072. How You Do Politics with a President Like This I?

  "This is suffog,"—thought the Frost-Pted air force.

  It had always been other small tries' air forces that cowered before Frost-Pted's "Vulture," never daring to take off to engage—because they knew sending their precious pilots into battle would be sending them to their deaths. Even the Red Arrow Empire regarded the "Vulture" as a near-perfect fighter jet worthy of study.

  For a long time, Frost-Pted pilots were hailed as the "gods of the sky," and their Vultures slig through the air were seen as uable.

  However, Li Aozi not only shattered the myth of the Vulture’s invincibility but, in one swoop, destroyed 29 heavy transport pnes, 55 armed helicopters, 13 reaissance helicopters, 18 attack aircraft, 14 fighter jets (including two Vultures), 6 heavy bombers, and 2 early warning aircraft.

  Even for a superpower like Frost-Pted, such catastrophic losses nearly drove the air foradness ht.

  Beyond the deaths of ground troops and the destru of logistid supplies—the losses sustained by the air force alone amouo over 6.3 billion Derbies. The air forand directly informed Mai Dewei: if you send us to face Li Aozi again, we will drop bombs owin Paces ourselves.

  This was no joke. Mai Dewei couldn't possibly think pilots could be harvested like potatoes from the ground, could she?

  Especially not for the Vulture jets—God, those two pilots were Beta-tier 【Rangers】, a rarity among rarities, and finding individuals with top-tier psychological resiliend flying skills from a pool of the natioe, who also possessed at least a uy-level education—these were the best of Frost-Pted’s best, priceless beyond measure!

  Even if Mai Dewei’s reign colpsed, these elite pilots would pass down their genes and skills, ensuring a brighter future for Frost-Pted.

  As a result, Li Aozi’s strike had nearly sparked a mutiny within the air force.

  Mai Dewei, showing some rare rationality, decided to stay silent in the face of Li Aozi’s btant crossing of Frost-Pted's airspace, allowing the air force to ha as they saw fit.

  However, this ina sparked e among the publid sooizens of Frost-Pted were furiously venting their anger online, denoung Mai Dewei and the air force for their weakness.

  "What a joke! I saw that red-bck figure flying over the city barrier of Forward City! What is the air force doing?"

  "If President Mai Dewei doesn’t make a statement soon, we’ll feel very uneasy. I don’t want a dangerous enemy flying over my head at any moment."

  "Today, Frost-Pted’s industrial sector stocks crashed. President Mai Dewei must immediately issue a statement to restore ior fidence!"

  "Fight! Why aren’t you fighting?! You just let a traitor to our nation fly right over us!"

  "The military has betrayed us Frost-Pted citizens! You’re all just spineless cowards! Mai Dewei is a softie—Frost-Pted is finished. Goodbye, I’m immigrating to Red Arrow."

  Li Aozi, always keeping an eye on the online ndscape, noted Mai Dewei's administration pying dead and refusing to respond. He decided to up the ante, giving the people of Frost-Pted a clear view of Mai Dewei’s gover’s true nature.

  He wasn’t worried about Mai Dewei res to nuclear strikes—without Granat’s grain as a cheap food supply, Frost-Pted might starve to death within the year.

  So, Li Aozi lowered his altitude, ing the light around him with gravity, and flew directly through the shield of a Forward City. He nded in front of the city hall, perched atop a 20-meter-high statue of a heroine. With a flick of his hand, he uprooted the statue and hurled it down to the ground.

  Boom——

  The massive crash and tremors jolted the city’s citizens awake. Soon, the media was broadcasting news of the statue’s colpse, ahe fallen heroiatue, bright red graffiti read:

  "Equality is not privilege. Men and womeh members of the people."

  While the citizens of the city were still reeling in shock, it was quickly discovered that other cities had experienced simir acts of vandalism and slogans.

  In Frost-Pted’s financial capital, Jafflin City, Mai Dewei’s statue was violently toppled, its head shattered to pieces. On the ruins, a coldly critical message was left:

  "Those who preach ideology only have business on their minds."

  In Frost-Pted’s industrial stronghold, Axiso City, the "Women First" statue was overturned and impaled upside down on its pedestal. The red graffiti scathingly mocked:

  "They a the name of hunting witches as men once did, only to redo what men did to men—they’ve just bee the new oppressors. This is nress."

  Even near Frost-Pted’s highest political ter—the Twin Paces—just two streets away, the entire mirrored surface of a skyscraper had been illuminated with fiery words:

  "Know who your real enemies are! The truly oppressed are all poor Frost-Pted citizens, not men or women."

  After these is, not only was Mai Dewei’s gover’s credibility severely damaged, but the people of Frost-Pted, who had long lived uhe prote of great power peace, began to wake up.

  For the first time, they began to realize what it must feel like for those civilians, hospitals, and factories bombed by Frost-Pted’s air force.

  The threat from the sky, apanied by the pierg sonis, brought with it a fear beyond words.

  "We onbed small tries to secure our own is and power… Did they feel the same fear as us? Or worse? Could our wars have been unjust and caused immense destru?"

  Under Li Aozi’s graffiti slogans and air raids, the citizens of Frost-Pted began to reflect.

  Meanwhile, down iwin Paces' underground bunker, Mai Dewei, upon hearing that Li Aozi had left unscathed, refused to refled instead erupted in fury:

  "Unbelievable! Unbelievable! Unbelievable!"

  She pounded her fists oable like an enraged lioness, screaming in a hysterical, broken voice:

  "The air force has betrayed me! Those cowards! From today on, the air force will patrol daily, with at least two pnes per missioo supervise the other. And take away their drone trhts! How dare they threateh bombing the Twin Paces! That’s treason!"

  Blinded by rage, she ignored military protocol and immediately ordered:

  "Get me Governor Lariel Southke! Have her lead the Law IV Agency to thhly iigate the air force! There must be extremist patriarchists among them!"

  "Madam President, that is absolutely not possible." Her secretary trembled at the and, cold sweat dripping down his back as he hurried to dissuade her. "The air force is posed of only the most elite personnel. If Law IV starts meddling, they might strike, and we wouldn’t be able to repce them quickly."

  "Aren’t civilian pilots pilots too?" Mai Dewei gred at him. "As far as I know, there are plenty of female captains in civilian aviatiohem fly fighter jets!"

  The Frost-Pted officials in the bunker were stunned by this statement, turning to Mai Dewei in disbelief.

  "Madam President, are you thinking clearly?"

  "You will destroy Frost-Pted’s military this way."

  "If you keep this up, I will have no choice but tn."

  FAL