Great, we're doomed now!

Chapter 264: No Sacrifice So Great as to Be Unacceptable (Bonus Chapter)

Olga, whose memes are more famous than the entire series, once dominated the parody and meme scene. She is the half-sibling of the Earth's ruler, and theoretically, she can awaken a series of overpowered skills such as spatial slash, clone technique, and time stop. She even has her own page in the history of anime.

—The above is just a joke.

In reality, this character has no comedic moments, and the entire "Iron Blood" series is a tragic work. It's just that the disastrous performance and logical flaws at the end made all the efforts futile.

However, a closer examination reveals that Tekkadan's failure was not due to a lack of effort or foolish actions, but rather to a combination of inherent weaknesses and bad luck in dealing with the wrong people, resulting in them being targeted by the malice of the entire world.

—At that time, they were already in a position of “challenging the old order,” just like those who are now trying to overthrow the Tower of Babel.

The difference lies in the fact that the enemies of the Tower of Babel have a considerable amount of power, while the Tekkadan are essentially political orphans. The powerful figures look down on these young soldiers from the bottom of their hearts and only use them as tools.

Olga, a leader from humble beginnings, possesses exceptional talent and ability, especially in making on-the-spot decisions in the face of unexpected situations and in seizing opportunities in small-scale battles.

This is a talented commander who would have stood out even three hundred years ago.

However, he and his best friend Sanming, as well as the entire Tekkadan, have a fatal weakness—they lack a stable space for growth, and others will not give them that opportunity.

"Don't stop" is not accurate. In reality, they are being pulled along by various forces and can't stop at all!

As a group of orphans in the literal sense, Tekkadan is a military organization mainly composed of child soldiers and slaves. When they started, all of them were underage. As a result, they changed the entire world situation in just two years and finally fought a tragic final battle with the dominant military organization "Doomsday Horn".

The Doomsday Horn fleet, from its regular forces to its warships, completely overwhelmed the Tekkadan. In the end, they had to unseal the forbidden weapons from the Calamity War to finish the job. They won but didn't show their faces, much like Britain's Falklands War.

If Tekkadan were given a better partner, and the blonde-haired guy was replaced with a masked man from another Gundam film, they might have turned the tide!

"Three... sun... moon... my name?"

"Yes, this is how Chinese characters are written."

"Chinese characters... I haven't studied them."

The short, black-haired boy shook his head. He wasn't very well-educated and couldn't even understand the machine's instruction manual. He could only perform various operations through experience and feel—having the [Alaya Consciousness] greatly lowered the threshold for becoming a pilot.

"Want to learn?"

"What can it be used for?"

"...It's really useless for you right now," Ye Shou chuckled. "I was being unrealistic."

"Chinese characters originated from the Eastern countries on Earth, the Pan-East Asian economic circle... There are many people with the same hair color as me. Although I don't remember them, my parents always wanted to go and see them, but in the end they died before they could save enough money."

Mikazuki didn't show much emotion when he said these words; he even took out a protein cube and chewed on it, as if he were talking about something unrelated to himself.

Do you want to go?

Faced with Ye Shou's question, Mikazuki looked up and thought for a moment: "Wherever Olga is, I will be there."

Earth is not his home, nor is Titan. His only bond is with his childhood friends who have supported each other since he was a child, the most important of whom is Olga. The two are inseparable, like light and shadow, leaves and roots.

Olga rolled her eyes and said to Mikazuki, "People like us don't even have citizenship, so Earth will never let us in. But we can try to get to Mars."

I've already found out that if you don't bring any luggage and are willing to hide in the engine room, the 'transportation fee' can be reduced to..."

He was completely unsuspecting of Ye Shou and openly revealed his smuggling plan.

Olga has a dream: to save enough money to buy her freedom and become an independent citizen.

Mars doesn't have the same strict household registration system as Earth, so even unregistered people can get jobs. Once Olga gains citizenship, she can try to free her brothers and sisters.

All of this is predicated on escaping Titan; there's no hope of staying here!

No matter how hard you work, you can never save enough money, because there will always be various things that prevent you from saving. Even if you are lucky enough to succeed, whether you can successfully redeem yourself is another matter. Because to the boss, one miner is nothing, but as long as one person successfully escapes, countless miners will have the same idea.

Dreams and hopes are deadly things; they can bring him unnecessary trouble.

Then smuggling is necessary... Many of the residents of Titan are exiled or trafficked prisoners, and there are plenty of unscrupulous people among them. Olga has met a few and, after a long period of observation, finally decided to take the gamble.

"Discussing this so openly and honestly in front of me?"

Ye Shou sat on the lower bunk of the iron bunk bed, looking at the two people opposite him, and asked with a half-smile, "Don't you know that in addition to cracking down on contraband, the Tower of Babel also manages smuggling and illegal immigration?"

