NOVEL NEXT Chapter 981: Controlled Release
When the scene of the attacks ended, the screen went black before the words [We have considered these actions as a declaration of war and have responded accordingly] appeared.
Those words caused panic among the people watching, as they realized that this was not a prank and the Conclave was now at war with the Empire.
However, if someone could hear what the majority were thinking, they would realize that the panic they were feeling was not because they were afraid of the empire's retaliation, but because they were afraid of losing the comfort they had gotten used to through the VR and the wormhole lanes that the empire had opened.
"But why did they leave the VR still active?"
"I don't know, but I think they might be using it to monitor and try to gather information. Considering that they have the ability and time to gather us in a single place this easily, it means they have a very detailed ability and control over it."
"But what is going to happen to it if we win? Are they going to destroy it in a fit of anger?"
"You think they will do that? It is one of their bargaining chips for their survival, as I'm sure they are the only ones who understand it enough to be able to control it, at least if they are smart and want their people to continue existing after the war."
"What about destroying themselves along with their technologies using the so-called black hole bombs they used in our first encounter?"
"You still believe that propaganda? I'm sure it has been proven with evidence that such a thing didn't happen, and the empire was just fabricating it in order to improve their image in our eyes and in the hope that it would influence the actions of our leaders when it came to them."
"Then why did we sign an agreement with them if what you are saying is a lie? We could have taken them over and benefited from their mana stones without having to spend money and consider them to be our allies when we could have killed all of them and removed that barrier."
"Because their leader is a bit strong, and I'm sure at that time mana was a very pricey commodity, which means the number of forces we could send was very limited. Their leader turned out to be the strongest at that time among all of those present, and with the fight they showed, signing the alliance with them was the best solution to reduce the cost compared to the benefits. Plus, I'm sure many leaders agreed to the agreement because that would mean an outsider would control the resource, meaning they would have the same chance at gaining them, unlike what would happen if we took control of it completely and the top ten monopolized it."
"Then what changed now?"
"Maybe they have found a workaround that they all agreed to adhere to. With the prevalence of wormholes and mana stones, shouldn't they be able to send enough forces to deal with the empire fast and swiftly? From the footage they showed alone, it revealed more than fifteen fleets, and I'm pretty sure five of them are already overkill. There might be more on the way, considering that a large number of them were used to destroy the space stations."
"I'm really not liking this at all, as I quite like them."
"Not liking them has got nothing to do with what they are doing. They are the ones who showed capabilities that threatened our interests, and we need to deal with them before it becomes a problem. From their history, it is very obvious that they are very intelligent in coming up with ways to kill themselves, and the same can be said for their speed of adapting to things. Seeing how fast they adapted to us means that with enough time, they are going to catch up to us both mentally and hardware-wise. Seeing the way they were moving, it was obvious they were rushing for that, and to prevent that, they needed to be dealt with fast before they caught up enough to be problematic."
"I wonder who is going to control the VR?"
"The Valthorins and Zelvora will most likely be the main controllers of it, as they are the ones known for their mental abilities. With them at the helm, they might even improve it further than the empire's limited technology is capable of."
"Then does that mean the Trinarians are going to take control of the wormhole lanes? I don't think anyone wants a single civilization to have that much power."
"They will be the ones leading technological improvements, not owning it fully. I think each nation would have been given a piece they are satisfied with, considering that they all agreed to take joint action against the empire."
"But what about Dreznor and his people? Wasn't the Conclave fighting against them to try to liberate them? You don't say that this was all a ruse?"
"Who says it is not? In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it was. What better way is there to have someone lower their guard than for them to realize that you are amidst an internal turmoil that will occupy most of your attention? Amidst that, they will not find the gathering of forces to be anything out of the norm, only to then use the gathered fleets to attack them. I really want to see the look on their leader's face, who thinks of himself as strong, when he realizes that the gathered forces came to his civilization and not Dreznor's."
"So do you mean Dreznor is not an actual threat but a fabrication? Why would they risk causing a rebellion by inciting the treatment of slaves just to divert the empire's attention? I mean, it could have gone very wrong and backfired on them, and I'm sure it most likely did, but on a smaller scale."
"Those Earthlings have this book called *Art of War*, which has very rudimentary ideas of how to fight that are relevant to this situation. In it, the writer had written, 'All warfare is based on deception,' and the explanation for this was written as you must embody the illusion so convincingly, even to yourself, that your enemy believes it."
