“They will either try to kill us all and if that does not seem to work, opting to directly rush for the Dungeon Core is an option for them. We have a second contingency plan for exactly that kind of situation.” Qiu Yue continued.
At that point in time, Moloch could not help but get a broad grin on his face and take over: “The System has not only finished analysing the aura of Wolte’s broken Dungeon Core but also able to replicate and emit a similar magical signature. This way, we’re able to place a fake Dungeon Core in every non essential floating platform. Meanwhile, we’ll be hiding the real one underwater and suppressing its own signal, forcing them to split up their armies.”
“But knowing King Baal, he will eventually realise what we’re doing and split the sea open to get back the Dungeon Core, even though it means little to him.”
“Still, that lesson will come at a heavy price.” Commander Zieg of the Dark Templars commented. “All the demons we kill will essentially become our backbone against those pesky rats in the Farming World. Thus, the Dark Templars will place their life to cut down as many recruits as possible for the next upcoming war.”
Wolte added that Zieg and the Dark Templars were able to learn how to operate the Sherman Tanks built from Hou Fei’s blueprints. But unlike the one used in the Goblin World, the current iteration of Sherman Tanks was vastly improved by Ayse with the aid of Lost Tech. And she wasn’t the only one who had been tinkering with these vehicles. As the Lead Researcher, Ayse had ordered Weslie, the inventor of Steam Tech, to use her past designs to readjust the barrels and firepower output.
In fact, they believed the new version of Sherman Tanks were as powerful as the modern Leopard Tanks that Hou Fei’s troops were using. Thus, Ayse decided to change the name of the tank for dramatic effect to Sherman Tank EX… However, the Dark Templars had no interest in following her example and called them Shermies instead. (Especially when Wolte demanded them to treat their tanks as their wives or husbands.)
“Will the domes break apart if King Baal really does split open the sea?” Jin could not fathom the cost of repairing the domes and the buildings on them. “What if he used some world wrecking magic and destroyed everything that we had built so far?”
“That is where the emergency barrier comes in.” Moloch offered, but Jin was not convinced.
“That might work one time, but what if he’s able to cast it more than once? How can we prevent that? Judging from how Moloch had been describing him, I believe he’ll be hell bent on getting it before deciding to destroy everything else. It will be folly for us to make him invade the underwater domes.” Jin commented, and everyone fell silent for a while. To an extent, Qiu Yue had been optimistic that it would not devolve into such a scenario. Still, Jin did not share such sentiments, especially after his minion’s encounter with Queen Mab.
“To be honest, it was – erm – a little hard to plan the defences if we need to take in all sorts of encounters. At some point, we have to make plans for what we can reasonably expect to deal with… ” Qiu Yue tried to make an excuse on the spot, but she could see that Jin was not too pleased with the answer.
“Never mind. We still have five days, right?” Jin asked for clarification and Moloch nodded his head. “Make a makeshift fortress dome and place it at the highest floating platform. Rig it in a way that if our defences fail us, the platform will automatically explode and smash into our city’s ocean surface.” Jin said but suddenly stop in his tracks.
“No wait, devise a method to manually activate the detonation if needed just in case of something unforeseen happens. Like you know, some bat shit crazy elite jumps straight for the dungeon core, skipping every defence we have in place. Also, station the Deep Ones and Mr Derpy on sea patrol duty and we’ll let time decide what will happen.” Jin commanded.
“I see…” Kraft got where this was going after hearing Jin’s suggestion. “By doing that, you’re distracting King Baal from the underwater cities, and instead he’ll assume that all you have are the floating platforms. So, he’ll most likely either create a path straight to the dome defence platform. Or perhaps destroy the rest of the floating platforms and drop them into the sea for a massive amount of land to reach the dome. In that case, might I suggest to have more of these failsafe devices to increase our chances that he might not catch onto it.”
“Maybe, he has some pesky giant that will drag the dome to the shore for him.” Ayse theorised, and both Demon Lords thought about it for a second to see if it was probable.
“You guys get the idea, and we will use that emergency barrier on magic spells that focus on destroying our cities in the sea. Ayse, prepare a sort of floatation device for the Fortress Golems so they can still work if they drop down into the ocean. If need be, drag Rei and Weslie into the picture.”
“That’s rather demanding, but I like the idea of reducing our losses. Don’t want our golems to be mere deadweights once out of their guard posts. I will get to it.” Ayse waved her hand, and she was teleported out of the war room. After she left, Half Ghoul Lord Derek wished to add his opinion into the whole defence operation.
“While I do agree that Jin’s idea is fantastic in cutting losses, we cannot discount the preparations that Qiu Yue did for the Sea City Domes. It’s best to prepare for the worst of the worst. If Jin’s plan is insufficient in delaying the army to retreat, because realistically speaking, we cannot defeat them all, I will like to suggest one more contingency plan…or rather the backup of all backups.”
“Then I believe you already have a suggestion in mind?” Jin queried with much curiosity. He too knew his plan could only buy his defenders that much time.
“I assume all of us must be aware that Mr Derpy is a fragment of a God in their world. However, I doubt anyone has ever seen how powerful he was exactly, and that made me curious about his abilities. He never had the chance to showcase his powers to the fullest at almost every junction. But as part of the third contingency plan and Jin’s introduction of Mr Derpy as part of the sea patrol, I can safely say we should continue with Qiu Yue’s defence plan with the aid of Mr Derpy.”
“You’ve been able to get a grasp of his powers?” Qiu Yue asked as she tried pressing for it and yet he did not wish to divulge any information on it.
“I happened to have a glimpse of knowledge, and when I confronted him with it, he made me sign a pact not to reveal anything. However, that can’t stop me from recommending him for the third contingency plan. All I can ask is for you all to trust him.” Derek pleaded, and Jin was not too comfortable with it. Leaving everything to an unknown variable left a bad taste in his mouth since there was enough of it on the current table.
“Does User wish for the System to enforce the Loyalty order on Derek to make him tell you everything? As of now, the Monster App remained censored at the request of the monster.” The System spoke out loud for everyone to hear as if it was a reminder of who was in charge of the area.
It however made Jin stunned for a moment before he shook his head.
“We all have some secrets of our own. Even I sometimes kept things from my colleagues or minions. It would be hypocritical for me to demand you to be completely transparent while I wasn’t. So, I say it’s fair game. Fine, I will leave the third contingency plan to you, Derek. Please do not disappoint any of us. Qiu Yue, please work in what I’ve designed and help Derek revise the third contingency later. Please get back to me afterwards. For now, dismissed.” Jin said, and everyone quickly returned to do their respective work except for Hou Fei who had been waiting to speak with the dungeon supplier.
