【42 Years of Disaster】
After the human hero Asa Akto returns, Doomsday City prepares a grand dinner for him.
The camp territories, neutral gathering places, and small free cities affiliated with Doomsday City all sent people to attend the dinner to express their attitude.
The dinner was held in the city hall outside Doomsday City. The hall was filled with soft voices and the aroma of pre-dinner desserts.
People in formal attire were holding wine glasses and chatting. The long white tablecloth was half-way down like butter. From time to time, messengers carrying trays would pass by.
The scene can only be described as "upper class".
People were chatting in low voices, and the topics were simple and restrained. No one wanted anything to go wrong on such an important day - they all wanted to see Akto, who had been almost worshiped as a god for the past ten years.
The information Akto left behind made Doomsday City's technology advance by leaps and bounds visibly to the naked eye. Such an existence that leads them in terms of technological resources and ideas has almost become a brand new artificial god.
Anjie was the host of the banquet. She stood at the door of the banquet hall, waiting for guests one after another.
Andwis, the leader of the Free Alliance, Baird from the Trial House, Anita from the Yaoguang Mercenary Legion, Yalin, the city lord of Hope City, Borg, the deputy city lord of Antofa City, Doris and the war group. Lei Xiao...
It has been 10 years since the War of Dawn was launched. The war situation is extremely chaotic, and various small forces have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. There are even divisions and alliances within the camp, and people in the same camp are not venting their anger from the same nostril. Naturally, some of these guests also have ulterior motives.
"Su Ming'an's posture... is so majestic. All the overlords are attending his dinner as if they are on a pilgrimage."
In the corner, Windsor, a remote control legion player in a white dress, looked up. She was an angel player, with clean and fair skin that was almost transparent.
"He is indeed worthy of these honors." Higurashi said.
He leaned the scabbard against the wall and straightened the suit he was not used to.
Their remote control legion team had blended into the battle group early on, and now they are also operating together in Caius Tower. At this banquet, 20% of the participants were players. They mingled in the dessert area and ate desserts.
"Speaking of it, there has been a lot of chaos in Doomsday City in the past 10 years." Player Ruiying said: "Actor has not appeared in 10 years. Many people have not obeyed the leadership of Tredia and others over the years."
"But now Akto is back." Higurashi looked at the banquet hall where all the heroes gathered: "Then even if the previous leader made mistakes, Akto is absolutely 'right', and he is enough to eliminate the hidden dangers of the city-state in an instant .”
Higurashi noticed that there was an inconspicuous figure standing behind the white curtains not far away.
——That’s Sen Kelstia.
Sen Kelstia is the deputy city lord of Doom City and the original leader who started the business together with Akto. Even Tredia's reputation is not as good as his.
But Sen's high reputation and status were limited to 10 years ago.
It is impossible for human beings to be without desires and selfish interests. If a person sits in a high position for a long time without sufficient supervision, he will make mistakes sooner or later. Sen is an example of this.
He made a fatal mistake - in the 6th year of the War of Dawn, in order to save his dying son, he privately used the medical resources that should have been allocated to the reconnaissance team. As a result, a reconnaissance team was unable to treat him in time, and the entire army Overturned.
This incident shocked Doomsday City. Although it is common for team members to die outside, they should not die at the hands of their own family members.
People have doubts about the impartiality of the leadership of Doomsday City - Akto has not appeared for several years. Is it because the leadership represented by Tredia and others imprisoned him and used his name to make excuses?
Sen is the hero of the founding of the city. He has made great contributions through hard work. He has been working conscientiously for the past six years. Almost all the minor commanders of the legion in Doomsday City are from Fenghuo. The interests of Doomsday City are united from top to bottom, and the top management is unwilling to punish Sen to calm the anger of the people.
As a result, a storm of public opinion arose one after another, and the families of the reconnaissance team were even more upset about it.
Sen regretted and suffered. He had protected these residents for so many years and was willing to sacrifice for the city-state. He knew that he had killed the reconnaissance team, so in order to prevent Tredia and others from being embarrassed, he took the initiative to remove himself from all military positions and honors, and locked his bloody cloak in the cabinet.
