Sir! Don't close the net!

"These words came from the mouth of the guy who spent over twenty years erasing the humanity from the residents of Instas and turning them into Austin's human batteries."

"That's hilarious."

Chapter 57 Do you still expect them to have any respect for their work?

"It seems that you, Abel, don't really want to repent. You just want to find an opportunity to alleviate your guilt. I'm sorry, I have no interest in being a dumping ground for sinners, and I have never sworn to keep their secrets."

Li Yili stood up, still wearing the ridiculous paper bag, staring through the two holes in the bag at Abel's gradually changing golden-red eyes.

"This is depravity."

“Yes, living outside the rules can indeed be called depravity, but…” Li Yili raised her middle finger, “when depravity comes from the mouth of someone who uses people as human batteries, it means freedom and true self.”

As soon as Li Yili finished speaking, a fleet of luxurious carriages roared out, disrupting the orderly procession of Instas residents heading to their respective work sites like an assembly line. One after another, employees dressed as Fire Elf Steelworks workers climbed onto the roofs of the carriages with megaphones in hand.

"The Fire Sprite Steel Mill is hiring!"

The loud, deep shouts disrupted the assembly-line-like procession, and every Instas resident walking along the road turned to look.

"Oh, so this is the trump card right from the start?"

Like Sheep Village Logistics, the Fire Sprite Steel Mill is a disguise used to conceal its true nature. The more uninformed bystanders there are, the greater the risk of exposure.

Just like all the employees in Sheep Village Logistics are the offspring of the Black Goat, even the odd jobs in the Fire Elf Steel Mill are all from the Flame Elf family. Even if the offspring of the Black Goat recruit locals from Guoweidun, they will be sent to the city for a year of writing internships, which is a brainwashing training for new recruits. Not to mention the Flame Elves who live in the world's largest seaport, the mixed-race Instas.

Therefore, there are no Instass people in the Fire Elf Steelworks; they are all absolutely loyal Cloud Clan members directly transferred from the surplus of life.

In this era of rapid change, the steel industry has risen to the forefront of the market and is clearly more promising than other industries. As the largest steel mill in Instas, Fire Elf naturally attracted many Instas residents to apply for jobs. However, the steel industry has only started to develop in the last ten years, and Instas does not sell the reputation of people skilled in the steel industry.

Fire spirits, who need to disguise themselves as fire spirits, would naturally not recruit residents of Instas who change their faces every day, much less sell the faces of their own employees.

Of course, with such a large pie in the steel industry, Austin wouldn't allow Fire Spirit to monopolize it. He also partnered with others to start a steel mill, but it either went bankrupt outright or was close to bankruptcy. In the end, it was acquired by Fire Spirit, which expanded Fire Spirit's scale.

Although the residents of Instas were used as human batteries by Austin and his men, they were not human batteries after all. They had their own thoughts and desires. Austin indirectly made the residents of Instas his human batteries through their desires, without them realizing that they were human batteries.

As long as they haven't been reduced to mere human batteries, there's still a possibility of awakening—or, more accurately, of going out of control, just like right now.

"I'm signing up! I want to work for the Fire Sprites!"

"Don't push! I want to sign up too!"

The assembly line suddenly turned into a vegetable market, with everyone eagerly reaching out to the Fire Elf employees.

"Everyone, please don't rush or argue. The Fire Spirits are planning to further expand the steel mill. There are plenty of workstations available. You can all go to the Fire Spirits steel mill and queue up. We'll talk slowly!"

After that, several carriages from the Fire Elf Steelworks began to move slowly, and the crowded people followed the Fire Elf carriages. Soon, the city center of Instas was as quiet as a wasteland.

Li Yili whistled and took off the paper bag from his head. Just like when he threw money in the street before, the residents of Instas, whose personalities were degraded as human batteries, had no self-respect. The faces of others made them lose their last fig leaf. They could release their desires and show their ugliness without caring.

The only difference is that back then he lost real money, and the conflict he caused was only temporary, while the fire elf threw out bait called "getting ahead".

Because this large group of people ran away with the fire elves, Instas's day will undoubtedly become very bad. Many jobs will be unable to proceed normally due to the lack of staff. Anyone with a little common sense knows that this should not be done, because every problem that arises afterward will be attributed to the strikers.

