The Situation

An elderly man named Rickon was lying on a deck chair on the beach. His colorful fisherman's hat covered his weathered face and also helped to shield him from the starlight.

He must have been here for quite some time; the light blue skin of the Riken Race has turned bluish-brown from the sun.

A faint engine sound came from nearby. Middle-aged Rickon slightly lifted the brim of his hat and saw two Gunboat fly overhead. He was puzzled; this wasn't a place for military Gunboat. Had something happened?

He then laughed self-deprecatingly, saying it was none of his business. He had been retired for a long time, and the events that had occurred during his term had left him, still in his prime, exhausted. He voluntarily resigned from his other positions and began a life of leisure.

He hadn't paid attention to what was happening outside for a long time and had no idea what had been going on lately. Of course, he thought it was fine; he'd gone from tall to short, so why worry about anything? Wasn't it better to just soak up the sun?

Suddenly, a series of footsteps approached. Rickon, who usually comes to the beach here, is either barefoot or wearing flip-flops, so it's rare for him to make such heavy footsteps.

The sound grew closer and closer. This place was deserted, and he was the only person in this direction. Combined with the military Gunboat he had just seen, a bad premonition rose in his heart.

The footsteps stopped beside him.

"As expected." Although his eyes were covered by the hat, he already knew that the other party was coming for him.

He pulled back his hat, sat up, and looked at the three fully armed Ricken soldiers standing beside him. A bitter smile appeared on his lips as he said self-deprecatingly, "How long has it been? What major event has occurred? Even Antonio couldn't hold on and needed this old man to step in?"

"Lord Delrin, please." The three Riken soldiers, the officer in charge, did not answer Delrin's question, but simply shook his head and gestured for him to proceed.

Delrin sighed and didn't ask any more questions. If a soldier didn't want to answer, asking was pointless; he'd find out eventually when they got there anyway.

He got up, brushed the sand off his clothes, straightened his clothes, put on his fisherman's hat, nodded to the leading officer, and followed them toward the Gunboat.

Indeed, this middle-aged man, Ricken, was none other than the previous Speaker, His Excellency Delrin. He was already aware of his fate, and therefore quite at ease.

After he stepped down, he resigned from his post. Although he had accumulated some savings during his years as speaker, his life of leisure was also very expensive, and he had long since spent it all over the decades.

Just when he was down on his luck, the newly appointed Antonio found him and offered him a well-paid, sinecure, a job with two six-month breaks a year.

With this job, he was able to accumulate the funds for a carefree life. But he understood that there is no love without a reason, and Antonio's help was not out of any emotion towards his senior, but rather to buy a card.

Both were shrewd individuals who had reached the pinnacle of power. Although they said nothing, everything was understood without words. Therefore, he accepted the job and salary with a clear conscience.

Now, it's clear that it's time for his card to come in handy.

Antonio delivered a national televised address, acknowledging that the events described in the documents did indeed occur and declaring a three-day mourning period to commemorate the innocent deaths in the Trimble District.

The incident resulted in the deaths of millions of Riken, a truly horrific number. In comparison, the Riken Race had been fighting the Swarm for decades, and the number of Riken who died in that incident was less than 20%.

However, after saying this, he changed his tone and shifted all the blame to the previous parliament, stating that the information had been hidden and that he was completely unaware of it, only discovering it after it was leaked online and he conducted an investigation.

His words and actions completely absolved him of any responsibility.

At the same time, those directly responsible were pushed out. One of them, General Munro, was either lucky or unlucky. During the second battle to defend Laze Planet, his ship was among the dozens of warships destroyed in the first wave of attacks when they fled Laze Planet. The warship was smashed to pieces on the spot, and he himself disappeared without a trace, most likely already dead.

The highest-ranking member remaining is former Speaker Delrin. Although the enraged crowd wished he could be hanged on the spot, according to procedure, he will undergo a fair trial to determine his fate.

Of course, the entire trial process was open to the public.

Although this charade slightly quelled public anger and allowed Antonio to escape the quagmire temporarily, the key issue lies in what follows.

Because other information was released again.

In the conflict with the Zerg, the Riken Race only won the first Battle of Laze Planet. Although it was later analyzed that this victory was actually a deliberate act by the Zerg, and that the Zerg achieved their own strategic objectives, there are differing opinions on who truly won the war.

But the Riken Race military clearly couldn't give up this one and only victory, because they had no other notable achievements to boast about.

Now even this last layer of concealment has been exposed. Fortunately, this war is controversial, so as long as one is thick-skinned enough, it's not easy to refute the claim of victory.

In the past, we could rely on this victory to promote ourselves repeatedly, while downplaying other losses. For example, we could say that Laze Planet was abandoned because the supply route was too long and costly, and in order to save resources and use military funds more efficiently.

For example, Chuyun Planet was not suitable for building a defensive system. Even if a weak defense were built, it would be a waste of resources and irresponsible to the lives of soldiers. Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, it was voluntarily abandoned.

When promoting their only victory, they also heavily promoted and touted the Wenwu Twin Stars defense system, producing dozens of documentary-style explanatory videos. The massive steel defense line made the Riken proud.

If the Swarm were a conventional adversary, this steel defense line should have been as effective as advertised, keeping the enemy billions of kilometers away. Unfortunately, although the Riken Race possessed Ancient Spaceship reverse propulsion technology, making them a protagonist template, Rowan was simply overpowered.

The Swarm's massing of troops on Chuyun Planet is not due to being blocked by the Ironclad Defenses, but rather a silent mass production of soldiers...

Although Ricken and his supporters already knew about these things, they didn't have detailed data. However, the documents released by the opposition presented all the relevant data, along with explanatory videos, so there was no doubt that Ricken and his supporters would understand the meaning of these numbers.

Indeed, Rickens understood it.

Previously, his mind was still burning with anger because of the meteorite impact, but now it felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over it, and a bone-chilling coldness enveloped his heart. Fear spread from the Wenwu Binary Star Defense Line to the Mother Planet of Ricken.

If there were an evil god from a fantasy world who draws power from absorbing negative emotions here, he might be able to level up several times in an instant. Fortunately, there are no such things in this world.

Thank you to Yixiang Meijian Xinyiran for the 1500 Qidian Coins reward, thank you to Book Guest Good Brother the 100 Qidian Coins reward, and thank you to Pili Zhutian the 100 Qidian Coins reward.