White Scar picked up the thread. The image of that mother and daughter from Red Rainbow Town still lingered in his eyes. "But what I want even less is..."
"Having the ability to do something, yet because we haven't developed enough and aren't strong enough, we can only watch helplessly as those tragedies unfold."
Oil-Guy continued his analysis:
"I built a simple mathematical model."
"At our current rate of acquiring Imperial Coin, relying mainly on hunting mutated beasts and salvaging ore and abandoned facilities, it would take roughly six months to reach the level where we could confront a regular Alru Group infantry regiment head-on."
"And that's assuming the Four Great Groups and Chaos don't make a move against us."
He paused, his tone growing heavier. "But the reality is that Chaos corruption in the industrial district is spreading. Sooner or later, all four factions will notice this unknown armed group that suddenly appeared."
"The time we have for safe development, optimistically speaking... is no more than three months."
The conference room fell silent again.
Cold numbers were more persuasive than any impassioned speech.
Three months.
Five thousand players who had only just completed Type I enhancement, plus over two thousand unarmed workers, against a possible joint siege by the Four Great Groups, a Chaos invasion, and perhaps even... an Imperial purge.
"So..."
Wang Zhong spoke slowly. "What is your plan?"
The four chapter commanders exchanged glances.
In the end, Oil-Guy spoke for them.
His voice was calm, icy.
"We discussed this privately many times and finally reached one conclusion: in the Warhammer universe, especially at this point in time, slow means death."
"We have to take an unconventional path of development."
"And the core of that path must meet three requirements. First, we need to build sufficiently powerful elite