Odd Containment Specialist.

Chapter 886 Special Warfare Methods on the Historical Line (Part Two)

In other historical battles, the fighting continues, with Smith constantly providing “new” battle reports.

The battle report is new because it just happened, and old because it happened too quickly and is already over, with consequences that cannot be undone.

"The first line of defense has been breached. Damian and Slade have entered the history of the second line of defense. The second line of defense is being blocked by the Skeleton Saint and the Blue-Clad Marquis, and the local Seven-Forked Gate's shuttle capacity has been brought to its limit..."

A minute later, before Smith had even finished delivering the battle report, he immediately inserted a more important new battle report.

"Slade has been contained and controlled. No one on our side has died. Damian has broken through the second line of defense and is heading to the location of the third line of defense."

Jiang Wengao exclaimed in surprise, "Detained and controlled? What does that mean? Does it mean to capture them alive and imprison them?"

Shangguan Yan took a sip of mineral water and said calmly:

"Don't be so surprised. The reason we are taking this matter so seriously is not because of those people from the Scar Era, but because we are worried that they will tell the truth of the cyclical history to the local residents of the old history along the way as they rise, thus creating a domino effect."

But judging from their current behavior, they have no intention of doing so, which proves that the decision-makers behind them do not intend to share the truth with other eras.

Indeed, it is impossible for an ambitious, named pursuer to tell the truth to people of other eras. The number of places to reach the present world is limited. Although increasing the number of competitors can lead to the rapid collapse of the present world's defenses, in the end, different histories will also compete for those limited places, forming a competitive landscape of warring states.

Climbing the ladder to reach the modern world has no direct relation to personal strength; as long as the conditions for replacing modern people are met, it is possible. Therefore, with a large number of people, whether or not one can reach the modern world depends purely on luck. Clearly, this king did not intend to rely on luck to determine the outcome.

This decision was indeed good, but unfortunately, he underestimated the influence of the Control Bureau. We have a lot of experience dealing with the counterattacks of the old regime; although the casualty rate is high, the success rate of blocking them is also very high.

Xia Shou's eyes showed a subtle change: "So, Minister, you think the chances of winning this time are also very high?"

"How do you define winning?" Shangguan Yan asked gently.

Is victory achieved by preventing the opponent from reaching the real world?
If that's the case, then our chances of winning are indeed quite high. The abnormal time flow of the Scar Era is very disadvantageous to them. Once history is reset, they will lose all their advantages.

To achieve this, all we need to do is stall for time.

But to achieve this, many people may have to be sacrificed. In the eyes of the control bureau, this is not a victory, but rather a heavy loss.

Although the counterattack of the old history was a war subjectively initiated by the inhabitants of the old history, it was essentially a natural disaster. They were not the enemy, but a phenomenon, and could not be eliminated. Even if you slaughtered all the people of that era, once history was reset, they would still be there, and perhaps one day they would still launch a counterattack.

To completely defeat them is as unrealistic as preventing earthquakes and tsunamis. Therefore, we cannot simply view this matter from the perspective of winning or losing. Our goal has always been to minimize our own casualties while stopping the other side.

As you just saw, the crow priest died. For an individual soldier, the final outcome of a war has no direct relation to his own life or death.

After saying that, Shangguan Yan added, "Moreover... this time is quite different from ordinary historical events. The underworld where we fell is itself a variable."

"The third line of defense failed to contain Damian; the Midnight Confessor and the Day Emperor killed him," Smith suddenly announced.

"Killed? He's dead already?" Su Weiyu couldn't believe it.

"Wh...what kill?" Jiang Wengao wondered if he had misheard.

“Damian, the Shield of the Rending King, has been killed,” Smith repeated. “Don’t be surprised. Every line of defense was built to gather intelligence on the enemy’s abilities. Fortunately, the next line of defense was prepared with countermeasures in mind. Not only were personnel deployed, but the site setup and various rituals were also prepared in advance. Being prepared to catch the unprepared is the normal outcome.” Shangguan Yan finished speaking and then asked, “What about our losses?”

"The crows died as a sacrifice, and the Emperor of Day went mad and left the battlefield, disappearing without a trace," Smith replied succinctly.

"The Quick Transmigration Department will handle the cleanup for Emperor Zhou, so there's no need to worry about that. But are these the only two who came up? Didn't Prince Sprite come up? And what about the Imperial Advisor?"

“No information available,” Smith replied.

"Is that so?" Shangguan Yan fell into deep thought.

After a while, she asked again, "Have any of our people from the second group that went there returned?"

"No."

"None of them came back. They must have all been left there. There should be quite a few of them who could have come up. It's impossible that they only sent two. They must have just been the vanguard."

"What are the advantages of going separately?" Xia Shou asked.

Shangguan Yan: "Perhaps we are wrong. Spread may not be so arrogant. He wants to test the strength of our defense. If his two confidants can break through to a higher position on the history tree, then Spread will choose not to trigger a history domino effect."

But if Damian and Slade don't return to report after reaching their destination, it would prove they perished en route, and Spreadt might then reveal the truth, choosing to amplify the impact.

"So it will be a great historical war?" Jiang Wengao said.

Shangguan Yan: "There are solutions. If Sprite is smart enough, she will make the same choice as us."

"What choice?" Jiang Wengao pressed.

He hadn't yet understood what Shangguan Yan meant, but Xia Shou had already deduced what Shangguan Yan was referring to, and said directly, "It's about lying, presenting a certain cyclical history as the present."

"Huh?" Jiang Wengao's mind was buzzing, and he felt like he couldn't keep up with the train of thought.

Xia Shou glanced at Xiao Gao, pondered for a few seconds, and decided to use the easiest way to explain it to him. Then he turned to Shangguan Yan and said, "I think it's okay to tell Xiao Gao about this now."

Shangguan Yan smiled and nodded knowingly: "Tell him."

"What? What are you talking about?" Jiang Wengao began to get nervous.

Then Xia Shou solemnly put his hand on Jiang Wengao's shoulder: "The truth I'm about to tell you is that the time we are in now is actually in a cyclical history. We are not in the real modern world. The real present world is now 2514."

Jiang Wengao opened his eyes wide, stared at Xia Shou's eyes for a while, and then suddenly turned his head to look at Shangguan Yan.

Shangguan Yan nodded meaningfully with her ever-mysterious smile: "That's right, we have always been one of the defense lines. This is actually a historical defense strategy formulated by the Control Bureau in modern times, or to be precise, in 2514."

(End of this chapter)