Qianyuan: My crew comes from the world of anime.

Luo Tianming stuck out his tongue and said, "No, I just synthesized a substance similar to scopolamine in my own bodily fluids. After you ingest it, it temporarily blocks the sense of pain and converts the pain into a dopamine-like sensation."

"...Really?!"

He nodded in confirmation. All of this was thanks to the painted-skin creatures inside his body. After they became symbiotic, they could no longer simply control his body, but could use his internal organs as a miniature chemical plant.

Many marine species have the ability to synthesize toxins internally, such as blue-ringed octopus, conch shells, and sea anemones...

"That's too much of a cheat!" Coco exclaimed. "By the way, what else can you do that's even more amazing?"

Coco has seen all the abilities she's seen, such as hardened skin, strengthened bones, and underwater breathing.

If we were to say what other abilities these creatures with painted skins possess, it would probably be the ability to change their body shape.

He briefly discussed it with the symbiote, and then the other party sent an 'ok' message.

"...!"

"Hey—! Just now... there was something like needles."

Coco screamed in panic, her most sensitive area suddenly attacked, her whole body stiffening as if frozen.

What she sensed was Luo Tianming's upper body... The originally smooth cylinder had sprouted countless soft spines like those of a sea cucumber.

These soft barbs don't hurt when they prick, but when they touch the internal folds of the mucous membrane, they act like tiny brushes. With just a few movements, Coco's body contracts tightly, and she trembles slightly each time they are pulled out.

Looking at the wicked smile on Luo Tianming's face, how could she not know that he was up to something?

"You really are an alien~!" Coco playfully punched him, her face alluring and charming.

After a few moments, all she could do was cling to Luo Tianming and beg for mercy.

He does have an advantage in this regard...

However, after Coco whispered those strange ways of playing in his ear, he looked at Coco with a sense of curiosity.

It feels like if this continues, he'll be led astray by that 'bad woman'~

Chapter 401 Review Meeting

Luo Tianming prepared to force open the ballast tank door, but Coco clung to his back like a burden.

"Hey, that's enough... We've been in here long enough."

Behind her, Coco hid her face inside her clothes and said in a coquettish tone:

"No~~ I want to be intimate with you a little longer~"

"It's rare for me to have you all to myself for a while. Once I let you out, I'll have to start cleaning up this mess."

Luo Tianming's face darkened. "You're the one who made this mess."

He said irritably:

"Besides staring blankly at each other, what other entertainment do we have if we stay here? Don't tell me you're the only 'entertainment' you can't even touch for a couple of seconds before begging for mercy, and you still have to try all sorts of fancy tricks."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Coco pouted.

Her physical condition was undoubtedly very weak, even among the Nautilus crew, she was very weak, even worse than Minami Mumei.

But unfortunately, she has a particularly playful personality and wants to try everything... she's both bad at it and loves to have fun.

After a brief moment of tenderness, someone on the Nautilus finally discovered Luo Tianming's 'disappearance'. 2B, relying on her experience, went directly to the ballast compartment and rescued the two people who were locked inside.

"Master...you and Miss Coco?"

Looking at Coco's disheveled appearance and the way the two were embracing in the ballast tank, it was easy for her to tell what they had done.

Coco shyly used Luo Tianming as a shield, while Luo Tianming readily and generously nodded in acknowledgment.

2B then turned to Coco and said, "Great! Now Miss Coco is one of us too."

"?" Coco looked at her in confusion.

“I have always felt that this is somewhat unfair to Miss Coco.”

She said matter-of-factly, "It's about the 'shift schedule.' Miss Coco hasn't joined the shift schedule yet. Everyone else has it, so it's unfair that she's the only one who hasn't."

"..."

Coco was so ashamed that she couldn't bear to face anyone, and wished she could stick her head into Luo Tianming's back and make a hole in it.

It turns out that everyone had been trying their best to help her and Luo Tianming get together, even deliberately giving them time alone, all in order to break the ice as soon as possible.

The two had long since understood each other's feelings, which didn't need to be expressed in words.

It's just that Coco's awkward personality and her tendency to take the lead in relationships have kept them in this stalemate for so long...

