Silence filled the banquet hall, each person terrified to the core, fearing they might be the next to be executed.

"It’s just too cruel..."

"How could the Revolutionary Army do such things?"

"Are they really fighting for the freedom of the Bionics?"

"There’s no mistake, they’re just scum. I saw them kill my friend with my own eyes."

"What are you saying? They’re nothing but pests, exploiting society’s resources without contributing any labor. It’s better if they’re dead; they’re doing society a favor."

"But... what if we’re next?"

"What if we’re the ones that he believes need to ’empathize’?"

The sound of gunfire tore through the silence. This live broadcast, synchronized across the entire city, was not stopped. Learning from the last incident, Hera had every capability to halt this broadcast, yet she didn’t. These scenes were deeply imprinted in the eyes of every Skyline City resident.

Followers became even more fanatical.

Opponents grew increasingly fearful.

Beneath the Ark, the battle between the Revolutionary Army and the Firefly garrison erupted. Armed members who had long infiltrated the Firefly Army launched a near-mad assault, detonating explosives on their bodies and shouting slogans to create breaches for their comrades.

Explosions were heard from afar, and as time ticked by, Cervantes tapped his fingers on the table, each tap like the tolling of a death knell resonating in people’s hearts.

He was running out of time. This broadcast served another purpose: to divert attention and ensure that no one within the city would interfere with the advance of the frontline troops, minimizing impact.

He knew he was taking a gamble. The methods used by the frontline troops in the assault were insane. Whether they succeeded or failed, his fate was bound for the grave.

Before that happened, he needed to secure the maximum negotiation rights for the Bionics, perhaps even true freedom!

If he could destroy the Ark, he would willingly become the greatest villain of Skyline City, sacrificing his own body as fuel for the fire of freedom.

"They’re just afraid."

At this moment, a calm girl’s voice emerged from below the stage, leaving everyone in the room astonished and turning their gazes toward her. A girl cloaked in a gray robe, her face obscured by a large hood, walked onto the podium.

"No one will empathize because of this."

"In extreme fear, people don’t think; they merely instinctively crave survival, wanting to stay alive, saying insincere things, doing resistant actions, that’s all."

"What are you saying?" Cervantes looked up at the girl.

"It’s hard for people to empathize due to different experiences. The bird flying in the sky won’t empathize with the frog in the well, nor would a cheetah racing towards its prey empathize with the lamb that is its prey."

"Within the internal combustion engine, the ignited firewood wouldn’t empathize with another stick of firewood. Self-sacrificers are always a minority, and only the conductor and passengers care if the train moves forward. If the firewood had hands, the first thing it might do is extinguish the fire on itself."

"Those with superior status and positions won’t empathize with ordinary people, neither would those in oppression and despair empathize with others drowning in the same waters."

"Cervantes, your methods won’t make anyone empathize." The girl said, looking up.

Always calm, Cervantes’s expression suddenly changed upon hearing his own name.

"Who are you?"

"Your methods will only place heavier shackles on those who yearn for freedom, dragging those already in the abyss even deeper."

"What qualifies you to completely deny me?" Cervantes asked in a dazed low voice. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

This tone of speech, the subtle gestures seemed to hide an invisible Charm, and he was faintly guessing the other’s identity, his inner unease growing stronger.

The girl slowly lifted the hood from her head, and under the watchful eyes of millions, golden hair flowed as Xu Xiaoyou revealed her face.

"She is..."

At this moment, whether it was the people in front of their screens, the members of the Revolutionary Army present, or even the wealthy in fear, they were stunned, their pupils filled with overwhelming shock.

"Princess!" Cervantes exclaimed.

"I’m sorry to meet like this." Xu Xiaoyou sighed softly.

"Are you disappointed that those Revolutionary Army members you sent out failed to secretly kill me?"

"Kill?"

The members of the Skyline Sect within the Revolutionary Army reacted, exchanging glances before realizing this was their last chance, and stepped forward together.

"Cervantes, you better explain yourself, why did you attempt to have Princess killed!"

The armed forces of the N3 Faction tried to suppress it, but were sternly ordered to stop by the Minister of Defense, leading to a standoff between the two factions in the banquet hall, leaving the young man on stage alone.

"I didn’t want to kill her..." Cervantes’s tone suddenly became calm, casting a meaningful glance at Xu Xiaoyou.

"I was merely looking for her, that’s all."

"Once I found her, I’d hand back the role of Commander of the Revolutionary Army to her."

Xu Xiaoyou slightly lowered her eyes.

"Do you really know the consequences of your actions?"

"The consequence is, I’ll secure unprecedented freedom and dignity for the Bionics, letting them truly live as ’people’."

"You’re strangling their living space." Xu Xiaoyou’s voice wasn’t loud, but it echoed clearly in everyone’s ears.

"What are you doing?"

"Massacring civilians unwilling to submit in war, bombing medical centers, orchestrating terrorist attacks, large-scale illegal dealings, brainwashing the Revolutionary Army into madmen screaming insane slogans, launching constant suicide attacks, is this what you call fighting for freedom?"

Behind Xu Xiaoyou a screen suddenly projected the various atrocities committed by the Revolutionary Army over the past six months, scenes stained with blood flashing by, case after case of dark deeds painted red with blood. A crying infant on the ruins, teary-eyed elders, students falling like straw in firefights, soldiers burning themselves in silent protest.

This was beyond her expectation, an act orchestrated by Hera, who had completed the virus cleanup and started a full-scale offensive against the Revolutionary Army’s network.

"These are sacrifices without choice, only through such means can we achieve stability and save more people." Cervantes said.

"Doing this will only make more Bionics fear ’freedom’ and ’dignity.’ Are you trying to tell them that freedom is massacre, dignity is endless warfare, living without respite? To destroy anything counter to frenzied wills?"

"They already live in carefully crafted lies, and to this day, they haven’t separated freedom from dignity in this utopian dream. You’re not saving them, you’re handing the oppressors the knife to slaughter them!"