188: His darling! He's got his eye on me?

Putting down the battle report in his hand, Xi Hai subconsciously rubbed his chin.

Indeed, talent is everywhere; most people just lack the opportunity to showcase their abilities.

Just as Keith told him, during certain periods of the First Era, some human leaders would grit their teeth and hand over rare development opportunities to those strange aliens, even if it meant their own people were worked to death, starved to death, or left in poverty.

Those guys, under the banners of so-called "Interstellar Friendship" and "Promoting Human Culture,"

not only made a mess of the entire human civilization without any progress, but even polluted the excellent genes that humanity had developed.

Alright, enough digression. After all, the Earth Alliance has been gone for tens of thousands of years. He has only heard rumors about those baffling operations of the Earth Alliance, so it's not really his place to judge.

Now he needed to figure out a way for that group in the First Mobile Fleet to maximize their potential;

also, didn't they mention during the last meeting of the entire Legion high command that there are always a few young people with ideas in every fleet?

It was time to tap into this massive talent pool—

Xi Hai immediately thought of the academy plan he had proposed earlier.

For the first batch of students, they could gather all these creative individuals, provide them with professional skill training, and organize them into small, specialized experimental units.

Then, toss them onto the battlefield to hone their skills and give them a chance to let loose. Whichever experimental unit performed well would have its members serve as the backbone for gradual expansion.

This would also promote the diversification of the Legion's tactics—instead of just relying on Boarding Actions and ramming like before.

As for the people in the First Mobile Fleet command, he would have to wait for them to return and review this case with them.

Their operation this time could undoubtedly be written into textbooks as a reference example.

As for their future, Xi Hai hoped they could rise even higher and continue to shine and contribute.

By the way, they could also hold a title at the academy and work part-time as instructors.

(Some old-timer who felt he was too old, ready to retire, and had finished handing over the Legion's power early: Why do I feel a chill down my back? Is overtime coming to find me again?)

Thinking of this, he opened the work report that Julius had just handed to him at the Starport.

This was the preliminary work carried out by the Legion—or rather, all the reachable and influential figures within Tianjin Seat V89—based on the deployments he had left behind during the twenty-plus days he was away.

The Legion's efficiency was absurdly high. He had only left a few drafts, and they were able to come up with concrete, feasible operational plans in such a short time and begin initial implementation.

For example, the Inquisition had already set up a preliminary framework according to his instructions and had now started the first round of personnel selection;

for instance, the academy he planned had also been put on the agenda, the headquarters had started selecting a site, and suitable personnel had been listed in the report and submitted to him.

Not bad, not bad. Xi Hai smiled and clicked to turn the page.

However, when he turned to the next page, the content immediately made his smile freeze on his face—

he saw something that shocked him, but was not entirely unfamiliar.

That's right—some unfriendly things had emerged.

He immediately put down the tablet, picked up his communicator, and switched directly to Julius's channel.

As soon as it connected, he said immediately:

"Julius, do you have any urgent work on your hands right now?"

A crisp reply came from the other side: "Report! No!"

"Good! Then come to my office immediately. I have a few questions to ask you!"

"Yes!"

Ten minutes later, after knocking on the door a few times, Julius walked in. As soon as he entered, he saw Xi Hai standing in front of the desk with a serious expression.

His heart immediately skipped a beat, and it felt like it was lifted up.

Was there a problem with this work report?

No, that's not right. Most of this work was done by the old veterans in the Legion, so there shouldn't be any mishaps.

Could it be directed at him?!

Right, didn't he insert a paragraph into that book, "struggle of humanity," earlier? Could it be about that...

"Julius,"

"Present!"

The young man immediately stood at attention.

Looking at Julius, who seemed startled, Xi Hai rubbed his chin in confusion. He hadn't instantly put on his combat face, had he? Why was this guy so scared?

Forget it, that's not important.

He waved at Julius and pointed to several items on the report, saying:

"Come over and take a look at these things."

"Let me ask you: the Legion has been here for so long, have you not completed the political integration of this place?"

"These guys, did they participate when you were fighting? How dare they make such absurd demands of me?"

"Even Li Hongzhang wouldn't dare to sign these things!"

"Oh, that's right, you don't know who Li Hongzhang is."

"Anyway, I hope someone who knows the truth can tell me: where the hell did these guys pop up from?"

Julius's gaze immediately turned to where Xi Hai was pointing, where dense lines of small text were distributed, along with various familiar or unfamiliar emblems.

Suddenly, he felt relieved—he knew what this was about, and he knew who the firepower was aimed at this time—

"The Weir family is demanding the restoration of mineral extraction rights for a total of 56 star systems in Tianjin Seat V89.77-133;"

"Citing the end of the 'Wartime Protection Ordinance,' the Tianjin Seat Central Mutual Aid Association is demanding the immediate restoration of autonomy for the region centered on Tianjin Seat V89.91;"

"The Orland Industrial Corporation is demanding that the Legion immediately return all industrial facilities or equivalent equipment lent by The Corporation before the war, and they also say that as interest, they demand the Legion share all new Warships and new technologies obtained?"

"Dammit, they've got the nerve to target me!"

"What's the situation with these guys?"

"I hope you, or someone you find who is informed, can explain."

Julius nodded, saluted, and said—

"Supreme Director, this matter starts with the mess here."

"You also know about some of the special circumstances of Tianjin Seat V89."

"Because the Empire had almost completely abandoned its jurisdiction here, a brief power vacuum appeared for a period of time."

"But you also know that power is the kind of thing that, once a vacuum appears, special figures in the ecological niche will immediately fill it."

"At that time, the Legion was still in an isolated state—"

"And these organizations grew up during that period."

"They are exactly the type of people we often talk about—guys who not only can't help but only add to the chaos."

"Previously, the Legion was exhausted from fighting external battles and had neither the energy nor the time to deal with them."

"We reached a relatively simple cooperative relationship with them, where we focused on resisting the alien invasion, and they stabilized the rear."

"As for now..."

Xi Hai waved his hand, interrupting Julius.

"Alright, I don't even need to guess what they're thinking now."

"They saw that we didn't pay attention to them before, thought we wouldn't touch them, and now they want to pounce and fight for power and profit, right?"

Julius nodded and replied:

"That's about it."

Xi Hai put away the tablet displaying the report, patted Julius on the shoulder, and said:

"Alright, you guys really lack experience in this area. This is not your problem; you don't need to be nervous or afraid."

"They're jumping so impatiently. I originally planned to recover the entire Tianjin Seat V89 before taking the next step."

"However—"

His eyes gradually turned cold.

"Since these people are so impatient, I don't mind settling internal affairs before dealing with external ones."

Julius inadvertently saw Xi Hai's eyes and was immediately shaken.

He felt that the Supreme Director's gaze... was terrifying.

"Julius!"

"Present!"

"How is the construction of the Inquisition going?"

"Report! The first round of voluntary open screening within the entire Legion is about to yield results!"

Xi Hai thought for a moment, nodded, then shook his head, and immediately ordered—

"Accelerate the construction progress of the Inquisition!"

"Also, regarding those in this report who are asking me—or the Legion—for things,"

"every single one of them, call them all to Star System No. 5,"

"'Invite' them all over, for a 'meeting'!!!"

"Yes!"