Alien world

Chapter 1895, Section 528: In Position
As Annan and the Imperial Minister chatted more and more enthusiastically, Black Pearl suddenly felt a sense of humiliation that Annan had been taken away from her, and the ratman's eyes snapped open with sharp dragon pupils.

Ok?
The Imperial Minister turned around, sensing something amiss, and saw the little black dragon obediently following behind.

"How did you, a legendary warrior, become a minister of the Empire?"

"If we don't let warriors govern the empire's military, why should we let bards do it?"

"you're right."

At first, Annan felt there was nothing to talk about with the rigid and stubborn bureaucrats, but the Imperial Minister seemed to know everything and didn't mind, which was completely different from those officials who wanted to limit the distance between you when you walked.

Annan also learned a lot from the experiences of the Imperial Minister, and thought it was good that he had brought him along.

As for whether Black Pearl thinks that way, we don't know. She probably, perhaps, maybe... absolutely hates the Imperial Minister.

With the gray-haired rats leading the way and the felstones, Annan and his group, disguised as a ratman squad, moved freely through the tree hole. Even when they encountered the gray-haired rats inside, they were not stopped or inspected.

Annan was initially worried that the Imperial Minister would be unable to bend down and hide his emotions, but he found that the minister acted even more like a ratman than he did.

However, as they ventured deeper and possibly even passed over the Great Wall in the north, the atmosphere grew somewhat somber, reflecting the Imperial Minister's bad mood.

"Stand there!"

A sharp screech came from ahead, where a gray-haired rat led a group of elite rats to block the fork in the road.

They could certainly have gone around them, but the gray rats had already spotted them.

Lulu went up to negotiate, but after saying something, the gray rat shoved it away angrily: "This is our territory, you're not allowed to pass!"

"I will tell Elder Dugai about this!"

"up to you!"

They failed to pass and started arguing after just a few words.

The gray rat dared not attack Lulu, who was of the same class, but it could vent its anger on rats like Annan who followed it, sending elite rats to kill them.

Annan glanced at the Imperial Minister out of the corner of his eye, fearing that he might suddenly roar and burst out of his clothes, smashing the gray rat in front of him into mincemeat with a single punch.

Ahead of him, Annan suddenly released the cart. The cart shook, and the piled-up fel stones bounced and rubbed against each other. This scene terrified the gray-haired rats that were staring at them, who were afraid that the fel stones would be activated. They screamed and told the rats to get out of there!
Annan lifted the cart again, and amidst Gray Rat's cursing, turned back to the previous fork in the road, bypassing Gray Rat's roadblock.

During the tedious journey, Anan reminded him, "If you can't help but give yourself away, all the progress we've made these past few days will be for nothing..."

“I can endure it,” the Imperial Minister said coldly.

Annan didn't believe him and tried to distract him by saying, "The ratmen have started setting up roadblocks at the crossroads. We should be close to their deployment."

This wasn't a question, so the Imperial Minister said nothing.

Annan then asked, "Your Excellency, what methods do you think the Ratmen will use to destabilize the Empire?"

"You'll see when you see it for yourself," the Imperial Minister said, unmoved by reason.

"A mere chaotic force, it seems, has no ability other than spreading curses and plagues. Do you really think you can shake the empire with such tricks?"

The former is a skill that demons excel at, while the latter is an innate ability of ratmen.

The Imperial Minister's attention was finally drawn to Annan, and he said, "You seem more confident than we are."

"Of course, as long as our ancestor intervenes, everything will be alright."

After a moment of silence, the Imperial Minister said, "What if Lady Elies is unable to intervene?"

Annan suddenly stopped, causing the cartload of evil stones to tremble again.

"What's the meaning?" ……

North of the Grey Peak Mountains.

As the Kingdom's army gazed into the distance at the old town of Val, which stood amidst the swarm of rats, the ratmen on the city walls also looked out at the human creatures surrounded by the rat tide.

The Moon-Eating Clan's continuous release of water finally allowed the Kingdom's army to reach Old Val Town within three days.

If they weren't worried about being suspected by humans for being too fake, they would even want to disperse the rat swarm and let them enter Old Vale Town without hindrance.

With the enemy at the gates, the royal army did not press on and storm Old Ware, but instead halted and adopted a defensive posture.

According to the plan, Wang Guojun's mission has been completed, and all that remains is for the reconnaissance airship to be in place.

……

Over the course of a week, the terraced mountain has been transformed into a defensive fortification entirely encased in concrete, making it even more formidable than the Great Wall of the north.

Without a rat swarm of over 30 million, they would never be able to conquer the Trapezoidal Mountain guarded by the Hellfire Legion.

At this moment, atop the trapezoidal mountain, reconnaissance airships, loaded with new fuel, took off one after another, gathering in mid-air like a swarm of bees, reaching their maximum carrying capacity.

The berserker watched in terror. He had witnessed the explosions of burning oil before, and the oil drums being transported from Free City were more than ten times the size of those bombings that day. If they were to be accidentally ignited... the Trapezoidal Mountain would become a hellish mountain.

After several hours of loading, the last reconnaissance airship took off and joined the airship group, which was still called a reconnaissance airship but was clearly evolving into a new type of military unit.

Annan did not return. Nominally, the First Commander, Fermi, calmly ordered, "Depart."

The reconnaissance airships moved silently, but when nearly a hundred airships, each carrying hundreds of pounds of new kerosene, emitted a chilling shriek—more muffled than a swarm of bees and more forceful than a howling wind—they disappeared into the distance before the eyes of the people on the mountaintop.

The danger of oil lies not in its power.

The power of igniting a forty or fifty-pound oil drum is only equivalent to the range of a single Fire Wall spell.

Is it like a persistent, incurable infection, once it takes hold? There's a degree of that, but it's not the decisive factor.

What's truly terrifying is that it's not magic, yet it can unleash the power of magic.

The reason why mages are high above others and are called uncrowned nobles or "mages" is because they possess the ability to deal damage to groups of people.

Even the biggest legendary demigod warrior, who could chew orchards like candy, couldn't kill two ratmen with a single sword strike—unless they were practically face to face.

Although warriors can learn combat skills and use forty-meter-long swords to efficiently kill enemies, mages can do this even when they are just starting out.

Why were the ancient goblins able to create a magnificent goblin kingdom, only to be cursed by the gods and turned into snotty-nosed little goblins wearing diapers?

It is because they have mastered a new power that bypasses "magic"—the power that elevates the extraordinary to a position of power.

The power that extraordinary individuals could only master through day and night training was manufactured with clanging and banging in the goblin factory.

Birth, learning, inheritance—other beings take more than a dozen springs to cultivate into extraordinary beings, but the goblin factory can produce a train of them in a minute.

Your soldiers take more than a decade to grow from birth to maturity, while I only need a few seconds.

While your soldiers cry for their mothers, my golem coldly swings its sword.

This is an emotion similar to that of facing an endless swarm of rats.

Now, this power, which is envied by the gods, has fallen into the hands of Annan.

Golems, oil—these are just the beginning…

(End of this chapter)