Whether they're alive or dead, no one knows?
Hearing this way of putting it,
the city lord's feelings were somewhat mixed.
It was true that whether they were alive or dead, no one knew.
But the ones whose fate hung in the balance were not this friend of his, but the lot who had provoked him.
Those two were already as dead as dead could be; the others who might be dragged into it were the ones whose fate truly hung in the balance.
"Ahem. Your friend shouldn't be in any danger. He's right over there. Please come with me." The city lord spoke to Sidon very politely.
The gentle tone was something Sidon himself had never expected.
Sidon looked dazed for a moment before he looked in the direction the city lord was pointing.
There Zhao Chen was waving to him.
"Old Zhao! You're out. You're all right? They didn't do anything to you, did they?" Sidon had no mind to wonder why the city lord had behaved that way just now.
He ran quickly over to Zhao Chen.
It was that form of address that made the expressions of the city lord and the system Executor slip a little out of their control.
Old Zhao?
You dare call him Old Zhao?
He's the august Emperor of the Fierce Dragon civilization.
And you call him Old Zhao!
The system Executor and the city lord both watched Zhao Chen somewhat nervously.
But Zhao Chen showed no sign of minding at all; instead he looked at Sidon with a smile and said, "I'm fine. I told you there was no need to worry about me. Why did you come all the way here yourself?"
"This all started because of us, after all. I couldn't just watch you be in danger." Sidon glanced at the system Executor standing beside Zhao Chen.
He knew the city lord, but the system Executor was not at a level he could come into contact with.
At most he felt this man before him looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere.
"All right. It's getting late. Hurry home. Everything's fine on my end; it's all gone very smoothly. I told you before, my connections are very solid." Zhao Chen patted Sidon on the shoulder.
Only then did Sidon breathe a sigh of relief: "I knew you were from the Governor's Office, but I never imagined your connections were this solid. Anyway, so long as nothing happened. Next time you run into something like this, it's better to be a bit more careful. If you kick against some iron plate, you're done for."
Connections this solid?
The system Executor and the city lord, listening to this conversation beside them, looked at each other.
The most solid connection present truly was him, but he was solid enough on his own; he himself was the master of the Fierce Dragon, the Fierce Dragon Emperor in person: who could have more solid connections than he did?
And what was this about being more careful next time and not kicking against an iron plate?
Before the Fierce Dragon Emperor, who would dare call himself an iron plate?
They must not know how to write the word death.
Still, they could see now that this man before them probably did not know this lord's identity.
Since the Fierce Dragon Emperor did not wish to say, there was naturally no need for them to speak out of turn.
Zhao Chen and Sidon chatted a few words, then said their goodbyes.
Sidon left, looking back every few steps.
Zhao Chen took Chu Xuan and the sleeping Nannan by shuttle back to the starship out in space.
Only then did the system Executor learn that in the region around the planet, a fleet thirty starships strong had actually been stationed.
Had the Fierce Dragon Emperor come to the slightest harm on this planet,
these starships would at once have turned this planet upside down.
Having seen off the Fierce Dragon Emperor,
the system Executor and the city lord could at last breathe a sigh of relief.
"Find somewhere for a late-night bite?" The city lord looked at the system Executor and shrugged.
His tone now was quite relaxed too, without the respect he had always shown the system Executor.
"Mm. While we still have the chance, let's eat something good; I expect we may really not get the chance for a while." The system Executor agreed.
The two did not even drive; they found a late-night eatery right next to the peace bureau, sat down and ordered a great many things in one go.
That food, in the eatery owner's eyes, would take at least ten people to finish.
Seeing what they had ordered, he kindly reminded them, worried the two could not finish it.
But the two paid first, saying they would take home whatever they could not finish.
Very soon the late-night food arrived.
The two drank and ate heartily.
"I expect the higher-ups will send people to investigate tomorrow," the system Executor said with a sigh.
"What do you have to worry about? You're the system Executor; this matter has little to do with you. I'm the one who should be worried. That fellow was one of my people," the city lord said, downing a cup of wine in one gulp.
"I'm mourning my prospects. I had hope of reporting to the Governor's Office in the second half of the year. Just a few days ago I was thinking about what to wear when I reported to the Governor's Office. Well, now I need not think about any of that. Whether I'll even keep wearing these clothes of mine now is anybody's guess," the system Executor said with a bitter smile.
"But strictly speaking, you had little part in this matter. They shouldn't hold you too accountable. Or could it be you have other dirty business?" The city lord looked at the system Executor teasingly.
The system Executor shot him a look and said, "What could I have done? At most, when people invite me to eat and drink, I don't refuse. When people send me beautiful women, I don't refuse. When someone wants to do business, I'll let slip some inside information. But anything that really crosses the line, I firmly won't do. But I don't know how hard the higher-ups will look this time. These things of mine could go light or heavy. Any other time, they probably wouldn't even look at it. But now I've run right into the muzzle of the gun."
"You're the lucky one. I expect I'm really in for it. If my luck's bad, I might even end up inside for a couple of years. I thought highly of that fellow, and covered for him a few times before too. Well, now I've got crap on my hands."
The city lord and the system Executor, like two fellow sufferers at the ends of the earth, had not been drinking long before they began weeping bitterly in each other's arms,
cursing all the while that damned father and son, who of all people had to land the two of them in this.
What rotten luck.
The next day,
the planet received an investigation team from the Governor's Office, which investigated officials at every level on the planet and scored them.
The investigation was mainly to see whether there had been serious breaches of discipline.
Over three days of investigation, two officials at city-lord level, five at deputy-city-lord level and a dozen-odd at department level were found to have committed serious breaches of discipline.
