My family runs an adventurer's guild.

If a large-scale war were to break out, the Green Forest Kingdom could muster approximately ten thousand elite soldiers, even if it exhausted all its resources. However, it would then have no reserves. If this elite force were wiped out, the Green Forest Kingdom would essentially be doomed. Furthermore, the Green Forest Kingdom has such a small population and such a vast territory that most of its land is uninhabited, merely appearing attractive on a map.

"...Well, that's easy to imagine...Back in the Mexican-American War, Mexico was in a similar state, with more bison than people in the land north of the Rio Grande. Otherwise, the United States wouldn't have been able to so easily seize more than a dozen western states."

Alexander Pierce nodded in agreement, saying, "...and then, in the western wilderness on the great cliffs, there are otherworldly versions of Native Americans, right?"

"...In the western wilderness of the new world, there are indeed some barbaric tribes, but they are not the original inhabitants of the new world."

A professor said, "...In fact, before the Old World navigators discovered the New World, there was absolutely no intelligent life on the entire New World. However, with the discovery of the New World, not only did the civilized races of the Old World cross the sea to establish colonies, but even the barbaric races and monsters of the Old World also ventured across the frozen northern seas in winter, stepping on the ice fields and gradually entering the New World from the north, where they multiplied and thrived."

As a result, when the settlers of the Golden Dragon Kingdom climbed the great cliff from the seaside port, preparing to develop the western wilderness behind it, they discovered that the western wilderness was already inhabited by barbarians, kobolds, goblins, evil dragons, goblins, and other monsters..."

"...So, are they stronger or weaker in combat compared to the Native Americans?" Pierce asked.

"...They are definitely much harder to fight than the Native Americans! The Native Americans don't use magic, they don't have many strange and wonderful special abilities, and they don't know how to smelt metals. These barbaric tribes in the New World are used to fighting against civilized countries in the Old World for generations."

The professor continued, "...Therefore, in the battles against them, the Golden Dragon Kingdom only had advantages in organization and manpower, but no significant gap in weaponry and tactics. Furthermore, the merging of some thieves, rebels, and cultists with barbarian tribes made the military pressure on the Golden Dragon Kingdom's westward expansion far more difficult than that faced by European colonists during their conquest of the Americas..."

"...Uh, I roughly understand. This otherworldly realm we're facing is roughly equivalent to a magical medieval version of the United States of America. To the north, there's a turbulent and fragmented, weakened version of the Northern Federation; to the south, there's an elven Mexico; and to the west, there's a strengthened version of the Native Americans."

Pierce tapped the edge of the map table and concluded, "...and the king of this country came to us for advice on governing the country..."

"...Actually, I think that compared to the United States of America, this Golden Dragon Kingdom is more like the Brazilian Empire of the imperial era..."

An old lady interjected, “...The Appalachian Mountains on the east coast of North America are not as steep as the cliffs of this other world, and the mountains are much farther from the coastline, leaving a wide enough plain on the east coast—otherwise, where would the thirteen states have been when the United States was founded?”

In contrast, Brazil's Atlantic Shield, like this great cliff, hugs the ocean, hindering transportation between coastal ports and inland plateaus... Of course, Brazil is generally considered a tropical country, while the Golden Dragon Kingdom is only subtropical, with a less humid and hot climate..."

"...Well, ma'am, your point of view does have merit, but that's not our primary concern today."

Pierce gestured with his hand, interrupting the female professor's lingering speech, "...The reason I've specifically gathered you all here for this meeting is that I hope you can formulate a feasible political, economic, and social reform plan based on the information we have, in order to express goodwill to our friendly king from another world and help him better govern this country—have you already drafted a preliminary plan?"

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

As a feudal lord system that has been in place for over three hundred years, the Golden Dragon Kingdom is currently facing a series of problems that are actually common to medieval European feudal states. Due to the hierarchical system of lords, the king's control over the local areas is very weak. Even though the central government's military strength is strong enough to deter the great nobles from rebellion, many minor lords still engage in private feuds and disrupt public order for various reasons.

