With the fall of Evernight Port, the joint forces of the Alliance and Enterprise officially opened a second front to invade the Southern Legion's colonies and even its homeland.
According to the plan, besides redeploying several major player corps from Brahma Province, the Alliance would also dispatch at least two hundred thousand troops to the front line.
Half of these two hundred thousand were Alliance citizens, while the other half consisted of people under supervised status and Wilante volunteers from various regions.
Not long ago, the Alliance Representative Council had passed a proposal to "raise the threshold for issuing identification cards," tightening the grant of Alliance citizenship.
In return, while closing one door, the Representative Council opened a window for those survivors who yearned to join the Alliance.
Any wastelander willing to fight to end the Wasteland Era could become an honored Alliance citizen, provided they served in the Alliance military with no major disciplinary violations during their term of service.
Though this was not the only fast track through the citizenship approval process, going to war was undoubtedly the most reliable option in the eyes of wastelanders, compared to first obtaining citizenship from Ideal City, the South Sea Alliance, the Academy, or the Science Committee, or completing advanced studies at designated research institutions and academies.
Fighting was what they did every single day on the wasteland. Some had even modified their own bodies for it, installing mechanical tendons, mantis blades, and similar gear.
And for the Alliance, military camps served as an excellent buffer zone.
Through militarized management along with literacy and vocational skills training during their service, the Alliance could help these wastelanders integrate into civilized society after their discharge at lower cost—at the very least teaching them discipline and equipping them with practical skills to survive in society.
However, while the vast majority of wastelanders enlisting did so for Alliance citizenship, not everyone was after the same goal.
Most members of the Wilante Expeditionary Force, for instance, fought simply to alter the fate of the wasteland and the Wilante people.
The changes in Golden Gallon Port hadn't merely shown the Brahma people of the red earth another possibility for the world; they had also influenced many Wilante from the Eastern Legion, the Southern Legion, and even the New Continent.
They had once engaged in the slave trade there.
Now, with the slave trade banned, Golden Gallon Port hadn't crumbled into ruin. Instead, it had become the brightest pearl on the Polo Sea.
And it wasn't just Golden Gallon Port.
Too many real-world examples had shown them hope that the Wasteland Era might finally come to an end.
And so they chose to pick up weapons and fight—to liberate their compatriots!
Apart from the force of over two hundred thousand dispatched by the Alliance, Enterprise would also reinforce the front line with at least eight more divisions.
Though the latter's troop commitment was far smaller than the former's, Enterprise was willing to shoulder greater economic and logistical burdens.
For example, the Council allocated funds, Alliance factories handled manufacturing, and the South Sea Alliance's fleet and transport ships delivered the materiel to the front lines.
The Alliance's factories were no longer the small workshops of the past.
While most of their factories still couldn't rival the mature assembly lines of Ideal City in sheer economies of scale, several of the Alliance's industrial parks had not only caught up with Enterprise's conglomerates in a few select fields after integrating various technologies and production methods, but had even begun to surpass them.
Particularly in the fields of drones and biopharmaceuticals.
Chu Guang was not particularly worried about the war at the front.
The Southern Legion today was like an earthworm severed in two. Having lost external support as well as the crucial hearts and minds of the people, its defeat was only a matter of time.
As the Administrator, he needed only to wait quietly in the rear for victory reports to roll in, while staying vigilant against any desperate gambits a cornered gambler might play.
By comparison, he was far more interested in the gravity well in the Southern Sea; that was what would truly open a window for this planet.
Chu Guang had even decided on the version number for the next game update.
Yet when the end of the month finally arrived, he received bad news from an old friend from the north.
"...The deployment of the gravity well will have to be postponed."
In the military camp outside Settlement 10.
Yang Kai, who had just disembarked from the research vessel, exchanged a few pleasantries before breaking the news to Chu Guang with a slightly awkward expression.
Hearing this, Chu Guang froze for two seconds. He didn't blame Yang Kai, merely asking with concern:
"Did a technical issue come up?"
Yang Kai shook his head.
