Corruption

"The Sahato Central Square area witnessed intense gunfire today, spreading across fourteen streets and erupting on a large scale on Newhall Avenue. The shootout resulted in the death of eighty-six individuals and left over two hundred injured, marking the largest street shootout in Sahato in the past decade. The identities of the parties involved in the shootout cannot be confirmed at the moment, but it is preliminarily suspected to be the result of gang turf wars..."

Clap.

Reno turned off the television.

In a small hotel on the outskirts of Sahato, ten people sat together.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. I only killed over twenty, all of them were those who were chasing Camellia. The others were killed by those people," Teck spread his hands. "I'm just doing a service to the people."

"The problem isn't there, Teck. This commotion is too big; we have already caught the attention of the authorities, which will make our future operations troublesome," Modi said.

"It's not my fault," Teck pointed at Camellia. "She's the troublemaker."

Camellia also knew she made a mistake and lowered her head. "I just wanted to earn more money for everyone. Four conventional engines are not cheap, even if I can bargain, I still need enough capital."

"Forget it, Camellia just wanted to do things right," at this point, Reno didn't scold Camellia but rather comforted her, which made Camellia feel much better.

"The key now is that girl. What should we do with her?" Claire pointed to the room next door.

Reno scratched his head, feeling troubled.

The Heart of Freedom had all sorts of people, but it didn't have someone who could make others forget.

"I think it's simpler to kill her," Teck said brazenly.

Reno shook his head. "We kill people, but we're not insane. The girl is innocent; we can't do that."

"I knew you wouldn't agree, so what should we do? Let her go?" Teck asked. "The problem is, who can guarantee that she won't spill our secrets?"

"Let Martha listen to her thoughts, how about that?" Nava suggested.

Reno shook his head. "That won't work. People's psychology changes with the environment. Even if we use various methods to make her agree not to betray us now, once we set her free, in a new environment, under the temptation of certain people, she might change her mind. It's not about whether she's lying; even the most sincere person can contradict themselves."

The Virus agreed, "Teck is sincere every time he tries to quit smoking, but he's also sincere when he gives up."

"Hey kid, if you dare say that again, I'll beat you up!" Teck threatened fiercely.

"So what do we do? We can't just keep her locked up forever, right?" Wang Yile exclaimed.

"To be honest, that's probably the only option. When we take over the research institute and take the relic, it won't matter what she says anymore," Nora said.

"Oh, damn it!" everyone groaned together.

Having such a burden would complicate their future actions.

As the only beneficiary of this incident, Teck might be the least bothered, "One person in exchange for a gun, I think it's quite appropriate."

He shamelessly smiled, earning eye rolls from everyone.

"Martha, go find out about that girl's background. Since we'll be living together for a while, we need to know at least something," Martha giggled and pushed open the door to the next room.

The brown-haired girl was sitting on the bed, hugging her knees, lost in thought.

When she saw Martha come in, she jumped up like a startled rabbit and shrank into the corner.

Then, realizing that it was a girl even younger and seemingly weaker than her, the girl straightened up a bit.

She stared at Martha as if to say she wasn't afraid.

Martha closed the door and sat down in front of the girl.

She said, "Your name."

The girl hesitated for a moment and said, "Laura Claire."

"Elizabeth Raoul. Your father's name?" Martha's eyes sharpened.

The girl's eyes widened, "I said my name is Laura Claire."

"I heard you, Elizabeth Raoul!" Martha replied nonchalantly. "Your father's name is Bert Raoul? What does he do... Executive of the Tianhe Branch of the Gold Shield Group? Quite a big shot. What are you guys doing at the hotel?"

The girl's face turned pale, trembling all over.

She had never experienced such a situation and couldn't understand how it could happen. The little girl in front of her seemed like a demon, able to know what she was thinking.

Martha said impatiently, "Please don't waste time and energy on idle thoughts, and don't think about knocking me out with the pillow you have on hand. Damn it, I'm not a devil!"

Mind reading wasn't invincible.

Idle thoughts were the best defense.

Furthermore, what one thinks about is often not specifically written down.

It's like when you think of someone, their face usually appears directly in your mind, and their name doesn't come up every time. Listening to thoughts can read a person's inner thoughts, but when a person's thoughts are too fragmented, visualized, simplified, or even abstracted, even if they are read, it's not very useful.

This means that Martha's mind reading still has great limitations. Her performance just now was largely due to her deliberately inducing the girl to give answers in her mind.

However, this set of skills is not very effective for the warriors of the Heart of Freedom, who have undergone countless tests of "eavesdropping." Martha can only occasionally eavesdrop on everyone's thoughts, but people are gradually learning not to use inner monologues in front of Martha.

Finally, mind reading consumes a significant amount of energy.

Delaying is the best way to deal with Martha because she doesn't know when the other party will think of the information she needs, so once mind reading starts, it won't stop until the energy is depleted.

So, if she urges the people of the Heart of Freedom, it won't work. But when she urges Elizabeth, this simple and straightforward method can be effective.

