Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 202 - 026. Long time no see, comrades, have you landed on the moon yet?

Chapter 202: 026. Long time no see, comrades, have you landed on the moon yet?

The young master’s kidnapping was quickly noticed, and the guards chased after them in hovercars. Fortunately, Banam’s driving skills were good; after two hours of high-speed twists and turns, he managed to shake off the quietly following guards.

The hovercar stopped in an abandoned factory to hide from near-Earth satellite searches. Li Aozi dragged the tightly bound Malis out of the car and handed him over to the Resistance Army of Bemudes, who had been ambushing there for a long time.

"This is—Duke’s son, Malis!" a Bemudes soldier exclaimed excitedly. "You did well! Mr. Leoz, you truly are our hero, having captured Malis."

"It was just a coincidence," Li Aozi said offhandedly. "I’ll leave this guy to your interrogation—but oh, make sure not to kill him. He’s of Beta Rank, and your weapons won’t harm him. Also, there were many issues with today’s battle..."

Li Aozi wanted to say more in criticism, but when he saw the injured Bemudes soldiers peeking out from behind him, he ended up saying nothing at all.

After all, he himself, as a hired thug from Sky Ring, had no right or responsibility to point fingers at a group of blinded and fervent resistance fighters; otherwise, it might backfire, so better to say nothing and just do his job.

Although Li Aozi’s intelligence was limited, his emotional intelligence was somewhat up to par. He dragged Banam out from the car and handed him over to Bemudes’ people to teach him how to shoot and fight while learning about the group’s circumstances. Compared to Li Aozi’s aggressive image, Banam, a weakling, was better suited for infiltrating and gathering information.

Malis was taken away, while he leaned against the vehicle, smoking a cigarette, with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"...Truly interesting."

In fact, the Huang Dujuan Blood Pact and "Judge" were nothing more than urban legends, an Easter egg for players in his former life. It was only when some plot enthusiasts unearthed the backstory that people realized that Azure Star’s old era had such rich stories unexplored, and that on the surface, the seemingly filial Grante Duchy had its secrets.

Li Aozi originally planned to storm into the Sulut Palace, kidnap people, and then find out the whereabouts of the "Judge." Unexpectedly, Malis arrived in a hurry, without bodyguards, perhaps overconfident in the city’s martial law enforcement and his own Beta Rank strength.

However, Malis and the Duke were both Spiritual Frosted People. As rulers of the nation, they did not care about the lives of their people, at all. Malis, as the crown prince, mostly stayed in the Frosted Twin Star City; he spent three million Derby every week on attire, wearing the same outfit only twice and despising the traditional Grante attire.

As for his father, Duke Gamos, although already a Gamma Phase power holder and one having ruled the country since the old era as an immortal ruler.

Yet, to rid himself of physical and spiritual pain, basically, it was Wei Shuangdu who had been long pestered by Frosted presidents and, in international affairs, acted like a mad dog of Frosted, biting whoever she encountered and, leveraging her personal strength and Grante’s geographical position (surrounded by five Frosted colonies and vassal states), continuously sending Grantians to the frontline to die for Frost Mother’s sake.

The Duke himself had suffered from chronic oxygen deficiency to his brain. It was outrageous how well he managed the nation purely through mother-child diplomacy akin to groveling before Frost Plated, securing large exports of food and labor from Frost Plated to stabilize the domestic situation.

He completely disregarded the brain drain in his country. For the father and son duo who were the Dukes, what even was Grante? Deep in their hearts, they only recognized Frost Plated, one of the dominant powers of the Four Nations.

Unfortunately, Grante’s agriculture was too developed; it was like a superfield where a single grain dropped in the ground could yield eighteen hundred in the autumn. As long as people had enough to eat and could endure a little, they might just accept it, or at worst, make an effort to emigrate. Such a policy of neglect led to the entire nation losing the drive to progress. No one wanted to teach in middle schools, and many who had worked their whole lives realized that they knew less than what they could earn from a street stall. This instant breakdown turned them into unemployed wanderers aimlessly roaming the streets.

Upon leaving Sipeya, the security situation across the nation wasn’t good, with a large unemployed population cramming into underpasses. There weren’t enough jobs to assist them, but the prosthetic technology from Frost Plated and the developed entertainment industry made them yearn for the advanced Four Nations.

This led to an absurd phenomenon: men from Frost Plated were keen to move to a small place like Grante, while the people of Grante desperately tried to get into Frost Plated, at least there they wouldn’t be at the bottom of the discrimination chain with the refugees from the Outer World.

This was also why the Resistance Army varied so greatly in quality. The fertile land and the negligent monarch meant that the only things that could unite the citizens were fleeing or taking up arms against the state.

It sounds somewhat laughable, but on deeper reflection, it’s actually quite tragic. After the tragedy, Mr. Leoz had seen how these people treated Malis and felt helpless, not knowing what to say.

Anyway, the smooth kidnapping was an unexpected pleasant surprise, but Mr. Leoz did not let his guard down.

The soldiers of Bemudes finally decided excitedly to throw the prince into the dungeon, but they lacked the ability to execute or disarm him. Mr. Leoz had no choice but to use gravity to crush his limbs before he dared to hand him over to Bemudes.

