CHAPTER 2269: DISRUPTED SUPPLY CHAINS

Both the Martial Union and his father would be more than pleased at that outcome, he was sure. On top of that, he would be unshackled and would be allowed to live life as he pleased without a nation constantly hankering over his condition.

Unfortunately, Rui's Martial Mind was extremely difficult to pass on to others. After all, his systems of thought were the most mind intensive systems of thought that anyone had ever seen. It was effectively impossible for him to pass on his breakthrough ability to other Martial Artists.

"... Perhaps I should try creating a training methodology that utilizes the VOID algorithm and turns it into something that doesn't need the active control of a Martial Artist." He fell into thought before the others.

The issue was that something like this took too much time.

He didn't have the time or the patience to spend on realizing this project.

"Oh well, Kandria will have to suck it up." He just shrugged. "I have already done enough and more for the nation. It will be fine with one less treasure. I'm sure that once the war is over, it will still be the strongest and continue growing much faster than all other powerhouses even without me."

The Masters and Sages couldn't deny that, nor could they pressure him into reconsidering.

It was best to put the matter away for now.

"...With that out of the way, there are still other matters that need to be discussed," Sage Roschem remarked with a calm expression. "The Martial Union has gained a surge of Martial Artists in recent times. Many Squires and Seniors in particular have immigrated to the Kandrian Empire in particular. The reason, of course, is the various treasures that are highly conducive to the growth of Martial Artists."

Rui wasn't surprised at this.

There were plenty of Martial Artists from underdeveloped regions and nations in the world who left their homes to head out to Master-level or potentially even Sage-level nations due to better resources and an opportunity to grow far stronger than they would otherwise be able to.

One of the reasons that Sage-level powerhouse nations were so superior to other nations was because this phenomenon effectively functioned like the Martial equivalent of brain drain. The Sage-level powerhouses had been receiving a steady influx of the best talent and the most number of Martial Artists, allowing this advantage to snowball into a huge gap between the powerhouses and other nations.

And now, Kandria was en route to reaching an even higher tier of military and Martial power.

Thus, naturally, one would expect many hopeful younger Martial Artists to head towards Kandria with the intention of riding this potential opportunity for glory when it was in the early days.

"The issue, however, is that it's starting to exceed our capacity to accommodate," one Master remarked. "As the Martial Union of Kandria, we have a reputation of being amongst the best places for a Martial Artist to grow and develop. It is why we attract and retain so many Martial Artists in our organization. However, according to our analysts, very soon, the influx will overwhelm our infrastructural constraints."

An assistant distributed a set of reports that showed a spike in the number of Martial Artists applying for immigration and looking to apply for partnership and membership in the Martial Union, versus the availability of resources.

"In other words, the current Martial Union establishment is unequipped to take in all these Martial Artists..." Rui raised an eyebrow. "Then, why not just build more infrastructure to support all these incoming Martial Artists?"

"...It takes a lot of resources to expand the Martial Union's infrastructure, not to mention time. The current capacity of the Martial Union was built over centuries, you know?" one Master huffed. "According to our analysts, we do not have the resources to expand so aggressively."

"What about the influx of material resources from the Beast Domain?" Another Martial Master raised an eyebrow.

"...I'm guessing that while it's useful, it doesn't solve the problem," Rui remarked. "The resources extracted from the Martial Union are high-grade, they tend to be Master-level, Sage-level, and Transcendent resources. In other words, they're extremely high in quality, but not so much in sheer quantity. What we need is a large amount of lower-grade substances. It isn't as though those Martial Artists can lug home an entire mine on their shoulders." "That is what our analysts have realized as well." A Martial Sage nodded. "In other words, we may be overburdened with Martial Artists in the coming months and years."

Rui fell into thought. "...Then why not just trade with nations and corporations that do have the resources that you're looking for?"

"Our logistics department has indeed tried, but to little avail. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been no problem but..."

"...The war," Rui realized. "It's made many mining and supply chains terrified of supporting us in fear of being decimated by the East Panamic Treaty Alliance."

While the Kandrian Empire had certainly proven to be quite powerful and formidable with its thorough beat-back and partial decimation of the Sekigahara Confederate's attack, many suppliers simply did not want to risk it. Unlike nations, they could not afford to even take a risk because three powerhouses represent more business than the Kandrian Empire did by itself.

Yes, perhaps the Kandrian Empire could win, but until they actually won, many corporations simply avoided the risks and dangers associated with the Kandrian Empire at this point in time.Owned by .

No one could necessarily fault them either. Being sensitive to risk and danger was something that was required for a business to thrive. Such a thing was more the norm than uncommon, so the business sector was confident that it wouldn't suffer backlash for this decision.

"...Which means that we're stuck for a shortage until we can find a willing supplier?" Rui narrowed his eyes. "Or win the war. I suppose we can try to offer highly lucrative deals to them, but..."

The broader issue was that it signified that the risk factor and the consequences of siding against the Kandrian Empire was greater than siding with the Kandrian Empire.

"...I suppose I'll need to change that."