Chapter 1211: Giving One's All

The Machine Heart was not a new secret to the senior leaders of the Star Alliance. There were always a few races or individuals close to the Machinery Race in each epoch, having gained their friendship. However, there were very few who would manage to pass the test of the Machine Heart.

The requirements of the Machinery Race were too high. For these individuals or civilizations who managed to enter the eyes of the Machinery Race, they would usually be given some form of support or convenience, but only to a certain extent. There was no problem for them to recommend the individual into Heavenly Gates or further their relationship with the individual, but it would not break the rules of the Star Alliance for them. This was probably one of the reasons why the Machinery Race did not directly protect Earth this time.

Of course, there was an extremely important factor that resulted in this. That was the difference in levels between the two civilizations. If the difference exceeded two levels, according to the laws, the Machinery Race would definitely not pass it.

“Are there any recent news from Earth?”

“Lyon was killed on Earth by the combined efforts of several Void Cores using a set of rank-7 artifacts from the Heavenly Gates,” Aikesi replied eloquently. Intelligence about Earth was not difficult to collect; after all, their level of civilization was too low. For the Blood Demon Race, as long as they deliberately investigated, Earth was almost like a layer of transparent glass to them.

“A Spiritual Energy Base was built on Earth by Wang Zhong and the Illusion Race. The Void Cores were brought up using this base. They can be considered the ones with the strongest combat power from the Earth other than Wang Zhong and the others who are famous in the Land. Although the potential of the Earthlings is high, the time they had to develop was still too short. Thus, we do not need to worry about those people.

“Earth’s main combat power consists of three people. The first is a Solid Core in the sacred arena named Aiolos, who is suspected of possessing the strength of a Gold Core. The second is Wang Zhong himself, who had advanced to Solid Core. According to sources from the underground world, before he went out into the Netherworld Sea to find the Netherworld King, he seemed to have had a battle with the Gold Core Bayan of the Profound Fire Faction. The result was a win for Wang Zhong. There is no doubt that he possesses the strength of a Gold Core too. I have sent people to the underground world to look for Bayan. If we do manage to find him, we should be able to know Wang Zhong’s exact strength. The most troublesome one would still be the one who managed to tame the Netherworld King, Mu Zi. The civilization battle will be in the Land, which is a great distance from the Netherworld River, causing his strength to be greatly reduced. However, with the Netherworld King’s assistance, he should also have the strength of a Gold Core. Furthermore, his strength should be slightly higher than that of Wang Zhong.

“Also, the leader of the rebel army in the mirror world has been determined to be an Earthling, but he mainly relies on the purification power of the ‘Buddha’ to win people’s hearts. His own strength does not seem to be very strong. Moreover, since he is in the mirror world, Wang Zhong is unable to contact him. News is blocked from going in, and it’s a place where criminals are exiled. I don’t think they even know about the Civilization War.” Aikesi laughed. “But as all the investigations have shown thus far, Earth has not reached the threshold of a level-6 civilization. However, they are certainly at least a level-5 one.”

“In just a few short years, this little indigenous civilization that has just left their world has managed to do so well in the Land. They certainly are capable.” The Blood Demon Ancestor sighed slightly, but his face still held a smile.

He was not afraid that Earth still hid any trump cards. They had just entered the Star Alliance two years ago. Before that, they were an indigenous civilization. How strong could they get? On the contrary, he was afraid that the Earth was too weak, which would prove that it was not as valuable as imagined.

Furthermore, there was a very important prerequisite for the Civilization War; that is, the civilization level of the two sides could not differ more than two levels. Otherwise, the Machinery Race would have been able to halt the war according to the rules of the Star Alliance regardless of all sounds of protests.

But now, the Earth seemed to have the strength of a level-5 pinnacle civilization or even a level-6 civilization considering the actual combat power of Wang Zhong and Mu Zi. As Earth only had a one-level difference with the Blood Demon Race, the Machinery Race had no legitimate excuse to stop this war unless they completely ignored the pressure and public opinion from the various races of the Star Alliance.

“It’s best to be able to wage the war. I will personally attend the battle when the time comes,” the Blood Demon Ancestor said faintly. “Besides, let the three Carloze brothers from the outer battlefield return. Also, summon the night souls back to prepare for the battle. I’m afraid that Earth still has some hidden cards that have not been discovered by our intelligence sources. Since we have decided to do it, we should not lose any battle!”