These breaches mainly involved cases with lives lost, cases touching on public safety, and the like.
It is worth mentioning that the city lord of the city Zhao Chen had visited was not on this list.
But he appeared on another list, of minor breaches of discipline.
There were rather more people on that list.
Those on this list would be given punishments of different degrees,
such as three months' suspension, during which they would be sent at random to work in some department at the bottom; if they did the work satisfactorily, they would return to their original posts.
As for the planet's Executor,
his final evaluation was a pass.
But several minor breaches of discipline were found,
and in the end he was required to be suspended for six months.
In the first month he would be sent to a mining planet as an overseer.
In the second month he would be sent to the Governor's Office as a low-level clerk.
In the third month he would be sent to a patrolling starship as a crewman.
For the last three months he would be sent to a random planet as a low-level worker.
Once he had completed these six months, he would be restored to his old post.
Such a punishment seemed somewhat severe to outsiders.
But the moment he received word of this punishment,
this system Executor, in his official residence, picked his wife up and spun round several times before he stopped, and his laughter, the laughter of a man who had come through a disaster alive, rang out for a long time.
And so the matter could be said to have come to a close for the time being.
Mr. Sidon believed from first to last that his friend called Old Zhao was an inspector from the Governor's Office, and that this strict investigation had most likely come because of him.
In his work afterward, he got several chances at promotion without difficulty.
Add to that, the administrative climate on this planet had improved enormously over before, and everyone's lives were much better too.
——————
One year after the war in which the Fierce Dragon civilization unified the five systems,
Zhao Chen looked at all the senior staff, who had all arrived.
"All right, everyone's here. Let me say a few words first. Over the past year, all our departments have worked together very well, so that every one of our star-system territories has developed very well. Our five systems' annual output value has so far exceeded our expectations, reaching an unprecedented five hundred billion star coins! At the same time, phase one of construction of the T3-grade shipworks has been completed in all five systems. Our annual T3-grade interstellar warship capacity can now reach fifteen thousand!"
"But considering our present annual output value, actual T3-grade interstellar output will probably be under ten thousand," Annie added at this point, raising her hand.
For that figure of fifteen thousand had been fixed on the basis of a single uniform T3 interstellar warship.
But in fact T3 interstellar warships came in different ship types.
Interstellar warships like T3 interstellar battleships and T3 carrier warships cost more to build and naturally took up more capacity.
So in the final reckoning, a year could meet the building needs of at most ten thousand T3 interstellar warships.
"At present our Fierce Dragon fleets have completely retired all T1-grade interstellar warships. The T2-grade interstellar warships have also been assigned to each system's local patrol fleets and home guard. Our Fierce Dragon fleets are already fleets with the T3-grade interstellar warship as their standard. We now have three thousand T3 interstellar warships and twenty T4 interstellar warships," Marshal Chu Xuan said beside him.
In just one year, the number and quality of interstellar warships had both risen at flying speed.
This was the help of having a great deal of star-system resources.
The Fierce Dragon civilization was itself a huge rocket that could fly very fast and very far; what it had lacked before was fuel.
And the four extra systems had given it a great deal of extra fuel,
letting it develop fast,
like a rocket blasting off.
"And the star-system probes we've launched have also had some results this year. Around our present five systems, we've fixed the coordinates of three systems. But whether there are civilizations inside these three systems, we can't yet confirm. For fear of alerting anyone, we haven't sent starships in to investigate," Secretary Officer Barbara said.
Zhao Chen nodded: "There's nothing wrong with being a bit cautious. And this is our plan for the second year too. Tell us about our plan for the second year."
Secretary Officer Barbara pulled up a document and went through it point by point: "First, within this year we're to upgrade the T3 shipworks within the Fierce Dragon civilization's territory to T4 grade across the board. And we're also to raise the five systems' total economic output value further, to the standard of three trillion star coins. By this time next year, our T4-grade interstellar warships are to be expanded to thirty times what they are now, that is, at least six hundred T4-grade interstellar warships. And there are to be thirty thousand T3 interstellar warships besides. Only that way will we count as having a true Fierce Dragon Legion fleet!"
Hearing this,
everyone was full of confidence.
It was as if the Fierce Dragon civilization once again had the blueprint of an empire.
"And next, our technological development is also to advance toward the T5 tech level. But considering that T5-grade technology needs more resources, this has to be combined with our second-year plan: to look for new star-system resources. First, we're to send interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships to scout those few systems already discovered and confirm whether there are civilizations in these systems, and whether there are resources. If civilizations and resources are found, we assess the degree of danger, and so decide whether to send fleets to conquer them. Besides that, we're also to launch probes farther still, to look for more systems not yet charted. In this second year we won't start a war on our own initiative. But if any system is found to threaten us, we'll draw up the relevant battle plans then. The time to truly begin outward war is in the third year, and only once our fleets are ready!"
When Secretary Officer Barbara had set out the second year's development plan, everyone gave their own views and added some things on that basis.
Zhao Chen sat there listening to the results of everyone's discussion.
He opened the Trial of the Gods page and glanced at how many Trial civilizations remained.
Fifteen years had passed since they entered this Trial of the Gods.
From a native civilization they had developed into a T4-grade technological civilization today.
And in the Trial of the Gods interface, the number of Trial civilizations remaining now showed as under fifty.
That meant half had already been eliminated.
And the odds of meeting other Trial civilizations next would be higher,
while running into some tough opponents could not be ruled out.
"Fifteen years. I wonder how much time has passed outside now. How are Charlotte and Lilith and the others doing now?" At this moment Zhao Chen could not help beginning to miss the people outside.
Probably because he was older now, and had reached a sentimental age.