Meeting

A little earlier.

After watching Jian Li enter the instance dungeon.

Yan Fushou put the matter out of his mind and buried himself once more in the mountain of documents. But the more he read, the more his scalp tingled... The pressure on the front lines was immense, yet the Strategy Group had failed to produce any effective solution. Nearly all of the top-tier instance dungeons were completely stalled, with no progress being made.

The reason was simple.

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They were too difficult—so difficult that even within the Strategy Group, only a handful of people could clear them consistently. And they relied entirely on individual ability, with no room for reference or replication. Even coordinated strategies could not be carried out.

Under such circumstances, it was naturally impossible to send frontline soldiers into those instance dungeons.

As for the lower-difficulty instances that could be assigned, their rewards were far too poor to offer any real help...

And so the problem had reached an impasse.

What gave Yan Fushou the biggest headache now was finding an instance dungeon that could both allow frontline soldiers to clear it reliably and provide sufficient returns... It had been quite some time since they had last found a suitable instance.

And the enemies on the front lines would not wait. Almost every so often, their attributes and abilities would increase.

By contrast, the frontline soldiers' strength had improved only marginally. Aside from combat experience and technique, there had been almost no noticeable growth.

After all, they spent nearly every day on the battlefield. Where would they find the time to study instance dungeons...

As one side waned, the other waxed.

There was no real problem for now... but it truly was the Sword of Damocles.

The Strategy Group had to find an instance dungeon capable of improving the frontline's overall strength as soon as possible.

As for why the monsters on the front lines grew stronger periodically.

Perhaps that, too, was part of the selection process...

Perhaps that goddess was trying to force humanity as a race to keep evolving... Monsters filled the entire world, and they were strengthened at regular intervals. If players could not keep up, they could only be eliminated. The only way out was to keep entering instance dungeons, keep growing stronger, and survive.

However, the country was not overrun with monsters, because it had chosen to hold them back at the front lines.

But that meant someone had to make sacrifices—to give up their chance to explore instance dungeons and focus solely on fighting.

The frontline soldiers were the ones making that sacrifice.

As time passed.

Aside from elite monsters, most monsters on the front lines no longer dropped any equipment or skills. Killing them no longer strengthened any attributes either.

Now, if frontline soldiers wanted to grow stronger, they relied almost entirely on the Strategy Group to select instance dungeons from which they could obtain attribute points, skills, equipment, and items. The rest of their time could only be spent fighting at the front lines.

But how difficult was it to identify an instance dungeon that could accommodate rotating groups of frontline soldiers...

The pressure on the Strategy Group was immense.

A few months ago, some extremists had even proposed following the example of certain countries—simply opening up the front lines and pushing everyone onto the battlefield.

Natural selection. Survival of the fittest.

Shift the cost of defense onto individuals.

That way, those with ability would naturally survive. They would be able to clear instance dungeons and gain a foothold amid the monster onslaught.

There would be a price to pay. Many people would die—many who could not adapt to the changing times.

But they claimed it was a necessary sacrifice, better than the current situation... where the front lines fought desperately while ordinary people in the rear were protected, only to struggle meaninglessly through those trash instance dungeons.

However, no one ultimately agreed to the proposal. Quite a few people had even pointed at the proposer's nose and cursed them out.

Yan Fushou sorted through the intelligence on the existing instance dungeons one item at a time, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter.

Knock, knock.

A knock suddenly sounded at the door.

Yan Fushou looked up as a staff member pushed the door open. "Director, there's a meeting."

When Yan Fushou arrived at the conference room, Li Bao, the director of the Coordination Bureau, and the directors of several other departments had already arrived.

There were also representatives from the frontline military, as well as the heads of other functional departments under the National Abnormal Space Response and Survival Committee.

Smoke filled the conference room.

The ashtrays before quite a few people already held five or six cigarette butts, and none of them looked particularly pleased. The only one whose expression had not changed much was the dark-skinned old man in a faded, old-fashioned short-sleeved shirt.

Seeing this, Yan Fushou's heart sank slightly. He pulled out the chair to the old man's left and sat down.

The moment he sat down.

The frontline military representative looked at him and got straight to the point. "The monsters on the front lines have grown stronger again."

As expected.

Yan Fushou's brows drew tightly together.

"Same as before—an increase across all attributes. New monster types have appeared, and some elite monsters have even developed new resistance skills."

The frontline military representative tapped the report on the table. "There's no real problem yet, but we need a new instance dungeon... It's already been two months."

