The three red notifications Shen got made him bittersweet. He wasn't sure if he would rather be right or wrong about the impending Void attack.
| VOID TIDE ALERT!
| ALL SYSTEM FUNCTIONS ARE NOW FUNNELED TO PROTECT THE ALLIANCE!
| THE ALLIANCE'S NEUTRAL FORCES ASK THE ONES INVOLVED IN CALAMITY TO END IT QUICKLY AND ASSIST WITH WHAT MATTERS!
Those words confirmed Marzia had been correct. They also indicated Shen had been right in raising the alarm now. He had no idea what a Void Tide was, but things couldn't be good if the entire system would be used to protect the Alliance from it, and the neutral forces thought they needed help from those fighting the S-rank war.
The following yellow notifications he got also pointed that way.
| Samir's Secret Containment Protocol partially disengaged
| External forces can now travel to Samir if authorized by an S-rank or Samir's Commander
| Guardians can leave if approved by Samir's Commander
In other words, Samir might require external assistance.
After that, Shen got notifications about the Bounty Subsystem. Together with the others, there was only one conclusion to reach: as Alicia would say, shit was about to hit the fan.
But none of that prepared him for the extremely weird notification he received the next second.
| All forces belonging to the Republic of Imperia will be forcibly teleported to Ushur-17 within 3 minutes
Imperia?! Ushur? What the hell was the Immortal Emperor doing?!
"No!" he replied firmly. "I'm deployed as drow. I want to report someone abused their authority to change my deployed race and official superiors without my permission!"
The drow weren't perfect. They had kept him in the dark about their deployment, but that's how they did things. He felt safer in their "chain of command," so to say, than placed under the guy who had eradicated the Feng Clan, never got in touch, and now suddenly forcibly teleported him away.
| Report sent
| Samir's Commander (A): First Lieutenant Shen, I'll forward your report if you insist, but I suggest you don't. I can't reveal much, but your report will hit a different target than you expect. It won't do you any favors. I have enough authority to prevent your teleportation. I suggest you leave it at that.
Shen didn't trust Long Hei in this, no matter how relatively dependable the General had been until now. The dragon had been the Second Seat of the Eternal Empire. He and the Emperor should be together in whatever plot this was.
Yet, going against one's Node Commander was never a good idea, much less during an event that seemed so dangerous as a Void Tide. Then again, the way Shen saw it, fearmongering to prevent his report might be just another layer of their plans.
His elite combat training had advised him that he could only take two paths when his opponent was overwhelmingly more powerful than him in every conceivable way: submit or bet everything they wouldn't kill him if he defied them.
Long Hei had already said he would stop the teleportation. The report would upset him. So, the question was whether Shen felt it was worth risking the General's for whatever he might gain.
It wasn't.
The civilian Alliance was dealing with a Calamity, and a Void Tide was coming. He doubted anyone high up in the food chain would care about him. Even if someone had done things they shouldn't, it evidently involved the Emperor and Long Hei, two A-ranks. And, if the dragon wasn't lying, another mysterious force. At most, they would get a slap to their wrists and get upset at Shen.
Shen hated submitting. He really, really, really hated it. It went against his Will of Absolute Power.
However, his domain was Self Improvement. He had Limits. And he was Truly Boundless, including when deciding whether to be limited by his own self.
That last one was a big stretch, but at least his True Boundlessness didn't get in the way of him bowing his head. His Truth and the influence his domain had on his True Self were enough to keep his pride—or was it arrogance?—from pushing him toward a clash against an A-rank.
He took a deep breath and let it go. "Cancel report," he said.
| Report canceled
Then, he changed the subject, "System, send an urgent message: The Seventh Exemplary Brigade is to assemble right here, right now. Intra-brigade Bounties will be solved exclusively with the target's capture! Even if it's an Execution Bounty! Do not test me on this!"
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Leaning on the system for a Brigade-wide message during a deployment was humiliating, but he had to do it. Shen's priority now was to maintain order among his troops. Only the dumbest among them wouldn't notice how a Void Tide was dangerous. He didn't expect many people to panic in an Exemplary Brigade, but they might want to return home by any means necessary.
Or worse, they might lose all reason while hunting for Bounties in search of AP and wealth.
Strictly speaking, the Brigade should remain focused on its mission, but Shen wasn't naive enough to think he could keep people from gaining free AP from Bounties. He could, however, organize everyone to hunt for Bounties together. Concisely. Safely.
He expected things to get hectic for at least a while and didn't want to lose his troops needlessly.
He reread the Bounty notifications to double-check if he had missed anything or if his guess was as likely as he believed.
| Automated Bounty Generation threshold decreased by 50%
| Execution Bounties can now be automatically generated if a Guardian's Traitor Likelihood Coefficient is higher than 2.7 or their crimes are 1,000% above the current threshold for Automated Bounty Generation
If Shen weren't mistaken, the arrival of the Bounty Subsystem would change everything.
The Alliance evidently wanted to clear the front lines of anyone who might cause trouble when the fight against the Void Tide started. So, it was safe to assume the subsystem hadn't come only to prevent future crimes. It had come to start a hunt for every rogue element in the military.
Shen guessed that meant looking into every Guardian's military records, too. The system would analyze the punishments everyone had received, at least during the Calamity. Commanders who looked the other way instead of punishing a subordinate would have that recorded against them for Bounty purposes. Whoever received no punishment or a soft one when they should've been more heavily punished would also be noticed. If things were bad enough, Bounties would be generated on them.