As for the various arrears of taxes owed by temples, nobles, and autonomous cities, these are long-standing problems that have plagued the royal court for over a century.

Not to mention the country's complex ethnic composition, chaotic religious beliefs, and various civil conflicts that occur almost daily.

Fortunately, due to the dragons' long lifespans, often exceeding a thousand years, the Golden Dragon Kingdom is currently under the rule of its first founding king, "The Builder" Alaric Ingram. Thanks to the power of this founding dragon king, these disturbances can be suppressed relatively easily for the time being. However, the troublesome lawsuits and the increasingly severe financial difficulties are complex problems that cannot be solved by the abuse of violence.

The lack of a proper bureaucratic system was already causing King Jinlong great distress, especially in managing a kingdom of three million people.

Not to mention, as dragons, King Alaric and his wives and children all had a habit of periodic hibernation, often lasting for years at a time. During the Dragon King's slumber, all state affairs were left to the prime ministers. However, not every prime minister serving the Dragon King possessed the ability and prestige to control the entire kingdom. As a result, often when the Dragon King awoke, before he even had a chance to eat his fill, he discovered his kingdom was engulfed in flames and smoke, requiring a swift effort to extinguish the fires, or face a catastrophic crisis!

After going back and forth like this several times, King Alaric was already fed up and hoped to find a way to make the country more stable so that it could continue to operate and expand while he was in hibernation... He even went so far as to consult the Earthlings in the Marvel universe for this.

However, the World Security Council of the Marvel universe also seems unable to offer any suggestions or solutions that would satisfy him.

Or rather, due to issues of political correctness and insufficient intelligence, we cannot provide His Majesty the Dragon King with a satisfactory answer...

Chapter 226, Political Correctness Above All Else

"...Liberate slaves, grant equality to all, one person, one vote, elect the prime minister? You actually came up with such a plan?"

Looking at the so-called "democratic and liberal reform draft" presented by a group of self-proclaimed experts and professors, Alexander Pierce was furious. He immediately roared, "...Let dragons and kobolds talk about equality? Are you trying to mess everything up?"

"...Mr. Pierce, I regret to inform you that we know this plan won't work, but that's just how it is, it's politically correct!"

A Columbia University professor replied with a wry smile, "...Given the current domestic political climate, liberal values ​​and universal suffrage must be omnipotent. Great universal values ​​should not only be promoted on Earth, but also be able to be promoted in other worlds..."

Hey, what kind of talk is this? Are you missionaries?

Alexander Pierce instinctively wanted to roar again, but after thinking it over, he managed to hold back.

Because he knew very well that what the professor said was indeed the truth.

As is well known, since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, after the confrontation between the "democratic camp" and the "free camp" was decided, the United States has taken the label of "democracy" from its old adversary, put it together into the slogan of "democracy and freedom", and then stuffed it with a series of high-sounding labels such as "universal suffrage", "multiculturalism", "equality and tolerance", and "care for marginalized groups", and cooked a pot of toxic chicken soup called "American democracy", which has been widely sold around the world.

As for the subsequent effects of being fed this pot of toxic chicken soup... just look at how many failed countries have suffered social division and economic collapse, and you'll know.

—It is truly a deadly weapon that kills without shedding blood; wherever it spreads, it can cause war!

What's even more remarkable is that after the outbreak of war, most of the time a stable new order cannot be formed; instead, there is only constant tremors, spasms, and massive blood loss.

By employing such psychological warfare tactics, the United States has effectively suppressed most of its competitors and stifled the rise of numerous powers after the Cold War.

The problem is that while American politicians and scholars are peddling this toxic "democracy" rhetoric of "votes are everything, multiculturalism and tolerance" all over the world, and becoming increasingly obsessed with it, they themselves are being held hostage by this toxic rhetoric.

Regardless of what they do in private, they must at least say this in public.

