Wasteland Echoer.

Chapter 494: The Deep Sorrow (End): A Crucial Meeting (Part )

"Long live!"

"Long live Cruzde!"

"Long live Commander Vasily!"

As soon as Vasily finished his report on the battlefield situation in a specific area, there was a long-lasting applause and cheers from the audience. These commanders who were able to call the shots in the region, when facing the most powerful man in Cruz, all of them, either sincerely or under duress, tried their best to show their loyalty and excitement for the future of the Federation.

The applause and cheers lasted for a full 360 seconds before gradually stopping.

Vasily had already handed all the referenced materials in his hand to Kuka. He picked up the last copy, a large notebook with a black leather cover, and slowly opened it to the back page and continued to report:

"Next, I will explain the overall war situation and future plans to the administrative and military governors who manage the provinces and bases here.

"Since the failure of the efforts of the Hinet people to restore [Order] 30 years ago, apart from the unprogressive Khitanris people, we, the Crusaders, are the only ones who have the strength to purge the 'Heartless People' and transform the 'Lost Ones', so as to usher in victory in the war, the revival of the nation, and the continuation of human civilization.

"This is the only goal in my life, and it is also the ultimate goal of all creatures who call themselves human beings. To this end, I have proposed a 'four-step strategy'. First, consolidate the city strongholds that have been built in various places, make sure they are not lost, and expand outward in a timely manner. Second, contact all partners with humans and the Federation, whether they are the 'Lost Organization' or the 'Independent Armed Forces'. Third, expand the production of materials and energy in the connected control areas to provide a steady stream of backup supplies for the war, and simultaneously decipher the advanced technology of the old empire and replicate it.

"The fourth and most important point is to open up a protracted battlefield after understanding the movements of the Careless People and the information about the hostile Lost Ones behind them, gradually attract the Careless People to a wide area, and carry out the final, and largest-scale, decisive battle."

Vasily felt his throat itchy when he spoke here. He paused, drank a sip of hot water from the thermos, and continued:

"Currently, the provinces that the Federation has been able to fully control are Iceland Province, Rus Province, and Water Province. The areas under semi-control are South Karlov Special District, Arctic Special District, Koenig Province, Icefield Province, and Far East Central District. The cities dominated by 'Heartless People' that the Federation has not yet controlled are North Karlov Special District, South Mountain District, Far Northeast District, and Far Southeast District. In areas with more 'Heartless People', the [Warriors] there have a harder time.

"At the beginning of the year, the Church of the Lost, the Order Society, had successfully reached a cooperation agreement with the Federation. Although there were some unpleasant incidents in the middle, our common goal is advancing. With their assistance, the "heartless wave" in Mayan City was repelled, and the road from the capital to Moyan City is rapidly recovering. Independent armed forces and "independent personnel" from various places that are not yet under the jurisdiction of the Federation have begun to sell goods, weapons and canned food between the two places. Under extremely unfavorable conditions, trade has begun to recover.

"At the same time, the 'Corona Association', 'Chaos Group' and 'Understanding Church', which we defeated, announced their surrender to the Federation last week. The new pseudo-leader of the 'Chaos Group', Yatuo, the pseudo-priest of the 'Understanding Church', 'Xianling', and the pseudo-new president of the 'Corona Association', 'Songwu', formally submitted a list of personnel and a map of settlements to the Federation, announcing that they would no longer oppose the Federation and would obey our orders when necessary.

"Although I still doubt their sincerity in surrendering, this is the result of the joint efforts of all of us Cruzde [warriors]. Moreover, the Federation has now reproduced nearly 90% of the military products of the old empire. As for the information on aerospace and mysticism that was rescued from the ruins of Kushen last month, our scientists are currently interpreting it.

"Finally, I want to talk about the progress of the 'Universe Energy Evolution Platform' plan, which is a grand plan to gather solar energy and eliminate the 'Heartless People'. Currently, we have found the Joygle Evolution Platform representing 'Heavenly Power' through the [Core Related to Wind]. Our scientists have already moved in and are trying to start it up.

"The other two groups in charge of the 'Evolution Platform' project have also made considerable progress. The Igor group, which is researching the [Core Near God], has not only successfully stimulated its power, allowing the test subject to briefly possess the power of a god, but has also found the approximate location of the Evolution Platform representing the 'Tianshu'. As long as we successfully break through the wind wall and find the 'Echoer' and 'Pramini', the location of the relevant 'Evolution Platform' will be clear.

"The Ross team responsible for researching the [Core to the Future] has also roughly determined the location of the 'Evolution Platform' representing 'Tianji'. Once Commander-in-Chief Yaroslav has completely eliminated the 'Heartless People' east of the 'Artificial Lake', they can try to enter. When all the 'Evolution Platforms' are erected, the sun's light will shine on the land of Cruzde, all evil spirits will disappear, and a new era for mankind is about to arrive.