In Samir, that meant a whole lot of people would become Bounty targets.
Bounties stopped being a thing in the military, but not because Bounties were illegal there. They simply weren't visible or generated. In military rules, Bounties fell under the purview of system assistance, similar to when the system marked some as fugitives without manual input. One could pursue Bounties. It was optional, though.
However, that's where its similarity to fugitives ended. Shen could capture any fugitive of any rank, but in the front lines, Bounty targets were like Void Spawn. A commander shouldn't hunt marks of a lower rank. Every commander was supposed to let subordinates handle things of their level by themselves so they could grow up. Their AP opportunities were their own unless they couldn't handle it.
Shen would be able to see even E-ranks with Bounties, but he was supposed to let E-ranks solve that. He could protect his people, but only if they didn't have a Bounty on them and were about to get defeated. Helping anyone with a Bounty not get captured meant becoming an accomplice. Even Long Hei's hands were as tied as Shen's.
Even so, some Guardians would not protect innocent subordinates fighting a Bounty mark of the same rank but stronger than them. If the subordinate got heavily injured or died, it would justify the Guardian acting against a weaker Bounty mark and reaping the reward.
Not saving your subordinates was punishable, but determining intent and treason in such moments was complicated. Especially when people weren't deployed. That meant a Commander couldn't ask anyone to watch over anyone. A Guardian just had to time things right and appear at the opportune moment to gain AP.
It was almost impossible to prove they had delayed with ill intentions because they weren't on a mission. Even reading their minds wouldn't work, as they could change their memories. It wasn't that hard, and only specialists could notice the tempering. The Alliance didn't have enough resources to investigate every instance it happened; Shen was sure it would become eerily common.
Chaos was about to descend.
In some places, friends would turn against friends. In other places, criminals would group together. Factions would form.
A small part of Shen disliked that the Alliance was doing things this way instead of having a special rule of some kind to let Generals solve everything. But he had been in the military for too long and understood this was the last opportunity for people to hone themselves before the Void Tide arrived. Some innocent people might die, but it was for the greater good.
He idly wondered how many murders in the Alliance had been justified by the greater good. And yet, what alternative did they have in an endless war of survival?
His Will of Absolute Power shook in defiance in his True Self.
With enough power, he could solve that. With enough power, he could change everything.
But that was for the future. Now, he needed to weather the coming storm. At least he was deployed, so he had greater control of his people.
He opened the Bounty Window. As he had expected, there were countless Bounties, but the marks' locations were vague. The system only revealed which fortress or subnode they were in. That was also part of the training, though he expected precise locations if the Void Tide got too close.
His most distant troops were surrounding the fortress, and everyone arrived quickly. Shen didn't waste time. As soon as they formed ranks, he declared, "We have orders to hunt for fugitives. I have determined that there will be too much chaos in the foreseeable future. Therefore, we'll work to make the chaos last as little as possible while pursuing our original goal.
"We have an advantage over everyone else: our units are small but powerful. We'll play on that strength instead of doing what we have been doing. We will no longer lock mobile fortresses and check every nook and cranny. We'll go in hard and fast, complete every Bounty we can, find every fugitive on the way, and leave for the next fortress. I'll determine which fortress to target and when to go. Do not oppose me or try to pretend you didn't get the order to leave.
"I see none of us has a Bounty on their heads yet." He silently thanked Long Hei for his selection. "If you get one, surrender to a colleague, and your life will be kept. You can try to convince everyone not to capture you, but don't blame anyone for sticking a knife on your back. Bounties are optional on the front lines, but we're still an Exemplary Brigade. There's an argument to be made that we're expected to pursue Bounties.
"I, for one, will only attack C-ranks with an Execution Bounty on them. You're more valuable to me as subordinates than AP bags. As a cultivator, I need less AP than mana wielders.
"We'll return to Samir-7 now, as we have already searched for fugitives there. It'll be my gift to you and a training ground as we adapt to the new strategy. It's the fortress with the strongest Guardians among the ones we cleared, so don't let your hubris kill you.
"Battalions will hunt together. Whoever sees a Bounty target of the same rank will state its name. That will give them priority in trying to deal with the Bounty. If the target is lower than C-rank, the one who stated their name will attack, and their unit will stay nearby for support as the rest of the Battalion keeps hunting. One Guardian of a higher rank will accompany those who stay behind for extra protection. If they meet a stronger foe, they'll retreat. If they complete the Bounty, they'll regroup with the Battalion.
"I'm still the only one allowed to judge fugitives. If you find a fugitive, a C-rank must bring them to me. If the C-rank isn't nearby, you must bring the fugitive to the closest one between the C-rank and me. Yes, it'll take time, but as I just reminded you, that's still our mission. If you ignore a fugitive, you'll be marked as a traitor. It's as simple as that. You never know if you'll find a fugitive or a Bounty target, so you can only hope for the best.
"Any questions?"
"What about us?" Luthdel asked.
Shen smiled. "We'll hunt, too, of course. I'll go alone, you two will cover each other. I'll be more worried about supervising everyone, though. If I find a Bounty target on the way, you can only blame yourselves."
There were no more questions, so he asked the system to teleport them to Samir-7, then let his hounds loose on the fortress.