A Civilization of Madmen

At an alien research facility on United Star, Angel Leng and six other angels were shocked to see Angel Yan and Angel Zhui stripped of their weapons and imprisoned in restraint devices like animals.

They were overcome with humiliation and fury, yet there was nothing they could do.

The Federation officials who had arrested and detained them, however, delivered their verdict with self-righteous authority:

"From the moment you set foot on United Star, you have violated thirty-seven regulations under the Federal Espionage Act."

"Your actions include, but are not limited to, attempting to secretly infiltrate Federation information networks and steal classified information; setting up private communications channels and communicating without Federation authorization..."

"For all these offenses, the Federation has the right to impose controls and penalties on you, strip you of all rights to life and liberty, and sentence you to permanent imprisonment."

"Furthermore, you will be demoted to Federation slaves and made public property. If you happen to escape, any Federal Citizen may punish you in any way they see fit."

"If you object, you may ask the Federation to submit a request to the civilization you represent."

"If your civilization is willing to pay a certain price to buy your freedom, you may be released afterward..."

"But the punishments imposed on you in the meantime will not be revoked."

When Angel Leng and the other Angel Warriors heard the verdict, they were stunned. They nearly exploded with rage and shouted:

"Bastards!"

They threw all thoughts of the angels' customary poise and aloofness before mortals straight out the window.

All they had done after entering United Star was try to use the Eye of Insight to scan and read some Dark Data.

After all, this planet and the Human Federation were so strange and unfamiliar that they'd instinctively wanted to learn more.

They never expected the Federation to arrest them as spies over something like that.

As if imprisoning them in this humiliating way weren't enough—

they were even going to make them slaves, subject to anyone's whims?

And the Angel Civilization would have to buy them back before they could be released?

What did these people take the sacred angels for?

They were desecrating the angels' divinity, and the justice they held in their hearts!

Angels had always been proud, seeing themselves as gods and embodiments of justice. They were accustomed to looking down on everyone else.

To Angel Leng, even the Human Federation officials standing before them were nothing but mortals.

Mortals who could operate powerful warships, and nothing more.

Under the Federation's information controls, she could read nothing special from them—nothing that set them apart from ordinary mortals in comparison to super-lifeforms like angels, who possessed Super Genes.

No Super Gene meant they were mortals!

In the face of this, Angel Leng's gaze turned icy. She clenched her teeth, anger surging through her.

For tens of thousands of years, the angels had roamed the Known Universe without restraint. On the planets of lower civilizations, they were either welcomed or worshipped.

Only a few lowly civilizations brainwashed by Demons would insult them and reject the angels' justice.

The Human Federation's actions were even more vile than those of civilizations brainwashed by Demons. It was simply outrageous.

Queen Keisha had sent them to investigate the strange events in the Milky Way, as well as the disappearance of Angel Yan and Angel Zhui, and to see if Demons were involved.

In the Milky Way, the angels had used the Silver Star System they'd planted there to observe a shocking scene.

The Chiwu Star System, which should have been under attack by the Taotie Fleet, had already been occupied by the Human Federation.

At the same time, more than a hundred massive fleets belonging to the Human Federation were striking out in every direction, expanding wildly across the entire Milky Way.

Under the Human Federation's iron heel, countless planets and civilizations cried out in anguish.

Some of them even worshipped the angels, and their suffering pained the angels deeply.

But the fleets controlled by the Human Federation were simply too powerful. Angel Leng and the others had no choice but to hold back.

After reporting the situation in the Milky Way to the Angel Nebula, they received Queen Keisha's orders: do your best to negotiate with the Human Federation.

Their specific mission was to quickly investigate the Human Federation, which had suddenly appeared in the Milky Way, and gather detailed intelligence on the civilization.

So in a way, the Federation officials hadn't falsely accused Angel Leng and the others.

From the Human Federation's perspective, what they'd done really was espionage.

Every Angel Warrior's Dark Plane Gene System was connected to the Sacred Knowledge Treasury.

Every piece of information they acquired was immediately sent back to the Angel Nebula.

If the Federation's information technology hadn't been so advanced, the angels would have stolen who knew how many secrets in private the moment they set foot on United Star.

"I'd advise you to release us and apologize as soon as possible. Otherwise, Queen Keisha—"

The Federation official didn't even bother to look at Angel Leng. He simply turned and walked away.

The angels were undeniably beautiful, but in the Human Federation's current moral system, beauty was as worthless as scrap paper.

To put it bluntly, in the eyes of Federation officials, these alien scum convicted of espionage were worth less than dogs.

Listening to them bark one more time would only pollute their brains.

The Federation officials' hostility toward outsiders wasn't without reason. In another universe, they'd paid dearly for their mistakes.

That was why they treated alien civilizations with the utmost severity, even when the aliens were diplomatic envoys.

As for whether their xenophobic behavior was too extreme, well, "morality is determined by the circumstances."

After all, in that other universe, they'd had no choice.

No matter what ideology they followed, if they weren't extreme, they'd end up mediocre. And mediocre peoples had little room to survive.

"Leng, I never thought you'd end up captured too..." In another restraint device, Angel Yan struggled to open her eyes, looking utterly drained.

"Yan? You..."

Angel Yan and Angel Leng had never gotten along, but seeing her in such a state still shocked Angel Leng. Her voice softened despite herself:

"What did they do to you?"

"You're Queen Keisha's Left-Wing Guardian, and they dared to—"

Angel Zhui, beside Angel Yan, had fared no better.

Angel Yan's beautiful face twitched. A rare look of despair crossed it as she said dejectedly:

"They deciphered my and Zhui's Angel Genes."

"They also forcibly stole all the data from our Dark Plane Gene Systems. We couldn't... stop them..."

The seven newly captured Angel Warriors stared in utter disbelief.

Their Super Genes had been deciphered, and the data from their Dark Plane Gene Systems had been leaked.

That meant they truly had no secrets left—and were of no use to anyone anymore.

What would happen to them now?

Death?

That might be the best possible outcome.

Angel Yan thought in despair.

With each experiment, she felt as though her soul had been ripped out of her body. Even after more than seven thousand years as a warrior, she could barely endure the double torment, physical and mental.

The Federation researchers working on them had casually mentioned that they'd once genetically altered an entire alien species and served them up for dinner.

They'd even reduced an entire species to unintelligent primitive animals, locked them in a massive structure called the "Alien Zoo" for people to gawk at.

The people of the Human Federation were mad. Their attitude toward alien civilizations and species was so cold it sent a chill down the spine.

The Human Federation behind them seemed like a civilization of madmen to Angel Yan as well.

Yet the Federation treated all of it as perfectly ordinary, and explained it to them without the slightest embarrassment:

In another universe, countless of their compatriots had suffered cruelties far worse than this.

The kind of universe you lived in shaped the kind of civilization you became.

They'd learned every cruelty from their enemies—and then successfully turned those methods against them.

Federal Citizens had no need to weigh what was right or wrong by some so-called moral code. That kind of nonsense meant nothing to them.

Their civilization needed only to follow the principle of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

In that other universe, humanity had to be a hundred times more ruthless than its enemies to secure enough room for the people behind them to survive.

Only civilizations that survived had the right to blather about being "just" and use that claim to seize even more benefits.

A dead people were nothing but rotting flesh, utterly worthless.

In the eyes of the strong, there was no place for the weak.

As far as these people were concerned, the angels had brought their fate upon themselves. They were alien scum, not members of the Human Federation, and pathetically weak besides.

Angel Yan felt utterly helpless.

The Order of Justice they'd held to, in the face of a civilization like this...

was, as that Federation Grand Marshal had said, an empty, childish joke.