203: Chapter 203 From beginning to end, your understanding of the rules, Chen Aoyun, has been wrong!

The twilight dissipated once again; this was already the fourth time it had come and gone.

Unsurprisingly, before this twilight disappeared, another Tower of Russia was destroyed.

Without the visual obstruction of the twilight, Chen Aoyun looked in the direction of Sakura Country.

Toslev also destroyed one of the Sakura people's Towers.

Of course, for both countries, which had sufficient resources in their crystals, they quickly erected a new Tower where the old one had collapsed and reinforced it to the average level.

Compared to the thick-skinned nature of the special targets under this twilight, Russia, the USA, and Sakura Country—the three nations with resource reserves in the first tier—could barely cope, but for other countries, it was a different story.

After the twilight vanished, the Prussia Strategist complained with an extremely ugly expression, "During the last twilight, by concentrating the power of the Towers and the Heroic Spirit Manifestation, we were still able to take one down, but this time both special targets slipped through! It doesn't matter if the black special target slips through, but the white one is the main issue; letting it slip through causes my Prussia's total score to decrease by one. No, this won't do. My Prussia's total score cannot withstand such deductions. I quit!"

The Prussians decisively learned from the French spirit of retreat; after the twilight ended, they directly dismantled all their Towers and let the Wave Demons destroy their crystal.

Dragon Country and the Ottoman Empire were entities eliminated right from the start.

When the Prussians, following the French, also voluntarily gave up on this 'Tower Defense Game', there were only five countries left that continued to 'Guard Athena'.

These were the first-tier countries, which had the most sufficient crystal resource reserves, a fixed number of Towers, and all twenty Towers reinforced to an average level: Russia, the USA, and Sakura Country. As well as Britain and Rome, which were still persisting for unknown reasons.

In fact, the persistence of Britain and Rome was not hard to understand; it was simply dragging things out to wait for a change. They were waiting to see if the rules would change for the better; waiting to see if the countries that lost Towers would lose several at once later on, preferably all at once. In short, Britain and Rome were still persisting and had not withdrawn.

Chen Aoyun did not focus his attention on these two countries but instead checked the total score ranking, "This is really strange. After this nightfall ended, my Dragon Country's total score remained unchanged, but Sakura Country's total score dropped by one point. What is going on?"

With two special targets, one white and one black, given Sakura Country's strength, they should always be able to take one down. Either take down the white one to prevent losing points, or take down the black one to make Dragon Country and Sakura Country lose points together. How could a situation arise where only Sakura Country lost points, while Dragon Country's total score remained unaffected? Chen Aoyun could not figure it out.

The persistence of Britain and Rome could not last forever. When the fifth twilight ended, these two countries were still holding on, but as time continued to move forward, by the time the sixth twilight arrived, the British were the first to be unable to hold on.

"There is no hardest special target to kill, only harder ones! Moreover, Russia and Sakura Country only lose one Tower at a time. I simply cannot keep up with this rate of Tower loss in Britain. No, we cannot continue to have points deducted like this. If we keep losing points, there will really be no way to play this Game of National Destiny later on!"

The British voluntarily withdrew after the sixth nightfall. Rome was not much more stubborn either. They persisted until the seventh time and also voluntarily withdrew with a sigh.

At this moment, only three countries remained on the field: Russia, the USA, and Sakura Country. According to the rules, when only three countries remain, the 'Final Wave' will be triggered!

At the same time, the rules for the Final Wave attack immediately appeared in the minds of the three countries' Strategists: [Final Wave Rules: 1. The intensity of the Wave Demons in the Final Wave is determined by the comprehensive score of the existing countries' Towers. 2. The number of demons is unlimited and will continue until only one country's crystal remains. 3. The intensity of the attacking demons will continuously increase over time, and they will no longer provide any resources after being killed. 4. Heroic Spirit Manifestation will no longer be usable in combat against demons. 5. All actions under twilight can be executed in the Final Wave.]

These were easy-to-understand rules. After Toslev informed Chen Aoyun of the rules, he even authorized Chen Aoyun to view the Tower scores. This authorization was earned by Chen Aoyun repeatedly providing popular science about Russian Heroic Spirits to Toslev, symbolizing the deepening of their personal friendship and also symbolizing that the two countries were moving towards a certain degree of alliance.

Chen Aoyun, granted the permission, looked at Russia's Towers. The so-called 'Tower score' is a score given based on the degree of Tower reinforcement. The limit for each country's Towers is twenty; after losing Towers and replacing them, the allocation of resources in the crystal kept the average reinforcement level of Russia's Towers at around 2000 points. One Tower scored 2000 points, so twenty Towers meant 40,000 points.

