Footsteps sounded off-screen, and after a moment, a group of people wearing black military uniforms walked in, standing in two rows. One person stepped forward from the crowd and sat down in the middle.

Fu Luo was startled: "It's him!"

Yesi: "Who? You know him?"

"I saw him on the enemy's battleship. He is the commander-in-chief of the enemy's military operation this time." Fu Luo explained, and then her expression immediately changed, "Wait, so that means the enemy has already infiltrated the old network system!"

"What are you panicking about," Yesi gave her a look, "The fact that login names starting with 'a' were once used by the military is not a secret. Even I know that. With so many spies from the other star system on Earth, are they all just eating free meals?"

"Ladies and gentlemen," the commander-in-chief in the center spoke politely, using the stiff and standard American English from textbooks, "Good afternoon. I am at the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii. It is very rude of me to communicate with you in such a roundabout way. Please forgive me."

Then, after a two-second pause, he repeated what he said above in Chinese.

It was like a living, breathing translator.

"What did you hear?" Yesi took the opportunity to ask his student.

Fu Luo hesitated slightly: "Well... the other party chose the U.S. Pacific Command, indicating that the humans from the other star system and the U.S. military are in close combat on the Jupiter battlefield, and they may have also gone through a bitter battle. Using English first and then Chinese means that he thinks the audience is American or Chinese. This contains three pieces of information. First, the people on Jupiter were not completely wiped out. No matter how many, some must have escaped. English is spoken for the people there. Second, the other party has learned the information that our troops have successfully broken through, proving that the space pirates do have some kind of alliance with them. Third..."

Fu Luo paused: "Third, the other countries in the Earth Alliance have already..."

"There's a deeper level." Yesi coldly interrupted her sorrow, his tone stern as he ordered, "Think again."

Fu Luo was stunned.

The commander-in-chief of the other star system probably had some level of cautiousness, but this could not change the fact that he was a chatterbox. Perhaps their side's information exchange was too developed, and he hadn't spoken human words for who knows how many years. This commander-in-chief seemed to want to take the opportunity to indulge.

He spoke both Chinese and English very fluently, and to a certain extent, he was even authentic. He switched between them with almost no pause, talking endlessly. Just lamenting the prosperous state of the Earth took a full five minutes.

Fu Luo took the opportunity to think. What else, what else was there?

"Did you notice his wording? This alien doesn't know which country his ancestors were from. The languages he speaks now should all be acquired later in life. When spoken, it's not as casual as a mother tongue. He habitually picks at words. Listen to his original words, 'communicate with you', not broadcast—" Yesi lightly tapped on the long-range communicator that had been floating here for more than two hundred years, "He is talking to the Alliance military, not ordinary people. Why?"

Fu Luo was more sensitive to machines than people, but this was definitely not innate. It should be caused by a relatively simple living environment for a long time. Yesi didn't expect her to be able to grasp everything at once, so he guided her more calmly: "Why send this out the first time after landing on Earth?"

Fu Luo: "Isn't it because Earth's communications are cut off?"

"Strictly speaking, it's the interference caused by the shattering of the protective shield. At the latest within twenty-four hours, the communications of ordinary people on Earth will be reconnected—if the enemy doesn't cause destruction."

Fu Luo frowned: "But if I were the enemy commander-in-chief, I would definitely cut off the other party's communications the first time..."

"If you were the enemy commander-in-chief, you would have been beaten back to your hometown long ago." Yesi snorted lightly, "Do you know the difference between commanding a battle and commanding a war? The former is to eliminate the enemy's effective strength, while the latter is to control the situation, you fool!"

This was a bit rushed for Fu Luo. She tried her best to follow Yesi's train of thought while unconsciously biting her fingers.

"The current situation is that although you have lost, they have not won. To win this war, for the people of the other star system, the most difficult part has just begun. The heritage of the Earth over the past few hundred years is not something they can figure out right away. The army, navy and air force are still there, and they just haven't reacted for the time being. They will soon rebound on a large scale. For the people of the other star system, the space battlefield is everything, but the Earth, which is always ready for civil war with neighboring countries, is different. The space force is just one of the four services. Forgot?"

Fu Luo's eyes suddenly lit up.

"And there's the space pirate group." Yesi sneered, "The space pirate group doesn't do anything without a profit motive. Although I don't know why they would ally with the people of the other star system, now that the Earth Allied Forces have collapsed on the space station battlefield, there is no common enemy between the two sides. Infighting is just a blink of an eye away."

Fu Luo: "So..."

Yesi: "Shh, the meat of the play is here."

At this time, the commander-in-chief in the video ended his nostalgia and longing for his homeland, leaned forward slightly, and said sincerely: "My respected adversaries, please allow me to take this opportunity to express my deepest respect for your unity, resourcefulness and tenacity. However, facing such a beautiful and prosperous planet, facing our common homeland, why must you and I resolve disputes through war? As fellow humans, I believe we have the basis for peaceful coexistence."

Yesi: "What a stinky fart."

Fu Luo frowned: "Is he doing this to stabilize us so he can free up his hands to deal with the space pirate group?"

Yesi: "Not necessarily. When human emotions reach a certain peak of grief and indignation, they'll be willing to suffer any number of casualties to push them off Earth. It's better to throw out a peace signal. When people have hope, they will fear, and 'sensible' people will jump out."

Fu Luo: "But I still don't understand, if that's the case, why not broadcast the 'peace talk information'?"

Yesi: "Can't you use your brain?"

Fu Luo felt very wronged. She was already trying her best, but her mind was still a mess.

Yesi glared at her irritably, "How will people react if they broadcast the negotiation information now? They've been keeping a low profile, letting the people of Earth anxiously speculate. Then at the right moment, they'll leak this 'secret peace video' through the old network system - which people see as the domain of high-tech personnel - as some kind of gossip. How will people react then?"