"Why would someone as important as you care about sewer rats like us?"

Olga chuckled and joked, then became a little more serious: "Since you're willing to come to our place and eat the same synthetic food as us, there's no way you'd betray me... I consider myself to have a good eye for people."

Growing up in this environment, Olga was a very vigilant person, but for some reason, he trusted Ye Shou in just two or three days, and even felt that there would be no problem even if he revealed such an important and secret matter.

"Not always."

Ye Shou smiled and said, "What if I really don't allow you to cross the border illegally?"

"..."

Olga stared intently at Ye Shou's face, as if trying to discern something from it, but he clearly couldn't see through Ye Shou's thoughts, and his brows furrowed immediately.

"I have a question," Ye Shou changed the subject, "If Titan were to become independent, would you be willing to stay?"

"Independence? Like on Mars?"

Olga and Mikazuki exchanged a glance and then shook their heads.

"You don't want to?"

"We don't know."

Olga paused: "What exactly is 'independence,' and how will it differ from what it is now... we have absolutely no idea."

"Yes~" Ye Shou nodded and didn't ask any further questions.

This was his third day on Titan. Through his investigations, he had gained a basic understanding of the planet's current situation, but his biggest question remained—

Who exactly is demanding independence?

Titan is essentially a super factory, with personnel management as strict as a military camp. Everyone works for several large companies, and they are actually in a cyberpunk-like environment.

It's one thing for the "slave class" like the main characters, but even white-collar workers in offices don't actually have any say. Every aspect of their lives is controlled by the company, and it's impossible to express their opinions without going through the company.

Besides, what benefits would there be even if we became independent?

Mars declared independence because it was exploited by Earth, and the inhabitants wanted fair treatment.

What about Titan? It's the corporations, not the government's policies, that exploit them. Perhaps the root cause is Earth and Fire, but even if they become independent, without internal reforms, they can't stop the corporations from continuing to exploit their surplus value.

For local residents, the independence bill was an abstract concept that sounded appealing but lacked practical significance, and they had no way to express their support through action.

So who is demanding independence?!

This matter has been mentioned more than once at international conferences. Shouldn't the main force be the inhabitants of Titan? It can't be just a baseless rumor, right?

If it's not residents, then it can only be corporations pushing for the bill... but these are all Earth's capital...

Suddenly, Ye Shou smiled knowingly:

No need to guess anymore, just go and arrest a capitalist and you'll know.

-

"Eeeah!!! Don't come any closer! You, what are you doing, where am I... Eeeah!"

"..."

Ye Shou stared speechlessly at the middle-aged man who was slumped on the ground, constantly moving backward. He had simply walked into Ye Shou's office in full view of everyone, waved his hand to remove all the bodyguards' weapons, and then "invited" Ye Shou here. He was sure that his method was relatively gentle, so why was Ye Shou so frightened?

Ahem—Ye Shou rolled up his sleeves.

"Stop talking nonsense and get to the point."

Carefully controlling the force, the palm slapped across that flat, large face, creating ripples that seemed to unfold in slow motion, revealing every detail.

Snapped!

A crisp slap landed, and the man immediately fell silent, staring blankly at a spot on the ground before turning his head to look at Ye Shou in a daze.

The force of the blow was just right, giving him enough clear pain to make his brain go blank with a slight tremor, and also interrupting the annoying incessant chatter.

"You... are you?"

The umbrella popped open!

"..."

The man stared at Ye Shou with wide eyes, his expression a mixture of disbelief and confusion.

"Uh--"

Snapped!

Before he could even speak, the other side of the man's face swelled up, and several teeth fell out of his gums, but his mind became increasingly clear.

"But you—"

Snapped!

Ye Shou showed no mercy and refused to listen to any explanations.

How cunning are capitalists? Others may not know, but they certainly do.

A few more taps and he'll behave!

"I--"

Snapped!

"enough!"

The pampered man's spirit instantly collapsed, his eyes filled with tears: "What exactly do you want me to say? Just ask!"

"..." Ye Shou stopped moving.

"Waaah..." The man laughed and cried at the same time, "You...you didn't forget to ask, did you?"

Looking at the capitalist, whose face was covered in snot and tears, looking both pitiful and disheveled, Ye Shou felt a pang of guilt.

"No, I just wanted to fight."

Ye Shou pulled out a VR headset from somewhere: "There's a brainwashing device; you wouldn't need to tell me otherwise."

"..."

The man's eyes were vacant, and his expression was as if he had seen some kind of demon, as if he was witnessing human malice for the first time, to the point that he temporarily forgot the pain.

Little did Ye Shoucai know that he was the one who felt completely bewildered.

Do capitalists need a reason to take advantage of people?

He, Ye Shoutang, the heir to the Jiushi Group, has never complained when he was beaten by monsters, evil gods, or maids!