I Always Trust the Governor

Hodgson called for a show of hands, but the room remained silent.

The councilors looked at one another, none willing to be the first to commit.

Hodgson grew impatient.

He pointed a finger at a middle-aged man: "You have a large stake in the food trade, you speak first."

The man pointed out by the council chairman was Councilor Vaughan.

He stood up, throwing caution to the wind: "We cannot accept the Governor's demands; it is too much! He has done nothing for us, yet he demands supplies from us time and again! Last time, it was to provide for the servants he brought with him, and the burden of those three thousand people was already heavy enough. This time is even more outrageous! One hundred tons of food! Ten thousand textile items! Does our Governor even understand what these quantities actually mean?!"

"But we must obey the Governor's orders," another person said helplessly. "Otherwise, we will be branded as rebels, and his Macro-cannon does not reason with anyone. We... we cannot afford to lose the supplies aided by the Empire, nor can we lose interstellar trade; all of these require the Governor's signature to proceed."

Vaughan sneered and said: "You made your fortune as a broker for Blackbird Heavy Industries and value your trade quotas, so of course you are eager to lick the Governor's boots, regardless of whether the economy of Revival City can withstand it."

The person called out immediately retorted: "You have been hoarding grain for two months, just waiting for winter to drive up the prices. The grain sent to the Governor will have to come from your inventory, and you're just upset it's cutting into your profits, aren't you? You are the one who is disregarding the Governor's orders and exposing Revival City to the Macro-cannon!"

Seeing that the councilors were about to descend into another argument, Hodgson had to slam his hand on the table once more.

"Enough, stop arguing." Hodgson's aged voice rang out. "I asked you to vote, not to debate your reasons. I only want an answer. Think carefully before you vote: if you give, consider where these supplies will be allocated from; if you don't, consider what will happen to the interstellar trade quotas, the Imperial aid quotas, and the threat of orbital bombardment. Now, vote. Those who agree to comply with the Governor's orders, raise your hands. Those who do not raise their hands are counted as dissenting; there are no abstentions."

After speaking, he raised his hand in resignation.

With him taking the lead, the other councilors, hesitant and unwilling, eventually raised their hands one by one.

In the end, even Vaughan, who had previously been shouting about whether the Governor understood the scale of one hundred tons of grain and ten thousand textiles, had no choice but to raise his hand.

This drew a scoff from someone nearby.

He couldn't refute it, so he could only mutter: "What else can we do? Are we really going to give up our quotas? Damn it... this Governor is truly absurd. Why can't he just stay put in Revival City? If he did, we would have at least nineteen ways to make him behave..."

"Watch your tongue!" Hodgson barked with a raspy voice.

The man shut his mouth obediently, though his eyes remained defiant.

After the meeting, Hodgson sat in his wheelchair and was pushed back to his room by a young man.

The young man did not leave, but reported a matter: "Grandfather, after the meeting, Vaughan gathered his supervisors and contacted several mercenary brokers."

"He wouldn't dare act against the Governor; he cannot afford the price."

"But perhaps he might target the cargo that is about to be shipped out of Revival City."

Hearing this, Hodgson said expressionlessly: "Let him be. He will bear the consequences himself. Just keep a close watch on him and his people to see exactly what they do."

"I am worried he will provoke the Governor and bring disaster upon Revival City."

"Sigh..." Hodgson sighed. "What else can be done? I am the council chairman, but I am merely a council chairman. Even if I know about this, how am I supposed to stop Vaughan?"

His voice sounded somewhat desolate.

Instead, his grandson, the young man standing behind him, comforted him: "On the first day the Governor arrived, he publicly declared his manifesto, saying he wanted to rebuild the wasteland and let everyone live a good life. He shouldn't be so easily provoked into venting his anger on all of Revival City and doing something irrational."

"Heh." Hodgson chuckled, his voice dry and raspy.

"Do you not trust this new Governor?"

"No, I will always trust the Governor." Hodgson waved his hand. "Only the Governor can save Nuxiao Planet."

However, there was a second half to his thought that he did not share with his grandson:

"I just don't know if it is this Governor."

Gu Hang received the reply from Revival City, stating that they had agreed to his demands but needed eight days to transport the specified supplies.

He was slightly surprised; they had agreed more easily than he expected. He had anticipated quite a bit of pushback.

But it didn't matter. Although the outcome he had hoped for didn't occur, the supplies were real, so it wasn't a loss.

It was still early, so he didn't dwell on the matter further.

Yan Fangxu should be returning soon, as Gu Hang had already seen the combat summary interface pop up on his system.

[Decisive Victory, gained 1 Favor]
[Losses: 0, Eliminated: 45, Captured: 13]
[1st Servitor Battalion - 1st Company: Losses: 0, Eliminated: 38]
[Marine Corps: Losses: 0, Eliminated: 7]

Earlier, he had sent Yan Fangxu to lead the team to wipe out the remnants of the Prisoner-Dead, where only a small number of stragglers and the elderly, weak, women, and children remained.

As expected, with the total annihilation of the enemy, his own men suffered no losses.

Following Gu Hang's orders, all the remaining Prisoner-Dead were to be executed.

Gu Hang did not intend to give any path of survival to these cannibals and human traffickers.

Their bodies would be hung in their destroyed camp, and with their blood, a warning would be written:

"The Fate of Cannibals!"

As for receiving only 1 point of Favor after the battle, it was within his expectations. The enemy was too weak; he hadn't expected much of a reward.

He didn't pay it any mind.

After Yan Fangxu returned, he still had new tasks to assign to that captain of the Marine Corps.

Afterward, he went to check on his two Black Box Fabricators.

These two machines were situated not far from the camp, guarded by dedicated Servitor soldiers and enclosed within a makeshift factory building. Aside from authorized workers, no one else was allowed to enter.

When Gu Hang arrived, both machines were in operation.

A batch of ore previously transported from the Waste Mine Society had already arrived.

The ore was fed into the intake by workers, and the Black Box Fabricators began their work. A series of noisy sounds emanated from them—it seemed to be the sound of friction, vibration, and high-temperature processing, though it wasn't particularly loud.

The material fed into the Black Box Fabricator underwent a series of mysterious and unknowable changes, eventually forming high-quality Alloy Plasteel, which was then spat out from the output chute.

The gleaming alloy ingots perfectly showcased their strength and toughness; the alloy produced directly by the Black Box Fabricator was an excellent material.

The workers waiting nearby would then proceed to carry this produced Alloy Plasteel into the intake of another manufacturing machine.

Following that, the Mother Machine Black Box also began to work, and after a short while, an important component for building a smelting furnace was spat out from the output chute and hauled by the workers to the other side of the warehouse.

A fair number of parts were already piled up there, some large and cast in one piece, others small but highly precise.

Once sorted and stored properly, they would wait to be transported back to the Waste Mine Society, where they could be assembled on-site into smelting furnaces capable of producing Alloy Plasteel.

Gu Hang was very satisfied.