Li Bao heard this and turned to Yan Fushou as well. "Does the Strategy Group still not have a suitable dungeon?"

Yan Fushou fell silent for a moment. "There are currently no suitable dungeons. Progress in nearly all of the top-tier dungeons has come to a standstill. They can only be cleared through the individual talents of top players, so we can't provide effective strategies. For now, we have no way to send frontline soldiers in. As for low-level dungeons, the few attribute points they produce aren't even enough to offset the monsters' boosts."

"..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the conference room fell into deathly silence.

Even the military representative from the front lines could not help lowering his gaze.

They had been mentally prepared, but reaching the point where there were practically no dungeons left to choose from was still despairing.

The front line was holding for now, but what about the future?

Could they really only shift the cost of defense onto individuals?

"In that case, I propose that the major guilds stop this rotation nonsense."

At that moment, a department director slammed his hand on the table and rose. "Have those high-end players stationed permanently at the front! They occupy so many resources—if they don't give it everything now, when will they?"

"I don't agree."

After thinking it over, another department director shook his head and countered, "If we tie up our top combat power on a frontline battlefield with no returns and make them lose the time to improve in dungeons, then in just a few years, they'll become mediocre too. Sooner or later, the monsters will grow strong enough that even they can't handle them. Then we won't even have our last sharp blade."

"Then conscript more soldiers!"

Another person said quietly, "Expand the base."

"The front line doesn't lack people."

The military representative from the front lines looked over. "What we lack is a way to make soldiers stronger. We lack dungeons that can be cleared reliably. Otherwise, no matter how many people we send, we'll only be feeding them into the same vicious cycle."

"Last year, we ran a rotation pilot program and pulled some veteran soldiers back to clear dungeons, but the results were far from ideal. Even battle-hardened veterans couldn't manage both sides. Do you think newly recruited soldiers can? And if they can't, what's the point of recruiting them? Sending recruits in will do nothing but make the casualty list longer."

"..."

The conference room fell silent once more.

In the end, it came down to the same thing.

The front line, dungeons, gamification...

At their core, all of it was a screening mechanism—a means of forcing individual humans to evolve.

And if they wanted to protect those unable to adapt, they had to pay a price.

But the silence did not last long.

"Yan Fushou, have Jian Li, Cheng Xiu, Fan Lixing, and the others enter the dungeon [Island] again. Then have the rest of the Strategy Group screen through all system dungeons rated A and B once more."

Li Bao spoke up. "Even dungeons that reliably produce attribute points will do. If one dungeon's rewards can't make up for the gap in boosts, then use two. If that doesn't work, use three... Those that have already been cleared but still have reward attempts remaining can also be assigned to people again. The rewards for a second or third clear may be worse, but they can't be that much worse."

The military representative from the front lines opened his mouth.

Li Bao gently shook his head. "I know rotating soldiers through dungeon clears is highly risky. If there are truly difficulties, the Coordination Bureau will have the Strategy Group fill in at the front line... The new regulations targeting major guilds and top players are already being adjusted. In addition, the Coordination Bureau is steadily advancing the reserve army plan. We're preparing to make full use of the fact that low-difficulty dungeons are relatively easy to clear, stacking numbers and clearing them on an assembly-line basis to obtain more survival points and a batch of reserve soldiers with relatively decent attributes.

"This should effectively ease the pressure, but it will take time."

The military representative from the front lines nodded silently.

Li Bao continued, "No matter what, we cannot let the front line fall. That is the bottom line. Everything I just said is only a stopgap measure. The Strategy Group still needs to find suitable dungeons as soon as possible. Yan Fushou... do you understand?"

"I understand."

Yan Fushou nodded slowly.

The meeting adjourned under a somewhat oppressive atmosphere.

Back in his office.

Yan Fushou leaned heavily against the back of his chair. Looking at the bustling city outside the window, he let out a long breath.

The enemies at the front line, which grew stronger at unpredictable intervals, were like a slowly tightening noose around everyone's necks.

If they could not break this vicious cycle, then the current peace was merely the last illusion before collapse.

Things were still all right for now.

But what if one day, the Strategy Group could no longer find suitable dungeons?

How much longer could this tightrope walk last?

No one knew.

Rumor had it that someone had already proposed building fortress cities.

Dungeons, dungeons, new dungeons...

Thinking of his work, Yan Fushou rubbed at his brow, his head splitting with pain.

Just then.

A white light suddenly flared before his desk. Space warped slightly, and a slender figure landed soundlessly. Her waist-length silver-white hair drifted gently behind her.