Outsourced Orleans

The refreshing energy liquid in Augustus's mouth sprayed all over the screen.

"Ye... Ye Chuan?!"

He lunged at the console, desperately trying to contact any warship of the Starfall Fleet.

However, the screen only showed cold static. All communication signals were cut off, and all life signs had vanished.

That ace fleet, boasting twelve black hole ships and three hundred frigates, seemed as if it had never existed.

"Impossible... This is impossible..."

Augustus slumped into his chair, his face as pale as paper, his whole body trembling uncontrollably.

"The Starfall Fleet... That was the Starfall Fleet..."

"That was a god-slaying fleet."

He knew the value of this fleet better than anyone. To build the Starfall Fleet, the Federation had spent tens of thousands of years, investing countless resources and manpower.

Every single black hole ship was one of the Federation's final trump cards against the Outer Gods.

Now, because of his momentary impulse, this fleet was gone.

It didn't even make a splash.

Just then, his private terminal began to ring frantically again.

A bright red name flashed on the screen—Speaker.

Augustus looked like death, his trembling fingers connecting the call.

"Augustus!!!"

The Speaker's roar nearly shattered the terminal's speakers. His face was twisted in anger, his eyes filled with monstrous fury.

"Look at what you've done!!!"

"What the hell were you doing?!!!!!! I found out you secretly mobilized the fleet in the name of the Outer Gods! And the fleet was destroyed!"

"Speaker, I..." Augustus opened his mouth, wanting to explain.

"Shut up!" the Speaker cut him off sharply.

"Who gave you the authority to mobilize the Starfall Fleet on your own?! Didn't I tell you never to provoke him again?!"

"Now look! The Starfall Fleet is completely wiped out! Twelve black hole ships! Three hundred frigates! Fifty-three thousand elite soldiers! All gone!!!"

The Speaker lost all his composure, roaring:

"Do you know how massive a loss this is for the Federation?! Without the Starfall Fleet, what are we going to use to defend ourselves the next time the Outer Gods launch a large-scale invasion of our star sector?! We were already barely maintaining a balance!"

"All gone! Just like a splash in the water!"

Augustus lowered his head, not daring to say a word.

He knew he had really caused a catastrophic disaster this time.

"From this moment on, you are dismissed from your position as the Director of the Investigation Department of the Supreme Academy of Sciences." The Speaker's voice was bone-chillingly cold.

"All your citizenship privileges are revoked. Every member of your family is demoted to a ninth-class citizen, exiled immediately to the Barren Galaxy, and forbidden from returning to the Core Star Sector for life."

"Wait for the Supreme Council's trial."

With that said, the Speaker directly hung up the call before Augustus could utter another word.

The terminal screen went black.

Sitting in the empty command room, Augustus finally couldn't help but cover his face and weep bitterly.

He regretted it.

He truly regretted it.

If he had listened to the Speaker back then and honestly gone to negotiate peace with Ye Chuan, instead of taking it upon himself to send a fleet to intercept and kill him, he wouldn't have ended up like this.

However, there was no cure for regret in this world.

Meanwhile, at the Supreme Council Building on Planet Apocalypse.

The Speaker hung up the call and rubbed his temples wearily.

He looked at the woman with a bob haircut standing in front of him and sighed:

"Miss Suri, it seems I will have to trouble you to make a trip."

Suri wore a sharp black suit, sporting a neat ear-length bob haircut. She wore gold-rimmed glasses, her eyes sharp and calm.

She was the Secretary to the Supreme Speaker of the Council, as well as the most powerful woman in the entire Federation, renowned for her iron-fisted methods and outstanding negotiation skills.

And the Supreme Speaker held far more power than these minor speakers.

"Your Apocalypse sector is in deep trouble this time." Suri pushed up her glasses, her tone calm. "I will do my best to reach a settlement with him."

"Do your best?" The Speaker shook his head, smiling bitterly.

"It's not about doing your best, it's a must. The Starfall Fleet is gone; we can no longer afford any more losses. I'm begging you."

"No matter what conditions he proposes, you can agree to them." The Speaker's tone carried a hint of helplessness.

