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Chapter 211 Formal Declaration of War

Two weeks later, in the military camp's one-on-one testing ground, two soldiers collided repeatedly at a speed beyond the observation capabilities of ordinary people. However, this attack lasted for less than half a minute before both of them were covered in sweat, panting heavily, and their legs could barely move.

"This burst of energy technique... the duration is a bit too short, less than a minute in total." The commander frowned. The feedback from below had exaggerated the technique's power, but upon closer inspection, it didn't seem to reach that level.

“Yes, these two are still the soldiers who use this technique best. However, Commander, you should know that, let alone a minute, everyone has been training for months now. Those who don’t know this technique won’t even last half a minute in the one-on-one duels.” The chief of staff next to him said with great certainty. They had tested it more than twenty times, and the results were consistent.

"Hmm..." The corps commander pondered for a moment, "How much strain will it put on the soldiers' bodies? Will it leave any hidden injuries?"

"If it's just a friendly sparring match, all you need to do is improve your nutrition and get plenty of rest. You'll recover in a day or two. In actual combat, there might not be enough time to do that, but it's still better than losing your life," the chief of staff said.

"Let me think about it some more. Here's what we'll do: first, send the data we've compiled to Master Lin and see if the Heavenly Court can spare some computing power to help us optimize it," the commander said, waving his hand.

"Yes!"

Back in his room, the corps commander pondered for a long time but couldn't make a decision. The higher-ups demanded that combat capability be formed as quickly as possible, but for the time being, he, as the corps commander, still had the final say on everything that didn't cross the line. This technique was certainly the best, but the cost seemed quite high. If it were promoted throughout the entire army, there was no guarantee that the benefits would outweigh the drawbacks.

The commander, suffering from a headache, picked up the remote control and turned on a military program. Playing the program as background music would make his thinking a little more comfortable.

Suddenly, the program, which had been playing for a minute, started flashing. The commander looked up and saw a giant purple sweet potato head appear on the screen.

Thanos stretched out his right hand towards everyone in front of the screen, then suddenly clenched it into a fist. "Humans! Prepare to die! You are fighting against the entire universe. Your civilization will be easily destroyed by me, like a worm!"

In an instant, panic and rage surged from the depths of the army commander's heart into his mind, directly impacting his reason.

The celestial network and the demonic network in all regions of the Earth lit up simultaneously, and the purifying particles covered the entire planet's surface within a millisecond.

With the help of the particles, the commander's emotions gradually returned to normal, and the screen in front of him also returned to normal. It all seemed like a dream that lasted only a few seconds.

After sitting in the chair for a second, the corps commander immediately stood up, ran to the window and looked at the entire camp. He then breathed a sigh of relief. The camp hadn't been disturbed. Thank goodness.

*Bang!* The chief of staff slammed the door open, sweating profusely, and looked at the division commander. "Did you watch TV just now?"

The corps commander nodded. "War is coming. I agree to promote the explosive energy technique throughout the army."

Just ten minutes later, orders came from above, requiring everyone to gather in the multimedia room to watch the diplomatic speech.

It's the same channel, but this time the scene doesn't start with the magnificent heavens, but with the vast universe and those lifeless planets.

The light and shadow shifted and shifted, eventually settling on a deep blue planet—Earth.

The scene then shifts to the diplomatic platform. This time, it's not just Yang Jian standing there; all the heads of the Heavenly Court's departments are gathered together, their eyes shining as they gaze at everything before them.

"Life is the greatest miracle in the universe, and we will never allow anyone to trample on it recklessly!"

"To all civilizations and life forms that have observed this message, this is a united civilization of diverse humankind."

"Thanos and his henchmen mixed negative emotions into the information transmission process, attempting to incite all recipients to kill each other. This has completely violated the Universal Covenant, is disrespectful to all life, and is an act that infringes on the sovereignty of all civilizations."

"However, their crimes go far beyond this. These terrorists who roam the universe call their looting, killing, destruction, and sabotage liberation. They seize the sovereignty of one civilization after another, exploit their people, destroy the minds and bodies of all their opponents, and launch attacks on anyone without reason or restraint, all while claiming that they are relieving the burden on the universe."

"We do not accept this kind of reasoning that distorts the truth and calls a deer a horse! We cannot tolerate this kind of outrageous and heinous behavior!"

"On behalf of the entire multi-human united civilization, I hereby declare that we are at war with Thanos and all his henchmen!"

"We firmly believe that wisdom will prevail over ignorance, and justice will prevail over evil. We will bury Thanos's ambition and his stupidity into the abyss!"

Yang Jian's speech eliminated all screening criteria, using the multiverse portal and the war star as external transmission devices to ensure that any civilization or life form with receiving equipment could receive this message.

"We've officially declared war. This is the first time in history that we've taken the initiative to declare war..." The army commander's mouth was agape, completely unable to close it. "We need to prepare to conscript all veterans."

