As it turns out, the Marshal who occasionally makes the Strategist's blood pressure shoot up, sometimes does get serious work done.
Zero never sticks to one method when he does things. He doesn't care what the process is like, as long as he can achieve the result he wants, that's enough.
Even if there are some minor, harmless little hiccups along the way, he doesn't bother about them.
He had already arranged for the Colossus to be stationed near the planet of the peace talks, using the simplest and most effective way to give the Swarm a small taste of an Immortal Boat shock.
Through the mouths of the Company and the Swarm, the powers of Neutron Annihilation, Planetary Burst, and Angel of Mercy spread everywhere.
Once the universe knew about the mighty power of the Colossus, countless races trembled in fear. This was humanity's own miracle.
With only their minds, the Immortal Boat people stood shoulder to shoulder with the Aeons while still in human flesh.
Zero originally thought that from now on, no other faction would dare to stir up trouble. But what he absolutely didn't expect, was that there really were such hard-headed little mobs.
Before, those mobs had captured his subordinates, claiming their ship had gone missing near Yaoqing.
Originally, this matter was handed to the General of Yaoqing, who replaced Zero, to deal with. But his subordinates thought, colleagues had once fallen into the hands of the Swarm…
Perhaps the Marshal has some other plan? So they deliberately reported the matter to their superior.
When Zero finished listening, a surge of anger rose in his chest.
He instinctively felt resistance and hostility toward the Swarm, but couldn't find the reason in his shattered memories.
Zero could only press down his emotions and let the Yaoqing division investigate on their own, then report back later.
And, as expected, it was just a Swarm ruse.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and once his emotions were under control, picked up the wineglass on the table.
Zero asked his subordinates, "Near their planet, has there been a swarm disaster, or out-of-control machines?"
The subordinate nodded.
"Oh. Then blow up the nearby planets first, then declare war on them, and finally protect them."
Zero's expression was calm as he raised his hand and took a sip of wine.
"I want them to live forever and ever in despair and fear."
Right at that moment, the system popped up a message.
[Your evil reputation, from Orion to the center of the universe, is known by all, by everyone.]
He shut the message off, then held a meeting with subordinates from the different Immortal Boats.
The subordinate who had been captured by the Swarm blushed red as his colleagues teased him freely.
"Haha, ridiculous, how could anyone fall into the hands of the Swarm?"
"Yeah, yeah, how did that even happen?"
"Sigh, but we envy you, Marshal himself personally brought you back. For careful people like us, probably in this lifetime it'll never happen."
Zero gave a helpless smile, speaking up in his defense, "Alright, alright, don't tease him anymore, "
The crowd immediately went quiet, obediently nodding their heads.
Zero turned to the subordinate he'd just dragged back from the Swarm and said, "One month of bonuses docked. No objections, right?"
The subordinate frantically nodded, eyes brimming with tears, face full of excitement, as if he wanted to teleport right there and kowtow to Zero on the spot.
Everyone knew, to make peace with the Swarm, the Immortal Boat had given up quite a lot of interests. One month's bonus was nothing compared to that.
But to Zero, these things were just numbers on a system panel.
After waiting for his subordinate to calm down, he urged everyone to continue the meeting.
General Zhuming was the first to speak, "We have found traces of the Aeon of Abundance."
In an instant, six generals who had been using Colossi to grind mobs to death, plus Marshal Zero himself, all froze.
Who? The Aeon of Abundance? And then? What are we supposed to do with traces of it?
General Luofu, who had been forced out of the raid with Zhuming because of all sorts of complicated reasons, looked at the crowd whose faces all screamed "WTF?" and reminded them, "The Aeon of Abundance has never been stingy with blessings, always granting long life to all."
At that, everyone suddenly came to a realization.
'Damn! Almost forgot! They had originally come into the universe to seek long life!'
Zero thought for a moment, then decided to keep grinding mobs. After all, Lan was still waiting for his Celestial-Burning Divine Weapon.