Killing him directly was certainly not an option, as it would cause significant public outcry—not to mention Mr. Leoz sensed that the man had the touch of Bai Shuang, likely possessed by a Spectre at some point.

"Considering the Duke himself is a ’Shaman’, it’s quite normal for him to leave a Spectre to monitor his own son," he thought.

Killing Malis outright could have alerted Duke Gamos immediately. Mr. Leoz had to use his rudimentary knowledge of the supernatural to add some runes near the dungeon, trapping the Spectre inside, preventing it from escaping.

The "Shaman" occupation was quite ridiculous, not to mention the legitimate magic tanks and their ability to control souls, step into the Spirit Realm Walk, and temporarily ignore physical laws, making it extremely versatile, especially effective against blunt ’Martial Artists’.

However, the operation threshold for a "Shaman" is very high, and they themselves could suffer from soul erosion during battle. If not handled carefully, it could lead to the comedic effect of ’killing oneself’.

In this regard, "Spirit Mediums" were much better. They communicated with spiritual bodies and leveraged the power of psychology rather than merging directly into the body. However, the downside was their slow development and frail bodies.

Li Aozi’s "Gravity" had no effect on spiritual creatures, but "Spontaneous Combustion" was highly effective. However, when faced with a Gamma Phase "Shaman," proficient in feigning death and possessing others by using corpses, he was far outclassed compared to the professor, who was a biochemist.

Of course, there was also some good news.

Li Aozi had interrogated Malis and uncovered something interesting: Duke Gamos was in very poor health. He had not received the life-support device custom-made for Gamma Phase by Frost Plated. His overly robust physique could not be sustained by the environment of Azure Star.

This situation was essentially like that of a nuclear weapon. Merely developing one wasn’t enough; without the capability for long-term storage, whether it could explode was still an issue.

Battle was the same, without strong logistics, professional guidance, high morale, calm judgment, and quick thinking, having a body was merely a bit more protein than others, nothing more. Burn it, and it’s gone.

However, although the "Roar of Freedom" mission was only ranked Beta, there was still an issue that couldn’t be overlooked if one wished to complete it perfectly.

Li Aozi looked at the Bemudes members: after a day of fighting, all had withdrawn from the city’s downtown, everyone injured and morale low. Though Li Aozi had captured the duke’s son, it practically did not play a decisive role in overthrowing the regime.

Even if he killed the duke, Frost Plated would simply parachute in a Governor, unable to escape the colonial rule.

Unless he could leverage some international powers’ influence—but that would be too slow.

The best solution was to kill the duke, dissolve the government of the Grante Duchy, and within less than a day, reorganize the government to attend the GTB summit as a nation—I believe Sky Ring would definitely acknowledge its legitimate status. What happens after that, whether it would lead to war, Li Aozi couldn’t tell.

But now, judging by the situation in Bemudes, it was a mess of all sorts mixed together. You’re a young officer, I’m a civilian militia, he’s a religious leader. The makeup was as complex as manganese nodules, relying on them to elect a leader everyone accepted was difficult.

Even if an elected leader took office, so what? The terrain of Grante was mostly fertile plains covered with volcanic ash and occasional valleys. Frost Plated’s mobile armor was like a deluge, theoretically able to advance 1000 kilometers a day, utterly indefensible.

They could only choose to bow to Frost Plated and stabilize, while seeking outside help, like from Sky Ring.

Sky Ring never signs arms embargo treaties. If a real fight began, Frost Plated might not be able to swiftly strike and occupy Grante.

Li Aozi basically gave up the idea of uniting these people. On the one hand, he wasn’t a Grantian, and although his reputation was good, reputation couldn’t bring bullets and tanks.

The fate of Grantians, could only be determined by Grantians.

Li Aozi knew, this wasn’t going to be easy—the fate of a weak country is not controlled by itself.

Neither he nor Sky Ring planned to leave Frost Plated a full granary. To inflict damage on an empire like Frost Plated, mere independence wouldn’t suffice.

For this reason, obtaining the "Judge" was Li Aozi’s most prudent choice.

After communicating with the Bemudes members, learning that they planned to assemble their forces and attack the capital, Sipeya, once more, Li Aozi gave up on the idea of acting together with them.

In his view, a decapitation strategy was still the best method, unmatched, only he needed a little help.

Li Aozi gave Banam coordinates, and the two of them drove straight to Sipeya’s suburban area K, a sealed off abandoned industrial park. Li Aozi could see the massive concrete coffins sealing the nuclear leaks from the old era.

"Isn’t this place a wasteland now? The Alkian nuclear plant, a relic of the old era, it’s said that 300 years ago it caused a wildfire over tens of thousands of hectares. Pilots dropped sandbags from their fighter jets onto the ground, and it took a week to extinguish it,"

Banam also recognized the landmark building, looking somewhat puzzled:

"Are you sure, your ’fiancee’ is here?"

"This is the place," Li Aozi said.

Banam turned on his radiation dose counter.

Click-clack-patter-hiss-click-clack...