"No, Commander, you've forgotten. In their eyes, we're not a combat unit," the chief of staff said, somewhat bewildered.

Suddenly, the army commander turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" the chief of staff shouted.

"Go write a letter requesting to join the battle!" That was all the army commander left him with.

Meanwhile, in Zhao Li's teachers' apartment.

"My lord! War has been officially declared! How can I continue teaching in peace in the rear? I demand my leave be canceled! I want to return to the war star!"

"Zhao Li, you're not a kid anymore. What are you doing? Is intergalactic war so easy to start? Don't let your emotions get the better of you. We need to prepare for a thousand-year war, and a crucial part of that preparation is education..."

"Boss! I'm not good at teaching, I'm better at building and fighting. Otherwise, you can transfer me to the Clock Tower as a tester!"

"Zhao Li! Obey orders! We are currently on Level 3 combat readiness. It's not time for you to be recalled yet! Stay put and wait for the recall order before you get back here immediately!"

"Yes!"

After hanging up the message, Zhao Li glanced at the trainees below, then slammed his hand on the window sill, slamming it shut.

Back at his desk, Zhao Li tore up the completed teaching plan and began to increase the workload; during wartime, the pace of learning had to be accelerated.

Although the distance between the solar system and Thanos is far enough that a battle is unlikely to break out immediately, it's better to be safe than sorry.

That said, their long-range attack and close-quarters combat was quite remarkable.

Chapter 212 A Civilization on the Verge of Destruction

Inside the clock tower, Vernon was waiting for the second round of testing. His team had successfully completed the first test and was therefore retained, but one member of the three-person team was eliminated.

Fina was taken back to the mage tower by Blaze to stabilize the magic array and prepare for the next advancement. That's right, Blaze had been involved in various events in the past year or two, and with Fina's efforts, he had paid off all the fines and successfully built up a very small mage tower again.

Although the mage tower is small, it has everything it needs. After all, it was built by a Morning Star mage, who maximized space utilization and the stacking of magic.

The person who replaced Fina in the test team was a newcomer who had only recently joined Ouroboros, a famous newcomer on Earth: Captain America Rogers.

"When will the second test start? Last time they said three days later, and this time it's three days later again. At this rate, who knows when it will be!" Vernon kept complaining.

The test support staff rolled their eyes. "I want to be fast too, but I can't find a suitable world. Are you going to just randomly throw you guys there? You're not afraid of dying, but I'm afraid you'll die."

"Hurry up! We're on high alert, and the energy problem needs to be solved quickly!" Vernon urged, his eyes scanning various data points before he realized with a hint of resentment that he couldn't understand anything.

These things are too specialized; it's not something someone like him, who only has a superficial understanding of them, can participate in.

The tester turned away, utterly exasperated. Did he not want to solve the energy problem? The question is, could it even be solved?

Just then, a colleague rushed over and said, "Take a look at the document I sent you and assess whether this world is suitable for you."

"A new world? Have you discovered other ways to explore the world?" the tester asked rhetorically.

"No, it came from the Heavenly Court. Didn't they just announce to the entire universe that they've entered a state of war with Thanos?" The colleague explained while adjusting the document. "When they made the announcement, they used a multiverse portal as a signal output device. Some of the signal may have been transmitted to other worlds, and then the Heavenly Court received a distress letter from another world."

The tester listened while adjusting and opening the file.

First, there's a video—a low-resolution, blurry handheld video, likely filmed using some kind of mobile device.

"Respected Multi-Human Alliance Civilization, I have something to tell you: our world is about to be destroyed!"

The person filming was of East Asian descent, and his appearance was very similar to that of people from the Chinese region. The person pointed the camera out the window.

The scene was a mess; the streets were deserted, save for dust blown by the cold wind and abandoned vehicles, with occasional traces of explosives still visible.

With a click, the tester paused the video and then checked the evaluation given by the system. "It is tentatively classified as an industrial civilization. No devices or traces that could react with magical elements or immortal magic were found on the various buildings. It is tentatively classified as a pure technological civilization."

The video continued, but after a few seconds, Vernon snapped it back to pause. "Look at this guy! Something's wrong!"

"I can see it now. Even a referee from Japan can spot something's wrong." The tester rolled his eyes and quickly zoomed in on the area Vernon was pointing to, with the system automatically filling in the missing pixels.

The figure in the picture has a distorted body and completely white eyes. Even when the camera is zoomed in to the maximum, the pupils are not visible. All the eyes are white conjunctiva. There is also congealed blood around the mouth and on the forehead of the figure.

"Is this some kind of hallucinogenic substance? The 'crocodile' over there in the Russian bears seems to be like that. You can see his body is clearly moving, but it's already starting to rot, which is the same as the symptoms of many people who overdose on crocodile," Vernon said.

