Doctor, I'm really strong!

"Not visiting Lateran?" Ling asked.

"Too much nonsense is a waste of life. It would be much more interesting to color in a map or work on a city skyline with that time."

Liu Jiuli had secretly decided that next time, if the situation allowed, he would send Kal'tsit over and he would never come to this lousy place to talk nonsense with a bunch of idiots.

How can human civilization be revived while surrounded by these insects?

Just then, there was a knock at the door. When Ling opened it, he was surprised to see Theresis himself.

The Regent smiled slightly and asked, "Excuse me, may we talk?"

"Please wait a moment." Ling walked into the room and said to Liu Jiuli, "Theresis has arrived."

Liu Jiuli paused for a moment, put down the documents in his hand, and said, "Please let him in."

In the living room, Liu Jiuli and Therese met privately for the first time.

"Excuse me, Chairman Liu Jiuli."

"You came at just the right time; any later and you would have missed out."

"I think so too. It seems that His Excellency the Chairman also dislikes meetings where nonsense makes up the majority of the content."

"That's true."

After the two sat down, Liu Jiuli said, "The Regent has come to us personally, all alone. It seems this is a very serious matter."

Therese didn't mince words and said directly, "Yes, I have only one purpose in coming here today: I wonder if the community welcomes newcomers."

Liu Jiuli's expression turned serious. This was truly an unexpected turn of events, but he still said, "The community is a large and prosperous family; we don't mind adding a few more pairs of chopsticks."

Theresa cut to the chase and asked, "If I relinquish all my current power and status, would the community be willing to accept all the Sarkaz on Terra?"

Looking into Therese's determined gaze, Liu Jiuli could feel his sincerity.

Liu Jiuli knew very little about this regent, and the relevant information he had was basically sent by his comrades in Victoria, plus his impressions from previous games.

There's not much information in the game, and even less in the real world. Although Theresis had interacted with the Doctor before, Liu Jiuli now neither knows what happened in the past nor cares what Theresis does.

Given the current state of the community, if we follow the game's setting, building ten thousand airships would be futile.

The community's red air force is fully capable of protecting the skies above the people.

However, no matter how well someone boasts, their actions will reveal their true nature. Liu Jiuli was aware of what Theresis was doing, after all, his actions had affected the political situation in Victoria, and Victoria was one of the major powers on the Terra continent, so its every move deserved the community's attention.

It was through this network of relationships that Liu Jiuli learned about the real-life Therese.

Game texts have lengths, and stories have depths, but reality only records what he actually did.

Theresis created a special Sarkaz reserve in the city of Victoria. Although the area was unmarked, the Sarkaz living there were indeed doing well. They even had a considerable amount of medicine to treat Oripathy, which they purchased from the Community under the guise of the Victoria government. This also showed that Theresis cared about the lives of the Sarkaz and wanted his people to live better whenever possible.

Even if it's just a dream.

Therese was also an idealist, but he knew very well that ideals couldn't put food on the table, and everything was nonsense if you couldn't fill your stomach. Achieving his goals based on reality made the obstacles he encountered much smaller than Therese's.

For example, during the Kazdel Civil War, Theresis united many enlightened nobles and adopted a policy of appeasement towards other captured nobles, while Theresa adopted a method of supporting minor nobles, uniting ordinary people, and attacking major nobles, thus gathering a group of people around her.

It seems that Theresa did the right thing, but the problem was that at that time, 99 percent of the armed forces in Kazdel were in the hands of the high nobles, and these people were extremely inflammatory.

The Demon King's bloodline is indeed very useful, but when faced with real benefits, these people will not obediently bow their heads.

As a result, while Theresa's people were indeed very determined, as the war of attrition continued, their numbers dwindled, and they couldn't find a stable base to replenish their forces. This was because the surrounding nobles, in order to protect their own interests, would not hesitate to expel them. Those who were united around Theresa, after seeing no hope for a long time, also gradually became desperate and extreme, that is, pessimistic and reckless, and were eventually crushed by reality.

Looking at the choices from both sides, Theresa's approach is closer to Liu Jiuli's, but Liu Jiuli is well aware that adapting to local conditions is the key to victory. If he didn't have a system to assist him, giving him powerful productivity and the ability to suppress everything from the beginning, things would not have progressed so smoothly. It was a perfect start that helped him overcome the most difficult early years.

After breaking through the barrier from 0 to 1, the next step was to accumulate like a snowball, forming a positive cycle, and finally arriving at where we are today.

However, in Kazdel at that time, Therese's choice was correct, and this choice won him the civil war. But because of Theresa's all-out resistance, Kazdel suffered from poverty and hardship, forcing him to seek development in Victoria, where a power vacuum had emerged. He then used his trump cards to usurp power.

