Chapter 775.2: Ripple Effect

On North Street in Dawn City, the lobby of the Highway Town Hotel was bustling around the bar.

The guests eating breakfast there were watching the television beside the counter.

For the survivors of Dawn City, who had already begun using controlled-fusion power, televisions were hardly remarkable. However, their widespread adoption had occurred only recently.

Several traditional media organizations that had developed through newspapers and radio had begun expanding into new lines of business. In addition to reading newspapers, ordinary people now had the new option of watching televised news.

Before that, most of the local survivors’ viewing devices had been tablets modified from VMs, while the VMs themselves had mainly been produced through black boxes.

Nowadays, VMs no longer needed to be manufactured through black boxes. The industrial district of Dawn City had not only achieved mass production, but had also iterated through several generations.

As a result, players had begun using new wrist-mounted computers, while the residents of Dawn City had acquired their own new televisions. In the future, they would also have personal computers, mobile phones, smart wearable devices, connection to Endpoint Cloud, and even bionic maidservants.

From that perspective, a certain administrator had indeed fulfilled his promise to build a new Ideal City in Clearspring City. The place was genuinely becoming more and more like that wonderful city. Although it was still a somewhat lower-specification version for the time being.

At that moment, the television was broadcasting the morning news.

“At 8:15 at night. yesterday, the Burning Corps successfully captured the presidential palace on North Island and discovered Chalas' body inside the bunker beneath it. Based on the gunshot wound beneath his jaw and the location where the weapon was found, preliminary findings indicate that Chalas committed suicide.”

“The commander of the Burning Corps declined to disclose any casualty information regarding the operation, but specifically stated that no casualties were sustained during the assault on the airfield.”

“The Burning Corps has now transferred Chalas' body to the Southern Seas New Alliance. It is being preserved in the morgue of North Island Hospital, and the local survivors will decide how it should be handled. Chalas' followers, members of his puppet cabinet, and various other officials were transferred at the same time. Their trials will commence in the near future.”

“With the fall of the Chalas regime, the prolonged turmoil in the Southern Seas has finally come to an end. Investigations into the sinking of the ocean-current power station, the Golden Coast research vessel, and a series of other maritime disasters will proceed alongside the reconstruction of North Island.”

“The Southern Seas New Alliance authorities stated that restoring the region’s normal production and daily life is their immediate priority.”

The image on the television changed from the studio to the harbor on Ring Island. Facing a circle of microphones, Li Minghui, Commander of the Southern Seas New Alliance Navy and interim president, spoke with conviction. “The war is not yet over! The New Alliance supported us in our war, and now it is our turn to support our allies! North Island’s naval harbor and airfield will be permanently opened to the New Alliance, including North Island’s shipyards!”

“Unless the Torch Church is completely eradicated, trouble will return to us again and again. We will learn from yesterday’s lesson. No matter what difficulties we face in the future, we will never again cooperate with barbarism!”

The image changed again, returning to the news studio.

“According to interviews conducted by our reporter, representatives of the authorities expressed particular gratitude for the New Alliance’s assistance during the press conference. They stated that the survivors of the Southern Seas would forever remember the helping hand the New Alliance extended to the local population during their time of crisis. Survivors from the New Alliance are welcome to visit the Southern Seas for holidays, employment, residence, investment, and other purposes.”

“Our reporters will continue following the latest developments regarding the situation in the Southern Seas!”

Once the report on the Southern Seas concluded, the television quickly switched to the Northern Front.

Several guests seated at the bar exchanged glances. A drunkard who had already started drinking heavily early in the morning belched and asked, “The Southern Sea New Alliance... Is that the New Alliance in the Brocade River Province?”

“Are you a pig? Where would the Brocade River Province find the sea?” a man who looked like a mercenary mocked.

The drunkard was not offended and replied with perfect confidence. “What if it has one? I’ve never been there, so how would I know?!”

A traveling merchant sitting nearby joined the casual conversation. “That place is much farther away than the Brocade River Province. You have to travel even farther south, all the way to the equator.”

The guests exclaimed one after another.

“That really is far away.”

“I’ve traveled north and south for years, but even I’ve never gone somewhere that distant.”

The drunkard took a sip of vodka and muttered, “Going all that way to fight a war... I wonder what benefit it brings the New Alliance.”

