Chapter 306: Summer Crown Reward, Terrifying Military Expertise

Chapter 306: Chapter 306: Summer Crown Reward, Terrifying Military Expertise

"But why would they do this?"

Lance stared at the map, lost in thought.

"If they rout our entire conquest force, causing this whole mission to clear the Summer Crown to fail completely..."

"...then how would they get the bountiful rewards from the Summer Crown’s final tally?"

After all,

Only by completely clearing the Underground City...

...would the Crown Value accumulated from killing monsters actually be useful.

Besides the special Underground City rewards for the top ten teams and individuals,

that Crown Value could also be used to redeem various rare materials from the Underground City on the final rewards list.

Lance’s original plan was to use all the Crown Value he farmed this time to trade for Skill Distillation Fragments and Satori Essence to continue strengthening himself.

In his current normal state, without activating his Dragon Form, he could probably face four to five Level 4 Senior Adventurers head-on without being at a disadvantage.

However,

what if the other side appeared as a complete, tactically diverse five-person team?

What if their team had a long-range Shooter, a melee tank, a physical assassin, a Caster for Controlling the Field, and even a support to provide buffs?

Once surrounded and focused down by such a well-coordinated team...

...he would most likely end up being successfully defeated.

’At that point, I’d have no choice but to activate my second phase.’

’My current strength is still too weak,’ Lance lamented silently to himself.

’When will I become invincible in my normal state?’

Lance pulled his thoughts back and reached for a report Julius handed him.

It had been hastily compiled by the Minstrels on the front lines based on the day’s data.

It detailed the area cleared during the day’s conquest, personnel casualties, and resource consumption.

This data would directly influence Lance’s subsequent tactical arrangements for encircling the Crimson Bell of Death.

’Since those rats want to play this game of hunting Adventurers... Lance decided he would show them. He’d let them see just how nasty the macro-level tactics he’d developed from years of playing grand strategy war games in his past life could be!’

However,

when Lance’s gaze swept over the row of progress data at the top of the report,

a look of surprise immediately appeared on his face.

"Is this data correct?"

He hadn’t expected this. He had seriously underestimated the practical command potential of the three captains before him.

These three, who were clueless about internal affairs,

showed astonishing efficiency once they were put on the front lines of the conquest!

On the first day,

the three areas they were responsible for had each seen an astonishing progress of around 20% in cleared area!

This greatly exceeded Lance’s previous estimates.

After all, his worst-case scenario had been that 10% progress on the first day would be a passing grade.

"Captain Viters, the second-most-hazardous area your Iron Throne is responsible for has a progress rate of nearly 22%?"

Lance looked up, offering a generous compliment in front of everyone.

"The Iron Throne’s heavy-armor push tactic is truly impressive."

Hearing Lance’s direct praise so suddenly,

Viters couldn’t help but puff out his chest.

He didn’t know why, but hearing this young man’s praise gave him a secret thrill of satisfaction.

Next,

Lance flipped to the second half of the report to check the consumption of High-Energy Spiritual Cuisine for the day.

The consumption data was completely within the predicted range.

He looked up and smiled at Julius.

"Based on the current rate of resource consumption,"

Lance announced a decision.

"on the night before the final assault, we’ll still have ample supplies left in our logistics warehouse."

"I’ve decided that on that day, we will hold a grand banquet for everyone in the camp!"

Hearing this proposal,

the three captains’ eyes lit up.

Holding a banquet before the final battle would be a huge morale booster for everyone.

Especially for the tens of thousands of Adventurers who had been forced to stay in the Underground City for more than ten days.

They had experienced a food crisis, the terror of death, high-pressure military control, and daily conquest missions.

By that point, many people’s Spirit would probably be at its breaking point.

At a time like this,

a boisterous banquet and the aroma of food were the best medicine for the trauma of war.

It could ignite everyone’s deepest yearning and desire to return to the Material Realm alive and enjoy a good life.

Moreover,

don’t forget all the non-combat Professionals in their logistics department.

Then, they could use the large-scale cooking Skills of the Spiritual Chefs to apply a group-wide buff to the entire camp!

"A pre-battle feast..."

Felix thought, sitting in his chair.

’The mark of a wise ruler!’

After finishing the report and setting the tone for the final phase,

Lance’s smile vanished.

"Alright, I fully understand the situation."