“Yes!”

…

The three days were neither long nor short. Although the findings of the Machinery Race had yet to come out, the matter of the Civilization War had spread quickly. Not only among the higher-ups of the Star Alliance’s many advanced civilizations, it had also begun to reach the ears of the ordinary people. It was not difficult to infer that the Blood Demon Race was the driving force behind the spread of this news. Letting more people know about the war would pressure the Machinery Race to do things according to the book, which was beneficial for the Blood Demon Race. However, it was limited to the dissemination of news. For the time being, there were still relatively few people openly discussing the matter. After all, the decision had yet to come out. If a bunch of people went to ridicule Earth first only to realize that the Civilization War was canceled, it would definitely be awkward.

Most people were waiting and watching calmly. However, things weren’t so peaceful on Lao Wang’s side.

“Civilization war? With the Blood Demons? Boss, what kind of big heart do you have to still be able to laugh at this time?” said Jhonas.

“Wang Zhong, the superintendent has already hinted to me that Rhode D has a certain right to speak in the Machine clan, and both Chief Judge Lyune and Arbitrator Wiggins have a good impression of you and Earth. It’s still not too late to speak to Rhode D now.”

“Wang Zhong, honor must be defended with blood. I support you! Although we outsiders cannot participate in the Civilization War, if you need any magical artifacts or anything, just speak up!”

Nini also chimed in, “What? The Blood Demon Race dares to start a Civilization War with you, Master? And they still want to have eleven people fight against Master alone? Hmph! Do they think that they are powerful since they have so many people? Wait till I go back to summon my sisters. Let’s contract a hundred in one breath this time. Then we will fight them one hundred to eleven!”

Jhonas, Celeste, Pavaro, and even Nini were all talking beside Lao Wang. Whether they were supporting him or worrying about him, Lao Wang merely smiled but did not respond. This only made them panic even more. The only thing that had made him speak was the interrogation from the Machinery Race.

On the surface, it seemed that it was just the usual collection of materials for the Civilization War, but the one who came was Rhode D. After completing all the routine questioning, Rhode D said meaningfully, “Wang Zhong, your condition looks good, and I don’t think you are worried about this upcoming Civilization War. I believe you are very clear about the importance of this. Now I just want to ask you. If you are given the opportunity to choose, would you choose to go to war?”

Lao Wang smiled and said, “Is this what you want to ask, or is it what Chief Justice Lyune and Arbitrator Wiggins want to ask?”

“…It’s me that is curious about this.”

“Then how do you think the Chief Justice thinks about this matter?”

Rhode D was stunned for a moment, and for the Machinery Race with computing power comparable to supercomputers, to stop thinking meant that the problem was quite complicated and the amount of information was too large.

He seemed to be recalling the few exchanges with the Chief Justice and the Arbitrator the past two days and finally said, “…It is strange. I think the Chief Justice and the Arbitrator have a very good impression of you, but they didn’t even make any effort to prevent this Civilization War… Under normal circumstances, a Civilization War between civilizations that had a difference of three levels would be a one-sided slaughter, and the Chief Justice would generally not approve it.”

Wang Zhong laughed, “It seems that the Chief Justice and the Arbitrator do not think that this Civilization War will become a one-sided slaughter then. Your Machinery Race knows Earth much better than the other civilizations, and perhaps there is still quite a lot of information that you don’t even know.”

“Are you referring to the Netherworld King? And Aiolos in the arena?” Rhode D frowned. “I don’t think the three of you alone have the ability to compete with the Blood Demons. As for Earth, its combined strength is even weaker, and it is simply not qualified to be on such a stage… To be honest, I really don’t understand what’s going on this time. Perhaps the Chief Justice and the Arbitrator really know of something I don’t understand.”

“Don’t worry.” Wang Zhong patted Rhode D on the shoulder. “I know in my heart and sincerely believe that the Chief Justice and the Arbitrator will weigh everything and make a fair judgment on this. What I want to know is, when the Civilization War starts, can everyone participate? And participants will not be exempted from anything no matter what has happened before?”

Rhode D was stunned and nodded. “That’s certainly true. The Civilization War is the highest level battle of the Star Alliance, and everything else can be ignored.”

But did it matter? How long had the Earthlings been in the Star Alliance? What foundations could they have built?

