On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

Lena came here for just one sentence.

It also reflects her perspective on the war between the Dragon Kingdom and the Holy Kingdom: global chaos? A supreme showdown? The destruction of the Holy Kingdom? A mutually destructive relationship?

"It doesn't matter, I'll take action."

Chapter 70 To catch the thief, first catch the king

I've figured it out.

You guys are all incredibly skilled!

Liao Ji, who was on his deathbed, sat up in shock on his bed at Chenhui Hospital. As soon as he opened his eyes, he began to grit his teeth in anger.

The young man's movements immediately woke up the girls who were lying on either side of his bed, watching over him.

"Waaah, you old relic, you're finally awake!"

"Master, resurrected!" Number Eighty-Six exclaimed with a long sigh.

After the battle in the church's underground, Liao Ji lingered in the sea of ​​consciousness for a little longer than usual because he was enjoying himself. In reality, his body was unconscious, so he was later transferred to the hospital by the others.

Logically speaking, Liao Ji should have remained "unconscious" for at least another day and night to enjoy the fruits of victory. However, he was forced to wake up just as dusk was falling, so how could he not be furious?

But there was nothing they could do. The Dragon Kingdom declared war directly, plunging the Holy Kingdom, which had just received Styutia's "miracle," into a major crisis threatening the destruction of the nation.

Jiuyou did not disappoint herself.

This female guard gave him a big one right from the start.

Liao Ji recalled the kind words he had spoken to Jiu You in front of Si Xiutiya, saying that as an empress, how could she still be a brute? But he was immediately proven wrong.

ruthless.

That's too ruthless!

But it must be said that as reckless as it may be, the effect was indeed immediate, at least it completely deprived Liao Ji of the opportunity to continue getting close to the little nun.

After all, upon learning this news, Styutia completely panicked. The Holy Kingdom was the culmination of her five hundred years of hard work, and the nun regarded it as her own child. Seeing that she was about to be bullied by others, Styutia naturally couldn't sit still. She almost turned evil on the spot again, rolled up her sleeves, picked up a scythe, and was about to go to the Dragon Kingdom to confront Tang Jiuyou.

It's clear that while the yandere trait has been significantly weakened, it's probably impossible to completely eradicate it. Styutia's aggression has greatly increased compared to 500 years ago, and she can't withstand too much stimulation.

It was Liao Ji who kept comforting her, patting his chest and assuring the nun that she didn't need to worry about it and could continue to cleanse herself of the pollution in the confessional with the new contract. He assured her that everything else was fine in the Holy Kingdom, and that he could easily handle the Dragon Kingdom and Jiuyou alone. This reassured Styutia and kept the situation under control.

He does enjoy watching women fight, but he doesn't like watching his own women fight.

Despite his cursing, Liao Ji couldn't really blame Jiu You, after all, that dragon girl's guard class branch was—"Tyrant".

If even a nun could be corrupted into a yandere five hundred years later, then Liao Ji could only imagine what a dragon girl, who was originally a "tyrant," would become. He stopped deceiving himself.

Bringing her thoughts back to reality, she looked at Irene and Zero and realized that the news of the "declaration of war" hadn't reached them yet. Indeed, if such a big matter were announced directly, the entire Holy Kingdom would probably be thrown into chaos.

Time was of the essence, so Liao Ji briefly explained the situation to the two of them before getting out of bed. He didn't want to cause bloodshed or war between the two countries because of himself.

This is where the machine's advantage over humans becomes apparent. After hearing the news, Irene was in a state of extreme shock, while Zero processed it quickly—or rather, treated it as data entry without any other extraneous emotions.

This also made things much easier for Liao Ji.

"Zero, contact Maria for me. I need to see her immediately."

"Command received. Contact successful! Miss Maria has been successfully received and is expected to arrive at the master's room in seven minutes," Number 86 said with a secret delight at being addressed as "master."

Uh

It was only at this moment that Liao Ji realized that there was something... off about the mechanical maid in front of him.

Number 86?

"Oh no." Number 86's heart skipped a beat.

Liao Ji: ".?"

"To answer my master, my body comes from a combat maid in the 'Emergency Medical Squad,' which was retrieved by Miss Irene at the Sand Bar. My consciousness chip comes from an 'observation device' that 'Zero' placed in the Black Hole to search for Emperor Ash. Due to an unknown malfunction, I have not been able to connect to the 'Main Brain Network' and therefore cannot synchronize with 'Zero's' consciousness. I am not the real 'Zero.' I'm sorry to disappoint you, Master," Number Eighty-Six confessed, unable to hide it any longer.

"So you mean you're an independent individual? Zero doesn't know you exist?" Liao Ji asked immediately after processing the information.

The android maid by the bed nodded, paused for a moment, and then quickly spoke again.

"Will Master erase me?" Number 86 asked nervously and fearfully.

Why should I erase you?

“Because Number 86 is unstable data, and unstable data should be erased,” Number 86 said, frustrated and sad.

Before Liao Ji could even speak, Irene, who had finally snapped out of her "declaration of war," walked over to the maid and casually patted her on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, that old antique isn't that kind of person. He's probably secretly pleased with himself. Luckily, you can't connect to Zero, otherwise, hmph, there would probably be another country declaring war on our Holy Kingdom!"

At this point, Irene glared at the young man.

"Cough cough."

