In times of peace, there were often many choices. Yet the Lucky Ones who immersed themselves in peaceful times often never understood that happiness. They only complained about exhausting overtime, ever-lower wages, and the steadily rising cost of living.
But to the unlucky ones living through war, that was already infuriating whining from people with no real problems.
Those unlucky ones desperately missed the old "ordinary days."
Once war arrived, ordinary days no longer existed. Their lives became even simpler and harsher: if they could hold a weapon, they took one to the front line and held on for as long as they could.
Illness? Age? Gender? Before the survival of one's people, they were meaningless excuses. If you refused to go, there were plenty of people who would drag you onto the battlefield to enjoy the last days of your life.
And this reality was not about the great European war on another timeline, nor was it about Mercury 42's Outland war. When most peoples faced extinction, their final struggles were not fundamentally different. Some peoples struggled successfully, but most merely sacrificed the majority of their kin before welcoming humiliating enslavement or extinction.
".This is the current situation in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific Ocean island nations. They have already entered a period of massive bloodshed. The conscription age now goes as high as eighty and as low as ten. They won't last much longer."
Why was East Asia not included? If Eastern Kingdom was excluded, all of East Asia had been wiped out three years ago. That land had now become the territory of the Outland invaders.
The ones that still had hope were probably several countries south and southwest of Eastern Kingdom. Though they had suffered terribly, they had indeed held on for all these