This time, it should be stable, right? Yu Lian raised his hand and looked at the sky, confirming that the three light spots had stopped moving.

According to the information from his previous life, this Tulon incident was actually an unauthorized action by a group of young, hawkish officers from the Kaitai’s so-called “Iron Claw Youth League,” and it had not received approval from the Kaitai Kingdom’s main base.

Of course, in the timeline of his previous life, the crazy actions of these young hawks actually managed to bite off a large chunk of the Commonwealth’s colony. This, in turn, solidified the Kaitai Kingdom’s long-standing intentions, thus forming a crucial link in the subsequent chain of historical events…

Fortunately, history has indeed changed for the better.

Ina hadn’t taken off her goggle-style aiming device, still looking at Yu Lian with anticipation, hoping he would order her to fire again. She felt that one shot wasn’t enough and was still unsatisfied.

The future All-Galaxy’s greatest sniper declared that firing cannons was much more fun than shooting guns. With just one shot, she had set the enemy ship ablaze; with three to five more shots, she was confident she could even sink it.

“Don’t be ridiculous. The enemy isn’t truly foolish. If you fire another shot, their neutron bomb will really come down. Hundreds of miles in every direction will be wiped clean, with no living thing left.” Yu Lian happily poured cold water on her enthusiasm. He felt that it was great to be able to freely ‘educate’ a future celebrity while she was still a work in progress.

Only warships can counter warships; this is the truth of this world.

Oh, those cheaters who can conjure black holes and ignite stars with their bare hands don’t count.

To put it simply, the current situation depends on who is crazier. On this point, Yu Lian had considerable confidence in Eleanor.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Eleanor closed the communication, revealing a joyful smile and giving an OK gesture in Yu Lian’s direction. Everyone on the position cheered.

“How boring. Aren’t the Kaitai people the legendary unyielding warrior race? I thought they could hold out for a few more minutes.” Ina pouted, expressing great dissatisfaction, her hand releasing and tightening on the trigger, seemingly genuinely wanting to fire another shot.

“The Kaitai people are warlike but not skilled in war, brave yet lacking flexibility. They claim to be unyielding, but in the face of Imperial nobles, they are incredibly submissive! In short, they are typical bullies who pick on the weak and fear the strong,” Yu Lian commented, yet he felt a bit like laughing.

Even with such a race, the fragile Earthlings and the Commonwealth were still helpless against them, weren’t they?

The three Kaitai destroyers, dragging their scarred hulls and full of resentment, began to retreat.

They didn’t actually go far, merely leaving New Yumen Star’s orbit, yet they lingered within the star system for a whole day until the Governor’s Office’s reinforcement fleet arrived. Only then did they thoroughly depart, crestfallen.

Of course, that’s a story for later.

The subsequent period was filled with rather tedious administrative work.

The twenty thousand Sand People’s remains, piled high like mountains on the battlefield, along with the weapons they left behind, took the Governor’s Office nearly a month just to clear. The former was manageable, but the latter was the key—as the battle ended, many brave citizens secretly slipped out of the city. Some merely wanted to scavenge to supplement their household income, some wanted to claim “militia” status, and some were mischievous children hoping to find warheads on the battlefield. Even more troublesome were the ill-intentioned gangs, anti-social groups, and even some unofficial citizen self-defense organizations.

A mere 3,000-plus security personnel simply couldn’t monitor the movements of 700,000 citizens, and who knows how many firearms and weapons subsequently flowed into Tulon and even the entire New Yumen. Over the next few years, the security of this colony remained in a continuous state of deterioration… Of course, it hadn’t been particularly good before, anyway.

Then, there was the confirmation and rescue of the conditions in other settlements besides Tulon.

Aside from Councilor Jiang Yudong’s group, there were several other waves of refugees heading to Tulon who were ultimately blocked outside the city by the Sand People’s army. They weren’t as lucky as Yu Lian’s group to encounter them directly. A considerable number of refugees ran headfirst into the Sand People’s encirclement, suffering heavy casualties. It is said that over four thousand citizens died in this catastrophe. All of the above was heard by security force soldiers from hundreds of citizens rescued from the Sand People’s camps, and most of these poor people had been tortured beyond recognition.