"Of course, before that, what we need to do is to complete all the war preparations before the decisive battle. Now, please invite our 'army commander-in-chief' and 'counterattack commander' Gennady Rurik to tell us about the current situation of the main battlefield on the western front and the 'Gnady Defense Line'!"

After Vasily finished speaking, he slowly walked down from the stage in the conference room amid even more intense and frenzied applause. After waving to the crowd, he sat down in the middle of the first row of seats below, where the name card with his name on it was placed neatly.

Soon, the person standing in front of the "Crusad Federal Administrative Division Map" became Genadi.

He paused for a moment, and after a brief greeting to Vasily, he began to speak in a rather deep and serious voice:
"There have been more than 500 large-scale wars in the Karlov region throughout the ages. It is difficult to say whether they were right or wrong. However, historians have noticed that it was on this ancient battlefield that many families experienced their rise and fall, and so there has been a saying of striving for the throne of Crusad since ancient times.

"Back then, Ivan I led his personal soldiers to besiege Budadi City in three directions. The army marched westward and captured the Karlov region the day after. The gate was closed and disappeared from then on. In January of the new year 549, it was in the vast Karlov region that I had the honor of personally leading hundreds of thousands of [warriors] to conquer the 'Chaos Group' and the 'Enlightenment Cult' and won a great victory.

"Wherever the federal army and chariots went, humans and supernatural beings welcomed them wholeheartedly. As the Khitanris said, they had the best of both worlds. It was like plants flourishing under the sunshine, and everything frozen in the ice was freed from the cold and revive. It was like yesterday.

"However, why has the balance of war changed from being completely controlled by humans to being dominated by the Lost Ones and the Careless Ones in just eight years? We have clearly experienced the wise decisions of administrative governors such as Mendolev and Viking, and we are able to perfectly deal with the "Careless Ones" in various places. But now, when our weapons and resources have gradually reached the peak state of the New Era, we are frequently encountering setbacks on the front battlefield?"

Genadi's question was like a bombshell dropped into a pond full of turbulent lava, causing an uproar like the arrival of "fire from heaven".

Of course, he belongs to the "Viking faction". After Oleg's death, he almost became the protagonist of this force that was fighting openly and secretly with Vasily. But obviously, he was not here to take the opportunity to slander or attack Vasily today. He knew better than anyone the unfavorable situation of the battle ahead.

Now, in the vast land of Karlov filled with gunfire and blood, the military power of the Federation is like a "sweet-smelling" cub placed next to the mouth of a half-asleep hungry beast. If you don't pay attention, the beast will be driven by instinct and completely bite the "seemingly innocent" cub to pieces. Fortunately, the noisy discussion only lasted for more than ten seconds before it stopped abruptly with Vasily's serious cough. Genadi cleared his throat and asked himself:
"From perfection to frustration, that's because the 'heartless people' and the lost ones are also gradually getting stronger. They have changed from being scattered, unorganized and acting on instinct at the beginning to being united, organized and following orders now.

"After two waves of 'careless people' at the beginning of the year, I found that these 'careless people' began to become purposeful. Therefore, I asked Commander Vasily to allocate resources to build an offensive 'Gnadi Line of Defense'. Our army has successfully entered and firmly controlled Konigrad, Budadi City, Mayan City, Xinfeng Town, Kanosk, Vasilisk, and the 'Artificial Lake' military camp, and built a semicircular defense line that has been successfully connected.

"That's right. The 'Artificial Lake' war zone under the command of Commander-in-Chief Yaroslav is the last link in the defense line. The complete victory of the 'Deep Bitterness' campaign also marks the official completion of our encirclement of the 'Heartless People'. In the past, we all mistakenly believed that the 'Order Society', the 'Chaos Group' and the 'Understanding Church' were the culprits who directed the 'Heartless People' to harass the Federation. But in fact, the organization with darkness as its totem, which is hidden behind all the Lost Ones and humans and controls the vast majority of the 'Heartless People' to launch an attack on the Federation, is the culprit of everything. They call themselves - 'Spear of Odyssey'. They have a total of 8 leaders, and they are called 'Muyuan' internally."

The so-called "Pastoral Source" is called the "Source of the Patriarch" from the perspective of the Central Empire. The Cruzde Empire and the Federation, which have accepted the Central culture, understand it as the "Source of the Patriarch Controllers". They are higher-level clergy who controlled a large number of orthodox patriarchs in the era of magic before the Second Era.

