Chapter 693
Chapter 693 - 679: Conflict
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8 min read
The world of high-level professionals was far too removed from the current Lu Ping’an, who truly didn’t understand much...
As long as Big Cat understood, that was enough.
Lu Ping’an was quite open-minded about it. After all, professionals pursued power, status, money, treasures, lifespan, and strength. The last one was always the most important. In this not-so-peaceful multiverse, power brought everything before it.
All along, Big Cat has actually been "helping" Lu Ping’an. In a sense, she was like an adult reluctantly playing with a group of children, answering questions that seemed elementary to her.
As for playing with Slime, she was quite professional... The "Metal Slime" she initially suggested to Hua Xueyi was a similar creation. She used to have a dedicated laboratory for "single-cell aggregates with indeterminate form and single-cell mind aggregates."
Now, seeing an interesting research project that seemed to have promising prospects, she was immediately intrigued. A Quasi-God-level professional researcher specializing in both taming beasts and healing would probably be too expensive for even the Hod Group headquarters.
As for what she could come up with, Lu Ping’an didn’t know, but it seemed like a win-win situation anyway.
"At least, it could help upgrade Hua Xueyi’s Metal Slime... and it would be easy to create a few similar weapons. You just need to find more local Aus equipment designs and technical codexes and have Fang Wen help you upgrade. At least, don’t make it look as ugly as cold weapons against hot weapons."
Since Big Cat said so, Lu Ping’an naturally followed suit. No one would refuse better weapons and equipment, especially when Big Cat displayed her rare passion for work.
When they heard that Lu Ping’an might produce mass-produced "hot weapons," Wang Xier’s team was even more impressed.
At the same time, a high-level research team that mastered Gardener, Craftsman, Machinery, Taming Beasts, and Healer pathways, as well as the young and talented Lu Ping’an, already exceeded the scope of a comprehensive large-scale company. Many people still cannot understand how Lu Ping’an’s team managed to pull it off.
Many doubts existed, but not prying into other people’s secrets was the basic rule of the Secret Keeper. However, Wang Xier and her team had to re-evaluate Lu Ping’an’s group once again.
On the other hand, Lu Ping’an received an unexpected task commission.
"...Survivors of the Red Star Republic? Is it necessary to save them?"
From the Aus side, Lu Ping’an’s group obtained some new information.
A group of people from the Red Star Republic actually arrived more than a month ago. They also followed the "Explorer" + "ticket" mechanism, forming a core member + team member model.
However, unlike the conservative Eastern Country’s one qualification with ten tickets, they had one qualification and thirty tickets. As a northern power with a long history of surplus military force, they were relatively aggressive and encouraged ordinary people to take to the battlefield.
This level of ratio naturally caused the decline of the Red Star people’s individual combat power, especially when most of their arsenal became ineffective as soon as it left Earth. Their goal in coming here was to find "weapons that could also be used in Otherworldly realms."
It was probably some spy from the Red Star Republic who got this information from the Aus people. But in reality, the powerful weapons in this world would be severely weakened on Earth. Heavy artillery would turn into light artillery, machine guns would turn into pistols, and pistols would turn into water guns.
Overly simple and crude design ideas would significantly weaken their effectiveness once the core components’ efficiency dropped.
However, the intelligence obtained by the Red Star Republic’s agent wasn’t wrong, as there were indeed a few "Quasi-Contaminated" and "Taboo items" level Vortex Stone firearms with considerable firepower-even in another world. But compared to their cost, it was like making a flying model with the money for building a fighter jet- and one that would automatically be scrapped after a period of use.
In short, the Red Star people came, and as always... they were direct.
"Share your technology with us, and we’ll pay you."
They went straight to the Aus people, and the leader was even a military colonel... However, it was clear that these newly-emerged Red Star soldiers in a new era did not know the "rules" of the new era.
Here, Earth’s constraints and international law were meaningless...
"There are some remnants still at large...cough, according to him, it should be said that they are unfortunate allies. After losing most of their personnel and equipment, they were forced to flee to uninhabited mountain areas and dense forests. Several mercenary groups are chasing them."
People are dead, bones are burned, is there any point in holding them accountable...even if there is conclusive evidence, you are far away from your homeland, how can you retaliate? If you really want to retaliate, it will end up being a simple armed conflict and clash of interests.
In that case, it’s better to be decisive, cut off any hands that reach out, and generally lose to such a degree that rational companies and churches will cut their losses in time, as long as they are rational enough...
"...they really dare."
Regardless of whether it was Lu Ping’an or the other Eastern Country people, their first reaction upon hearing the news was still to be shocked by the Aus people’s audacity.
Do you expect the Red Star people to be rational? Expect a military force from a semi-superpower that hasn’t disintegrated yet to bear this? Then many of the historical events that couldn’t be elaborated wouldn’t happen at all!
"Should we save them?"
"If possible, it’s best to save a few, and it’ll be easier to explain when the Red Star people come."
The Eastern Country and the Red Star people are bound by a covenant, and both are the leaders of the Nirvana Plan, respecting each other’s "sovereignty" and "property rights"...to put it bluntly, it’s still a land grab, whoever conquers it first will claim it.
In fact, there are precedents in Earth’s history, which is the history of Western colonization, where they would slightly respect the first settlers and would not directly plunder and attack if the colonial government was stable...of course, the main reason was that fighting was not cost-effective. In many cases, both sides were too involved in their military forces, leading to the third party taking advantage of the situation, and hindering their own development.
Once it really became a major naval battle, it would be too time-consuming and laborious, and it would be hard to say who would have the last laugh... That’s why, in that era, there were various "respect of sovereignty/governance rights" among countries.
Of course, there have always been exceptions, and "mutual respect" existed only in areas of low strategic and economic significance. In highly contested regions and places of strategic value, once a dispute arose, both sides would definitely fight to the death... A few major naval battles in history boiled down to the same thing, fighting either for trade routes or for colonies.
The experience of the Red Star people served as a wake-up call for Lu Ping’an and his party. While Exotic Realm exploration could bring immense wealth overnight, a moment’s negligence could also lead to bankruptcy in the blink of an eye.
Now, the Explorer’s Manual obtained by Lu Ping’an and his team also specified different attitudes towards various countries... Red Star was the best, second to none.
There were even semi-public rules between the two sides; both could establish military bases in a single world and help each other out.
The basis for both sides to respect each other and become genuine allies was the presence of common enemies and common interests; it so happened that at this point, both countries had both conditions, so their relationship was quite good.
Of course, this "true alliance" relationship wouldn’t work 100% of the time, but in most cases, both sides would adhere to a baseline level of friendliness and peace...especially now that the global version of the Nirvana Plan had been rejected by the UT (United) several times. Now, the two countries were leading a group of countries in their own Nirvana Plan, which in turn faced greater external pressure on Earth.
At this point, if they could save some of their allies, not only would it be a good thing to write about in their reports when they returned, but they would also have a moral upper hand.
Then, with this advantage, they could set up the base, circle the "mines" and "industrial land," and the Red Star people wouldn’t have anything to say about it.
"... I’ll go, and farm some monsters along the way."
In the end, Lu Ping’an decided to take matters into his own hands.
— End of Chapter 693 —