CHAPTER 415: CHAPTER 414 CUNNING WANDERING

"Wandering, thank you, what you said is indeed not impossible!"

The Government Faction of the Metal Civilization, although not fully believing the Wandering’s claim, at least believed it to some extent.

This was mainly thanks to the Wandering’s excellent performance in the previous war which greatly enhanced its status within the Metal Civilization, as well as its skillful use of rhetoric. Initially, it only speculated that the other party had ulterior motives. Then it connected this speculation with the fact that it had been used to propagate reformist thinking before, making this assertion seem well-founded. Finally, it suggested the possibility of a secret plot between the Reform Faction and the Titan Civilization, which was corroborated by some examples.

This kind of speech technique, which progressed from shallow to deep, from simple to complex, and from truth to fabrication, created a form of targeted indoctrination for the members of the Government Faction.

Of course, the Government Faction of the Metal Civilization was not foolish; they did not fully buy into the Wandering’s story, but they were ready to treat it as fact.

However, their actions were not for the sake of the Wandering but for their own sake. Their current situation was also very dire. There was significant dissent within the Metal Civilization against the Government Faction, and they were in urgent need of a success to prove themselves and to divert public attention with new conflicts. Now, this conflict had presented itself to them, so they decided to deal with it.

It can be said that the truth of the matter is no longer important; what is important is whether it can meet the needs of the Government Faction’s interests.

Obviously, the present conflict could perfectly resolve their predicament. Firstly, the source of the complaints within the Metal Civilization against the Government Faction stemmed from voices of the Reform Faction; secondly, if they could bring down the Reform Faction, the Government Faction would face less resistance and fewer opponents; thirdly, they could shift all the anger from the war onto the Reform Faction, so that the public would no longer care that the issue actually originated from the dispute between the Government Faction and the Titan Civilization, which was a win-win situation.

For this purpose, the Government Faction of the Metal Civilization secretly launched an investigation into this matter.

Of course, the investigation was merely a procedural façade, a way for the Government Faction to collect or fabricate evidence.

Once they had prepared all the necessary evidence, the Government Faction swiftly arrested all members of the Reform Faction accused of involvement and subsequently revealed to the public the possibility that the Reform Faction was colluding with the Titan Civilization, intending to harm the Metal Civilization, along with the evidence of their crimes.

With deliberate manipulation by the members of the Government Faction, the focus of public discontent indeed shifted. Nobody paid attention to the grievances against the Government Faction for betraying the Wandering; everyone was discussing the supposed betrayal by the Reform Faction. Many people, angered, labeled members of the Reform Faction as traitors, and blamed them for the grief of the war.

Amidst the tumultuous public opinion, the voices of the Reform Faction members could hardly make any ripples and were ultimately drowned out by the mainstream discourse.

With most members of the Reform Faction arrested, the reform experiments also came to a certain halt. At this time, two opinions emerged. The dominant one was that if members of the Reform Faction had betrayed their cause, the reform experiments might not be worthwhile, suggesting that they should be abandoned; while the minority opinion was that the members of the Reform Faction and the reform experiments should be distinguished from each other, focusing on whether the experiments benefited the people or not. This stance was supported by the Wandering. Thanks to its numerous prior accomplishments, the Wandering had a significant reputation within the Metal Civilization. At this point, once the Wandering took sides, this opinion gradually gained ground and became the most significant social voice within the Metal Civilization!

Therefore, in order to continue with the reform experiments, the Wandering volunteered to take full responsibility for the comprehensive management of the reform experiments.

Previously, although the Wandering had been involved in the reform experiments, it only handled the design of the reform plan and acted as a consultant during the process due to power and interest factors, without actual authority. This was why the Wandering covertly manipulated the situation, mainly to seize power.

And this was also the main reason why the Wandering chose to stay in the Metal Civilization after learning the initial truth.

After all, at that time, the Wandering only had three possible paths to choose from. The first was to seek shelter with the Titan Civilization, but given the nature of the Titans, he would have to submit to the Constant Star Unrivaled, perhaps not even able to become second in command, just being used as a tool by the Titan Civilization, so this option was resolutely refused; the second was to ignore these two civilizations and leave on his own, but with the current crisis of the Universe’s halted expansion, the chances of survival alone were too slim, and he did not know the whereabouts of the Wandering Alliance, making this option unviable as well.

Therefore, the only logical path was to stay with the Metal Civilization, using its power to overcome the crisis.

However, when the Wandering learned of the scheme between the Metal Civilization and the Titan Civilization, it recognized once again the perils of the Universe and underwent a complete ideological darkening. Realizing that only by keeping power in one’s own hands could one be truly safe, the Wandering was not content with merely using the power of the Metal Civilization; it sought to control the entire power of the Metal Civilization and become the NO.1 of the Metal Civilization!

Thus, this is why the Wandering initially employed the spy tactic in the war and fought so fiercely against the enemy. It was laying the groundwork for securing its position as the leader of the Metal Civilization. Later, seizing an opportunity during the reform experiment, it managed to eliminate stumbling blocks within the Reform Faction by leveraging its reputation to influence both sides.

At this moment.

The Government Faction had just achieved a feat, slightly alleviating public dissatisfaction with itself, so they definitely would not go against the entire society over a trivial matter like the reform experiment.

Therefore, constrained by the public opinion shift within the Metal Civilization, the Government Faction had to continue with the reform experiment, and with most of the core members of the current reform experiment arrested, only the Wandering, who still had relevant reform work experience, was left. Thus, the Government Faction agreed to the Wandering’s application, entrusting it with full responsibility for all the related tasks of the reform experiment.

From this point on, the Wandering entered a period of rapid development.

Firstly, the Wandering used its experience from the Wandering Alliance to implement reforms on the Metal Civilization’s experimental Planet, drastically improving the productivity and cohesion of the entire planet within a mere hundred years by several folds. Furthermore, by emulating the elite policy of Constant Star’s Lu Chen, it gained the support of the entire populace of the experimental Planet and fostered a large number of scientific and technological talents. With the contributions of countless talented individuals, the experimental Planet quickly became the most competitive and technologically advanced planet within the Metal Civilization.

Its status was somewhat like Shenzhen during China’s reform and opening-up period.

Leveraging the outstanding results of the experimental Planet as a springboard, the Wandering became a hot commodity within the Metal Civilization!

And because of the envy towards the communistic policy of the experimental Planet, the rest of the Battle Stars within the Metal Civilization voluntarily proposed to expand the reform experiment comprehensively, rolling it out across the entire Metal Civilization.

The Wandering realized this was a golden opportunity, and thus covertly released public opinion and some evidence from when the Government Faction, for personal gains, had framed the Reform Faction. This immediately sparked an explosion of dissatisfaction within the Metal Civilization, escalating into a series of vigorous protests and demonstrations.

Under pressure, the Government Faction of the Metal Civilization was forced to resign, and the government organization was completely dismantled.

Since this incident occurred just as the reforms were expanding comprehensively, someone proposed to forego the old government structure and instead rebuild the Metal Civilization based on the new system and structure of the experimental Planet. Consequently, the Wandering was naturally elected as the leader of the Metal Civilization.

Through this, the Wandering used its abilities to peacefully transform the Metal Civilization.

Overall, this piece of history is full of ups and downs and truly spectacular, essentially constituting the entire counterattack story of the Wandering!