Even though Mike is much stronger than before, he still believes it’s best to keep his primary operations within human civilization. After all, even though large demonic cities have strong combat power, they are nowhere near human civilization when it comes to resources. Human civilization offers advanced laboratories, libraries full of experimental data, numerous talented geniuses, access to the best intelligence network in the world, and much more. The benefits of staying integrated within human society are countless.
There is another option for Mike: he could display his true power and force human civilization to surrender. He would no longer need to act; he could take everything. However, this approach carries many risks he is not willing to take. For instance, it’s not guaranteed that human civilization would be willing to surrender to him, especially since they would inevitably see him as a demon king.
The civilian government of human civilization would most likely surrender, but the military leadership would probably resist. This is due to the inherent difference in the composition of the two.
The civilian government is an elected branch whose main priority is to do what the people who voted for them want. Even though the current government has a friendly relationship with the military, it would always choose the voters if push came to shove.
The reason for the confrontation 18 years ago was simple: at that time, people didn’t know that saving the captives might endanger Human Civilization. That was why they elected a government that pushed for saving captives in demonic farms without regard for consequences. If the people had known how dangerous it was, they wouldn’t have been so keen on saving those poor captives. After the military leaders went city by city to improve public awareness, the people realized the danger and voted a more moderate government into office.
The military leadership, however, is different. Its members have fought demons for decades and would most likely see surrendering to a demon king as even worse than death. Even if they eventually surrendered, it would only be after a highly destructive war that could leave little of human civilization’s great resources intact.
In short, taking over human civilization is possible, but with Mike's current strength, it carries too many unacceptable risks. Perhaps, after his divine spells are unlocked, his power will surge to the point where he can directly mind-control the military leadership committee and control everything from behind the scenes. But at the moment, even though he is far stronger than even the strongest demon king, his strength is still not enough to touch the leadership committee without anyone noticing.
Human civilization is no fool; it knows that demons would target the leadership committee. For this reason, the elderly members of the board are not allowed to leave their offices at all. They are protected in completely sealed-off buildings, covered by tens of defensive formations, and guarded by hundreds of mages in the capital's city, which is itself protected by several layers of solid defenses. Few can even meet the elders.
The elders hold ultimate power over the military. Any enemy would target the elders before turning to anyone else. Therefore, human civilization has been exceedingly careful about it.
Mike is powerful—many times stronger than a demon king—but even he has limits. He would succeed in mind-controlling the elders, not without being detected. Nobody would listen to a mind-controlled leadership committee.
Mike can control lower generals, but these aggressive tactics carry risks. Mike doesn't have unrestricted access to the Human civilization; he is not sure; there may be treasures within the human civilization that can detect him; he prefers not to take the risk.
Thinking of these, he shook his head.
Sitting on his bed, he thought about the future and nodded to himself. His future could be very bright, or it could be dark. If he manages to find a way to increase his lifespan beyond the 100-year limit, it would be a great success. After all, it's unheard of to increase one’s lifespan. If he fails, however, his entire life will be a failure. It doesn't matter how many 'achievements' he has in the world—as long as he dies, all of it will eventually disappear. The only thing that doesn't disappear is immortality.
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...
"Mike! Come into my office!" Wide Vision, who was visibly upset with him, said in a neutral voice. The military would have at least fired him by now if he had been an ordinary soldier. But this was Mike, the strongest human, not even counting his recent power surge.
Mike nodded, stood up, and went into Wide Vision's office.
"How can you be so irresponsible? How can you leave your post as the Defense Coordinator of the Great Wall? What am I supposed to do with you?" Wide Vision said to Mike, very frustrated.
"Please, General, demote me! I want to be a 1-star general; that’s all!" Mike replied.
After thinking briefly, Wide Vision nodded and said, "You’ve won! I will remove you from the Great Wall's Defense Coordinator position and appoint you as General of the 73rd Army. You are to keep your rank of 2-star general."
Usually, the generals leading a single army are 1-star generals, but no law prohibits two or more star generals from doing the same. As long as higher-ups see it as proper, even a captain can lead an army. It's just that norms and traditions matter a lot in the military. They never appoint low-ranking officers as commanders of higher-ranking officers.
"Thank you, General!" Mike saluted. His happiness was genuine. The best-case scenario is being the commander of the 73rd Army while keeping his 2-star rank.
"Don't thank me! This is a punishment," said Wide Vision as he began writing something. He signed it and handed it to Mike. "This is your commission; start your new job by tomorrow!"
"Yes!" Mike said happily.
...
Being removed from such a prestigious position is usually a sign of shame. In fact, from the perspective of the overwhelming majority of people, it was too severe of a punishment for Mike, the strongest human.
In human civilization, being treated equally under the law is not a thing. Treating people differently depending on how strong they are and how much they have contributed to human society is totally accepted. For example, Mike, the strongest human who has served as a general for years, is very privileged. Even if he commits a serious crime, they would consider his strength and service to humanity and significantly reduce his punishment. The principle is called "balanced justice," meaning subtracting crimes from contributions. Of course, contributions cannot totally eliminate punishment for serious crimes. If Mike commits murder, no matter how much he contributed to human civilization, He has to spend at least a month in jail, except if he can receive a pardon from the president, the military leadership commission, or his commander, Wide Vision.
The notion of balanced justice comes from ancient times; its appearance in this world is not strange; it is expected.
The people have widely different strengths. Magicians are countless times stronger than ordinary people. Upholding equal justice would require force to enforce it; it means that stronger magicians must assist in holding other magicians accountable, but even then, it would be a struggle.
For example, what if a powerful magician commits murder? The punishment for murder is long prison time. Should they spend a lot of resources to arrest the murderer and, again, a lot of resources to keep him in prison for decades? It must be noted that humanity needs more mages, not less. Allowing the murderer to serve human civilization to make up for his crime is far more practical.
Some crimes, such as murder, have mandatory minimum sentences, while others, such as simple assault, can be entirely negated if one has enough social credit; but even in the case of murder, if the perpetrator is a strong mage, they would rarely even spend the one-month minimum in jail; the prosecutors would make deals and released them, sending them back, most likely to dangerous stations of Human Civilization, to serve humanity.
To discourage lawlessness among magicians, human civilization has recently instituted a social credit system. Serving humanity, public good, charity, etc; adds points, while crimes reduce points.
Each law-abiding citizen also receives a basic number of credits that increase yearly as long as the citizen remains law-abiding. Once they commit any crime, the yearly award resets back to its basic value, providing a further incentive not to commit crimes.
Descendants cannot inherit social credits, but they aren’t worthless. One can receive loans, qualify for government service discounts, get priority in non-essential government jobs, and many other uses. Also, after death, based on the total number of credits, the government unconditionally rewards a significant lump sum to the person's children.
Human civilization is not entirely meritocratic; it awards non-essential government jobs based on social credit, not qualifications. But what qualifications does, for example, a clerk in a government library need? It’s not as if the job is so sensitive that it would make any difference. For essential government jobs, such as working as deputy ministers, chiefs of police, school teachers and principals, etc., it does not discriminate based on social credit. In those jobs, human civilization uses pure meritocracy.