"Respected Administrator, taking up your time amidst your busy schedule, on behalf of the Brahma Province Theater Headquarters Staff, I respectfully submit this report on our recent work.
"In accordance with your instructions, while assisting the Brahma Province resistance forces in building a modernized army, we have established a relatively comprehensive air defense system in the region. Although aircraft from West Sail Port have launched frequent air raids on Tiandu over the past several months, their impact on our strategy and infrastructure has been kept to an absolute minimum.
"In addition, weapons and radio equipment continually delivered to the front lines have reversed the arms shortages among the Brahma Province nations, significantly boosting the training level and combat effectiveness of their units. Initially, under equal equipment conditions, the Brahma Army needed a century of a hundred men just to pin down a ten-man squad of Legion regulars. Now, they have become proficient in the mobile warfare tactics we taught them, reducing the manpower needed to pin down an attacking Legion squad from company-sized to platoon-sized.
"Currently, the military situation in Brahma Province has shifted from strategic defense into strategic stalemate. Our forces and all allied units have begun to see the dawn of victory.
"However, while there is much optimistic news to report, it is undeniable that our units are still far from launching a formal strategic counteroffensive.
"Just as we have grown familiar with the Southern Legion's tactics, they too are adapting to our offensive and defensive maneuvers. This includes utilizing fortified lines to halt our infiltrations and flanking thrusts, coordinated with concentrated artillery fire to wipe out our effective strength.
"It is undeniable that our numerical disadvantage is a critical shortcoming our forces cannot ignore; when we try to trade time for space, the enemy adopts tactics that stretch the front line, magnifying our weakness.
"On the other hand, although the coalition forces of the Brahma Province nations have improved their combat effectiveness and weathered the most difficult period of resource shortages, their offensive capabilities remain lacking despite their adequate defense. According to casualty reports from frontline units, the exchange ratio during offensive operations is twice or even three times worse than in defensive actions.
"Furthermore, severe internal divisions plague the various nations of Brahma Province. Not only are there entrenched rival factions, but infighting, backstabbing, and factional purges have continued without pause—a trend that has become particularly pronounced since the fall of the Heavenly Palace.
"Besides this, as the war drags on, signs of armament upgrades have emerged within the Legion. At first, they had only two jet fighters, but now more and more new aircraft are appearing in the skies above Brahma Province. On top of that, laser-guided munitions and artillery shells equipped with electronic seeker heads have also entered the field.
"We initially assessed that the Legion's offensive would lose momentum after the loss of their airships, but it now appears we underestimated their fighting will. In fact, the loss of those airships actually accelerated their equipment upgrades and tactical modernization.
"More and more exoskeletons and guided weapons are showing up on the front lines, including small arms built with new receiver designs. Considering the Southern Legion's industrial manufacturing capacity and the colonies supplying raw materials, if this continues over the long term, the course of the war could very well turn against us.
"Therefore, I sincerely propose opening a second front in the Southern Legion's colonies or homeland.
"...Your loyal General Vannus, September 1st."
Inside the Alliance Building in Dawn City, Chu Guang carefully finished reading this report sent back from the front line.
Although he had consistently followed posts on the forum to keep track of details in the Brahma Province war, Vannus's report provided him with a distinctly different perspective.
In fact, not long after the war began, there had already been a debate on the forum regarding whether the Alliance should open a second front.
Those in favor had their reasons—for instance, arguing that rather than striking at Legion supply lines, it would be better to bomb their homeland straight back into the Stone Age.
Meanwhile, those opposed presented sound arguments as well: invading the Southern Legion's homeland was effectively declaring war on the entire Legion, which would not only trigger mutual defense pacts within the Legion, but also likely unite the deeply divided factions of the Legion once more.
That would be equivalent to doing the enemy's war mobilization for them, completely transforming their internal strife into an external conflict.
In truth, Chu Guang leaned toward the latter view.
