Counterfeit Hero

In the Florock Military Base on Blue Stone Star in the Saleria Longbow Star System, a bustling scene unfolded.

This base, originally belonging to the Saleria 5th Fleet, had completely transformed after changing ownership.

Aside from preserving the ornate sculptures and complex lines characteristic of Saleria’s architecture, all traces related to the Saleria Fleet had been meticulously removed.

Now, the occupants were the Suss people.

To the Saleria, the Suss people were seen as barbaric, simplistic, and devoid of artistic appreciation. The beautiful base, within just a few months under their control, had transformed into a fortress filled with sandbags and isolation nets, with ugly high-strength concrete bunkers like tombs everywhere, and the air saturated with the stench of sweat and the cold, metallic smell of prison.

These Suss people seemed to do everything to stifle themselves alive. Their pitiable brains couldn’t appreciate or understand anything beautiful; they were only interested in rigid discipline, monotonous training, and their ugly Mecha, warships, and weapons.

To the Saleria, these Suss people were pathetic even if they conquered the entire universe. Their lives seemed utterly meaningless. If the lives of the Saleria were like picturesque maple forests, then the life of these Suss people was like spider webs encasing abandoned factories packed with rusty machinery! These dull, artless, life-ignorant Suss people shouldn’t enter tombs upon death but should be thrown into metal recycling centers!

They emanated the scent of engine oil and rust.

There was, however, one aspect the Saleria could not deny nor understand. Despite the Suss people’s perceived blandness and lack of charm, they produced many outstanding writers, poets, philosophers, and musicians throughout history spanning thousands of years. The Saleria ultimately attributed this improbable phenomenon to mutations occurring from the Suss’s rigid, monotonous civilization.

In the main building of the base, a stern-faced Suss soldier was drilling holes in a pillar adorned with sculptures. He needed to hang an electronic display screen there. As for the sculptures, he didn’t cast a glance.

Amid the noise of the drill, Ulianov gazed at the mural on the wall.

This was a painting on the front wall of the operations command hall in the central information building at Florock base. The large mural, standing twenty meters tall and twelve meters wide, depicted a captain holding a gun to his head, staring blankly at the navigator before him. The background displayed the Saleria Star Domain map.

The painting was exquisite, with lifelike expressions on the captain, his ship, the starry sky, and the people around him. Putting aside the annoying ostentatious style of the Saleria, this painting could be considered a magnificent artwork.

Ulianov was a typical Suss individual, cold and rigid. Those Saleria who met him wouldn’t expect him to have a high level of artistic appreciation as a painter. In Suss, art courses held high standards, whether at university or kindergarten.

Ulianov knew that the original version of this mural was preserved in the Saleria National Art Museum and depicted an ancient Saleria legend.

This legend could be traced back to the Earth Federation era when a small exploratory fleet accidentally fell into the labyrinth of the Freedom Channel during their expedition and suffered from lack of food and water, which led to crew members perishing one after another. Ultimately, only one ship remained with the last nine survivors. Just as Captain Sal was despairingly holding a gun to his temple, he discovered this star domain.

This star domain was initially named the Sal Star Domain after Sal’s name. During the Earth Federation era, Saleria was a compound term encompassing the entire airspace of Sal, Leray, and Gazalin. After the Earth Federation dissolved, countless wars and transformations eventually formed the present Saleria.

A painting like this appearing in the main hall of a military base was obviously related to Saleria’s maxim, which stemmed from this legend.

”Saleria was discovered one second before giving up.”

This maxim, encouraging never to give up, was inscribed at the most prominent locations of key institutions like the Saleria Presidential Palace, Military Academy sculptures, National Library, square monuments, and Space Research Centers. It could be said that Saleria people grew up with this saying.

But what use was shouting loudly?

Ulianov slightly raised his freshly shaved double chin and curled his lips into a subtle sneer; this country that claimed never to give up, ultimately opened their gates and bowed their heads. Under the Suss’s unimpressive battleship gun barrels, their artistic sensibility had no effect whatsoever.

Ulianov held no fondness for Saleria. Just as the Saleria looked down on the Suss, the orthodox Suss likewise sneered at Saleria.

To the Suss, all Saleria people were foolish and frivolous idiots. They wasted most of their lives on flashy impractical things. Claiming to be the sanctum of art, whether it was architecture, art, music, or their battleships, they are known for their eye-catching complexity and ostentation.