Chapter 41: Tactics
After delivering 6,000 units of Living Ore, Kaiser hurriedly left. This scoundrel had obtained 4,000 units of Living Ore for himself and was surely off to fence the goods, using those 4,000 units of Living Ore as leverage to secure benefits that could be taken out of this world.
Su Xiao would not participate in the gains from this aspect. For him, the Living Ore consumed now was an investment. Once the faction he established was strong enough to sweep away the enemies, he would reap even greater rewards.
Compared to Su Xiao's method of developing his forces, Kaiser's approach yielded faster returns. However, if Su Xiao succeeded, his gains would be several times greater than Kaiser's.
Did Kaiser not understand investment? Was he unwilling to invest his Living Ore in Su Xiao? Not at all. Kaiser had been urgently summoned and could not guarantee cooperation with Su Xiao for the entire world progression, so naturally, he would grab whatever he could.
This short-term cooperation was the best approach for both parties. During the collaboration, there was no superior-subordinate relationship between Su Xiao and Kaiser. Despite Kaiser often appearing as a wretched figure rubbing his hands together with a sly grin, he would never submit to another's authority.
When Kaiser did things, he had his own ideas and methods. Su Xiao never interfered with that; he only cared about the results. The same went for Kaiser. From their very first cooperation long ago, Kaiser had never interfered with Su Xiao's decisions. At most, when risks arose, they would remind each other, stopping at that point, never meddling.
Often after cooperating, Su Xiao and Kaiser would each attend to their own affairs, only contacting each other when something came up. When encountering particularly tough nuts to crack, they would join forces to take down the enemy.
The night breeze in the late hours was cool. Kaiser slowly walked out of the Doomsday Fortress. He supported his belly with one hand, a toothpick dangling from his mouth. After burping, he got into a vintage car driven by a pig-headed man, Kaiser's newly hired bodyguard.
Whenever Su Xiao offered to treat him to a meal, Kaiser's stomach capacity would immediately increase dramatically. As the saying went, everything below the neck was stomach, and anything he couldn't finish, he would pack up and take away.
Watching the retro-style vintage car drive off along the gravel road beneath the cliff wall, Su Xiao turned back and re-entered the fortress.
He stopped before a wall that bore a round metal mouth, opened the team storage space, and the Living Ore inside surged out, falling into the churning metal mouth that resembled a mixer, quickly being crushed.
After Su Xiao had the fortress devour 3,000 units of Living Ore, the fortress's stored living energy reached 311,250 points. He took out the fortress core and chose to upgrade it.
[Yes/No to upgrade the Doomsday Fortress.]
[To upgrade this mobile fortress to T2 level, a total of 26,000 points of living energy is required.]
[To upgrade this mobile fortress to T0 level, a total of 200,000 points of living energy is required.]
There were two upgrade methods. After reviewing the detailed information, Su Xiao learned that following the normal process, gradually upgrading from T3 to T0 level would require a total of 176,000 points of living energy.
Su Xiao now had a choice: directly upgrade the Doomsday Fortress to T0 level. As a cost, he would need to pay an additional 24,000 points of living energy.
There was no need to deliberate. Although it would consume more living energy, this compressed the time required for three upgrades into one, and it was expected that the upgrade would be completed by tomorrow morning.
[The fortress is about to undergo a transformation. Due to the magnitude of this upgrade, please do not use the Evolution Nest, Living Ore Crude Conversion Device, etc., during this time.]
Before the fortress began its transformation, Su Xiao used the fortress to reconvert the living energy inside back into Living Ore.
After a moment, Su Xiao stored all the Living Ore into the team storage space and walked toward the top floor of the fortress.
Returning to the main control room, Su Xiao began to organize his subsequent plans. He still had 4,000 units of Living Ore left. This windfall had to be utilized well; the opportunity for a rise came only once.
First, he needed to reserve 1,000 units of Living Ore. Simply mass-producing troops was useless. Although the Boar Warriors were a level 3 troop type that incorporated some insect genes, that did not allow them to be born with weapons like the Demon Beasts.
The Boar Warriors' [Combat Instinct (X)] ability indicated that their initial combat strength was not weak, but they were still transformed from Pig-Headed Men. They had thick skin and were durable, but their only attack method was a mining pick. If too many were mass-produced, they wouldn't even have picks to wield and would have to fight with their fists.
To have the capability to wage war against the Vassal Alliance, the Boar Warriors must be armed. Firearms in this world were out of the question. While they had their uses in war, the Boar Warriors simply couldn't use them, and training them in a short time was a pipe dream.
