News from home lit a fire in everyone.
More and more reports came back. Overall, the situation was bad—or rather, utterly terrible.
"The invaders appear to be a coalition from more than four or five worlds, with the Octopus Race taking the lead."
It was more or less expected, but the most immediate consequence was the complete collapse of the already difficult Pacific Ocean shipping routes. Some of the waters extending beyond Southeast Asia and the East Sea had also become exceptionally dangerous.
Lu PingAn sighed. The nations along this timeline had never been as prosperous as those in the previous world. Due to the high cost of freight, global specialization was unrealistic. Only a few relatively stable routes linked the continents, and now all of them had been cut off. The impact was enormous.
For certain island nations especially, this was truly hell mode. On this timeline, continental self-sufficiency and domestic circulation were King's Way. Relying too heavily on imports and exports—particularly overseas food and raw materials—was equivalent to leaving one's lifeline to luck. Development in every respect was simply too unstable.
"Wanjing receives requests for aid every day, but when they actually mobilize a large force to hunt them down, they may only encounter small Fishmen harassment units." Small Earth naval forces could not defeat the sea races, but once they deployed a large fleet, the enemy fled with incredible speed.
Most of Earth's surface was ocean. Once the ocean became the enemy's battlefield, the land-dwelling races of this planet—which really ought to have been called "Mercury"—would have an extremely uncomfortable time.
Lu Mouren finally understood why Mercury 42 had previously made such massive, nation-level investments and strategic arrangements. It seemed someone had received intelligence in advance—and had truly panicked.
Grand Strategy was all laid out in the