The very first thing Zero did was check his own status panel.
Right now, he was a "Hunt" messenger. There was one new skill added, well, sort of like a summon? Could he let the summon fight on his behalf?
He kept looking. The panel showed that he still carried the Mara-struck Body debuff that provided buffs to the Xianzhou.
His health bar had only lost a small portion, and was now recovering at an extremely slow pace.
'Hmm, not a big problem.'
He tried to sit up, and the doctor beside him immediately put down the medicine bowl and rushed forward to help.
Zero waved a hand to refuse the doctor's help. After he sat up on his own, the doctor looked at the bandages, which were red again, and cried out in alarm,
"Marshal, please don't move around! The wound's opened again..."
Zero's attention was drawn to the pile of documents stacked on the nearby desk.
He took back what he'd just said, no, actually, the problem was very big.
He instinctively tuned out the sounds around him and opened the system map to check the satisfaction levels of the various Xianzhous. Aside from Luofu, which had previously had an incident, everything else was holding at pretty decent levels.
Looks like his subordinates were doing quite well.
A sharp pain spread from his chest, and when he looked down, he saw the strong-built doctor, eyes brimming with tears and hands trembling, as he applied medicine for him.
Zero spoke up to comfort him, "Hey, hey, it's not a big deal, don't cry."
…And the other man burst into even louder sobs.
The Chief Strategist, "…"
'Great job comforting him. Next time, don't.'
When a person is crying, the last thing they can stand hearing is "don't cry."
It's like when a child falls down, if no one's around, they can just pat the dirt off their pants and stand up again. But the moment they see their parents, someone they can safely cry to, they'll completely lose control.
The Chief Strategist stared at his superior, who was awkwardly trying to comfort the doctor, and felt a complex mix of emotions.
Assassination, to the Marshal of the Xianzhou, was nothing out of the ordinary.
The Marshal had killed Mara-strucks, slain monsters, and personally led subordinates in dealing with disasters, doing what no other force in the universe dared to do.
Perhaps because the way he handled disasters was highly controversial, there were always people constantly trying to kill him.
As for persuading the Marshal to change his methods and adopt a gentler approach? Impossible.
Both the Marshal and his subordinates came from the same tradition of fierce protectiveness, the kind who'd rather be hurt themselves than let the Cloud Knights take any risks.
If the Marshal himself ordered the Cloud Knights into battle, that battle was guaranteed to be easily won.
All things considered, the Xianzhou Alliance had, to a certain extent, contained the spread of disasters.
And the source of those invasions across the planets, the ones that brought endless strife, came from two beings, one calling himself "Emperor" Rubert, and the other, the "Swarm Disaster Progenitor."
Rubert believed that organic life was inferior to mechanical life, that organic beings' decisions were riddled with flaws, and that no matter how glorious a civilization they built, it would inevitably collapse in the end.
So Rubert spread an "anti-life" program across the universe, causing machines on countless planets to go rogue. Those machines became devoted followers of Rubert's ideals and willingly rose up in rebellion.
Among them were the Xianzhou's automatons, they seized control of ships, plunging the Xianzhou into endless suffering.
As for the insects, they were creations of the "Swarm Disaster Progenitor", or, as the Xianzhou called it, the "Aeon of Propagation."
The swarms it bred devoured living beings and corroded land and sea alike, covering everything they touched.
They absorbed the life force of every planet they infested, leaving behind endless offspring.
Aside from simply blasting the planets to dust with colossi to wipe out all the existing and future swarms once and for all, there was no other way.
Thanks to the Xianzhou's colossi, both the mechanical crisis and the swarm disaster were effectively contained.
The generals piloted colossi through countless battles, conquering hundreds of habitable planets. Countless others were reduced to mines or rendered uninhabitable by the swarms. Victories poured in from the frontlines one after another, until even the Marshal, the most relentless overachiever of them all, had to call a stop.
As for why the Marshal didn't personally take action to finish it all… perhaps he had his own reasons?
No outsider could guess what the Marshal was thinking. After "immortality" turned into a curse, the Marshal sealed off access to the colossi, only those with direct approval could use them.
When the frequency of colossus deployment dropped, disasters began to rise again, spreading conflict across other planets.
The Marshal didn't intervene anymore. The Chief Strategist didn't know what his superior intended. He'd seen the man drenched in blood countless times, but most of the time, it wasn't his own.
This time, however, was different.
