Star Gate

Chapter 577: Audacious in the Extreme (I)

On this night.

Li Hao walked a dog through the bustling streets around the Steadfast Duke’s manor. He sauntered casually, taking in the sights through his glasses. He even followed a street to its end, pausing roughly two thousand meters away from the complex. A large plaza was located at the end of the street, many couples were out for evening strolls or dancing. White streamers for mourning fluttered by the duke’s estate.

Li Hao saw many powerhouses entering and leaving the manor. They were different from those outside—much more quiet and all of them deeply pained. Various sounds traveled into the young man’s ears and he could soon pick out strains of conversation from around the plaza.

“Important people from all of the eastern provinces have apparently come for the memorial ceremony tomorrow. The duke seems to have suffered a huge loss and the eastern provinces are growing unstable. I wonder if something big might happen tomorrow, maybe to keep the situation under control.”

“The hell does it have to do with us? That’s for those highfalutin’ people up there. What’s us in the dirt care about that for?”

“That’s true!”

“......”

So there were important visitors from various eastern provinces, were there? Li Hao would need to watch out for that to ensure he didn’t accidentally fail at an easy step. More importantly, how was he supposed to get inside the manor? If he couldn’t, should he just outright take the treasure?

The young man sank into deep contemplation of the question. Someone else soon gave him an idea.

“The duke’s manor will be so exciting tomorrow, does Brother Zhang have a way to sneak us inside for a look? I hear that it’s all going to be important people...”

“It’s a memorial service, not a festival! You’ll be slipping in with a death wish! But it’s easy enough to get a glimpse of the action if you want. Pay a newspaper some money and get a reporter badge from them. The Steadfast Duke will be meeting with various provincial executives tomorrow and might be announcing his heir. He needs to build some momentum for the new guy, so a lot of agencies have received invitations...”

“Are the badges expensive?”

“Of course! They’re at least eight thousand coins, if not ten thousand. Who else would dare take you in with them?”

“Forget it, that’s too expensive!”

“......”

Li Hao stoked his chin. Reporters? What was that? They didn’t exist in Silver Moon. Was it really that easy to get inside?

He glanced at the stately manor not too far away and then at the clamorous crowd. The young man laughed. The duke had opened a street by his doors because he wanted to appeal to the people. I wonder what he thinks after that’s created constant crowds on his doorstep?

“Let’s go!” Li Hao shook the leash. While annoyed, Panther followed the young man. It took another look at the aunties dancing in the plaza before it left.

Damn, you really need better eyes, Panth! You’re interested in anything that’s female!

......

Reporter, news agency...

It was the first time that Li Hao had heard of these terms. But after some digging around, he mostly knew what they were—products of a civilization’s evolution.

The Steadfast Duke popularized newspapers in the eastern region because he painted himself in a just and fair light. It was just another mouthpiece for public opinion and a tool to brainwash the people with.

News agencies existed in the ancient times, but the ones then seemed to be different from the ones now. Li Hao saw a few newspapers when he returned to the hotel. He carefully read through the articles in its pages.

“Steadfast Duke announces open doors in all twenty-one eastern provinces. Refugees from central region unrest are welcome to emigrate to the eastern continent to begin a new life.

“Unrest and public unease from war has created a disaster zone in Tai’an province. Steadfast Duke decrees immediate dispersal of five hundred thousand kilograms of white rice in aid...”

“Steadfast Duke calls for new army recruits! Wanted: any eastern continent male older than sixteen and younger than thirty. Taxes will be exempt for families of those accepted...”

“Steadfast Duke’s Left Marshal Xu Zhen expels East Sea pirates during patrol. Special order given for three year tax exemption to ease citizen suffering along the coast...”

“......”

There were many newspapers in the hotel; all of them were published by a news agency called the Eastern People’s Voice. This made for relatively free flow of information for the people in this day and age, but they were still uninformed when it came to specific personages.

Neither was Li Hao that much better off, and he counted among the intellectuals of this age, one of the few who’d read books. He knew of the nine ministries when he was at the Veteris Institute, but he didn’t know which nine they were.

The common folks would have even fewer sources of information, a limitation that these newspapers overcame. It was a pity that not many knew how to read; if only one person knew how to, the news would be swiftly shared.

“Nice methods!” A light danced in Li Hao’s eyes. Every single word on these pages demonstrated the Steadfast Duke’s benevolence and charitable nature toward his people.

