled N4's role, her actions, and reverse-engineered her character.
Strictly speaking, N4 was far more outrageous than the neutral evil Professor. She leaned toward absolute neutrality, with a personality typical of an INTP (Logician).
The Professor may have been aware of her heavy sins but accepted them willingly, whereas N4 never had a concept of good or evil.
The most typical example was how, under N4's leadership, Abyss Heavy Industries produced the finest fertilizers, targeted drugs, and artificial organ cultivation technologies. After these technologies appeared, the population of Azure Star grew explosively from under 300 million after the Calamity disaster to over 2.6 billion in just 150 years. The Four Nations alone supported 2 billion of these people, and the number of those benefitting outside the outer lands couldn't even be counted.
—However, at the same time, Abyss Heavy Industries' various labs claimed over 2 million lives from human experimentation. The death toll from their deliberate release of biochemical waste and toxins was even more staggering.
Abyss Heavy Industries had likely killed more people than any other organization since the start of the Galactic Era, even more than the lives their technology had sustained.
It sounded absurd at first, but when you considered that factory farming both saved and took far more lives than wildlife conservationists could ever manage in millennia, it made sense.
For this reason, Li Aozi saw N4 as a pure scientific zealot, a machine pursuing science.
Nothing more.
Such a powerful opponent, almost devoid of weaknesses, made Li Aozi feel quite helpless.
The more pressing issue was—he might actually need to work with N4.
The third completion condition for "Remember Them" required uprooting the Abyss Humanitarian Organization's sponsors. If it wasn't Abyss Heavy Industries behind them, it had to be Frost-Plated—or more likely, both.
At the very least, he had to shut down all related laboratories connected to the Abyss Humanitarian Organization.
Was N4 a monster? Li Aozi couldn't say. A monster was an insult for people, not something you called a machine.
So how should he handle his relationship with N4? Li Aozi didn't know how to proceed.
He had never expected N4 to take notice of him in the first place. After all, this person was the type who would sell out Azure Star and its players in an instant just to further her research.
Just as Li Aozi was about to get tangled in N4's web, nearly being roped into "joining Abyss Heavy Industries," the meeting room door suddenly swung open.
"Li Aozi, is Mr. Li in?"
A man dressed like a wanderer from Tianhuan leaned casually against the doorframe, raising a document:
"I am Ruzoma of the Hojo Group—a retainer. My lord extends an invitation for you to attend the upcoming Kowloon Gathering."
"At this gathering, a legendary sword known as the 'Cuiying Edge' will be revealed."
"Surely, you would be interested?"
Li Aozi's heart skipped a beat—this was exactly what he had been waiting for.
"Masterwork"—Cuiying Edge.
There were only twelve "masterwork" weapons on Azure Star. Li Aozi had accepted Granat's commission mainly to obtain an invitation to the Kowloon Gathering.
And Li Aozi knew that at this gathering, not only would the Cuiying Edge be displayed, but another masterwork sword would also be present, hidden in plain sight. Li Aozi knew exactly how to obtain it.
In other words, he had the opportunity to get two masterwork weapons at once!