“No, I think he’s dead,” the colleague said after thinking for two seconds.

"Are you sure? The system identifies it as a purely technological civilization. If the dead can still move, then the level of civilization can't possibly be that of a primitive industrial age," Vernon retorted.

His colleague looked up at him, crossed his arms, and said coldly, "I graduated from the Necromancer Academy. I was one of the top graduates back then. May I ask where you graduated from? What's your profession?"

Vernon was speechless. Druids were indeed connected to life, but in terms of the degree of connection, few could compare to necromancers.

"Alright, stop causing trouble and get out of the way." His colleague pushed Vernon away.

The video continued, and after spotting the suspicious person, the person filming immediately retreated into the room, hid in a corner, and lowered their voice.

"My name is Nie Ying. I graduated from NC University, a 211 university. I used to be a sports student..."

The person in the video inexplicably started introducing himself, but none of the three people present paid any attention. It's normal to be incoherent when you're nervous, and he probably memorized this self-introduction a long time ago, so it's normal for him to say it unconsciously.

Fortunately, after a dozen seconds, Nie Ying finally got to the point. He took a deep breath and said, "It all started with an accident. At first, none of us paid any attention to it. We just thought it was a pandemic virus, until the infected people died quickly, and the dead rose up from hell again!"

"From that moment on, everything changed. The country and government had finally managed to stabilize the situation, but then a bunch of people appeared out of nowhere and spilled the virus's original solution in major cities, completely destroying the barely stable situation."

“We call people who come back from hell zombies. Most of them have no sense of smell and weak vision, but their hearing is extremely developed. They are also very sensitive to living people. Moreover, if a normal person is bitten, even by a small wound, they will die quickly, and then the corpse will rise up again and join them.”

"I don't know what kind of powerful civilization you are, but I beg you, save this world. There are still many lives being lost in this world. Didn't you say you couldn't stand the wanton trampling of life? Those who deliberately spread the virus are trampling on this world. I beg you!"

The short video ended there, and the testers began operating rapidly, combining all possible points to determine the situation of that world with the help of the system.

"There are countries, governments, and opposition groups. It's very likely that this planet hasn't been unified yet. The fabrics and artifacts in the video match the system's assessment of an industrial-era civilization. There are tiered educational schools. The person filming is tall..."

While the testers were busy, Vernon didn't rest either. He turned around and left to study biology, as the zombies might be one of the main enemies if he went there this time.

Also, this time we may need to ask the various academies in the various clock towers, the Plague Department of the Heavenly Court, and the biological laboratories on Earth to see if they can produce an emergency, temporary, and universal disinfectant.

Ideally, it should be something that can be used externally to kill viruses and also internally to ensure life.

Moreover, if it's still the three of them going this time, they might need a production line of intelligent robots that can operate on their own, or they might need the Necromancer Academy to come up with a universal necromancy spell. Otherwise, three people cleaning up a planet would probably be exhausting and they still wouldn't finish.

Chapter 213 Use me in battle! With me, victory is assured!

"Yes, the letter of request for battle was submitted by us; it reflects the opinions of all our officers and soldiers. Yes, the training is progressing smoothly. Old leader, is there a mission? Where are we going to fight? Who are we fighting? Aliens or those terrorists?"

In the conference room, the army commander had a phone hanging on his ear, looking serious, while the chief of staff next to him looked at him with a hint of expectation.

"Specific combat information will be sent to your combat command center later. However, I must tell you that this mission is extremely challenging. We will often be outnumbered and outgunned, and there is a high possibility of heavy casualties. Also, due to the long distance, logistical support will be difficult to keep up. Are you prepared to face these difficulties?"

The army commander stood up straight with a snap, "I assure the Party, the country, the people, and all of civilization that if there is a war, I will be used, and if I am used, victory will be assured!"

"Alright, stop talking big. This is an opportunity we fought hard for. If we fail this time, we'll only be the ones being protected from now on. I demand absolute certainty, do you understand?!"

"Understood, absolutely no mistakes! Please rest assured, leader!" the army commander said very seriously.

"Alright, the combat equipment this time will be provided by the weapons manufacturing department of the Clock Tower and will be delivered to your camp tomorrow. Just one thing: learn how to use it properly!"

"Yes, sir!" the commander answered loudly. After hearing the phone hang up, he put it down and turned to look at the others waiting for news in the conference room.

"I hereby declare the start of the pre-war preparation phase. Everyone, mobilize!"

Once the order was given, the entire camp sprang into action. The army commander and chief of staff immediately went to the operations command center. In this day and age, war is all about information; whoever has more information has the greatest advantage.

"This is our main enemy?" The corps commander stared blankly at the zombie portrait in his hand. "Besides this photo, do you have any other data? Like attack patterns, movement speed, bite force, or something like that..."