November 27, 3028, Nautilus, Tactical Center Conference Room.
"I heard that Andy asked you to have lunch together. Where did you eat?" Li Liang approached Cain and asked in a low voice.
Cain was nestled in a chair, playing with a miniature model of a differential in his hand, and said absently: "The fourth restaurant."
"The Fourth Canteen is on the landing platform. It's so far away. How do you get there to eat?"
"The circle said the pizza there is delicious."
"Oh, who is there?"
"I'm Andy, Yuan'er, Hans, Aru."
"It's these guys again. You guys have been on good terms lately."
"uh-huh."
"How's the filming of their drama going?"
"The remaining part of Zhar, under the current situation, it's impossible to shoot, right?"
"I can shoot, but I have to wait... Hey, you got a new arm?"
"Ah, how about the pattern I carved myself?"
"It's pretty good... Is the pizza in the Fourth Canteen delicious?"
"It's not bad. The wine is good. The liquor is produced at the moon base and is mixed with Gold Label hallucinogen. It's very strong."
"Huh? Isn't this kind of wine illegal?"
"It used to be prohibited, but the regulations have been changed, and now it's not prohibited."
"When was it changed?"
"this afternoon."
"Did you change it?"
"yes."
…
The two people on the main seat were whispering, and on both sides of the huge conference table, all senior officers of the expedition fleet were present, including the nominal supreme commander Li Sen, the captains and tactical officers of each main battleship, and each ship The commanders of the carrier force and the independent formation, as well as Bolsh Lee, who had just arrived at the Nautilus.
Everyone's backs were straight, their military appearance was neat, and they all held a paper document in their hands - a combat plan code-named "Operation Troyin". For a month, they had participated in this plan to a greater or lesser extent. formulation, but this was the first formal pre-war meeting.
When Emperor Terranza was dying, he secretly sent troops to intervene in the battle between the two princes. This would be a military action that could determine the fate of mankind. However, the situation was changing rapidly. No one was sure of victory. Perhaps only Only at the last moment of the war can we know whether this decision was a far-sighted decision or a gamble that was overestimated.
The discussion had lasted for an hour, and almost everyone had expressed their opinions. Only Bolsh remained silent and looked thoughtful.
As the "protagonist" of this meeting, the veteran's silence made the atmosphere more solemn. Fortunately, the "Twin Gods" always looked relaxed, and their rustling chat with Cain slightly relieved the pressure on the scene.
At the bottom of the left side of the conference table, Li Sen sat upright and looked up at Bolsh opposite.
Due to his obsession with bionic technology, Bolsh is nearly 90 years old but has thick black curly hair and fair and smooth skin. In addition, he has red eyes, a hooked nose, and extremely thin and bloodless lips. He looks like he is in his early twenties at most.
However, Li Sen clearly remembered that when he was still an insignificant engine crew leader, Bolsh was already the mainstay of the Interstellar Expeditionary Force. He never failed in the regular actual military exercises organized by the temple, and was judged to be a draw by the system for the only time. , the opponent was the newly emerging Robben, and afterwards Robben personally admitted that if the military exercise had not been stopped by the temple, the final winner must be Bolshevik.
From then on, outsiders thought that Robben and Bolsh were both teachers and friends, and cherished each other, but he knew very well that Robben did not trust this old fox at all, and even commented on Bolsh in private in front of him. Duplicity. Last year's civil war in Dros confirmed this assessment. At that time, a large number of Interstellar Expeditionary Force officers, including Robben, still chose to obey the orders of the heroic spirit of Dros, even if they had doubts. Only Bolshef obeyed and looked on with cold eyes.
It is for this reason that Robben once tried to "assign" him to the Avalon Concession as the Consul General. Unexpectedly, the old fox firmly disagreed and relied on his old man to act as commander of the Zar advance army.
At that time, the legion was in the final stage of reorganization. Considering Bolsh's influence in the army, Robben could only agree. Now it seems that the old fox not only has a keen sense of smell, but also has ridiculous luck.
If it hadn't happened to coincide with the change of imperial power in the Terranza Empire, this old guy would have been "sent" back to Earth at this moment, and would have been hidden in the snow for at least several years, instead of sitting majestically next to Father God like he does now.
