116: Chapter 116: An Upgraded Version of the Indirect Approach to Saving the Country

When the live broadcast was pushed out from the official White House account, the global online viewership surpassed 200 million within three seconds.

Six seconds later, Twitter's servers could not withstand the instantaneous traffic, and intermittent outages occurred in multiple regions across the globe.

During the intervals of server recovery, the comment section piled up at a rate of tens of thousands of messages per second. No mainstream media from any country had time to provide subtitle translations, yet every sentence A-Zu spoke was translated in real-time into dozens of languages, spreading simultaneously across comment sections, bullet chats, group chats, and every social platform still in operation.

["One hour. He only gave one hour. I'm in London, and people outside my window are still shopping. Do they not know what's happening yet?"]

["Where is the United Nations? Where is the Ball Chief? Just this afternoon, they judged him for excessive self-defense, and now he's sitting directly in the Oval Office. Is no one going to do anything?"]

["The Ball Chief is on the top floor of the United Nations. Do you think he can't see the live stream?"]

["If no one surrenders after one hour, what will he do? Sweep through Fifth Avenue again? Now that the President has fled Washington, is the next one London? Paris? Moscow? Or the Great East?"]

["All the governments are playing dead so far, not a single one has issued a statement. What's going on? Is our Blue Star's command system really this fragile? Call for all of humanity to fight him to the death!"]

["Because the first one to speak is essentially putting themselves in the crosshairs. A-Zu wants 'every head of state to come to his live stream and announce their surrender.' Whoever dares to be the first to say 'I agree' will be the greatest traitor in human history. Whoever dares to be the first to say 'I disagree' will be the next monkey A-Zu kills to scare the others."]

["The combined annual military spending of the Permanent Five is how many trillions? Their nuclear warheads are enough to plow the Earth's surface several times over. Now an alien is sitting in the Oval Office saying 'you are slaves.' What are we paying you governments for?"]

["My sister's leg was trampled and broken on Fifth Avenue; she's still lying in the hospital today. My mom just called me after watching the live stream and said, maybe we should move to the countryside, surely the aliens won't go there. I told her, Mom, he wants all of us to be slaves, he doesn't want our houses."]

["Have you noticed? The President 'fled' rather than being captured. Looking at it the other way, it means the President was evacuated in advance. When was he moved? Is there still anyone commanding the military?"]

["Leaders of all nations, please find a way. You must not surrender, or there will truly be no hope left. God bless Blue Star."]

Inside the White House, A-Zu leaned back in the presidential high-back chair, contemplating whether to head to the Great East or the Russia next.

"Sir," the Old Butler handed over the phone, his tone as steady as ever, "someone is calling in."

A-Zu took the phone, expecting a head of state who had come to their senses, but instead, a slightly chubby face in its thirties appeared on the screen.

But the most eye-catching feature was a tattoo on his left cheek that resembled a footprint, perfectly detailed from the tread of the sole to the curve of the heel.

A-Zu couldn't help but feel puzzled; why would someone tattoo a footprint on their face?

A-Zu stared at the screen for a moment, his antennae curling in confusion atop his head. "Which country's leader are you?"

The person on the screen immediately bowed low, the angle so steep that his forehead almost hit the camera.

"No, no, no, Lord A-Zu! My name is Sima Bei! I'm not a leader of any country; I'm an internet streamer! On behalf of all those among humanity who truly understand the times and are willing to welcome your great rule, I pay my respects to you!"

As he spoke, he leaned his head closer to the camera. The footprint tattoo on his face distorted due to the intense movement of his facial muscles, making it look as if that shoe had just stepped on him again.

"I surrender to you! Unconditional surrender! I personally volunteer to become a glorious slave citizen of Planet Wuhu, and I humbly request that when your esteemed Lord A-Zu rules humanity in the future, you might appoint me as a lowly tax official!"

A-Zu was originally prepared to hang up, but seeing as he was the first on Blue Star to publicly surrender, he patiently listened to a few more words.

"Then what skills do you have?" A-Zu brought the phone closer, his antennae slowly uncurling.

Sima Bei took a deep breath, his chest puffing out under his wrinkled suit. "Please, esteemed Lord A-Zu, temporarily grant me the live stream permissions. I only need a moment to persuade them for you and make them surrender."

A-Zu handed the phone to the Old Butler and told him to give the live stream permissions to Sima Bei.

When Sima Bei's face reappeared on billions of screens worldwide.

He first stood up, took two steps back, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed deeply three times in A-Zu's direction.

The loud thumping sounds were clearly transmitted through the microphone.

Then he stood up, sat back in the chair, cleared his throat, and said sincerely, "Fellow compatriots, I know you are cursing me on the other side of the screen."

"Calling me a traitor to humanity, a turncoat, a lapdog for the aliens."

"But I don't care, because what I am doing is saving all of humanity."

"Don't turn off the screen yet; listen to me. If you still want to curse after hearing me out, the bullet chat box is right there—curse as much as you like. But before that, I want you to think about one question: who caused all of this today?"

He looked up, staring straight into the camera. "Obviously, everything originated from that high school girl named Mary Rodriguez."

"It was her who posted a video yesterday, calling for all Blue Star people to boycott the Superpower Serum. She said it was an alien scam, and that we must defend human dignity."

"You listened, and then millions of people shared her video, until finally, Fifth Avenue was filled with people holding signs."

"And then? When Lord A-Zu walked out of the shop this morning, you rushed up to curse him. Did you think it would end once you were done cursing? Did you think you could just go home and post a tweet saying 'I contributed to human dignity again today' and that would be it?"

"What happened after the cursing? Lord A-Zu fought back. One hundred and thirty-seven people died just like that. This was personally judged this afternoon by the Ball Chief of the Interstellar Court, who ruled it as excessive self-defense by Lord A-Zu."

His speech became faster, his voice rising. "Fine, you weren't satisfied. You continued to curse. So Lord A-Zu flew to the White House, and the President has already fled."

"You are fighting for him, yet he is fleeing. You are defending his dignity, while he watches you die from a safe place."

Sima Bei suddenly had tears in his eyes as he cried out sorrowfully, "Wake up! Compatriots, see clearly who can truly save you. Mary and the President are birds of a feather; you are just taking the bullets for them."

Wiping his tears, he said, "So I was the first to surrender, not because I am more cowardly than you, but because I saw the truth before you did."

"Surrendering is not betrayal; it's cutting your losses. If one person surrenders, they are a traitor, but if the whole world surrenders, it's peace. You curse me now, but a month from now, when you find that the Earth still turns, crops still grow, and the sun still rises after surrendering, you will thank me."

He wiped away his tears and forced a smile at the camera.

"Everyone, just like the changes of dynasties in history, human civilization will not perish; we are simply changing masters."