Sea Emperor's Bad News

(I'll only update four chapters today for now. I haven't been resting well these past two days. Especially last night, I stayed up late and didn't sleep well, which made me feel sleepy all day today. I even fell asleep for more than ten minutes while writing the last chapter... Starting tomorrow, I will add more chapters for monthly tickets. If I have enough monthly tickets, I will try to maintain an update of about 6 chapters per day.)

Muttering curses, Emily changed into a new set of clothes and fixed her gaze on the metal building that still stood in the same spot. It seemed that this was the thing that had blocked her and Sharp's path. Just as she was about to make a move, the metal building suddenly exploded, scattering debris everywhere.

At that moment, the words "requesting support" came from Sharp, who was not far behind Emily, plunging her into silence.

Sometimes, military personnel would rather a mission fail than request support. Because failing a mission isn't shameful; everyone fails sometimes. But requesting support is different; it implies incompetence on the part of the mission's commander.

Accepting failure is not difficult, but admitting one's own incompetence is something most people probably cannot do.

"Let's count the remaining people first and see if we have a chance to make a decision later." Emily still held a sliver of hope.

"This mission has failed. Continuing to drag it out is just a waste of time. If we request support, we can complete the mission sooner." Sharp put forward his idea. "I've thought about it. I will take responsibility for this myself and will not implicate you. After this mission is over, I will also resign from my position as general, leave the military, and devote myself to the study of swordsmanship."

"Sharp, you don't need to do this. Requesting support is not a glorious thing, but this mission is indeed difficult. His Majesty will surely understand." Emily thought that Sharp's idea of resigning was due to the setback caused by this mission.

"The idea of resigning came to me yesterday after I acquired my new ability, Blade Heart." Sharp's unchanging poker face broke into a smile again. "Before, my position in the military was a great responsibility to me, and I put everything first. But now, this position has become a burden, and I must let go of it in order to go further."

"You've acquired that legendary ability?" Emily asked eagerly after hearing this.

"Yes, the ability I've always dreamed of, I never imagined I'd gain it after a defeat." Sharp shook his head and smiled bitterly. "That's fate..."

"If His Majesty the King and the Marshal find out, they won't let you leave." Although Emily didn't know exactly how terrifying this legendary ability was, it was an ability that all the sword masters in the Universe Sea dreamed of, so it was naturally not weak.

"So, I need you to keep this a secret for me." Sharp revealed this secret because he trusted Emily.

"I can keep this a secret, but you'd better find someone you trust to handle these video recordings." Emily pointed to two surveillance cameras not far away.

"If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten about this." Sharp then remembered that there were surveillance cameras nearby. He looked down at the corpses scattered on the ground and continued, "So many people have died this time, which is clearly a major decision-making error. If I don't take responsibility, Walter's future will be completely ruined. I just need to find an excuse to leave the military, and then you can put all the blame on me."

"I understand," Emily said, adding nothing more. She knew Sharp was determined to leave, and there was little point in trying to dissuade him. Besides, Sharp's actions had also extricated her and Walter from a difficult situation. Generally, decision-makers bear joint responsibility, but Sharp, as the most senior of the three, had the most influence. It was possible he could make certain decisions without consulting the other two. This gave Emily and Walter an excuse to shirk responsibility.

"You guys take off your Mecha and count the remaining people. Give the rest of them some Sobering Agent and let them rest. Report the data to me after you've counted them," Sharp shouted to the dozen or so remaining Mecha pilots not far away. These were the only people in the entire port who were still conscious.

"Yes, sir!" The dozen or so pilots saluted, then quickly opened the hatches of their Mecha and climbed out. They huddled together for a brief discussion, assigned tasks, and then dispersed.

About half an hour later, a young soldier reappeared in front of Sharp; he was one of the dozen or so Mecha pilots.

"Reporting to you, sir, the statistics are complete. Including everyone, there are currently 1,263 survivors. Of these, 822 are uninjured, and the rest have injuries of varying degrees. The medical team is assisting in treating the wounded."

"I understand. You guys should get some rest too." Sharp waved his hand. Even though he had already planned to resign, how to write the report on this incident was a real headache.

"Only a quarter survived, which is a major strategic mistake. This is a bit troublesome..." Emily was even more overwhelmed. Sharp could just walk away, but after Sharp resigned, she would become the person most responsible for this incident and would have to clean up a mess.

"There will likely be a special investigation team to review this incident, which will certainly be quite troublesome." Sharp nodded as well. "Let's find some time to go over our stories, and make sure we don't let anything slip, or you'll all get implicated. By the way, is Walter alright?"

