Chapter 184: Predestined
"Has the situation below improved recently?" she asked Rong Jingya, who stood behind her, after a moment of deep thought.
Ye Zi had fully adapted to her role as a national leader. Many of her subordinates, however, who had suddenly transformed from obedient staff members into powerful bureaucrats, were still unaccustomed to their change in status. It was like abruptly making a professional dancer manage the Ministry of Agriculture; they still felt awkward sitting in an office all day.
Or perhaps it wasn't a matter of being unaccustomed; rather, most of them simply lacked the experience and talent to govern a nation or region. Many had originally only secured a place in the Special Combat Department by virtue of their strength, then, during the sudden rebellion, they had gained "merit for following the dragon" and entered the management stratum as subordinates.
They were pioneers of the cultivation system, but this didn't align with the specialized field of national governance. To mitigate the issue of amateurs leading experts, each of them was assigned a politically experienced deputy as a guide when positions were allocated.
However, the presence of these individuals still brought immense resistance to the new government's normal operation. As powerhouses who had suddenly gained strength, they inevitably carried a degree of arrogance. Often, they would disregard their deputies' advice and crudely push through policies they considered "correct," leading to numerous problems and giving those higher up quite a headache.
"Under your strong command, they have reined themselves in a bit. A small number have begun to humble themselves and learn the skills of handling government affairs from their deputies, but most have simply become 'hands-off managers,' letting their deputies handle everything while they do their own things."
"Integrating them into the national administration was also a temporary measure. I don't have a large enough core team to contend with Cheng Mu and the others."
"My own power has also reached a bottleneck in a short time, and I haven't seen an opportunity for a breakthrough." Ye Zi didn't voice the latter part of the sentence, but thought it in her heart.
"What have the Sea Race been up to recently?"
"It's only been a little over a year; has their civilization already reached such a level?"
"According to previous analysis reports, the global nuclear strikes at the time were ultimately attributed to aliens hidden beneath the sea, whose technological level surpassed Earth's. And it's highly probable that the Sea Race has intricate ties with these beings, so their leapfrogging development isn't surprising." Rong Jingya picked up the relevant documents and handed them over.
"Over the past year or so, both we and the United States have continuously deployed unmanned probes into the deep sea. However, without exception, they were all discovered and destroyed. This indirectly reflects the high probability that races with technological levels surpassing ours are hidden beneath the sea."
"If such an alien race truly exists, with the vast resources stored in the ocean, they wouldn't need to be so secretive." Ye Zi said, lightly rotating in her office chair, "They must have some limitations."
"Leave this matter for the analysts to research. I suddenly have some ideas regarding cultivation; you handle the rest." With that, she vanished from the office as if carried by a gust of wind.
"Yes." Although the person before her had already departed, Rong Jingya still nodded.
Her abilities weren't heavily inclined towards combat, and she personally preferred administrative work like handling government affairs. After aligning herself with Ye Zi, in a sense, she had found a grand stage to realize her ambitions.
Killing could only suppress greed, not eliminate it. After Bai Mo acted to make some of those who coveted him disappear, apart from a few exceptionally reckless fools, everyone else became increasingly cautious in their schemes. Though from the perspective of the Sky Net, there was no difference; any exchanged information left a traceable record.
"It seems they're not willing to openly turn hostile yet." He continuously followed the clues, discovering that quite a few people were indeed plotting against him. Since the system's hardware and software were under his absolute control, many who had no other recourse planned to use institutional means, leveraging administrative power to strip Bai Mo of his authority. However, without exception, all such attempts were rejected at the highest level of approval.
The more than ten people he had killed, under the cold treatment of Ye Zi and a few others, were ultimately deemed to have died in the line of duty. A compensation fee was paid out from the government's treasury, serving as an explanation to both sides and an implicit signal for him to stop there.
After confirming that those plotting against him truly had no other recourse, Bai Mo decided not to pursue the matter further, even though he could have killed every one of the hundreds he'd found plotting against him. But doing so would have put him squarely against the entire Federation government, and his treatment would immediately become no different from that of the top-level wanted "Righteous Avenger."
Furthermore, during this process, Bai Mo discovered a limitation: whenever he used his abilities to view information about those whose power was not far from his own, it was always incredibly blurry; he could often only glimpse fragments.
On another note, after Cui Mengdie returned to "Hua Ying" upon completing her mission, she discovered that besides a significant improvement in her physical constitution, she had also awakened the ability of psychokinesis... The speed at which she grew stronger each day was incomparable to before.
Though the price was having to make an incision in her arm approximately once a week to replenish herself with "Spirit Energy Factors" of unknown origin, and she also had to conceal the existence of certain things within her body.
Half a month later, relying on her rapidly surging power, she successfully defeated her team leader and then her battalion commander in consecutive test challenges, thereby winning a higher position in Hua Ying, where rank was determined by strength.
A marginal figure from the lower-middle ranks, who still had to undertake various trivial and dangerous missions, had, in just half a month, become an entity possessing combat power comparable to the top tier. She naturally received a great deal of attention from her colleagues. However, it was fortunate that this was a secret intelligence department with strict conduct; for now, no one dared to lay hands on one of their own.
Her constantly increasing power made her begin to re-entertain the idea of breaking free from the shackles within her body. No one was willing to have a ticking time bomb perpetually inside their body, even if that bomb allowed them to continuously grow stronger.
Bai Mo saw all of this through his avatar. However, he didn't believe this struggle could change the final outcome. From the moment she began continuously using the power granted by the avatar, everything was already predestined.
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