Destruction of Five Star Country

David examined the face of the patient in front of him and nodded. As a doctor working for Alex Kingdom, he works hard to treat as many people as possible. 

He diagnosed the patient with a disease and started writing a prescription.

"Boil leaves of the purple apple tree for 15 minutes, then mix it with honey, and then …"

After writing a complicated prescription, he left. 

His prescription was in no medical book; it was all made up. 

But it would work because of an ability he discovered three months ago. 

It would work as long as he prescribes something, even if it is entirely made up. 

After three months, he learned how to use it.

The patient must believe it works; if they doubt it, it will fail.

That's why reputation is important.

In the last two months, he has saved many people; nearly all in the city completely trust him.

There is no need to write anything complicated; he could prescribe water as medicine, which would work as long as patients believe it.

However, people might doubt it if it's simple, so he purposely has been making prescriptions complicated.

He saved the lives of a lot of people in this while.

There are a few challenges, however.

His power only works if people believe it works, so if skeptical doctors and researchers notice him and come, they will realize the issue.

It's best if nobody notices him.

...

Lee was observing the two dream worlds. 

Lately, she has updated the two worlds again. 

The new update gives some random people supernatural abilities; It's only at the preliminary stage, with less than 100 people having abilities

for now, it's only in Alex's kingdom's dream world.

It has little effect right now but may have a much more significant impact later.

Rachel said, "This new formation was by one of my rank 13 incarnations. It can help a lot with turning dreams into reality." 

Lee nodded." Can you ask your main body to help me make Alex real?" she asked with an expectant eye.

If the main Rachel helps, it could happen immediately.

Rachel shocked her non-existent head." My main body is busy with her own business. Things are not as peaceful as you think. She doesn't have time to care about these insignificant matters." 

Main Rachel is trying to reach rank 14 before The Office's seal breaks.

The office is the strongest rank 14 in this world; it has a great output and can draw much power from the creation.

Rank 14 is the most extensive rank.

The difference of power between 'peak' rank 14 and initial rank 14 could be like heaven and earth.

There is no actual peak rank 14.

That's because the power of the creation is endless.

One can always advance further and draw more and more power from the creation.

But, no matter how much power one draws from the creation, it would have no impact on it.

The creation is endless; it has unlimited energy.

Or, it's supposed to be this way.

Rachel's main body knows that her system is part of the creation, or the creation is part of her system.

Therefore, she knows for a fact that the creation and her system are incomplete.

Still, infinity is infinity.

Even if one rips infinity into two pieces, each would still be infinite, right?

No, it's not that simple.

It has not been proven that the creation in an incomplete state is also infinite.

The creation in its complete form is infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient, but in its incomplete form? It might not be.

The reason nobody ever managed to reach rank 15 might be because the creation is incomplete and, therefore, not truly infinite.

Rank 15 means completeness and perfection.

With the creation not perfect itself, nobody could reach rank 15.

Of course, Rachel doesn't know the details; she might be wrong.

It might be that The Creation, even in incomplete form, is infinite, and the reason nobody reached rank 15 is entirely different.

Rachel's main body is busy with all this complicated research; how could she spare her attention from what Lee is doing?

Lee observed for any bugs while also paying attention to what was happening in Five Star Dream World.

...

The Minister of Military Affairs and the generals were meeting. 

Because the president is the one appointing generals and is the commander-in-chief, technically, the generals don't have to obey the orders of the Minister of Military Affairs. 

However, the Minister of Military Affairs is responsible for supplies, weapons, funds, and every aspect of the military, except appointing its leaders.

In a war situation, it doesn't make much difference; the generals have to obey the Minister of Military Affairs to defend the country. 

The parliament had already declared war. The war is going to happen, and it's best to cooperate.

Technically, if the president wants, she can order the generals to refuse to invade.

In that case, the parliament can vote by 2/3 to remove the president.

However, the president already made it clear that she would not oppose the democratic will of the people.

So, the military leaders went along and devised many battle plans.

After meeting for five hours, they reached an agreement with the ministry of military affairs and left to their various departments to implement the plans. 

It clearly shows how sloppy the five-star country's invasion is. 

They declared the war first, then started planning how to go about it.

...

Soon, the Five Star army, mainly positioned near the border of UISEC, got ready and launched an invasion. 

The army, which calls itself the Star Army, comprises 300,000 soldiers, thousands of tanks, and fighter jets. 