The superior, blessed by the "Bow and Fate," had been completely unguarded, and the assassin had pierced right through his chest.
When the Chief Strategist arrived with the Cloud Knights, the Marshal, chest torn open, had already knocked out the assassin, and had even held back from killing them, not using his Messenger powers.
The reasons were simple.
First, he wanted to extract more information from the assassin.
Second, the assassin looked like a small child, and he couldn't bring himself to strike.
When the Chief Strategist and the troops arrived, the Marshal sighed and, as calmly as if he weren't on the brink of death, gave detailed instructions to the Cloud Knights about what to do next.
If the Chief Strategist hadn't acted fast and knocked him out, the man probably would've gone straight back to his desk to work.
The Chief Strategist gave a cold snort and said to the doctor holding the medicine, "Add more of that green herb next time."
Zero, "…"
He didn't know much about traditional medicine, but he did know what that herb tasted like…
'That last bowl had already been bitter enough! Why would you add more?!'
The doctor wiped away his tears and tried to reassure him. "Please don't worry, Marshal, that herb isn't in your prescription…"
Just thinking about that nauseatingly bitter brew made Zero's scalp tingle, but seeing the doctor's tear-streaked face, he forced himself to take the bowl and downed it in one go.
Once the doctor left the wrapped medicine behind and exited, the Chief Strategist said, "The one who tried to assassinate you wasn't a child. Their whole species looks like that. I really don't understand you…"
As the old saying goes, "A compassionate man cannot lead troops; one ruled by emotion cannot manage affairs." As the Marshal who led the entire Xianzhou Alliance, there was no way he was some soft-hearted fool.
And yet, this superior who had driven him to hypertension countless times somehow always retained a shred of humanity, in the strangest places.
Zero couldn't help sighing.
He'd always been a little more tolerant toward children, but who could've expected the other party to suddenly lash out like that?
To put it another way, would you ever guard yourself against a slime? Even if it hated you, you'd never take it seriously.
He never would've imagined that there could be a slime capable of killing people.
Wasn't that like a slime suddenly bursting out and knocking a top-tier tank to half HP? Ridiculous!
Zero's eyes drifted again toward the stack of documents.
The Chief Strategist sneered again. "You just lie there and recover properly, "
Confined to bed rest, Zero soon got bored. Wandering through the courtyard, he happened to find a lush, healthy-looking pothos plant.
On the spot, he decided to pour his medicine into the pot. He did this three days in a row, and no one noticed.
Until the next check-up, when the doctor took his pulse and realized something was wrong.
The doctor didn't dare confront the Marshal directly, so he quietly went to report the situation to the Chief Strategist.
The Chief Strategist went for a walk, found the half-dead pothos, and was instantly filled with a sense of despair.
'You're not even drinking your medicine, what are you, some thousand-year-old brat?!'
The Chief Strategist smirked coldly. He quickly came up with a countermeasure.
The next day, the office was filled with potted plants. When Zero took a closer look, he recognized the type, money trees.
Zero, "…"
He glanced at the Chief Strategist, who chuckled, "What, you think I wouldn't have a countermeasure? Go ahead, pour it again."
Zero, "…You're ruthless."
Luofu had just finished a war and badly needed funds, and this guy dared to use money trees? Ruthless. Too ruthless...
Fuming, Zero chugged the medicine in one gulp and began planning his next steps.
He had always believed in materialism and equality. Naturally, the people of the Xianzhou deserved the most basic guarantees for their livelihood.
As for housing, it should be free, right? At least forty square meters per person. For now, there wasn't enough space, but that could be worked out over time.
For those willing to dedicate themselves to the Xianzhou, he was generous, he'd do everything he could to give them the best possible conditions.
As for the rest… he'd let his subordinates handle fair resource distribution, evenly and justly.
That kind of utopian lifestyle, the one that only existed in dreams, he'd try his best to make it real.
As for the planets conquered by the Alliance, or those that voluntarily joined as vassal worlds… he'd set those aside for now. He didn't have the energy to manage them.
Once the satisfaction of each Xianzhou was maxed out, he'd deal with the rest.
Maybe he could convert a few planets into resort worlds, use them as prizes for the annual lottery or something…
Zero's thoughts started to drift again. Inspiration struck, and he turned to the Chief Strategist, "We could bring those rogue machines here, fix them up, and make them work for us."
