Chapter 688.2: That’s Right, I’m A New Alliance Citizen Now. Go On, Try Laying A Finger On Me () |
“Don’t you dare slander us like that!” An enraged roar cut him off. Chen Jianhong stepped forward, staring him straight in the eye, teeth clenched as he continued, “12 cargo ships? With this submarine? Tell me, how exactly were we supposed to sink 12 of them? By ramming into them?”
Before Muda could respond, the sailor beside him pulled a wanted poster from his coat. “This is the evidence.”
“This is not evidence. It’s just a piece of trash paper stamped with a seal and filled with nonsense.”
Ample Time glanced at the paper, then looked at the sailor holding the wanted notice and continued, “From time to time, wastelanders flee to our territory under assumed names, and then their enemies come looking for revenge. For the sake of fairness, we allow both sides to face each other in court. That’s better than letting them gun each other down in the streets.”
“If the plaintiff’s evidence can truly prove that an New Alliance citizen committed serious crimes against humanity in some distant land before obtaining citizenship, we will give him two choices. Serve his sentence and atone as an New Alliance citizen, or be stripped of New Alliance citizenship and ordered to leave within a set amount of time. However, the prerequisite for all of this is evidence.”
“What weapon was used to sink those 12 cargo ships? Where were the coordinates of the attacks? On which days and at what times did they occur? At the very least, you need to submit this evidence to us and ensure that it is authentic and valid, not just a few aggressive-sounding accusations.”
The sailor tried to say something more, but Muda reached out and stopped him. “He’s right. We do need those things.”
At first, Muda had not thought it was particularly important, but now he had changed his mind.
Not only because of the sea monster that had appeared beneath the tidal power station and the signals from the neural interference device, but also because of the unusual reaction of the officer who had interrogated him…
The sailor stared blankly at his superior, then glanced at the people in front of him, and could only shove the wanted notice back into his coat in frustration.
Ample Time gave the NPC named Muda an unexpected look. It seemed there were still people here who could see reason, not everyone was a single-minded fool. He then turned his gaze to Captain Chen Jianhong. “To put our neighbors fully at ease, could you take them aboard the submarine for a tour? We will act as a third-party witness and photograph the weapons they point out as evidence. Of course, refusal is also fine, you have no obligation to prove your own innocence.”
“No problem.” Chen Jianhong looked at the three of them with undisguised mockery. “Feel free to look around. I’m also curious whether it was our toilet plunger that rammed your cargo ships, or whether your eyes are growing out of your asses.”
The two sailors glared at him furiously.
Ignoring the provocation, Muda looked at Ample Time and nodded seriously. “Thank you.”
Standing nearby, Sisi lowered her folded arms and raised her right hand slightly. “I’ll be a witness.”
Besides her, several other players who had been watching the excitement also raised their hands eagerly.
“Count me in!”
“Me, me, me!”
“Brothers together!”
In the blink of an eye, more than 60 witnesses had gathered on the spot, more than the crew of the Dolphin itself.
They might not have been interested in the dispute between the Federation and Shelter 70, but they were very interested in touring the nuclear submarine they had gotten for free. Among them were even a few half-trained professionals who wanted to observe it with a learning mindset.
Ample Time didn’t stint at all and waved his hand decisively. “I’ll leave it to you.”
Thus, surrounded by a large group of players, the Federation patrol captain and the Dolphin’s submarine captain returned aboard the submarine.
The inspection did not take very long. As Captain Chen Jianhong demonstrated, they were merely a cargo submarine. At most, its propulsion system was relatively advanced. It had no offensive weapons installed at all.
Following behind Chen Jianhong, the further down Muda went, the heavier his mood became, until he eventually fell completely silent.
It wasn’t just him. The two subordinates following him were the same.
Especially the sailor who had been carrying the wanted notice, after seeing the places where the survivors cultivated seaweed and synthesized nutrient paste, an expression of shock spread across his face.
That was the undersea ghost the Federation Navy had claimed existed?
They found no weapons in its belly, nor any stolen loot, only a group of Coral City residents and the traces of people struggling to survive in a harsh environment…
Who, exactly, had forced these poor people into such misery…
Muda unconsciously clenched his fists, the hesitation in his eyes transforming into barely restrained anger. Anyone with even a shred of conscience could see that the crimes accused by the Federation Navy simply did not exist. Instead, the place was full of evidence of another group’s wrongdoing.
He took photos of everything, then drew a deep breath and looked at Chen Jianhong beside him, speaking solemnly. “I apologize for what my men and I said earlier. You are victims of this war, not war criminals. At least for now, I see no evidence whatsoever that could substantiate the so-called crimes described on that wanted notice.”
“I can apologize myself, you don’t need to speak for me, sir…” the sailor beside him muttered, stepping forward and looking at Captain Chen somewhat reluctantly but sincerely. “Sorry. I had no choice, I was just following orders… Damn those people. I really don’t understand what they’re thinking.”
“Let the past be the past. I’m an New Alliance citizen now,” Chen Jianhong shrugged, no longer continuing his condescending sarcasm. He could actually understand that the people before him were not the instigators of the war. Like himself, they were ordinary people who had been innocently swept up into the conflict.
Watching the pensive Muda and the confused sailor with his head lowered, Sisi relaxed her folded arms and spoke slowly. “This isn’t hard to understand. Someone wants this war to continue, and they need a reason for it to go on. For example, a rogue attack submarine, a ghost of death lurking beneath the sea… Its existence is enough to plunge the majority, who don’t understand the situation, into panic, and under that panic, turn them into silent accomplices to the war. At the same time, it conveniently helps cover up certain things they would rather not have known.”