"Our only advantage right now is that he doesn't seem too interested in destroying us. What he wants must be something else."

"I understand." Suri nodded. "I will figure out exactly what he wants."

"Of course, your Apocalypse Star Sector will also have to undergo a Federation investigation regarding this incident."

"Alright..." the Speaker replied powerlessly, having cursed Augustus hundreds of times in his heart.

...

On the other side, the star shuttle was flying smoothly through the hyperspace jump channel.

Lin Xi sat by the window, watching the bands of light flash by outside, still feeling a lingering fear in her heart.

The scene of Ye Chuan taking away the fleet and extracting their souls just now was deeply branded into her mind, impossible to shake off.

It seemed that they had not only offended the Core Star Sector but had completely offended the Federation as well.

"Mr. Ye," Lin Xi said softly, "are we... are we really going to go against the entire Federation?"

"It's not that I want to go against them." Ye Chuan kept his eyes closed and spoke indifferently. "They provoked me first."

Beat the young ones, and more come; beat the many, and even more come.

Could this be blamed on Ye Chuan?

"But..." Lin Xi wanted to say something else, but the main control screen of the star shuttle suddenly lit up, popping up a new video connection request.

"Lord Demon King, there is an encrypted video request from the Supreme Council. The applicant is the Federation's Vice Speaker, Suri," Kalen turned his head and said.

"This person is a high-ranking official in the Federation, on par with the Speaker of the Core Star Sector."

"Suri?" Ye Chuan raised an eyebrow. "It seems that Orleans has fallen. Put it through."

The screen flickered, and a woman with a bob haircut and gold-rimmed glasses appeared on it.

Her face held no expression. She looked at Ye Chuan calmly and spoke first: "Mr. Ye Chuan, hello. I am Suri, the Vice Speaker of the Federation's Supreme Council."

"First of all, on behalf of the Supreme Council, I extend our sincerest apologies to you for all the unpleasantness that has occurred."

"Augustus defied the Council's orders and mobilized the military to attack you without authorization. He has already been stripped of all his positions, and he and his family have received their due punishment."

Her tone was sincere, devoid of the slightest bit of Augustus's arrogance and prejudice. She spoke matter-of-factly and with clear logic.

"I am contacting you this time to discuss a settlement," Suri continued. "All previous conflicts were the personal actions of Augustus. He wasn't even a core employee of the Federation, but an outsourced worker. This matter has nothing to do with the Federation."

"We are willing to compensate you for your losses. Whatever you want—resources, technology, privileges—as long as the Federation can do it, we can satisfy your demands."

Ye Chuan opened his eyes, looking at Suri on the screen with a half-smile. "Compensation?"

An outsourced worker?

That was quite impressive; an outsourced worker could mobilize starships.

Why don't you just say that a certain monster-catching game was entirely made by outsourced personnel, and the core decision-makers are completely innocent?

"Yes." Suri nodded. "You can name any condition."

Ye Chuan leaned back in his seat, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

He looked at Suri and said, word by word:

"My condition is very simple."

"Blow up the Tianqi Star System to help me cool off."

"Are you willing to do that?"

As his words fell, a deathly silence filled the cockpit of the star shuttle.

Lin Xi widened her eyes, staring at Ye Chuan in disbelief, almost falling out of her chair.

Blow... blow up the Tianqi Star System?!

That was one of the core star sectors of the Federation!

On the screen, Suri was also stunned, a crack appearing in her calm expression for the very first time.

She pushed up her glasses.

She had fully prepared herself for Ye Chuan to demand an exorbitant price, and she was ready to agree to whatever he asked.

But she never imagined that his condition would actually be this.

Destroying the entire Tianqi Star System.

Suri took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

She looked at Ye Chuan with a complicated gaze and asked, "Mr. Ye Chuan, are you joking?"

"Do I look like I am joking?" Ye Chuan replied lightly, his tone completely devoid of emotion.

But in reality, Ye Chuan was merely testing the waters.

He was not someone who killed indiscriminately; at most, he would just purify a few people.