Chapter Ninety-Six: The Onion Project Begins

For Dana City, Xuan Lv chose to pass by without entering and to feign weakness chiefly to lull the noble informants inside the city into complacency.

The great nobles ignored Xuan Lv as if he did not exist, even turning a deaf ear to the summons issued in the name of the Grand Duke of the Eastern Marches. They granted him not the slightest courtesy. Yet this did not mean they truly looked down on Xuan Lv; in truth, the opposite was the case. They were extremely wary of him.

According to the Xuan Lv expert team, and to a series of counterintelligence officers who had inferred matters by all manner of methods, including but not limited to wiretapping, rumor gathering, and data analysis, both the base and Dana City were riddled with noble spies.

Dana City, with its especially backward administration, had even more of them. From the bugs installed in every inn, it could be learned that among the merchants, monster hunters, and freemen who had recently arrived in Dana City, roughly three in ten were spies.

Xuan Lv took no action against these ill-intentioned spies. On the contrary, he allowed them to gather intelligence as they pleased. Under Xuan Lv’s mode of management, outsiders could only approach the residential districts beyond the base, and the information they could obtain was either trivial or precisely what Xuan Lv wanted them to see.

The truly vital intelligence was kept deep within the base, in the most important areas, where only the people of Xuan Lv could enter. Naturally, one could not rule out the possibility that someone might use some supernatural power to observe it, but even that was of little consequence, for the two sides simply did not belong to the same order of things.

To the people of this world, purely technological objects were but dead matter. In their eyes they were nothing more than lumps of iron.

Machine-gun nests, defensive deployments, missile emplacements, artillery positions, anti-air defenses, airfields... they could not understand any of it, much less grasp its function.

It was just as Xuan Lv could not make sense of supernatural power; the people of this world likewise could not comprehend Xuan Lv’s technology.

Xuan Lv and the New World were like two different species.

At this moment, the two sides stood on equal footing, their information gap the same. Which side would gain the advantage depended on how much each knew of the other, how much information they could extract from one another, and how much they could learn.

This was an information war of mutual pursuit, and Xuan Lv had already broken into a full sprint. The New World, hampered by its social structure and painfully slow in transmission and response, had not yet realized the problem.

Perhaps a few sages had sensed it. Perhaps some had already infiltrated the base to observe and learn in secret. But in the end they were but individuals learning alone, whereas Xuan Lv was a collective learning as one.

The transmission and sharing of information was the deadliest weakness of this world.

What Xuan Lv had to do was exploit the gap in information, exploit the gap in time, and tear a path open with lightning speed.

At one thousand meters, the wall entered effective range.

Raise the rifle, take aim, squeeze the trigger.

Bang!

With a burst of sparks, the bullet tore through the air. On the earthen wall, the skull of a militiaman in leather armor was instantly blown off by the 7.62-millimeter round.

Blood splashed onto the ground. The faint smell of iron entered the nose, and the stunned noble finally came back to himself.

“Counterattack!”

The words had barely left his mouth when, before the militiamen could react, shells flew in from afar and struck the wall-top ballistae at the same time. Earth and splinters flew everywhere; amid a chorus of miserable screams, all the ballistae were smashed to pieces.

Seeing this, the noble did not hesitate any longer. An invisible shield protected his body as he turned and leaped away.

In this world, most who could become nobles were no ordinary people. First-rank transcendents were the bare minimum; a viscount would be at least a second-rank transcendent.

Clang!

A clear impact rang out. The shield cracked slightly, and the viscount’s body fell from the six-meter-high wall.

“Ahhhh!”

Before he could scramble up from the ground, black shadows flashed overhead, and his militiamen were instantly torn to pieces. It was as though some terrible demon were hidden in the dark, rending their bodies into five or six parts like cloth dolls.

Run!

His doubts and terror were suppressed in an instant. A flash of clarity exploded in his eyes, and his body rose of its own accord as he fled madly to the rear.

One helicopter after another crossed the wall and hovered high above.

Hawk held a sniper rifle whose proportions were absurdly oversized. He glanced at the twins beside him, White and Snow, who were dressed in tactical gear like himself.

“On the battlefield, aside from heavy firepower such as missiles and artillery, a sniper can exert the greatest suppressive force on the enemy. In a localized firefight, you may not be able to kill everyone, but you can make every enemy afraid to show their heads.”

“A sniper must do one thing well: be accurate.”

The muzzle slowly aligned with the heavily armored knight charging below. The target was extremely fast, moving at more than ten meters per second, perhaps even twenty.

Hawk drew a deep breath. In the depths of his pupils, a faint spark of spirituality flickered like a candle flame.