The rank of ordinary clergy usually does not exceed rank 5: pain, and they can deal with some small beasts, monsters, and the pain and illness of ordinary believers, and summon low-level holy light. However, the "Pastoral Source" can formulate church rules, carry out important activities of the Orthodox Bishop, and influence the emperor's decision-making. Their strength is far beyond that of ordinary patriarchs.

"Muyuan" usually have strengths ranging from Sequence 4: Hope to Sequence 1: Confusion, strong vitality, and even a certain degree of divinity, and the ability to communicate directly with gods under certain conditions. When the emperors of the Central Empire are hesitant about state affairs, they usually do not ask citizens, believers, and merchants, but choose to ask gods and demons for advice.

In that era of magic, the "Muyuan" were powerful and influential, and even generals and kings with large armies were unwilling to conflict with them. However, since the Third Era, especially after the "First Steel Incident", the magic power began to rapidly become weak, and the "Muyuan" quickly "became like everyone else" and disappeared into history.

Countries that believed in orthodox bishops began to support "Patriarchs" as church leaders to prevent gods from being above the emperor.

But this time, after the fog was finally cleared and the identity of the Lost Ones who manipulated millions of "careless people" to fight against the Federation was figured out, the administrative and military leaders present all gasped. If "Muyuan" really had the power at that moment, then the Federation's war would be mired in failure.

However, unlike the people in the audience who were all worried, Genadi had a strange smile on his face. He looked around at the people present with contempt and said confidently:
"However, the Steam and Wasteland Era is an era of technology, and the 'Heartless Man' is also the representative of extreme darkness and sin. The Lord will not condone the one who controls darkness to overstep His authority. Even if the 'Heartless Man' is a punishment for mankind, the Creator will never let darkness control the land, mountains, rivers and sky.

"Currently, there are 35 Face [fighters] stationed on the Gnady Line, 1 Psychics, and 7 cooperative armed forces from various places, for a total of 55. We have more than 91.7 million guns, hand cannons, and bazookas of all kinds, 225 artillery pieces, and 12 fighter planes. Due to the sufficient ore, gunpowder, and steel coordinated by Commander Vasily from various places, this number will only show a trend of continuous increase.

"The complete victory in the 'Artificial Lake Battle' has allowed us to unlock more weapons of the Old Empire. The samples of the electromagnetic pulse rifle, laser burst cannon, enhanced version of the thermite's final silence, Stonen armor and Ivanka's hammer have been produced and will soon be mass-produced. In any case, even though we are at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, we are 10000 to 0 in terms of weapons and equipment. In short, the advantage is mine!"

After Gennady's report, the entire conference room suddenly fell silent until Vasily stood up from his seat and applauded Gennady Rurik himself. Then the whole audience burst into warm applause and fierce, hoarse, hysterical roars.

The people present were still shouting "victory" and "future". At Vasily's request, they all walked up to the podium area at the front of the venue one floor above the ground, imagining that the "Gnady Line of Defense" could trap the "Careless People" and the "Spear of Odyssey" in the Karlov area, and when all the "Universe Energy Evolution Platforms" were turned on, they would rely on the continuously transmitted power of solar nuclear fusion to "purify" all the "Careless People" with the hottest fire, ushering in the "Restart Era" that was within reach.

At the same time, Vasily pressed the red switch in his hand, and suddenly, an iron mesh fence rose behind everyone.

Immediately afterwards, the large Cruzde map in front of him sank rapidly, leaving behind a bottomless ravine that seemed to emit a dark and gloomy smell. The lights went out one after another, and noisy "clang" sounds of metal operation began to be heard around.

The entire cage-like oppressive platform slowly rose, and when it finally stopped, everyone came to a cylindrical enclosed area that looked like an ancient arena from the inside. There were only two particularly bright searchlights that could only illuminate a corner, and many dim lights that emitted faint blue fluorescence.

This is the underground floor of the "Xingyu Main Hall", the "Federation Supreme Conference Hall".

However, every protruding circular seat on the inner wall of the column was filled with people. Under the light, only their crazy and excited heads, slightly bloody fists and arms covered with terrible dust were revealed.

They were extremely manic, but their pace was unusually consistent. When they saw Vasily and local administrative and military leaders standing on the center of the "stage", they collectively let out wild beast-like shouts.

"Dear 'Crusad Human Representatives', the 'First Battle Analysis Conference' for our administrative and military chiefs has ended, and the meeting for the Crusad nation and the future has just begun. Now, let us cheer for the future of the Federation's victory and the arrival of the 'Restart Era' that can be seen with the naked eye!"

"For victory!"

"For victory!"

"For victory!" all the "human representatives" shouted collectively.

……

The end of the "Deep Sorrow" part!
(End of this chapter)