It wasn't just because of the arguments raised by the majority of players in those debates, but largely because he held another intelligence report regarding the Southern Legion's colonies.
For example, thousands of kilometers away in Evernight Port, a massive upheaval was brewing.
Although he couldn't rule out the possibility that the players had exaggerated parts of it, this war had at least awakened a portion of the Wilante people—
They were aboard a runaway train.
This train was fueled by their own flesh and blood, yet it wasn't taking them toward utopia; instead, it was hurtling toward a bottomless abyss, crushing all their finest qualities—loyalty, valor, generosity, and fearlessness—into dust.
In this war filled with lies and deception, the Wilantes gained nothing except more Centurions and Myriarchs riding on their necks.
And the other ethnic groups oppressed by the Wilantes were gradually moving from persecuting one another toward unity.
Under these circumstances, waiting and watching might be the better course of action.
After pondering the report for a long time, Chu Guang looked at Xiao Qi, who was sitting on the pen holder.
"Xiao Qi, send a reply email for me. Say... tactically speaking, it's a solid proposal, but from a strategic standpoint, now is not the time."
"Understood!" Xiao Qi nodded energetically. Blue light flickered gently in her pupils, and she promptly dispatched the drafted reply to the frontline command post in Brahma Province.
Information infrastructure was part of infrastructure as well.
Over the past six months, construction teams at Port French Fries had used "Electric Ray" unmanned surface vessels and "Crab" amphibious engineering armor to lay undersea cables all the way from Port French Fries to Golden Gallon Port.
Dawn City's communication with the Southern Sea and the Polo Sea coast no longer relied on telegraphs; real-time data transmission was now possible.
Once more cables were laid, channel bandwidth increased, and a few more servers built to expand computing power, setting up a local area network similar to the Endpoint Cloud wouldn't be out of reach.
Reviewing Vannus's report was the final task for today.
Looking out the window at the late hour, Chu Guang stretched comfortably, pushed back his chair, and stood up from his desk, intending to knock off work and stroll along the commercial street to the north.
A new shopping mall called "Night City" had recently opened there.
Reportedly, several lifestyle profession players had modeled it after department stores from reality, blending in Ideal City's holographic and light-pollution technology to design a cyberpunk-style complex.
Goblin Bank had provided loans for those newbies' creative venture, and today that avant-garde commercial plaza had become a new landmark of Dawn City's North Street, drawing visitors from Ideal City who made special trips just to check it out.
Once upon a time, the most eye-catching landmark in Dawn City was the Ideal Hotel, built with investment from the Ideal Group. But now, that skyscraper hotel was gradually being overshadowed by new landmarks sprouting up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
This was not entirely the players' doing; countless survivors influenced by the players had contributed their own efforts as well.
Although the work of ending the Wasteland Era remained a long and arduous journey, the residents of Dawn City were truly living good lives now.
Seeing the transformations sweeping across this land, Chu Guang felt deeply gratified.
Thanks to this, he was getting off work earlier and earlier, with far fewer matters demanding his direct, hands-on attention than before.
If the Alliance long ago had been a child unable to leave his side, now, even if he suddenly vanished, this colossal machine could continue running on its own momentum for a long time... until a new individual worthy of the title Administrator emerged.
And as the "father" of the Alliance, his task for the next stage was abundantly clear—
He had to remove the last vulnerability from his child.
What his child needed was not an "heir" or a "stepfather," but to grow from a vibrant youth into a true, self-reliant adult capable of standing tall between heaven and earth.
If one day, even in his absence, the youth of the Alliance could hold their heads high and continue marching forward instead of waiting around for his return, then he would have achieved true success.
Otherwise, they would become just another form of the Legion.
In a sense, Triumph City was indeed like a mirror to Dawn City, presenting another "possibility" for the people of the Alliance.
This was something Chu Guang had realized suddenly one day.
Julius, from a century and a half ago, had essentially been himself under a different origin.