The soldiers consequently began a frenzied retaliation, in the following three days at least shooting or even burying alive over a hundred thousand Sand People prisoners of war, adding significantly to the already piled-up corpses.

As for the security force, besides Yu Lian’s 12th Garrison Station, many other garrison stations outside the city were also attacked, and several were completely wiped out. Some naturally died at the hands of the Sand People, while others completely disappeared, including the garrison station buildings which collapsed and were buried by the mountain.

Upon hearing this news, Yu Lian was so angry he shivered and cried, feeling that there was too much demonic energy involved. He immediately, on the plane back to the city, gave a serious report to Eleanor.

“Hmm, I’ve heard about it too. It’s simply unscientific that such creatures exist on this planet!”

“They are not ordinary creatures, but a clearly defined, fully organized biological weapon system, so they are not necessarily products of this planet… Of course, you could understand them as another type of civilization.”

“Civilization?” Eleanor looked at Yu Lian in surprise, feeling a bit unable to keep up with his thoughts.

“Yes, one mind for all! Hive mind! Absolute will, the swarm is the will!” Seeing Eleanor’s gaze grow even more confused, Yu Lian sighed helplessly, thinking, not only have your tech trees gone awry, even your culture trees have, too. Without Heinlein, would you even have the concept of a Bug Swarm?

“…At least, I can confirm they are definitely not naturally occurring organisms!” Yu Lian could only answer this way.

“So, a biological army then? Similar to the Titan war beasts tamed by the Empire?”

They are much more formidable than those! Even a single Mountain King Hercules couldn’t withstand tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of Zerglings tearing at him in successive waves! How many Mountain King Hercules are there in the entire Empire? But by Yu Lian’s era, the Queen wouldn’t even bat an eye if she used a hundred million Zerglings as cannon fodder.

“So, you think the appearance of those… well, let’s call them Bug Swarm, as you said, has anything to do with this Sand People siege?” Eleanor asked.

In the Tulon incident of his previous life, there was no appearance of the Bug Swarm, so Yu Lian had no existing answer.

However, he pondered for a moment and still replied, “Those goblins we captured are employees of the Compass Merchants. As you know, this is actually an arms and mercenary brokerage registered in a permanently neutral country, and behind it, there are likely powerful figures from the Alliance or the Empire. They could also be the hidden supporters of the Sand People’s siege this time. And even more likely, the manipulators of the Bug Swarm. Hmm, yes! Taking advantage of the Sand People’s rebellion to turn the entire colony upside down, it makes perfect sense to test the combat effectiveness of biological weapons!”

The more Yu Lian thought about it, the more likely it seemed. If he could find the mastermind behind this Sand People siege, wouldn’t he also be able to find the true creators of the Bug Swarm? This was a secret he hadn’t even unraveled in his previous life.

“You mean, the Sand People’s supporters aren’t the Kaitai Kingdom?”

“The Kaitai would not dare to attack New Yumen without the Empire’s tacit approval. Moreover, they don’t have the capability to silently transport hundreds of thousands of firearms, swords, and hundreds of tanks.”

“Heh, Imperial Royal Merchant Ships with All-Universe inspection exemption, or the Alliance’s Sea God Fleet? Speaking of which, those three Kaitai destroyers must have passed through the Star Gate under the pretext of escorting the Imperial Royal Fleet.” Eleanor sneered, “Oh dear, what happened to the promised Human Destiny Commonwealth?”

“Eleanor, what does it matter that we are human? The Alliance and the Empire are also human, and three out of four All-Galaxy Wars were provoked by their infighting. And the potential that the Commonwealth and Earthlings have demonstrated since their independence, the Empire and the Alliance have both seen—hmm, although it’s been a bit wasted these past few decades—they would rather put the interests of the New World in the hands of stubborn and compliant Kaitai, than ever hand them over to an uncontrolled third party again.”