Rhode D left confused; even in the end, Lao Wang never gave his personal take on the question.

No one understood his thoughts, just like no one understood the strange choice of the Machinery Race.

After a peaceful three days, the verdict from the machine race arrived.

“Due to irreconcilable differences, the Earth civilization and the Blood Demon Race will be having a Civilization War. The Star Alliance has approved of this after careful deliberation! Two months later, the fate of the two races will be decided on the Observatory Stage of the Machine City!”

In just half an hour after the sound of the Machinery Race’s messenger filled the sky, notifying every corner of the Star Alliance of the rare news in hundreds of years, gossip about the war filled the other civilizations, and the Earth officially entered the eyes and ears of the entire Star Alliance from this moment on.

“Earth? What kind of civilization is that? They dare to even start a Civilization War with the Blood Demons?”

“A level-4 civilization? Is there something wrong?! How were the blood demons able to force a level-4 civilization to start a Civilization War with them?”

Shock! The entire Star Alliance was in an uproar soon after.

Although Earth had a big reputation previously, it was basically limited to a small social circle, such as the inner circle of the Heavenly Gates or the trading social circle around the Illusion race or those who could reach the senior levels of the Star Alliance.

Although Wang Zhong had many accomplishments — such as the battle against Phumetheus, the matter of the Ocean Empire Planet, and his status as a Master in the CHC — these achievements were not known to many civilizations in the middle and lower levels of the Star Alliance. Not to mention those numerous fourth- and fifth-level civilizations, even the Shell Shade Faction previously, which was a level-6 civilization, did not have a clear overall understanding of the Heavenly Gates. They might not even be able to figure out who the current Superintendent of the Heavenly Gates was, let alone know about a disciple from there.

Before, except for some specific social circles, few knew of the Earth Civilization. But at this moment, information about Earth had drifted everywhere in every corner of the Land.

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“It has only been three or four years since they entered the Star Alliance, and they have already jumped from a level-4 civilization to level-6… This speed is against the heavens! It’s even fiercer than the speed of the Heavenly Shell Race previously. Who are they?”

“It’s not level-5.5, but level-6! I heard that just two days ago, the official documents with the double stamps of the Star Alliance and the Heavenly Gates have already been sent to Earth.”

“Their potential is certainly very scary.”

“It’s just that they are too prominent. The Heavenly Shell Race’s rise was only after the accumulation of hundreds of years. However, it has only been a few years since Earth entered the Star Alliance. Those that climbed fast usually fell the fastest too.”

“If my race had the talent potential of the Earth civilization, we would have chosen to be very low-key and cautious. By doing so, how would it be possible to provoke enemies such as the Blood Demon Race? Even if they are now a level-6 civilization, the gap with the Blood Demon Race is still too big. It’s certainly a huge pity.”

“The Blood Demon Race can be considered in the upper range among the level-7 civilizations, right? How many Gold Cores do you think they have? If I were to guess, I would say they have around 80 to 100 of them.”

“Do you think that Gold Cores are like ‘cabbages’ on the street? For a level-7 civilization to have 20 to 30 Gold Cores is already a dream. How would it be possible for them to have 80 to 100 of them? Only the Heavenly Shell Race could have so many.”

“I do not know about the Blood Demon Race, but the Earth had just been promoted to a level-6 civilization. The announcement also said that it was due to personal contributions. It is estimated that there is not even a Gold Core from the Earth.”

There were heated discussions from all parties; people were not necessarily concerned about the outcome of the war between the two races but just wanted to have a pure and lively gossip.

It had been a long time since the Star Alliance had a Civilization War. After all, the conditions for a Civilization War to be started were very harsh. It was even rarer for the Star Alliance represented by the Machinery Race to recognize its legitimacy, which indicated that both parties involved must be quite powerful. If it were two ant-like low-leveled civilizations, they would not even be eligible to apply for a high-end ruling like the Civilization War. And once its legitimacy was backed by the Machinery Race, the losing party would inevitably lose everything. The party would not dare to go against its word, unless it could fight the entire Star Alliance.

There were still two months before the Civilization War began, but the hundreds of thousands of seats in the Machine City Observatory Stage had already been sold out. Even the sideline standing tickets had been sold for hundreds of Gold Stars Stones. It was simply unimaginable; the ones who could get the tickets were definitely the rich. Everyone was enthusiastic about the battle. The Star Alliance, which was originally peaceful, suddenly became active and hyped up. For most civilizations, sitting in the stands to enjoy the rise and fall of two powerful civilizations was the grandest event of the Fifth Dimension. Such an event might not even occur once or twice in an era.

