Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Two: A Citywide Livestream

On the coast more than ten kilometers behind the front, inside a temporary logistics center hastily built from chemical concrete, a multitude of light screens and holographic projections faithfully displayed the battle footage being relayed from the front.

Still recovering from his injuries, Zhou Ze stood with a large group of military staff officers, watching everything unfold on the battlefield.

Suddenly—

“Look! The Speaker and his team have entered the battlefield!”

On one of the screens, the figures of Ji Cheng and the others flashed past in the corner of the frame as they descended onto the battlefield.

“Connect the communications signal to the Speaker.” Zhou Ze lifted a walkie-talkie to his mouth. “Speaker, ready to go live?”

“In a moment... All right, ready.” Ji Cheng’s voice came through the radio. At the same time, a new screen lit up inside the temporary logistics center.

It showed the video feed from the fully automated camera drone.

In the footage, Ji Cheng had just destroyed a mechanical fortress with an explosive charge. His pure-black combat suit, paired with a face that was handsome to begin with, made him look striking.

Ji Cheng casually waved the drone over to him.

“Broadcast feed’s working, right, Brother Zhou?” he asked with a smile at the camera.

For the people of White Mountain Star, war between city-states was a favorite diversion from their miserable lives. But there had been no such conflict in years.

Even so, before Chen Qian became Ji Cheng’s secretary, the program she hosted, “Nangang Military Affairs,” had been the most popular show on television.

Simply discussing weapons and equipment had been enough to draw a huge audience. A real war like this would be even more compelling.

Ji Cheng wasn’t about to let an opportunity like this pass him by.

He had promised that the vote would involve no coercion of the natives. Though he was now the Speaker of Nangang City-State, there was no guarantee the city’s residents would all vote for him when the time came.

If the votes were split and he failed to secure at least twenty percent support, the planet—with its vast hidden wealth—would slip from his grasp.

And now that he knew White Mountain Star was home to so many gifted people, ownership of the planet mattered even more.

So—

He needed to raise his profile further and win greater public approval.

“The feed’s fine. We tested it ages ago.” Zhou Ze gave it one last check before replying.

“Then start once you’re ready. Every television program in Nangang City is to be suspended. Only the live broadcast of this war is to be shown.” Ji Cheng adjusted the camera angle. “Switch the shot to Chen Qian. She used to be a host, and she’s pretty popular in Nangang. Let her present this one.”

“I still don’t understand. Why are we pouring so many resources into broadcasting a war?”

“Exactly, Councillor Zhou. Isn’t the Speaker’s decision a little misguided? Just to route the signal around those areas where the mutated animals are concentrated, we’ve had hundreds of helicopters hovering in shifts to relay it.”

“Every second costs money...”

As soon as Ji Cheng’s feed cut away, the military staff inside the temporary logistics center erupted in protest. Several even risked speaking up to question the decision.

“Those resources are nothing. We have fuel and helicopters to spare. What matters is strengthening the city-state’s unity.” Zhou Ze interpreted Ji Cheng’s intentions from his own perspective. “New City has only just fallen, and people are unsettled. There have been several recent outbreaks of public unrest. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

He swept his gaze coldly over their faces. “The Speaker once said that war is the best way to divert internal tensions. I think he’s right.”

“Broadcasting this war is exactly how we’ll achieve that!”

On the screen, Chen Qian, carefully made up and seated inside the Hunter aircraft, gave the crew a poised smile and signaled that she was ready.

“We could just record it and show it to the citizens afterward. It’d be the same thing...”

One staff officer still didn’t seem convinced.

“I know why,” said an assistant staff officer, raising his hand. “I saw a line in one of the Speaker’s handwritten directives. He wrote that the user experience of a live broadcast can’t compare to a recorded one.”

“All right. It’s time. Relay the feed to Nangang City in real time.”

Zhou Ze cut off the discussion and gave the order to the technicians. Then he called over several soldiers. “Take out every staff officer who questioned the Speaker.”

...

Across Nangang City, the giant screens lining the streets and filling the shopping centers all switched at once to the inside of the Hunter aircraft, where Chen Qian appeared with a composed smile.

“Look, I think the live broadcast’s started!”

“Isn’t that Chen Qian, the old host of ‘Nangang Military Affairs’? I loved her show!”

“Hurry home and turn on the TV!”

“Too late. Let’s just watch here!”

The citizens had been given advance notice, so they caught on at once. Crowds quickly gathered beneath the screens in the shopping centers, swelling until the streets were packed and impassable.

In countless homes, televisions were showing the same footage from the front.

Even the city’s schools suspended classes, gathering the students to watch a version of the broadcast with the bloody images edited out.

“I’m so nervous. I’ve never seen a war before.”

“Do you think we’ll see any ability users?”

“Of course!”

After Chen Qian finished her basic introduction to the Black Island Organization, the camera shifted to an aerial panorama of the battlefield.

Smoke and ash shrouded the road to the Black Island Organization’s main base. Flames swallowed the clusters of rock camouflage and licked at the outer armor of the mechanical fortresses. Screams and the din of battle carried from beyond the camera’s view, while the blasts of follow-up mines and high-explosive shells grew louder and louder.

Black Island Organization soldiers poured out of the scorching fortresses. A defensive line made up of three or five machine gunners, a small group of soldiers carrying assault shields, and several low-ranking officers was swept away with ease.

The Nangang troops’ powered armor bore the city-state’s ringblade banners, streaming in the wind. Like metal monsters, they leapt over the defensive line, while sharp, shrill magnetic-propelled bullets cut down the fleeing defenders.

A number of ability users in the combat uniforms of various city-states charged out from the ranks, fighting as they advanced.

The Black Island Organization had few gene-origin injectees among its soldiers. Once they poured out of the mechanical fortresses, they quickly scattered under the combined pressure of the wasteland’s intense radiation and the ability users’ assault.

Recording devices fitted in advance to some of the enforcement squads captured the battle in detail. Black, red, and gray figures whirled madly amid the steel tide. Kunsteel weapons clanged against assault shields; gunfire roared...

And above it all, battle cries.

The raw, brutal spectacle of war filled viewers with awe—and stirred in them a powerful sense of pride.

So this was the war Nangang had launched? All those ability users from other city-states had gathered under Nangang’s command!

Even the mighty Anxi City was taking orders from Nangang!