After making the decision, Olivia felt an unprecedented sense of relief.
She began to outline the outline of the unknown world in her mind - stars, battleships, magic, and endless conquests. It was a stage that could hold all her ambitions.
Of course, before that, she must first deal with the "posthumous affairs" of this world.
"After seeing your fleet, I have always had a question."
Olivia looked at Ian with inquiry in his eyes, "Since you have such overwhelming force, why don't you conquer the world directly? For you, this should be easy."
"Am I this kind of war madman in your mind?" Ian made an exaggerated expression of hurt.
Seeing that Olivia was unmoved and still staring at him coldly, Ian stopped teasing and raised three fingers:
"There are three reasons."
"First, the return on investment is too low. Except for Alchemy, there are no resources in this world that I can covet. And I have already obtained the knowledge about Alchemy. Back to the Arcane Empire, with the wisdom of crowdfunding from a population of 50 billion, we can push Alchemy to a height that no one in this world can imagine."
"Second, Empire's current strategic focus is not on external expansion. You have to eat your food one bite at a time. If you take too big a step, it will easily lead to trouble."
"It makes sense." Olivia nodded, "But that shouldn't be the main reason, right? You seem to be an extremely cautious person."
"Bingo."
Ian hit the Snap, and his expression became serious.
"The third and most important reason - there are 'protectors' in this world."
"Protector?" Olivia was in disbelief, "Who can protect this world from that kind of destructive interstellar weapon?"
"God. Or... the pan-consciousness of the universe."
Ian pointed to the top of his head and said in a heavy tone, "In this world, there is a high-dimensional entity. If I really launch a fleet to wash the land unscrupulously, that existence may completely wipe out me and my fleet in an instant."
"Are you serious?"
"Extremely serious."
Ian sighed. Among all the possible time travel options, he happened to come to this world where "Truth" was sitting. This feeling of having a Sword of Damocles hanging over his head made him very unhappy.
Of course, as a mage who suffers from severe phobia of lack of firepower, although Ian does not want to provoke Truth, he will never sit still and wait for death.
Deep in his Mind Palace, a defense and counterattack plan against "Truth" has already been formulated.
Plan A: Void Detonation. He carried five Void Cores handmade by his wife Rowena·Ravenclaw. Once detonated, the antimatter Annihilation produced would be enough to tear apart the structure of space.
Plan B: Origin Wall Breaching. This is an even crazier move. He developed a forbidden technique that can forcibly cut a hole in the "Origin Wall" of the world and guide the Void Energy from outside the universe to pour in. According to the Arcane Empire's research, Void Energy is extremely corrosive and can conceptually dismantle the "physical laws" and "Divine Authority" of a universe. Although this trick is extremely difficult to control (he and Rowena almost destroyed the earth because of it), dragging the entire world with him is also a deterrent when life and death are at stake.
Plan C: Memetic Erasure. Based on Truth's wise saying "I am one, I am all", Ian speculates that Truth is the collection of all life consciousnesses. If a spiritual network covering the whole world could be constructed, and through the Philosopher's Stone increase, humans all over the world could be forced to "deny" the existence of Truth at the same time, or cut off the link with Truth... then this "omniscient and omnipotent" God would most likely fall to Divine Altar or even disintegrate directly due to the loss of observers.
Of course, these crazy plans are only in the theoretical stage for now.
Ian is not sure whether Truth has read his mind. Although he has a high-level mental barrier left by Merlin, it is still unknown whether this layer of defense can block Truth's level of rape.
After listening to Ian's description of "god", Olivia breathed a sigh of relief.
Although she does not believe in God, it is somewhat comforting to know that her world is protected by some kind of power and will not be destroyed like an ant by an alien fleet.
In the following days, the inertia of the plot showed amazing restorative power.
Briggs Fortress welcomed an uninvited guest - Homunculus Sloth (lazy).
This giant monster responsible for digging the underground tunnel of Nationwide Land Transmutation Circle accidentally dug through the floor of Citadel.
Facing this kind of monster with almost full physical defense and super regenerative ability, Olivia showed impressive command skills. Instead of confronting the enemy head-on, she took advantage of the unique climate in the north to command the tank troops to force Sloth into the elevator shaft, then poured aviation fuel into it and drove it outdoors.
In the extremely cold wind and snow of dozens of degrees below zero, the water in Sloth's body quickly froze, eventually turning into an ice sculpture that could not move.
Immediately afterwards, Lieutenant General Raven from Central City arrived at Citadel with the Alchemy division of Red Lotus Kimblee.
This is a political game full of lies.
Olivia perfectly played the image of a greedy and ambitious warlord, successfully defrauded the trust of Lieutenant General Raven, and obtained information about "Immortal Army" and "immortality".
After finishing these complicated matters, Olivia found Ian who was drinking tea leisurely in Citadel.
"Is the eternal life you mentioned before also achieved by using Philosopher's Stone?"
Olivia got straight to the point, with a hint of questioning in his tone, "In other words, with the life of a living person?"
"Yes."
Ian put down the teacup and admitted frankly, "Are you a germaphobe about this?"
"As a ruler, if you can't even protect your own people, but instead have to devour them to survive..." A trace of disgust flashed in Olivia's eyes, "Then you don't deserve to have power."
"Your outlook on life is very upright, I appreciate it very much."
Ian smiled, "But you can rest assured that Arcane Empire has long abandoned that primitive and bloody method. Most of the raw materials for Philosopher's Stone we use now are clones or non-intelligent creatures."
"Clone?" Olivia recalled the knowledge that Ian instilled in her, which was about the technology of replicating life on a large scale.
"And, if you really mind using Philosopher's Stone, Empire has other life-extending methods."
Ian continued, "Genetic engineering alone can give humans a natural life span of 1,000 years. With the iteration of technology, this number will increase."
"Wait..."
Olivia keenly captured the data discrepancy, "I remember that in the information you gave me, Empire the average life span of a citizen is 200 years old?"
"That's the 'Fawley Edition' for ordinary citizens."
Ian's tone became matter-of-fact, revealing a cold fairness, "And the 1000-year 'Exclusive Edition' is only provided to senior executives and elites who have made significant contributions to the Empire."
"That sounds unfair."
"No, this is the greatest fairness."
Ian stood up, walked to the window and looked at the snowy sky:
"In the Arcane Empire, the upward path is open to everyone. As long as a citizen works hard enough and makes substantial contributions to society and the development of civilization, he can be promoted and gain a longer life and better resources."
"On the other hand, if a person has made no achievements and is just lying on the Empire's Fawley system waiting to die... then 200 years of carefree, disease-free, and food and clothing life is already a great blessing from the Emperor."
"Do you still expect me to use precious resources to support a group of worthless rice worms for a thousand years?"
Olivia was silent.
As Northern Queen who believes in the law of "the weak eats the strong", she found that she was unable to refute this theory.
Even... she thinks this theory makes sense.