Especially after truly understanding the history of the Wilantes, he developed a fresh perspective and appreciation for the man revered by the Wilantes as the Marshal.
Putting aside their different eventual paths, the dilemmas and circumstances they faced had many parallels.
And the consequences of different choices had already been demonstrated by that Marshal—a demonstration that reverberated even a century and a half later.
The same was true of Boulder City's first castellan...
Just then, a knock at the door broke Chu Guang's train of thought.
He glanced toward the entrance and saw Yin Fang standing in the open doorway, clutching a folder, looking as though he had something to discuss.
"Did I interrupt your departure?"
Seeing Yin Fang teasing him, Chu Guang chuckled.
"Since when do I have fixed hours? Speak your mind."
Yin Fang didn't beat around the bush. Entering the room, he handed the document to Chu Guang and reported succinctly:
"In short, it's good news. The gravity well in the Southern Sea has finished deployment, using the same system tested previously in Tiandu of Brahma Province... Er, although the deployment of the device in Brahma Province wasn't completely flawless, the Academy assured us that this time it's practically guaranteed to work."
Chu Guang's expression turned quizzical.
"What do you mean, 'practically guaranteed'?"
Yin Fang gave a subtle, helpless look.
"Because... while we've solved the issue of dragging space junk down to the surface, there's no way to know exactly what's floating up there or what will be pulled down by the gravity well. And don't forget, that weapon is also up in the sky. You know what I'm talking about, right?"
Chu Guang nodded.
Of course he knew.
Yin Fang was referring to the strategic weapon deployed in orbital space.
It was the final legacy left behind by the Post-War Reconstruction Committee for the settlements it once governed. Supposedly, a single strike was enough to annihilate a settlement of over a million people.
Collecting himself, Yin Fang continued:
"In fact, according to the research report from the Scientific Expedition's Astronomical Observation Department, when we first activated the gravity well, the device already had an unpredictable impact on the orbital paths of spacecraft in outer space... Given how the Academy folks usually operate, I'm worried they have ulterior motives."
Chu Guang mused, "You mean... 'disarmament'?"
"That's one of my concerns." Watching the thoughtful Chu Guang, Yin Fang paused briefly before continuing, "As for the second, why didn't the Academy try deploying it on their own turf, instead of placing it on ours? The Wandering Marsh has plenty of uninhabited areas, and relative to the ocean, the ecological risks there are far more controllable."
Ecological risks, really...
It was already the Wasteland Era; did anyone still worry about that?
Chu Guang didn't tease Yin Fang for overthinking, however, asking seriously instead:
"So why do you think they did it?"
Yin Fang smiled wryly and shook his head.
"I don't know either. But precisely because of that, I can't help worrying whether there are risks the Academy hasn't disclosed to us. You know how those guys do things; they love using others as lab rats."
This wasn't just his concern as the Alliance's chief researcher, but also his lingering apprehension as a former grassroots explorer for the Academy.
Chu Guang's expression grew serious.
"Is there any direct evidence to substantiate that?"
Yin Fang shook his head.
"Unfortunately, no. Anti-gravity was already bleeding-edge technology before the war, and literature on gravity wells never went beyond theoretical conjecture. All signs indicate this is Singularity-tier technology the Academy only broke through with during the Wasteland Era... for their Project Ark to reach a new world."
When mentioning this, Yin Fang looked rather embarrassed.
As a former Academy researcher, he used to be the one complaining about the Academy the most, constantly criticizing them for lacking ambition.
Yet in truth, they hadn't been stagnant at all; they had simply kept their progress and achievements hidden away.
With the Academy's stringent classification system, a D-rank researcher had zero chance of accessing such cutting-edge technology—they wouldn't even know it existed.
Of course, whether such a system was reasonable was another matter entirely.
Chu Guang spent even longer deliberating this time than he had over Vannus's report. Yin Fang didn't rush him, waiting quietly for his thoughts.
"Could there be another possibility... that the Academy itself doesn't know the consequences of this choice?"
