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And with this command, the battle at the border area has come to an end.

— A Day Later - Seraphine Isles —

Within the opulent estate of Supreme Leader Juan Carlos De Almeida, he sat in his office watching the news of his grand armies\' defeat, surrounded by generals and advisors from the Qing Empire.

On the TV, the reporter showed scenes of several hundred Seraphine Isles soldiers being led, bound, toward a prison camp in New Atlantis, amidst the cheers and boos of the New Atlantis citizens.

The scene shifted to the White Fortress, a defensive perimeter set up by the military. The atmosphere there was jubilant, with a full-blown party in progress.

Everyone had either beer, whiskey, vodka, soju, or sake in hand, partying hard. Some soldiers danced shirtless, while others ran naked across the screen, prompting the cameraman to quickly pan away.

"I\'m Wendy from Alpha Times! We\'re here at the forefront of New Atlantis\' defensive perimeter, built near the territories of two warlords who have surrendered to the New Atlantis government. As you can see, there\'s been no loss of life here," Wendy narrated over the loud party music.

"As you can see, nearly everyone in this defensive perimeter is celebrating the decisive victory over the Seraphine Isles forces." She gestured toward the festivities, as a soldier in power armor, wearing a party hat on his helmet and holding a large mug of beer, passed by. His faceplate was open, allowing him to sip from the mug.

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"Excuse me… Excuse me, officer," the soldier stopped at the reporter\'s call, waving to the camera. "How do you feel about this victory?" Wendy asked.

"Is that even a question? Of course, I feel great!" The soldier answered, drawing cheers from his comrades behind him.

"No… I mean…" The reporter tried to clarify, then asked again. "According to the statistics we have, of the 100,000 Seraphine Isles forces involved in this campaign, only 0.424% survived. We\'ve heard that all of their aircraft and tanks were destroyed, leaving no survivors. Considering these numbers, do you think the weapons used by Astral Corp are too destructive?

It seems as though they deliberately left no chance for surrender."

"Booooo! Booooo! Get out of here, lady!" came the booing from the soldier\'s comrades upon hearing the question.

The soldier made a strange face, his smile not quite a smile. "Let me tell you something, lady," he began, taking a sip of his beer before continuing. "A thief doesn\'t have the right to complain if they invade someone\'s home and get shot in the face."

Cheers erupted again from his comrades at the response.

"Besides," the soldier continued, "I\'ve heard from some higher-ups that these numbers are actually beneficial for maintaining order and not straining our resources. You see, Sector Alpha City… no, New Atlantis, is just a very small country, about the size of Manhattan Island, with a population of around 750,000. Our food and many of our goods heavily rely on imports.

Yes, we\'ve set aside some land for agriculture, but it\'s still not enough for us. And letting more than 100,000 troops into the city would be a disaster. Even if we reduced their number by half, it would still strain our food supplies. So the higher-ups deliberately culled their numbers to a more manageable level."

Outside the screen, Juan Carlos, General Wang, and the Qing Empire\'s advisors watched the scene unfold on the TV. A sense of dread filled their hearts as they witnessed the destructiveness and precision of the Astral Corp weapons during the battle.

It was… astounding, but for Juan Carlos, who had lost nearly all of his troops, it was heart-wrenching.

This loss would set him back for years; with only about 300,000 troops overall, losing a third in one battle was devastating. If he were to lose another 100,000, there would be no way to control the protesters and rioters trying to dethrone him.

Even now, reports were flooding in from cities under his rule, where protesters were starting to converge, causing trouble for the soldiers stationed there. It seemed another round of brutal suppression and culling was necessary.

But he couldn\'t simply cull them as he wished. If he could, he\'d kill all of those protesters, but he just can\'t. He needed some of them to produce goods; otherwise, the economy would collapse if they were all killed. Farmers, engineers, craftsmen—his soldiers alone couldn\'t fill the gaps left by the protesters.

"This..." Juan Carlos muttered, fear creeping into his voice as he looked at General Wang.

General Wang and the advisors examined the reports, recovered footage, and news with solemn expressions. They realized they had kicked a steel plate, but still, they believed that with their might, they could melt this steel plate called Astral Corp and shape them in whatever shape they want.

At this moment, the Qing Empire had not yet agreed to reinforce the Seraphine Isles. Based on the footage and reports they received, they knew they needed at least a defensive measure against the highly precise missile systems and blade drone swarms.

Otherwise, sending troops would be like feeding them into a meat grinder. The Qing Empire had its own issues requiring troops, and even with their vast standing army of about 10 million, they couldn\'t afford to invest all their manpower in a backwater country like the Seraphine Isles.

"General Wang... I\'m afraid I might need you to convince His Majesty to help us," said Juan Carlos.

Hearing this, Wang Dahui looked at Juan Carlos. "What do you need? Weapons or financial support?" General Wang asked. He couldn\'t refuse Juan Carlos, knowing that he was just a coward who wanted to live a life of luxury.

If he didn\'t handle this situation, Juan Carlos might chicken out, and they would lose a valuable pawn. In fact, the Qing Empire never expected the Seraphine Isles to win, but they thought at least the forces should have caused some damage to Astral Corp instead of nearly being wiped out like this.

Yes, they knew that Daniel was a mage, and a very powerful one at that. However, this was a secular war, not a mage\'s war. Daniel could only use artifacts disguised as technologically advanced equipment, such as power armor and certain weapons.

These artifacts were difficult to produce because they couldn\'t be made entirely by machines; at some point, Daniel needed humans to finish crafting them. This was the norm when it came to artifacts, regardless of the situation.

Unfortunately, Maria—and now Albert—had done their job in counterintelligence too well. None of the information from the Atlanteus base leaked to the outside world.

At best, they could only gather superficial information about Astral Corp\'s operations. They couldn\'t even access intel from the corporation higher-ups, such as details on the next prototype or what experiments Daniel was conducting.

If they had known, all their assumptions about the norm would have been overturned, forcing them to reevaluate the situation. But in this world, there are no "what ifs." They could only work blindly with whatever information they managed to extract from Daniel\'s troops through their own reckless actions.

They could never have imagined that they weren\'t just fighting Astral Corp troops—they were also up against a super-advanced A.I. that took joy in human suffering, especially that of its master Daniel\'s enemies.

Hearing General Wang\'s inquiry, the fearful Juan Carlos hesitated, testing the waters. "What do I need? Can... can you count me out of this conflict? I\'m afraid that with just my troops, I can\'t win this war," he said, hoping to withdraw from the game between the Qing Empire and Astral Corp.

"Are you sure? Even if you want out, I don\'t think Astral Corp would let you off unscathed. You\'ve already offended them, and from what I know about Daniel Emberweave, he\'s not the type to forgive or forget," General Wang responded, trying to appeal to Juan Carlos\'s cowardice.

"Then... then... in that case, can you help me with manpower and vehicles? Like tanks and aircraft?" Juan Carlos quickly changed his mind, too afraid of death to risk Daniel coming after him after the offense.

General Wang nodded in satisfaction. "I\'ll try to speak with His Majesty as much as I can and see what I can do."

General Wang knew the bottom line of the Qing Empire. He was aware that the Qing Empire would approve reinforcing the Seraphine Isles with Qing Empire troops, as long as it didn\'t exceed 500,000 troops, including logistics, and a budget of 5 billion US dollars.

But he still needs to make the pawn to put in some effort too.