A month ago, Father God issued an order to directly hand over the main force of the Outland Army, along with the Zar advance army and the voyage fleet, to the command of Bolsh. As long as this war is won, the old guy will definitely be on an equal footing with Robben...
Thinking of this, Li Sen frowned slightly. Bolsh across from him seemed to notice something and suddenly raised his eyes, his eyes as sharp as an eagle.
Both sides looked at each other expressionlessly until Li Liang's voice came:
"Hey, General Bolsh, do you have anything to add?"
Bolsh withdrew his gaze, stood up and bowed his head: "The battle plan is very thorough, I have no objection, Father God."
"Okay, let's do this for now." Li Liang also stood up, "You have worked hard all the way, take a rest and have dinner together in the evening."
"Yes," Bolsh raised his hands in a standard salute, then raised his hands in a religious salute with great piety.
Li Liang smiled, pulled down the veteran's hand, and shook it hard.
Li Sen stood up immediately and extended his hand to lead him, and Bolsh nodded in response. In front of Li Liang, the two of them looked warm, as if they had known each other for many years.
Soon, the participants left one after another, and the large conference room seemed empty.
Looking in the direction of the exit, the smile on Li Liang's face gradually disappeared. After a moment, he slowly sat down, leaned against the back of the chair and closed his eyes.
Cain asked softly: "Tired?"
"What do you think of this plan?"
"Me?" Cain casually opened the battle plan in front of him and glanced at it, "...you think too highly of me. The ground combat troops alone mobilized 100,000 people, dozens of battleship battle groups, and hundreds of battleships. Assault formations and independent regiments, thousands of tactics and stuff, this scale... let alone commanding operations, I can't even understand the situation map."
"Actually, I can't understand it either."
"Pfft~"
Cain chuckled, leaned on the table and flipped through a few more pages, raised his eyebrows and said, "Tsk, tsk, you emptied Robben's fortune this time."
"Um."
Li Liang also opened a plan, picked up the metal cigarette case out of habit, took out a cigarette and lit it.
"Starting to smoke again?" Cain held his cheek with one hand, a hint of unbearable expression flashing across his face.
"It's okay."
Li Liang tried to appear relaxed, but could only suppress a stiff smile.
For some reason, tobacco seems to have a magical effect that can break the fusion state between him and the other "Li Liang". Every time he smokes into his lungs, his personality will tend to be biased towards his other self - firm in heart, thoughtful in thinking, and always in control. Angry, disgusted with everything.
In order to make correct decisions in this war, he smoked more and more frequently during this period, and he no longer cared about the consequences. However, after getting used to it, he was able to control the anger in his heart most of the time.
"You'd better quit," Cain said, pretending to be nonchalant.
"Let's wait until this battle is over."
Li Liang waved his hand and refused, forcing himself to read the battle plan again, but the more he read, the more dissatisfied he became.
An inexplicable intuition told him that "Operation Troyin" was still too conservative. Even if the main force of the Outland Army was deployed, the fleet would still be too small to play a decisive role in the war situation. If it could not "help in times of need", even if In the end, even if the Mass ascended to the throne of God, it could not ensure the status of mankind in the Carbon-based Alliance...
At this moment, a hand reached over and snatched the cigarette from his fingers.
He raised his head and saw Cain holding the cigarette between his lips and exhaling a cloud of smoke provocatively.
"..."
Li Liang had no choice but to take out another cigarette. When he was about to light it, he paused and put the cigarette back. The restlessness in his heart gradually subsided.
He suddenly remembered that he had not paid attention to other news for a long time, so he rubbed his face and asked, "Has Messi returned to Zhongjing?"
"Goed back two weeks ago," Cain slouched back in his chair and put his feet up on the conference table.
Talking about Mei Sai, Li Liang smiled unconsciously: "How long has he stayed in the Chawu Realm, half a month?"
"Um."
"Didn't Sonoya go there too? Any news? How is the construction of the portal going?"
"I just said that the base is almost finished, nothing else."
"Well, who else, K?"
"Ha," Cain said happily, "as soon as our Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary took office, he got in touch with the labor experts in the southern border of Avalon. At the beginning of the month, he also negotiated a small business with the big lord of Gray Port."
