Saiyan stowaways on the Ark

Bardock, however, was clearly not thinking too much at the moment. He simply gritted his teeth and glanced at Darles, who was still unconscious.

"Tch... I don't need you to remind me, I'll talk about it later!"

*Actually, if you wear Turles's battle suit and talk to Bardock in Xenoverse 2, you'll find that Bardock doesn't recognize Turles at all. He'll say, "I only remember the names of the strong ones. There are a lot of Saiyans, but they're all a bunch of weaklings."

[Main Text] Terra Battle for Supremacy: Chapter Forty-Nine - The Choice

Rhodes Island transport vehicles carrying numerous operators sped across the wilderness, but many more chose to walk on foot through the incredibly rugged land after the riots. After all, the distance between the various cities was only a little over a hundred kilometers, which was still far from enough compared to the high-intensity daily training they had endured.

However, since most of the operators who could withstand this training were skilled combat fighters, in order to keep pace with the search and rescue personnel and medical operators and act in unison with them, they slowed down and kept a speed that was neither too fast nor too slow compared to the vehicles.

This scene inevitably reminds some people of the legendary Silver Spear and Heavenly Horse's rapid march—traveling a hundred miles at night to achieve a surprise victory.

However, their current operational conditions and movement speed are probably unmatched even by the real Silver Spear Pegasus.

In less than two hours, hundreds of operatives and supporting rescue teams were successfully dispersed to the four-part Great Knight Territory. With their excellent search capabilities and the aura perception abilities of some operatives, they quickly established a simple communication network to exchange information on the specific situation in each area, which also facilitated the Doctor's operations.

Grand Knight Commander Ioleta of the Supervisory Council agreed to allow Rhodes Island to cooperate with various knightly outposts that were still relatively stable, under the name of the Supervisory Council. Since the knights were generally in good physical condition, there were too many casualties, and in this situation, the more people who could contribute, the better.

These knights, who had no idea what was going on, regained some composure after hearing that the group of operatives who had suddenly appeared in the city were members of the Supervisory Council, and hurriedly joined the activities in accordance with the pace of Rhodes Island.

However, it took a lot of effort to make them understand that "it wasn't the Ursus people who attacked that caused this situation."

—After all, if the Ursus people had that ability, there would be no need to waste so many years with them.

Of course, there were still quite a few knights who disobeyed the orders, because these knights, who were supported by Casimir Capital, had no intention of sharing the hardships of the disaster that was happening in their area. They seemed to only want to leave as soon as possible or seek the protection of the partner companies.

But those who wanted to escape were left bewildered when they saw the endless wilderness beyond the city's borders. This group, who had always been the ones driving others out of the city's shelter, now seemed to realize how cruel and terrifying the wilderness outside was. At this moment, no one could provide them with protection, so they could only cower in the city that they saw as incredibly chaotic and dangerous.

As for those businesses, most of them came to a standstill the moment the disaster struck. The employees, who had been exploited like cogs and dared not have any extra thoughts, seemed to realize at that moment what they were doing so humbly—to earn a living, to survive. In this situation, continuing to stay in factories and buildings and work for the sake of the boss's etiquette was clearly not a "survival choice".

Even the security personnel of various companies were unable to stop the employees from fleeing in search of a way to survive, as the security guards had already disappeared shortly after the initial explosion.

People either run to open spaces to avoid being affected by the collapse, or head to internal shelters that only open when a natural disaster strikes; they certainly won't stay in the concrete box where they were once exploited without complaint.

Although most of the survivors were still in shock and in a state of panic about the unknown situation and fear of witnessing the towering trees being burned to ashes, they still had some capacity to feel sorry for their fate and express grief and indignation.

Little did they know that such a disaster was already considered a relatively good situation from a "results-oriented" perspective.

Of course, for many people, this situation might be more painful than death, where one is instantly reduced to ashes.

Losing a job, losing property, losing a limb, losing a family, losing a life—no one can fathom what the last group of people are thinking. But the emotions displayed by the first group are clearly visible to the officers who have been involved in the rescue efforts during this period.

The Special Championship came to an abrupt end that day, replaced by a somber rescue operation.

"It was a tragedy."

The doctor, who had been working tirelessly day and night, took a short break and went to the deck of Rhodes Island, which had become the main base for treating the wounded and the center of operations.

Finding a moment to catch his breath amidst the hectic atmosphere, the doctor saw Tomat, who seemed to be resting after finishing various demolition and aura therapy tasks as well.

"Yes, even the perpetrators of the tragedy were helping to save people."

Without turning around, Thomas continued the doctor's casual remark, his words laced with self-deprecation.

"Even if the truth is revealed to the public, no one can decide that your actions are wrong."

