Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 171 - 91: Scratch

Chapter 171: Chapter 91: Scratch

Duan Mingyuan finally saw the Prime Monarch, a figure of legends, deep into the night.

Although he had long heard that the Prime Monarch was but a dying flame, reliant on machines to sustain life, it wasn’t until he saw him with his own eyes that he realized his imagination had been far too conservative.

Duan Mingyuan had thought he would see an old man seated upon an iron throne, but when Yi Wuyang led him into the inner sanctuary, what appeared before him was a brain, soaked in a culture tank.

Only the portraits that hung on the walls and the precious artifacts on the cabinets served as reminders that this was the residence of a distinguished noble.

This was the Prime Monarch, once the mightiest of an era.

Yi Wuyang left, giving the two some space.

"This is one of the treaties signed with the company,"

the voice came from the equipment next to the culture tank. The brain floating in the nutrient solution sensed Duan Mingyuan’s arrival and took the initiative to break the silence, adding at the end, "for research."

"In the end, it seems the Third Prince is the one who most resembles you,"

Duan Mingyuan remarked.

It seemed in the Imperial Court, "having the demeanor of a young Prime Monarch" was the highest praise the heirs could receive.

"Yi Wuyang said you were looking for me."

The Prime Monarch clearly didn’t want to dwell on the topic of heirs and gestured for Duan Mingyuan to state his purpose.

"I’ve read about your exploits in the Cloud Sea Academy. There’s one question the biographer didn’t clarify; when all forces had gathered, ready for the ultimate assault, why did you suddenly surrender?"

Before the final battle, the supreme commander switched sides, leading his troops to surrender first, causing the allied forces to lose all morale instantly. The few parts that refused to surrender and continued to resist were quickly annihilated.

The biographer harbored feelings of resentment until his dying breath. He vividly described the grandeur of the allied forces after gathering and their resolve to drive the Extraterrestrials from their homeland. Decades later, the writer could still recall every detail and believed that the sudden betrayal of the Prime Monarch led to the entire failure of the war.

He died with hatred, never understanding the reason behind the Prime Monarch’s surrender.

Because even after facing betrayal and assassination, he still refused to believe that the Prime Monarch was a coward who feared death.

However, outside the academy, that was deemed one of the Prime Monarch’s wisest decisions in his life; he ceased the meaningless internal strife and sacrifices and accepted the company’s help, which led to a prosperous era that lasted hundreds of years.

This was the content of high school history textbooks and a mandatory topic for major exams. More than the unmatched Sword Control Technique, textbooks propagated the Prime Monarch’s great achievements after unifying the Imperial Court.

People preferred to believe this version of history because their lives had indeed undergone transformational changes in the past centuries.

"Being weak is the greatest sin,"

the brain in the culture tank finally said after a long silence.

It seemed that the Prime Monarch’s personal view was contrary to what was in the history textbooks; he didn’t think the subsequent centuries were as glorious as they were portrayed.

"You cast a divination before the great war,"

Duan Mingyuan deduced, considering the presence of Yi Wuyang.

The Yin Yang Technique, renowned as the Emperor’s Technique, only had one successor in each era, and they often held high ranking positions.

When the Third Prince decided to take action, Yi Wuyang also cast a divination for him, drawing a "nine deaths and one life" hexagram, the most ominous sign.

"Their flagship carried a weapon that, when fully activated, could destroy a planet’s surface in an instant, indiscriminately eradicating all life upon it. A planet hit directly by the weapon would become a Dead Star,"

That was the vision shown to him by the successor of the Yin Yang Technique.

When he pointed his sword towards the "heavens," his fate had already been sealed, a karma belonging to that era. As the era ended, the Prime Monarch kept this secret hidden in his heart, and no one knew what he had seen on that night before the war.

"They’ve brought the flagship this time too,"

Duan Mingyuan stated.

"Is that so?"

The Prime Monarch replied indifferently, unsurprised by this outcome. He had spent hundreds of years here, but the shadow that loomed over had never faded.

He had lived far longer than any supervisor of the Cosmic Relations Coordination Department, but the company itself was like a precisely operating machine; regardless of who was replaced, its essence remained unchanged.

"Ying Tian has crafted an opportunity for you; don’t waste it in vain. The company won’t delve deeply if just a princess and her maid go missing,"

From a game theory perspective, although the situation was somewhat grisly, it was still within a range that both parties could accept.

The company eliminated the Third Prince and his faction, removing any factor of instability from the Imperial Court henceforth. In exchange, they lost a mid-level director.

"Are you advising me?"

"If you stir the pot, the nature of the issue changes,"

For the company, this battle for the throne was just an amusing game, with similar events happening daily on the planets within its jurisdiction.

The longer one lived and the more one knew, the stronger the sense of helplessness became.

There was no need for the supervisor of the Cosmic Coordination Department to show up in person to direct such a frivolous game, and there was even less need to hover the company’s flagship over the skies of the Imperial Court.

"All this is aimed at you,"

The Prime Monarch knew that if Duan Mingyuan insisted on walking this path to the end, he would inevitably face the same choice he once did.

Perhaps the person before him was even more powerful than his past self, perhaps he could overpower Long Branch, but the company had many contingency plans.

They always had countless contingencies, which was why the company’s rule over various star systems had never been shaken.

"The new king’s ascension means your death,"

"It might not be such a bad release,"

Sometimes the Prime Monarch even wondered if making him exist in this manner for hundreds of years was part of the company’s twisted sense of humor. Now, the current supervisor of the Cosmic Coordination Department seemed to have finally grown tired of it.

"With this, your heirloom sword becomes useless,"

"If you want it, take it,"

"Then thanks are in order; I’ll make good use of it,"

The Prime Monarch’s heirloom sword was an invaluable treasure of the world, a symbol of an era. In the biography Duan Mingyuan read, the author mentioned this extraordinary divine weapon numerous times with great attachment.

The author also mentioned that, in preparation for the battle with Long Branch, the Prime Monarch had a trump card.

It was a sword that could make heaven and earth change color, yet no one had ever seen its edge because the Prime Monarch had suddenly given up resistance.

"You plan to use it?"

"I’ve come all this way,"

Duan Mingyuan said, "It would be a pity if such a remarkable and unparalleled Mysterious Technique went unseen by anyone."