Fu Luo didn't respond for a moment. She tried to calm her mind and recall her meager life experience, imagining along the lines of Yesi's two hypothetical scenarios.

That's right, in order to show their superior insight or intellectual superiority, it's an old tradition for the people of Earth to "nitpick" at the official statements. If the commander-in-chief of the star system landed and immediately broadcast the negotiation information in a victorious posture, countless analytical articles would appear on the internet the next day. With so many people and opinions, every word from the invader's leader would be dragged out, analyzed, and flogged. Not only would the "peace talks" signal fail to achieve the desired effect, it would also cause a greater backlash.

But if the humans from the other star system remained silent after landing, acting mysterious and letting no one know what they were doing, then privately contacted Earth's military in such a roundabout way, and later, amidst people's various speculations, had this "secret" video "leaked" in an ambiguous way as "gossip" through the mouths of those "tech emperors" who are active in the old network system and only know bits and pieces...

That would be a pleasant surprise for the people of Earth living in unease.

Because people only believe what they "think of", not what they "hear".

Fu Luo suddenly felt a chill down her spine.

A chatterbox is not scary. What's scary is that even with so much chatter, every sentence still carries a deeper meaning.

Yes, it was this person who, in a situation where both sides had evenly matched technological levels, left the Earth Allied Forces with almost no ability to fight back!

Fu Luo shuddered violently and couldn't help but let her thoughts run wild.

Could there be any other arrangements in what the enemy commander-in-chief said before? For example, could the information that people thought they analyzed from his words be deliberately planted? Could there be more misleading traps?

At this moment, Yesi suddenly reached out without warning and closed the video communication. The entire remote communication station fell silent for a moment.

Fu Luo suddenly snapped out of her chaotic thoughts, "What are you doing?"

"Your breathing is all over the place. Are you scared and want to find your mommy?" Yesi said blandly. "Then this treacherous world is not suitable for you at all, 'soldier'."

Fu Luo was stunned for a moment.

She gently clenched her fists - the first round, this was only the first round.

"Dismantle the equipment. The signal system is too old, we don't need it. Move the rest back. How to reassemble the signal device is the job of those useless technical personnel. We can make 'Dawn No. 2', 'Dawn No. n'. As for the rest... the intelligence elites on Earth and the people at the General Staff Office are not extinct yet."

As Yesi spoke, he had already started to remove a huge shell. He glanced at Fu Luo with sarcasm, "What do you think you are? Thinking so much, are you planning to save the world yourself later? Stupid kid."

Fu Luo: "..."

She silently followed Yesi and dismantled the remote communication station in a few quick moves, sweeping away everything that could be taken away.

Yesi whistled, "Let's go, head back!"

The return journey was long and monotonous. Yesi was still piloting, while Fu Luo carefully pondered everything she had just experienced. The commander's way of thinking was completely new to her. For the naive Fu Luo, many things were like a wake-up call.

On the way back, when they were less than fifty range units away from the starting point, the system prompted for re-positioning. Yesi: "Positioning... hmm, wait a minute."

Fu Luo came back to her senses, "What's wrong?"

Yesi zoomed in on the navigation system, "Sixty degrees off our course, thirty range units out, there's a high energy alert."

It meant someone was fighting. Who against whom?

The two didn't hesitate and immediately activated the stealth reconnaissance system of the small warship and headed over.

With Yesi's godlike piloting skills and the newly upgraded curvature propulsion system, they could go anywhere.

Fu Luo peered through the wide-angle telescope, "It doesn't seem to be our people... Hmm, the symbols on one group's ships are unfamiliar to me, irregular, a bit like flames. The other group has a circular emblem on their hulls. Does the Earth Allied Forces have such markings?"

"The circular one is the emblem of the core organization of the space pirate groups. The other one should be a peripheral group of the pirates," Yesi rubbed his chin. "I don't know why they appeared here, but for such illegal terrorist organizations, infighting is very common, usually because of double-crossing each other."

Illegal terrorist organizations... Fu Luo silently turned back and focused on the battle situation, "Seven... eight ships. The 'Rings' have eight B-class medium-sized ships and a bunch of small vessels. The other side is about the same. Strange, none of them have large or giant ships..."

"Do you have any common sense? Large and giant ships are the flashy patent of your regular military. The space pirate groups don't have them." Yesi interrupted her, "They are just piranhas. Their largest type is only equivalent to your medium-sized ships. In this kind of battle, everyone usually won't use large-scale destructive missiles in order to fight for resources. If you give me a few more warships, we can take advantage of the chaos when both sides are badly wounded and there will definitely be plenty of good stuff to loot!"

Fu Luo: "..."

Yesi: "What? Is your moral compass acting up again?"

"No..." Fu Luo said weakly, "I just wanted to remind you that our internal communication light is on."

As the name suggests, "internal communication" is the communication system used by Yang Ning to contact other warship personnel when Second Department had just escaped, connecting an entire fleet internally.

Based on Second Department's configuration standards, if the internal communication light was on, it meant that there were comrades from the department within a range of five units... although the comrades had also enabled stealth mode, becoming a group of invisible little friends. In a flash, Yesi understood. He slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "Your boss is a genius!"

Fu Luo looked at him, filled with confusion.

"He must have detected the enemy within the warning range, figured out the situation, and then baited them to cause internal strife. Then, he set up an ambush and waited for the prey to fall into the trap... Hahaha, I like this kid Yang Ning. He has such a righteous and innocent pretty boy face, but his style is quite similar to ours."

"By 'ours,' do you mean the space pirates, senior...?"

For some reason, Fu Luo inexplicably thought of the illegally modified mecha of unknown origin that Colonel Yang had on the ground.