While the representatives were busy debating about their next move, Arnold had not forgotten about the problem in East America. After all, that was the reason why Nicole decided to meet up with Arnold before the meeting started.

Before the dungeon appeared, America was already preparing to fight a war on the Eastern front. But now they were forced to defend the nation from two sides. The first was the dungeon and the second was the issue in the eastern wastelands. Due to their neglect, three zones have gone radio silent for quite a while now they were in danger of losing the fourth zone as well.

Thus fearing the worst, the syndicate had started to prepare to defend Zone 4. But it seemed like destiny had planned for something else, hence they were thrown a curveball with the spawning a dungeon on top of their troubles.

Although the American syndicate had enough warriors to wage a war on two fronts, it was only possible in theory. The logistics regarding the upcoming battles were a bit... troublesome. They would not have enough resources to drag either of the battles for long. Thus fighting on one front at a time was the best option for them. And objectively speaking, it was the best bet to put their efforts into stopping the dungeon first.

There were three reasons for their choice. Firstly, there was the international pressure on every country to help in such dire times. America was one of the countries that could not ignore this call either as they too were at the risk of losing everything they had left. However, it was made clear that if they chose to ignore East America, it was highly probable that they'll end up losing the abandoned part of the country. Nevertheless, if they were to ignore the dungeon, then they would surely lose the entire country to a bunch of monsters.

Secondly, was that the issue regarding East America was considered to be a domestic issue, in other words, the other nations did not give a crap about it. Hence in case, the syndicate was to state that as the reason for their non-participation, the world would only think of their problems as excuses. Which would then add further to their troubles and would impact their international image or whatever was left of it. This also led to the third and final reason for participating in the raid.

Every since the country was divided in half, thanks to the plethora of dungeon outbreaks, their international image and reputation had taken a drastic hit. America was no longer as influential as it had been in the past. It was still a strong nation, without a doubt, but everyone knew they weren't even close to what they used to be. So this was an opportunity for them to reclaim their lost honour and mend broken ties with formally allied nations.

Thus it was decided that fighting on two different fronts was a stupid decision. They were going to focus all of their efforts on teaming up with the other nations to clear the dungeon while they left East America to fend for itself. Overall, it was a good deal for them even if it meant that they had to sacrifice half of their nation for it.     

That was when Arnold finally came in contact with them. He got to know about the situation from Nina and Nicole and decided to lend his friends a hand. Technically it wasn't a helping hand as he was only trying to protect the zone he was entrusted with but well, no one cared about that. He was going to take care of the threat in east America on his own and would also participate in the dungeon run along with the other countries.

Although Arnold's words were comforting to hear, everyone wanted to know exactly how was he going to do all that by himself. They knew he was strong but... fighting on the opposite ends of a continent was impossible to even for someone of his calibre.

But Arnold wasn't planning on fighting in both the places by himself, in the first place. He was going to let his summons and his new ally, Yu Zhung, solve the problem in East America, while he along with the rest of the countries, would focus on the dungeon situation.

In fact, he had already sent everyone he could to his base back in Zone 4 through his travel portal, before coming to join the meeting. It was also the reason Arnold was the one Attending the meeting and not Yu Zhung as they had planned earlier.  But he couldn't reveal that to everyone else simply because he didn't trust them. So he came up with a lie that they were caught up clearing a dungeon. Natasha also used her powers on the concerned authorities to make sure what Arnold told the others was true.

Talos, Asterios, Ogur, Yu Zhung along with Yan had already stationed themselves in the Alpha base and were already analysing everything they could with the help of Amanda. However, they weren't the only ones there. About a thousand undead soldiers and minotaurs were also there to aid them in any way possible.

Nicole thought Arnold was going overboard with the preparations, but according to him, he wasn't. The reason was pretty simple, everything was set into motion the moment he left America, which could mean only one thing. It was the work of someone who had been waiting for such an opportunity to arise.

This was something no one in the Syndicate had given a thought to. Indeed it all started the moment Arnold had left America. But Arnold had yet another bomb to drop on Nicole. Both of them were aware that the Paladins were trying to eliminate as many vassals as they could to take their spot.

Furthermore, in order to do so, the Paladins were given some sort of locator that showed them the location of each of the five Vassals. So it could be fairly possible that a Paladin was behind the attacks on the zones as a way to maybe reduce his military strength.

Arnold wasn't too sure about the reasons but he was more or less sure that someone having powers like them was behind these attacks. Nicole was the only one Arnold shared this information with, mainly because it also concerned her as she too was a vassal like him.

Little did Nicole knew, her brother's guess was right on spot as usual. A General was returning to reclaim what once belonged to him and there was nothing he wouldn't do to make a certain someone repent for his 'wrongdoings'.

Arnold had once humiliated this man unlike anyone ever had. He had then sworn to take his revenge on him and now it was finally time to enact his plans and destroy everything that floozy Section Chief Arnold had taken from him.

***

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