74: Sociology +1

(This is today's chapter. I will try to post at scheduled times in the future. Yesterday, Tomato posted the chapter I had scheduled ahead of time.)

After walking around the Main Control Tower,

Xi Hai sat down, feeling a slight headache.

He had only cared about the thrill of combat a moment ago,

But now that the fight was over, the things he had to consider had increased.

According to the officer who had just been dragged away, the fleet he had just elbowed was merely a Reconnaissance Fleet,

And a larger force was rushing toward this location afterwards.

Although that person was suspected of bluffing him, Xi Hai still felt it was better to believe it might be true than to dismiss it entirely—

The fleet outside the window that had been reduced to scrap metal indeed had a very high proportion of small ships,

And they all appeared to be new ships produced in this current era.

If he didn't make any preparations,

What if a Main Fleet really showed up later?

What if that so-called Main Fleet really had some incredible ancient relics?

Having witnessed the Fleet Review held at Order Seat V01.01, Xi Hai felt he could not underestimate the warships here.

To be honest,

His original plan was to take advantage of the complete communication blackout here,

Destroy this fleet, quickly loot the space station before him, and then retreat.

But after Xi Hai actually succeeded,

Seeing this massive space station and the tens of thousands of people here, he suddenly felt a moment of hesitation:

Should he just occupy this place?

Anyway, neither the lancer nor the kalilein warships had shown their faces outside,

As long as he created a random front (a 'skin suit'),

Then, relying on the resources of the Kuiper Belt and the industrial capacity of the Base Clusters,

He could immediately roll out a massive fleet, snowballing his strength.

At that time, he would develop openly under the name of the Sacred Stars Group, while this location secretly accumulated power.

When the right opportunity arose, he would deploy the fleet for a single overwhelming push, elbowing away everyone—big or small, strong or weak—who stood in his way.

What?

You ask what if there is no suitable opportunity?

Haha, that's an extreme lack of faith in humanity's capacity to cause trouble.

Furthermore, according to the information night lamp found online,

The humans in this universe have developed many tricks concerning faster-than-light travel:

Early on, they developed Gravity Conduit, later studying Void Navigation, and the second era even allegedly conducted Jump experiments,

But the technology tree was never steered toward Warp Travel.

Therefore, even if the fleet stationed here truly couldn't defeat the enemy, it wouldn't matter.

They could just escape using Warp Travel; these Interstellar Natives wouldn't be able to catch them at all.

The benefits outweigh the risks; it can be done.

It just so happened that he had just given the leader the name "Norma."

In that case, this front would be called Norma Transport, and the warships assigned to it would be... Wait, Xi Hai realized a blind spot,

He seemed never to have drawn any blueprints for Norma Transport,

And the only ruby he had possessed had already been seen outside.

Never mind. He would give them the kalilein and lancer, and just pretend Norma Transport had NTR'd Antonios.

Hmm, perfectly reasonable.

However, all of this had one more prerequisite:

He had to confirm that this group of revolting slaves had truly become people.

"Norma, can you gather everyone here?"

"I want to understand a few things."

Norma carefully considered it,

"Hmm..."

"I don't know."

"But if there's enough space, gathering the people shouldn't be a problem."

Xi Hai looked at Norma in surprise.

Gathering over twenty thousand people, the most difficult part was usually the people themselves.

This guy actually said the people wouldn't be a problem?

"Alright then, you figure it out."

He glanced at the space station's central control system, which had been thoroughly infiltrated by night lamp, and found the area that seemed to have the most space.

Hmm? What is this?

Ten Thousand Person Auditorium?

Why install something like this on a space station?

Without paying much attention to it, he continued,

"In one hour, I want everyone..."

"To assemble in this 'Ten Thousand Person Auditorium.'"

"Yes!"

...This auditorium was built in the fourth era—

Faded, peeling golden walls, inexplicable Broken Sword Reliefs,

And a golden Double-Headed Vulture Statue suspended above the semi-circular dome—

Upon entering this place, the progress bar for his "Time-Space Walker" mission's fourth era suddenly increased by one percent,

Bringing him 1,000 proxima centauri coins and 1 Encrypted Technical Archive.

Xi Hai only slightly relaxed after repeatedly confirming that the double-headed vulture was different from the Yellow Skin Demon's Double-Headed Eagle.

He sighed softly:

It looked like this place was once quite extraordinary.

Back when he played games, encountering terrain like this would inevitably spawn a BOSS.

The people were mostly assembled—what was astonishing was that Norma and his group had actually managed to gather approximately twenty thousand people despite having almost no real Command Structure.

Of course,

The "Ten Thousand Person Auditorium," with its three levels of seating arranged in a semi-circle, certainly lived up to its name.

Xi Hai stood at the main position—on the high platform located at the center—and cast his gaze towards the audience below.

Twenty thousand people gathered here, yet it didn't feel crowded at all.

"Beep beep!"

He suddenly received a private message.

He opened it to see a survey report—

Just moments ago, Xi Hai had mobilized several hundred Marines,

Instructing them to take off their powered armor, blend into the crowd, strike up conversations, and try to understand these people.

He clicked open the survey report and merely glanced at it.

The contents immediately made Xi Hai frown—

It seemed the thoughts of these rebels were incredibly chaotic.

They had basically only risen up based on the most primitive idea of revenge,

After eliminating all the iron men (meaning the Cosmic Army soldiers wearing powered armor) and capturing their leader,

They entered a state of confusion:

They didn't know where they came from, and even less where they were going.

This was also why, after receiving the instruction to assemble at the auditorium,

These people came so uniformly—

Their former lives in the Crevices had made them accustomed to following the crowd and obeying commands.

Norma was seen as their new leader, and his words were naturally treated as new orders.

Furthermore, the mental state of these guys was very abnormal—

What sane person yells "WAAAAAGH!"

Xi Hai felt that these people were sprinting headlong toward a very wrong direction,

If no one stopped them, they would turn into something truly dreadful—and that "dreadful," of course, was used in a derogatory sense.

Damn it, these are not the sailors I wanted.

Xi Hai felt a terrible headache.

The only thing worth celebrating was that these people were not completely disconnected from society:

Transport workers who regularly delivered Protein Paste often brought things like newspapers,

And this space station occasionally brought in new Debt Slaves, injecting fresh blood into the various Crevice Settlements.

Therefore, these guys could still communicate normally,

There was no situation where one of them would suddenly pop out and exclaim, "What? The Great Qing Dynasty has fallen?"

A problem lay before him:

Should he correct these people from scratch,

Or abandon them and return home?

Looking at the moving heads below the stage,

Xi Hai finally let out a sigh—

This didn't seem like a multiple-choice question.

Didn't this rotten society force these people to become like this?

He had just decided to ignite the fire of salvation, yet he didn't dare to accept a group of slaves who had just broken their chains?

What a joke!

He was determined to show the world,

What it meant to say: "The strong pass is iron-clad, yet now we stride forward, starting from the very beginning!"

...(What exactly is wrong with the protagonist's name?)

(My friend helped me choose it. He said I should use this name since I'm writing a Sci-fi Novel.)

(Why are people complaining?)

...(Found a good setting fan fiction)

("Infinite setting: Vows of the Stars" Little Ma Haha)

(I think it's okay. If you have nothing to read, you can check it out.)