Chapter 405: Crooked Tree, you

No one could have known that Sen Zan, who in the past should have acted without hesitation, today showed no reaction at all, instead respectfully standing aside as if greeting a new ruler.

But before his waist could bend, a strong hand pushed him back, followed by a warm voice.

"Don't feel guilty, my friend; you merely performed your duty and obeyed your conscience, and from today onward, Baranta people need not bow to anyone."

Unfortunately, words aside, perhaps because he always boasts of being the Southern Black Lion and revels in it, the stripped‑of‑citizenship Pi Sai Er remains suppressed, unable to lift his head.

So he could only see that the approaching figure was a man in leopard‑pattern camouflage uniform, and behind him were several soldiers with loaded rifles, fingers trembling with excitement.

Guns? Could this be military…

Damn! I knew those damned brutes were untrustworthy!

Yet his desperate struggle was still futile; he could only squeeze out words as cold as a poisonous snake from between his teeth.

"Who are you!?"

"Heh, just a discontented, bewildered pawn beneath the tyrant's foot."

Shedding the last bits of resentment in his heart, the man glanced at his shoulder insignia and lifted his head slightly.

"Sorry, who I am is irrelevant; as a former kingdom army captain, I'm here to tell you, His Majesty Pi Sai Er, no, sir, your dark rule ends today."

"Impossible! I am the king, do you understand!?"

Pi Sai Er immediately let out a hysterical denial, his entire dark face contorting.

But that wasn't enough; perhaps the gentle king feared those around him were deaf, or perhaps he wanted to eradicate his own inner terror, and he emphasized again.

"I am the great and legitimate Pi Sai Er II, His Majesty the King!"

The captain could only shake his head unambiguously.

"Oh, fine, perhaps you still are, at least before you sign this."

Then he produced a thoughtfully drafted abdication edict and placed it before Pi Sai Er.

Pi Sai Er's face first showed shock, then turned to ecstatic joy.

—There's still a chance, heh heh! As long as the dust hasn't settled, everything still has a chance!

So he tilted his head, flashing a self‑taught, mischievous rogue grin.

"I—won't—sign!"

"Pfft… hahaha."

Unbeknownst to him, the captain standing before him also laughed, a particularly hearty laugh, as if he had long anticipated this.

So Pi Sai Er's newly subsided fury surged again, pounding the desk his left hand could barely reach.

"Fool! What are you laughing at? No laughing! I warn you, I have close ties with… I have close ties with Mr. Johnny of the White Eagle Embassy; they won't let you overthrow me. They're surely condemning your atrocities in the Adhesive Nation now; wait, the heavenly troops are coming at once!"

But this time it wasn't just the captain; everyone in the room, whether holding him down or holding guns, including the clueless Sen Zan, all laughed.

Yet the captain was evidently a decent man, not allowing everyone to continue treating this greedy, foolish pig as a clown for amusement, as that would insult both pig and clown.

So he signaled everyone to be quiet, then looked at Sen Zan beside him.

"Friend, I hope you can set aside past grievances and tell Mr. Pi Sai Er where Johnny is now."

Strictly speaking he belongs to the security department, but Sen Zan immediately straightened his back.

"Report, sir! Mr. Johnny is on the first floor, waiting to reconfirm with you the ownership issues of the Bogo Gold Mine and other vital minerals!"

!!!

Terrified, Pi Sai Er felt his blood turn cold, but before he could utter 'What?', a hand pressed onto the table.

"Rest assured, Pi Sai Er, I won't go see him first; I might first meet Mr. Zhang of the Huaxia Embassy, after all Baranta people desperately need a railway, and you, a waste, have used all those precious international aid for some damned coronation ceremony!"

"So!"

He sat in front of Pi Sai Er and tapped a pen onto the edict.

"I will wait here for you to sign, and I must tell you, the heroic Baranta people will wait with me until you personally admit your defeat! Admit that we secured our freedom with our own hands, not by anyone's charity!"

"…bastard!"

Completely broken, Pi Sai Er somehow found strength, thrusting his head up like a mouse emerging from a gutter, only to see a tilted red beret and a face as young as his soldiers'.

He is young, just as the world remains young.

So when Ji Ming slipped out of the window, relying on a hand‑thrown flash of light to fly around the group beneath the tower—neither to search nor to return, only to gather under the viscount's lead and idle, serving as the local knights' atmosphere squad, after which he received a message from Cang Lang.

【Tree, are you a half‑immortal or what, and can you calculate?】

Then came a freshly baked, scorching‑hot breaking news that hadn't even been released yet.

【Southern African micro‑state Baranta experiences a sudden military upheaval; the notorious king Pi Sai Er II, dubbed humanity's last tyrant, is overthrown by rebels】

…

【According to reliable sources, this upheaval was aided by the king's guard commander Sen Zan·Ak Lei Er·Pi Pi, who did not clash with the paratrooper troops storming the palace, but instead opened the gates, helping them achieve a bloodless peaceful transition】

…

【Insiders reveal that the cause of this upheaval may be linked to Pi Sai Er II's recent immersion in the Double Moon Struggle, as he devoted more energy to the game and relaxed oversight of all Baranta factions, allowing rebels to collect weapons, contact personnel, assemble forces, and infiltrate the Royal Capital without encountering any resistance or checks】

…

One can only say that heaven aids the self‑saved; while the bewildered Sen Zan still pondered how to save himself, a long‑planned upheaval happened to appear.

He only needed to open the gate himself to make the most perfect choice of his life.

He escaped Pi Sai Er II's retribution, evaded the revolutionary forces' trial, and even, as an outstanding representative of the conservative faction, gained a fairly decent future after shedding his shackles.

…Damn, so that weird feeling was because of this, I even thought S3 was really about to start.