She paused, then continued in a half-joking tone, “Actually, before you came here, I kept wondering whether you would hand the probe over to the Federation Navy. I would wager that if you really had done so, we would never see you again, and you’d never have had the chance to see any of this.”
Muda fell silent for a moment, then spoke with a complicated expression. “If this were yesterday, I probably would have argued with you. But now… I don’t really have the confidence to do so. Maybe you’re right. There really are some problems within the Federation.”
To be honest, he had sensed something like this before. Especially when he realized that there might be moles within the navy, he had vaguely felt that he and his two subordinates might be silenced for knowing too much.
That was precisely why he had colluded with the other two beforehand, concealed part of the clues, and sent the probe over at the first opportunity.
Looking at Muda’s conflicted expression, Sisi continued, “How about we make a deal?”
Muda looked at her. “A deal about what?”
Sisi went on. “This area is under your patrol, right? The sailors operating here are all your people. They listen to you more than to the Federation Navy command, don’t they?”
“Of course. They’re all lads from Ring Island. We’re from the same settlement,” Muda replied without hesitation, then looked at her in confusion. “Why do you ask?”
Sisi curved her lips slightly and continued, “Since the existing evidence is already sufficient to prove these crew members innocent, why don’t you just turn a blind eye to the existence of this submarine and these crew who’ve come ashore? Pretend you didn’t see anything.”
Muda stared at her in astonishment for two seconds, then laughed helplessly. “A submarine this big, nearly 600 people, how exactly are we supposed to turn a blind eye?”
“It’s simple,” Sisi said with a faint smile. “Normally, we’ll keep the Dolphin submerged. It won’t surface unless absolutely necessary. Oh right, if the Federation Navy comes by, remember to give us advance notice. We’ll move it farther away, and have the coastal residents stay alert as well.”
Based on current intelligence, although the Southern Archipelago Federation lacked a proper ground army, it still had more than a dozen warships cruising the South Sea.
The New Alliance’s foothold in the Baiyue Strait was not yet stable. Though it possessed a powerful land army, it lacked any reliable anti-ship weapons. If a real fight broke out, even if they won, it could end in mutual destruction, and push the survivors of this sea region completely into the arms of the Torch Church.
By comparison, they had a better option, redirecting the guns that were originally aimed at Shelter 70 toward the Torch Church zealots of the Ocean Edge Province. In fact, judging from how those fanatics treated local survivors, it was clear that the Southern Archipelago Federation was not weak, indeed, it was strong enough to pose a threat to the Torch Church.
Otherwise, those people would have already reached in openly, as they had with the survivors around the Brocade River Municipality, instead of resorting to infiltration.
Muda stared at Sisi intently, frowning slightly. “I don’t understand… why not let me take this opportunity to help clear their names?”
In his view, it was a good opportunity. If more people could learn about the plight of the more than 500 survivors aboard the Dolphin, they could at least win the support of the 30,000 Coral City survivors scattered across the islands.
At that point, even their president would have to come forward and respond.
However, upon hearing him, Sisi merely smiled faintly. “And how exactly do you plan to clear their names? By pasting these photos in a newspaper, or slamming them down on the desk of the Federation navy command? That would be completely useless. Even if you could prove that the Dolphin was a misunderstanding, you still couldn’t prove that the tidal power station incident had nothing to do with Shelter No. 70, let alone persuade those who intend to defect to the Torch Church to stand with us.”
The latter was the key point. There were certainly people within the Southern Archipelago Federation who could see the truth clearly, but that didn’t mean they would necessarily stand on the side of facts.
The Ocean Edge Province had the technology, resources, land, everything the South Sea needed. To win over the survivors of the South Sea, more than just evidence was required. The Baiyue Strait also had to become an acceptable alternative.
Whether in terms of economic issues or the governance of the Mutant Slime Mold, if the New Alliance could do better than the Torch Church, most people would switch sides again, even if only out of self-interest.
That was the entirety of the plan.
Muda stared at her blankly, took a deep breath, and said, “Then what do you plan to do?”
Sisi replied, “We take it step by step. Before we reveal the evidence, we need to pull as many people as possible onto our war chariot.”
Muda asked seriously, “For example?”
Sisi said, “For example, the closest place to us, your hometown. Ring Island, troubled by its lack of fresh water. We promised their governor before that we would help solve the freshwater supply issue. Now it’s time to give him an answer.”
Muda looked at her with a strange expression. “You’ve solved it? That’s a settlement of 100,000 people… do you know how much fresh water they need?”
Sisi smiled. “Of course I do. And so what? We’re standing on land right now, land you once abandoned and believed impossible to conquer. Not just 100,000 people, even if 10,000,000, or even 100,000,000 people come, we have ways to supply them.”
Muda gulped. “Then how do you plan to deliver the fresh water? By ship?”
Sisi shook her head and said unhurriedly, “That would be too much trouble. We prefer to build a 200 nautical mile long pipeline… We really didn’t have a good solution before, but now things are different. We have the Dolphin, and we have more than 500 experts skilled in underwater construction, with extensive experience.”
She reached out and patted the solid hull beside her, her face lit with a brilliant smile as she continued, “All you need to do is turn a blind eye to them, and help us keep an eye on the Federation Navy!”
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