Thus, having them charge into melee with cold weapons was the only choice. This was also Su Xiao's most accustomed method.
Morale +70 points, all true attributes +20 points, maximum health +45%, physical defense +30 points, all ability levels increased by Lv.10, Blood·Soul Power (Passive Lv.55+10). With these buffs from War Lord stacked on, followed by a single command for all Boar Warriors to charge forward, that was Su Xiao's 'tactic.'
It wasn't that he didn't want to arrange formations. Unless it was something like the insect race, it was simply impossible. Supposedly commanding 300,000 Boar Warriors in battle against the enemy, Su Xiao could only issue one order throughout: "Start the war, charge forward," and that was it.
Not because he didn't want to, but because it was impossible. Not to mention hundreds of thousands of Boar Warriors; even commanding a few hundred Boar Warriors in a chaotic melee with the enemy was extremely difficult.
Unless every 10 to 12 soldiers formed a squad, each with a squad leader, then layered upward, with complete wartime communication equipment, could a commander effectively command.
Every time he developed his forces, Su Xiao would give the order and then sit back and wait. If they won, they won. If they were about to lose, he could consider throwing [Blazing Sun's Wrath: Apollo] at the enemy.
If that still didn't work, he could take advantage of the chaotic battle, while the enemy's main force was pinned down, to go behind enemy lines and find the enemy commander. Su Xiao had done this before.
The command issue had never worried Su Xiao. Since it was already determined that he couldn't arrange formations, he simply gave up on that approach and used the brawl tactic to counter all of the enemy's setups.
This kind of 'tactic' had a characteristic: once the enemy's forces suffered a setback, the enemy commander's psyche would inevitably suffer true damage. Their thoughts would basically be: "I actually lost to such a shitty tactic?"
There were quite a few enemy commanders who became depressed over this. The representative example was the Grand General of the Secret Peruvian Dwarf Kingdom in the Czar World, Spring Iron Sheep. This old fellow's depression was the most severe. By the later stages of the battle, he had been beaten so badly that he became particularly unconfident.
The brawl tactic had a particularly hardcore requirement: the individual strength of the soldier-type units must be stronger than the opponent's.
Although weapons could not be neglected, forging a large number of weapons in a short time was not feasible at this stage. Forget about going to Freedom City to have tens of thousands of weapons made; even forging a thousand would have the people from the "Watchtower" knocking on the door within 10 minutes to invite you for tea.
In this regard, Su Xiao was prepared. The three major forces—"Watchtower," "Aurora Council," and "Vassal Alliance"—regularly replaced the weapons, combat suits, etc., of their respective soldiers. They were only in a truce with the human race; war might break out again in the future.
Su Xiao had no interest in the discarded combat suits and such. He was very interested in the Vassal Alliance's second-hand standard cold weapons.
The Vassal Alliance's metal cells meant their physical defense was not weak. The human race's substitutes, condensed from souls and bio-active metal, were often used for melee combat as well. Many people simply wore their substitutes like metal battle armor, greatly enhancing their survivability and close combat strength.
From this, it could be imagined that the Vassal Alliance's standard cold weapons must have their unique merits.
Glancing at the time, it was already 2 AM. Su Xiao took out a communicator, adjusted the frequency to D4/55624, and dialed.
After a moment, the connection was established. Su Xiao spoke:
"Li Xiniwei, haven't seen you in a few days. Have you established a foothold in the Tribunal?"
"Not yet. Where do you think this is? This is the Tribunal. The waters run deep."
Li Xiniwei's tone was quite cold, clearly having been woken from sleep.
"Then you'd better prepare your funeral arrangements."
"What the hell are you talking about..."
Before Li Xiniwei could finish, with a click, Su Xiao hung up.
In the dim room, Baha, perched on the back of a chair not far away, opened his eyes and asked, "Boss, what's the plan?"
"Kill him. Dispose of the body cleanly. Getting entangled with the Tribunal at this stage would be troublesome."
"Understood."
Just as Baha was about to enter the alternate space, the communicator on the table in front of Su Xiao vibrated slightly, and the blue indicator light flashed. Li Xiniwei was calling back.
Su Xiao answered the call but said nothing.
"I was a bit groggy just now. I'm awake now. Things are going okay on my end. I got rid of that old vampire."
"..."
"Hey, say something. You're not... really planning to get rid of me, are you?"
"How could that be? I was just joking with you earlier."
As Su Xiao spoke, he raised his hand to signal Baha to hold off for now. Li Xiniwei was still useful.