Chapter Twenty-Two: The Silent Struggle

“Abandon all illusions, prepare for war.”

Staring at these twelve words projected before him, Ye Guangyu sat in silence for a long time. In that moment, his mind drifted back to the oath he had sworn eighteen years ago when the Space Corps was founded.

“From this day forward, we will never bow to any nation again!”

...

“From this day forward, we will never bow to any nation again!”

Murmuring these words, Ye Guangyu suddenly stood up and issued a command: “All squadron leaders of the Space Corps, report to the conference room for a meeting.”

...

A few minutes later, in the conference room, Ye Guangyu’s expression was grim as he looked at the assembled officers.

“Headquarters wants us to abandon all illusions. Now, let’s discuss what we do next.

First, one thing must be confirmed: when the next Rift opens, all 300,000 Space Corps personnel will be fully deployed inside.

By my estimation, the next wave shouldn’t erupt into large-scale conflict just yet. After all, people from other countries are still scattered about; it will take them some time to gather their forces.

But the wave after that—there are no guarantees.

To be cautious, our short-term goal is to recruit one million new soldiers within a week.

With over a million troops and our organizational strength, even if we face enemies several times our number, we still stand a chance to win.

As for the long-term goal...

We need to recruit one hundred million people within two months.

Only at this scale can we truly esta