Unless it is completely overturned, the result will only be temporary appeasement and slow handling in the future.

But it was McCarthy and Joshua who went on strike, not them wearing masks.

"Is it strange?" Li Yili sneered at Abel, who was standing there dumbfounded. "Isn't this the obvious result? Degrading their character and treating them like human batteries, how can you expect them to have any respect for their work?"

Abel let out a long breath, his eyes, which had gradually turned from gold to red, were incredibly...

The dimness.

"So that's how you protest. Silence is your way of resisting? How do you plan to win?"

Li Yili twisted the paper bag in her hand into a ball and casually threw it into the trash can by the roadside.

Abel opened his mouth, as if he should say something, but his mind went blank, and he couldn't even utter a single syllable.

"If you don't intend to win, then don't fight. Don't give others or yourself any irresponsible hope."

Li Yili raised her hand and waved, then turned and left, leaving Abel alone standing on the desolate street, continuing to remain silent.

Li Yili did not return to the lighthouse or the dock of the Mercury Queen. Instead, she came to the Sheep Village Logistics Building, which was surrounded by utter silence, and looked up at the sky while biting a casually broken branch.

"Oops... I messed it up..."

Abel's sense of justice prevented him from defending those wrongdoings, and his faith in Bishop Azavet prevented him from uttering words of betrayal against Bishop Azavet.

The result was silence, which, though tragic, was also a form of resistance.

If he asked the right questions, he could confirm many things through Abel's silence, but he always felt that Abel was pitiful. Despite being a powerful chosen one of the gods, he was incredibly restrained, a restraint that was pathetic. In comparison, the inhabitants of Instasus...

Li Yili raised her head slightly, and the image of the fat people who were the residents of Guoweidun wandering the streets of Guoweidun once again appeared before her eyes.

Ordinary people here are much more "free," so free that people genuinely feel they shouldn't have such freedom.

Li Yili shook her head and subconsciously turned her head to look in the direction of the Sea of ​​Dead. Once again, she heard Ips's knocking, the so-called call from the Sea of ​​Dead.

Chapter Fifty-Eight cannot be said to be incomplete or uneven; rather, the average value is ridiculously low.

"Puha—"

Zieg struggled to lift his head, gripping the edge of the pool with both hands, panting heavily. He turned his head expectantly to look at Abu Jean standing at the edge of the pool, but Abu Jean's disappointed expression made Zieg's head droop, and he sank little by little, with only half of his head sticking out, gurgling bubbles.

"What's wrong? You look so dejected."

Just as Abu Jean was about to offer some words of comfort, Li Yili's voice came from behind him. Abu Jean immediately turned aside, hid the stopwatch behind his back, and shook his head with a silly grin, "No, no, Zieg is just a little tired."

“I’m not blind, and this isn’t something that can’t be talked about,” Li Yili patted Abu Jang’s shoulder, squatted down by the pool, and patted Zieg’s head. “How are you feeling? Don’t worry.”

Zig hesitated for a moment before poking his head out.

"Uh... I feel like I've hit a bottleneck."

“Bottleneck?” Li Yili turned to look at Abu Rang.

“Yes, Zieg’s progress was very fast at first,” Abu Jean immediately squatted down next to Li Yili, took out a notebook from his pocket, and poked at the numbers in the notebook, “but the more he practiced, the shorter the speed increase became.”

Zig pulled his head back in.

“Ah~ that’s normal,” Li Yili raised an eyebrow. “Everyone has a limit. Being able to reach the limit speed is already a very impressive thing. Not everyone can break through the limit. You’re amazing for trying to break through the limit.”

A light gradually appeared in Zieg's eyes.

“Uh…” Abu Jang, who was squatting next to him, hesitated for a moment before complaining, “But Minister, we’re not holding a swimming competition, we’re trying to get above the sea. We don’t even know how high the sea is.”

Abu Jean tried his best to make his tone sound less sarcastic.

He didn't question Li Yili's decision to go to the sea; in fact, he strongly supported it. It was precisely because he strongly supported Li Yili's idea that he didn't want to flatter her.

"Abu, to be honest... humans are just weaklings."

"Eh?"

Not only Abu Jean, but even Zieg was stunned.

