Sea Wolf, central bridge.
"As of today, a total of 3,231 Earth citizens have received 'third sequence' enhancement. All enhancement effects have fallen within our assessment parameters, and no side effects have been detected so far.
"Additionally, as you ordered, 53% of the enhanced citizens are Earth Defense Force officers. The rest are individuals with distinguished contributions or core members of accomplished teams," Codename reported.
"Good. Control the approval ratio for enhancement applications and keep it at its current level." Nie Yun nodded.
"Is this meant to maintain a balance of power between the military and civilians?" Codename sounded thoughtful.
Nie Yun nodded. "Warriors break prohibitions with force; scholars undermine laws with words. Only mutual 'respect and fear' can keep power from falling out of balance."
Nie Yun had every reason to be cautious. The Second Prince's example showed that Mental Power awakened by intelligent beings was undoubtedly a double-edged sword.
And its inward-facing edge was sharper than its outward-facing one!
Could Mental Power destroy fleets?
The facts had shown that it was difficult, unless one reached the level of a superindividual like Nie Yun or the Long-Lived One.
But when used against one's own kind, it was virtually impossible to guard against.
If third sequence enhancement became widespread, there was no guarantee that the billions of humans would not produce a "rare specimen" like the Second Prince, threatening the entire civilization's ruling order.
That was by no means impossible.
"If you're worried about the harm Mental Power could cause, Boss, why not restrict its development like the Wulf Empire does?" Codename asked.
Nie Yun shook his head. "And then what? Would monopolizing that power really make everything foolproof?"
The Wulf Empire had tried to monopolize that power, yet wasn't it still on the brink of a "superpower crisis"?
Besides,