As the Shepherd had expected, Rui had taken very much for the third model. Frankly, she had considered not proposing it at all, but the reality was that she simply couldn't hide the truth from a Martial Transcendent. He would see right through her.
She had hoped that he would go for the balanced approach that made as good a use of the free market as one could reasonably hope to, while keeping the downsides in check.
But it became very clear to her that whatever the Emperor feared was much greater than any risk of civil war or separatism, fragmentization, or the loss of leverage.
He simply sought power.
Not for himself, but for all of human civilization at all costs.
And that required mobilizing every ounce of resources and capital across the entire world, and that could only be done if the model of expansion truly offered tremendous return-on-investment.
