**Chapter 170: Four People in This Group, Three Undercover Agents**
Night, Magician’s Camp, Tasika’s dedicated message area.
Roger was explaining the main content of the Azurevine Empire’s five-year plan to her, and then based on this plan, arranging the work focus of the Terra Kingdom.
The empire’s assistance to the orcs in establishing their kingdom was an upfront investment. Now that the Terra Kingdom was on the fast track to development, it was time to reap the rewards.
“The technical aid provided by the empire to Terra will be publicly announced as the result of your espionage activities. This way, you will be the vanguard against the Azurevine Empire. Additionally, there will be several military exercises along the border, so please be fully prepared.”
Roger held back his laughter throughout the assignment.
“Although we’ve all had professional training, I can’t help but stifle this laugh!”
The empire’s military department were truly ingenious. This script was so well-crafted, adding more legendary color to Tasika’s persona, which inevitably led surrounding nations to place great expectations on her…
“I guarantee I will complete the mission!” Tasika agreed obediently. She felt no psychological pressure in using spies.
“If it’s obtained through skill, why should I pay for it, right?”
The grand play they were putting on for the other nations in this World was a win-win for both the empire and the orcs. Only the audience would ultimately bear the cost.
Initially, it was just a moment of kindness, aimed at reducing ruling costs and casualties, and then supporting Tasika to become a puppet regime of the orc kingdom.
Now, with the changes in the Eternal Night World’s situation, this seemingly minor move was proving to have far greater value than anticipated.
It was a pity that Roger’s initial idea of using orcs to compensate for labor shortages had been dashed. The orcs were also undertaking massive infrastructure projects in the desert and facing similar labor shortages.
Tasika was already hiring foreign laborers. Their international relations were a hundred million times better than the Azurevine Empire’s, and with the backing of the War Goddess’s church, everyone was family. The surrounding churches wouldn’t stop their citizens from earning money from the orcs.
On the other hand, the Azurevine Empire, no matter how high the wages they offered, wouldn’t see a large influx of foreign labor.
This was because the churches had already propagandized them as a blight on the Eternal Night World. Ordinary people viewed the empire as a desperate situation, and unless they couldn’t survive, they wouldn’t go to the empire. Of course, due to the greed of some nobles, there were quite a few who couldn’t survive.
However, even these desperate individuals came as underground laborers, illegally crossing the border, severely limiting their numbers and quality.
Fortunately, the existence of the Terra Kingdom provided the empire with immense room for maneuver.
First, the official recognition from the War Goddess legitimized Tasika’s status as the Orc Queen.
Next, with Tasika leading the Anti-Azurevine Alliance, the empire possessed an inherent advantage in intelligence.
Furthermore, as the Terra Kingdom grew stronger, it would become the bridgehead for the entire World to resist the Azurevine Empire’s tyranny.
As long as the empire wished to “act,” it could continue to cooperate with the Terra Kingdom, playing along until it had fully developed and then swiftly dealt with its neighbors.
Finally, the Terra Kingdom would, in the form of “technology leakage,” serve as a conduit for the empire to pour industrial products and weapons into surrounding countries, earning foreign currency from these nations with deep historical roots.
Coincidentally, the overseas version of the Unwavering Space would also be exported through the Terra Kingdom, indirectly achieving the empire’s desired cultural output while evading the churches’ vigilance towards Azurevine products.
It was akin to a hacker and a meat puppet, a pervert and a VPN, a cross-dresser and a wig. Thanks to the existence of the Terra Kingdom, many actions that were inconvenient for the empire became much more plausible under the guise of Terra.
Screenshots of chat logs, as long as they appeared to be between two accounts, were more believable than one person rambling on, weren’t they?
In reality, these were all generated by tool software!
The current relationship between the Azurevine Empire and the Terra Kingdom was precisely this: two entities cooperating in a performance, indistinguishable from reality, buying the empire enough time to develop.
For the impoverished Orc Tribes, the newly established kingdom was also their greatest opportunity for development in history.
The scattered tribal era of the orcs was now over. With intermingling, intermarriage, and joint construction, the divisions of the past would gradually fade.
This Multiverse contained intelligent beings of many races. While many individuals exhibited vast differences, it was astonishing that there was no reproductive isolation. Mortals and dragons could even father offspring.
The half-dragon princess before them was a living example of a hybrid.
Thus, the Terra orcs, despite their varying features such as orc ears and tails, could all produce offspring regardless of how they interbred. However, the orc traits of hybrid offspring were usually not outwardly apparent.