"He's fine, he just drank too much and passed out on the floor. I guess he has no idea what happened tonight," Emily sighed. "Ignorance is sometimes a blessing."

"Alright, you should go and rest too. Whether you can sleep or not, it's good to replenish your energy." Sharp said, walking towards the Golden Eagle. "I'm going to sleep too."

After a resounding victory, Gu Ding and his group returned to the inn, while the others dispersed early on, with many fleeing to other cities overnight.

Back at the hotel, Gu Ding inquired about everyone's condition.

"Lily, are you alright?" He was most worried about Liliath's physical condition. The consequences of overworking one's mental energy were far more serious than those of overworking one's physical body.

"It's alright. The Sea Emperor warned me before my mental energy was overloaded. Besides, your battle ended quickly, so it didn't really affect me." Liliath shook her head. With the helmet's amplification, the backlash from her hypnosis had improved considerably.

"What about Bigge? Is he injured? Sharp seems to have gotten a lot stronger," Gu Ding said, expressing his feelings.

"I'm fine," Bigge didn't find any wounds on his body.

"Robert stepped in this time too, thank you so much. If it weren't for you, our mission probably wouldn't have gone so smoothly." Gu Ding knew that without Robert's help, they would have encountered obstacles at least two stages. "Have you retrieved all your props?"

"As a team member, it's only right that I contribute." Robert's voice remained calm. "Except for that entry-level War Fortress, all the other equipment has been retrieved. I programmed that War Fortress to self-destruct after completing the mission."

"I just received some bad news," Sea Emperor suddenly said.

"I'd rather hear good news," Gu Ding muttered to himself.

"Sharp and his team have decided to request reinforcements, and he will submit the report first thing tomorrow morning." The news brought by Sea Emperor was indeed a bolt from the blue.

Gu Ding had thought the matter would come to an end and the military would quiet down for a while, but he never expected things to turn out this way.

"Those Interstellar Pirate you brought killed far too many military personnel. This time, their mortality rate was over 70%, with only a quarter of the total number surviving. When faced with something like this, the military usually only has two options: one is to admit the mission failed and return to headquarters with their tails between their legs; the other is to request support and have headquarters send more people to resolve the incident. Generally, most people choose the first option because the second option would be looked down upon."

"Why must we report this to headquarters? They could easily choose to conceal it, continue to stall us, and slowly hunt us down. With two generals on our side, we'll be able to complete the mission sooner or later." Gu Ding felt that this was also an option.

"If the death toll were less than 20%, what you said would indeed be the best course of action. However, the death toll in this incident exceeds 70%. If we conceal this and it is discovered by the military and the Federal Government, the consequences will be severe," Sea Emperor explained. "It could even lead to us being taken to Federal Government Federal Court on charges of 'sexual assault'."

"**Crime..." In reality, he was only trying to protect himself by not reporting what he knew, yet he was being slapped with such a huge charge. Gu Ding couldn't help but mutter, "The military has so many rules!"

"Hey, now's not the time to discuss these topics," Liliath tapped the table with her knuckles. "Once the military reinforcements arrive, they will definitely sweep through every corner of this planet where we can hide, and then we will really have nowhere to escape."

"Therefore, the wisest move is to leave this planet before the military reinforcements arrive," Sea Emperor suggested. "Infiltrating the port is not difficult, stealing a spaceship is not difficult, and shutting down the Sky Dome shield and the port's Armor-Piercing Cannon is not difficult either. But the biggest problem now is those interceptor ships. As soon as they see any Interstellar Pirate ship, they will definitely shoot it down immediately, without even giving a warning."

"Sea Emperor, can't you disable the systems of those three interceptor ships?" Gu Ding asked.

"These three interceptors are the Young Dragon. This type of interceptor was designed by military designers to simulate Mechanical Civilization. It retains manual operation, and manual operation has a higher priority than system operation. If I attack their system, they can easily switch to manual operation." Sea Emperor had already investigated the internal situation of these three Young Dragons. "The reason they chose the Young Dragon is probably because the military also considered the possibility of us hacking into the interceptors."

"If all else fails, how about we spend some money to hire mercenaries to take out those three interceptor ships from the outside?" Gu Ding suddenly thought of a rather strange solution. They'd only ever heard of the Federal Army hiring mercenaries before, and Interstellar Pirate hiring mercenaries; this was the first time anyone had heard of it. (To be continued.)