“Are you sure? I’ve heard this countless times: ‘It would be better if I were dead than if this happened.’ In their eyes, it’s my fault for letting them live, or rather, ‘living in such pain,’ because I couldn’t think of a better solution at the time.”

During this time, Tomat inevitably came into contact with many people, although most of them were only brief encounters. Some expressed their gratitude after finding that their physical pain had subsided, while others complained bitterly after regaining their ability to speak.

This made many Rhodes Island operators who knew the inside story break out in a cold sweat. They seemed quite worried that Thomas might give those people a quick death if he was unhappy, allowing them to truly get an "easy death".

But this worry seems to be unnecessary. Thomas never commented on the remarks of the disaster victims, and no operator went back to bring up the topic.

It wasn't until the doctor mentioned these things.

Thomas glanced at the doctor, then said:

"'Living in pain' and 'dying easily' are their own thoughts, and it is their own judgment which they think is better. I do not make judgments for them, and I certainly do not impose the idea that 'living is better' on them."

"I was just making my own judgment—to choose a method that would allow more people to survive."

In that situation, there wasn't much that Tomat could decide, but the only one who could make a decision was himself, so he made the decision instead of watching everything turn to ashes.

It wasn't the idea of ​​saving a life and doing good deeds that drove him to want more people to live; in a sense, he was simply rebelling against that powerless situation. After all, if the opportunity were completely missed, any decision he could make would become a mere fantasy of "once being able to."

He no longer wanted to get bogged down in the quagmire of past choices.

"Tomat... were you prepared to face others' misunderstanding and malice?"

The doctor pressed on with further questions.

"I wasn't prepared, I just didn't care."

Thomas answered very decisively.

"Since there will always be people who are dissatisfied with you as long as you do something, you might as well do what you think is right while you still can make decisions, instead of not having the opportunity to choose or living according to other people's ideas."

"Those who survived and those who died as a result could indeed be considered to have been forced to accept the consequences of my decision."

"And I used to be the same, facing things I didn't want to do because of other people's decisions."

"Although I don't want to compare myself to that shorty, I also don't intend to righteously claim that my motive was to save people and make myself sound noble. In terms of actions, there is no essential difference between me and him."

"The phrase 'life and death are in my own hands' sounds cool, and everyone feels they have that right. But in the face of overwhelming power—or rather, when you are weak, you can end up having your life and death arbitrarily controlled by others without warning. The decisions of the strong become the fate of the weak."

"So let them hate if they want."

These words left the doctor silent for a long time. Then, as if she had made a great decision, she slowly asked:

"So, Thomas... did you act recklessly because you saw them as weaklings whose lives you could decide at will?"

"what."

Thomas chuckled, turned around, and gradually approached the Doctor. Under the invisible pressure he exerted, the Doctor could only stand frozen in place, looking at Thomas's face with a hint of nervousness.

He brushed past the professor, casually patting him on the head, asking a question before disappearing from sight.

"—What do you think?"

The answer has probably already been given.

If Tomat were truly someone who held this view, he wouldn't have made the choice to save more lives.

Or rather, from the moment he first appeared in everyone's sight, in the ruins of Chernobog where they first met, it was impossible for anyone to survive.

[Main Text] Terra Conquest: Chapter 50 Amnesia

"That guy's awake? Did he cause any trouble?"

"Causing trouble? No, but things are a bit tricky now..."

—October of 1097 in the Terran calendar, Kazimierz Grand Knights' Domain, the original venue for the Major—

About a week has passed since the disaster. With the assistance of many large knightly orders such as the Crimson Knights and the Scattered Blossom Knights, as well as several conquering knightly orders, the scattered Grand Knight territories have now established a more stable order. According to Roy, who is currently a guest on Rhodes Island, the Unarmored Alliance is also secretly maintaining order and effectively curbing the occurrence of looting and vandalism after the disaster.

Whether it's true or not is unclear.

Surprisingly—or perhaps predictably—the situation is quite different from when Lungmen was plunged into the Great Ape crisis and everyone wanted to escape. In the Kazimierz Grand Knights Territory, most people are now in a state of "wanting to leave but being unable to."

Of course, those who want to leave are basically the corporate capital that has been exploiting the local market and then established its roots abroad, as well as the Casimir noble knight families under their control who are just short of changing their nationality to Colombia or Letania.

Not only were the previous explosions making the roads almost impassable, and crossing the surrounding wilderness nearly a pipe dream, but more importantly, no one dared to go to this area to pick them up.

Furthermore, the headquarters of each company were already prepared to drain Kasimir dry and then withdraw their investment and leave. The money they had earned had been basically transferred to the countries or organizations behind them. With each company in crisis, the forces behind them have not suffered any significant losses. For those "real bosses" who had long since fled abroad and believed they had the upper hand, this was simply a matter of bringing forward their long-planned actions.

