After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

12 month 20 day.

Margarita's remarks in Parliament forced all the politicians who were still focusing on the United Nations to turn their attention back to the United Nations.

Aside from Margarita's die-hard supporters and officials known as the "Presidential Faction," other politicians and interest groups, to varying degrees, all hoped to "profit themselves."

Margarita has directly blocked the direction they hoped to emulate. And what's worse, this time the president seems to have no intention of backing down.

"But, but—Miss President! Shouldn't we just go straight for the death penalty—"

“My dear congressman, let me tell you—only those who intend to commit a crime think about avoiding the harsh punishment that follows their failure. So, are you planning to commit a crime?”

"No, how, how could this be..."

"Then I'd like to add one more point—this is also a proposal that General Piss made with equipment borrowed from allies at the front and which he put forward to me. If the military discovers that anyone has violated the death penalty law, the army can choose to execute them on the spot after reporting the evidence. What do you all think of this proposal?"

"this?!"

In Margarita's hazy memory, old sayings from Earth still seem to have practical value here.

When the military gains the power to directly execute suspects who have committed capital offenses, politicians will naturally divert their already limited resources from the previous bill to the present.

Naturally, Margarita's proposal was bound to pass—moreover, for a long time afterward, these middle and high-ranking officials of Isgard no longer had the energy to pay attention to His Majesty Yang Hao's affairs.

Looking at the noisy politicians and military representatives, as well as the silent scholars observing, Margarita sighed and thought: Your Majesty Yang Hao, this is all I can do for you.

Ugh!

Margarita flipped through the next set of proposals. After skipping over the proposal regarding the increasing number of livestock being attacked and missing by wild animals in the forest area, and the local residents' desire to strengthen defenses, she pondered.

What is Yang Hao doing now?

...

He continued his work at the increasingly well-established military camps surrounding the Isugard mine. With Finn and the others gradually having their own things to do, only Lord Lalumia and Naruja remained by Yang Hao's side.

Naruja had absolutely nothing to do. Since her golems weren't needed to alert the enemy at this stage, she could only sit idly next to Yang Hao.

Lalumia was a reassurance for Finn and the others. As long as Lalumia was there, Finn and Elena wouldn't worry about Yang Hao being harassed by others, and naturally, they wouldn't have to worry about his safety.

Although Yang Hao always felt that it would be a miracle if he had any safety issues under the protection of more than four hundred magical puppets and elven mages... in the end, he still chose to give them a sense of security—no, a sense of peace of mind.

Ugh!

He sat in a chair eating his dry rations, while Lalumia, who was acting as his secretary, brought over the latest intelligence. She massaged Yang Hao's shoulders as she smiled and said:

"It seems Miss Kino and Miss Nia worked very hard. To prove themselves, they exceeded expectations and discovered a new passage leading downwards..."

"Yes. I see. But opening a passage with magic will take quite a while, and the internal space doesn't seem to allow the magical puppets to carry out large-scale operations?"

"But at least it's a good start."

"That's true..."

Nia and her team recently found a new mine tunnel in the area surrounding the mine.

The tunnel could be easily dug by a mage and continued to meander downwards. Based on the current exploration, it seemed to avoid oil and gas layers, making it, in a sense, the best passage for Yang Hao's troops to explore downwards.

But Yang Hao always felt that something was wrong.

First, the passageway is too narrow.

It can only support a maximum of two normal people moving side by side. Currently, in the narrowest areas, people even have to crawl. It is simply not suitable for combat.

Secondly, although the entire mine pit is downward, it is a good question to know exactly how many meters it goes down.

It doesn't necessarily lead down to the location of the Demon Mother's Nest; in the end, Yang Hao will still need to use his own resources to dig downwards...

Thirdly, and most importantly, lies in [the relationship/cooperation].

"If this really is a road that leads directly to the main camp... what kind of countermeasures will the demons devise?"

Yang Hao pondered.

Demons are an intelligent race.

After being attacked by a strange demon in the Roman Demon Realm, Yang Hao became even more convinced that demons were far more cunning and intelligent than humans imagined.

Especially an ancient relic that may have survived the raging fire thousands of years ago... This ancient relic must also know some of the tactics of the humans back then, and knows that if it is its biggest weakness, it should do everything possible to prevent the enemy from invading.

If I were the devil, what would I do?

Yang Hao looked at the map in his hand and thought to himself.

Block all possible routes leading to your location?

No, on the contrary, it's even more obvious—and to put it bluntly, if they want to obtain food resources deep underground, they definitely need to send the young demons to the surface to collect resources... The passage should be preserved in this situation, but in the process of preserving it, can the demons really completely erase their traces of coming and going?

Not necessarily. Moreover, from another perspective, if this passage really doesn't lead to the location of the demon mother's lair, then it would be normal for the demons not to approach it.

...On another note.

Demons, have they really started active on the surface now? Judging by the timeline, it should be about right... Even the most starving creatures have their limits; extreme hunger will lead to their self-destruction... If the demons have truly opened a passage to the surface, then they should already be causing visible destruction...

