| PN | Miserable | 193
"President... President?"
The vice president, who was not young anymore, nearly couldn't accept the news.
What did it mean that the mining veins showed signs of depletion?
He and the president had just temporarily reconciled and decided to unite against external forces, resolve the alliance issue, and sideline Qi Chao.
How could such a troublesome situation suddenly pop up again?
This strange situation seemed to take them back to not long ago when similar things had happened. Back then, the abilities of the ability users disappeared overnight, and soon after, a series of misfortunes followed.
"What should we do now?"
The vice president instinctively turned to the president for help. This matter was no small issue.
While the disappearance of abilities among ability users could be said to have little impact on the association, the mining veins were the lifeblood of the association!
The reason the association had been able to outlast various puppet master organizations and become the only one in the empire, apart from royal support, was mainly because they had control over most of the empire's energy stones and mother stone veins.
Now, with signs of the mining veins depleting, and the puppets master alliance gaining momentum, if a little agitation was stirred up, the puppets masters under them would definitely not stay calm.
The president, upon hearing the vice president's words, gave him an unhappy glance. He was already frustrated enough, and the vice president was just helplessly bothering him. Truly useless.
"What can we do?"
The president spoke impatiently. The emperor had refused to meet him, and it seemed like he was plotting to abandon him.
They couldn’t rely on him, and they were powerless to reverse the depletion of the mining veins. The most urgent task now was to stabilize the association's puppet masters.
The president gritted his teeth and turned to the vice president. "Go, call all the high-level officials over here. I need to hold a meeting!"
His position was now different from before, but nominally, he was still the president. Even if the high-level officials suspected that the emperor had grown tired of him, they wouldn't dare to openly offend him.
"Alright," the vice president hurriedly responded. Just as he was about to stand up, he suddenly heard the president add, "Don’t tell Qi Chao, and also, help me contact the leader of the alliance. I need to meet with them."
"Understood."
The vice president hesitated for a moment but agreed. He thought that if Qi Chao found out they were holding a meeting without him, he would definitely cause trouble later.
But since the president had already severed ties with Qi Chao, it seemed unnecessary to worry about that.
Besides, with the president’s methods, those high-ranking officials would surely keep their mouths shut, and there was a chance Qi Chao wouldn’t find out about the meeting. With that thought, the vice president felt a little more at ease and left the room.
However, neither the vice president who had just left nor the president who was deep in thought noticed the black eyeball in the shadowy corner of the room, quietly watching them.
After receiving the information transmitted from the eyeball, Qi Chao pondered for a moment but didn’t take any immediate action.
Instead, he controlled the surveillance device to move to the meeting location, where he quietly listened in on the upcoming meeting.
As for himself, he entered the palace and met with the newly crowned emperor, Elliton.
Compared to before, Elliton still looked like an ordinary person, but there was now a trace of authority in his expression.
When he saw Qi Chao, he waved his subordinates away and greeted him with a smile that was more genuine than before.
"You’ve finally arrived. How’s the situation with the alliance?" Elliton smiled, not putting on the airs of an emperor. Or rather, now, he could only return to his puppet master identity in front of Qi Chao.
To this day, Elliton still found Qi Chao to be a fascinating person. He had successfully maneuvered between the president and vice president to rise to power and infiltrate the association.
Even though, at the beginning, Elliton had asked Qi Chao to help him resolve the issue with the association, he had never imagined things would go so smoothly.
Moreover, Elliton knew very well who had founded the alliance, which was currently gaining significant momentum.
Online opinions about the alliance were mixed, with most of the negative comments criticizing the alliance’s strict membership standards, especially the requirement to investigate whether puppet masters truly had an affection for puppets.
But Elliton felt that this rule was a good one. If such an organization had been available back then, he definitely wouldn’t have joined the association, which had ultimately led to the unfortunate fate of his puppets...
Elliton felt a pang of bitterness in his heart, but when he noticed Qi Chao’s concerned gaze, he quickly masked his emotions and asked, “How’s the alliance doing now? Are there many new members?”
In their plan, the association could not be allowed to remain, and the alliance was intended to replace it. If the alliance wasn't popular, their plan would be half-failed.
“They’re screening applicants,” Qi Chao chuckled and replied objectively, “But compared to the association, it still has a long way to go.”
"This cannot be rushed. We’ll take our time," Elliton nodded.
He looked at Qi Chao with a hint of hesitation in his eyes. After a few seconds, he spoke again, "Qi Chao, I want to ask... what’s Superman's current progress…?"
For Elliton, even becoming the emperor of the empire didn’t matter as much as his puppets. Or rather, after becoming emperor, he had encountered more people who were false and pretentious, and he yearned even more to see the puppets he had created.
"I haven't been in touch with Superman recently, but according to the progress, he should be activating another mother stone soon," Qi Chao said, his deep brown eyes remaining unchanged.
He spoke convincingly, with no hint that he and Superman were actually the same person.
"Oh, I see. That's good," Elliton quickly nodded, his eyes filled with nostalgia and anticipation. In that moment, he was no longer an emperor but an ordinary puppet master who had lost his beloved puppet.
