Chapter 387: War Preparedness Meeting!
A hundred miles outside Wu Shuang City, the Undead Army led by Undead General - Dragon Slayer Budavich was stationed there.
After the World Barrier was breached by the Undead, as an important force in the World background, the Undead were preparing to launch a war to plunder land.
Wu Shuang City, this was the important City that Budavich's Undead Legion was preparing to capture.
As a City, Wu Shuang City was rich in resources. Once captured, it would hold great strategic significance for the Undead in taking down the Dragon Flame Empire.
Wu Shuang City is currently undergoing intensive preparation work, and the City Lord's Mansion is holding war preparedness meetings every day.
As a newly promoted City under the jurisdiction of Wu Shuang City, Zhushen City and its City Lord Li Xiang were also among those invited.
From a geographical perspective, the Undead Army was located west of Wu Shuang City, while Zhushen City was located east of Wu Shuang City. Once Wu Shuang City was breached, Zhushen City would be next.
Zhushen City possessed no strength whatsoever to resist the Undead Army.
That day, Li Xiang and Lu Qingshui attended the meeting as the City Lord and Deputy City Lord of Zhushen City.
At the conference table, besides the two players Li Xiang and Lu Qingshui, there were no other players. All were NPCs, high-ranking officials from the second-tier Cities under Wu Shuang City's jurisdiction.
Soon, the last NPC City Lord also arrived. He Denlong glanced around, his gaze lingering on Li Xiang for a moment. Li Xiang nodded slightly in greeting.
The meeting began.
He Denlong spoke, "This Undead attack is a huge challenge for our Wu Shuang City. The eyes of the entire World are on us."
"If we win, it will be a great example for forces resisting the Undead worldwide. If we lose, the consequences will be unimaginable."
Deputy City Lord Wang Tianba spoke, "Currently, based on our reconnaissance, the number of troops in the Undead Army is around ten million..."
Upon hearing this number, all the City Lords present gasped and felt a deep sense of despair.
Ten million troops... this was a massive force that Wu Shuang City simply could not withstand.
Wang Tianba continued, "Because our Wu Shuang City has been a City for a relatively short time, our military strength has not kept up with the war preparedness state of a true City. We can only field a million troops."
A million... against ten million...
With a nine-fold difference in troop strength, it looked like a crushing defeat and losing the City was inevitable...
He Denlong spoke, "I didn't ask you to come here to feel despair, but for us to think of a way together. If Wu Shuang City is breached, once this gap is opened, it will be a disaster for the entire Dragon Flame Empire."
"Your families, the citizens of the entire country, will not have a life..."
Everyone fell silent.
The Undead's goal was to conquer the entire World. They wouldn't be content to stop fighting after taking one City.
If they gained the initial victory, they would only continue to snowball this advantage. When the snowball grew large enough to crush the Dragon Flame Empire, the Dragon Flame Empire would cease to exist...
An Empire, a colossus like this, might seem indestructible, but it was actually very fragile.
Large represented bloat, represented slow reaction...
"City Lord He, when will the Empire's reinforcements arrive? How many troops are being sent?"
He Denlong replied, "Five million troops have already set off today, but it will take at least a week to reach Wu Shuang City."
"Within this week, if the Undead launch an attack... we will only be able to resist with our own strength."
A City Lord spoke up, "With such a large number of Undead troops, issuing orders and organizing for war shouldn't be that fast..."
Li Xiang spoke up, "No... the small-scale battles the Undead launched against our Cities and towns during the early period of their resurgence were them probing our strength."
"From that time onwards, they were already organizing their army..."
"Now... with just one command from the Undead King, Budavich will immediately lead the great army to attack Wu Shuang City..."
Li Xiang's words mercilessly shattered the illusions in the minds of the many City Lords present.
He Denlong looked at Li Xiang with approval.
This was not a time for illusions, but a time of life and death. Any illusion would lead their side into a bottomless abyss.
"The City Lord of Zhushen City is right. The Undead Army had already started preparing back then. It was precisely because we sensed the crisis that Wu Shuang City was able to train a million troops capable of going to war in such a short time."
Many City Lords fell silent. One of them spoke up, "Since we discovered the Undead Army was preparing to attack Wu Shuang City so early, why didn't we ask the Empire for reinforcements sooner?"
He Denlong looked at him, his voice turning cold, "Are you questioning my responsibility?"
The City Lord immediately broke out in a cold sweat, "No... I just..."
He Denlong turned his head, "Idiot!"
The City Lord didn't dare to speak after being scolded, lowering his head and not saying another word.
Seeing the atmosphere freeze, Li Xiang spoke up, "There is a barrier on the periphery of the Undead Army. Only Undead can enter; we Humans cannot. Therefore, we didn't know the exact number of the Undead Army in advance."
Wang Tianba nodded, "That is precisely the situation. The Undead Barrier covering the Undead Army only disappeared yesterday, allowing us to know that the number of the Undead Legion stationed outside Wu Shuang City had actually reached such a terrifying level."
"Previously, based on the range of the Undead Barrier, we estimated the Undead Army to be at most one or two million. This point was also agreed upon by all of you City Lords present, except for Zhushen City."
"But we all forgot one point: the Undead do not need to eat, or even sleep. They can survive in any environment, and can even... stack on top of each other."
"The Undead utilized the characteristics of the Undead, having large numbers of Undead stack together to reduce the occupied area, thus creating a misleading effect."
He Denlong waved his hand, "Now is not the time for hindsight. What lies before us is how to resist this ten-million-strong army!"
Many City Lords fell silent.
After looking around, Li Xiang spoke up, "The war preparedness strength of our various Cities alone is completely insufficient to resist the ten-million-strong Undead Army."
Many City Lords looked at Li Xiang.
Li Xiang continued, "Therefore... we must rely on the power of the 'aliens'..."
"'Aliens'?"
The City Lord who had spoken earlier looked at Li Xiang, "City Lord of Zhushen City, you seem to be an 'alien', right?"
Li Xiang nodded, "Precisely because of this, I said we must rely on the power of the 'aliens'. There are tens of millions of 'aliens' in Wu Shuang City now, and there are many 'aliens' in your Cities too, right?"
"There are indeed quite a few 'aliens', but these 'aliens' only know how to fight Monsters outside the City and cozy up to the citizens. They have no military discipline whatsoever and cannot form an army to go to war," a City Lord said.
Li Xiang: ...
That City Lord's summary was quite accurate...
"That's true. As you just said, they only know how to fight Monsters. So, we offer high rewards, hire them as mercenaries, and have them kill the Undead. Wouldn't that work?"
After speaking, Li Xiang added, "The rewards must be very, very high, such as top-tier equipment, bounties of millions or tens of millions of gold coins, and forbidden spell-level magic skill books. Otherwise, they won't be motivated."
After this update, players could no longer enter the game after dying three times, so all players began to cherish their lives.
However... this only increased the cost of dying once. Instead, to motivate them, more leverage was needed...
"This... it's possible... but is it really feasible?" a City Lord voiced his concern.
He Denlong directly said, "Just do as the City Lord of Zhushen City said. Wu Shuang City will cover eighty percent of the mercenary rewards this time, and the remaining twenty percent will be jointly shared by your six Cities."
"Yes..."
"Yes!"
...
The meeting ended, and the other City Lords left one after another. Li Xiang and Lu Qingshui were asked to stay by He Denlong.