The rest of the Brigade was as unenthusiastic about the mission update as Shen.

It was bad enough that they couldn't hunt Bounty targets while babysitting newcomers, but more importantly, they were warriors, not bureaucrats. They knew how everything in the front lines worked from the "user" side, but Brigade Commanders—real ones—and above were the ones who mixed martial business with paper pushing, not weak Guardians like them. None of them had any experience providing non-combative services, like assigning dorms or even investigating anything.

After telling them, he first took counsel with only Luthdel to see if he had any insights from belonging to an A-tier race.

"Are those numbers real?" The high elf asked with a frown.

His mood was still somber after the episode with the exiled drow. He also resented Shen for having talked to the Queen behind his back. Still, he kept things civil, another evidence of how much he had grown in those three years.

Luthdel's question was in line with Shen's concerns. Although Shen had no information about how many Guardians most races had, he knew all high elves at C-rank or lower had come to Samir. So had everyone from Earth. And still, they fit a single Node.

Humanity had had over seven billion people before the Alliance arrived, almost six billion being fifteen or older, the minimum age to join the Pioneer Tutorial. He didn't know how many humans had died in the initial chaos, but he doubted it was more than half the populace. That was still three billion people. Let's say only two-thirds had joined the tutorial. That still made it two billion Guardians.

Humanity had been weak when they arrived in Samir, sure, but if they could fit a Node...

Were most of them still weak, at F-rank, or were they dead?

Shen hadn't cared to check. Martino should know. He should talk to her—and maybe even volunteer her help, as she had experience with Guardian government and diplomacy, and he mostly trusted her. With this, at least. Under his supervision.

He also wasn't sure precisely how F-ranks were trained in the military or what was required for them to gain AP to rank up and join the actual fight. The same held true for E-ranks who helped with minor things in the mobile fortress. His combat training hadn't broached the subject.

So, first things first. "System, I'll need information to accomplish my new mission. Maybe extra clearances. I must know exactly how just about everything is organized in the military, the number of people in Samir, and where they are. It would help if my Staff Lieutenants and Battalion Commanders were also aware of most, if not all, of it."

‎ ‎

| Request sent

| Clearance received: Military Organizational Knowledge (Level 3)

| Item received: Primer on Military Organization (Level 3)

| Clearance received: Node Information Access: Samir (Level 5)

‎ ‎

System primers had no physical form; he read them through system windows. The one he got appeared in midair. Shen noticed Luthdel's and the Battalion Commanders' eyes looking at something before them, showing they had also received at least notifications. He checked their clearances and saw they had gotten a level 2 one instead.

Shen read everything quickly. The document was enormous, easily the most extensive text he had ever laid his eyes upon. It took him five minutes to finish despite how fast he could read. It explained what those levels even were, as he hadn't been aware clearances also had different levels like that. At least, not any other than leadership-related clearances.

The primer didn't provide a list of clearances, but it revealed that most clearances had levels. Without a few specific clearances, you wouldn't know about it.

He also used his new information access to check how many people were already in Samir. Twenty-four million fighters and two billion non-combatants, the latter mostly F-ranks. Imperia had a whole lot more than that. It was nuts.

The high elves also only had fifteen B-ranks. How could Imperia have almost seven hundred?!

If anything, that suggested cultivation was the superior path—as long as you didn't have to fight a war of existence and control the populace's growth.

Rayna arrived while he was reading. Shen shared the new mission with her. She wasn't amused.

"That explains the new clearance I got. Commander, I read the Primer on Military Organization. Our mission isn't doable."

Her lower-level primer didn't contain the specifics of how to organize things if there was a surplus of warriors during an emergency. He knew it because his primer labeled every piece of knowledge in it according to the clearance level needed to know it. It also let him know they could increase the number of Corps, Brigades, Battalions, and so on. Reserve troops were also a thing. There was only one problem.

"The biggest issue I see is accommodation," Shen replied.

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There was no getting an extra mobile fortress; they needed to use what they already had. Regulations demanded everyone be given a personal dorm, even if they didn't use it every time. Or at all. Yet, the vacant bedrooms were only enough for another half a billion people.

Shen explained it, adding, "That leaves us with half a billion Guardians with nowhere to go."

He almost wished more people from Imperia had Bounties and could be imprisoned. There was no need to give them personal space. You could place everyone in a tuna can and call it a day. But Imperia had been assimilated by the Alliance shortly after Earth, and their Guardians hadn't had the time to use their Bounty thresholds to seek opportunities. At least, most of them hadn't thought it worth it yet.

"As I said, Commander," Rayna replied, "not doable."

"I can help with that, Commander," Luthdel said. "But you won't like the solution."

"Yes?"

"Block half the incoming people's teleportation," he suggested, almost unwillingly.

Shen frowned. That didn't break any rules, as it was basically pushing the problem to someone else. Samir didn't have the means to accommodate that many people, so Samir only had not to receive them and let the system deal with it.

However, those Guardians would be stuck in teleportation limbo until they were allowed to come. That couldn't be pleasant. It would also waste the Alliance's resources. Keeping people in perpetual teleportation couldn't be cheap.