Seeing Elliton's reaction, Qi Chao rubbed his finger against his nose, feeling guilty for delaying Elliton's request.
But he had truly been too busy before and hadn't had the time to focus on activating the mother stone.
As Elliton seemed about to ask something more, Qi Chao casually shifted the topic. "Your Majesty, I wanted to ask, how are the council members doing now?"
"The council members? Still the same. I want to support the alliance, but all they think about is the association," Elliton seemed ready to vent his frustrations, holding nothing back.
He spoke whatever came to mind, and soon, his attention was completely diverted.
Qi Chao nodded in response.
In Elliton’s eyes, most people wore false masks, and the only person he could truly consider a friend, someone he felt comfortable around, was Qi Chao.
So even though Qi Chao didn’t speak much, Elliton didn’t mind. When he heard Qi Chao mention that the president and vice president were plotting, he frowned. "For the next few days, avoid going to the association. I'm worried they might act out of desperation and hurt you."
Elliton remembered that the former emperor's death had something to do with the president, and if the president was cornered, no one knew what he might do.
"It’s fine. I know what I’m doing," Qi Chao replied.
After exchanging information, Qi Chao stood up, preparing to leave.
"Wait," Elliton called out as he stood up and handed Qi Chao some documents. "These are the mining veins the association gave me. You should add them to the alliance."
Elliton had heard that the alliance had mining veins, but he knew that those had all been discovered and mined by Qi Chao himself.
Finding the veins alone required vast amounts of manpower and financial resources, let alone the fact that these veins belonged to the alliance, leaving Qi Chao with little for himself.
Though Qi Chao was a kind person, Elliton didn’t want to watch him squander everything he had.
Initially, Qi Chao didn’t want to take the documents. He already had enough mining veins —he was practically on par with the association.
But Elliton, who had long since decided that Qi Chao would invest all his resources into the alliance, forcefully shoved the documents into his hands, warning, "You better take it. This is an order from the emperor."
Elliton sighed as he spoke. "Don’t push yourself too hard. The alliance is important, but it's not more important than you. You still have a partner and puppets to take care of, don’t you?"
Qi Chao looked at the mining vein materials in his hands and paused for a moment, unsure of where exactly he was feeling wronged.
After all, he had simply found a mountain, spent a little money, and bought it.
If anything, the association should be the one feeling wronged, since most of their mining veins had dried up for no reason.
But seeing Elliton’s insistence, Qi Chao didn’t argue. After all, the income from the mining veins still needed to be taxed, so Elliton wouldn't suffer any losses.
"That's the right attitude," Elliton said with satisfaction as he watched Qi Chao take the materials.
Qi Chao, who usually had no shame, was now at a loss for words. He rubbed his nose, preparing to leave the palace.
As he was about to leave, he suddenly thought of his puppets. "The children at home have noticed I leave early and come back late, and they want to help. There might be some small commotion."
Upon hearing this, Elliton remembered watching a video Qi Chao had posted on social media, where the puppets had caused a conflict over a plush doll. Thinking back on it, he couldn’t help but chuckle.
What kind of trouble could those puppets possibly cause?
Elliton laughed dismissively. "It's a good thing that they care about you. Don’t worry, I won’t mind."
With those words, Qi Chao felt much more at ease.
Although his children were all clever and well-behaved, as seen with the incident involving the council members, none of them were ever truly worry-free.
By giving Elliton a heads-up in advance, he could at least prevent any surprises later.
After saying his goodbyes to Elliton, Qi Chao piloted his aircraft toward the association. As a member of the association now, how could he possibly be excluded from a high-level meeting?
While sitting in the aircraft, he moved his fingers slightly.
At the same time, a black eyeball in the corner of the association’s meeting room rotated and began recording the scenes, which were then fed directly into Qi Chao’s mind.
Ever since the president had been sidelined by Qi Chao, the other high-ranking officials had sensed the emperor’s growing discontent with the association.
Under the president's persuasive tactics, the high-ranking officials of the association had quickly formed an alliance.
They would not stand by and watch as the rising alliance took over the association.
The association quickly devised a related plan. First, they would ensure that the energy stone benefits remained the same each month to maintain the loyalty of the puppet masters within the association.
Then, once most of the council members were out of the hospital, they would sideline Qi Chao and work with the council members to strike at the alliance, and try to change the emperor's mind and secure the association’s position.
Qi Chao raised an eyebrow when he saw this.
The association's plan wasn't a bad one. If the council members came out of the hospital and the situation dragged on, they really might not have a chance against the nearly century-old association.
However, there was one thing the association didn’t know: the issue with the mining veins wasn’t so much that they were depleted as it was that they were vanishing.
This disappearance process was slow, but within a month at most, the usable energy stones and mother stones in the mines would be nearly gone.
By then, even if the association wanted to maintain their benefits, it would be impossible.
Thinking about this, Qi Chao sent a message to Shen Yuxi, who was working for the alliance: 【The benefits for the alliance members can be arranged.】
Since the association was aiming to stabilize the puppet masters’ loyalty, wasn’t it only reasonable for him to fight back?
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