In Night City, the battle raged on.
Transcendent from the coalition army formed special squads, repeatedly penetrating and splitting Night City’s forces in areas beyond the reach of artillery fire.
The Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team had already been deployed to the battlefield.
However, in the face of a war on such a massive scale, even with the full deployment of the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team, it was difficult to turn the tide of battle.
Both Night City and the coalition army had suffered heavy casualties.
But for now, the heavy casualties were not the most critical issue. The crucial problem was that Night City, besieged by the world’s financial groups, was an isolated island in a vast sea, cut off from any resupply of food and raw materials.
Everything they were currently consuming—all of it was stockpiled food and weapons from before the war began.
Once these supplies were exhausted, Night City, even if it still had fighting strength, would be left completely hamstrung.
Therefore, even though the financial groups’ coalition army had not yet broken into the city, morale within Night City’s military was incredibly unstable.
Inside the frontline command headquarters.
Regina was rubbing her temples.
Beside her, several officers from the security department spoke up. "Miss Regina, are you able to contact the Chairman right now?"
Another officer, his tone just as urgent, added, "The coalition army’s supply lines are endless! We have to find a way to break out. Otherwise, if we stay trapped here, it’s a dead end!"
The officers all began talking at once.
Their demands all boiled down to one thing: they needed to see Li Ping’an!
The problem was, only Regina and a handful of others in all of Night City knew that Li Chang’an had left.
Therefore, Regina couldn’t possibly let them cause a scene. She frowned and said forcefully, "The Chairman’s orders are to hold the defensive line. Just do your jobs. You don’t need to worry about anything else!"
Hearing her reply, the officers, though still not entirely convinced, ultimately chose to fall silent.
You couldn’t really blame them for being anxious.
After all, as soldiers, they were watching their weapons and food dwindle day by day, with no way to escape their perilous situation. They knew this was no time to just keep holding the line.
After dismissing the officers, Regina sighed and rubbed her temples, a headache brewing.
Then, under the protection of several members of the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team, she got up and went to the top of the defensive walls built outside Night City to conduct her daily inspection.
The roar of artillery from the front lines was incessant.
Looking down from the defensive line, she could see the coalition army’s Transcendent squads clashing with the elites of the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team.
In a one-on-one fight, a member of a Transcendent squad was no match for a member of the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team, but there was no getting around the Transcendent squads’ sheer numbers.
The Eight Major Financial Groups had the Advanced Technology Company providing an endless supply of Extraordinary Potions, allowing them to mass-produce Transcendent at any time. But every member of the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team was an elite personally trained by Li Chang’an. The value of the two sides’ soldiers was on completely different levels.
Even if it cost them ten cannon-fodder Transcendent to take out one member of the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team, the coalition army still came out ahead.
After watching the battlefield from the front line for a while, Regina wearily closed her eyes. She hadn’t had a single good night’s sleep in the many days since Li Chang’an had left Night City.
Every night, she would inevitably be jolted awake by nightmares, terrified of failing the trust placed in her by Li Chang’an, by Night City, and by the millions of soldiers on the front lines.
To minimize any potential errors in her decisions, she held twenty to thirty high-intensity combat meetings every day, discussing the details of every local engagement with the officers fighting on the front.
But even so, she couldn’t reverse the trend of Night City’s steady retreat.
After all, no matter how prosperous Night City was, it was still just a single city.
It might not fear taking on any single financial group, but going against the entire world... that was asking too much of both Night City and Regina.
If Li Chang’an hadn’t left behind a peaceful, stable, and highly unified Night City, the Yunxiao Group would likely have already been defeated.
...
At the thought of Li Chang’an, the weary look on Regina’s face softened slightly.
To be honest, if she were following any other leader at a time like this—any of the world’s financial group heads, for instance—Regina would not harbor any hope of victory.
It was only because she was following Li Chang’an that she held on to a sliver of hope.
At this thought, Regina subconsciously picked up her communicator and glanced at it.
Before he left, Li Chang’an had told her that she could use the communicator to contact him if any special circumstances arose.
But the coalition army had already cut off Night City’s communication satellites. Aside from the local area network and internal communications, Night City could no longer contact the outside world.
"An isolated island..." Regina sighed, looking up at the overcast sky.
...
Days passed. Just as the clouds of war grew ever thicker, something seemed to happen on the side of the coalition army. Their previously steady and unhurried offensive suddenly grew more and more intense.
The number of deaths in each battle began to climb.
Finally, as if driven into a frenzy, the coalition army suddenly gathered three hundred thousand elite troops and committed all their frontline armaments. They were preparing to launch a massive general assault, intending to tear through Night City’s recently constructed third defensive line in a single blow.
For Night City, this was undoubtedly good news.