In other words, from an external perspective, the hybrid offspring of orcs would resemble humans more closely.
Roger and Tasika had discussed it: if the Terra Kingdom could truly eliminate the prejudices and ancient feuds between different tribes, in terms of appearance, they might eventually become a new human race…
Coupled with the continuous influence of the empire in terms of technology and culture, the two nations would become increasingly similar. If the timing was right, direct integration into the empire would be within reach.
From Tasika’s perspective, that would indeed be a magnificent future, allowing her to work alongside Lord Charles legitimately.
On the other hand, following the arrangements made by the War Goddess and the Sea God, the cooperation between the Orc Kingdom and the Naga Empire would investigate the Azurevine Empire’s detailed intelligence from two directions.
Earning Nalinair’s Faith Power would certainly not be easy. The intelligence she required wasn’t superficial information like population, area, or agricultural output. Instead, she needed to understand the combat power of the empire’s strong individuals, the average armament level of their troops, army morale, and a plethora of even more detailed information.
She had provided a terrifyingly long and meticulously detailed task list, which had to be completed entirely to receive the final payment.
The War Goddess and the Sea God dared to accept because Nalinair was indeed as she claimed: a trustworthy person who respected contracts.
As long as the tasks were completed, she would definitely honor her word. The only difficulty lay in the tasks she set, which were not easy to accomplish.
Taibella and the Sea God’s reliance was on their well-developed forces within the Eternal Night World. A probing offensive should yield significant intelligence.
With both sides cooperating, the final gains should be considerable. Nalinair’s methods were precise. Although it was because her Incarnation had mysteriously disappeared, prompting her to trick others into stepping on mines for her, the benefits she offered had to be sufficiently enticing for someone to take the bait.
At this moment, Tasika had successfully brought the Naga Empire’s Saintess, Nicole Qianxuan, into the chat group through a sub-entity of the Hyper-Dimensional Canvas. The two sides had already reached their first level of cooperation.
The Orc Kingdom outwardly announced that it was in a post-war reconstruction phase and could temporarily not dispatch troops. Therefore, the Naga Empire would first engage in conflict with the Mermaid Sea Kingdom, establishing a landing point to further gather detailed intelligence on the empire.
Although they couldn’t send troops, the Orc Kingdom would provide a batch of weapons and equipment, ensuring that alchemical equipment accounted for thirty percent of the total.
This greatly surprised Nicole. The powerful races in the sea were not short of strong warriors, but they were severely lacking in suitable weapons.
The ocean was vast and rich in resources, and ocean races rarely worried about food. All intelligent species there possessed skills to summon schools of fish; a simple song could feed an entire family.
Afu expressed great envy at this. He sang until his throat was hoarse, yet the Empress still wanted to trick more Eris Demon Worm ladies, constantly putting him on the verge of being dominated.
While they had an advantage in agriculture, the sea also had its drawbacks, particularly a significant deficiency in metal smelting. Confined by their environment, only some sea races possessed the racial talent for “cold forging,” which allowed them to refine metals. The output was only sufficient to arm the most elite troops.
Furthermore, they faced severe rust issues.
The ordinary troops of the ocean races used weapons made from shells and coral. Due to the World’s characteristics, their strength was certainly greater than their Earth counterparts, but compared to other materials in this World, they undoubtedly had various shortcomings.
Many powerful Moby Dick warriors wielded ship anchors from shipwrecks of land races. Just imagine how pathetic that was. Yes, you, the Tide Lord.
During the Mermaid Sea Kingdom’s most prosperous era, their greatest dream was to land. The sunlight and environment of the surface world were deeply coveted by ocean races.
However, as the mermaids’ strength declined and the Nagas rose, their only objective became self-preservation.
The Naga sea race, having risen in the central ocean and not bordering any continent, needed to break through the blockade of the Mermaid Sea Kingdom to obtain new landing points.
Considering that they had just met and were still undertaking large-scale construction, the Terra Kingdom’s ability to provide a batch of precious weapons, with a guaranteed thirty percent ratio of alchemical equipment, was an immense fortune for any faction.
With the World’s steel production, even major powers took generations to slowly accumulate enough armor to equip a heavy cavalry unit.
Upon seeing the weapons sent by the Orc Kingdom, Nicole naturally felt more confident about the upcoming war against the mermaids. The quantity and quality of the steel weapons surprised them, and their heavy feel made them realize how fortunate surface dwellers were to have so much steel!