In the young man’s eyes, however, it was all bullshit. Xu Zhen patrolling the East Sea and driving back bandits, was that true? If so, where did all of the pirates in the East Sea come from? And five hundred thousand kilograms sounded like a lot, but it was just five hundred tons. Was five hundred tones a lot?

If an entire province was suffering, that would be more than one million people in need of help. If everyone only ate until they were no longer hungry, then five hundred thousand kilograms could feed one million for a day or two. However, it wasn’t like a disaster could be fully resolved in the same time frame.

Not to mention that the Steadfast Duke was still the overlord of the east in name. This was what he should be doing in the first place. But now it was immortalized in newspapers and disseminated throughout the eastern region, eliciting gratitude from the people.

“Newspapers... are really nice!”

This was a potent weapon to influence public discourse. In this era, powerhouses had to rely on transmission pendants once they left a city. Contact with a city was otherwise impossible. The invention of newspapers and their mass production made it easy to hoodwink the people and obtain their loyalty.

The Steadfast Duke must have excavated some ruins and collected information... Li Hao came to an initial conclusion. He didn’t know much about newspapers. What the ancient civilization spoke most of were televisions. These items could broadcast their images in all directions throughout the world—now that was a potent weapon!

And granted, his age was rather abnormal. They’d created planes and missiles, but inventions such as televisions had not been replicated. Perhaps those in charge didn’t care, or perhaps they purposefully didn’t recreate the item. Information would flow too quickly if televisions were common; that was a detriment to control general sentiment.

The more one knew, the more one thought. The more one thought, the more one wanted. If one lived in a poor backwater for all their life, they would not have any soaring ambitions. But if one was inundated faced with lights and action, debauchery and sensual pleasures of the outside world, one might have the urge to try their luck outside and see if they could live this kind of life as well.

“Steadfast Duke...” Li Hao looked out his window into the distance. The lights blazed at the Steadfast Duke’s manor. The duke that held sway over the east had some ability to his name. At the very least, he was skilled when it came to buying the people’s heart.

Strictly speaking, life in the east was good and much richer than in the north.

“Ambitious...” Li Hao concluded for the duke. There were many people with great ambitions in this age. Although the duke had lost many Novas, he still looked to command a lot. It was plain to see from that how strong he was, but he still didn’t unify the east in the end.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a need to have the movers and shakers of other provinces be involved in his son’s seventh-day memorial. He probably wanted to make use of the opportunity to intimidate and threaten, lest the local tyrants of various eastern provinces make use of this opportunity to escape from his grasp.

Shall I pretend to be a reporter and slip in among them?

It sounded easy enough, but would it really be that easy? Just spending eight thousand or ten thousand star coins would do? There weren’t that many who wanted to spend so much at this stage. Those who did probably didn’t come with good intentions.

This news agency is plainly controlled by the Steadfast Duke. Would their own business bring strangers into the manor for just a few coins?

Li Hao thought a bit further and looked at the manor in the distance again. He suddenly laughed!

“Panth, the golden dog that you transform into is very big and can eat people...”

Panther shook its head! This dog doesn’t eat people, don’t accuse me of stuff I didn’t do.

“As opposed to sneaking in, let’s find a way to walk right in! The more we sneak around, the more attention we’ll raise. These guys won’t mind those who openly present themselves. If we slip in, however, we’ll probably be noticed at the first chance.

“How about having the monster spirits attend the duke’s memorial?”

Panther didn’t understand.

“Aren’t you a major monster spirit? Eat me. You can’t talk, but I can. My mental ripples won’t exude presence and if I shove some mysterious power stones into your stomach, the energy they give off will disguise you as a major monster spirit that’s a supernatural! No one can tell that you’re a martial master dog, so why don’t I give you the presence of a Solar? We’ll pretend to be... part of the Kui Mountain snakes! Although we’re not snakes, no one said that only snakes can be found in those mountains.

“We’ll walk straight up, but being a black dog will draw a lot of attention. You killed people last time, after all. They saw you. Can you still turn into a golden dog?”

Panther stared at the young man. Was there a need for that? How dangerous was that!

“It’s fine, I’m sure that this eastern overlord knows about the Kui Mountain monster spirits. His ambitions are great and he won’t easily provoke them. He might be wary, but he won’t be too worried about a major monster spirit directly visiting them. The more open we are, the less attention we’ll raise. I’m thinking that complex security is lax on the outside and tight on the inside...”