"Excuse me, but that's also too much for me," Kyle said with a bitter smile.
No one was surprised.
The declaration of battle came from one of the Big Four.
The Big Four were the four strongest Organizations in the Secondary Sector, and their strength was…
Well, one just had to look at the declaration of battle.
Dawnlight.
Members: 103
74 Major Crushers.
20 Advanced Crushers.
Eight Fulfilled Crushers.
One Unique Crusher.
This was a ridiculous lineup!
They even had a Unique Crusher!
Of course, that Unique Crusher was also a member of the Contrast Empire, and they didn't even keep it secret.
Dawnlight was powerful enough to make their affiliation with the Contrast Empire public.
It was more than obvious that Dawnlight was led by a powerful genius of the Contrast Empire who tried to become a Legendary Crusher.
Their territory was absolutely massive, spanning almost a hundred Planet Systems.
They had over 30 Law Wells for Level Four Laws.
Kyle looked at the options.
War, tribute, refusal.
"This one isn't simple," Kyle said.
Star Genesis nodded. "Dawnlight has an unreasonably large amount of Karmic Luck since almost every Organization refuses to fight them. They have so much Karmic Luck that breaking the common conventions is an affordable loss."
"Dawnlight regularly attacks its neighbors without declaring battle beforehand."
Star Genesis sighed. "Luckily, we are too small to enter their eyes. I believe they do not even want to fight us."
"Declarations of battle do not require your entire Organization to enter the fight. If they wanted to fight us, they would have only included some Major and Advanced Crushers to make the fight winnаble for us. Since they included their entire lineup, I would assume that this is only an… introduction. They want to show us that they are in charge."
"They simply want resources or Karmic Luck from us. As long as we give them what they want, they will leave us alone."
Star Genesis' brows furrowed.
"The day we receive a declaration of battle from them that only includes Major and Advanced Crushers will be the day we are forced to accept the battle. If we refuse then, we might be forced into a battle without a previous declaration."
Swamp Dragon looked at Star Genesis. "How many resources do they want?"
"Fortunately, not a lot," Star Genesis answered. "They want about half of what Killing Squad wants."
"Then, we should pay," Swamp Dragon said, looking at the other members. The other members agreed, and the declaration of battle was processed.
Now, Explosive Karma was paying tribute to two powers, which sucked.
"Last one," Star Genesis said, taking out the last declaration of battle.
Everyone looked at the declaration.
Broken Spark.
Members: Ten.
Eight Major Crushers.
Two Advanced Crushers.
'Thank fuck,' Kyle thought. 'This is not nearly as bad.'
The options of the declaration of battle were…
War, non-lethal battle, tribute, absorption, refusal.
"I already have a plan for this one," Star Genesis said.
Everyone looked at her, waiting for her to share her plan.
"I believe we should not go to war with them," Star Genesis said. "While we can definitely win against them, I believe we should not keep increasing the size of our territory."
"If we want to hold a bigger territory, we need more powerful members, and a war usually ends with the death of all the powerful members on one side."
"A war increases the quality of an Organization's Seekers at the cost of their quantity. Our quality is good enough, but our quantity is lacking."
"I propose a non-lethal battle."
Fierce Breaker's brows furrowed. "What variant did they suggest?"
"Three battles. One side must win all three battles to win the other Organization. If it ends with one side only gaining two victories, the other side will pay tribute to the winning side for the next century. No territories or members will be exchanged. 1v1, 3v3, 5v5. Any member can fight in only one battle," Star Genesis said.
Kyle did some quick calculations.
'We could go for the 1v1 and 3v3, but the 5v5 is basically lost. We would need to send one guy to fight against five of them.'
'Since we're lacking so many members, we can only hope for two wins instead of all three.'
"I'm willing to fight the solo-battle," Fierce Breaker said.
Kyle looked at Fierce Breaker with surprise, which didn't show on his face.
The others were not surprised.
While Kyle hadn't had much contact with Fierce Breaker, the others did.
After rebuilding his Momentum, Fierce Breaker had shown how driven he was a couple of times.
He worked constantly, and he always tried to better himself.
In his free time, he even looked at Laws he didn't have an Affinity for.
"I'm 70% sure that I can win against their strongest Crusher," Fierce Breaker said.
Star Genesis looked at Fierce Breaker for a bit before turning to Kyle wordlessly.
However, Kyle was just looking at the declaration of battle.
These kinds of fights reminded him a bit of the tournament battles in the Tertiary World.
He had only been part of one of them, but he knew how they wоrked.
As he looked at the declaration of battle, Kyle felt like something wasn't quite right.
'What's their goal?' he thought. 'They gave us a bunch of choices. It seems more like they want to interact with us in some way.'
'Did they actuаlly predict that we wouldn't accept the war because of our lack of members?'
'If that's so, they probably also know that we wouldn't be willing to pay even more tribute to them. They know our neighbors, and they probably know that we can't beat Killing Squad or Dawnlight.'
'Absorption obviously isn't an option.'
'That leaves refusal and non-lethal battle.'
'If we refuse, they gain Karmic Luck.'
'However, if we accept a non-lethal battle…'
'What are they after? Dawnlight is also their neighbor, and they are at about our level, which means Dawnlight also doesn't really care about them.'
'But what if it did? Or, more appropriately, what would need to happen for Dawnlight to care about them?'
'They would need more members and territories.'
'They don't want to attract attention. Just like us, they don't want to grow too big.'
'In that case, what if they actually don't want to absorb our entire Organization?'
'What if they are simply after some resources?'
'That would mean that they are not aiming for three wins but for only two.'
'They know that the quality of our members is very high since we won two wars with a significant number disadvantage.'
'That means they would consider the 1v1 lost from the beginning, which means they would be focusing on the other two fights.'
Kyle wanted to smirk, but he had to keep his disguise up, which was why he only smiled.
"I don't believe you should fight," he said to Fierce Breaker. "I trust your power. I know that you can win."
"But that's exactly why I don't want you to fight."
Kyle calmly chuckled as he took the declaration of battle into his hands.
"The bare minimum," he said.
"How about we show them why Seekers shouldn't aim for the bare minimum?"
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