The alchemical equipment, with its myriad of designs, further astonished them with the imaginative ideas of surface mages—though some had the slight problem of accidentally hitting allies if one wasn’t careful. However, everyone was accustomed to the characteristics of mage creations. Given that they were not mass-produced and each item was a unique handcrafted piece, problems were quite normal…
Because of this batch of equipment, the friendship between Tasika and Nicole quickly deepened, and they expressed their eagerness for further comprehensive cooperation. The two girls, who had already felt like they had met too late, found common ground. Tasika’s inherent kindness and gentleness, and her sympathy for the common people, resonated with Nicole’s desire to protect the Naga people. The only difference was that Nicole was a true follower of the Sea God, while Tasika had seen through the true nature of the War Goddess.
The weapons Tasika provided were naturally from the Azurevine Empire. The alchemical equipment consisted of small, medium, and large explosives created by the Arcane Society… The imperial military, familiar with the whimsical nature of those mages, was delighted to have someone test these devices first, and then they would equip improved versions with various minor flaws repaired.
Roger monitored Tasika and Nicole’s conversation throughout, peeking at their screens with the Hyper-Dimensional Canvas in his hand. By the way, his name in the group chat was “Jotaro,” and his identity was an undercover agent sent by the orcs to the empire.
“The people of the empire think he’s dead, but he’s actually alive and has been monitoring the barbarians’ every move, bringing us a lot of useful technology.” Tasika introduced Roger to Nicole in this manner, paving the way for the deception. “Lord Jotaro is a great person.” The naive Nicole didn’t suspect anything, as all the intelligence Roger provided about the empire was true. The Terra Kingdom had indeed been secretly copying the empire’s new technologies, so it was impossible to say they hadn’t planted spies of a relatively high level in the empire. Little did this Naga Saintess know that, on the contrary, Tasika was the informant the empire had placed within the Seven Gods’ faction.
After the equipment was in place, Roger also pulled Frankenstein into the chat group, naming her “Copperbeard.” This was a typical dwarf-style name. Her profession was also a blacksmith, responsible for the after-sales service of the Naga sea race’s equipment.
“It’s entirely because there are too many malfunctioning equipment. My hands are numb from copying chat logs, so it’s better to let the instigator see it herself!”
In summary, the Anti-Azurevine Alliance had developed to include four members: Tasika, Nicole, Roger, and Frankenstein…
Thus, the situation was that three imperial undercover agents were entertaining a believer of a god… Just thinking about that scene was absurd!
According to Roger’s plan, the next person to be invited into the Anti-Azurevine Alliance group chat would be Shana. That Little Angel’s projection would certainly be happy to stand against the empire. However, the misunderstandings between her and the empire could be resolved. On the other hand, her relationship with the Seven Gods was a script that necessitated Shana’s projection’s demise…
“I suddenly feel quite sorry for Nicole!” Tasika cast a resentful glance at Roger. It was all because this guy was full of wicked ideas, turning himself into an accomplice in kidnapping young girls.
Roger nodded with utmost seriousness: “Indeed, it’s not good to only pick on one believer. Hurry up and start the grand development of Terra. Then you can pull in the Elf Empress, the Dragon Great Priest, the Dwarf Chieftain, the Lich Sage, and others, and trick them all.”
“Alright, I’m starting to feel sorry for myself. They’ll hate me when they find out the truth…” Tasika hugged herself plaintively. This guy was pulling the leaders of powerful nations in the Eternal Night World into the Anti-Azurevine Alliance, not as suicide preparations, but to capture them all. Poor her, she was just a piece of bait thrown out to attract those greedy vultures…
“You should learn to appreciate them hating you but being unable to kill you,” Roger comforted her.
“It shouldn’t be like this,” Tasika sighed.
“Then how should it be?”
“When other girls’ handsome guys carry them, they say, ‘I’ll protect you.’ But the great hero that I ended up with says, ‘Tazi, you go out there and sell yourself…'”
Tasika stared at Roger with her expressive eyes, which almost made him feel a pang of guilt. She was already the Orc Queen, yet she was so undignified, recruiting people everywhere, which was quite humiliating and high-risk. He reached out and placed a hand on Tasika’s shoulder, offering her firm support: “Don’t be afraid, I’ll help you stack a tankiest set of equipment.”
“I don’t want it!” Tasika bit his hand.
Why do others get to be little fairies, while I have to take the harshest blows?
[Achievement “Female Player’s Grudge” unlocked: Finally found a CP to climb ranks with, only to be forced to pick Zhang Fei and Tank every game to protect my AD.]