"Not quite."
Chu Guang asked, "Then why...?"
Yang Kai continued:
"Our intelligence network received word that the Southern Legion high command is staking their hopes of turning the tide on a decisive weapon known as the 'Death Agent'... I imagine you've heard of it."
Chu Guang frowned slightly and nodded.
He had done far more than just hear of it. His Guards Corps had been investigating the matter all along. However, because the Southern Legion's counter-intelligence was competent and the Great Desert lay too far from the Alliance's core sphere of influence, progress had been slow.
Furthermore, to be frank, he harbored doubts as to whether the "Death Agent" could truly achieve its intended lethality.
The wasteland world differed from reality. The Wilante were not the only genetically modified beings on this planet; in theory, nearly all humans living here carried genetic alterations to varying degrees.
The widespread application of gene technology had subtly reshaped the human gene pool over time.
It had been an extensive, enduring process running through most of the Era of Prosperity, halting only when the Wasteland Era began.
It was merely that the modifications in ordinary humans were far less thorough than those of the Wilante.
Precisely because of this, many viruses that could wreak utter havoc on Earth amounted to little more than common influenza on the wasteland.
Staking his chances of victory on a virus made Chu Guang think Tyr had probably lost his mind.
Reading something from the expression on Chu Guang's face, Yang Kai continued:
"...I know what you're thinking. Yes, the vast majority of viruses on the wasteland are no longer lethal to descendants of the Era of Prosperity. But artificially engineered viruses are another matter entirely.
"Using technologies from the Era of Prosperity, they can design a virus tailored specifically against the remnants of that era—or to put it another way, a virus that only affects Old Humans, while having no effect, or only limited effect, on New Humans entirely created through gene-editing, like the Wilante and mutants!
"In that case, all they need to do is infect the Wilante with this virus, disperse those Wilante across the world, and then do nothing at all except watch as the demon's box opens and festers."
Worried that Chu Guang still didn't appreciate the gravity of the situation, Yang Kai patiently pressed on:
"Think about how the indigenous peoples of the New Continent died... I mean the natives of the old era. Less than one in a thousand died by gunpowder; the overwhelming majority were wiped out by viruses the colonizers brought from the Old World to the New. And now, they plan to do the exact same thing."
Yet that sounded far too far-fetched.
Chu Guang pondered for a moment and said:
"Is something like that even technically feasible? Effective only against everyone else, yet harmless to the Wilante?"
"As long as they obtain the Wilante genetic source code," Yang Kai replied, looking intently into his eyes. "And according to our intelligence... just in the past few days, the source code was transported to Avent City. Preparations for this decisive weapon have entered their final phase."
"So... you believe the laboratory for this Death Agent virus is in Avent City?" Chu Guang pinched the bridge of his nose and continued, "That differs somewhat from our intelligence. We believed the laboratories were distributed along the western coast of Brahma Province and across the Southern Legion's colonies in the southern reaches of the Great Desert."
Yang Kai said:
"There's no contradiction there. They could have numerous laboratories, with some collecting data on the front lines while others compile and analyze it in the rear. It's just like manufacturing an aircraft: you coordinate across multiple production lines before final assembly."
"I understand that, but what does any of this have to do with our gravity well project?" Chu Guang cast an inquiring look at Yang Kai. However, Yang Kai did not answer directly, merely staring at him without blinking.
After about ten seconds, Chu Guang suddenly read the unspoken answer in his gaze, and his eyes narrowed slightly.
"I see... You want to erase Avent City from the map?"
Activating the gravity well would alter the gravitational parameters in Earth's orbital vicinity, thereby interfering with the deployment of exo-atmospheric orbital weapons.
That was the only possible explanation.
The Academy was hinting—or rather, egging him on—hoping he would unleash the weapon inherited from Boulder City in a war that was already virtually won.
Yang Kai immediately leaned back in his chair and spread his hands to indicate he had never said such a thing, but quickly added:
"We must admit that neutron eradication is the most efficient method known to us... If this 'decisive weapon' is sealed into its final form and carried across the globe by countless Wilante departing Avent City, hundreds of millions of survivors will die."
