"Mm, I know."
After a long while, Feng Zhiyu finally spoke.
His voice was tinged with an indescribable poignancy.
"Unless... a Madman suddenly appears. A Madman capable of single-handedly and recklessly completing those Hell-level, or even Nightmare-level, missions. Otherwise, the outcome is already set in stone."
He was mocking himself.
Because he knew better than anyone that such a thing was simply impossible.
"Battle Commander."
A Martial Artist beside him immediately spoke up. "A single Hell-level mission rewards about 1,000 points. A Nightmare-level mission is worth a whopping 100,000 points! What if we... issued some additional incentives within the Warband? Motivate our top members to risk it all?"
He meant well.
He was hoping for one last push, a final struggle to see if they could work a miracle.
However, his words were immediately met with Feng Zhiyu’s thunderous and severe rebuke!
"Motivate them to do what?!"
Feng Zhiyu whipped his head around, his deep eyes flashing with a piercing light. He stared intently at the Martial Artist who had spoken. "Motivate them to get themselves killed?!"
His voice wasn’t loud, but it held an undeniable, terrifying pressure—the kind that could only come from a Planet-level Strongman!
"Let me repeat myself! Warband rankings ebb and flow; one’s strength waxes as another’s wanes. This is the natural course of history! It’s a healthy rivalry between us and Iron Blood that has lasted for tens of thousands of years! Are we really going to send the future pillars of the Empire—the future hope of the Undaunted—on missions with a one-in-ten chance of survival, or even certain-death missions, all for the hollow title of ’Number One’?!"
His gaze swept over everyone present, his tone as cold as iron.
"Look at our Warband! Look at all our Fifth-level Martial Artists! Besides Nissan, Ning Jing, and Dragon Jade—the three who have cultivated their life force index to the 7,200-point minor threshold—who else is confident they can consistently complete Hell-level missions? Not a single one!"
"They struggle even with Hell-level missions, and you’re thinking about Nightmare-level?! You still want to ’motivate’ them?!"
"We can’t compete, and that’s that! Is it so hard to just accept it?!"
Under this harsh reprimand, the Ninth-level Martial Artist who had made the suggestion instantly turned deathly pale, cold sweat pouring down his face.
He instantly realized his mistake.
"Yes... Yes! Battle Commander! I-I was being foolish!"
He immediately bowed deeply in apology.
Feng Zhiyu looked at him, the anger in his eyes slowly subsiding.
He waved his hand, his tone returning to normal, but his weariness and sense of helplessness had only deepened.
"That’s enough. All of you, remember this: life always comes first. A hollow title means nothing."
"If we’re second, then we’re second."
"...It doesn’t matter anymore."
He turned around, once again looking at the huge light screen displaying the ever-widening gap, and sighed softly.
-----------------
Inside the high council chamber of the Undaunted Warband, the atmosphere finally settled into silence, broken only by Battle Commander Feng Zhiyu’s weary sigh.
Outside the chamber, however, on the private forum composed of countless data streams, the atmosphere was more heated than ever.
To the Warband’s high command, settling for second place was perhaps a "failure" for which they had to bear responsibility.
But for the vast majority of ordinary Warband members, it felt more like a "grand spectacle"—a once-in-a-century event they were personally witnessing, a moment of history in the making.
Right now, dozens of new threads were popping up on the forum every second.
The hottest topic of discussion, without a doubt, was the increasingly clear outcome of the current Warband ranking tournament.
[SHOCKING! The point gap in the Fifth Level Division has officially surpassed the 100,000 mark!]
[Screenshot for proof! Just moments ago, the point gap between our Undaunted and Iron Blood in the Fifth Level Division officially surpassed one hundred thousand! This basically means it’s game over for us in this division, right?]
[Sigh, we all saw this coming. Iron Blood poached so many of our top geniuses back in the day. Now they’ve all developed, and we can’t close the gap.]
[Looks like the Iron Blood Warband is really going to seize the top spot this time! Their era is dawning! I reckon for the next few hundred years, the ’First Battle Group’ title is going to belong to Iron Blood.]
[Don’t be so pessimistic. Speaking of which, we have an unwritten ’rule of graduation’ here at Cannan Star Martial Arts University, passed down by word of mouth. It says that when you personally witness the second-ranked Warband surpass the First Battle Group to become the new number one, you’re not far from graduating. Looks like it’s really true.]
[So true! When I first enrolled, the Undaunted were at the height of their power. Now I’m about to graduate, and Iron Blood is finally getting their moment in the sun. Basically, the first and second spots rotate every five or six ranking tournaments, which is about five or six hundred years. After all, most people graduate in about a thousand years, right?]
[...]
The forums were abuzz with discussion.
Although, as members of the Undaunted Warband, their words were all tinged with a bit of regret and unwillingness to concede.
But for the most part, there was a rational acceptance of the grand tide of history.