Bang!

Sparks burst forth, and the armor-piercing round ripped through the air.

The heavily armored knight below suddenly toppled to the ground, crashing face-first into the dirt. Looking closely, one could see a huge hole opened in his chest, blood pouring out continuously.

At the center of the town, in a small castle, the explosions from afar roused everyone within.

A curly-haired man with a face full of scars rolled out of bed, his sudden movement startling the two women sleeping beside him.

The two rather attractive women stared blankly at the terrifying scarred man, and then another earthshaking boom came from the distance.

Bang!

The door was suddenly kicked open, and a man in assassin’s garb walked in. With a casual wave of his hand, two throwing knives shot straight into the throats of the two women on the bed.

“What is going on?” The curly-haired man stared uneasily out the window.

“The Grand Duke of the Eastern Marches’ knight corps has attacked,” his companion replied.

“What?!” The curly-haired man was shocked. “How could this be? Does the Grand Duke of the Eastern Marches not fear the king’s inquiry?”

Within the Dawn Kingdom, war between lords was strictly forbidden. Especially for those at count rank and above, no matter the reason, anyone wishing to start a war had to obtain the king’s consent.

Could it be that the actions of those noble lords had enraged this mysterious grand duke, and that the Grand Duke of the Eastern Marches had declared war without warning in a fit of rage?

Has he gone mad?!

“We don’t know. Let’s leave here first and report the matter to Count Lev.”

They were assassins trained by Count Lev, usually employed to handle his dirty work. Now they had been sent to the edge of the territory to guard against an attack by the Grand Duke of the Eastern Marches and obtain news quickly.

It had been only a cautious precaution, but no one had expected the other side to really come, and to come so quickly.

“Mm.”

Just as the two were about to leave, a series of booms sounded outside the window, followed by a strange current of air surging from above.

Crash!

The two windows in the wall shattered at once, and two towering figures appeared in the room.

They were two burly men wearing strange green uniforms, each built like a knight and brimming with solid muscle.

“Who are you!” the curly-haired man roared, kicking the sofa beside him into one of the brutes.

His companion did not hesitate either. Blade in hand, his figure shot toward the other brute like a phantom.

The cold edge swept toward the neck, intent on cutting off the man’s head.

At such a distance, no one was a match for an assassin, not even a knight had time to raise a battle shield.

Crack!

A crisp sound rang out. The spearhead raised the shotgun in his hands and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Danger!

Spiritual intuition sounded the warning. The assassin did not hesitate and immediately withdrew, but in such a narrow space, facing a shotgun, retreating unscathed was all but impossible.

Countless pellets slammed into his body. Pain and consciousness lasted only an instant.

Seeing his companion fall dead on the spot, the remaining curly-haired man lost any thought of fighting. He stepped back, his body turning to shadow as he slipped through the wall and out of the room.

Shadow Step, one of the core abilities of the assassin profession, allowed the user to enter shadows. It was extremely difficult to learn, and a single misstep could lead to terrible consequences.

There was also a fatal weakness: it could only be used where shadows existed.

Outside the corridor, the curly-haired man broke free from the shadows and, with ghostly speed, dashed toward the corner of the hallway.

Shadow Step was exceedingly difficult to master. If one erred in even a single step, one might plunge headfirst into a solid object and die on the spot.

Footsteps came from behind. Those mysterious intruders had left the room.

Using every ounce of strength, he crossed more than ten meters in a single stride and reached the corner of the corridor. Without hesitation, he darted around it, and some unknown flying object grazed the back of his head.

There was a window ahead. By his memory, going out through it would bring him to the city gate. By then no one would be able to stop him.

Wonderful!

A trace of joy flashed across the curly-haired man’s face, but the increasingly urgent footsteps in his ears left him no time to think.

He smashed through the window with his head. The scene before him instantly opened wide: a blazing sun, a blue sky, and iron monsters circling high above.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

The heavy machine gun swept across, and the curly-haired man died on the spot.

Outside, the gunfire gradually subsided. In less than half an hour, the small city had been basically subdued.

Xuan Lv had committed only a battalion, three hundred men, supported by infantry fighting vehicles and ten helicopters. The military forces here had little room to resist.

A mere small city of fifty or sixty thousand people, with hardly any transcendents, how could it possibly stand against a modern army?

The troops and tens of thousands of laborers advanced in force and began establishing the first stronghold.

...

One hour later, inside the hastily assembled command post.

Staff officers and generals gathered together, surrounding a map drawn by Xuan Lv from the information provided by Count Dana, and engaged in heated discussion.

The broad strategy had already been settled after countless simulations by the think tank: exploit this society’s disregard for information transmission and its backwardness, and win by seizing the time advantage.

