214: Chapter 214 Cherry Blossom's Reckless Act Leads to the Destruction of the Nation

Baba pressed the black glove he had just cast aside back against his side, sinking to one knee on the ground once again:

"Your Highness, Sakura Country is blatantly flaunting its biological advantages, mocking us Zeta Stars for having bodies degenerated to the point of being inferior even to the most basic carbon-based civilizations."

"Their bodies are stronger than ours, their reproduction requires no technological equipment whatsoever, and they can run freely on the ground without needing any gravity offset platforms."

"Using these mosaic-censored videos, they are laying out all these primitive physical abilities—which we Zeta Stars lost forever in the era of technological dependence—one by one before Your Highness to mock us!"

Boyi abruptly folded his slender arms—which were permanently encased within the tactical gloves of the Expeditionary Fleet—in front of his breastplate, using almost all the remaining strength in his body to shout out one final sentence:

"Your Highness! A warrior can be killed, but not humiliated!!"

"I suggest that before wiping out all of humanity, we single out Sakura Country and annihilate them first! To wash away the shame for all of us Zeta Stars!"

After listening to the complete analysis of the two men, Prince Dao Dun slowly loosened the fingers that had been gently tightening on the sofa armrest from beginning to end.

Not only did his anger not subside, but instead it became even deeper, more certain, and more irreversible than when he had just finished viewing the mosaic-censored folder.

Turning his head, looking through the real-time communication screen that Baba and Boyi were still filling with their rage, he asked Chancellor Nailong directly at the exact center of the Evernight bridge:

"Chancellor, what do you think?"

Inside the central command dome of Evernight, Nailong and a group of Zeta generals simultaneously adjusted the holographic compound eyes on the upper rims of their respective tactical helmets to a fully synchronized miniature array angular resolution.

After listening to the system reasoning regarding the mosaic-censored videos sent by Sakura Country from Baba and Boyi, even the senior generals of the Operations General Staff, who had never shown hesitation in any campaign, covered their carapaces with their hands—which were locked near the core computers year-round—and fell silent for several seconds.

Then, Nailong slowly raised his right hand, wearing a dark black tactical glove, from the edge of the Evernight command console to the exact center of the holographic screen, saying word by word to Prince Dao Dun:

"Your Highness, the judgment of Baba and Boyi is completely consistent with that of all senior generals in our Expeditionary Fleet."

"What Sakura Country has sent to you this time is no longer some foolish misunderstanding of a low-level civilization, but a low-level, primitive humiliation directed straight at the Zeta Star royal family, meticulously choreographed by them for a long time."

"A warrior can be killed, but not humiliated!"

"I suggest that before annihilating all of humanity, we destroy Sakura Country first!"

"Kill the chicken to scare the monkey, and let all the low-level species on Earth see what the outcome of humiliating the Zeta civilization is!"

Prince Dao Dun's two large black eyeballs had been locked onto the exact center of the holographic communication connection light array since just now.

At this moment, he slowly retracted them from Nailong's face, leaned back into the depths of the sofa again, and gently lifted his two slender fingers resting on the armrest, placing them on his knees.

His voice was calm and indifferent: "Then annihilate Sakura Country first."

On the other end of the real-time communication screen,

Chancellor Nailong and all the generals in the central command dome of Evernight responded in unison:

"We will definitely complete Your Highness's mission perfectly and annihilate Sakura Country!"

By Prince Dao Dun's side,

Rockefeller III, Samuel, Isabelle, Jacob, and William stood in place with their hands hanging down,

listening to this national annihilation order passed down layer by layer from the supreme command center of the Zeta Star Expeditionary Fleet. Their faces were all taut with an extremely complex and hard-to-describe silence.

The five of them could actually roughly guess what Sakura Country wanted to do.

Shigeru Hasegawa sending all the nation's art for Prince Dao Dun to appreciate was nothing more than an attempt to make an emergency comeback by leveraging the old intelligence regarding Prince Dao Dun's previous obsession with "human physical art".

On this planet repeatedly hounded by the Zeta Expeditionary Fleet, they hoped to use the highest sincerity and the most diverse art to fight for the only breathing path of survival left for Sakura Country.

They understood why Shigeru Hasegawa decided to send almost all of their art inventory.

Because Sakura Country had no other choice.

But the five of them could not understand, no matter what:

Why did Sakura Country even package those mosaic-censored video arts together and send them directly to Prince Dao Dun?

Either their brains had a pit in them, or they had been smashed by a meteorite and then trampled by an elephant inside a blender.

Rockefeller III calculated silently in his heart:

If he were the decision-maker for Sakura Country, he would first filter out all folders with mosaics, and prioritize removing all art related to the human reproduction process from the resource library,

and then from the remaining parts, pick the nation's top kabuki, noh, anime, and symphonies to present to His Highness.

Any normal person would do that.

But Shigeru Hasegawa did not.

He packaged all the art Sakura Country could possibly present,

and included everything.

Even if Rockefeller and the others wanted to plead for Sakura Country at this moment, they couldn't find any reason to convince Prince Dao Dun.