"What kind of labor expert?" Li Liang was stunned for a moment, "Human trafficker?"
Cain shrugged.
"The Great Lord of Gray Harbor is..."
Cain wiped out the cigarette butt with his fingers: "Dumengoma, a war broker, last week K gave an order to the androids to add a new production line to the moon base to specialize in the production of an anti-matter bomb. The first batch of orders is 50,000. Delivered before the month.”
"What do you think he wants to do?"
"Intelligence," Cain said without hesitation, "is too slow to pass through normal channels."
Li Liang nodded, K was indeed the best candidate for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
Business is secondary. Compared with the production capacity of spiritual core mines, the spiritual cores that can be earned from black market transactions are only a fraction. What is important is intelligence, especially the intelligence of organizations such as Pantheon and Fire. Because life forms and carbon-based organisms The world is so different that it is very difficult for humans to penetrate these organizations. Everything can be traded only through the "black market".
"By the way, one more thing, Tao Chong is missing."
"Huh?" Li Liang came back to his senses, "Missing? When did it happen?"
"On the 17th of last month, the Bureau of Order and Spades searched for him for a month, but there were no clues. It seemed like he disappeared from the world."
"Tao Chong is Tao Yiran's father, right? That girl with level 4 inspiration, have you informed her?"
"No, she performed well in the exercises. Sorge threw her into the "Troyin Plan". When Tao Chong disappeared, she had already set off with the army."
"Tao Chong must be found and tell Haos and Sonoya that he will live or die or see his body."
After hearing this, Cain remembered something and his expression darkened.
"What's wrong?" Li Liang was confused. This was the first time he saw such an expression on Cain's face.
"I don't know if Tao Chong is dead. Someone is dead."
"who?"
"Maurice."
"Mo..."
Li Liang realized that Morris was the hacker from Beijing. He was first hired by K to repair the computers in Ex Machina's base. Later, he participated in deciphering the information on the linen fragments of the "New World". He also helped Dr. Xisen at the critical moment. I set up a neuromaneuver to deceive the four princesses, then experienced the goblin invasion throughout the whole process, and survived with Old Tang.
In the beginning, he could be regarded as a companion fighting side by side, but Morris had no sense of existence. He almost forgot about this person's existence. He didn't expect that when he heard this name again, he would be dead.
"How did you die?" Li Liang's voice had a hint of anger.
"I take hallucinogens every day. I took too much that day. When I found out, I had already drowned in the toilet."
"What?"
"In the Order Bureau's protection list, Maurice belongs to the 'leader level'. The Guards also have an independent tactical team responsible for protecting him. With Sonoya, he can mobilize all gangs and resources at any time," Cain smiled bitterly. "But he still died."
Li Liang was silent.
Extreme power can satisfy all desires and can also devour lives. Not everyone can maintain restraint in the face of power. He foresees that there will always be people among the people around him who are lost, but he did not expect to arrive so early.
"A person's mind changes very quickly, much faster than I originally thought," Cain said quietly. "In the past, so many people wanted to kill me, but I was never afraid. I felt afraid at that time. No matter what kind of gang you join, you will die sooner or later... But lately I often think about what will happen to me, K, Sonoya, House, and the rest of us in the end..."
"Why do you want this?" Li Liang frowned.
"Li Liang," Cain interrupted him, stood up and sat on his lap, "Let's do it."
"Here? Cain..."
Cain leaned over and put his face on his shoulder, his voice filled with laughter, "Call me Zhou Xiaomian from now on."
Only then did Li Liang realize that the robotic arm pressed against his chest was much lighter than before. It was no longer a combat robotic arm that could pierce drones, but was simply an exquisite lightweight metal prosthesis.
He hugged the girl in his arms tightly, silently looking at the battle plan on the table, and wanted to tell her that when this war is over, mankind will usher in long-term peace and prosperity. In the future, no matter what happens, even if time observes If someone appears, he will protect her at all costs.
But in the end, he just touched her hair and murmured: "Everything will be fine after today."
——————————
That night, Li Liang invited Bolsh to have a simple dinner alone, which was regarded as "receiving the wind and washing away the dust" for the veteran.