When your strength is insufficient to sweep across the world, you have to bow to reality.

Whether you are an ambitious person or an idealist, that will only be determined by your future actions; only time will tell.

Now, Theresis has made his choice. From the beginning, just like his sister, he only hoped that the Sarkaz could live proudly as human beings.

You could say his ideals were too narrow-minded, but as the regent of the Sarkaz, he was worthy of his duties.

However, Therese was well aware of how poorly his plan was likely to succeed, but he had no other choice. Now, however, a better option was in front of him, requiring only some personal sacrifices.

However, many people are unwilling to make such a sacrifice, such as a certain person surnamed Zhang, or a certain person surnamed Jiang.

I built this team, and I trained these people. Now you want to kick me out? No way! Without me, there's no future, no greatness, no ideals—none of it would have anything to do with me!

But in Theresis's view, if that's the only price to pay, then it's a great deal, absolutely worth it.

The actions of the community made him realize that the world Liu Jiuli promised was worthy of the Sarkaz entrusting everything to.

The only problem is, what will other countries think when all Sarkaz are following one voice?

After all, the Sarkaz race is too special.

Section 324: Wish

(I wanted to say something, but I didn't know what to say, so good morning (～￣▽￣)～)

Why is it so difficult for a fallen empire to be restored?

It's very simple: interests. When an empire falls, there are more people to share the spoils, and these people will not give up their spoils, so restoring the empire becomes an extremely difficult task.

In the game world of Arknights, the story of the Sarkaz is full of mysteries, but this is the real continent of Terra, and everything will be explained, even if the explanation is false, you can still see the truth hidden in history.

Because a fabricated history is itself an attitude.

As for completely erasing a piece of history, that's simply impossible. Do you know what unofficial history is?

There will always be someone who records history and keeps it in places you never expect. Even if you kill everyone except yourself, those historical records will still be passed down, even if in the form of myths or legends.

Next, let's uncover the true nature of the Sarkaz, the demon race.

Demon race – that's what other races called them during the peak of the Sarkaz. During the Kazdel Empire, the number of royal courts once reached an astonishing ninety-nine. Yes, Hypergryph is too conservative in this regard; in reality, the Kazdel Empire had ninety-nine royal courts, and today's so-called royal bloodline was only a middle-ranking member of those ninety-nine royal courts back then.

Compared to other races, the Sarkaz are very different. Look at the Wendigo, the Fire Giants, and the Shapeshifter Kings—these are special Sarkaz groups. This race is specialized in every direction. Back then, they were a branch of the genetic engineering of the pre-civilization, and a rather important one at that.

In order to help humans adapt to the complex and ever-changing Originium environment, and considering the objective factor that Originium has completely permeated the natural environment, scientists have decided to allow humans to coexist with Originium.

There's no way around it; when you're destined to ingest trace amounts of Originium while eating and drinking, the simplest survival strategy is to coexist with it, allowing your body to accommodate a certain amount of Originium, and then using these Originium to form a new immune system to resist the invasion of other Originium.

It has a flavor of "fighting fire with fire".

In this regard, the experimental subjects numbered 795 and 19938 underwent benign mutations, and there are many similar mutations. This is how the various races on the continent of Terra were born.

Chimeric gene technology combined with gene fusion at the base level, after using Originium Crystals, made what was once imagined possible. The experimental subjects 795 and 19938 were also the origin of the Sarkaz. Derivative individuals using their genes as templates contributed a large number of mutations in the following days. After removing the unstable gene individuals, a completely new race was finally created.

They were the demons who would later inspire fear and dread.

Because the Sarkaz are more adapted to the Originium environment after undergoing high mutation, they are more survivable than other races. Even if they are infected with Oripathy, they can make the Originium into part of their power to a certain extent and turn this power into body organs for the purification of the world, which can serve as a substitute. Therefore, as infected individuals, the Sarkaz are more dangerous and have a longer lifespan.

Some special individuals, such as Patriot, can even make Originium and themselves indistinguishable. It should be noted that when Patriot underwent a physical examination, 75% of his internal organs had been crystallized with Originium, but the degree of damage to his bodily functions was only about 20%. Moreover, due to the intervention of Originium crystals, Patriot's innate Originium Arts became stronger, making Patriot even more threatening when leading his team in attacks.

It's like deducting a portion of the warrior's stamina and then giving him a max-level priest class, along with various buffs.

If other races interfere... no, as long as it exceeds 20%, they can basically be sent to a special crematorium for their funeral. It will never develop to that extent. Originium really favors the Sarkaz.