Ji Ming fell silent for a moment, then had to send Cang Lang a message.

Best answer: 【I don't know】

The ox‑cart was naturally taken away by ShanShang's group, so Ji Ming, unwilling to travel at night, planned to find a suitable place to rest for the night.

But once that happened, it was one thing after another; before he could close the system page, another person sent a video‑call request.

No need to guess, this time it's certainly the 'Earth Mother' who also added him as a friend.

And as soon as you open the page, you can see her excitement like a micro‑business team‑building session, and the office worker's thrill of finally reaching the day before his day off, constantly striking the big gong in his hands.

This wave, this wave is… World‑One V finally started showing off talents (hard to hold).

Anyway, when people are happy they're in high spirits; Mother Earth, under the red banner "Warmly congratulate Savior Ji Ming for successfully reducing Earth's tension", made a big fuss for several minutes before stopping.

Then a line "Baby, Mom loves you, heart‑to‑hand" almost scared Ji Ming to death on the spot.

But it truly is worth celebrating; although Baranta is just an obscure quirky little nation, your distant land is someone else's hometown, and ultimately Double Moon Struggle brought about this great transformation?

As long as cooperation and win‑win are pursued, the hope for beauty can gradually become consensus, similar positive events will increase, and everything will get better.

And everything that happened in Baranta is merely the most representative part of it.

Unfortunately, perhaps too many good things happened today; when Ji Ming finally earned his superior's approval and found a small inn to order two extra meat dishes as a luxury, he was turned down by that big‑nosed old man.

"Sir, your economy is so good here, do you not even earn money?"

Seeing a gold coin fluttering in his hand, the old man, struck by a mental attack, swallowed his saliva.

Just as he was about to speak, an old woman behind him tugged him, snapping him back to reality, and he humbly bowed.

"Sir, you look like a Pioneer, right? With such a big event today, if we took you in we'd be courting trouble; even if there's money to be made, lives must be spent. Please spare the lives of us two old folks!"

"…tsk."

Leaving the inn, only four paths now lay before Ji Ming.

One is to waste today's portal‑transfer right—I'm not joining, I'll head straight back to the dungeon to rest!

Another is to find a decent junkyard and become a homeless who, having already been paid by the old Buddha, can roam wherever his dreams take him.

A third is to go into the deep mountains and be a wild man who feeds stray dogs soup, digs latrines for feral cats, clears vines from sea turtles, and doodles on stone walls.

The last option is to imitate Pi Sai Er's venting method: randomly pick a wealthy household, rely on his high charisma, and start a zero‑yuan succubus‑form purchase.

While evading patrols on the road, curious about who today's lucky rich guy would be, he actually ran into an unexpected top‑tier rich guy.

"You… you are His Highness the Prince?"

Han Fulei once said, you can't investigate everything; what if you uncover something?

At this moment, the Viscount clearly found himself in this awkward situation.

According to his impression, Pioneers who reach the kingdom's interior are all very wealthy, so the first place his troops headed to was the city's most upscale inn.

He intended to investigate and maybe skim a bit of pocket money, but his soldiers couldn't force open the top‑floor door; the guests refused them entry for any search.

"So bold? Did you report my name, Viscount?"

"We reported it, sir, but they still refused."

"So they give us no respect?"

Though a bit angry, the cautious Viscount, fearing trouble, first asked the innkeeper.

It turned out the occupants were a young man and woman, dressed elegantly and behaved properly… seemed to be siblings.

After driving away the loyal mages, the Viscount lost a reliable adviser; with his astonishing noble wit, he thought a moment and slapped his forehead.

This is the big tusk, this is the upward index finger.

"Ah, I get it!"

—Who besides the Pioneers could meet all these requirements?

And isn't it coincidental? The big event this evening in the city also seemed to be an internal clash of the Pioneers; it's perfectly normal for them to appear here!

Honestly, the Viscount didn't really want to meddle in the Pioneers' affairs, but their clamor at his doorstep ruined his mood, leaving him with no desire to stroll the alleys tonight.

That's a slap in the face; these aren't ordinary Pioneers, they must be hit hard and give an explanation!

So he ignored the guests' threats and scoldings, paced anxiously twice, and ordered his soldiers to force the door open.

Inside the extravagantly decorated king's suite, just as the innkeeper said, were a young man and woman.

And when the Viscount looked closely, he thought, hey! This young lady looks good, quite resembling the famously beautiful Princess Fiya…

Thump!

He immediately delivered a crushing blow to his own knee, then bowed respectfully.

"Honorable Prince Philip, please forgive my intrusion; I am merely…"

Although the social structure of the Yangyue World resembles medieval Europe, after the intervention of hundreds of saviors and tens of thousands of years of evolution, some very interesting changes have occurred.

For example, the issue of princely fiefs: to prevent too many blood‑line parasites who leech off the kingdom, and to avoid royal scions like the late Ming‑era Prince Fu who lived a meaningless life until his final stew with venison, the three great kingdoms all adopted the same enfeoffment system—a merit‑assessment system.

That is: every royal offspring automatically receives the title "Prince/Princess" at birth and enjoys a salary that rises with age, but to advance further they must undergo assessment.

The assessment, usually held at age twenty, is extremely complex and comprehensive, like university; daily virtue, deeds, and reputation among commoners and nobles count for part of the score, while the exam tests handling of complex affairs and proposals for the kingdom's difficult issues for another portion.

At the end of the assessment, there is even a graduation‑style interview, where princes must face a joint review panel of at least three powerful dukes, because without the courage to face a tiger, land ownership makes them merely fat sheep in others' eyes.

Although some dirt is inevitable, those who pass must be relatively personified; after receiving a fief and the title "Prince/Princess", they can do things befitting a ruler.

(End of Chapter)