The soldiers were all professionals—Five Star used to rely on conscription to populate its army, which had both downsides and upsides. 

The upsides include far lower costs, less required training, more units available, and more reserve units.

Conscription used to be only for men in Five Star; even though the country had equal rights between men and women, when it came to conscription, for some reason, they forgot about gender equality. 

However, that was around 30 years ago. 

It then abolished and replaced the conscripted army with a professional army. 

A professional army has more training, higher morale, and is much more effective.

...

The border city of Grassland was expected to be easily captured. 

However, things didn't go as well as expected.

UISEC was not caught off guard. 

With the election of the Unify Party, UISEC had long been ready for an invasion. 

They still hoped it wouldn't happen but were prepared for it. 

The military commanders installed by Rob were all qualified individuals. 

Rob was not foolish; he understood that if he filled all crucial positions with loyalists, it would lead to significant problems.

Indeed, he appointed loyalists to crucial positions like the candidate qualification commission, supreme court, and minister of election—positions necessary for maintaining power, with loyalists. 

However, when it came to military generals, the minister of the economy, central bank leaders, and other essential, non-political roles, he chose the best and most qualified individuals, regardless of their political affiliations. 

He took some precautions, such as appointing loyalists as police chiefs and a military general stationed near the capital.

He ordered all agencies to keep regulations and taxes as low as possible. 

Most of the government budget went to the military, not because the country spent excessively on it but because the government was generally small. 

In Rob's view, the government's only responsibility is to maintain a level playing ground; it should not directly operate anything. 

His ministers reflected his views on these matters.

It is one advantage of a dictatorship, if you will. 

Even though there was a parliament, Rob appointed all ministers, and the laws passed by parliament mainly were recommendations. 

Moreover, the parliament would never pass anything opposed by Rob.

With low taxes and low regulation, innovation flourished. 

Sure, it had downsides. 

Because of the lack of government healthcare, people who get sick might have their lives ruined. 

With scarce labor laws, workplaces could abuse people to the extreme. 

Rob didn't care; as long as the economy improves, short-term suffering is acceptable; of course, he would not be the one suffering.

However, Rob was careful about one aspect: monopolies. 

Monopolies are a problem that can stifle innovation. 

He did not allow companies to merge and completely dominate one aspect. 

It sounds easy, but doing it is a delicate balance, which he managed to strike by putting brilliant people at the helm.

In just 10 years, UISEC became so powerful that its economy is now over twenty times bigger than Five Star. 

Many billionaires and innovators escaped from Five Star to UISEC for lower taxes. 

One reason Five Star is in today's miserable situation is its neighborhood with UISEC. 

Five Star's people are not entirely wrong in blaming UISEC. 

Because of its much stronger economy, it became the dream of many to move to UISEC.

It caused a significant brain drain for Five Star. 

...

When Five Star attacked, UISEC immediately activated their defensive plan. 

They mobilized their 500,000 army, directly sending 50,000 to Grassland City, and with 20,000 already there, the military in Grassland became 70,000.

Grassland City is the most suitable location for an invasion. 

Many mountains, rivers, and other natural obstructions exist in other parts of the border. However, Grassland City is flatland; if Five Star takes it, they can launch an attack on Five Dragon City quickly.

Five Star attacked Grassland City with 100,000 people, 2,000 tanks, and 100 fighter jets.

In less than two months, 60,000 soldiers died, 1,800 tanks were destroyed, and all 100 fighter jets were lost. 

On UISEC's side, they lost 20,000 soldiers, 1,000 tanks, and 100 fighter jets. 

No one threw rockets; they restrained themselves in this regard.

With both countries as neighbors, attacking with rockets would reduce both countries to rubble. 

Both knew it, so they focused only on Grassland City.

Leaders of Five Star intensely debated using long-range rockets and missiles to destroy UISEC's headquarters. 

After they failed in Grassland City, They decided to do it! 

From all over the country, they fired all kinds of missiles and long-range rockets, targeting UISEC. 

They successfully destroyed many factories producing military equipment. 

Rob could only sigh when he saw this. 

He had hoped Five Star would stop at Grassland City. 

He avoided ordering long-range rockets because he didn't want to create more resentment and wanted to preserve the possibility of peace. 

But now that they did it, Rob decided to go all out. 