This time, the policy consultation provided to the Golden Dragon Kingdom was not a private chat in a secluded room, but a public discussion held entirely in front of everyone. Not only did experts and scholars from multiple countries participate, but there were also reporters observing from the sidelines, making it equivalent to a large-scale international conference.

If these American experts and professors dare to draft a political reform plan that is "undemocratic, unfree, and violates universal values" in this setting, and then it is reported by major media outlets, wouldn't they be bombarded with criticism from the public?

What follows could be a series of disasters, including student strikes, school reprimands, condemnations from human rights groups, and even suspensions and dismissals?

If they still want to stay in academia, they can't afford to be so reckless!

(After Trump was elected president, many cultural figures and academics lost their jobs for supporting him, which shows the strength of the "white left" in the United States.)

As for experts and scholars from other countries, firstly, this is America's home turf, so there aren't many foreign scholars here. Secondly, even if they have different opinions, they won't express them on American soil; they'd rather watch American scholars embarrass themselves than openly disagree.

Otherwise, they might be labeled as anti-human rights, anti-freedom, and anti-democracy, or even accused of "disgracing the planet" in front of visitors from another world. Although they might not be able to do anything to these foreigners, it would at least be very uncomfortable!

There's no way around it; America's global media hegemony is just that powerful.

Moreover, many of them have already been brainwashed by American democracy, or are pretending to be brainwashed, and are shouting it even louder than Americans!

Of course, in a few years, the political atmosphere in Europe and America will shift to the right, becoming more conservative and pragmatic again. But the problem is that in 2012, the period was the peak of "universal values" and "political correctness," to the point of being almost fanatical.

Thus, despite knowing it was utter nonsense, these American professors of literature and history could only reluctantly devise a naive, hypocritical, and absurd plan, full of "white leftist" flavor, under the indifference or encouragement of scholars from other countries.

The main contents include constitutional monarchy, freedom of speech, one-person-one-vote universal suffrage, multi-party parliament, emancipation of slaves, and equality of all beings. Originally, it should have been equality of all beings, but considering that there are many intelligent races in the Golden Dragon Kingdom, not only is the ruling race the dragon, but even in the whole society, the number of humans does not have an absolute advantage, so it was changed to the more absurd equality of all beings... Can goblins be equal to the great lich?

Moreover, this plan doesn't address the issues that are currently causing His Majesty the Dragon King Alaric the most headaches: regional separatism and financial difficulties!

In short, it sounds even more outrageous than trying to fool the princes of Saudi Arabia and Kim Jong-un of North Korea into promoting democracy and liberalization.

But what else can they do? Political correctness is paramount!

There's no way around it. Spreading the ideology of universal values ​​has become so prevalent in America these days, at least among American intellectuals who make a living by talking and writing. It's evolved from a habitual practice of digging holes to bury one's own agenda to an unavoidable situation where digging holes is absolutely necessary!

Then, as a slick, seasoned politician, no matter how disgusted and repulsive he felt, Alexander Pierce was unwilling to risk his political reputation by venturing into the ideological minefield of "political correctness"—at least not for a group of outsiders.

Of course, directly submitting this joking proposal would not be acceptable either—at best, it would create resentment and affect bilateral exchanges; at worst, it would directly anger the other party and trigger cross-dimensional conflict... At this point, tactful political tactics are needed.

So, Alexander Pierce calmly accepted this absurd plan, rife with "leftist" leanings, and adjourned the meeting. However, instead of handing this completely unworkable plan directly to Princess Catherine, the official envoy, Pierce eagerly took it to the feline Phil, letting him review it and discuss how to resolve the problem…

Chapter 227, Who wants to drink this poisonous chicken soup?

"...Pfft! His Majesty the Dragon King wanted to consult you on how to curb local separatism and alleviate financial difficulties. And you want to bring up votes, human rights, and freedom of speech? You want to liberate slaves? Respect for minorities and multiculturalism? Are all your experts and professors clowns hired by monkeys?"