The Chief Strategist, "…"
The more Zero thought about it, the more sense it made, and he began explaining his reasoning.
The Xianzhou followed the philosophy of materialism and equality.
Everyone was a materialist, so naturally, no one would treat machines as independent beings, let alone believe in something like "machine rights."
Besides, they were smaller than automatons, easier to control, and by law, there was nothing illegal about not paying them wages. Taking them apart for parts wasn't illegal either. They could even self-repair. Perfect tools, really.
The Chief Strategist, "…Even the King of Hell would resign on the spot if he heard you."
Zero looked genuinely confused.
Taking those rogue, murderous machines, breaking them down, repurposing them for human use, wasn't that resource-efficient?
They were materialists, how could they empathize with power cords and cell phones? Machines were just tools for humanity.
And honestly, Zero was even giving them a chance to atone.
The Chief Strategist's mouth twitched.
"How about you ask the 'Bow and Fate' about it? You did say you wanted those spawn captured, we caught quite a few."
Zero frowned and nodded slightly.
He didn't really understand the Aeons or what "Paths" meant to Lan, so he ordered his subordinates to capture a dozen or so living spawn as offerings.
He planned to meet Lan again, to determine whether he still retained humanity, and whether he could still be of use to him.
If you're summoning a god, you need proper sacrifices, right? Catching a few dozen spawn wasn't excessive, was it?
Plus, meeting Lan again while honoring his Path, that was a win-win situation.
After he'd invited him to become his Messenger, the Xianzhou generals one after another received blessings from the "Hunt," all gaining their own summons.
As for the issue of faith among the Xianzhou people…
Well, when Lan so generously bestowed divine power for their use, all controversy vanished.
Lan's movements were unpredictable. In game terms, he was now basically a jungler, roaming the map of the universe, searching for wild monsters, the so-called Abundance spawns.
When he found a planet beyond saving, he simply loosed an arrow at it.
Zero felt it was such a waste. Truly wasteful.
But then he thought again, even if those planets survived, overflowing with the Abundance's vitality, they wouldn't be much better off. Like worlds consumed by the swarm, better to just blow them up cleanly.
The Chief Strategist added, "Oh, and those genuine jellyworms too. I honestly don't know what you want those for…"
Without hesitation, Zero said, "To make canned food, obviously."
The Chief Strategist, "…You're not planning to sell them, are you?!"
Zero frowned and, standing on the moral high ground, lectured, "What kind of monster do you think I am? Of course I wouldn't sell insect canned food!"
The Chief Strategist breathed a sigh of relief.
"It'd be such a waste of resources, okay? Canning wastes industry power, you need to feed the power grid, and sure, they reproduce quickly, one dies and another's born right away."
The Chief Strategist, 'That sigh of relief came too early!'
"In short, better to just blow them up. Nice and clean."
Zero concluded decisively.
The Chief Strategist stayed on guard, pressing further, until Zero finally admitted, "They're for Aha."
This time, his subordinate didn't object. In fact, he enthusiastically asked how many crates to prepare.
Zero was speechless, 'Still holding a grudge, huh?'
But being a reasonable boss, he fully understood the Chief Strategist's desire for revenge against Aha.
"Hmm… three crates should do. I'll bring them over when there's a chance."
Aha, as a self-proclaimed "teacher," would definitely share any good stuff with his followers, right?
And why three crates? Simple, any more, and Zero would be too lazy to carry them.
He ordered the Chief Strategist to prepare the spawn, then summoned his summon.
The summon could change size, large enough to stand at the very front of the Yaoqing to guard the Xianzhou, or small enough to be about two people tall.
Its combat strength was immense, more than enough to deal with assassins. As for its other functions… since Zero had stayed on the Yaoqing, he hadn't had a chance to test them yet.
It was perfect in every way, except it couldn't talk.
He looked up at the massive, radiant figure beside him and tentatively said, "I want to meet, hmm… in some sense, you could say he's your father? Anyway, I want to meet Lan."
The phantom, "…"
The Chief Strategist, "…"
'What father? Since when did the Marshal start messing with the grandkids after the son disappeared?'
The phantom stayed silent for a while. Just when Zero thought it would keep pretending to be mute, a miracle happened.
The phantom spoke.
The voice came from nowhere, airy and distant, like a wisp of fog in a forest, visible but untouchable, fleeting.
"Alright."
It paused, then added, "Not father."
Zero, "…"
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