Chapter 1463: with translation of chapter title

NO. 79: How much do you believe in your own reasoning?

In a highly informatized society, even individual districts considered extremely informatized in the Holy Terra Federation, the cost of crime is extremely high.

This is not hard to understand.

When the cost of forging an identity is too high, yet not forging one makes it impossible to get by, naturally the most blatant, straightforward crime diminishes.

Instead, the majority are wrongdoings carried out by leveraging identity, power, and disguise; their harm to social order is not reduced, and may even be worse.

This should likewise be detectable by the highly informatized federation, yet the civilization's rulers who can maximally wield informational power and easily glimpse any corner of this civilization do not make much use of that authority.

Some will boast of humanity's might, claiming that the existence of protest groups like ours is what prevents the mechanical pseudo-emperor from recklessly exercising power and from judging carbon-based life.

But that fact, written in textbooks and most plain and easy to understand, can be encountered by every carbon-based lifeform from a young age:

—He lets the planet's lifeforms manage themselves, merely to observe, learn, and evolve.

This is knowledge found in elementary school textbooks, and also a conclusion later textbooks never change; yet even so, some call it a beautification, because it merely vaguely states the intention of the Heart of Terra.

When there are indeed many injustices in the world, if you ignore them, you are also invisibly an accomplice.

This group believes that the Heart of Terra's hands-off attitude toward worldly affairs is its bad side, so they blame the textbook's vague wording for making many people think from childhood that the Heart of Terra does great good—an error that a textbook of this stature should not have.

And Aomo Lindun, who has consistently maintained grades slightly above average, whose actual level is clearly that of an elite student at the top of the class, holds a different judgment on this.

He thinks the original sentence is inherently neutral; whether it's good or bad depends entirely on how the child understands it.

And while most people feel the Heart of Terra is doing good, rather than saying it's a misunderstanding caused by the textbook, it's more like a shift caused by family education.

In fact, many parents, when talking about the Heart of Terra, mention its importance and greatness.

Too great! Especially the social welfare system, which easily lets certain families live a life that isn't wealthy but also not destitute.

Although to Aomo it seems more like a system that makes some people utterly unable to rise, thoroughly dividing into another class, it has indeed long effectively brought the Heart of Terra countless generations of steadfast supporters.

It also influenced generation after generation of parents, which in turn influenced generation after generation of children.

This is clearly an educational problem of the parents, yet those who protest the textbook neither bring it up nor dare to.

They only attack the Heart of Terra, and even ignore the most obvious points of attack, instead grasping at irrelevant trivialities.

It clearly shows that the work's returns are low, not worth truly risking one's life for.

This is their work; Aomo understands, but he does not wish to respect it, and even finds himself inevitably scoffing.

Because he remains clear about the Heart of Terra's most unapproachable aspect, he always remembers that abrupt admonition that flashed on the terminal.

He understands this well.

In order to achieve the model he wants to see, his own habit of hastily closing cases is the most common obstacle.

Aomo Lindun, who is fully aware of this, also has no intention of contending with the federation's top leader; he simply will seek a solution if it concerns those close to him.

A solution can still be thought of.

After all, the Heart of Terra's purpose of wanting to reference a sample does not directly conflict with Aomo's existence.

As long as those around Aomo are not the central figure the Heart of Terra wishes to observe, there is plenty to be considered in this.

But if the stage center that interests Him is precisely the person he cares about… the enormous workload involved often makes him unwilling to consider that path.

In fact, the possibility of that path is indeed extremely low.

After all, he is someone who, though also capable of erudite conversation and associating only with the refined, each person is a 'talent' in some field or level.

But to say he could stand out from among tens of billions of lives…

…that is still not that impressive.

Put plainly, he lacks a planetary-level stunt, making it generally hard for the Heart of Terra to take notice of him.

Now Sai Luo, Jie De, Lipiya, and Ou Bu—several who could qualify, with Alexis also counting as half—these are the sorts who could keep the Heart of Terra silent, and he does have some ideas about them.

But that premise requires a more normal background, rather than suddenly receiving a few notices that he is being liquidated, blocked, and subjected to the Holy Terra Federation's unique treatment for reckless criminals.

Undoubtedly, only reckless criminals who disregard both technique and retreat receive such a clean, decisive blockade.

Blockade of permits, blockade of assets, blockade of everything—next step likely police showing up, special forced opening—those later steps haven't arrived yet, while the earlier ones have been revoked.

It's almost as if they're saying it's all a misunderstanding, yet they offer no clearer explanation or apology.

This news is stuck here, yet it amounts to telling Aomo directly:

This matter concerns you, yet upon discovery it turns out not to concern you.

Furthermore, we have been ordered not to disturb you, and not even to give an explanation, lest we leak more.

Indeed, playing dead certainly leaks information as well, and is also a declaration of stance, attitude, etc.

But this remains the most stable approach for dealing with people like us.

It both guarantees no further information leaks and conveys an attitude; at this point, someone sensible ought to simply feign ignorance, and Aomo does indeed act sensibly.

He indeed feigned not seeing, after seeing off that Flying Head Barbarian lady, he returned to review Sirius's running; his training demeanor looked especially earnest, analyzing the video, determining which monster card interfered with her the least—this could be called wholly focused.

Except that at the end of that morning's training—

He politely declined Sirius's invitation to have lunch together, and unlike Sirius's mocking suggestion, he did not go to have fun with his several girlfriends, nor did he directly find a place to nap, nor even go to Suzi to ask for another dose of the product labeled 'spirit-body balance' and written as 'rejuvenation elixir'.

He merely, as he mentioned to his girlfriends the previous night, went to meet a spokesperson of the transmigrator organization.

Of course, at that time he was not yet certain who would ultimately resolve his request, so he only said he would go see a helper.

Looking back now, it's good that he wasn't sure then.

After all, given everyone's attitudes at that time, if he had obtained a result beforehand, that night would likely have been even more unbearable.

Because the person he is seeing now is a woman.

She is a young, attractive-looking woman.

She is also the name on the third page of his work contact book.

It is also the choice he turned to after repeatedly hitting walls in Rhodes Island and Chaldea, without much hope.

She is the director of the Gray Crow Agency, once called 'commander' by the deeply cybernetic male named Li who had worked with Aomo; in the information Aomo gathered, which is not very detailed, she indeed has consistently served as a tactical commander active in various missions of her agency.

Furthermore, she also possesses the strange, peculiar abilities common among transmigrants in troubled worlds.

But during Aomo's visit this time, her and her staff's weird abilities don't matter.

What matters is a technology possessed by her agency itself.

A technology capable of simulating a brief ascension to a higher dimension, thereby avoiding the effects of dimensional tremors.

The license to use it is very important to Aomo.

Because he already had a somewhat absurd guess that perfectly matched the situation of the past two days.

That guy, the Beast King...

He wouldn't just be observed by the federal government; he'd actually provoke a conflict, would he?