Looking at the draft national policy recommendations on "white leftism" put forward by dozens of American social science experts and professors through "collective wisdom," Feli, the cat, immediately spat out a mouthful of sweet milk, "...and then, should we also respect the cannibalistic tradition of cannibals and let the government arrest people for them to eat?"

"...I admit that this plan is indeed full of overly idealistic talk and unrealistic ideas, but democracy, elections, equality, freedom and the rule of law are ultimately the fundamental symbols of progress and the institutional guarantee for economic development."

If your Dragon King wants his country to become civilized and progressive, he must abolish the barbaric and backward system of slavery, give the people more respect and rights, lead the nation with love and justice, and restrain his power with the law…

Alexander Pierce, representing the World Security Council, spoke in a manner befitting a propagandist promoting American democratic values ​​from the international stage to interstellar space. But Phil listened with a conflicted expression, unsure how to even begin to retort.

Because this set of toxic motivational rhetoric about democracy and freedom is so misleading that even you probably don't believe it yourself.

Don't think I don't know your background, Alexander Pierce!

You, a Hydra boss who emphasizes order and totalitarianism even more than Hitler, are trying to talk to me about freedom and human rights? That's so fake!

"...Even if you convince me, it won't work, Mr. Pierce. Please don't treat us like fools who know nothing about democracy and electoral systems. We also have democratic elections and a republic over there. If elections could solve everything, would we need to consult you?"

—Philip is not lying here. Although the overall social background is a magical medieval kingdom with feudal lords ruling over the country, the upper-class intellectuals of the Golden Dragon Kingdom are actually quite familiar with things like elections, democracy, and parliament.

Firstly, within the Golden Dragon Kingdom, there are several free cities where speakers are elected and the council manages the municipal affairs. However, to be honest, the management level and tax revenue of these free cities don't seem to be much better than those unruly noble territories, and their public security is even more chaotic.

In addition, even in the feudal noble territories, during the gap period when the old lord died without an heir and the new lord had not yet been appointed—mostly when the Dragon King was in hibernation and unable to appoint a new noble—a temporary council would occasionally be organized in the territory to take charge of the territory's political affairs and security.

Secondly, the Golden Dragon Kingdom's northern neighbor, the Lighthouse Federation, is a democratic federal republic—not the universal suffrage of modern America, but rather a "high-threshold" election like those in modern Europe, where only the nobility and the wealthy had the right to vote. Generally, only those from the middle class or above have the right to vote, and only the extremely wealthy are eligible to be elected. Furthermore, there are restrictions based on race, religion, and gender.

Based on historical experience, such "democracy for the rich," while not entirely fair, is relatively stable and less susceptible to populist instigation. As long as the poor are not exploited to the point of desperation and revolt, it can continue to function in the long term.

Nevertheless, the Lighthouse Federation still managed to ruin this "rich man's democracy" system, because the federation was far too loose. It was formed by many small city-states signing treaties, and its level of integration was roughly equivalent to the European Union, or the city-state alliance of ancient Greece.

Initially, the Lighthouse Federation was just a customs union coordinating trade. Later, it developed into a military alliance to jointly combat piracy, and finally became a federation. It was named after the famous lighthouse at the foot of which the northern cities signed the agreement to establish the federation.

However, in the absence of external military threats and without experiencing a full-scale war, the centralization of the [Beacon Federation] has never been able to develop. Each city-state has its own army, government, and tax collection agency, while the federal government exists in name only, with virtually no standing army. Its finances rely on "membership fees" paid by the city-states, and it cannot interfere in the internal affairs of the city-states, but can only coordinate conflicts between them.

Moreover, the internal affairs of these city-states are not stable enough. Racial conflicts between humans and non-human citizens, conflicts between citizens and those in power, and religious conflicts lead to frequent slave revolts, citizen uprisings, mutinies, military dictatorships, and political assassinations. From time to time, city-states also withdraw from or join the federation. Ultimately, every federal presidential election has the potential to turn into armed confrontation and small-scale civil war.

