Book 6 Chapter 10.2 – World as the Enemy
Of all of the suzerains, Kebile, whose abilities were the most powerful, was the one who remained the most clear-headed, even though his eyes also carried inconcealable jealousy when the assistants’ abilities were raised.
“Lord, what are we to do next?” It was still Kebile who broke this suffocating silence.
“First, harvest all of the plantations, only leaving behind potatoes and corn. Gather all of the harvested goods and place them under heavy protection.” Su said. A rare laser pen was clasped in his hands, the red dot moving about on the continental map on the opposing wall, circling territories one after another.
The map was of Sun Empire’s northern borderland, to the north the great sea, to the south terrain that continuously rose until it reached the highland edge region. Meanwhile, what had been swept through by Su in one night, was a vast area of around a hundred thousand kilometers. Most of this region was covered by different rainforests, various types of mutated creatures, and of course, it didn’t lack native tribes. When all of these territories were totaled up, there were more than sixty thousand free residents, and over a million slaves.
To be a so-called free residents, the most basic requirement was to have more than ten evolutionary points in abilities, meaning that they had to possess double the strength of ordinary soldiers. Perhaps in a family, if one person reached the standard, then they could be considered to have reached the free social class. The caveat was that once the ability user in the family died, the family’s remaining individuals had three years of grace period. During these three years, if they couldn’t produce a new ability user, then all of them would be stripped of their free status.
On the real battlefield, combat strength wasn’t as simple as one plus one equals two. Under suitable terrain and tactics, it wasn’t uncommon for an elite with great fighting strength to defeat a group of similar leveled opponents. Killing a native army of several thousand, for an army of several hundred trained free residents, in this type of environment where weapon technology remained primitive, wasn’t an issue.
Abilities above all, importance of lineage, pyramid structure, dictatorships divided among suzerains, this was the full view of Sun Empire. Moreover, by relying on this ancient and cruel system, the amount of territory Sun Empire controlled far exceeded the Blood Parliament, unifying almost the entire southern continent.
Not much of the northern border’s land had been exploited. The close to a hundred territories had a thousand or so plantations of varying sizes, three hundred of which were temporarily brought under Su’s control. As for why the word ‘temporarily’ was used, it was because Su knew that all of the suzerains and assistants only vowed allegiance to him because of his power and mysteriousness. As long as he displayed the slightest bit of weariness or weakness in the battles to come, these fellas would immediately strike back.
However… Su thought coldly to himself, could there be no price to be paid after obtaining abilities from him? If those assistants, including Kebile whose ability stabilized because of Su, really dared to rebel, they would regret their decisions within a few seconds.
In the following few days, Su’s plan was to visit the territories one by one and harvest everything. The fruits that were originally to be respectfully offered up to Sun Empire would be completely digested, and then this energy would allow him to start constructing a perfect body, and not have this current system that only had a few primary functions. To describe using an analogy, right now, Su was like a skeleton, moreover one that was badly damaged and not whole.
The laser pointer moved, the red light landing on a certain region on the map. “Assemble fifty thousand slaves, have them construct a new army camp here within ten days. It needs to be able to hold two thousand soldiers.”
The suzerains and assistants silently remembered this. As for where they were going to get the slaves, how to allocate tasks, that was something they had to discuss among themselves. After a day and night of interaction, they more or less understood a bit about Su’s style, which was that he wouldn’t ask about the process, only caring about the results. As for constructing an army camp in ten days, this was an extremely simple task. In this era, army camps were extremely simple and crude; some tents and a few lookout posts, and it would already be enough to serve as a simple army camp.
“Assemble 1500 soldiers from all of the territories’ native armies, the ability requirements are as follows… allocation plan as follows… deadline for the armies from various territories to arrive is as follows…” Su gave out a series of precise and extremely detailed orders in an ice-cold voice, as if every territory’s, every soldier’s information was stored in his mind.
At this moment, everyone’s expressions changed. Even Kebile felt a misconception, doubting whether Su was a person or an ice-cold machine.
What left all of the suzerains horrified was that Su only visited their territories once during his attack, so how did he understand their armies’ soldiers and ability compositions better than themselves? However, there were still even more shocking things ahead.
“Conscript 500 individuals among the various territories’ free residents, the ability standards are as follows: type one, assault soldiers, ability compositions and weapon allocations… type two, long range snipers… type three, scouts… type four… the number of conscripted soldiers from each type are as follows… the quota distribution among each of the territories for conscription are as follows…”
The orders this time were precise down to the individual, many times, the ability users Su wanted were people whose names not even the suzerains knew, only knowing that this person existed in their territory, never expecting Su to mention them. The orders continued for ten minutes, the suzerains only barely managing to remember their own portion of contents. The assistants all began to record them one after another.
Memory and intelligence were like other abilities, rising along with the increase in ability levels. All individuals who wanted higher statuses had to be smarter, this line quite practical in Sun Empire.
While Su issued the orders, many of them developed a strange thought. In this part of the world, were there any secrets Su wasn’t aware of?
“That’s all. In ten days, at this time, have all of them gather in the newly constructed army camp.”
The suzerains and assistants left one after another, not remaining for too long. Su’s orders were precise and detailed, not leaving them much leeway in time. Even Kebile turned around to leave, his instructions not much more relaxed than the others.
The newly constructed camp stood right in between them and Maca City. When they thought about Su’s style, as well as this type of unique, offensive type army, it was abundantly clear what Su wished to do. However, Su didn’t set any confidentiality measures, allowing these suzerains who had only realigned allegiance two or three days ago to move freely, not worried that one of them might leak the secrets out to the empire’s viceroy.
Was it due to self-confidence, some type of conspiracy, or were there other reasons? This was something all of the suzerains and assistants were thinking in their heads. However, not a single one of them guessed at Su’s real reason.
Su hadn’t thought about any of that.
From the known intelligence’s analysis, Murray was going to be a strong enemy, definitely not like these suzerains who didn’t have the power to retaliate at all. However, based on his thought centers’ analysis, regardless of whether Murray knew about Su’s activity, or if he found out about it sooner or later, it wouldn’t have any effect on the end conclusion. Even if Murray won in the end, blasting Su into ashes, it wouldn’t affect the end result.
Su would regenerate, emerge again from the ruined sea, and then be swept onto the continent again. Su was endless, while Murray with his limited resources could only delay the result, unable to stop the ultimate conclusion.
Meanwhile, time, in the thought centers’ derivations, was a negligible factor.