The method was taught by the elders of the Heart of Freedom.

As Elizabeth's thoughts flashed through her mind, Martha caught a hint of information, although it was scattered, but Martha, who had ample experience in capturing fragments, quickly organized the content.

Then her face showed great astonishment.

She stood up and opened the door.

"Her father is the executive of the Tianhe branch of the Gold Shield Group, doing business with the Bazulu tribe, and that gun is a sample. Because it's the first transaction, she's responsible for escorting and also acting as a hostage."

Upon hearing this, everyone jumped up.

The Bazulu are a highly humanoid species, tall, averaging around three meters, covered in fine fur, walking upright, with particularly large nostrils, and you can even see air flowing between their nostrils when they breathe.

The Bazulu tribe are natural warriors, brave, combative, immensely strong, and adaptable to various complex and dangerous environments. However, their numbers are far fewer than humans, and most importantly, their technological level is not as advanced as humans', ultimately leading to their defeat in the struggle against humans.

Nevertheless, the Bazulu are unwilling to surrender; they hide in the shadows, still fighting for the freedom of their race.

No wonder the gun was so big, it's all clear now.

Only the Bazulu would need such a large gun; as for Teck, he's an exception and shouldn't be counted.

"Gold Shield Group actually dared to do business with the Bazulu, they've got guts," Modi said.

The Bazulu are hostile forces, known officially as separatists and terrorists, but of course, for the Bazulu, they are indeed an independent race with their own homeland, something humans conveniently overlook. In a sense, colluding with the Bazulu is more serious than colluding with the Heart of Freedom, as the latter has not yet raised the banner of rebellion; their identity in essence is still that of criminals, not hostile forces.

However, little Martha threw out an even more shocking answer:

"It's not the Gold Shield Group, it's the Tianhe Fleet."

"What did you say? The Tianhe Fleet is selling weapons to the Bazulu?"

Everyone could hardly believe their ears.

Reno said, "I'll go ask again."

He went into the room.

Not everything requires mind reading to obtain, especially when the situation is already clear.

Before long, Reno came out and said, "Bert Raoul brokered it; the Tianhe Fleet customized a batch of machine guns specifically for the Bazulu using their own light weapon production factory."

"Why would they do that?"

"What else could it be? Of course, it's for money," Reno replied. "Military budgets are always limited, and everyone wants to use their power or resources to profit for themselves."

"But those Bazulu, once they get the weapons, the first thing they'll do is attack them!"

"That's even better; they can report to the higher-ups that the Tianhe Star Region has been attacked by terrorists and demand more funding."

"But that will result in a lot of deaths."

"As long as the arms dealers don't die, it's fine," Reno depicted the true colors of those scumbags perfectly.

Teck clenched his teeth and cursed, "These scumbags, they'll do anything for money."

Claire shook her head and said, "This society... is really rotten to the core."

This is not surprising; a human regime that has existed for nearly three thousand years has become rotten and decayed as it ages.

This is almost a common phenomenon in every human regime: full of vitality in its infancy, flourishing at its peak, followed by corruption, expansion paralysis, and eventually declining, until the regime is overthrown, starting a new cycle.

Over the past few thousand years, people have tried various systems to solve problems.

But the fact is no one has ever succeeded.

Because no system can solve a fundamental problem: class solidification.

Class solidification is an inevitable phenomenon in the stable development of society. People distinguish groups through education, job opportunities, and various other methods, keeping the wealthy always wealthy and the poor still poor. This solidification brings about social stability to a certain extent but also makes the society lack vitality. Those at the top are unwilling to come down, and those at the bottom lack opportunities to go up, eventually leading to chaos.

The regime of the New Federation has been able to maintain its rule for three thousand years not because they solved the problem of class solidification but because they solved another fundamental problem: the problem of insufficient resource allocation caused by explosive population growth.

In the past Earth era, there was a very obvious phenomenon: when society stabilized and life improved, the population would increase dramatically, resulting in a decrease in per capita resources. When this decrease reached a critical point, disasters and riots would follow.

The advent of the Great Cosmic Era allowed people to step out of Earth. The abundant resources and territories in space greatly relieved population pressure. People found they could breed and occupy as much as they wanted.

The universe is vast, so vast that it can withstand human expansion for a long time.

It is this unrestricted external expansion that has alleviated resource pressure and also alleviated the phenomenon of class solidification. Through continuous expansion, the New Federation government can continually create new positions, new opportunities for everyone.

It is this expansion that has stabilized human society and even once thought that the existing New Federation system is the best system.

It also masks the inherent corruption of this regime.

After nearly three thousand years of existence, the internal corruption of this regime has reached unimaginable levels. Generals like Marshall are exceptions; politicians like Courtman are the norm.

That's why there are scumbags like the Tianhe Fleet and the directors of research institutes.

They dare to sell even relics; what does selling a few guns matter?

In the New Federation, this kind of thing is rampant.