NOVPUB"Today marks your sixth day in the Shadow World."
"Though you have achieved some results, you are not happy, hearing the news of Briss Kingdom’s consecutive defeats."
"You know that you cannot afford to be lost in confusion any longer."
Cat Boss said to Lanci while curiously fiddling with a music box that began to play a tense tune with its paws.
The at times haunting, at times unrestrained, string sounds carried a sense of urgency, as if a lonely dancer was twirling in the mud, searching for light in the darkness.
In Lanci’s Helshalem home, the time was deep into the night.
He sat alone behind an old wooden desk, surrounded by a dense pile of books.
In front of him lay many Magic Engineering Instruments, among which the Luminescent Tube Timer attracted Cat Boss’s attention the most, with its glowing orange-red light like magma illuminating the numbers, appearing particularly mystical in the dim room.
The faint buzzing of the timer echoed in the silent room, seemingly reminding them of the passing of time.
"Indeed, it’s time for me to leave Helsaray."
Lanci’s face, illuminated diagonally by the desk lamp, looked deep-set and his eyes bright, gazing as if piercing through the snowfields to the north.
In these days, not only was the Huo Ning Empire launching a frontal attack on the neighboring Briss Kingdom, he also received reports that Huo Ning’s special forces were infiltrating the eastern and western sides, the Fulock Kingdom and the Idiss Kingdom.
But Lanci could have guessed that himself.
The Land of Perpetual Night in the northern snowfields, though not historically a strategic location, is a geomantic treasure for the Blood Clan.
Because the nights there last long and the sun seldom appears, they can avoid their only weakness.
Once the Blood Clan opens a gap in the east or west and occupies the Land of Perpetual Night to start a pincer attack on Palante Empire from the north and south, it will be a true disaster.
The current Land of Perpetual Night may already be much more dangerous than before, and no one can be sure if the Blood Clan’s vanguard has successfully sneaked in.
Fortunately, the Ancestor of the Blood Clan has been under surveillance by the Demon World for many years. If a Blood Clan Ancestor of Eighth-order Marquis or above traveled north, it would definitely cause a stir among the Demon Race first.
Among the clauses of the "North-South Pact" between the Blood Clan and the Demon Race is that the Blood Clan is not to cross the Land of Perpetual Night without permission unless it is someone like Baron Sanchez, a special envoy of the Blood Clan in the Shadow World Purgatory Corridor Academy, who after prior negotiation between the Demon Race and the Blood Clan, can be openly received in the Demon World to search, along with Demon World inspectors, for humans lurking within the Corridor Academy.
"Cat Boss, tomorrow morning we should leave Helsaray and head to the Demon World."
Lanci’s fingers lightly tapped the desktop, gazing at a [Transformation Technique: Human] card that he had just made.
This was a Spell Card that could transform him into Lanci Welfort, personally crafted by him over the past two days.
Since he was bringing Cat Boss along this time, with ample card slots, he even had it carry a Portable Card Making Tool kit composed of ten Equipment Cards, allowing him to make Magic Cards even within the Shadow World.
However, this compressed portable tool was far from the high-end tools in the workshops of the present world, making Card Making in the Shadow World much more difficult than in reality.
Lanci would have one of his trustworthy subordinates transformed into him and impersonate him for the next three to four weeks according to his plan, maintaining operations in Helsaray.
During this time, he would become Rocky McCarthy, cross the Land of Perpetual Night, head to the Demon World, find Hyperion, and seek some negotiating possibilities with the Great Demon Clan.
In the meantime, he would turn off the live feed from the Shadow World because he did not want the people of the South Continent to see Rocky McCarthy nor did he want the people of the present world to see him now transformed into a member of the Demon Race.
Once transformed into a Demon Race, without the disguise of human skin, the other demons in the Demon World might discover he was from the Great Demon Clan, which would be difficult to explain to the people of the South Continent.
"Meow, I just don’t know how Hyperion is getting along with the magical energies in the Demon World now. I’m really worried she’s not acclimating well."
Cat Boss was very concerned about Hyperion.
Previously when Hyperion fell into the Aestheland Kingdom, it was not worried at all, for that was a pristine land, but the Demon World, even the thought of it was frightening.
"Don’t worry, it’ll be fine once I bring her back."
Lanci said firmly, reaching out to pet the Little Black Cat.
"Mhm."
The Little Black Cat nodded its head.