First, Count Lev’s territory was trapezoidal in shape. Half of it was a plain, rare in the Eastern Marches, with relatively fertile soil. Thanks to a branch of the kingdom’s largest canal, rainfall was plentiful, and wheat fields were abundant. The other half was rugged mountain land.

A canal branch ran along the mountains and cut across the entire territory in the middle. The core of Count Lev’s domain, Lev City, lay in the middle of the river course.

One side had mountains as a natural barrier, while the plain side was lined with small and large fortified towns serving as guarding cities, four of the larger ones forming a half-enclosed ring.

On the plains of Lev’s territory, layers upon layers of semicircular defenses resembled an onion, and could be called impregnable. Even the kingdom’s knight corps would find them troublesome.

For Xuan Lv, the situation was likewise difficult. At present, Xuan Lv only had the strength of one brigade, and its logistical capacity could support no more than that.

They could not blunder in openly, or the front lines would be stretched farther and farther. Worse still, without the support of a transport network, forward units operating in unfamiliar terrain against enemies with supernatural powers were highly likely to be bogged down and worn to death.

Modern weapons were not omnipotent. War was ultimately a contest of logistics and supply. Without any supply lines, Xuan Lv was by no means a match for supernatural power. Count Lev might even be able to beat Xuan Lv into a miserable state.

If possible, Xuan Lv would have preferred to develop quietly for a few years, amassing strength until he could crush everything in a thunderous sweep. But reality never bent to one’s wishes. The domestic situation could not wait for years.

The neighboring states had already noticed Xuan Lv’s shortage of petroleum. They only did not know how much oil stockpiled since the imperial colonial era remained, and so they dared not rashly begin a war. But as time passed, those states would press in on Xuan Lv step by step.

At present, the nearest oil lake on land belonged only to Count Lev’s territory. The others could only be reached by helicopter deep into the Death Marsh, and were simply impossible to exploit. Forced extraction would only waste manpower and material while drawing attacks from all manner of monsters.

There was another crucial reason forcing Xuan Lv to act now: the disaster of the green goblins had torn an opening in the onion-like defenses of Lev’s territory.

Large numbers of towns had been destroyed by the green goblins. Some died, some fled, and with the nobles driving refugees toward Xuan Lv, there was no way they could be rebuilt in the short term. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If they missed it, taking Lev’s territory again would require a tremendous price.

The chief of staff drew a circle in the southern-central part of Lev’s onion defense, where it bordered the Death Marsh and where the green goblin attacks had been the fiercest.

“This is the gap in the onion defense, and the key to our success in this operation. Our task is to advance along these destroyed and abandoned towns and quickly open a road so that the armored units can drive straight through.”

Against the knight corps’ battle formations, infantry and light weapons were useless. Only armored units equipped with heavy firepower could effectively break through the enemy’s defenses.

The chief of staff took up a red pen and drew an L-shaped line on the map, bypassing a mountain range.

“In order to speed up construction, we cannot charge ahead blindly as before. The best method is to expand along the existing roads.”

Someone pointed at the mountains and said, “I think we should open a new route from here. Sticking close to the mountains is indeed convenient, but it also makes it convenient for the enemy to ambush us. If there are enemies hiding in these mountains and fighting us as guerrillas, our supply lines could very likely be cut.”

“Then we’ll make another detour from here.”

“By the way, can’t we use missiles to strike the enemy from extremely long range and beyond visual contact?” someone asked in distress.

The major beside him shook his head. “No. The gravitational constants and acceleration in the New World differ somewhat from ours. Many ballistic weapons need to be recalculated. The technicians are still working on it, and the workload is enormous. It still hasn’t been finished.”

“Then we’ll have to take a risky approach.”

“We’ll advance according to the original plan while paving roads as we go. The spearhead unit will take helicopters all the way to the southeastern mountains and carry out an assault on Satellite City Number Four, the closest to Lev City, drawing the enemy’s attention.”

“Once this place comes under attack, the surrounding towns and Satellite City Number Three will surely rush over to reinforce it. By then, the defenses of Satellite City Number Three will become weak. Then we will open up a new road, and the armored vehicles arriving later will follow this road to bypass the two towns directly, reach the right flank of Satellite City Number Three, and join us in launching a pincer attack on it.”

The chief of staff heavily circled Satellite City Number Three in red, then drew an arrow straight toward Lev City.

“After taking Satellite City Number Three, have the portal opener open a gate, establish artillery positions, and carry out saturation bombardment on the garrison of the Lev Knight Corps. One decisive strike, and it will be settled.”

The Onion-Breaking Plan has begun.