"Commander," Rayna interjected, "you said your orders mention minimal death rate. It seems to be related to the Bounty targets, but it might also be hinting at culling some individuals."

Shen shook his head. "Killing half the incoming Guardians doesn't sound like a minimal death rate to me. Even if it did, the military can't send anyone to certain death, even on a mission, unless it's considered critical for the greater good, and I can only do so for my Brigade. The Node Commander would need to directly create missions to kill those people. If he intended on doing that, he wouldn't have told us to find a solution."

Fabricating a false critical issue to kill people would also be treason, but Shen didn't feel the need to mention it.

Luthdel had an idea but bit his lower lip for a moment before saying, "Commander, relocating the incoming people from Imperia would be against the spirit of the mission. But it says nothing about sending some Guardians already here to another Node, does it?"

That had been Shen's first thought, but he guessed his mission's purpose was to avoid doing that. Certainly, the Acting General had also thought of that but would rather not send the high elves to La'sing. Shen wasn't sure how Samir's lockdown worked with the Void Tide, but it would be, at least, a slap to the dragon's face to send away the people he had gone to such lengths to lock down.

Lengths that Shen noticed he didn't recall. He only knew they were extreme, as they had forced a memory lock on him as his Brigade.

On the other hand, if Shen was the one to suggest it, and the target was La'sing, it might make the Queen happy with him. Was Long Hei playing politics now? Did he want Shen and the Queen to develop a good relationship? Or perhaps did he simply not want to make it look like the relocation idea came from him because of other political considerations?

Shen sighed and asked his Battalion Commanders for input.

No one had any magic solution. The only new—stupid—suggestion was ignoring the rule of giving every Guardian a personal room. It would be a minor offense if done to a few people, but doing it for half a billion Guardians would be considered a monumental logistics disruption. Considering they were an Exemplary Brigade and a big bad Void Tide was going on, everyone involved in that decision would be executed for treason.

Ultimately, he went with what felt the best for the Alliance as a whole. Keeping half a billion Guardians frozen during the Void Tide was a lousy strategic decision. Even if politics was involved in sending the elves away, that was the best thing to do.

In fact, they should all leave. That would assist with Samir's cohesiveness, at the cost of a small window of time in which Samir would lack people used to it, especially Commanders and bureaucrats. That, in turn, might help expose a lot of corruption that might still be unnoticed—at the cost of making it easier for Imperia's potential corruption and factional struggles to take root.

Shen and the C-ranks formed a simple plan to assimilate the incoming Guardians. It wasn't that hard. He still had to expand how many units Samir had, but no one was kept in reserve, which should be better to protect against the Void.

His main worry was how Earth and Imperia would mingle. He already expected the division between mana-wielders and cultivators to create a clash, but it might be even worse. As far as he knew, no one from Earth other than him knew the Eternal Empire had previously ruled Earth. But did people from Imperia remember it? And how would it affect their relationship?

As bad as that could be, he couldn't justify sending Earth's humans to La'sing, so they would have to deal with it.

He wrote the plan down and forwarded it to Long Hei, who replied with a single word.

‎ ‎

| Samir's Commander (A): Approved.

‎ ‎

A few moments later, a few high elves close to Samir-7's mobile fortress entrance started getting teleported away. They didn't all go simultaneously to prevent not having the troops to deal with an emergency, but the dragon and the Queen had evidently already agreed to the transfer.

Unfortunately, there had been no updates to his mission status. He still needed to organize everyone when they arrived and find a way to imprison Bounty targets without widespread bloodshed.

"Keep making plans for the specifics of the logistics," Shen ordered. "I'll hire help."

They had to decide who would go where. One thing he had just gotten access to was a rapport score between Guardians. Except for most B-ranks, these people had been deployed elsewhere, and there was animosity between people from the same units or chain of command that they could solve now. That was undoubtedly part of keeping death rates to a minimum, even if not explicit in his orders. Who knew what could happen after they arrived and realized their B-ranks could easily take over Samir?

Shen hadn't even known a race could have that many B-ranks!

He had shared access to the rapport score with Luthdel, Rayna, and the Battalion Commanders, and they would make sure to decrease friction. At least as far as proper unit separation could accomplish. He would still need to deal with the Bounty targets and expected important people to make everything much more challenging than it needed to be.

In other words, it was time to talk to Martino.

"Rayna, come with me," Shen commanded.

The drow were known for being schemers. As their Maiden, Rayna should know one thing or two about tricking Bounty targets into giving up without a fight. She wasn't a great fighter like Liya, so she had to focus more on crafting and maybe plotting than fighting. Or so he hoped.

He really wasn't anticipating discussing anything with B-rank Bounty targets.

More importantly, he also resented Long Hei for that mission. Wasn't the dragon the Second Seat of the Eternal Empire? Couldn't he just send a message to the Eternal Emperor, or Grand Senator, or whatever he was called now, and deal with it? Why waste Shen's time like that?

Shen sighed.

He reckoned he had been very lucky until now. What he was about to deal with were the usual woes of being an irrelevant cog in the military machine.