335: Chapter 327

Once the state machine is running at full power, its power is indeed unparalleled.

Normally, a spacecraft project would take three to five years at the shortest, or even a long-term future prospect, but more than half of it had already been completed in just over six months.

Some might think that building a spacecraft with modern technology isn't that difficult; after all, rocket launches have become routine, and even the public is allowed to watch.

However, the spacecraft being built at the mountain base was different; China lacked mature experience for its existence.

Although the overall concept could draw slightly from rockets, the change in power source and target expectations meant the internal structure had to be redesigned.

No matter how thoroughly the theory was verified before work began, unexpected situations were still inevitable during the construction process.

And these changes could very likely disrupt the entire project; it wasn't impossible for it to be pushed back to start all over again.

Zhang Mu wandered around accompanied by the Director.

The construction workers had excellent Professional qualities; even when the Immortal arrived for inspection, they didn't stop their work to look up and stare, only stealing glances with their peripheral vision.

After making a round, Zhang Mu had a good idea of the situation, so he didn't linger and returned directly to "The World".

Russia's transcendent plan still needed refinement, America's school was under construction, while China and Ying Country were progressing methodically.

With things temporarily quiet on Blue Star, Zhang Mu summoned a Portal to the Saul Continent, intending to check the progress of various tasks.

He first found the King and asked if there had been any movement from neighboring countries recently.

Zhang Mu surmised that with the lifting of the ban on "no violence in human settlements," war would inevitably break out on the Saul Continent.

Because of the ban, wars between Kingdoms and principalities on the continent were rare, but a few hot-tempered kings would still engage in battle with enemy nations in the wild.

Over the years, hatred had inevitably accumulated, so before crusading against Lake, they would likely fight each other first.

However, according to reports from the scouts of the Griffin Legion, the Kingdoms bordering Lake had not engaged in major military conflict. Instead, they had formed an alliance in the name of God's judgment, plotting to carve up Lake's territory, and had already begun their operations.

For the past few months, scouts from the alliance had been entering the country to gather intelligence.

They were like nations that considered victory already in their grasp, so arrogant they didn't even bother to carefully disguise their identities, crossing the border lines blatantly—the Little Cat Girl's True Word Spell was in effect throughout Lake, so they didn't have to worry about being captured by Lake.

Of course, even with the ban, the royal family still possessed law enforcement rights, and these scouts couldn't just swagger into military strongholds.

If these scouts were really stupid enough to try and infiltrate a military camp, the royal family would happily throw them into the dungeon and interrogate them to death.

Since that was the case, Zhang Mu didn't care anymore, instructing the King not to pay attention to the alliance's vanguard forces provoking them outside the border.

If they liked being arrogant, then let them be completely arrogant. Zhang Mu didn't care about the loss of "face"; becoming the final winner was the main point.

After a few more words of small talk, Zhang Mu curiously inquired about the identity of the alliance's organizer.

The answer once again exceeded expectations.

Zhang Mu had guessed it would be the Kingdom.

Whether considering the thousand-year grudge between Lake and the Kingdom or their relative national strength, the Kingdom was the only choice.

But in reality, the leader was a Kingdom called "Redwood."

Redwood Kingdom's strength was decent, but there was still a relatively large gap compared to the Kingdom.

As for why it was them, the reason had been discovered by the Griffin Knights: the Kingdom had politely declined the role of alliance leader, claiming they would destroy Lake alone.

There was also a detail: as the only Kingdom to have fought against the First Army, it hadn't revealed the intelligence it had gathered to those Kingdoms forming the alliance.

In other words, the alliance of Kingdoms didn't know about Zhang Mu's First Army or the magic-conducting weapons the First Army was equipped with.

This left Zhang Mu quite surprised.

The King of the Kingdom was by no means a fool who acted on impulse and didn't understand the big picture.

As long as the King of the Kingdom notified the alliance about the magic-conducting weapons, they would be prepared and could greatly reduce their losses while causing more severe casualties to Lake.

After that, it would naturally be much easier for the Kingdom to attack Lake alone.

However, the reality was exactly the opposite.

Zhang Mu scratched the back of his head, unable to figure out what kind of trick the King of the Kingdom was trying to pull.

After thinking for a long while, he managed to figure out some logic.

The King of the Kingdom... could he be planning to unify the surrounding areas?

If that were the case, then all the strange developments would become normal.

Assuming the magic-conducting weapons were exposed and known to everyone, comparing their strength on paper, the alliance would have an absolute advantage.

Even if they were defeated, Lake would be unable to counterattack and could only defend passively.

magic-conducting weapons were indeed very strong, but if the alliance gave up on large-scale troop gatherings and instead dispersed into small units led by Professionals to cause chaos everywhere, Zhang Mu would most likely end up only being able to hold a lone city with his elites.