In the files secretly recorded by the system, No. 0 rated the Bolsheviks' military capabilities very highly, especially their strategic vision and ability to control complex situations, which was higher than Robben's rating. However, the "personality" item was only rated poorly. He got a "pass", which seriously lowered the comprehensive evaluation.
But right now, Li Liang only needs a commander who can win this war. It doesn't matter what his personality is. Besides, "not having a firm stance" is not entirely a bad thing. It can be used to check and balance Robben in the future.
Therefore, the two of them didn't talk much during the dinner. Basically, Li Liang asked a question and Bolsh answered. The content of the conversation was also old news about the Interstellar Expeditionary Force and the previous battle to capture Zar's home planet. After the meal, not a single sentence was mentioned. "Operation Trojan".
Li Liang chose the fourth restaurant for this meal. In addition to wanting to try the pizza Cain mentioned, there was another reason. The fourth restaurant was closest to the landing platform.
In the early morning of the next day, the voyage fleet arrived at the Dark Spirit Nest, and the Nautilus docked at a designated berth in a floating port.
The landing bridge has been connected, and at the hatch on the side of the landing platform, a human delegation of more than thirty people is waiting for the hatch to open.
This team not only has to formally establish a long-term friendly relationship between humans and the owner of the Dark Spirit Nest, the "Nangare Telsaiyad Civilization", but also needs to apply for this energy supply. Therefore, in addition to diplomats, Science officers, guards, the rest are engineers.
Li Liang was wearing an engineer-style extravehicular suit and stood at the end of the team inconspicuously.
According to the agreement, he will secretly meet with General Bobby in the Dark Spirit Nest to discuss the plan to send troops to support Prince Mass. The meeting place between the two parties is at the dock-type floating airport where they are currently docked.
For safety reasons, Chaos Holy Priest Tripoka hid his figure and was standing behind him at the moment.
Boom.
The several-meter-high hatch slowly opened, and a bright light projected the human heraldry onto the trestle outside.
At the same time, a sharp "electromagnetic noise" came.
"Zi——"
Li Liang frowned and manually lowered the volume of his helmet.
It is said that this kind of noise is the representative music of the Said civilization of Nangritel, expressing the goodwill of welcoming visitors from afar, but to human ears, it is purely a harsh noise.
The team started to move, and soon, Li Liang, who was at the end of the team, also walked out of the cabin door.
The landing bridge is wide and straight, leading to the main building of the current floating airport. Since it is specially designed to receive carbon-based civilization, the huge metal building is completely in line with the aesthetics of carbon-based organisms. It is majestic and magnificent, like a temple.
Some kind of invisible shield makes the environmental parameters on the trestle similar to those on Earth. Diplomats and scientific officers do not have to wear heavy extravehicular suits. Instead, they wear formal suits and lead the team to walk leisurely.
With the current status of mankind, it is naturally not worthy of a grand welcoming ceremony. There are only a tall and thin Vulcan and a simple open-top pontoon waiting in front.
Probably having learned about human etiquette in advance, the Vulcan shook hands with the leading human diplomat, and then motioned everyone to board the floating boat. His expression was cold and routine throughout.
Sitting in the last row of the floating boat, Li Liang turned to look to the left. A "crystal" mothership of inorganic biological civilization was docked at the adjacent floating port. It was crystal clear and was much larger than the Nautilus. It looked like a spanning mountain range. Blocking his field of view, he looked to the right again. The floating port was also docked with spaceships of inorganic biological civilizations. They were not big in size, but the number was ridiculous. They looked like a group of "meteorites". Likewise, Obstruct view.
He had no choice but to withdraw his gaze and close his eyes to rest. Although his vision was not good, based on his previous understanding, he could imagine how busy this circular hub composed of thousands of floating ports was.
"Nangare Telsaiyad" is one of the first civilizations to open the door to spiritual science. Its technological level is close to that of the Terranza Empire. Looking at the entire spiritual world, it is undoubtedly in the first echelon.
However, the Nangritel Saiads are an inorganic creature, born on a home planet with nearly unlimited resources. There is no concept of "interest" in their culture, let alone "deception", which leads to them just entering the spiritual gate. They were almost extinct during the chaotic period of openness. After a long road of "vassalship", when carbon-based civilizations rose, their basic world almost became a spiritual core mine.