With the Civilization War in place, various gambling houses were naturally set up. The Insect Race was not only the wealthiest in the Fifth dimension but also the biggest banker in the gambling industry. After all, the Insect Race was not only one of the few civilizations in the entire Star Alliance that held legal gambling rights but was also a well-known fair banker in various events in the Fifth Dimension. There were never cheats or scams involved, and even the odds started from one to one. The Insect Race had no loss and no profit from these bets and only charged an intermediary fee. The system would automatically calculate and adjust the odds according to the betting situation of all parties.

The winners only won the money bet by the losers. The Insect Race only provided a platform for the betting to take place and earned the intermediary fee. The betting was fair and just and eliminated cheats and scams, thus allowing the Insect Race to maintain its reputation. This was the way the Insect Race made money.

……

Earth, Spiritual Energy Base…

The Skylink device in front of Ma Dong was displaying the betting odds on a big screen, and around the big screen, there were hundreds of financial experts who controlled their own Skylink devices and were wearing headsets. Even while constantly receiving various information, they unceasingly communicated with each other, calculating various data on the Skylink devices, before waiting for the decision to be made by Ma Dong.

Meanwhile, Ma Dong was sitting at the highest place in the hall. His eyes were staring at the screen unblinkingly. Although there were threads of red in his eyes, his spirit was surprisingly high.

This was Earth’s biggest battle since entering the Star Alliance. Wang Zhong’s battlefield was on the Observatory Stage, while his battlefield was on the gambling market that concerned his entire planet.

What’s more, the amount of funds and the price to be paid this time had completely overwhelmed the entire planet! Nonetheless, Ma Dong was not worried. If one wanted to win, one should win brilliantly. If one had to lose, one should lose everything. If Wang Zhong and the others lost in the Civilization War, then the entirety of Earth would become the private property of the Blood Demon Race. What was the point of leaving any wealth behind? But if Wang Zhong won the Civilization War, he had to maximize the benefits of the win! Be it in fame or in wealth!

The cup of strong black coffee on the table was about to be finished. He motioned to the secretary next to him to refill it for him. In just a short time, dozens of unprocessed temporary messages had accumulated.

He quickly issued a few instructions before the following messages continued to flood him. There were hundreds of betting-odd changes at any time, and with the lack of manpower, Ma Dong had to deal with them one by one. One could imagine the toll it had on him.

“Your Excellency, Captain Emily has completed the seizure of the Karen family. In addition to a large amount of raw ore opened in the WD9832 and WD2738 dimensional mines, they also found six thousand gold stars from the Karen family’s home, as well as one rank-9 magical artifact and 16 basic dimensional artifacts.”

“Your Excellency, the funding plan has been launched. One hundred and sixty-three families such as the Wang Family and the Mo Family, as well as the 26 provinces and departments headed by the Southwest District, have already counted the available resources donated and allocated. The final batch is expected to be put into the warehouse at ten o’clock tomorrow night. Besides, the person in charge of the Illusion Race has already been contacted, and a representative of the Illusion Race will come to inspect the materials at nine o’clock the day after tomorrow and discuss the price with you.”

“Your Excellency, the eleven North American families headed by the remnants of Solomon’s reign, as well as the three provinces and four autonomous regions headed by South America, have resisted the funding plan. Their donated resources are pitifully small. It is estimated that there will be a total of only three thousand Gold Star Stones worth. They are also secretly rallying people to go on a large-scale protest against the alliance’s funding plan…”

If one wanted to win big in the casino, one’s cash flow was the basis for determining one’s upper limit of winnings. This was part of Ma Dong’s plan to gather funds, a crazy funding plan.

Today’s Earth was not as poor as when it first entered the Star Alliance. Although it had only been a few months since it became a level-4.5 civilization, from the collection of resources in the Fifth Dimension over hundreds of years, the materials that had been secretly amassed were actually quite great in number and amount.