Occasionally, a few warlords have managed to use their armies to massacre Congress, end the election game, and even crown themselves kings. But so far, no one has been able to sweep across the entire Federation and conquer all the city-states; instead, they have all fallen on the chaotic and turbulent battlefields.

Without a religious or ideological bond to serve as a cohesive force, any warlord group is highly unstable. This is because beneath the major warlords are still a group of smaller warlords who, while seemingly obedient to their leader, are actually fiercely protective of their private retinues, territories, and resources. The so-called warlord leader is merely a figurehead. When their leader is powerful, things are manageable, but once the leader falls from grace, it's a case of everyone turning against them in an instant.

Of course, if a warlord could successfully sweep across the land, establish a nation, and then gradually weaken the power of the vassal states under the banner of righteousness, then a stable kingdom could be established... However, so far, the [Lighthouse Federation] has not produced such a formidable warrior.

As the largest neighbor of the Lighthouse Federation, the Golden Dragon Kingdom has always watched its northern neighbor engage in heated election battles, even intervening militarily in several federal civil wars to profit from them. Therefore, it is naturally quite familiar with democracy and elections.

If those so-called experts and professors in the US, hijacked by leftist ideology, were to try to force-feed Alaric Dragon King his toxic platitudes of "votes are invincible, democracy is omnipotent" as a panacea, His Majesty the Dragon King would absolutely kick this malicious quack doctor to the ceiling.

"...Therefore, your democratic reform plan is utterly absurd. It neither solves any of the practical problems facing the Golden Dragon Kingdom nor shows any trace of goodwill. It's practically a plan designed to incite internal strife in our country!"

Phil shook her head and shoved the draft back into Pierce's hands. "...If you insist on just making things up like this, then we'll have no choice but to leave New York and go to London or Hong Kong to hear the opinions of experts from both China and Britain!"

Chapter 228, No right to speak without investigation

As the cat Philie rolled its eyes and wagged its tail, shoving the draft of democratic reforms—a document brimming with utopian leftist ideas—back to him, Alexander Pierce felt no annoyance or frustration. Instead, he found it quite amusing, or rather, fascinating.

—It's definitely not because looking at Phil's cat ears and tail reminded me of my orange cat who was recently euthanized by high-voltage electric shock.

Lately, members of the CIA, FBI, S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, and other secret organizations have been treating every cat they see as a spy, spending their days torturing cats in various ways... Their blatant actions have even drawn strong protests from animal protection associations.

After all, it's been a globally popular cat-loving creature for many years, and too much abuse of it will provoke the rage of severe cat addicts!

"...I understand. In fact, I also think this draft has problems. But being in this position, I have no choice but to give it a try!"

Alexander Pierce casually shoved the text into the shredder next to him, then said calmly, "...Also, please understand the difficulties faced by our scholars and experts. Although such exaggerated and high-profile displays of philanthropy and morality are indeed foolish from a realistic point of view, they can only say such things in a place like the United Nations under the watchful eyes of everyone, even if they are not sincere, otherwise they will get themselves into trouble."

You probably don't realize how difficult it is to deal with our media outlets and human rights groups, and how vehemently they can attack people.

"...Mr. Pierce, you expect us to understand the difficulties faced by your country's experts, but who should understand our difficulties? We went to great lengths to travel from another world and generously shared our valuable magical knowledge with Earthlings, only to be mocked like this in return!?"

Feline, the cat, grimaced and spread his paws, looking very displeased. "...This is clearly an attitude of deliberately trying to make an enemy, isn't it?"

Phil was actually very dissatisfied with Alexander Pierce and the World Security Council's evasive answers and had a terrible association with them: in the original plot of the Marvel movies, even though superheroes like Tony saved the world time and time again, they were still widely criticized by the media and public opinion, as if it was only natural for superheroes to save the world, but their mistakes were heinous crimes.