“What benefit?” The man who looked like a mercenary laughed teasingly. “The fact that you can even ask that question means you’ve wasted your time watching the news.”

What benefit did it bring?

By directly inheriting the military and civilian maritime technologies that the survivors of the Southern Seas had spent two centuries developing, the New Alliance had skipped 200 years of trial and error on its very first voyage and leapt straight into the ranks of the world’s great naval powers!

They had already won so much it was ridiculous!

Even a mere mercenary like him could see how many victories their respected administrator had scored.

The drunkard looked somewhat confused and scratched the back of his head with his right hand.

The traveling merchant sitting nearby merely smiled faintly without saying anything and continued eating his breakfast. He had booked a flight to French Fry Harbor the previous night, and it would depart in three hours. While these people were still joking around, he had already planned out the future expansion of his business.

He had been following every change in the war since the civil conflict in the Southern Seas began, and now he had finally waited long enough to see it reach its conclusion.

At present, practically everything in the Southern Seas needed rebuilding. It was not only North Island, but also the ocean-current power station, Coral City, and countless other places.

Those were all obvious business opportunities.

There would also be the future development of the Heavenly Court. The New Alliance would certainly invest heavily in the Southern Seas. He could make a fortune there simply by finding almost anything useful to do.

Pushing aside the bowl after finishing his beef noodles, he picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth. Suddenly thinking of something, he looked toward the old man behind the bar and quickly ordered, “Boss, pour me a vodka as well.”

Old Hook recognized the regular customer. He remembered that the man was a traveling merchant from the Brocade River Province who had settled in Dawn City the previous year.

After pouring him a small glass, Old Hook smiled and teased, “Now that’s unusual. You’re drinking first thing in the morning too?”

“Today is an exception, haha.” Zhou Nan smiled in a good mood, accepted the glass from Old Hook, and raised it toward the television in a distant toast before draining it in one gulp. “To the New Alliance’s victory! Praise the Administrator!

Ever since he came to the New Alliance, his good fortune had never stopped!

...

On Embassy Street, the Army’s flag flew above the roof of a three story western-style house with courtyards at both the front and rear.

That was the Army’s embassy in the New Alliance, and it had only recently been completed. Before that, the Army’s delegation had always camped on the outskirts of Dawn City.

There had originally been nothing wrong with that, but as time passed, even the Wislanders themselves began to find it troublesome, especially as the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee project progressed, more and more Wislanders traveled to the area around Dawn City, while the Army became involved in an increasing number of coalition affairs. In the end, Banteno broke with tradition and accepted the New Alliance foreign minister’s invitation for the two sides to establish embassies in each other’s territory.

At that moment, Banteno was sitting on a sofa in the embassy reception room, watching the news on television. When he saw the segment concerning the naval battle between the Southern Seas New Alliance and the North Island Federation, a disdainful expression immediately appeared on his face.

“Heh. These days... any pile of scrap metal dares claim it was built to challenge the Army.”

On the television, a towering battleship slowly sank into the sea amid boiling smoke. According to the report, the battleship named the Ocean Edge had been built by the survivors of the Southern Seas to counter the threat posed by the Army. Its main gun, mounted in the bow, had supposedly been removed directly from a starship and was specifically intended to target the Army’s airships, or rather, the directional shields built around the cores of those escort vessels.

After watching the report to the end, Banteno curled his lip and switched off the television. Although he looked down from the bottom of his heart upon the “fishermen” scattered across a few small islands, hearing that the battleship’s main gun had actually been taken from a starship still sent a chill through him.

Fortunately, it had been sunk.

Had it fallen into the New Alliance’s hands, those clowns would probably have found all sorts of outrageous ways to use it.

Thinking of the Heart of Steel, Banteno breathed a sigh of relief and put the matter aside. The Southern Seas were ultimately too distant. The Army’s navy was primarily controlled by the Western Army, whose core interests lay on another continent separated from this region by an enormous distance.

In any case, as long as that thing did not fall into the New Alliance’s hands, everything was fine.

What Banteno did not know was that Shelter 70 contained no fewer than four electromagnetic cannons of the same model! Provided sufficient steel and electricity, the North Island shipyards could build another similar toy almost immediately!

...

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