Chapter 1054: We Became Him

When Luo Si left the Presidential Palace with people, someone made a call to Lanse.

The morning in Lapa was exceptionally quiet, and there weren't many people on the street.

Lapa had just experienced a cleaning by routed soldiers, and almost every household was licking their wounds at home.

Those poor slums that hadn't been attacked by these routed soldiers also basically stayed at home, or were on the streets at their doorsteps.

The city center was completely paralyzed, which also led to more than half of the people in the slums, who completely relied on the city center to provide job opportunities, losing their jobs.

Diego indeed had many problems, but in Zhuolan, the people living here didn't have too many feelings about his cruelty.

The dictator's big knife wouldn't fall on the heads of

The dictator's blade would not fall upon the wretches in the slums; the only thing they could feel was that this city had become more prosperous because of Diego and the Lapa government.

The bustling city provided them with more job opportunities, allowing them to feed their families.

Although the work they obtained was not decent, nor could it be called safe or healthy, at least it could feed their families.

Now all of this had vanished, and they would soon face the same problem they had faced before.

No income, unable to afford food, unable to feed their families.

So, from the perspective of these people, whether it was Diego or the newly arrived Pedro and his ilk, they were essentially no different.

Luo Si led his men, moving rapidly toward the center of the New Federation. On the way, he also noticed those ordinary people—the underclass—hiding in alleys or behind certain buildings, staring at them with unfriendly eyes.

If there were only one or two, perhaps he wouldn't pay much attention, but almost all the gazes were like this, which gave him an indescribable feeling of horror.

He could feel that he, and they, were surrounded by this malice.

He didn't quite understand; he had clearly liberated these people, saved them from Diego's brutal dictatorial rule—why were they not only ungrateful but instead looking at him with such hostility, even hatred?

Even during the public trial, from beginning to end, these people had not deeply brought their emotions into the trial, as if Diego's death was not good news to them, which made one feel ridiculous.

These despicable wretches! This thought appeared in Luo Si's mind, and then he cast it to the back of his mind.

Compared to figuring out why these wretches did not accept them, what he needed to do more now was to drag Lanse back.

His team was stopped when they entered the center of the New Federation.

"Sorry, we haven't received any clearance for passage."

"If you want to enter here, you must either show your pass, residency card, or you can call any official in charge of this."

The guy holding a rifle blocked the path forward, and there were thick anti-riot barriers wrapped in barbed wire on the road.

These people wearing long trench coats with clear insignias did not have the unease that ordinary people usually showed when facing anti-government militants, and Luo Si did not like this.

He was accustomed to the expressions of awe and even fear on people's faces when they saw him and the soldiers behind him; only in this way could he concretely feel that the thing called power was specifically manifested around him.

He watched the soldiers argue with the man blocking the road for a few moments, then pushed through the crowd and walked to the very front. "I am General Luo Si, I want to see Lanse."

When he said this, the man blocking him couldn't help but laugh out loud.

The laughter seemed to be contagious, making everyone around start to laugh, and some people didn't care about his face at all, laughing wantonly and loudly.

This was something Luo Si, who cared very much about his face now, could not stand; his hand pressed onto his holster.

The big man standing in front of him curled his lips, revealing an expression of "if you can't play, don't play." "I shouldn't mock you, General... Luo Si."

He couldn't hold it back again and laughed twice more. Just as Luo Si opened his holster, everyone raised their weapons and pointed them at him.

At the same time, three armored vehicles drove out from the alley by the side of the road and blocked the path.

The machine guns on top were also aimed at them.

Seeing this scene, Luo Si's hand slowly moved away from the holster, and the guy in front of him had a condescending mockery on his face. "Either get out of here, General Luo Si!"

"Or we will throw you into the river next to us."

Luo Si's face was no longer just red; it was white, from anger.

He pointed at the man, then slowly retreated two steps, and only then turned around, which made everyone burst into even louder laughter.

After leaving the entrance of the New Federation center for a distance, an officer beside him asked, "Are we just going to let it go like this?"

Luo Si shook his head. "Of course not, go and bring up two pieces of artillery."

The officer beside him was stunned for a moment, but immediately after, a somewhat manic look appeared on his face. He stood at attention and said, "I'll go right now."

Lanse received the news that Luo Si had ordered two pieces of artillery from the armory before the artillery had even left the armory.

Whether it was Diego's government or this insurgent army that looked imposing and was preparing to establish a new government, there was actually no essential difference.

They were all composed of three types of people.

A group of idealists, such as Pedro, who wanted to mold this world into the shape he wanted according to his own preferences.

As for whether his understanding and cognition of this world had omissions or were unreasonable, he would not care.

What he cared about was whether this place would become the paradise he imagined.

The second group of people were ambitious, such as Luo Si. These people took advantage of the impact of this famine to successfully rise up and smoothly occupy Zhuolan, and were about to become the only legitimate regime here.

They were the greatest enemies of idealists; they had clearer cognition, more obvious and intense purposes, and were even more unscrupulous.

For the sake of their goals and ambition, they could temporarily abandon some things, including morality and bottom lines.

They were also the most dangerous part of this group of people.

As for the third part, they were opportunists.

Opportunists were everywhere, whether in the financial trading market of Detran, every industry in the Federation, or in this rebellion officially recognized by the government, while they themselves believed they were an insurgent army liberating the people.

Opportunists existed in large numbers.

The purpose of opportunists speculating was to make a profit. They had already obtained rich profits by supporting the uprising and supporting Pedro and others in their march toward Zhuolan in the early stages of the uprising.

In Pedro's plan, these people would become the backbone of the new government, and some would contract various government projects.