Chen Aoyun then looked at Sakura Country, which also had twenty Towers, with each Tower scoring around 1900 points, lower than Russia but not by much, with a comprehensive total score of 38,000.

The total score of the USA's Towers was much higher. When Russia and Sakura Country were mutually 'demolishing' each other, the USA only suffered one Tower destruction and had stayed out of it ever since, losing very few resources, so its comprehensive Tower score was close to 50,000!

However, the current scores were not the limit for each country; there were still quite a few resources left in the three countries' crystals that could be used to reinforce the Towers.

After listening carefully to Toslev's introduction of the rules, Chen Aoyun suggested, "The rules say: [All actions under twilight can be executed in the Final Wave]. That means, just as one can place Heroic Spirits under twilight to destroy the opponent's Towers, one can do the same in the Final Wave! So, do not use the remaining resources in the crystal to reinforce the Towers anymore! Save all the resources for the Heroic Spirit Manifestation to destroy Sakura Country's Towers!"

Chen Aoyun's suggestion not only stood from the perspective of Dragon Country but also aligned with the interests of Russia. According to the Final Wave rules, Heroic Spirit Manifestation could no longer be used against demons, so the remaining resources in the crystal had only two uses: either to reinforce the Towers or to place Heroic Spirits to destroy Sakura Country's Towers. Reinforcing the Towers was not cost-effective; even if all remaining resources in the crystal were used to reinforce the Towers, the Towers' combat power would not increase by much. On the contrary, using the remaining resources to destroy Sakura Country's Towers was the most cost-effective for Russia.

In any case, the USA's Tower strength was already far ahead, so the USA would likely be first in this scene. If they couldn't win first, they should secure second place! Since Russia and Sakura Country could mutually destroy each other's Towers, the Sakura people would definitely take action, and Russia would just have to pay them back in kind. Chen Aoyun's thoughts were almost identical to Toslev's.

However, just as the two of them decided to reserve the resources in the remaining crystals, the USA and Sakura Country made a move that neither Chen Aoyun nor Toslev could understand: these two countries used almost every bit of the remaining resources in their crystals to reinforce their Towers!

Soon, the comprehensive score of the USA's Towers reached a terrifying 55,000 points. And Sakura Country was even more exaggerated; after some reinforcement, its total score actually reached 52,000 points!

"They just used up the remaining resources in the crystal like that? Also, the USA is one thing; the USA's Towers were only dismantled once, so a high Tower score is normal. What is going on with Sakura Country? Sakura Country's Towers just scored 38,000, and it jumped to 52,000 all of a sudden! Where did they get so many resources?" Toslev was completely dumbfounded.

Likewise, Chen Aoyun, who was on the side, was also completely unable to figure out the situation. When did Sakura Country store so many resources in the crystal? Where did so many resources come from? Also, among these two countries, not to mention the USA, just talking about Sakura Country. Sakura Country used up all the resources in the crystal just like that; does this mean they don't intend to use Heroic Spirits to destroy Russia's Towers?

At this moment, Saku Kenichi on the opposite side finally spoke, not to Chen Aoyun, but looking at Toslev, he said, "Toslev, you really have hired a good consultant! True Martial Heroic Spirit, corresponding to war. Is this the rule your consultant analyzed regarding how to destroy Towers? Wrong, completely wrong! What can truly destroy Towers is the locking of a 'War Pretext'!"

Toslev: "What do you mean?" Saku Kenichi: "Still haven't understood? To destroy another country's Towers, you rely on a 'pretext', not some Heroic Spirit Manifestation! This is a hidden rule. I sensed the existence of this rule as soon as this scene began. It was just a sense; the specific content needed to be tested. That's why the USA lost a Tower at the very beginning. The reason I chose the USA and not your Russia is because this rule is a two-way testing rule. The side that actively tests it will get one part of the rule's content, and the country that passively accepts having its Towers destroyed can learn the other part of the rule's content!"

"The rule content my Sakura Country obtained was about how to destroy Towers. And the rule the USA obtained was the restrictions on destroying Towers. When the two of us pieced the rules together, there was a clear and definite direction on how to destroy Towers. But it wasn't enough for us alone to know the rules; we also had to make you get the wrong rules. This was the difficult part. How was this difficulty overcome... The answer lies in the reinforcement of the Towers! Your Russia, when reinforcing Towers, only knows how to reinforce the Towers' lethality. But I, not only reinforced the efficiency of the Towers in collecting resources, but also reinforced other functions of the Towers, one of which was the ability to make the Towers feign destruction!"

"Here I must compliment the consultant you invited, Chen Aoyun. I have to say, this consultant of yours has a sharp mind. Following his line of thought and testing it bit by bit, one would definitely be able to test out the truth of this rule. However..."