"Now, let’s talk about how to deal with the Crimson Bell of Death."

Hearing Lance bring up this topic, the three captains immediately sat up straight, their expressions turning incredibly serious.

"Since they enjoy these small-scale tactical ambushes,"

"I’ll show them what true grand-strategic annihilation looks like!"

"Based on intel from the wounded, the Crimson Bell of Death’s core team operates as a five-person squad."

"Although only three have shown themselves so far,"

"analysis of the battle traces indicates they definitely have a Shooter positioned in the shadows."

"Furthermore, their team must have a Caster hidden among them who can obscure vision over a large area."

Lance looked at Viters.

"Among the three who have appeared, one is a heavy-armored Armor Piercing specialist, specifically for tearing through defensive lines."

The three captains couldn’t help but nod as they listened to Lance’s meticulous analysis.

"Therefore,"

"Starting tomorrow, all teams will switch to an ’Overlapping Advance’!"

The three were completely bewildered upon hearing this new term.

They had never heard of such a tactic.

Seeing their confused expressions, Lance patiently began to explain. This was something he had learned from a certain real-time strategy game in his past life.

"It’s simple. We sacrifice the conquest speed we were originally aiming for."

"We’ll force all the spread-out squads to tighten their formation and close the distance between one another."

Lance drew a dense, honeycomb-like grid on the map.

"Squads will no longer use the mechanism of sending a signal only when they encounter an enemy."

"Every squad must, on the minute, every minute, report to its adjacent squads with a flashing signal!"

"If, at that one-minute mark, no signal comes through..."

"...it means there’s trouble in that squad’s area!"

After hearing this explanation,

Julius and the others sucked in a sharp breath.

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

"This way, their Spell that can block sight and Perception becomes completely useless!"

Viters slapped his thigh and exclaimed.

"You could even say that if they dare cast that screening Spell from the shadows,"

"within our overlapping grid, that action is equivalent to lighting a torch in the dark, directly sending an ’under attack’ signal to all surrounding squads!"

This highly specific tactical counter was something the three captains, who were used to fighting Demons for years, could never have conceived of in such a short time.

They were used to straightforward, head-on clashes and truly lacked this kind of intricate thinking when it came to tactical games against other humans.

And from what they knew,

this young man named Lance had always been a lone Adventurer who kept to himself, right?

Where on earth did he learn such micro-management tactics for large-scale, coordinated army operations?

Could it be...

...he was one of those geniuses from the Legends, born with innate knowledge?

Then,

Lance’s next words shocked them even more profoundly.

"Any squad that encounters an attack from the Crimson Bell of Death is absolutely forbidden from making any form of counterattack!"

"Their one and only mission is to contract and defend with all their might!"

"Why?"

Julius was greatly confused.

Lance explained.

"Because, under the new advance formation,"

"once a squad misses its one-minute signal,"

"based on the overlapping distance calculations, at least two of the nearest squads will converge on the coordinates of the silent squad at full speed within the next ten seconds!"

At this, a flash of lightning went through the mind of the previously silent Felix.

He finally realized the most terrifying part of this tactic!

"So..."

Felix’s voice was a little hoarse.

"So when the next minute arrives, if another signal is missed, then four squads will notice the anomaly and join the encirclement."

"The minute after that, it’ll be eight squads..."

"This exponentially growing envelopment will snowball and get bigger and bigger!"

"Until the mere five members of the Crimson Bell of Death are completely trapped and crushed within an encirclement of hundreds, even thousands, of people!"

"Exactly."

Lance gave Felix a satisfied look.

"Since these rats think they’re so strong individually and love playing assassin,"

"I’ll give them a chance to show off."

Lance sneered.

"Let’s see the five of them fight a thousand of us."

The three men present felt a profound chill run through them upon hearing this.

So sinister!

This move completely cut off all their escape routes!

And this line of thinking was the essence of the military philosophy left behind by the historical great man Lance respected most in his past life!

"In every battle, concentrate an absolutely superior force!"

Lance’s tone was firm and resonant.

"Concentrate a force at least three times that of the enemy, preferably four to six times!"

"Surround the enemy from all sides, strive for total annihilation, and let not a single one escape the net!"

"On the macro-strategic level, we can look down on them, one of us against ten of them!"

"But in the micro-tactical execution, we must take every local encirclement seriously, using ten of us to fight one of them!"