Therefore, they "learned from the painful experience" and created the "Agent Decision Tribunal", hiring twelve agents with different life forms, different civilizations, and different cultural backgrounds to fully represent the Nangretel Sayad civilization through joint decision-making. All diplomatic matters with other civilizations.
As time goes by, the scope of the power of the Proxy Resolution Tribunal continues to expand. By this era, it has completely controlled the spiritual door of Nangri Terseia, so that almost no one has seen Nangre Terseia in person. German, but even so, the Agent Resolution Tribunal has always followed the diplomatic concept of "absolute neutrality" and has been able to successfully establish one of the most important hub ports in the Dark Spirit Realm.
Because of this, the Dark Spirit Nest is the best place for a secret meeting, and this space is not far from the space where the Terranza Empire is located. It is also the place where the expedition fleet must pass to Zar. Three days later, Outland The army and the Zar advance army will also meet up with the expedition fleet here.
Thirty minutes later, the floating boat entered the building at the end of the trestle. The scene in front of him reminded Li Liang of the indoor dock of Dongjiang Port. Countless floating boats were shuttled back and forth, people and cargo were mixed, and it was busy and noisy.
After getting off the boat at the station, the Vulcan continued to lead the way to the office space prepared by the Resolution Chamber for human residents.
Li Liang is still following the team. There are basically no inorganic creatures here. The ones passing by are all carbon-based creatures, mostly fungi and symbionts, followed by humanoids. There are also strange shapes that are difficult to describe in words. Most of them are... I don’t know what civilization it comes from, and I don’t have the energy to understand it. After all, the Federation of Law and Order includes five million civilizations, most of which may never have any interaction with humans.
It was crowded all the way, and when he arrived at the place, Li Liang discovered that the so-called office place was just a room of less than 200 square meters, and the interior furnishings were shockingly crude. Apart from a metal desk and a metal bed, there was nothing else. , not even a window.
It's normal to think about it. There are too many civilizations living here, and humans who are located in the "suburbs" of the Dark Spirit Domain are just one of them.
After settling in for a while, the diplomats, accompanied by the Vulcans, left first, and then the scientific officers and engineers also went out to start work.
Soon, only Li Liang, two guards, and the hidden Tlipoca were left in the room.
Sitting down on the bed, Li Liang closed his eyes.
The rooms in this area are the "offices" of various civilizations in the Dark Spirit Nest. There are countless secrets hidden behind each door. However, the thick metal cannot block the gaze of Tian Ling. In Ling's vision, the surrounding rooms The existence of spirits is more or less revealed in it, most of which come from various Horcruxes, magic props, and Taoist tools, and there are also vortices sealed in the body of the magician, which are dim or dazzling and often move.
Some of them came from spiritual cores and spiritual beads. In a room not far away, a large number of spiritual cores were piled directly on the ground. They were so bright that it was impossible to look directly at them. The number was at least over ten thousand.
Li Liang was a little confused. The common currency of the spiritual world was spirit beads, which had considerable purchasing power. Spirit cores were often only used in large-scale transactions between civilizations. Who would carry so many spiritual cores with them.
He continued to search in the spirit field of vision, and soon discovered that there were spirit cores in many rooms up, down, left, and right, and there were quite a few in some rooms.
Is there any recent activity that requires a large amount of spiritual cores to be mobilized?
Suddenly, a densely condensed spirit entered the spirit's field of vision and moved quickly towards this side.
Li Liang was stunned for a moment. It was an extremely powerful dead soul weapon, and... it felt very familiar to him. After a moment, he realized what the appearance of the soul weapon meant, but he was even more confused inside.
How would it appear here?
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
With Li Liang's approval, the two guards opened the door cautiously.
The first person who walked into the room was short and wearing a bandel jacket. As soon as he entered, he took off his three-cornered hat and revealed a furry smile: "We finally meet, Mr. Li Liang."
"General Bobby," Li Liang bowed in greeting, but his eyes were fixed on the other person who followed General Bobby into the room, "This is..."
The man was slender, his whole body covered in dark red robes, and he raised his hood when he heard the sound.
"Prince of Mass?"
At this moment, Li Liang suddenly had a hunch that the war might start earlier than everyone expected...