This was already embarrassing enough, but to make matters worse, it was said by the most naive and innocent person in the crowd, someone who simply thought it was 'great'.

Coco is so ashamed she wants to die, even more so than before!

Fortunately, besides being a woman, Coco is also a negotiation expert. To gain the upper hand in countless verbal exchanges, one must be thick-skinned!

As the Nautilus crew gradually came together, she slowly returned to her usual self from her initial awkwardness, but only Takemi Tae could immediately see her physical discomfort.

After taking her to the infirmary, Wu Jianmiao instructed her to suspend her shifts for a period of time until she recovered.

---

After a brief period of commotion, the crew of the Nautilus regrouped and went through the bridge tunnel to the secret room below.

To have a discussion, they need a place to sit, and the bridge is clearly not a good place to talk. In addition, there are some 'external factors' on this ship, and they cannot let them realize the Nautilus's connection to this war.

After entering the room, everyone quickly found their place.

Only Luo Tianming lay flat in the middle, unable to move... He was resting his head on 2B's thigh, with Nan Mengya on his left shoulder and Lucy on his right. Coco and Levi each occupied one of his legs, while Wu Jianmiao used his stomach as a pillow.

It felt somewhat like their last voyage...

Luo Tianming tried to move, which drew glares of disapproval from the crowd. He immediately gave up struggling and said:

"Could someone give me a summary of the situation during this period? I've been blind for almost a month, so I need to know what's going on outside."

"What's going on?" Lucy said nonchalantly, "What else can happen? The Europa alliance is fighting fiercely internally, but on the surface they have to put on a 'basically normal' expression and swallow the losses."

How far has the civil war progressed?

"Rebellions in two regions are not so easy to quell... If it were just Europa Alliance members fighting each other, the situation wouldn't be so complicated. But everyone wanted to get involved, so it turned from taking sides into a brawl."

Luo Tianming: "The 'Clown Saint Mother' side is definitely involved. Opportunities to have fun like this are rare; they are the source of chaos and madness."

"Not to mention the 'Painted Skin Cult,' they're definitely being hunted down by the intelligence department right now, after all, they instigated and aided the rebel soldiers."

"I just don't understand... why 'Jupiter Separatism' is getting involved. What benefit does it bring them?"

Lucy arched her head, finding the most comfortable position on her forearm, and said, "Because they're also fighting a 'civil war.' They probably think they can find allies in the alliance's internal conflict, but who they'll help is another matter."

"Is Jupiter's separatism waging a civil war?"

Luo Tianming asked, puzzled:

"I thought that once Catherine's 'moderate' faction rallied the other factions, their previous disagreements would be resolved."

“It’s not that easy~” Coco raised her eyebrows and said with a ‘taken-for-granted’ expression: “Who told you that there won’t be political disputes in a political party? The differences between different factions are greater than the differences between a mule and a horse.”

"As the saying goes... to fight external enemies, one must first secure internal stability. The external enemies of the Europa alliance are overwhelming everyone, but the internal enemies are even more hateful."

"Political struggles and assassinations between factions are rampant. There are terrorist attacks against the Europa Alliance, as well as cooperation with the Europa Alliance to blockade it."

"Otherwise, you can't explain why you can sometimes buy weapons and ammunition belonging to the Alliance from separatist merchants, and why most separatists don't object to eating food belonging to the Alliance, and why the technology and sites are Alliance technology. Even when the Europa Alliance was attacked by suicide bombers, they didn't wipe out all the separatists."

"Therefore, I strongly suspect that those pro-alliance separatist factions received some form of sponsorship from the Europa Alliance before you got involved, with the aim of dividing these separatists."

"Politics is a complex matter. Just because you're in one camp doesn't mean everyone is of one mind. Otherwise, what would be the point of having so many liberal parties?"

"..."

As expected of Coco, she has witnessed these situations in many Eastern European and African countries that have experienced military coups, and is all too familiar with these kinds of dramas.

There are bound to be collaborators within the separatist movement, and the Europa alliance is not without its separatist spies. The two sides are so familiar with each other's intertwined interests that they are more so than people in the same camp.

The civil war within the Europa alliance undoubtedly exacerbated their internal conflicts...

