RPAGF Chapter 1402 Ants
Chapter 1402 Ants
The despair in his heart made Li Guangzhong almost lose his balance. He subconsciously reached out and grabbed the nearest thing, a cold metal pillar.
The chill from his fingertips kept him barely conscious.
He began to recall what Commander Nguyen Van Hung had said before he set off, those analyses that he had once thought "made sense".
"They need time to consolidate their occupied territories and will not rush to expand."
"Their primary goal is to stabilize the domestic situation, not to wage war abroad."
"Our presence is a buffer for them, not a threat."
“As long as we don’t provoke them, they won’t waste their energy fighting us.”
.....
But now, looking at the "live broadcast" of his own soldiers on the screen, Li Guangzhong could only smile bitterly.
buffer?
Do they need a buffer?
Do we need to create a "buffer zone" between ourselves and an ant?
If you try to step on it, you'll just crush it with one stomp.
I don't want to step on it; even glancing at it feels like a waste of time.
Now that the other party has gone to such lengths to "see" him, what they seek is probably not something that a hundred pounds of gold can solve...
As for increasing the stakes... wouldn't the opponent just snatch it directly and get even more?
At this moment, Li Guangzhong suddenly realized that all of their previous analyses, all their "chances of winning," and all their "ways to survive in the cracks" were based on a fundamentally ridiculous and flawed premise:
They mistakenly believed that even if there was a huge gap between the two sides, they were at least players from the same world, and that they could compete, maneuver, and scheme against each other.
Now he finally understood that they weren't even players; they didn't even have the right to sit at the table.
They are just...
This is just one of many "problems" that need to be "dealt with" on that vast land outside the south gate of the "Pingxiang Forward Base".
Just like those hordes of zombies, those mutated beasts, and those roaming gangs, it's just that the "priority" of the problem is different.
If the other party is willing, they can drag them from the "To be observed" list to the "To be cleared" list at any time.
No reason is needed, no declaration of war is needed, and none of the "political procedures" they are familiar with are required.
All you need is...
Click the mouse on the screen.
Li Guangzhong suddenly remembered something.
Before the apocalypse, he took an elective course on "deterrence theory" at military academy. The teacher said that the most effective deterrence is not to make the other party believe "I will hit you".
Instead, make the other person believe, "If I want to hit you, there's nothing you can do to stop me."
Make the other person believe that your life or death depends entirely on my "moment of thought".
At the time, he thought it was theory, cold sentences in a book.
Now he understands.
I understand completely now.
He looked up at the burly figure standing at the edge of the platform, with his back to him.
The colonel never turned around to look at him once; he was just listening to reports, watching the screen, and handling his own affairs.
He didn't even try to show off or flaunt anything, nor did he use any words or actions to "intimidate" him, the "envoy" from the south.
He was just doing his own thing.
It is this "normal mindset," this indifference that "doesn't treat you as someone who needs special treatment," that is more despairing than any words, any threat, or any boasting.
Because this means—
He, Li Guangzhong, and the thousands of people he represented were not even worth a second of the other side's attention to "perform" a show of intimidation.
Li Guangzhong felt a bitter taste in his mouth.
When European colonists first set foot on the American continent, did those indigenous chiefs, like him, also bring what they thought were precious gifts and try to negotiate, maneuver, and establish some kind of "balance" with those "white people"?
And was the other party, like this colonel, simply going about their own business calmly, occasionally glancing at the "messengers" with strange feathers and shells out of the corner of their eye, before continuing with their own affairs?
and after?
What happened to those natives, those "gifts," and those forces that thought they could "maneuver" around?
Li Guangzhong dared not think any further.
His hand slipped from the cold metal pillar.
He straightened up again, and the stiff smile that had just appeared on his face, an attempt to conceal his shame, had completely vanished.
Instead, there was a numb, resigned calm.
He stopped looking at the screen, stopped thinking about the real-time monitoring footage, and stopped analyzing the "chances" and "way out".
Those things are meaningless now.
Now, all he wants to do is wait, wait for the colonel to finish his work, and then hear him say a few words.
Whatever those words were—whether it was acceptance, rejection, warning, command, or even just "tell him to go back"—it didn't matter.
He would listen to them and then take them back.
As for what Commander Nguyen Van Hung will say, do, and decide after he returns...
he does not know.
I don't want to know anymore.
Because he had come to understand that no matter what they decided, the decision-making power was never in their hands.
over there.
Behind that enormous screen, in that unattainable world of civilization and order.
exist……
That person's "moment of inspiration".
Li Guangzhong lowered his eyes and stood quietly, like a clay sculpture, like an ant that had finally realized it was just an ant.