It wasn't that he hadn't tried to save UR, but Luofu was just too cursed a place. All kinds of weird problems kept popping up, blocking him from rescuing Lan.
He worked hard to raise Luofu's satisfaction score, but it still almost dropped below the passing line.
He tried to deal with Luofu's and Zhuming's messengers of the Aeons, but they were like cockroaches, you knock one down and another pops up. Annoying and endless.
In the end, he could only max out intimidation value and wait to fight those two high-level NPCs.
"Plan unchanged. Take it slow. No rush. Safety first. Never sacrifice our own people for some irrelevant planet."
Zero never liked to do losing trades.
The Immortal Boat wasn't some selfless charity. If a planet's natives only had three walnuts and two dates left, even if you saved them, it wouldn't make up for the Immortal Boat's losses.
They had no obligation to help those planets.
After all, stepping onto the battlefield meant facing death at any time.
Saving a planet that had already been 90% devoured by swarm disasters? How many Cloud Cavalry soldiers would have to die just to barely succeed?
They had only taken over a planet already doomed to destruction, that's all.
Other forces in the universe were also watching coldly, terrified of bringing disaster on themselves.
The Immortal Boat Alliance was the one cleaning up swarm disasters and rogue machines. If not for their intervention, the calamities would keep spreading.
And you want them to exchange their subordinates' lives for irrelevant strangers? Ha. Impossible.
"Priority, deal with swarm disasters and with 'Emperor' Rubert. As for the Aeon of Abundance… we'll handle that if it's convenient."
Zero paused for a beat, then repeated again, "Take it slow. No rush."
His subordinates instantly grasped the Marshal's meaning, exchanging knowing glances and nodding in sync.
Zero smiled calmly, as if he were talking about some trivial matter. His tone was gentle, "I look forward to the day your fleets can cover the edges of the universe."
The generals of the Immortal Boat obeyed without question. After each Immortal Boat successively received the Aeon of Abundance's blessings, they became even more fanatical.
The Colossi were like Damocles' swords hanging high above the heavens, making people tremble in awe.
Countless planets bent under the will of the Immortal Boat Alliance.
And the leader who had single-handedly pushed the Alliance to the top of the universe, the all-powerful, all-knowing Marshal of the Immortal Boat, his fame would spread across the cosmos.
From then on, no one would question Zero's decisions.
Looking at his steadily rising "Intimidation Value," he was very satisfied.
One day, his subordinates shyly invited Zero to join a party.
Zero was a little surprised, "I thought after work hours, you guys wouldn't want to see your boss."
The subordinates were shocked, quickly denying it, showering the Marshal with rainbow-flavored flattery.
A female subordinate dabbed at the corner of her eyes, voice choked as if sobbing her lungs out, but each word was perfectly clear, "I always thought the Marshal didn't like noisy gatherings, but it was our negligence toward you… this subordinate truly feels like dying in shame..."
Zero rubbed his forehead with a headache, and could only agree to the invitation.
The female subordinate immediately stopped her act, no more tears, proudly lifting her head to show off her achievement to her colleagues.
'See? I'm the one who invited the Marshal!'
All the subordinates gave her a synchronized thumbs-up.
Zero glanced at her eyes, obviously never cried at all, and fell silent.
'Good grief. So you all teamed up to trap me, huh!'
Zero asked the Strategist, even offering generous overtime pay to invite him along.
The Strategist shook his head, saying he needed to visit Lan's mother.
Zero thought for a moment, rummaged in his backpack, pulled out the "Abundance" fruit that Aha had once given him, he'd already cut it into small pieces, and handed it to the Strategist to give to Lan's mother.
After all, she was Lan's family. Of course it had to be something special.
The Strategist accepted it, giving his superior a long, deep look.
Zero went back to rummaging in his pack for other gifts. He didn't notice anything unusual, but after searching thoroughly and finding nothing suitable, he could only dismiss the Strategist.
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