Strategic Meeting

"I remember you saying before that you were involved in the framework programming for the entire Oasis and the R&D of the consciousness immersion devices?"

"Oh, right. The Order Court, the Tower of Eternity, and the Sin Jury were all vying for you to be their guest of honor."

"After all, you are a genius rarely seen in Universal in a hundred years."

Vieraya turned her face away. "Did I? So I said those things. I... I don't remember saying those things."

Xu Xiaoyou smiled without saying a word.

A moment later, the girl bit her lip, her face filled with deep indignation.

"What an annoying person."

"It's just good luck, so don't get so full of yourself."

"Humph."

Vieraya lowered her head and hurried past Xu Xiaoyou. The latter raised an eyebrow as Akabane Tsubaki stepped in front of her, watching Vieraya's retreating back.

"Yuzu, you know little Vieraya from the Starfall family?"

"Yeah, we had some interesting experiences," Xu Xiaoyou said.

Akabane Tsubaki's mouth twitched slightly, thinking that no matter how you looked at what just happened, it could hardly be called interesting.

Before long, the strategic meeting officially began.

The banquet table was covered in exquisite desserts, and the flames flickered on gilded bronze candelabras. The guild masters filed in one after another. Those ranked from second to ninth on the leaderboards found their seats and sat down in order.

Only the guild leader of the tenth-ranked guild, Holy Ten Universal, hesitated to sit. Everyone turned their gaze toward him, but the man directed a sincere look toward Xu Xiaoyou, who was standing in the crowd with her arms crossed.

"Excellency Dark Gold Rose, please."

"Thank you. I will take a seat, but not today, and not in this position."

Xu Xiaoyou smiled and pulled over the melon-eating Akabane Tsubaki, placing her hands on the girl's shoulders and having her sit in the tenth guild's seat, directly opposite Smiling Jazz across the banquet table.

"This is my vice-leader. She will represent me at this meeting."

Akabane Tsubaki often attended family banquets; no matter how naive she was, she understood the girl's intention. She sat up straight, her posture becoming elegant as she looked levelly at everyone present.

Aside from the familiar figures in the seats, the guild leaders of smaller guilds outside the rankings were lined up on both sides, their faces hidden by the shadows cast from the vaulted ceiling.

"Let's get started," one guild leader suggested.

"Of course." Smiling Jazz spread his hands, gesturing toward the pink-haired girl sitting in eighth place. "As is custom, shall we have Her Highness, the little princess of Life Daybreak, tell us about the current situation?"

"Your Highness, don't daze off."

The maid-servant behind her patted the head of the drowsy pink-haired girl. The latter held her head and looked around, her small face slightly bewildered.

Regaining her senses, Li Liujin nodded and stood up from her seat. A massive projection formed in front of the portrait of the castle lord. A 3D model of the royal city rose from the ground, with monster distributions, outpost capture statuses, and regional danger levels all marked on the map.

She pulled over a virtual pin and held it above her head, jumping a few times only to find she couldn't reach the castle at the peak of the mountain.

A few chuckles came from below the stage, and the previously solemn atmosphere eased considerably.

Li Liujin used her small wings to pin the marker on the highest point of the castle, and virtual information appeared.

"Core Outpost: King's Castle"

"Current Enemy Total Health: 79%"

"Occupying Guild: This outpost has not been captured"

"Output: 3,000 occupation points/24h, 30 aur/24h of dragon-steel copper ore, 12 aur/24h of wailing wood, 12 aur/24h of eight-spider silk."

"BOSS-level creature of this outpost: To be explored."

Outpost markers like this were very dense. Looking closely, one could see that most outposts were a deep red color, indicating they were uncaptured. The deeper the red, the higher the total health of the monsters in the outpost, and the further it was from the alliance's control.

Li Liujin cleared her throat, a small magic wand appearing in her hand as she pointed at the map.

"As everyone can see, the current situation is not optimistic. Over the past two days, most of our outposts have fallen under organized counterattacks from the monsters. The outposts currently under the actual control of the alliance are only '107 Chaisen Street,' 'Dunkirk Royal Library,' 'Clear Stargazing Gallery,' 'Fins Bakery,' 'District 15,' and..."

Several guild leaders fell into thought.

Xu Xiaoyou's fingertips tapped lightly on the shoulder of the dark-red-haired girl.

The players' initial unorganized, chaotic attacks had been quite effective, capturing most outposts in a short time.

But on the second day, those monsters began a massive counterattack. They showed clear organization and even knew how to use tactics, baiting players into chasing them before teaming up to kill those who fell into traps or were isolated.

The major guilds suffered significant losses as a result, with many members killed. It could be almost certain that there was a powerful will integrating them from behind the scenes.

By the time the players had learned their lesson and decided to form an alliance, most outposts had already fallen under the monsters' general counterattack. The total number of players had plummeted to 53% of the original count—and all of this had happened in just two short days.

"If this momentum continues, the fall of the grade 3 main city, Pangard, will become inevitable. How to reasonably allocate the alliance's existing resources and launch a counterattack is the topic we need to discuss today. Everyone, feel free to share your views."

Li Liujin's small face was full of seriousness. Seeing this, the members of the Red Cross Crusade from Life Daybreak below the stage felt their hearts melting. They let out big-man-style silly laughs, waving their crosses to cheer for the girl.

"It is indeed troublesome," Lu Shuhang said with deep thought. "I believe we should first drag the will that is integrating these monsters out from the shadows. What do you all think?"

"That's a given. These monsters are endless. If we let them strike the outposts in waves like a tide, even if we can fight back to the royal city, we won't be able to hold the captured outposts. In the end, it will just be a mess."

"He-he-he."

At this moment, the Sleeping Count standing behind Smiling Jazz stretched and let out a strange laugh.

This Sleeping Count was wearing cat pajamas, and her face was also hidden under the hood. Only a pair of eerily red eyes squinted in the darkness. As she rubbed her sleepy face with her oversized cat paws, her slender figure revealed her to be a young girl.

After keeping everyone in suspense, she finally spoke: "He-he-he. Through two days of monitoring and filtering out layers, we have confirmed the location of that integrating will."

As she spoke, she flipped up a virtual pin with her thumb. A baseball bat appeared in her hand, and she swung it violently at the end of the pin.

Swoosh— The pin shot like a bullet and nailed itself to the location of the 'Venomous Sewer' on the map. The information stored inside the pin quickly poured out and organized itself.

"Core Outpost: Venomous Sewer"

"Current Enemy Total Health: 1430%"

"Occupying Guild: This outpost has not been captured"

"Output: 2,000 occupation points/24h, 20 aur/24h of welcome titanium ore, 10 aur/24h of eerie wood, 10 aur/24h of starry canvas."

"BOSS-level creature of this outpost: Gnawing Gospel (disaster-level lord creature) Note: The difficulty of defeating this BOSS is extremely high; it is not recommended for players to go alone."

"1430% total monster health? Is that a bug?" many people exclaimed.

"Fourteen times the original enemy health? Why is it like this?"

"This is impossible!"