Yin Fang was taken aback.
"They... don't know either?"
Chu Guang nodded and continued:
"Perhaps testing this technology is simply part of their exploration of the unknown. I'm more inclined to believe they're crossing the river by feeling the stones as well. After all, as you said, they had every capability to do it secretly in the Wandering Marsh, leaving us to watch our trump card fall from the sky without ever knowing what happened."
This trump card wasn't just the Alliance's, but naturally included those of the Enterprise and even the Legion.
Chu Guang had reason to believe Triumph City possessed similar strategic weapons as a guarantee of mutually assured destruction.
Chu Guang's words left Yin Fang at a loss.
He turned it over in his mind for a good while, unable to formulate a counterargument.
Pausing a moment, Chu Guang smiled and continued:
"Your concerns aren't unfounded, but I also feel there's no need for us to be paranoid about them. It doesn't hurt to trust them this once."
Yin Fang's expression turned incredulous, and he couldn't help asking:
"Trust the Academy? Are you serious?"
Chu Guang nodded.
"Trying to trust doesn't mean blindly accepting everything. They showed a degree of sincerity, proactively brought out things we'd never seen before, and did us a huge favor. Even if just for courtesy's sake, we shouldn't treat them unfairly.
"If you think about it, those guys may have sharp tongues, hold petty grudges, and always speak in half-truths, but they aren't inherently malicious. Aside from a few initial frictions when we first met, they haven't done anything truly detrimental to us.
"Since that's the case, why not give it a shot? Building trust while we're still in the same boat is far less risky than trying to build trust after they've jumped ship."
The Academy needed to draw upon its technological reserves to construct a starship capable of conducting interstellar colonization, while the Alliance needed to rebuild the bridge connecting sky and earth.
At least for now, the interests of both sides aligned; there couldn't be a better opportunity.
Yin Fang looked at Chu Guang in astonishment, his expression complicated.
"'Not inherently malicious,' huh... That's the first time I've ever heard someone describe the Academy that way."
In the eyes of the vast majority of wastelanders, the Academy was an enigmatic entity.
Fear of the unknown is an innate biological instinct, and precisely because of that shroud of mystery, most wastelanders regarded the Academy even less favorably than they did the Wilantes, harboring no warmth whatsoever toward Academy researchers.
This was true even though the Academy's positive impact on the wasteland far surpassed that of the Legion, which was dedicated to spreading slavery, or the Enterprise, which had dispatched only a single Pioneer to the wasteland in a hundred years.
Though Yin Fang had mocked his former employer plenty of times himself, hearing an outsider actually offer a positive appraisal of the Academy left him with decidedly mixed feelings.
Seeing Yin Fang's conflicted look, Chu Guang chuckled.
"Don't look at me like that. It was your old home, after all, and your friction with them never reached the point of blood feuds."
Pausing, Chu Guang added:
"Besides, I plan to visit the Southern Sea again. If an unexpected mishap occurs there, I can handle it in person."
Yin Fang managed a slight smile.
"...Let's go together then. I happen to need to head there as well. When do you leave?"
Chu Guang glanced at the schedule on his holographic computer and, seeing nothing planned for the next few days, said:
"The day after tomorrow."
"The day after tomorrow?" Yin Fang blinked, hesitating. "Isn't that a bit early? According to the experiment logs provided by the Academy, the gravity well's first trial run won't start until the end of the month."
"It's not early, and I'm not going south solely for that gravity well anyway." Seeing the surprise written all over Yin Fang's face, Chu Guang gave a faint smile. "The railway to Haiya Province has been operational for a while now. This time, I won't take a plane or an airship; I plan to take the train.
"If you're in a hurry, you don't have to tag along."
He had heard that the changes in the south were even more astonishing than those in Dawn City.
At any rate, even without his personal micro-management, his little players and subordinates were doing splendidly.
Chu Guang intended to give himself a vacation, to go take a look at the places where he and his players had once fought...
Chapter 900