I, Li Aoz, Have Not Betrayed Any Motherland

"Mm-hm." Agent Ya Wen smiled. "What you just said doesn't sound like something a person with only a secondary technical education could say."

"So what?"

"Li Aoz, Frostplate male, twenty-one years old, secondary technical education, bank security guard, not on particularly good terms with his family. When the police visited, they complained that you hadn't sent money home."

Agent Ya Wen said, "To be honest, whether through genetic comparisons or registered records, we found no evidence of your dealings with the Red Arrow Empire. But after you left your hometown of Bountiful Village and came to Border City, you immediately displayed a completely different side of yourself."

"Toying with Spirit Wraiths, burning down a bank, threatening human traffickers in the name of the Rose Army—every action was clean and decisive. In less than five hours, you had smuggled yourself out of the country and headed for the Outland. By your account, if Nethermark Humanity hadn't taken you in, you might already have made contact with the Red Arrow Empire, no?"

Qiu Ran's eyes widened, and the way she looked at Li Aoz was filled with awe.

"So?" Li Aoz kept one eye open and one closed as he met Nomi's gaze for a moment. She rolled her eyes at him and ignored him, clearly still sulking.

"Li Aoz, judging from your biological data, you should still be Li Aoz."

Agent Ya Wen paused before continuing, "However, this is the internet age. It's quite common for netizens to be infiltrated and bought off by foreign forces without realizing it. You're young, easily corrupted by the glittering world and the blueprints they paint for you."

"I want to remind you that the Red Arrow Empire isn't as wonderful as the spy organizations that trained you claim. Many people at the bottom still live in misery. Frostplate is your mother—"

"If you're trying to reform me, there's no need. Your little bit of charm is utterly useless on me."

Li Aoz turned and glanced at Agent Ya Wen's delicate face. She really was quite pretty, with well-proportioned features. She possessed none of the weathered, heavily made-up air typical of those Law Enforcement Division Four Agents who had endured hardship. Instead, she looked like a refined young lady from a respectable family, someone who never stepped beyond the gates of her home.

Thinking of that, an idea suddenly occurred to Li Aoz.

My Charm stat isn't low. I could totally talk her into becoming my hired muscle.

Why do I need to snatch her?

Why was my first thought to spend money on pulls?

Li Aoz realized the problem.

Could it be that I'd grown too used to being overbearing as a player?

Li Aoz glanced at his status panel: Strength 6, Dexterity 5, Constitution 7, Charm 21, Willpower 8.

Taking into account the benefits of the Perpetual · Love Hunter trait, his Charm was effectively equivalent to 27.3 points, nearing the upper limit of Alpha Rank.

At this level of Charm, raising Favorability was far faster than for ordinary players. Other players needed three or four months to raise Favorability to 500 points, and some NPCs with nasty, tsundere personalities took as long as two entire versions to improve.

Li Aoz only needed a little over ten days.

He recalled the formula for calculating Favorability and Charm. He had spent too long flying solo as a Starcaller in the later stages, and had nearly forgotten just how devastating this attribute could be to NPCs.

After doing the math, Li Aoz estimated that as long as he didn't say anything wrong or do anything that crossed her fundamental bottom line, interacting with her for two hours a day would make winning over Agent Ya Wen fairly easy. Sixteen days would be enough.

If he advanced to Alpha Rank and gained the rank bonus, it might take fewer than ten days.

The more Li Aoz thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.

What was the Charm stat for?

To increase Aoneng intensity!

Of course it was for sweet-talking people!

The heads of state and leaders of those Cosmic Civilizations—even if they weren't Overlord Class Transcendents—none of them had Charm below 300.

With my Charm stat, raising Favorability won't be slow. Then, with the White Wax Fantasy Crystal, it'll only cost 168 Diamonds—holy shit, that's the cost-effective option!

The team happened to be lacking someone who could deal soul damage, and the Medium class could fill that gap nicely.

In any case, according to Li Aoz's thinking, humanity's talent was its bonus to team experience gains. There was no reason not to make use of it.

He would definitely assemble an elite team in the early and mid stages. The best possible teammates were basically either in Sky Ring or the Red Arrow Empire.

For example, that Big Brother from Sky Ring whom he had been longing for—his growth potential was incredibly high. He was the type who could be taken into space and leave aliens utterly stunned.

None of the other NPC teammates gave him even one percent of the sense of security that Big Brother did.

Nomi was a Plunderer, after all. She had some growth potential, so he could keep using her for a while longer before finding some excuse to kick her out.

