Crisis on All Sides

"Captain, putting all our assets into this is far too risky!"

"Captain, why not step up recruitment and offer better terms to bring in more people? If we can recruit around 4,000, then contribute another 5,000 ourselves and put up half our assets, wouldn't that be much safer?"

"Yes, Captain. If all our people go to the Energy Layer, the Material Layer could fall into complete chaos. We won't be able to suppress those ambitious Plane Lords."

Most of the members still urged the captain to proceed cautiously and not commit all their assets.

Captain Quake shook his head. "If we could recruit 4,000 people, why would filling all 10,000 slots be a problem? More than 1,200 is already the limit of what we can recruit. We can't offer better terms unless we give up our core interests, and that is impossible!"

"We can only carry this mission ourselves!"

"The captain is right. If we want to recruit more manpower, we can only give up core interests and hand over part of the Internet's authority," Zhou Ming added.

Everyone fell silent.

They had no choice but to admit that for the Antivirus Plan, the Protagonist Squad could only dig into its own reserves and complete it themselves.

At Captain Quake's request, a full 8,000 core members collectively signed up to join the Antivirus Plan.

The applicants included Captain Quake, Vice-Captain Natasha, Roger, and others... Of the Protagonist Squad's eighteen members, sixteen signed up.

Only Pi Gu Sa Si from B Group, who oversaw intelligence work, and Zhou Ming from C Group remained behind, responsible for suppressing any rebellions that might erupt in the Material Layer.

Why did Zhou Ming stay behind?

Originally, he had also submitted an application to enter the Energy Layer and join the battle to encircle and