Because they themselves couldn't figure out what kind of neural pathway Shigeru Hasegawa and his group were based on to be able to send such unseemly things to an alien prince.

Of all things to send, they just had to send these.

Well, now the whole of Sakura Country can just wait to be destroyed.

...

Virginia, Shenandoah Valley, Federal Supreme Command Center.

Biden crossed his hands and placed them on the table of the Sunrise conference room.

On the holographic screen in front of him, the final frame of surveillance footage showing the motorcades of Harrington, Duval, Narendra Singh, and Shigeru Hasegawa driving away from the valley was still frozen.

He was silent for a moment, then raised his head and said to all the high-ranking Washington officials present:

"Connect to Ms. Diana."

The encrypted communication channel was established within seconds.

Diana's holographic projection appeared right in the center of the conference table.

She still wore that cold expression, with the background being the boxwood tea room of Casablanca Manor, featuring that row of old purple clay teapot racks shining under warm yellow lights.

Biden briefly recounted the garbled code incident that had just occurred in Shenandoah Valley from beginning to end, and then asked directly:

"Ms. Diana, Yuanzi is interfering with other countries acquiring advanced technological data."

"We want to know if the Longevity Faction can provide the same technological protection for those allied countries about to join the Global Technological Defense and Cooperation Initiative?"

Diana was silent for a few seconds, her tone as cold as ever:

"The current policy of the Longevity Faction is to protect only its own subordinates."

"For those forces that are not subordinates of the Longevity Faction, the Longevity Faction will not provide any protection."

Biden nodded slightly.

Harris beside him gently relaxed the ten fingers resting on her knees.

Graves slowly withdrew his thick palms from the tabletop and placed them on his knees.

Mark Milley placed the tactical pen he had been gripping in his hand onto the table.

Madeleine and Sawyer exchanged a brief glance.

There was no need to ask another single word.

The path of sharing technology was completely blocked.

Without the protection of the Longevity Faction, John, France, India, and Sakura would fundamentally be unable to read any advanced technological data under Yuanzi's interference.

Even if those data were mere scraps, anyone without authorization from the Longevity Faction would see nothing but garbled code.

Biden withdrew his hands from the tabletop and placed them on the armrests, sweeping his gaze across everyone present:

"Since the path of sharing technology doesn't work, then we won't take it."

"Anyway, countries like John, France, India, and Sakura are just atmosphere groups to begin with, at best an embellishment; it doesn't matter whether they exist or not."

"As long as we win Ten Thousand Ship Slash and repel the million-strong fleet of the Grey Alien using the 'Gravity Trap', world hegemony will still be ours."

Mark Milley picked up the tactical pen placed on the table again, gripped it in his hand, and nodded slightly.

Harris picked up her cup of coffee, which had already gone cold, took a sip, put it back down, and likewise nodded slightly.

Graves placed his thick palms back onto the tabletop, gently tapping his fingers against the edge of the folder marked "Global Technological Defense and Cooperation Initiative", and said in a deep voice:

"The other countries were just running alongside to pad the stats to begin with."

"Now that those pacing runners can't run anymore, we ourselves will cross the finish line in front, and the hegemony will still be ours."

"As long as we can blow the million-strong fleet of the Grey Alien to pieces outside Neptune's orbit, any country in the future will merely be a question of the degree of vassalage."

"This matter can be wrapped up."

Madeleine gently closed the briefing report in front of her that recorded the respective expressions of the four heads of state when leaving Shenandoah Valley, her tone still maintaining her habitual calmness:

"Regarding the matter of shared technology being interfered with by Yuanzi, I suggest that the President step forward and explain it clearly to the whole world in front of global live broadcast cameras."

"First, it can give an explanation to John, France, India, and Sakura Country; second, it can also give an explanation to the citizens of Lighthouse Country."

"After the process of all humanity uniting to resist the alien fleet was forcibly interrupted by Yuanzi, only Lighthouse Country is left fighting alone."

"This kind of courage to single-handedly fend off a million-strong alien fleet with the power of one nation is precisely the kind of heroic sentiment that the American public loves most."

"And this sentiment will ultimately be projected onto the current president, winning enough votes for the president to completely crush Prant."

After listening to this passage, Biden did not answer immediately.

He slowly lifted his hands resting on the armrests, crossed his fingers, placed them next to the cup of black coffee that had long since gone cold in front of him, and was silent for a moment.

Then he looked at Madeleine, his tone steady:

"Since there is an opportunity to fiercely suppress Prant and win back the votes, I have no reason not to do it."

...

A few hours later, White House Oval Office.

Joseph Biden sat behind that world-famous large desk, with his hands crossed and placed on the tabletop.

Behind him was a floor-to-ceiling window, and outside, the lawn of the Rose Garden gleamed with a short-trimmed emerald luster under the midday sun.

Directly ahead, three cameras were set up, corresponding to the signal channels of the world's three major satellite live broadcast networks respectively.

Billions of people around the globe waited in front of their screens simultaneously.