Chapter 328 This is America ~ As Cheng Tian said ~
Yes, that's right, Armored Warrior. What initially appears to be a standard Hollywood blockbuster plot—a righteous Earth Federation dispatches a righteous assault team to progressively crush the schemes of the Rhea Principality rebels, ultimately eliminating the source of evil, ending the rebellion, and concluding with a happy ending—is actually a very counter-intuitive story framework.
More accurately, the Earth Federation exploited Azrael's seemingly calm but actually very hot-blooded rebellion, which led to him taking up arms, giving the Federation a complete advantage in tearing up the peace treaty. Then, at the end of the story, they further pressured the Rhea Principality, forcing it to allow the Earth Federation to station troops in its major cities under the guise of "peacekeeping."
The significance of troop stationing needs no further explanation; this is colonization.
Seeing this, aren't this process and overall style overly familiar?
Hasn't this happened in various places and eras right around us?
This is America ~ As Cheng Tian said ~
Just by looking at this seamless operation, one can be 100% certain that the current Earth Federation is dominated by America; for hundreds of years, it has been the same old wine in new bottles.
As a former captain of the Rhea Principality who participated in the war, he wasn't naive enough to think that he could completely overthrow the Rhea Principality's regime and directly crush the Earth Federation with just his small group. But similarly, his vision wasn't broad enough to foresee the future possibilities that Cheng Tian spoke of.
Rather, if he truly had such foresight, he wouldn't have crudely occupied Gaul and rashly attacked New York.
But from another perspective, assuming Azrael actually possessed such intelligence, but some external interference prevented him from thinking in that direction… Cheng Tian's words clearly overloaded Azrael at this moment. His normally pale green Rhea skin began to turn purple, and even the entire cabin started blaring alarms.
Seeing the leader of the Reform Army in such a state, Cheng Tian also retreated several steps, creating distance, while also preparing for a "quick deployment."
Cheng Tian has always been very clear that Azrael, who seemingly has an anti-heroic aura, actually has significant issues.
As a mere former captain in the Rhea Principality military, even if he harbored thoughts of overthrowing the corrupt and incompetent government, where did he acquire so many mechanically modified soldiers, space shuttles, and readily usable and well-maintained first-generation Gates?
It's important to know that after the peace treaty was formally signed, both nations began to dispose of their war armaments.
Aside from partially mothballing some newer second and third-generation models, the vast majority of first-generation old armaments were scrapped, and all Gates were categories slated for disposal.
The Los Angeles area of Earth was a centralized location for scrapping war armaments. There, scrapped mechanical parts piled up into mountains, comparable to the Indian junkyards of another world's Earth, and Rhea Star naturally had similar areas.
If someone with a keen eye were to investigate, they would quickly discover that the number of parts in Rhea Star's war armament scrap zones does not match the recorded production quantities.
Azrael is being funded by "someone" from behind, and this act of rebellion, even the Earth Federation's deliberate leniency, are clearly planned and premeditated events.
From sweating to having his pupils dilate, Azrael, who was now writhing in pain on the ground, was clearly triggered by Cheng Tian's 'mouth-jutsu' into some crucial stress mechanism.
His thoughts and will, which had been suppressed by some hidden advanced program, were forcibly awakened by Cheng Tian's prediction that Rhea Star would become a colony.
Overthrowing the corrupt and weak government was Azrael's inherent core motivation, and this was also the main reason he was initially chosen. However, if the price was his homeland becoming a colony, this was something Azrael could not accept under any circumstances. Almost instinctively, he began to think and resist.
But this clashed violently with the highest-priority thought program in his mind!
"Help! Help me! Quick!"
Azrael, whose forehead veins were bulging as if engine oil might burst out at any moment, actually managed to force himself to shut off the alarm in the cabin and struggled to shout at Cheng Tian.
"Help? How can I help?"
Cheng Tian, on the other hand, remained relatively calm. While maintaining his body barrier, he continued to question Azrael, who was flickering between red and green lights, representing friend and foe.
But by this point, Azrael could no longer speak. His pupils had gradually changed color, as a higher-authority program was slowly taking over primary control of his body.
Seeing this, Cheng Tian had a flash of inspiration. A quick deployment directly summoned the Gates LB Aoko, and using the Tank Matrix's ability to instantly transfer to a vehicle within the matrix every 5 minutes, he directly warped into the cockpit.
The next second, the Book of Ys flashed into the machine's hand. As the Heart of Jergade unfolded its mechanical magic circle, the book began to flip through itself without any wind.
At the same time, the Sun God Gem Shard on Cheng Tian's brow and his prefrontal cortex simultaneously entered high-brightness mode—
The Ten Commandments!
A ray, modified from genetic radiation into an electronic virus, drilled straight into Azrael's mind!
But at that very moment, both Cheng Tian inside the cockpit and the transforming Azrael suddenly froze, as if petrified.
In Cheng Tian's own perception, his consciousness seemed to have followed a long passage directly into Azrael's mind, or rather, into his central brain program.
The surrounding environment also gradually clarified from pitch black. That sensation, as if passing through a data-composed tunnel, gave Cheng Tian a strange sense of familiarity… Huh? Isn't this what it looks like when traversing data in "Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth"?
It's unclear if this was truly the case, or if it was replicated according to the image in Cheng Tian's mind that best matched a similar situation. In any case, Cheng Tian quickly reached the bottom and landed directly on a suspended platform.
And an entity maintaining Azrael's appearance, but with eyes that had completely turned red, stood before Cheng Tian.
A series of spatial prompts began to pop up.
[You have entered Azrael's brain program space via the Ten Commandments.]
[You have triggered the stress response of the higher-level program in Azrael's mind.
Azrael has been temporarily controlled by the higher-level program "Brain."]
[Defeat "Brain" to liberate Azrael's independent consciousness.]
[In this special data combat space, all your skills will not be subject to dungeon entry restrictions.]
The moment the prompts appeared, a series of buffs simultaneously popped up above Cheng Tian's head: "Soul," "Spirit," "Direct Attack," "Crushing Attack"—
The Warlock's Dogma · Prodigy of the Soul!