“It’s not that they’re defective or uneven, it’s just that the average is ridiculously low,” Li Yili stood up, put her hands on her hips and sighed. “The maximum exertion is only the average of an adult gorilla. What’s even more ridiculous is that when you train your muscles to death, the first thing that can’t take it is your own body.”

"Human history has repeatedly proven one thing: that is, humans have limits. But why has human history continued to move forward, and why has human dominance over the world never been shaken by other animals?"

Li Yili looked at Abu Rang and Zig.

Abu Jang was taken aback, but immediately realized what he meant and raised his hand high, "Because some humans are favored by the gods!"

"Ah, um, maybe."

Li Yili's lips twitched, and she suppressed the urge to kick Abu Rang down. She turned to the side and raised her right index finger at Zig, who had an "Oh~ I see" expression on his face.

“The answer is that humans know what they lack, know what is a futile effort, and can always find other ways to make up for it,” Li Yili said, spreading her arms wide. “Are the chosen ones so great? If they are so great, we haven’t seen them go above the sea. They even think that the surface of the sea doesn’t exist. How could they be the driving force for human history if they gave up in the first place?”

"So Zig, you should be proud of yourself. You are the first person in Instass to want to go to the sea and to work hard for it."

"No matter how much you practice, you can't swim to the surface of the sea, but every drop of sweat you shed now is making your dream shine. As long as you keep striving, no one can laugh at your dream."

"Or rather... let them laugh all they want."

Li Yili gave Qi Ge a thumbs up.

"The slander from the enemy is the best praise; the ridicule from those who have long given up and sunk into despair is proof that you did the right thing!"

So go ahead and sweat it out, young man! You shine when you strive for your dreams!

"Yes!" Zig nodded vigorously, then turned and plunged back into the water.

Abu Ran scratched the back of his head, glanced at Zieg who had already swum halfway into the pool, got up and pulled Li Yili away from the pool. After checking the distance to the pool, he lowered his voice and asked, "Minister, are you sure it's okay to say that?"

Abu Jan paused for a moment, then began gesturing to his notebook.

"With Zieg's current physical condition, he would be exhausted after swimming a maximum of one thousand meters."

“Huh? I didn’t plan to let him swim to the surface of the sea,” Li Yili waved her hand. “It mainly depends on the experiments that are currently underway. Oh right, the fire elves and Austin have now broken ties and are sweeping through the residents of Instasus in a manner that is no different from kidnapping people. So recently we may have too many people and don’t know what to do with them. The experiments can be accelerated.”

Abu Rang was taken aback.

Although Li Yili spoke as casually as if she were watching two dung beetles fight, this was a genuine bombshell!

You have to understand that the delicate relationship between the fire elf and Austin has lasted for ten years. He's not naive enough to think that the conflict of those ten years just happened to explode in the few days since their black goat's cub arrived.

In an instant, Abu Jean understood everything, but there was still one thing he didn't understand.

"Minister, if that experiment succeeds, will it be possible to reach the sea?" Abu Jean hesitated for a moment before tentatively asking.

“Of course, the actual difficulty is lower than I imagined,” Li Yili looked up at the sky, her eyes reflecting several seagulls. “Much lower.”

“Then…why keep Zieg training here?” Abu Jean hesitated for a moment before complaining, “Isn’t it the same if he just eats and drinks there?”

As he spoke, Abu Jean turned his head and glanced at Zieg, who was still splashing around in the swimming pool.

"Wouldn't it be terrible if he found out later that his current efforts had absolutely nothing to do with going to the sea?"

"Although you've already given him a heads-up, Minister."

Abu Jean stuck out his tongue.

“But at least he put in the effort, and his hard work made me decide that I had to send him to the sea,” Li Yili patted Abu Jang on the shoulder and smiled brightly. “If he had just been eating and drinking, not wanting to do this or that, guess where I would have thrown him?”

"Cough cough cough-"

Abu Jean coughed awkwardly a few times and scratched the back of his head.

"That's true."

Chapter 59 This is not about adding money

"Okay, I understand—"

Austin raised his hand and waved it at the middle-aged man in front of him with utter indifference, as if everything was under his control, but his trembling, fat face betrayed his true feelings.