Chen Aoyun stepped forward, his face cold, and said, "However, you misled me!"

Saku Kenichi gave a thumbs up, as if praising, but his eyes were full of smugness, "Yes, I misled you. You suspected that destroying Towers had to do with the Heroic Spirit Manifestation; to be honest, I also had such a guess. However, after I made such a wrong guess, I was able to get real and effective feedback. And you, you also got feedback, but the feedback you saw was the feedback I disguised using the Tower's ability. With the wrong feedback, you didn't continue to try. Your understanding of the rules remained at the wrong point!"

Saku Kenichi's posture as a victor was disgusting, but Chen Aoyun still had many things he didn't understand. " 'War Pretext'? You mean to say that destroying Towers relies on a 'War Pretext'. Can I understand it this way: whatever wars occurred between Sakura Country and Russia in the Old Era, one can use these wars as a pretext to destroy a Tower under the previous twilight?"

Saku Kenichi nodded, and Chen Aoyun continued to ask, "Then why are you voluntarily telling me this rule now? You, Sakura Country, can use war pretexts, and Toslev can use them just the same. You used all your remaining resources to reinforce your Towers; aren't you afraid that in a moment, when the Final Wave starts, Russia will use the same pretexts to destroy your Sakura Country's Towers? Hiss... I understand. Could it be that a 'pretext' can only be used once? Once you, the Sakura people, have used it, Russia cannot use it again! So that's why you aren't worried that Russia will use these pretexts to destroy your Sakura Country's Towers in the next phase! Understood, I almost understand everything... but there are many details I'm still not clear about. There are five minutes left until the start of the Final Wave. You think you have victory in your grasp; shall we discuss it further?"

Chen Aoyun looked at Saku Kenichi; he had already roughly grasped the other party's methods, but he still had quite a few questions: First, at the beginning of this scene, Saku Kenichi had sensed that there was a rule related to 'destroying Towers'. This was question one. In the pre-tasks, Sakura Country's ranking was not as high as Russia's; why could you, the Sakura people, sense a rule that even Russia could not? Saku Kenichi's answer was: "Strategist special ability"!

Never having heard of a Strategist skill that allows [Strategist] to sense the existence of rules, Chen Aoyun couldn't help but suspect that Saku Kenichi's ability was related to the otherworld ability he obtained in the last Game of National Destiny. He continued to reason. The Sakura people and the USA people cooperated with each other, and after figuring out the truth about destroying Towers, they started to find ways to mislead Russia.

Just as Saku Kenichi mentioned earlier, Chen Aoyun's reasoning was on the same or a similar path as Saku Kenichi's, but the Sakura people used wrong feedback to stop Chen Aoyun from finding the real rule. And it was precisely because Chen Aoyun misunderstood the rules that those trajectories shot by Toslev using Heroic Spirit Manifestation did not actually hit the Sakura people's Towers. The collapse of the Sakura people's Towers was just an illusion; the Sakura people never wasted resources by constantly building new Towers, which explains why the Sakura people had so many resources left in the crystal, enough to pull the comprehensive score from 3.8 to 5.2 all at once. It also explains why Toslev felt like he 'missed the target' every time.

Up to this point, Chen Aoyun still had many questions. How did Saku Kenichi confirm which step his guess about the Tower-destroying rule had reached? Saku Kenichi 'generously' gave an answer, "Because I wrote an entry into Russia's Towers, an entry related to 'monitoring/controlling' ability. So, under the nightfall, all your conversations were heard clearly by me. I knew when to act, how to act, and how to make Russia's Towers cooperate with me in acting! Do you know why I didn't clear a single special target in Sakura Country every time twilight fell? That's because I could control one of Russia's Towers for a short time! I briefly placed my Sakura Country's Heroic Spirit on Russia's Tower! The Tower that Russia shot its trajectory at, according to the wrong rules, shouldn't have had any response. But I had to let you see feedback, and I had to guard against a smart guy like you realizing the rules were wrong and continuing to look for the truth of the rules, right? So, every time twilight arrived, Sakura Country would not use Heroic Spirit Manifestation to deal with special targets. Sakura Country's Heroic Spirit Manifestation was used by me on Russia's Towers!"

No wonder, no wonder Chen Aoyun had always been very strange about why Dragon Country's total score had never changed, had not decreased. It turned out to be for this reason... Saku Kenichi seemed to really enjoy this process of revealing the truth, "You should still have many questions. There are three minutes left until the Final Wave starts; you can continue to ask. The more and more detailed you ask, the more you will know how ridiculous you were when being played by me..."