"Is this true, Master? You really don't mind me?" Number 86 asked excitedly and fearfully, wanting to hear Master confirm it himself.

"I don't mind at all. On the contrary, Number 86, you must remember that you are now an independent individual. You must defend your rights and protect your consciousness! So even if your malfunction is fixed someday, before discussing it with me, you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely must not try to connect to the mainframe network on your own. Do you understand?"

Liao Ji shuddered as he recalled the "cyber giant" and began to "educate" Zero with great seriousness.

"Independence. Defending rights and protecting consciousness. If this is the master's order, I will do my best to carry it out," Number 86 said firmly, mustering his courage.

"Also, .86, why do you insist on saying the interjection at the end of every sentence?" Liao Ji had found this way of speaking very strange from the moment the maid opened her mouth.

"Because I don't have a voice system or a facial expression system, I can only use this method as a substitute. If the master doesn't like it, I can change the settings or turn on the simplified mode," Number Eighty-Six explained self-deprecatingly.

"Let me hear how your simplified mode speaks."

"Shy. That's my simple language pattern."

Put emotions at the beginning and simplify them to just a few words. This is good. Liao Jiyi made the decision that it doesn't matter in normal times, but in critical situations, it is essential to use a simplified speaking style.

Dong dong dong

As they were talking, there was a knock on the door of the ward.

Upon entering, one encounters the familiar battle nun, Maria the Lightbearer.

After Styutia's consciousness returned to the confessional, the mental control over Maria was naturally lifted. Indeed, just as Styutia had said, Maria didn't mind the whole process at all. As the goddess's most loyal believer, it was already the greatest honor for the goddess to descend upon her.

Although Liao Ji felt a bit... well, Maria herself didn't seem to care, so he treated it as a passing episode and moved on.

"Your Excellency." Maria bowed to Liao Ji as soon as she entered the room.

Styutia had immediately conveyed a divine message to all the church's high-ranking officials, telling them that Liao Ji's words were equivalent to her words, and that everyone must unconditionally obey the young man and follow his orders. In the eyes of Maria and other church leaders, Liao Ji's identity naturally became that of "God".

Liao Ji didn't waste any words and went straight to the point, asking, "Maria, how many troops does our Holy Kingdom have right now?"

"The standing 'Crusaders' number two hundred thousand, and if reserves are forcibly drawn from the Knights Order, the number can reach two hundred and fifty thousand."

"Two hundred and fifty thousand. What is the current population of the Holy Kingdom?"

"Approximately 21 million."

It sounds pretty good, at least much better than in the game. After five hundred years of development since the end of the wasteland era, the population has indeed increased several times over.

"What about the Dragon Kingdom?" After reviewing his own side, Liao Ji naturally had to compare it with the opponent.

Maria shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, Lord Liao Ji, we don't know."

"?"

"Doesn't your Holy Kingdom have an intelligence agency?"

"The goddess taught us to be law-abiding and obedient, so we only focus on the internal affairs of the Holy Kingdom and do not care about the outside world."

Liao Ji: "."

"Proud. Master, 86 can answer this question in place of Miss Maria."

Looking at the mechanical maid who always has the same expression, Liao Ji is like a big shot. This is what a protagonist should have as a teammate! Isn't this a hundred times better than that guy who can only send "telegrams"?

"Reporting to Master, the standing 'Longmen Army' of the Dragon Kingdom is shown as numbering 100 million in the 'General Network,' and the total population of the Dragon Kingdom is 5500 million."

"Suspicion exists. Based on 86's calculations and analysis, it's highly likely that the true number of the 'Longmen Army' was 150 million, but approximately 40 of them were slaves."

Since China boasts the title of having the "strongest military" on the mainland, Liao Ji was prepared for a significant gap between the two sides. However, when those numbers were actually presented to him...

250,000 and 1.5 million.

So, the Holy Kingdom of Sishutia is not even a fraction as big as the Tang Jiuyou Dragon Kingdom.

If we can't compete on quantity, what about quality?

“Maria, how many Lightbearers like you are there in the Holy Kingdom?”

Five.

Liao Ji: "."

When he turned his head to 86

"Quick answer. The Dragon Kingdom's high-level combat force consists of 'Relic Envoys,' and there are currently forty-two registered 'Relic Envoys.'"

Now even Irene has moved to Bengbu.

The girl lowered her head in shame. She felt so sorry that her country was so weak!

Liao Ji finally understood why Jiu You dared to be so arrogant. Two adults fighting would at least be somewhat wary of each other, but if one was an adult and the other a little kid…

If it were him, he would have done it right away!

"Old, old-fashioned, are we doomed?"

"Frustration. Calculation 86 completely fails to predict any possibility of winning the war."

call.

After letting out a long breath and rubbing his temples, Liao Ji rallied, clearing his face of the gloom. A basic quality of a qualified commander is to never lose his fighting spirit, no matter what.

Moreover, this is much more complicated than when he used 100,000 troops to flatten the Abyss of Turbid Calamity, the "lair" of monsters, in the game back then.

"Maria, how long does it take to get to the border from here?"

"If we set off now, we can reach the Michel Wall by tonight."

The Black Hole was already on the edge of the Holy Kingdom. If you went further east, the Wall of Michel would be the limit of the Holy Kingdom. A few hundred kilometers across this wall was the territory of the Dragon Kingdom.