The dignified former lord of Fenghuo turned into a street rat who was despised by others.
Sen was standing next to the curtain at this time, his body almost hidden in the shadows. His face no longer had the high spirits of 10 years ago. He was obviously only forty years old, but he looked like an old man in his twilight years.
"……he came."
Suddenly, at this moment, someone spoke softly, and the whole hall fell silent.
I saw a young man with extraordinary momentum and handsome appearance walking through the door. He was instantly recognized. Over the years, his face has often lit up on LED screens in various cities.
There is a bronze statue of him in the center of Doomsday City. Fountains and gardens were built around the statue for people to rest and admire.
The hall fell silent instantly, and people almost did not dare to recognize him. Akto did not look like the powerful warrior who could single-handedly stop the disaster of alien beasts as the intelligence said, but like a man without any power at all. A scholar has no blood or violence in his body.
More like a... very suitable for a noble man in a banquet hall.
Su Ming'an did not speak at this time, and neither his missionary aura nor his passive faith came into play. In people's eyes, he was not even as majestic as when he told the story of the lighthouse in the screen recording.
Su Mingan looked around and saw many unfamiliar faces. At this moment, he had a vague sense of what 10 years of human beings meant.
Infants and toddlers can grow into children, children can become teenagers, and middle-aged people can grow gray. Some elderly people disappeared completely.
Cheng Luohe, a child holding a vermilion sniper rifle, grew up and became a young man in his early twenties. Yaowen also became the captain of an elite reconnaissance team, stinking in the corner.
Xia Sheng didn't change much, he still looked so cold and solemn. Staci, Jocelyn and others have matured a lot and even have wedding rings on their hands.
Su Mingan recalled the news collected by AI Yeya in the past 10 years.
……People are going to change.
If these people had always been small leaders in the shelter, with only a few hundred people at hand, they would not be greedy for profit and would just want to survive together. But if you broaden your horizons and have more and more people on hand, even to the point where millions of people are dependent on Doomsday City... people will completely change.
They can't help but think...since they are already the heroes who built the city, have such great power and such high reputation, why can't they go a little further?
They also have relatives, and some also have children. In such a precarious world... they really want to consider the next generation and do not want to give up the resources and status they hold tightly in their hands to others.
Over the past 10 years, there has been a lot of intrigue among the senior officials of Doomsday City. Rongyuan even got married and established a family. He created a lot of illegitimate children by hooking up with his friends during the Century Catastrophe. He was busy fighting for power and profit, and wanted to turn the Second Legion into his family's private army.
In order to check and balance him, Tredia formed an alliance with the surrounding cities of Hope, Antofa, and Beatrice, and brought out a bunch of puppets from the Alliance to fight with his relatives and officers. Even Xia Sheng, who had no regard for power, was implicated and forced to help her alliance increase its voice.
Marcia, the former main member of Beacon Fire, was not willing to be left alone, and took the initiative to join the Trial House. Using the blessing of Sen, she expelled dissidents on the grounds of judging the gods for heresy, and pulled out a bunch of wings of the great commanders such as Jocelyn.
As soon as Akto disappeared, these people seemed to have lost their backbone, and no one could suppress anyone. The Doomsday City successively established organizations such as the Federal Parliament, the Core Committee, the Alliance, and the Tribunal. There were also thirteen generals, Forty-seven minor commanders, three marshals, and three legions divided the power in a mess.
These people have never made any major principled mistakes, but all kinds of small power scourges have emerged one after another, and they have even cultivated their own direct descendants.
Looking at the banquet hall that seemed peaceful but was filled with turmoil in private, Su Mingan sighed.
"Welcome back, Lord Akto."
"City Lord, where have you been in the past 10 years? We have always missed you..."
"The all-out war has begun. City Lord, are you interested in visiting the Third Legion? Legion Commander Callement has always regarded you as a teacher in the field of mechanics. He has a gift for you."
