Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 655 - 268. Servant of the People (referring to Oligarchy)

Chapter 655: 268. Servant of the People (referring to Oligarchy)

The second half of the live broadcast, although it seemed like the government and student representatives reached a compromise, promising to resolve the employment issues for the students and to monitor and publicize the process throughout—in reality, it had become a personal branding campaign for Leoz. The public saw it this way: the President was truly not a nobody.

How outstanding was Leoz?

According to the traditional political views of the Tower People, Leoz was a graduate of the Crystal Tower’s most prestigious institution—Baizhu Interstellar University, where he completed his undergraduate studies before advancing to graduate education.

And he was rather good-looking, too.

Moreover, Leoz had twice saved Baizhu Star from disaster, a true combat hero, sheltering many refugees, and demonstrating great kindness.

And his appearance was quite handsome and proper.

Besides, Leoz, who had bought the planet and all its inhabitants, did not simply ascend to the throne and become an emperor; instead, he became an industrialist and the President, treating the people with kindness and politeness.

And handsome.

In other words.

He was both literary and martial, and very handsome in appearance.

Such a person, excellence in both civil and military affairs, not only possessing substantial wealth but also good looks, would definitely not be a tyrant of unilateral action based on his actions.

With the occasional glimpses of Leoz’s personal photos flashing in the background, more people had their favorable impression of Leoz maxed out on the spot.

After the broadcast, Li Aozi gained fame, profit, and public affection without spending much money.

In fact, he didn’t even need to appear in person; he had time in the past few days to remotely discuss some interstellar cruising task details with the Crystal Tower.

The main point was to have Li Aozi’s fleet responsible for defending against the infiltration of the Night Butterfly Federation.

Everything was pleasant, except when it came to compensation, the Crystal Tower Civilization immediately became uncomfortable.

They had just been selling planets and had harvested a batch of ammonium gold, and were not too keen on spending foreign currency at the moment.

As for Dina, aside from paying civil servants’ salaries, Li Aozi had little use for it. Moreover, Li Aozi wanted to enter the interstellar market and join the Abyssal Trade Bank organization.

Besides, if he was given Dina, wouldn’t he end up spending it in the market of the Crystal Tower anyway?

With the Baizhu Autonomous State’s current interstellar industrial inferior products, compared to the Crystal Tower’s solid third-tier civilization, prepare for a perennial trade deficit!

Even if given Dina, Li Aozi wasn’t too keen on spending it.

After a long negotiation, relying on Li Aozi’s charm advantage, the high-level meeting of the Crystal Tower Civilization had a precise consultation for a while, and simply compensated Li Aozi with two uninhabited rocky planets.

These could be used as hubs for travel to the Qijuzi Starfield.

Tangible assets were quite substantial. After estimating the value, Li Aozi realized he had made a small profit and accepted the contract.

At some point, a thought spread across the vast abyss of the cosmic universe.

Those who stepped into the star sea sang of ’progress’ and ’ideal’, but in reality, their actions held no meaning.

History kept marching forward, yet its core essence never changed.

When neutron radiation plumes swept across the battlefield, they signified that alien factories were overworking 677 employees day and night.

When mages, whose fates were changed by passing exams, stepped into the universe, wielding their magic wands to control the orbits of meteors, used to wipe out workers and farmers on another stretch of land.

Magic power polluted their water supply, while fireballs turned homes with unpaid mortgages into ruins.

When children walked on the scorched earth and launched their paper airplanes, could they avoid being overturned and engulfed by the winds of artillery fire and magic?

There was a constant stream of people coming forward to dissuade the expedition plan, as no one wished to venture into the unknown starfields. As citizens of what once was an academic planet, they were tired of serving war, which the Galaxy Eye Meat Grinder had robbed countless families of their husbands, children, mothers, and daughters.

Hence, when the Leoz Government announced the initiation of the first phase of the expedition project and began strengthening exercises and training, even more people raised doubts and objections.

