"In just two months, once the Eastern Kingdom decided to enter the fray, the entire water world changed."
In international politics and military affairs, the Eastern Kingdom was an exception among Earth's major powers. Unlike those countries whose bark was worse than their bite, they generally acted without talking.
"We don't need publicity. At least, not before we succeed."
In a sense, this was determined by their system. Many Western nations, such as Flower Flag, practiced electoral politics. They needed achievements and prestige in exchange for votes, which was why many major strategic decisions looked absurd and shortsighted in retrospect. It was perfectly normal for the next administration to overturn the previous one's decisions. Some successors even spent more than half their terms overturning their predecessors' greatest historical achievements.
This was not a discussion of the merits of different systems. It was simply that a relatively stable government and development strategy held an overwhelmingly obvious advantage in long-term development and planning.
The development of the Nirvana Era further magnified this reality. When Western countries developed a world, major corporations usually rushed in all at once, followed by private individuals and small teams—complete free competition, complete market warfare.
Sounded great? When rations sold for astronomical prices and ordinary medicine was charged by the microgram, no matter how much small and mid-sized teams earned, they were still working for the Great White Sharks.
In the end, it was still winner-takes-all. Without regulation, "healthy competition promotes development" would, ninety-nine percent of the time, evolve into "monopolists devour everything," with one or several major conglomerates reaping eighty or ninety percent of the profits.
And that was only part of it. The most fatal issue was that work with no immediate returns—such as infrastructure, diplomacy, communication with local residents, and exploration of local resources—either went