Blackstone Code

The soothing music in the room couldn’t drown out the storm of anger surging in everyone’s hearts.

The Gephra diplomat was right. Once someone becomes accustomed to using the simplest method to solve problems, they grow increasingly unwilling to consider more complex alternatives. Even thinking starts to feel like a burden.

Just like Gephra a few years ago—arrogant and untouchable, no nation could defeat them at sea. They went around the world stirring up trouble. Sometimes attacking a port over a rumor, other times disguising themselves as pirates to plunder on the high seas.

Unreasonable—and growing ever more so.

Because the Emperor of Gephra realized that reasoning was not only exhausting but failed to bring them the benefits they wanted, and worse, it made him angry.

So why bother reasoning?

The gulf would be blocked, shells loaded—either pay up and apologize, or face an attack on your port.

The losses from a destroyed port far outweighed the cost of the Emperor’s extortion, so people just gave in.

It was precisely because he believed this method could quickly accumulate wealth and resources that Gephrans became dangerous. They started actively invading other countries, ultimately triggering a world war.