Chu Guang stared at him intently.
"Avent City has over a million residents. Factor in the surrounding regions, and there are at least ten million people—and not all of them are Wilante."
"Yes, I know. It's not a great solution, but can you blame us? We've done everything in our power to recover those lost technologies... If this hadn't happened, we would never support your use of that sort of weapon in a war."
Yang Kai sighed and sat up straight.
Lacing his fingers over his knees, he looked sincerely at Chu Guang and continued:
"I hope you understand: this isn't a path we chose for them. They forfeited their right to exist as human beings on this planet themselves, so you needn't feel too guilty.
"I know making this choice isn't easy. To let one group live, another must die... That's why we hope you will consider it carefully before reaching a decision."
Having left these words, Yang Kai took hold of the chair armrests, stood up, offered a slight bow, and then left the barracks to return to the research vessel.
Chu Guang watched his retreating back, eyes narrowed, silent for a long time.
It was identical to the "Torch crisis" last time.
Whenever they couldn't make a decision or stomach pulling the trigger, these "old geezers" once again tossed a shit-smeared coin into his hand.
If there were definitive proof that this superweapon truly existed in Avent City, that would be one thing; history would give him a mixed verdict at worst.
Yet now, not only were there no solid leads, all he had was an ambiguous hint dropped by a Class-B researcher from the Academy. Those bastards weren't even giving him a chance to pass the buck.
If he really pressed that button, even if the Alliance ultimately won the war, it would likely plunge straight into another crisis.
Chu Guang had never witnessed that weapon's power firsthand, but from what he had heard described by various sources, the thing was vastly more formidable than nuclear weapons. It was said that not a single cell would survive at ground zero, and its strike depth could reach straight down into the mantle.
Then again, if the Academy truly had concrete intelligence rather than an airy "possibility," would they even need him to fire a map-wiping weapon?
Deploying a squad of paratroopers directly would be infinitely more efficient.
Moreover, no one could guarantee that the Legion lacked retaliatory strike capabilities if the Alliance used strategic weapons.
The Legion had merely disintegrated; it hadn't vanished.
Right now, Chu Guang was grateful for just one thing.
Fortunately, he still held a trump card in his hand.
Otherwise, this would truly be a thorny dilemma...
His index finger tapped gently against the chair's armrest. Closing his eyes, he sorted his thoughts for a moment before opening them again.
"Xiao Qi."
"Right here, Master!"
Her energetic voice rang out in his ear right away.
Chu Guang could feel that Xiao Qi was cheering him on in her own way.
Still, a matter like this wasn't enough to stump him.
With a faint smile, Chu Guang continued:
"Send a private message to [Battlefield Atmosphere Group].
"Tell him it's time for our 'Archon' to take the stage."
...
In the real world, inside an ordinary three-bedroom apartment.
Battlefield Guy, having just logged off, ordered takeout and sat before his computer, browsing the forums and laughing at rookies' hilarious misplays to spice up his meal.
Just as he was having a grand time, he suddenly noticed a little red dot appear on the PM icon.
Battlefield Guy didn't think much of it and clicked it open.
The moment he opened it, however, the message's contents gave him a tremendous shock.
"Holy shit?! You can do that?!"
[Quest:]
[Quest Description: Pushed to the brink, the Southern Legion has stolen the Wilante genetic source code stored in Triumph City and intends to develop a virus named the "Death Agent," wiping all survivors other than the Wilante from the face of the earth as a decisive weapon against the civilized world.
Should the Southern Legion's plot succeed, hundreds of millions of survivors are projected to perish under their scheme.
To prevent the worst-case scenario from unfolding, the South Sea Alliance fleet is advancing toward Avent City, and the Alliance's orbital weapons are currently en route for deployment, ready to carry out final reckoning at any moment.]
[Quest Objective: At all costs, stop the Southern Legion's plan before events progress past the point of no return!]
Chapter 933