Some advocated taking advantage of the alliance's weakness to seize the site in one fell swoop.

Some argue that it's time to cooperate with the Europa Alliance and force them to relinquish some of their shelter slots, since radiation is imminent and seizing more territory would be a waste of effort.

The more radical ones would definitely plan to seize the shelter, but... those guys are bound to be very unlucky. Judging from the intelligence department's attitude towards the rebellion, the 'hydrothermal wasteland' is the real main battlefield.

As for Catherine... she must be having a major headache over the disagreements.

However, Luo Tianming had trained her a long time ago, and the split at Chongshan Station could be considered a rehearsal for this.

After some discussion, the group reached a rough estimate of the casualties in this civil war:

Total estimated casualties: 50,000.

Chapter 402 Punishment

Fifty thousand casualties... at first glance, that seems like a large number, but in reality, this estimate is still on the lower end of the range.

This does not include those who went missing while fleeing their homes due to war.

This does not include those who starved or froze to death due to insufficient supplies or fuel.

This doesn't even include those who committed suicide out of despair...

The figure of 50,000 was obtained by Lucy through statistics from various sites and calculations based on a large model.

First, half of these 50,000 casualties are confirmed military deaths, and the death toll of these soldiers with dog tags is the most direct and clear.

Next came a large number of unidentified individuals... including civilians from the Alliance and saboteurs from other factions, especially members of the Skin-Painting Cult. It is said that the Alliance recently built an incinerator specifically for this purpose; I wonder if that's good news.

Then there were the wounded... The large number of wounded brought about by the civil war made the already scarce medical supplies even more scarce.

This also includes an unprecedented shortage of medical personnel. The wounded soldiers caused by the war are one thing, but the civilians affected by the war are another.

Some people inhaled large amounts of smoke from incendiary bombs, while others suffered internal organ damage from the shockwaves generated by thermobaric bombs. The most common injuries were gunshot wounds caused by stray bullets.

The injured watched in despair as several medical staff attached different colored wristbands to them, then waited for further diagnosis.

Something unexpected happened to Luo Tianming:

It seems that those in the Painted Skin Cult who still have a conscience are eager to compensate the victims in the capital. Among them are a few self-taught doctors with medical experience, and they can easily treat simple gunshot wounds.

But the league has rejected this offer, believing that the only place these guys should be is prison.

Finally, there was the collective 'reflection meeting' aboard the Nautilus.

The primary target of the review is, of course, Coco. She was the one who devised the plan and carried it out, including sending false intelligence to the alliance under the guise of Luo Tianming, provoking war, and deliberately inciting external forces to escalate the conflict.

Although its purpose was to avoid a larger-scale civil war, it still resulted in the loss of nearly 50,000 people.

However, we cannot completely dismiss Coco's plan because of this.

If the Balkan issues had been resolved through small-scale local conflicts during World War I, such as allowing ethnic conflicts in Serbia to ignite a local war, the death toll would probably not have reached tens of millions.

The same applies to World War II... If France had acted decisively when Germany advanced into the Rhineland, and if the Northeast Army had relied on the Yanshan Mountains to defend the route northward from Beijing, then an even more terrible war would not have broken out.

Therefore, Coco did it—by sacrificing 50,000 lives, she prevented an even more terrible full-scale civil war from breaking out.

For her... this was an 'acceptable sacrifice'.

As for the other person in charge of implementing this plan, even if Coco only recognizes her as an "accomplice," Lucy has no intention of admitting it.

From the very beginning, she was determined to betray Coco.

Therefore, Coco herself bore the full punishment.

The person who carried out the punishment was naturally Luo Tianming, and his solution was to be spanked in front of everyone.

"..."

To be honest, when Coco heard this, she thought she was hallucinating.

Is spanking considered a very severe punishment?

However, she quickly abandoned this naive idea. When her skirt was ripped off and she was pinned to Luo Tianming's knees and spanked, a strange sense of shame took over her mind.

When Coco put on her pants, her earlobes were so red they looked like they could bleed.

"Ahem~ That counts as punishment." Luo Tianming coughed lightly. "In any case, this incident is over... No one is allowed to mention it again."

"..."

Everyone nodded in agreement.