And then again... what if demons really evolved organs to drink oil or utilize geothermal energy? Would they then wage guerrilla warfare thousands of meters underground?

...Isn't that too painful?

Yang Hao frowned deeply. He desperately needed more information to think things through, and just then, the deity standing behind him smiled and said: Elena and the others are coming back.

It has to be said that Lalumia seems to have a radar that only reacts to people close to Yang Hao. Thanks to this, at least Yang Hao can welcome their return every time.

This time, it seems that Elena and her group have returned with good news?

As Yang Hao eagerly awaited, the tent was opened.

The two women who came in from outside, the petite one immediately lay down on Naruja's lap, who was sitting on the sofa in a daze, while the energetic one in a black and white dress walked confidently to Yang Hao.

"Exhausted: Intelligence gathering is complete. Shall we present any valuable intelligence now?"

Elena stated her exhaustion in a calm voice.

Although Yang Hao knew that synthetic dolls shouldn't feel fatigued, he still gently patted Elena's forehead to encourage her and asked her to sit down and rest for a while.

"Is there any valuable intelligence nearby?"

"Confirmed: There are 0 direct reports of demons, but it is worth noting that there seem to be quite a few incidents of livestock being attacked by wild beasts in the forest area near the mines in Ysgard recently."

Suspicion: Calculations suggest that while there is a possibility of wild animals rebelling due to natural causes, the fact that the remains of the dragged livestock have not been found to this day strongly suggests the involvement of a demon.

Further suspicion arises: There is a significant number of "grey populations" in the rural gray areas of Issugard. These individuals, whose numbers have not been reported to the government due to various oversights, have also been involved in numerous disappearances... yet the local government seems unconcerned.

"After all, in most cases, who would care what happens to someone who has nothing to do with them... But Elena, do you know what missing people have in common?"

Yang Hao recalled the demon's ability to "imitate, learn, and evolve."

He suddenly realized that humans could obtain meat and labor by breeding animals, and more importantly, the farmed animals could also become objects of human learning and reflection in a certain sense.

For example, a streamlined fish; for example, a bird's wings and hollow bones; for example...

...

Is there any possibility?

Demons also imprison humans—just as humans keep wild animals... keeping people as livestock for observation?

For some reason, Yang Hao suddenly felt a chill in his surroundings.

But he soon understood.

This is not a possibility.

but facts.

...... ......

In a new, large cavity four thousand meters underground.

After cutting off its excess flesh and transforming those pieces into [producers] that could grow mushrooms, the Mother Nest finally had time and space to rest temporarily.

This place is large enough that even if it were to revert to its original size, it could still move around to some extent.

It caused some of the larvae, which had evolved digging mouthparts, to dig a hidden escape tunnel around them, and determined the end of the escape tunnel to the previous location—after all, a cunning rabbit has three burrows, and although that place was not very convenient, it was still enough as a second hiding place.

Most importantly, it successfully opened a passage to the surface and has allowed some of the demon larvae to carefully obtain some fresh food from the surface, thus replenishing their nutrients.

...Fresh meat allows the mother nest to give birth to more offspring. But the condition of the surface also puzzles it.

Over thousands of years, the scorched earth has been transformed into a fertile world where countless delicious and juicy creatures roam freely.

Furthermore, the race called "Humans" seems to have developed once again—although they are far inferior to their ancestors in magical prowess, they appear to be physically stronger than their forefathers...

Even technically...

...

This is bad news.

The Demon Mother Nest pondered that if she were to rashly appear on the ground, she would be subjected to a surprise attack by a powerful human alliance. Even if she could evolve her offspring to develop shells resistant to physical attacks, the probability of failure would still increase over time if the number of offspring was insufficient.

Conversely, if you hide underground and develop stealthily, your chances of winning will continue to increase.

On the other hand... while the fact that humans have evolved new technologies is indeed bad news for demons.

Conversely, the mother nest can also turn bad news into good news.

[Crunch, crunch...]

As yet another juvenile returned from the hidden passage above, the mother hive turned its gaze and discovered that the humans who had been captured seemed to have suffocated to death due to the unbearable pressure and high temperature underground.

Its original intention was to "domesticate" some humans in order to learn their techniques.

But it seems that humans still cannot function normally thousands of meters underground—let alone reproduce their technology there.

Although regrettable about the temporary failure of the human captivity plan, the Nest still managed to gain a new evolutionary direction through the study of human flesh after enjoying this human feast.

......

The human being eaten was an unregistered hunter.

They are skilled in hunting in the wild and know how to set traps.

As an undocumented immigrant, in order to avoid harassment and pursuit by his own kind, he even knew how to hide his hideout and understood the purpose of disguise.

Naturally, this human also had his own unique insights into the use of materials—but to put it bluntly, only a very small portion of this information was obtained through the ingestion of brain matter resources.

The vast majority of information was obtained through observation of him by the juvenile demons.

There are quite a few aspects that are valuable to demons. But there are also many aspects that demons regret.