Many of these materials were even special items, like the mysterious fire spirit stone once controlled by the Holy City. Wang Zhong and the others had easily collected them when they did missions as Heroic Souls, but because they didn’t understand their value, they had just used the fire element power roughly. In the Holy City, it was only worth a few thousand Holy Coins, but after contacting the Illusion Race, they learned that the value of the item after processing was surprisingly high in the Star Alliance. There were many other similar cases. With the help from the Illusion Race, the situation was currently very different.

Now that Earth wanted to play a big gamble and had to bet everything to accompany Wang Zhong to determine its fate, Ma Dong started to collect all the available resources of the families in the entire Earth to the extreme and convert them into cash to invest in this gamble. Only through the gambling house could the benefits be maximized, and at the same time, Ma Dong promised generous returns for all investors who pooled money into the funds raised. This time, the Holy City’s Patriarch Society had an unprecedented agreement by all parties. The major families responded actively, and there was no way to be ununified. Those voices of opposition had long been secretly dealt with by Ma Dong.

It was just that the manpower and his energy were limited. Some things were still beyond his reach. What he could handle were only the senior veterans who were at the top. Some low-level families, remote provinces on the other side of the world, and even autonomous regions were not completely taken care of by Ma Dong.

For example, in North America, Solomon might no longer be ruling the Kaiser Empire, but the remaining family’s power still lingered. Wang Zhong didn’t think they were a threat at the time. Besides, Grai had lived there and had some good friends. He seemed to have helped them beg Wang Zhong, who had let them go out of mercy for a while and made the Holy City stop targeting them and gave them room for survival. But now that their situation was getting better, they had become as annoying as a fly.

To deal with these people, one had to use extreme methods. To dare cause chaos at this juncture of life and death for the Earth, even Grai could not save them.

“All the collected cash will be put into account No. 3 first, and you will be responsible for the goods in the warehouse. You must complete all the inventory work before midnight tomorrow! Let Director Hymin be responsible for the reception of the Illusion Race the day after. She has had a lot of dealings with them and knows their preferences… Has Captain Emily returned?”

“Already on the way back, and will arrive at the Spiritual Energy Base at around three in the afternoon.”

Ma Dong looked at the time on his Skylink. “Notify Captain Emily to change her route and go directly to North America. Pass down my order and notify the North American Ministry and Military Department to transfer all command rights to Captain Emily. The demonstrators on the street can be temporarily ignored and let go, but the group of instigators headed by the Solomon family should be dealt with mercilessly! I want to see all of their heads before midnight tomorrow!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Wait!” Ma Dong spoke as he casually loaded the pictures of several people on his Skylink. “These people… Put them under house arrest first! But they are not allowed to be released without my order.”

These were some of Grai’s friends in the Solomon family. It was also because of them that Grai had pleaded with Wang Zhong to let the Solomon family go. Although Ma Dong was harsh in his words, he still thought things through carefully in his heart. To put it bluntly, the Solomon family today were merely ants in Ma Dong’s eyes. But if killing them made Grai uncomfortable, then he would not do it.

“Your Excellency, Lord Hawkins of the Star Alliance Dimension Bank has entered Tianjing City through the dimensional gate. He is on his way to the Spiritual Energy Base accompanied by Captain Barran and is expected to arrive in five minutes.”

“What? So fast?!” Ma Dong jumped up from his position.

If the information processing before was just trivial matters, then this moment was the biggest decision that determined the winner of the gambling war. If Ma Dong wanted to play it big, the wealth that Earth could currently amass was not enough.

After going through so many things, Ma Dong didn’t have any disturbances in his heart. Failure meant losing everything. Thus, he had to tap into every bit of resources he could find. As to whether he could pay it back?

He would be dead by then. How would they be able to find him for the debts?

“Director Hymin and the others are ready to welcome the Honor in the reception room, and we are only waiting for Minister.”

Star Alliance Dimension Bank’s Vice President Hawgens! He had been introduced through the Illusion Race. Ma Dong already had initial contact with him on the video before. There was no problem with a mortgage. Dimension Bank was not afraid of the Blood Demon Race making trouble afterward. They also represented a huge and complex power. As long as Earth was mortgaged to them first and the procedures had followed the rules, even if the Blood Demon Race won Earth, it could only win an empty shell.

The key now was how much money could be borrowed from the Dimension Bank. Rumors said that Vice President Hawkins was very difficult to deal with and was well-known as a vampire banker. The value of Earth would be pushed down by him. What Ma Dong had to do was to negotiate with him till the very end.