A stalemate or a one-sided situation was clearly not what the King of the Kingdom wanted to see. If it dragged on too long, the distant Empire would join the war.

So, the King of the Kingdom, having experienced the First Army's combat power, chose to suppress the news of the magic-conducting weapons, intending to let both sides fight to a mutual destruction.

The King of the Kingdom must have been deeply impressed by the mysterious weapon that annihilated thirty thousand of his troops in the Silent Forest.

With it there, the unsuspecting alliance would attack with a massive army according to conventional tactics, and one could imagine how miserable their end would be.

And on Lake's side, the Kingdom, not knowing Zhang Mu had a Portal, concluded that the magic-conducting weapons would be consumed in large quantities.

Even if they didn't run out, they would surely be stretched thin.

At that point, when the Kingdom entered the fray, victory would be effortless.

Of course, the Kingdom also considered that the stockpile of mysterious weapons might still be abundant after eliminating the alliance; this wasn't hard to deduce, one just had to look at the frequency of use of the mysterious weapons in the later stages of the war.

If there were still many, then the Kingdom would lie low and observe the follow-up, adjusting their plans as appropriate.

After figuring it out, Zhang Mu smiled, wanting only to say one thing to the King of the Kingdom: "I've already had my fill."

What did that mean?

Stop sending them.

In Zhang Mu's mind, a trap was laid out almost instantly.

Don't you want to see us both suffer?

Fine.

In the war six months from now, I will gradually decrease the frequency of thermobaric bomb drops, deliberately creating the illusion of a shortage.

Hmm... in the final battle, I just won't use them at all. I'll take a few Saint-levels onto the field, and while wiping out the enemy army, I'll get 'heavily injured' myself. Will you be able to resist making a move then?

Once you step in, heh, don't even think about leaving.

The King looked at the sinister smile on Zhang Mu's face and couldn't help but shiver. He quickly spoke up to interrupt, bringing up the matter of the Elf Army.

That army was very large; based on intelligence estimates, it was probably one-third of the entire Elf Clan's strength, and there seemed to be a Saint-level among them.

Because the Griffin Knight captain, who was at the Magister level, sent back the message just before he died.

One must know that the Griffin Knight captain's mount was also at the Magister level and was scouting from the sky. Unless a Saint-level had acted, it would have been impossible for him to die.

Learning that a powerful force was heading toward Lake, Zhang Mu didn't find it a headache.

The God said Lake should die; this scene had already been foreseeable.

"Roughly how long until they reach Lake?" Zhang Mu asked.

Perhaps soothed by his calm tone, the King also settled down: "An army's march won't be too fast, but they seem to be carrying 'The World',"

"The warriors only have swords for self-defense; no siege engines or armor were seen."

"Without the weight, they can increase their speed somewhat. Hmm... probably in a year."

"Hiss..." Zhang Mu took a sharp breath. "It still takes a year even when using 'The World' to carry supplies? Are they so bored that they'd travel all this way to crusade against Lake?"

"I remember the senior sister saying that elves don't believe in gods. Since when did they become so devout as to follow the God's True Word?"

The King smiled bitterly. "I'm curious about that too. Moreover, Lake and the Elf Clan are very far apart, and there's never been any friction between us. Logically, there's no reason for them to come."

"Not counting High-tier Professionals, what is the army's strength like?"

"Uh... Mr. Zhang Mu, you know that the population of the Elf Clan is very small compared to humans, right?"

"I know that."

"Despite their pitifully small numbers, they occupy a rich forest. Even Empires dare not infringe upon the Elf Clan."

"And?"

"Every elf is at the Apprentice Level as soon as they reach adulthood."

Holy crap?

Sitting up straight, Zhang Mu asked in shock, "Does that mean this Elf Army is entirely composed of Professionals?"

"Yes."

Zhang Mu felt that things were becoming a bit tricky.

An army made of ordinary people—no matter how many came, he would have no fear.

Lacking the enhancement and protection of magic for their bodies, the only end for ordinary people in front of magic-conducting weapons was to be slaughtered.

Professionals were different. Once their powerful physiques got close to the army, even the First Army equipped with magic-conducting weapons would suffer heavy losses.

That wasn't even the scariest part. If this Elf Army reached Lake's border and, after learning about the magic-conducting weapons, dispersed to fight a guerrilla war...

The King looked at Zhang Mu's furrowed brow and said cautiously, "I thought you knew. Didn't Avril tell you?"

"She probably thought her teacher had already introduced me to the Elf Clan." Zhang Mu shook his head, bringing the topic back on track. "Now is not the time to discuss this."

"How many are in the Elf Army?"

"About forty thousand."

"Forty thousand... You said their Soldiers are all Professionals. What is their general level range?"