Just as corporate capital in Casimir treats employees as expendable resources, entrepreneurs who consider themselves top members of the food chain are no different from their employees in terms of being expendable resources.

Instead of going to great lengths and taking risks to relocate the remaining manpower and resources, it would be better to simply find another place to continue investing in and building factories. After all, Terra is not lacking in backward but exploitable places.

Therefore, those entrepreneurs and noble knight families could only invest in the production of goods and the provision of resources, which were not profitable, under the semi-coercive policies of the Supervisory Council.

They were once fearless, but they have lost their greatest advantage. Their perceived monopoly on the material industry will now be easily judged as hoarding and profiting from natural disasters.

The knights under the jurisdiction of the Supervisory Council will not openly rob.

They would simply come to those people's doors, brandish their lances, and then solemnly proclaim the disaster relief policy, leaving them to decide for themselves what to do next.

Those who control wealth never consider sharing hardships with the source of that wealth. But when all their prepared escape routes are blocked, they realize that no amount of wealth can compare to a single lance.

The attitude displayed by many pedantic knight families during this disaster has given the Supervisory Council, which previously had no way to deal with them, an opportunity to properly purge them. Perhaps the Supervisory Council is not the best group of people, but with their help, they should be able to clean up the rotten knightly forces in Kazimierz. As for the Commercial Alliance, needless to say.

Although the Supervisory Council is also composed of noble knights, and even with the presence of war knights, their conduct cannot be guaranteed, judging from their actions so far, allowing them to take a leadership position would definitely be much better than the previous situation.

Soon, state-owned enterprises with the involvement of the Supervisory Commission should be able to operate smoothly, and the market and economy will gradually recover. However, at that time, it will not be in the form of commercial alliances where others can hold them by the throat.

The Great Knight Territory is just the beginning. What happened here will serve as a precedent for the entire nation of Kazimierz, making them realize that when disaster strikes, not all families in the so-called knightly class share the same fate, and that those enterprises that have long plagued the country are nothing but parasites that suck the marrow from the bones.

Of course, all of this depends on the fact that the supervisory authorities in other parts of Kazimierz dare to send support troops to this place. So far, other places are actually similar to Ursus and Sami – everyone knows that something happened in the Great Knight Territory, but no one is willing to take such a huge risk to come and investigate. This has given the Great Knight Territory, which has been greatly affected, a good buffer time.

The atmosphere of the rescue operation is slightly more relaxed compared to the previous period. The high efficiency of Rhodes Island personnel in the search and rescue has left a very deep impression on the locals. From the Supervisory Council to the infected, everyone has witnessed the outstanding action capabilities of the Rhodes Island operators.

And combat power.

After all, it's not something you see every day—slapping a rogue knight so hard he's embedded in a wall and can't be pried out. And it seems like everyone of them can do that.

This unreserved display of force has largely ensured the stability of order.

Nowadays, most people no longer sigh and lament their misfortunes, but seem to have regained a sense of reality from their experiences over the past few days and are now focusing on the life ahead.

This atmosphere allowed someone to breathe a slight sigh of relief behind the scenes, though he was clearly not as relaxed as he had been when he said those words.

Therefore, he also felt it was time to deal with the real culprit.

The opening two sentences come from Rhodes Island's medical room, which is not currently overcrowded. Thanks to the promotion of breath therapy, physical injuries can be healed almost quickly, so most injured people do not need to lie in a hospital bed. In front of a ward with thickened walls deep inside the medical room, Tomat is talking to Bardock.

"Trouble? What happened? When you say 'didn't cause trouble,' you don't mean you killed him before he caused any trouble?"

Obviously, this was just a joke, since Tomat did sense a calm atmosphere in the room, and there should only be Darles in there, so he should still be alive.

“I didn’t kill him,” Bardock said seriously. “Although I wouldn’t have shown any mercy if he dared to do anything, after all, it’s quite common for fathers to kill their sons or vice versa.”

“If this is fate, then it’s really twisted…” Tomat commented on Bardock’s reaction, then deliberately pressed, “Wait, did you just admit to something?”

"Don't mention that." Bardak immediately moved on, then opened the ward door, as if to tell Tomat to go in and see for himself, "You know what's wrong with this kid, right?"

Thomas entered the ward with some skepticism, while Darles, sitting on the bed, seemed somewhat dazed. Realizing someone had entered, Darles turned around with a slightly confused look in his eyes, his previous coldness and arrogance completely gone. He asked politely:

"Um...excuse me, who are you? Why am I here?"

[Main Text] Terra Battle for Supremacy: Chapter 51 A Gift