This meant that after the end of the pre-civilization era, during the period of expansion and development of various races on Terra, except for a very few regions that were able to resist the Sarkaz invasion, most places crumbled at the first touch when faced with the superior power of the Sarkaz.

Whether they were towering fire giants or ordinary Sarkaz soldiers, they were beings that no other race could contend with at the time.

Therefore, in a very short time, the Sarkaz controlled more than two-thirds of the land of Terra, creating the powerful Kazdel Empire, and the Demon race became a fearsome force for all races on Terra.

So how did this empire fall?

The answer is: internal and external troubles.

External threats naturally include invasions by monsters such as the Sea King and demons, or even extraterrestrial visitors (Liu Jiuli guessed that they were some dangerous creatures from another world). Since the demon race occupies two-thirds of the Terra continent, they naturally have to take on the responsibility of protecting Terra, all of which consume the demon race's strength.

The internal troubles are not complicated either: power struggles, racial conflicts, class oppression, basically all kinds of debuffs are present.

Here, we can fully adopt a human perspective.

As Terrans of the new era, we possess all the strengths and weaknesses of our human predecessors. We are the elders, so let's not laugh at the younger ones. Like Pigsy looking in the mirror, we are the same inside and out.

At that time, natural disasters were not as frequent on Terra as they were after the Originium Industry was launched, so the land in Kazdel was arable, which meant that it could support a larger population.

However, the rampant extortion by the demon nobles, coupled with their tax exemptions, weakened the Kazdel Empire's central finances. The Ming Dynasty expressed its approval.

Because nobles could recuperate, especially in border regions, the size and strength of their private armies were already comparable to those of the central government, and they also monopolized local finances, essentially acting as feudal lords who had carved out their own territories. Zhou nodded.

Severe land annexation has displaced a large number of people, but the Kazdel royal court has no intention of curbing the annexation, so... the Song Dynasty shrugged.

The aristocracy blocked almost all avenues of upward mobility, truly ensuring that power was passed down through generations, with no poor families among the upper ranks and no noble families among the lower ranks. The Jin Dynasty gave them a thumbs up.

Finally, after gathering all the debuffs from the ancient Chinese dynasties, a massive uprising began.

Peasants, proletarians, bourgeoisie, small landowners, and minor nobles—the entire society, starting from the lower and middle classes, launched a frenzied backlash against the Kazdel Empire. However, Rome didn't fall in a day (but Istanbul could fall in a day). Kazdel degenerated from an empire to a kingdom, eventually becoming what it is today, spanning 1.5 Romes. Therefore, Kazdel is also a legitimate Roman dynasty. Let us shout that the Ottoman Turks and the Roman Empire were the best!

Green Luo is also Luo, this is called the new dynasty's elegant governance, the Luo elites come and rejoice (～￣▽￣)～.

The final result is Kazdel as it is today. Because of their fear of the Sarkaz's rule, the various nations of Terra continuously weakened them over the long years that followed, and the name Sarkaz became the new generation's understanding of the Sarkaz. Under the combined effects of political division, military oppression, ideological denigration, and economic blockade, the era of the Sarkaz as an individual, single-nation race came to an end.

Nevertheless, the resistance and vigilance of various countries towards the Sarkaz have not been relaxed, even though only ten of the original ninety-nine royal courts remain, scattered throughout Terra, and some have even lost their bloodline, because the memory of history is too heavy, and no one dares to gamble on that possibility.

The Community's political system is inherently incompatible with the political environment of the entire Terra continent. If the Sarkaz were to join now, and Theresis were to openly take sides, and Liu Jiuli, as a Demon King truly recognized by the Sarkaz, were to issue a recall order to all the Sarkaz on the entire Terra continent, it would mean that the Community would become the enemy of the world.

This crown is quite heavy.

Therese Stan told him honestly, and Liu Jiuli naturally gave him the answer he wanted to know in return.

"The current community simply cannot afford the cost of being isolated by the entire continent of Terra."

An ordinary person would probably accept their fate upon hearing this, but Theresis saw the key point.

"Not now, is that right?"

"Yes, not now."

"When can we do that?"

"After the community liberates the entire Eastern Continent."

Therese gasped. This meant that the Yan Kingdom and the Dong Kingdom of the Eastern Continent would become part of the community.

Especially the Yan Kingdom, with its population of over 400 million, is a huge strategic deterrent. It would be impossible to take over such a large country without absolute confidence.

Moreover, once the community decides to take over the entire Eastern Continent, it will mean the end of the Ursus Empire's days of lingering on. The community's iron torrent will surely crush the remnants of the Ursus Empire and complete the unification of Ursus.

From the perspective of a monarch, when that day comes, Liu Jiuli will have at least four crowns on his head.