They were not feeling so hot. To know that whatever they did now was useless. Bai Qi, Lian Po, and Wang Jian had never felt so helpless before. The 3 of them were titans in their own element, but now they could do nothing more than forfeit the game and congratulate the winners. So that’s exactly what they did. One after another, every one of the 500 remaining strategists forfeited the simulation that they had been a part of for the past few years. It was certainly a bittersweet feeling that they had finally finished such a long and arduous journey, but saddened that they were not able to come out on top in the end.

Pretty soon, it was only Bai Qi, Lian Po, and Wang Jian left in the simulation. For geniuses like them to have an outcome like this was certainly not uncommon on Planet 4, but for it to be the situation in their own community was not something they had tasted since they so foolishly challenged Zhu Ge Liang almost two millennia ago. There was one other time that they had felt this useless, it was the first time that they participated in the Strategist reincarnation deathmatch. Those two times and this time were both eye-opening experiences for them. They could do little more than swallow their pride, and go out and congratulate the winners now. Finally, the 3 of them exchanged looks and forfeited the sim at the same time with a mutual understanding of the situation that they were in.

Once they were out, they were greeted with Li Mu more serious than he ever was. Clearly, this was a sign that there was something truly upsetting him as he was the mellowest out of all of them and only serious once he was sure that there was almost no chance of winning a fight. Which rarely ever happened. He stormed up to the 3 of them and immediately took them to their usual discussion place in the Sun Alliance building and took out the personal air manipulator and placed it down. This device allowed the group inside of its boundaries to not be heard by anyone outside of it. An object that Baron had just recently gotten from Li Guang of the Sun Alliance.

(LM) “We have been played for fools.” Li Mu began his venting.

(BQ) “And what of it? We aren’t really inclined to do anything now that we have lost. The only thing we can do is go and congratulate the Bair fighters, though fuming as I am.” Bai Qi responded.

(LM) “That’s just the thing! What they sent to conquer the rest of the board with their weird contraption was not headed by any one of them, instead, they had left prior to our raid on their capital base.”

(WJ) “Hold on a moment, would this not mean that we lost a bunch of NPC’s following orders? This does put a dent on our reputation.” Wang Jian began to understand why Li Mu was getting so worked up about this matter, not only was their reputation tarnished, the reputation of the Sun Alliance was as well as just about every other faction within the Chinese community. When such an event was to occur, it diminished the honor of a community greatly.

(LP) “Now, now, everyone, even if we regret it now. There is absolutely nothing that we can do about it other than accept it for what it is. Where have they gone?” Lian Po said with a saddened smile.

(LM) “That is the other thing, they left the community right after they left the sim. According to some of the elders of the Sun Alliance that had spoken to them, they found us boring.”

(BQ) “Tch. What a bunch of despicable people. Even worse than me I’d dare say.”

(WJ) “Hoh, that is quite a statement. If that is all for us to discuss, then I’ll have to take my leave first. There are some matters that I must attend to before the announcement for the tournament as a whole. Excuse me.”

With that, Wang Jian left followed by Li Mu shortly after. The other two chatted for a bit, but they ultimately had a few things to take care of as well so they dispersed after a couple of rounds of wine.

Elsewhere, many elders and inner circle members were discussing the matter of the Bair fighters rather passionately. What they had agreed upon was the same as what the Yellow Wang faction leaders had agreed upon. The matter with the Bair fighters was truly one that dealt shame to all of the Chinese community. All of them were arguing over what to do in this situation. Meanwhile, Li Guang was sitting off to the side not bothering with any of this nonsense as most of this he personally didn’t really care about.

The conversations full of yelling and sparse periods of normal talking dragged on for hours while getting nowhere. Normally, Li Guang would have no problems sitting these types of meetings out, but he now had enough of the outrageous claims that many of the elders were beginning to make. Finally, he had no choice but to speak up.

(LG) “Elders and inner circle members, I propose we call back Sun Tzu, our leader from his centuries of roaming the other communities.” Li Guang spoke with confidence and authority to the hall of nearly a thousand people.

After much discussion and explanation, Li Guang was able to get the majority of the elders to agree to it, and although many of the inner circle members were against it, they figured that it should also be about time that they call their leader back. It has been long enough since he last returned with some of his closest allies and his interesting friend. The inner-circle members got up to go contact their leader. They were not allowed to do this unless there was a major problem as dictated by Sun Tzu himself. Soon enough, they got word that the big man himself would be coming back in the next few years. Soon, the absolute titan would return.