After all, many cities had been beaten to a pulp, and these cities had to be demolished and rebuilt; such a huge project naturally meant huge profits.

If the purpose of these people betting on the insurgent army was not to be an official, then it must be for money.

They also had no bottom line; as long as they could ensure their interests, or allow them to break even in a counter-trend, they could completely abandon their bottom line and morality.

These three types of people made up the insurgent army; idealists and ambitious people occupied the majority, and the number of those opportunists was not small either.

When they arrived in Zhuolan and occupied it, and everything was developing in a good direction, these opportunists might have already sensed some wrong situations.

Some of them had quietly reached an agreement with the Lanse Group.

They didn't even need to do anything actively; perhaps they just made a phone call, or contacted certain people through their own methods, gave them a look, a hint, and a transaction was completed.

Every force faced this situation when encountering risks; some wanted to persist, some wanted to run away, but there were also some who wanted to turn the original disadvantage into an advantage for themselves.

Pedro also knew about Luo Si's actions at the first moment when he heard that Luo Si had been stopped outside the concession and had been severely humiliated by Lanse's soldiers.

Regarding his unauthorized mobilization of artillery, Pedro did not interfere. Sometimes he believed that one could not blindly seek perfection when dealing with Federation people, including "invaders" like Lanse; sometimes it was necessary to show a tough side.

If you are not tough, they will not learn to respect, just like they did with the Diego government.

If Pedro and his people also kept retreating, eventually the Diego who kept appearing in his mind would overlap with him, and he would become the next Diego.

But soon the phone on his desk rang. He picked up the phone; the call was from Lanse.

"You made a very stupid decision; now you have a ten-minute opportunity to save all of this."

"Ten minutes later, the navy will shell the Presidential Palace."

Pedro's brain had not yet fully accepted and analyzed these contents when the phone was hung up by Lanse.

He pressed the hook switch several times, but there was no response.

"Fuck!"

Pedro, who had always been able to calm down quickly, was no longer able to calm down. He dared not bet on whether this was an "intimidation" or a "warning." Once the Federation navy shelled the Presidential Palace, the impact on them would be huge!

They were about to fight the armies of those native states; if the news that Zhuolan had been shelled spread, the morale on the front line would hit rock bottom in an instant, and there might even be a possibility of large-scale collapse! Just like Diego's troops, they actually still had some combat effectiveness in the end, but those soldiers and officers had completely lost their morale and courage, only caring about running away, which led to a total collapse of the line.

Having just experienced what happened, how could he not understand the horror of this situation? And he dared not bet.

Judging from the situation shown by the current Lapa situation, Lanse, the Federation government, including the leaders of those native states, and the ministers who had defected to Lanse, they did not treat Pedro and his people as an insurgent army at all.

These people still called them "rebels" or "anti-government armed forces," which meant that shelling Pedro and his people in the Presidential Palace would not require bearing any diplomatic responsibility.

Pedro could even imagine that when the shelling ended, those native state ministers would indicate that this was requested by them actively, rather than an unauthorized action by the Federation navy.

The invisible constraints around him became more and more numerous after entering the Presidential Palace, and he had gradually begun to be able to understand Diego.

Understand the suffocating feeling he had here in the Presidential Palace at his final moment.

Clearly, this place represented the symbol of the peak of the Lavila family's power, but in the end, it became his prison, making him unable to breathe!

He put down the phone and quickly picked it up again. "Go to the entrance of the concession, stop Luo Si, and bring him back..."

"If he refuses, can't you use the weapon in your hand, damn it?"

"In the name of the commander-in-chief, I demand that you bring him and his men back, immediately!"

Pedro slammed the phone down hard. He could no longer sit still; he paced back and forth a few times and looked toward the direction of the port.

This was one of the places with the highest terrain in Zhuolan, and he could see several warships docked outside the port. He found a pair of binoculars and saw their gun barrels slowly moving toward his side.

When he saw those pitch-black gun barrels, a feeling of palpitation rose instantly, forcing him to put down the binoculars, and he dared not look over again.

After a long while, he calmed his mood a little. He could not stay here, but he could not go out either.

As the current commander-in-chief, his every word and action was closely watched.

It was clearly winter, and the temperature was only a little over ten degrees, but he was sweating all over.

He paced back and forth, cursing Luo Si one moment, Diego the next, and Lanse the next.

After about eight or nine minutes, he was so nervous that he had clenched his fists. The phone on the table suddenly rang. He rushed over and picked up the phone; it was Lanse's voice.

"Don't do stupid things next time; this is the last time."

The phone was hung up again after saying one sentence. Pedro wiped the sweat off his face and let out a heavy sigh of relief.

He slumped into his chair; at this moment, he had completely lost the excitement of occupying Zhuolan a few days ago and being about to form the Lapa People's Government.

There was only deep exhaustion! More than ten minutes later, Luo Si rushed in angrily. He slammed his hand on the table. "Why did you have someone stop me?"

"Have you also become timid and retreating?"

Pedro looked at Luo Si with somewhat complex eyes. "After you mobilized the artillery, Lanse called me. If you couldn't be stopped within ten minutes, their warships would shell Zhuolan."

Upon hearing this, Luo Si, who was still full of anger, also became silent. He leaned on the table and slowly sat down opposite Pedro, with some incomprehension and confusion on his face.

"Could it be... that we have no other way?"

Pedro shook his head. "I have been thinking, in those last few days of Diego, was he also like us now, facing the same terrible situation?"

"Wanting to leave but unable to leave, wanting to stay but unable to stay, only able to be like a puppet, pushed forward by others, walking toward a place none of us want to go."

(End of chapter)