"According to Elf Clan regulations, one must at least reach Trainee level to be selected for the army."

So the most optimistic scenario was an army of forty thousand Trainee-level Professionals marching aggressively toward Lake.

However, it was obvious that this army couldn't possibly be all Trainee-level.

"Arriving in a year..." Zhang Mu was silent for a moment, then stood up and walked out. "Let it be for now. We'll deal with those allied Kingdoms and the Kingdom first; otherwise, there's no point in discussing things a year from now."

Leaving the palace, he walked toward the military camp outside the city, his mind pondering how he would eliminate the Elf Army.

This Elf Army wasn't exactly impossible to deal with, but to say it would be easy was clearly not true either.

The key point was the timing of the strike.

When the Elf Army reached the vicinity of Lake, they would definitely gather intelligence first, and the existence of magic-conducting weapons could not be hidden.

Presumably, as long as the Legion Commander wasn't an idiot, knowing that Lake had a weapon with a large area of effect would make splitting their forces inevitable.

Once they successfully split their forces, Zhang Mu would have no way to respond and would surely lose.

Split his own forces to pursue?

An army equipped with magic-conducting weapons was far inferior to Professional squads in terms of mobility.

In a field encounter, it would be difficult for his side to quickly set up heavy firepower like grenade launchers.

By the time they were set up, the Professionals on the other side would have already broken through the fire net.

Moreover, with both sides running around everywhere, it wouldn't be a conventional positional war. With squads from both sides crisscrossing, it was very likely that artillery units located in the "rear" would run into enemy troops.

And with the enemy troops spread out, weapons like thermobaric bombs would find it hard to cause significant damage.

As the fighting continued and the enemy's intelligence improved, they would surely organize squads of High-tier Professionals specifically to sabotage or even seize missiles and rockets.

Therefore, Zhang Mu soon identified the necessary condition for victory: he could not allow the Elf Army to enter the country and split their forces.

To achieve this, they had to be completely wiped out before the elves learned about the missiles.

Forty thousand Professionals, with one known Saint-level—even without considering the possibility of more Saint-levels—trying to finish it all in one blow would probably be very difficult with just thermobaric bombs.

The killing mechanism of thermobaric bombs is high temperature and the creation of a vacuum, both of which have very limited effects on High-tier Professionals.

As such, even if he launched a saturated attack and caught them by surprise, he could only eliminate more than half of the elves. The rest could still bring huge trouble to Lake, and he would have exposed the thermobaric bombs.

So... I need a stronger weapon, a weapon powerful enough to annihilate the elves in one hit. That would only be... nuclear weapons.

Zhang Mu's eyes narrowed slightly.

The transcendent is no longer a secret on Blue Star; except for regions so backward that televisions and Mobile Phones are luxuries, it can be said that everyone knows.

At this time, using the Shadow Technique to steal a nuclear bomb... it would work, but it's not very dignified. The whole transcendent community would lose dignity.

He could indeed create a new transcendent and pin the identity of the thief who stole the nuclear weapon on him.

But if he did that, Mr. Gao, Immortal Xu, and Dumbledore would lose a lot of face.

He needed a legitimate and reasonable excuse that would never arouse suspicion.

Zhang Mu had an idea, so he quickened his pace, went to the camp outside the city for a round of inspection, and after confirming that everyone was training hard, he summoned a Portal back to Blue Star.

Subsequently, he transformed into Mr. Gao and appeared at Neo's villa.

The old man had been very busy lately.

He had to monitor the progress of the school's construction and also mobilize resources to start the spacecraft project.

In the past, mobilizing resources was the easiest part, but now it had become a problem.

He had only recently taken over the assets and influence of several major families. Although talking about "loyalty" these days was a bit absurd, those families had operated for many years and had cultivated many die-hard loyalists.

They seemed to have cast aside life and death, solely focused on causing trouble for Neo.

These people were hidden very deeply and would take time to find, and time was exactly what Neo lacked most right now, with his attention fully occupied elsewhere.

After consulting with his think tank, Neo felt that transcendent matters were more important, so he set them aside, deciding to wait until the school and spacecraft projects were on track before turning back to deal with them.

However, those people weren't peaceful at all, causing some trouble every day. The losses weren't that severe, but they were like mosquitoes "buzzing" in his ear, making him extremely irritable.

Right now, Neo was frantically dealing with an arson incident, so focused that he didn't even notice Mr. Gao appearing beside him until his assistant reminded him.

He stared blankly, and upon seeing the person's appearance clearly, he snapped out of it, quickly standing up with his head bowed: "Mr. Gao, you're here."

"Yes, I have something I need you to arrange for me."

"Please give your orders."

"I want to be hit by a nuclear bomb."

"Ah?" Neo looked up blankly, his mouth slowly hanging open.