The people around him greeted him with shy smiles and were extremely flattering. Even An Jie, an acquaintance who took the initiative to welcome him, had a look of awe and alienation on her face. She no longer dared to pat his shoulders and talk and laugh with him like she did 10 years ago.
In his eyes, such an elegant, extravagant and soft-spoken banquet was not even as good as the members of the Beacon Fire who gathered around the fire and drank sweet potato porridge to keep warm in the cold winter 10 years ago, shivering in the cold night.
For the first time, he felt that time was such a magical thing.
[It can make one person become like another person, and make a city become a mess. 】
…
In a remote tea hall, Rongyuan helped a white-haired young man straighten the last wrinkles of his Hanfu.
"Peg, remember, you must do your best to please the city lord later." Rongyuan said.
"I know." The young man said.
"Actor and Lin Guang were so close in the past. Who knows if Akto will maintain his original intention after 10 years... But it doesn't matter. No matter whether he maintains his original intention or not, he is the city lord. As soon as he spoke , we can have any amount of glory, and only by holding his thigh can we continue to be rich." Rongyuan patted the young man on the shoulder:
"I asked a lot of people, and they said Akto likes white-haired young people very much. If you go and please him, you might be able to get him to give you some official position."
This white-haired young man is called Peg, and he is his nephew. He can help him win over the city lord.
Peg walked out of the tea room. His slightly long broken hair hung down by his ears, and his eyes were as light as snow. The black and white Hanfu on her body was particularly conspicuous in the banquet hall.
The deputy city lord of Antofa City, who was talking to Su Ming'an about sending troops, saw the change in Su Ming'an's eyes.
The deputy city lord of Antofa City turned his head and looked at the white-haired young man walking over, as if he was aware of an additional way to get closer to the city lord.
...By the way, why didn't he think of giving white hair to the city lord?
"Huh?" In the corner, the blue-haired player Yuna saw the white-haired young man walking over and asked in shock, "Is that Lu Shu?"
Next to her, her teammate Jin Chendong narrowed his eyes:
"No, it's just an NPC that looks very similar. It was probably introduced by some commander to please Su Ming'an."
Jin Chendong shook his head: "If this continues, there will probably be people playing the role of Cheng Yueyue, or Cheng Nuoer, or even people playing the role of Qian Qian Nai Luo... These people will do anything to fight for power."
"Why do I feel like Su Mingan is like an emperor who just came to power? These treacherous ministers are crazily stuffing his harem with concubines..." Player Mirala said sharply.
Player Gu Kaisun said: "White and delicate, how old is he now?"
Everyone glanced at Gu Kai, and Gu Kai shut up.
"I just listened to Su Ming'an's reply to the deputy city lord of Antofa City about dispatching troops. Su Ming'an said one thing after another." Jin Chendong sighed: "It seems that the ninth world has given him a lot of help - first Players will now play Machiavellian games."
After hearing Jin Chendong's words, the eyes of several people changed slightly.
The first player actually knows how to play power...
"It is said that all those who pass the level perfectly can make a wish..." Yuna lowered her head and curled her blue hair with her fingers.
"Our team has some strength, so it's time to consider joining the team. If we join the right team, maybe after the World Game ends, we can be like the people in Beacon Shelter and become a commander or something like that." Jin Chendong said: "Edward is sure Will lose, Mizushima River... I guess that state won't last long, if we can help Su Ming'an..."
They talked quietly.
In another corner, Yueyue, who was wearing a red rose evening dress, lowered her eyes and sighed slightly.
"What's wrong?" Lu asked her in a low voice.
"Look at him..." Yueyue looked at the young man in the center of the banquet hall, who was dealing with all the guests with ease: "Compared to when I saw him in the fifth world, he has really changed a lot."
She bit her lip.
She thought of the screen recording she had watched. At the end of the fifth world, the clone Ming spoke generously at the human self-rescue meeting...
Su Mingan now is very similar to Ming then.
"Is he... becoming more and more like Ming Ming?" she said.
Moreover, the situation he faced... seemed to be more and more similar to Akto himself.
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