Chapter 453: 452, Persuading Prime Minister Cao Cao to Surrender (Update 1/14)_1
“There’s no rush to figure out the terms, first let me show you something.” Donald Prunt said with a bright smile.
His mechanized armor blasted red lasers from its chest, arms, and legs. In the sky, they created majestic lines that formed a massive scroll nearly 50 meters long.
Cao Chengxiang fixed his gaze on it.
Lines on the scroll were very familiar, outlining a map of the Blue Star.
However, many elliptical circles on the world map looked like magnetic field lines, but they did not overlap with them. It was unclear what they were supposed to be.
“What does this mean?” Prime Minister Cao Cao asked.
“This is the ‘Gravity Funnel Plan’ that we are currently executing,” Prunt replied. “Let me explain to you what a ‘Gravity Funnel’ is…”
Then, Prunt proceeded to elaborate about the components, function, operation, and effects of the “Gravity Funnel” without holding anything back.
Listening to Prunt’s explanations, Cao Chengxiang’s face gradually darkened.
His right hand, clutching the sword hilt, began shaking subtly. “What do you people intend to do?!” He asked.
“Nothing. No need to get stirred up.” Even though Prunt kept his words polite, his expression was full of provocation as he raised his eyebrows at Cao Chengxiang.
“At the current stage, the ‘Gravity Funnel’ has been completed. Once all 3729 monsters are successfully produced, they will be released all at once, all directed to a single point on Blue Star.”
“If you join us, I’ll dump all these monsters onto other countries; if you refuse, then I’m afraid I’ll have to drop them onto your nation’s major cities. I bet the other two hundred or so nations on Blue Star will be thankful.”
“You!” Cao Chengxiang was furious.
Despite his reign being usurped by the Sima family, his descendants and his civilization still lived on this land.
Besides, he couldn’t trust the westerners. While some of them claimed loyalty to the Blue Star government on the surface, in private they sent their people to negotiate with the Giant Skru Base, trying to play both sides (Prunt had shown him similar videos to mock him; that’s how he knew this).
With Su Yu, a promising future pillar of the Huaxia Nation, and many of the world’s ancient powers gathered, it could be said that Huaxia was the greatest hope for Blue Star Humans!
How could he allow the nation’s land to be ravaged by over 3000 monsters at such a critical moment?
“Aren’t you afraid that I will detonate this glacier?” Cao Chengxiang, with his eyes bulging in rage, raised the sword hilt. Blue rune energy scattered from the sword.
In an instant, the solid ice began to crumble, causing the land to shake.
At this moment, the god-level of the Lun Kete Alliance — Victoria, the Shining Queen flew forward a few dozen meters, interrupting, “Mr. Cao, please cool down. Of course, we’re concerned about you exploding. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t have wasted so much time here, we could have just killed you outright!”
Cao Chengxiang didn’t reply, staring coldly at her.
Looking directly into Cao Chengxiang’s eyes, Victoria continued, “As long as you agree to join us, you don’t have to do much afterward. Just ensure you won’t stir up any trouble when we gain the upper hand.”
“Once we successfully conquer Blue Star, we can wipe out all humans besides those in your country. The people of your nation won’t have to go to Australia, they can remain on their own land. But we do need to build an isolation barrier at the border.”
“With you here, we won’t make any aggressive moves against your people and land. After all, you’re at the same god-level as we are; we would be foolish to take you on.”
“In the future, we may even have opportunities for cooperation. Our Skru Star has just connected to the interstellar network, and we need to help the Holy Silver Federation acquire more resources and pillage more planets to earn their favor.”
“When that time comes, we can cooperate to conquer other worlds, seize territories. Once we have enough territories, it is not impossible for us to return the entirety of Blue Star to you.”
“That’s all I have to say. The decision is now in your hands. I hope you’ll join us in recognizing the implications.”
Victoria finished speaking and floated in the sky, watching Cao Chengxiang and waiting for his reply.
However, for a moment Cao Chengxiang was unsure how to respond.
Victoria seemed serious, and the Skru could feasibly have such a plan.
But Cao Chengxiang was aware that he couldn’t opt for appeasement. If he did, the morale of all Blue Star humans would be completely destroyed, and the frontline would collapse.
If the Skru betrayed them in that situation, humanity would be completely doomed!
What should he respond with?
Cao Chengxiang fell into deep contemplation.
Prunt and the other four god-level beings patiently floated in the sky, waiting.
…
After carefully weighing the pros and cons, Cao Chengxiang looked at the five god-level beings and said seriously, “Fine, I agree to join you.”
He had finally reached a decision.
The most crucial step now was to—preserve hope.
It was unlikely that the Huaxia nation could handle the onslaught of 3729 monsters. Even if they successfully fended them off, it would leave them severely weakened.
Preserving the Huaxia nation was equivalent to preserving hope for the Blue Star humans!
Furthemore, after joining the Skru, he could leverage his abilities to learn about internal affairs.
If the worst came to the worst, he could renege on his agreement just before the major battle. What was his reputation worth?
Considering all these factors, he decided to join the Skru and take one step at a time.
…
“Fantastic, welcome to the team!” Prunt flew towards Cao Chengxiang and extended his arms as if to embrace him warmly.
However, Cao Chengxiang’s expression hardened, drawing a 10-meter radius circle with his sword hilt on the ground, keeping Prunt out of it.
Manina XIII, who was watching the live broadcast, also looked pleased. “I didn’t expect things to go so smoothly! I thought we would be at an impasse for a while!”
Chief of Intelligence, Xi Weng, asked in a pleasing manner, “But Your Majesty, aren’t you worried about this human called Cao Cao betraying you in the future?”
“Not at all. Haven’t I told you? By the time he betrays us, we would have already milked his value dry,” Manina flippantly replied.
“And after he sees our real strength, his desire to betray us will definitely weaken. That’s because we have absolute confidence in our power.”
“Alright then.” Manina got up and said to Xi Weng, “Tell Li Hua (the translator captured and brainwashed by the Skru) to translate the entire process into Chinese, and broadcast it on Blue Star, so all humans there can see it!”
“Understood!” Xi Weng responded immediately.
But then, Xi Weng seemed to recall something and asked, “Your Majesty, according to reliable intelligence, the Third Imperial Prince of the Makadun Kingdom has ascended to the Sanctuary and is planning to overthrow the current regime. Should we intervene?”
“The Makadun Kingdom.” Manina’s eyebrows furrowed, “We couldn’t care less about such a small nation. We need to focus on Cao Cao and Su Yu for now.”
If it had been before, Manina might have concerned himself with the internal affairs of their neighboring small nations.
But now, he didn’t have that much energy to spare. Those small nations could do what they pleased, as long as they stayed within the Empire’s control.