Behind this lies the covert manipulation of those in power: unable to confront powerful enemies and forced to rely on superheroes, these corrupt ruling classes, in order to maintain their monopoly on power and prevent themselves from being overthrown by superheroes, have tried every means to promote the idea that "bad people should be forgiven for doing a good deed, but good people should not be forgiven for doing a bad deed," and have been desperately trying to smear and discredit superheroes.

In this way, even if the superheroes who are carrying heavy burdens save the world, they will not be able to win enough people's hearts to shake the world order... As for whether this will make the superheroes disheartened and sit idly by while the world is about to be destroyed, the politicians and financial leaders probably have not even considered it.

It seems that in their view—an Earth that is not under our rule should be destroyed as soon as possible!

In short, it means to assume the worst about good people and then use that as an excuse to repay kindness with enmity.

Even today, Phil is experiencing the same familiar formula for deception and the same shamelessness: they actually make lying sound so righteous!

But... the rise of superheroes has at least threatened your dominance, so even if your methods are a bit despicable, it's not entirely incomprehensible. However, this time we simply wanted to leverage your knowledge and experience, hoping you could gather a group of reliable experts to come up with some ideas and speak the truth. Instead, you've been making excuses, determined to dig a trap and deceive us, forcibly feeding us toxic motivational platitudes... Can't you please stop being so disgusting?

If we continue down this shameless and unscrupulous path, we'll only turn our friends into enemies!

"...Uh, you're exaggerating. We genuinely want to eliminate any obstacles and complete this mutually beneficial transaction."

Alexander Pierce quickly waved his hand in denial, saying, "...If I really wanted to mess everything up, I should have arrogantly taken this draft directly to Princess Catherine and stood on the moral high ground to criticize her, instead of showing it to you first."

In fact, the professors and experts in our think tanks are by no means such pedantic people; it's just that it's inconvenient for them to speak the truth in public. If they could truly function normally, unconstrained by various moral standards and political taboos, they would likely perform much better…

"...Well, so consider this public meeting a rehearsal, and then we'll hold a secret meeting in a different location to discuss things further, and then we'll be able to come up with something reliable..."

Phil nodded. "...In that case, it's somewhat acceptable..."

—Perry was also aware that as the think tank of the world's number one superpower, the professors and experts in politics, economics and history in the United States could not all be so naive. At least most of them were quite reliable in terms of intelligence analysis and modeling. The real problem was that they liked to insert their own opinions... What was even more deadly was that they inserted so many of their own opinions that they couldn't help but insert them in public.

Not everyone has the courage of Trump to be the child who exposes "the emperor's new clothes."

Conversely, in private, closed-door meetings, the opinions of these experts and professors should be relatively more objective and realistic, right?

After all, they weren't those old, decrepit scholars who had gone mad from studying the Four Books and Five Classics; they were just too afraid to speak out because of the political atmosphere.

Just like online novel writers on major websites, who are driven to the brink of ecstasy by unpredictable sensitive words.

“…Holding a secret meeting is certainly an option, but we have a better way,” Pierce said with a smile.

“…Oh? What method?” Phil’s two cat ears perked up, adopting a “listen attentively” posture.

“…This is a suggestion from the Chinese representative. He believes that without investigation, there is no right to speak, and it is difficult to draw accurate conclusions by simply imagining things on Earth. Therefore, he suggests that all countries form a joint expert advisory group to investigate the actual situation in your world before drafting a policy recommendation report to be submitted to His Majesty the Dragon King of your country,” Pierce explained.

"...No investigation, no right to speak? That makes sense. But the problem is, if you don't allow the Church of Hypnos to preach on Earth, His Highness Hypnos won't receive the power of faith, and there's no way to send your experts to the Golden Dragon Kingdom!"

Phil curled his lip and said that although with the spread of the Hypnotic Cult on the Internet, there have been quite a few fashionable Hypnotic fan groups on Earth in the Marvel universe, and some of them seem quite fanatical.