“A time of trouble, Yuli! Once this is over, go back quickly. Prepare your graduation thesis, get good grades, and with the combat experience from this time, I believe you shouldn’t fail to graduate. Then, seriously consider your future. I actually hope you can stay, Yuli. War will definitely break out, perhaps not now, but it will. Eleanor patted Yu Lian’s shoulder, then naturally adjusted his collar: “However, our previous agreement still stands. If you don’t want to stay in the military, I’ll help you find a good job at Whitewing Angro.”

“…I, I will seriously consider it.”

In fact, Yu Lian had never seriously considered his future life path. He knew the fate of the Commonwealth in the future, and he knew the reality of this nation’s incurable, terminal illness, so he truly didn’t want to perish with it.

On the contrary, if he were to join a transnational, super-stellar security enterprise like Whitewing Angro, he could gradually work his way up into middle or high management, or even to the Alliance’s headquarters, and then figure out a way to immigrate his uncle’s family to the Alliance. Although the entire Galaxy would become a chaotic mess in later generations, with all sorts of disaster-level events emerging endlessly, the Alliance’s home star systems were always largely unaffected.

After settling his uncle’s family, he could continue to explore the mysteries from his past life that he had never solved. Roaming the Star Ring, singing with a sword in hand, with chivalry and wild abandon—this was probably the lifestyle he truly sought, wasn’t it?

The only thing that wasn’t ideal was that with his current spiritual energy user Star Ring, whether he chose the “Balance” or “Eternal” path, his future seemed to only reach the peak of the Seven Rings!

Or perhaps, he should set another small goal for himself? To complete this path?

…But can I really abandon everything and just leave? Yu Lian looked at Eleanor’s perfect, jade-sculpted profile, his emotions complex.

“Yuli, I know you often get lost staring at me, but that’s all it can be. Until I make up my mind, I won’t do anything to betray Fina.” Eleanor’s eyes seemed to hold a hint of gentle mist, a half-smile playing on her lips.

Yu Lian shivered, and another smiling face of a young woman appeared in his mind.

“I will report this, the Bug Swarm situation, to the Governor’s Office and the General Staff Headquarters. However, whether they will take it seriously, I don’t know.” She paused, then added, “Also, tsk, the identity of that Chuck Brown has been found. He really is a retainer of Taimier King, a third-class knight-marquis of the Empire, and indeed, a spiritual energy user.”

“A time of trouble…” Eleanor played with her pigtail, then showed an annoyed expression again.

“Eleanor, even if you knew beforehand, would you not act?”

“How could that be! Whatever needs to be done, will be done!” Eleanor scoffed, “Never mind a mere low-ranking Imperial noble, even if Taimier King himself came, I’d still beat him up without hesitation!”

I believe the first half, but the second half, I always feel it has a hint of being outwardly fierce but inwardly timid.

As she spoke, the airship had already landed at the airport. Eleanor was the first to pull open the cabin door, preparing to exit, and said, “Alright, no matter what, we won. Let’s change our mood today. I’ll treat you to charcoal-grilled marmot…”

How much resentment do you have against marmots? Yu Lian was about to complain when he heard Eleanor directly spit, “Hmph, that guy actually came! I should have known not to let him out.”

Just then, the short, stout Governor Yamadera approached, his face full of anger, looking like a rolling ball.

Hello to all my esteemed readers, yesterday the editor asked me to slow down a bit and wait for my readers, not to rush out of the new book period by updating too quickly. Although this is the first time I’ve heard such a request, I think it makes a lot of sense. So, starting today, it will be three updates every two days, and we’ll see how it goes.

Don’t worry, slowing down during this time will also allow me to prepare more drafts, and there will definitely be a burst of updates after it goes on sale.

So, for today, it’s just one update.

Also, rewards are indeed very useful for the ranking of a new book, but I don’t have the spare money for operations. Everyone, please do so as you see fit and within your means! Remember, remember! Online novels are just for leisure. I’ll be very touched and satisfied with subscriptions after it goes on sale. Please, do not get carried away and let it affect your life.

During this period of economic transition, let’s all support each other.