These days, Lanci behaved surprisingly normally, although it didn’t understand what Lanci was doing every day.
Besides negotiating and writing plans, he was just doing the job of a Prime Minister, engaging in small-scale Magic Engineering research after work, and did not proceed with the grand speech as expected.
It was happy that Lanci finally took its advice and Hyperion’s into consideration.
Although the Shadow World seemed utterly hopeless, after journeying through the Northern Continent, it firmly believed in Lanci’s abilities and potential, and given that the Shadow World played to Lanci’s strengths, if he seriously put in the effort, it might not be difficult to increase the odds of victory from 0% to the 1% target after more than forty days.
And all it had to do was ensure that Lanci’s daily diet was balanced and healthy.
It saw the current state of the Palante Empire had become—
[Public Sentiment: 145 → 276/1000 (the support and cohesion of the people)]
[Parliament: 252→ 227/1000 (support rate of the Palante Empire’s internal high-level)]
[Military Strength: 124/1000 (with the Honing Empire as a reference)]
[Finance: 222 → 236/1000 (the current production situation of the Palante Empire)]
[Diplomacy: 115/1000 (diplomatic relations with the Demon World and the surrounding countries that have not yet surrendered)]
The odds of victory were still 0.0000%, not even a positive number appeared after the fourth decimal place.
However, it was understandable because the results Lanci achieved this week were in fact minimal, stabilizing public sentiment and parliament as basic achievements. The only decisive factor was a slight rise in finance, which derived from the influence of the increased public sentiment.
Cat Boss felt that, due to Lanci’s excessively prudent and normal human decisions, to outsiders in the Shadow World, Lanci might seem to have accomplished next to nothing for a week, merely getting accustomed to this Shadow World.
Or to put it another way, of the forty-five turns in total, he had already wasted the first six. It was hard to imagine how much pressure Loren, Lanci’s teacher, must be facing on the outside.
The upcoming journey to the Demon World would also sever the live broadcast from the Shadow World for three to four weeks. By the time the live broadcast from the Shadow World resumed, it would be unknown whether Loren could hold out.
This all-or-nothing diplomatic mission could only result in a win; otherwise, both Lanci and Loren might have to protect their families from public scrutiny.
"By the way, Lanci, what’s the use of this thing you’ve prepared?"
The Cat Boss, standing on the table, patted some handwritten notes and complex project plans in front of Lanci with its paw.
Lanci had arranged many tasks before departure. This one, which Cat Boss could barely understand, did not involve too many political issues of the Palante Empire. It was simply a straightforward strategic engineering plan.
Its cover was titled—"The Helsaray Plan."
Supervised by the army, it would use a considerable amount of resources and manpower. The plan was to be initiated by magic engineering scholars in a secretive research facility located on the outskirts of Helshalem City, the capital. Construction and expansion were to follow closely, setting up multiple laboratories and factories nationwide to assist.
"Whether it succeeds or not is not important. I need to try my hardest during this period to let the spies from the south know we have a ’Helsaray Plan’ and are fully committed to creating a secret weapon. Basically, we need to make the Honing Empire suspicious."
Lanci replied.
There were no secrets between him and the cat.
"Can it produce anything?"
Cat Boss became even more puzzled.
It felt that in just over forty days, it would be good to even start the initiative, without any real hope of achieving anything substantial.
"It can’t produce anything."
Lanci shook his head frankly,
"But as long as we can keep the Honing Empire unclear about whether or not we really have a ’Helsaray Plan,’ that’s enough."
"But we actually don’t have it."
Cat Boss was even more baffled.
"Who knows?"
Lanci spread his hands.
Not being able to produce it did not mean it did not exist.
By dropping a [Nuclear Fusion Wolf] on the Honing Empire at the right moment, they might just believe it.
They might even come to believe that such bombs could be produced continuously, and the Palante Empire could drop a second one.
For now, the first step was to fabricate a fictional "Helsaray Plan" and generate a chain of suspicion in the Honing Empire, which would naturally provide a small, yet scorching shock to the Blood Clan.
In this era, throwing a nuclear fusion wolf wouldn’t likely result in a military tribunal, so he could press the button with peace of mind.
Now, the key was to go to the Demon World to find the fuel.
And tomorrow morning, his secretary would find a snowfield coachman who could take him and the Cat Boss safely through the Land of Perpetual Night, and then their journey would begin.