When Five Star bombed UISEC, they only tried attacking military targets.

However, with Alex III's advice, Rob went far beyond. 

UISEC bombed all of Five Star's biggest cities and targeted residential areas, not military areas. 

The anti-missile systems on Five Star's side were quickly overwhelmed and destroyed. 

UISEC had deep knowledge about military secrets on Five Star's side, thanks to Alex, who found doppelgangers of low-ranking soldiers and collected information to locate crucial military equipment.

After lots of bombing, Five Star's capital, Star City, was reduced to ruins. 

UISEC's stockpile of long-range missiles was remarkable. 

They bombed non-stop for ten days without running out. 

After ten days, tens of millions of people in Five Star were killed. 

Then, Rob ordered his army to enter. 

It was not to occupy the land; it was to kill every single resident of Five Star—every single one, old, young, men, women. 

This was Alex's advice. 

He did the same with Spikes when he conquered them. 

He ordered all living there killed, then relocated his people to populate the area because he was afraid of resentment.

In the process of invasion, he ordered the death and destruction of many Spike people; what would happen if he absorbed them into Alex Kingdom? Would they forget all about what happened, or would they try to revenge and destabilize Alex Kingdom? 

Alex III wasn't willing to take the risk, so he ordered them killed and justified it as them being demons, hence the demonic empire of Spikes.

He advised Rob to do the same. 

In Alex's opinion, absorbing them would destabilize UISEC and might hinder their immortality plan. 

Killing many people is also in line with Rob being a ruthless ghost. It would help the rumor spread in both worlds. 

If it were the Rob of the past, who was crying for killing Rand, he would have never done it. 

But now, under the influence of Alex III, he wasn't much different from a demon—ruthless, evil, and doing anything without regard for right and wrong.

Still, this kind of personality is not rare among world leaders. 

In the world's history, there are many examples of monsters becoming kings and committing atrocities. Evil, immoral people have a much better chance of becoming leaders than good people. 

Still, the leaders on Five Star's side were much less evil. 

They wanted to unify the country, so when they attacked, they precisely targeted military targets. 

And when UISEC attacked, Five Star quickly lost its capacity to fire back.

Ten days after the attack, it was unclear whether the president and prime minister survived the attack. 

The army of Five Star fell apart in the first week. 

Therefore, when the UISEC army entered, nobody could resist them. 

After a month, they made sure to kill all who lived on Five Star land. 

The country was now destroyed, with nothing left, not even large animals.

UISEC had long contacted all neighboring countries, 'asking them' not to allow any refugees from Five Star. 

Those countries watched how crazy and ruthless the Ghost President Robert Stevenson was and decided to comply with the request. 

As a result, very, very few managed to sneak into surrounding countries to escape from the war. 

The Five Star country, along with its people, disappeared from the world entirely in less than a month.

...

Alex III was smiling on his throne. 

The result of the war on the 'Five Star' world greatly satisfied him. 

"Now, I should change the nickname of that world?" he joked to himself. 

"Let's call it Star World," he named it. 

Then, he spoke so Rob could hear after the dream switch, "Now that those idiots are gone, use the internet to spread the rumor as much as possible. I have centuries, but you have only 40 years," he said.

He does want to keep Rob alive. 

At first, he was very unsatisfied with him. 

But as time passed, Rob absorbed his 'teachings' and became as 'smart' as himself. 

"Or, not as 'smart' as me. After all, nothing can be as 'smart' as me," he corrected himself. 

Still, as his disciple, Rob is 'brilliant.' Like Alex III, he can think 'clearly' and disregard morals, good or wrong, and all emotions.

Alex III sees all morals, good and wrong, and everything as tools; he could be moral, like a saint, or evil, like a demon, depending on the situation, on which one is more productive for his goals.

He continued talking for Rob to hear, "Rob, I never told this to anyone, but I'm telling you! I hope you survive and will try to keep you alive." 

Alex III's insistence on keeping Rob alive was not a favor. 

He liked being linked to a 'rational' person such as Rob, who isn't bound by such 'useless' things as morals. 

Rob's death could significantly affect his plans for controlling two worlds. 

Therefore, he ordered his agents everywhere to spread rumors about Rob being a ghost. 

In the past, he was not willing to go this far. But, after seeing how 'rational' Rob was dealing with Five Star and how he obeyed all his recommendations, he decided that keeping Rob was worth it.