"Inflation year after year, and now we have to fight? For what purpose? To make them live like us? How very benevolent."

"An oligarch buys a planet and then hypocritically claims to be the president who protects the people."

"I will never serve Leoz, and I refuse to invade the land of others, even if it kills me."

Although the educational resources of Baizhu Star were gone, the rich academic atmosphere of the old days was preserved. Among all groups, intellectuals inherently had an anti-war sentiment, for they knew too well that war would lower the status of intellectuals, destroy the academic environment, and the mobilization for war would only hinder their research and creativity.

This is a fact.

However, no matter how vociferously the academic faction protested, they couldn’t stop more and more people from joining the expedition project.

Because Li Aozi’s core interest group was never the intellectuals.

Firstly, in the strictest sense, every flower and blade of grass on this planet belonged to him.

Secondly, Li Aozi was an oligarch, with a monopoly over the physical industry, many businesses had to rely on Li Aozi.

His interest group supporters came from industrialists, immigrants, and now, even city residents.

Especially since a large number of Gamma Rank players from Azure Star had entered the army, eager and enthusiastic to participate in the mission of expedition training, the military had essentially become a force in Li Aozi’s hands.

After the Crystal Tower Civilization withdrew, the state of Baizhu Star’s military was quite grim.

In comparison with interstellar civilization, Baizhu Star used to rank within the top thirty thousand of the Layer Abyss.

Now, the entire Baizhu Star only had Li Aozi at the Zeta Rank, which was equivalent to a mere fraction of a percent of the level.

But even so, in the cosmos, that was enough to outclass eighty percent of the planetary civilizations.

The evolution of civilization was inherently slow, and across the universe, the structure of civilizations was typically pyramidal; the higher you go, the fewer there are. While Li Aozi was organizing expeditions, a vast number of civilizations hadn’t even developed feudalism.

The current military composition was two-thirds players, especially the army, where the players’ ratio was as high as 80%.

The remaining third consisted of the nationalistic soldiers native to Baizhu Star and the local elite class (pilots, Sky Knights), who were advanced technical professionals. They joined the expedition out of love for their homeland and also for the sake of their tangible interests.

Players were natural-born war maniacs, enthusiastically signing up for the grand expedition, especially since the version had reached 1.99, and the official events were nearly complete, marking a lull period.

At this point, Li Aozi announced that players from the Fiery Summer District could not only come to play on Baizhu Star and enjoy the fun of a magic civilization but also participate in interstellar exploration activities.

With this move, players from other servers felt as if they had eaten raw lemons dipped in white vinegar, which is to say, they were incredibly envious. Many foreign server players took to the forums to express their thoughts, and some even considered physically transferring servers to experience the superior treatment of Fiery Summer District players.

As a result, rich content caused the number of Fiery Summer District players to surge, which in turn sparked a sharp increase in the number of Azure Star player immigrants to Baizhu Star, with new Gamma Rank players from Azure Star arriving daily at the immigration office.

Because of the anti-terrorist wars and various civil wars on Azure Star, these Gamma Rank individuals who had emerged from the bitter cold were battle-hardened veterans, making their training much easier and the threshold lower. Even if some players couldn’t go to combat positions, they could still go to the cities and rural areas of Baizhu Star.

The massive influx of youthful strength slowly revitalized Baizhu Star, but the current situation was still insufficient to stimulate economic recovery. As an industrialist, Li Aozi’s main sources of revenue were the Biochemical Center, Implant Gear factory, Arcane Energy training academy, and related supporting industries.

To put it simply, the primary directions of employment provided by Li Aozi were in biology, chemistry, environment, and materials.

As for mechanical manufacturing, electrification, artificial intelligence, and internet sectors, quite frankly, the local private enterprises of Baizhu were still importing high-cost technologies from the Crystal Tower. The immigrants from the primitive planet, Azure Star, lacked specialties in these areas.