Chapter 187: Change Of Plans

"It sounds reasonable, but it is also filled with loopholes—what if something happens to the city while we are out on the field?" Richard Nixon asked, his sharp gaze locking onto Tyson.

​"That is precisely why only the top five guilds will handle this offensive. Those below S-Rank will remain behind to secure and protect the city perimeter... Furthermore, my guild’s primary Cleric-class Awakened possesses a rare spatial ability to instantly teleport us back into the city. However, the operational radius is capped at five hundred miles, so we will set our main defensive line exactly five hundred miles from the city," Tyson answered calmly.

​"This way, if the city unexpectedly comes under attack, we can simply teleport straight back here," Margaret added, crossing her arms.

​"Your Cleric-class Awakened might very well be an SSS-RANK, but does this individual truly possess the massive energy capacity to transport so many combatants at once?" Daniel asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

​"No, she can only teleport twenty people at most in a single casting."

​"Twenty?!"

​Daniel, Richard, and Marianne were instantly stunned, their eyes widening at the absurdly small number.

​"What utter nonsense!! Do you have any idea how many high-tier Awakened are supposed to deploy with you on this task?! There will be easily more than two hundred Awakened marching out, and if things turn south, only twenty of you can actually teleport back!!"

​BAM!

​Margaret slammed her palm heavily onto the round table, springing up and pointing her finger directly at Daniel, her eyes flashing with cold anger:

​"We are well aware that you value the lives of the civilian populace and lower Awakened, but without taking calculated risks, we will never achieve anything! Take the Doomsday Dungeon disaster for example!! You claim you value human life, yet when all those elite Awakened marched blindly toward that dungeon three years ago, you sat back and watched without intervening!! Why are you suddenly so persistent on stopping us now?!"

​"You!!" Daniel was completely speechless, his throat tightening.

​No matter how deeply he resented her words, he couldn’t fight himself against that cold, piercing logic. He had sat back and watched that ill-fated expedition unfold, but he had only done so because he knew a far higher power was operating silently in the shadows behind the scenes.

​"You people..."

​He stared across at their faces one by one, seeing that every single guild leader present remained entirely serious, cold, and rigidly determined in their stance.

​’Damn it!! I keep having this persistent, sickening gut feeling that something is horribly wrong here... We don’t even know the true cause behind this sudden monster tide! Mindless Monsters will never willingly join forces and launch an organized assault across such a vast distance without something immensely powerful controlling the entire show from behind.’ He thought, letting out a deep, heavy sigh.

​’Maybe... maybe I really am just overthinking things.’ He exhaled, feeling utterly helpless. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

​"Bad news!!"

​The reinforced doors of the command chamber burst wide open, and a breathless, middle-aged man rushed inside, sweat pouring down his forehead as he panted heavily:

​"What happened? Is this regarding the strange, massive energy signature we detected emanating from the Aetheldawn estate two days ago?" Richard immediately asked, turning his head toward the newcomer.

​The man completely ignored Richard’s query, scrambling forward and stopping directly before Tyson:

​"Guild Leader... it isn’t about that energy anomaly... It’s about the monster tide!!"

​"What about it?" Tyson asked sharply, his tone dropping.

​"The monsters... something incomprehensible just happened to the horde! Their energy signatures suddenly increased drastically across the board... Due to this sudden atmospheric surge, every single monster below SSS-RANK has forcibly jumped an entire rank! Right now, there are no longer any standard S-Rank monsters remaining within the horde—there are only SS-RANK and SSS-RANK beasts... And there are more than two hundred of these high-tier monsters in this single tide!!"

​"WHAT?!!!"

​Every single leader in the command room exclaimed in shock, their faces draining of color. But the messenger wasn’t done delivering his dire report:

​"Because of this explosive surge in speed and strength, the monster tide’s arrival timeline has collapsed... It will now reach the city perimeter in just two days... Well, in actuality, we have only today and tomorrow left to prepare!!" He stammered frantically.

​Tyson stood up abruptly, his expression turning deathly grim. His meticulously crafted strategic plan had been flawless on paper, but now? Every single calculation was utterly useless.

​"Do we even possess that many SSS-RANK Awakened currently within the city?" Tyson asked, turning his dark gaze toward Daniel.

​"If we forcibly summon every single known SSS-RANK, we might manage to pool together up to a hundred... But if we distribute high-grade consumables, and reserve Heaven or high-tier skill books, more will certainly appear. I am confident we could reach perhaps two hundred," Daniel estimated grimly.

​"What about drawing from the underground forces?" Richard asked, rising to his feet alongside the others.

​"No, that is far too risky! Those underground crime lords are absolutely not to be trusted in a crisis..." Marianne stood up firmly, placing both palms flat on the table:

​"We initially planned to keep this entire operation hidden from The public, but this sudden, unnatural surge in the monsters’ strength changes everything! I now fully agree with Lord Daniel—we must immediately begin evacuating the populace down into the massive underground emergency bunker built directly beneath the city!" She declared urgently.

​"Even though Silverspire is protected by a defensive barrier and houses many powerful Awakened, we cannot afford to be reckless!"

​"The underground bunker is only half the physical size of the surface city—it cannot possibly hold everyone," the woman who had remained completely silent for a long time finally spoke up. She was the calm, calculating Guild Leader of the fifth-strongest guild in Vaeloria.

​"We can only accommodate those residing within the First District at most." She added flatly.

​"What?! What about the people living in the outer districts?!" Marianne yelled at her, her eyes flashing with outrage.

​"There is simply nothing we can do for the Second District. Although they possess permissions to come and go freely within the First District, the inhabitants of that sector do not hold enough economic or strategic importance to prioritize over the inner core." She explained with chilling composure.

​"Do you even hear what is coming out of your mouth?! There are more than two hundred thousand living human souls out there--!!"

​"--Calm yourself, Guild Leader Marianne!" Tyson abruptly cut her off, his eyes dark and brooding:

​"We cannot alter reality! We miscalculated the scale of this threat!! Now, we must hurriedly evacuate as many citizens as humanly possible. The First and Second Districts will be integrated into the response, but we will strictly begin with the First. Are there any objections?" He demanded, looking around the room.

​Silence fell over the chamber. From the moment the topic of civilian evacuation was raised, not a single guild leader had uttered a single word regarding the Third District—The slum sector positioned closest to the outer wall. To these elite Guild Leaders and noble factions, the inhabitants of the Third District were nothing more than disposable cannon fodder; every single person in the room understood this unspoken truth perfectly.

​’They are all desperate criminals, unwanted outcasts, and useless waste to begin with,’ Margaret thought to herself, offering a subtle, approving nod in full agreement.