Once Qiu Ran obtained Aoneng, there would be no need to bother with her anymore. There was nothing useful about her.

Since these hired hands would have to be replaced sooner or later anyway, Li Aoz felt there was no need to be so meticulous. If he could talk Agent Ya Wen over, he would gain another Medium.

This class was rare. Although Li Aoz counted as half a Spellcaster, the gravity he used in the early stages dealt mostly physical damage. Adding some magic damage would be very worthwhile.

At worst, he could use her as a meat shield and emergency rations.

Arrogance truly did blind people.

Li Aoz began to feel fortunate that he had noticed the problem in time.

On one hand, realizing it now was better than discovering it after a fight broke out. The actual situation was always changing.

Who knew when a black luxury car might suddenly pull up before him, with a bunch of assassins carrying rifles jumping out and riddling him with bullets?

On the other hand, from a practical standpoint, Diamonds were basically a nonrenewable resource. The more he spent, the fewer he had.

Diamonds were part of the game's built-in trading system, Qiqiao Network's prized tool for fleecing players. Aside from event missions and ladder rewards, they were difficult to earn through grinding alone.

When it came to Diamonds, Li Aoz would save wherever he could.

Once he made it into space, the opportunities those Diamonds could buy would be enough to make him rich overnight.

Buying a 20-pull on impulse had been a mistake.

I was wrong. I reflected on it. I would never spend money on gacha pulls again.

Li Aoz sighed to himself. Times were different now; he had to watch every penny.

But on second thought, Li Aoz felt that something was off.

"I never used to like pulling gacha. At most, I bought the pass and the battle pass. So why did I get so obsessed this time?"

He bought a Teleki Exhibition Hall Admission Ticket, but instead of using it right away, he studied it carefully. Turning it over and over, he finally noticed something unusual.

The patterns on the ticket were not merely decorative. They were a complex incantation written in some kind of special dust. Li Aoz examined them for a while, comparing them to certain runes and characters in his memories.

"Dragon language."

Li Aoz narrowed his eyes. "I can't make out the exact meaning, but I can be certain that these letters exist only in dragon language."

Dragons were an extremely mysterious existence among Cosmic Civilizations. Li Aoz could not recall which version they had appeared in—although his previous life's full set had used Void Dragons as its primary material, no one could clearly explain what dragon civilization was actually like.

"I can't touch this thing anymore. Dragon language is writing imbued with mysterious power. It might be inducing people to spend... or amplifying the desires in their hearts."

The former would be fine, but if it was the latter—

Since transmigrating, Li Aoz felt such an intense sense of crisis for the first time. He hated it when matters slipped beyond his control. In his previous life, people often said that Overlord Class players would rather give something up themselves than be controlled by others.

It seemed they had been right.

Li Aoz put away the last Teleki Exhibition Hall Admission Ticket. He decided to seal the thing away and never use it again. His mind and will took precedence over everything else; he would not allow anyone to violate them.

He glanced at Nomi. Her Favorability had dropped to 198. Nomi was still a fairly important frontliner and helper, so he needed to make it up to her quickly.

Ya Wen... looked fairly normal. She had some ability, but at heart, she was still just a college student fresh out of school.

Wanting to persuade and reform him was a little naive, but understandable. Kids fresh out of school always held overly rosy fantasies about society.

Especially those who came from Frostplate Civilization's institutions of higher education. In that kind of environment, their thoughts and experiences were completely different from those of ordinary people.

Most of them came out like white lotuses, young girls brimming with vitality and excessive faith in their country and tomorrow—if nothing unexpected happened, they would quickly discover that reality meant endless overtime and all kinds of difficult clients.

No matter how he looked at Ya Wen, she seemed like a pampered young lady who had never been beaten down by reality.

That made things interesting.

With that thought, Li Aoz carefully considered his wording and said in a deep voice, "Forgive me for speaking bluntly, but not one of the Four Nations is any good. Not one of them has survived to this day without sucking the blood of the people in small lower-tier nations. Seventy percent of why the Outland has become what it is today is due to natural disasters; the remaining thirty percent is absolutely the man-made disaster caused by you people who 'purify society.'"

Prompt: Nomi likes this—Favorability +7

Nomi Favorability: 205

Ya Wen tried her hardest to persuade him. "Li Aoz, the Emperor is merely an evil dictator. People have no way to enjoy fairness—"

"Fairness? Frostplate's so-called fairness is all fucking fabricated by those injustices!"