268 Public Servants (Meaning Oligarchs)
The second half of the live broadcast, while seemingly a reconciliation between the government and student representatives with promises to resolve students' employment issues and full oversight and transparency, actually turned into a marketing campaign for Lioz's public image. The public saw it this way: the president is indeed not an unknown figure after all.
How outstanding was Lioz? According to the wise political view of the Tower Clan's traditional thinking: Lioz was an undergraduate of the best school in the Crystal Tower - White Candle Star Interstellar University, and then went on to study for a postgraduate degree.
And it looks pretty good too.
Moreover, Lioz twice turned the tide and saved White Candle Star, making him a true war hero. He sheltered many refugees and was incredibly kind-hearted.
Moreover, she is quite pretty and well-proportioned.
Moreover, Lioz bought the planet and all its inhabitants, but instead of directly ascending to the throne as emperor, he became an Industrialists and president, and was so kind and courteous to the people.
And he's handsome.
In other words...
He is both literate and martial, and is very handsome.
Such a person, with first-rate civil and military achievements, abundant wealth, and handsome appearance, judging from his actions, is definitely not a tyrannical ruler who acts arbitrarily.
The occasional glimpses of Lioz's personal photos in the background further boosted public goodwill towards Lioz.
After a live stream, Li Aoz fame, fortune, and popularity, without spending much money.
In fact, he didn't even need to appear in person. In the past few days, he even had time to remotely discuss some details of the interstellar cruise mission with the Crystal Tower.
The main task was to have Li Aoz's fleet responsible for defending against the Night Butterfly Federation's infiltration.
Everything else was pleasant, except when it came to the topic of compensation, the Crystal Tower Civilization immediately became awkward.
They had just sold planets and harvested a batch of Ammonium Gold, so they weren't really willing to spend foreign exchange right now.
As for Dina, Li Aoz would only need her to pay his civil servants' salaries; otherwise, she would be of little use to him. Besides, Li Aoz wanted to enter the interstellar market and join the Abyss Layer Trade Bank organization.
Besides, even if we give him Dina, he'll still end up spending money in the Crystal Tower's market anyway.
With the flawed interstellar industry of the White Candle Autonomous State, compared to the Crystal Tower, a third-rate civilization, they can only expect a trade deficit year after year! Even if you gave him Dina, Li Aoz wouldn't really want to spend her.
After a long discussion, relying on Li Aoz's charm, the Crystal Tower's high-level meeting meticulously negotiated for a period of time and simply compensated Li Aoz two uninhabited rocky planets.
It can be used as a central hub for traveling to the Kiju Star Region.
The goods were quite tangible, and after some consideration, Li Aoz decided to accept the contract, figuring he could make a small profit.
It's unclear when it started, but a certain idea began to spread throughout the vast, layered universe.
Those who venture into the sea of stars sing praises of 'progress' and 'ideals,' but in reality, their actions are meaningless.
History moves forward, but its core essence remains unchanged.
Neutron Radiation swept across the battlefield, it represented the 677 employees in the alien factory working day and night to produce.
When a mage who changed his fate by taking exams stepped into the universe, he wielded his staff to control the trajectory of meteorites, using them to wipe out the workers and farmers on another land.
Magic polluted their water sources, and fireballs burned their unfinished homes to ruins.
As children walk across the scorched earth and throw their paper airplanes, will they be overturned and submerged by the winds of gunfire and magic? People keep coming to dissuade the expedition plan. For the unknown star field, people have no desire to go forward. As the inhabitants of an academic planet, they have had enough of serving the war. The Galaxy Eye Meat Grinder has taken away countless husbands, children, mothers and daughters from families.
Therefore, when the Lioz government announced the start of the first phase of the expedition and began to intensify exercises and training, more people raised questions and objections.
"Inflation every year, and you still want to fight a war? What's the point of conquering it? To let them live the same life as us? How merciful."
"A wealthy oligarch buys up a planet and then hypocritically claims to be a president who protects the people."
"I will never serve Lioz, and I would rather die than invade someone else's land."
Although the educational resources of White Candle Star have disappeared, the rich academic atmosphere of that time has been preserved. Among all groups, Intellectuals are inherently anti-war, because they are well aware that war will lower the status of Intellectuals, destroy the academic environment, and that the war mobilization environment will only affect the research and creation of Intellectuals.
This is true.
However, no matter how much the academics cheered, they could not stop more and more people from joining the expedition.
Because Li Aoz's core interest group has never been Intellectuals.
First of all, strictly speaking, every flower and tree on this planet belongs to him.
Secondly, Li Aoz is an oligarch, Li Aoz the real economy, and many companies have to rely on Li Aoz.
His interest group of supporters includes Industrialists, immigrants, and now ordinary citizens.
Especially with the large influx of Gamma-rank Azure Planet players into the army, who enthusiastically participated in expedition training missions, the army has effectively become a force in the hands of Li Aoz.
After the Crystal Tower Civilization withdrew, the army of White Candle Star is now in dire straits.
That's compared to Interstellar Civilization. Even if White Candle Star had pulled ahead before, it would still have been able to enter the top 30,000 of the Abyss.
Currently, on the entire planet White Candle Star, there is only one Zeta-rank Li Aoz, which is equivalent to one in several thousandths of the total.
Even so, that's enough to leave 80 percent of planetary civilizations in the universe behind.
Civilizations develop slowly by nature. In the universe, the structure of civilizations is a typical pyramid, with fewer civilizations at the top. When Li Aoz was still organizing expeditions, many civilizations hadn't even developed feudalism.
In today's military composition, two-thirds of the personnel are players, especially in the army, where players make up as much as 80% of the workforce.
The remaining third consisted of nationalist soldiers and local elites (pilots and air knights) from the planet White Candle Star. They were highly skilled technical personnel who decided to continue joining the expedition out of love for their homeland and for the sake of more practical benefits.
Players are born war fanatics, and they are incredibly enthusiastic about signing up for the Great Expedition, especially now that version 1.99 has been released and the official events are almost over, leaving the game in a lull.
At this time, Li Aoz announced that players in the Yanxia Zone could not only come to White Candle Star to play and experience the fun of Magic Civilization, but also participate in interstellar exploration activities.
This move sparked intense envy among players on other servers, who felt as if they'd been bitten by a lemon dipped in vinegar. Many players from other servers flocked to their home forums to express their jealousy, with some even offering to physically switch servers to experience the privileged treatment afforded to players in the Yanxia Zone."
In a short time, the abundance of content led to a surge in the number of players in the Yanxia Zone, which in turn caused a sharp increase in the number of players immigrating from White Candle Star Azure Planet. New Gamma-rank players from Azure Planet were arriving at the immigration hall every day.
Due to the ongoing anti-terrorism war and civil wars on Azure Planet, these Gamma-rank who emerged from the frigid lands of Azure Planet are all battle-hardened veterans. Training them is much easier and less demanding. Even if some players cannot take up combat positions, they can go to the cities and rural areas of White Candle Star.
The massive influx of young and strong men is gradually injecting vitality into White Candle Star, but the current situation is not enough to stimulate economic recovery. Li Aoz is an industrialist whose main sources of income are the Biochemical Center, the bio-equipment factory, the Aoneng Training Academy, and related supporting industries.
In short, the main employment directions offered by Li Aoz are: biology, chemistry, environment, and materials.
In the fields of mechanical manufacturing, electrification, artificial intelligence, and the Internet, the local private enterprises on White Candle Star are still importing Crystal Tower technology at high prices, as the immigrants from the original planet Azure Planet do not have expertise in these areas.