Similar conversations took place in different groups as people talked about different things within the same related topic, but all of their worries were about how their current experience of life was going to be affected. Very few people actually felt sorry for and wanted to support the empire; after all, they were very used to war between civilizations. They were still of the belief that the strong person wrote the rules and the weaker had no option but to follow until they were strong enough to dictate the rules themselves. To them, the strong squashing the weak to prevent that from happening was normal, and they would not spend their energy on feeling sorry for them so long as they were not the ones on the receiving end of it.
But the situation this time was different. Thanks to the VR network connecting far-flung civilizations and planets to one another, it allowed for the proliferation of information to take place at a rapid pace, since they could now hear things happening from faraway star systems the moment they started. In the past, only important information was transferred, and even then, very little of it was disseminated to the citizens, and that was only after being filtered to appear in the most favorable view of the government, making it quite easy for them to trivialize atrocities and hype up good things for their benefit.
Unfortunately, this centuries-long control of information and the perception of it had now seeped deep into how they reacted to news of this type. The empire was the first civilization to experience it on a Conclave-wide scale, where they could monitor the real-time reaction to the situation. Unlike slavery, which affected many of the citizens who could use it as a means of connecting and feeling empathy, the empire had no such connection to them. The majority of their worries were about what would happen to VR, which had given them that freedom, but upon realizing that the Conclave was the one attacking, a majority of their worries subsided since they were sure the Conclave would want it under their control as well.
A few people felt scared when they realized the controllers of the VR were being attacked by the Conclave and immediately logged out, worrying the empire was trying to use them as hostages.
Some even felt proud of the empire, which, despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered, had made a bold announcement and, from it, even stated that they were responding accordingly. This looked like a coward saying words of reaffirmation to himself to pump himself up for a fight he knew he was going to lose.
However, all of those sentiments, thoughts, and assurances that the empire was going to lose were ended with a single sentence that followed a long pause in the video.
[We are now in the middle of retaliating and taking control of important star systems of the Conclave, and we have no plan to stop until we liberate and unite the Conclave like we did for the countries before the empire.]
As the makers of the VR, many people were curious about them, and through the Akashic records, they could read the entire recorded history of mankind. This allowed them to realize that the empire had only been united for a little more than a decade before they faced off against the initial Conclave forces, meaning, unlike Conclave civilizations that had at least a few centuries of being under a single leadership, the empire was considered a baby in those matters. But it seemed that the child had now shown its intentions to swallow the experienced elders.
Before they could ridicule this, the screen showed evidence of it happening. This time, instead of everyone being shown the same footage, they were shown different footage that matched either their civilization, if they were among those attacked by the empire, or the video of their enemy civilization fighting against imperial forces that were trying to breach the defense forces and invade the planets themselves. At the same time, the empire finally allowed for news, messages, and information related to the attacks to finally go through. This allowed those who were in the real world, whose planets were already breached with imperial forces now attacking and trying to take control, to post and send those videos to their friends who were in VR or in other star systems, asking if the same was happening for them.
As the panic ensued, the Emperor's image appeared, showing him amidst a speech: "Our war is with their governments, not their people. So, keep the imperial military doctrine and operation rules in mind when engaging with them and make sure not to cause unnecessary civilian casualties. But if they stand in your way, you can consider them to be active combatants and fight them as such. Keep in mind that every instance of that happening will be investigated, and if it is discovered that you exploited it, you will be punished accordingly." Then the video feed cut and was replaced by another string of words.
[Don't join the fight and wait for liberation. You can also help us, and for those who do, you will be rewarded heavily for it.]
With those words, everyone received a notification that was tailored to their situation. Those working for the government were told they could contribute information about their expected actions.
Those working in manufacturing were told they could provide information about the number of orders they had. Those in the capital were told to provide information about the closest defense installations.
This was sent to all those both online and offline, with the promise that they would not have to worry about their participation in providing information being released to the Conclave if the empire lost the war, since the empire controlled the VR and all information in it. If the empire won, they would be compensated for the contributions they made during this war.
The empire was finally sowing seeds of doubt among the Conclave citizens by providing the same opportunity they had provided imperial citizens, but slightly modified. It allowed those discontent with their civilizations for their treatment of lower-level civilizations, slaves, and those without power to finally fight against them or use it as a means to vent their frustration at the helplessness they were feeling.
While all of that was happening, the economic attack was still taking place, but with the news regarding the war finally flooding VR, only those with a vested interest in the economy were becoming aware of it. They were scrambling to try to deal with it or cut their losses as fast as possible, which in turn accelerated the crash even more.