Published at 24th of August 2026 9:36 am

Chapter 4433: An Assessment of Odds

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In a large meeting room, numerous individuals were seated across a large table, many of whom were prominent. A large majority of them had military bearing, not to mention militaristic attire. Their attire silently indicated the stations in life they occupied. Whether it was the medals or the stars, or the aura of authority and power they clearly harbored. Yet, they remained seated across the table in silence with serious expressions, waiting for an impending meeting to start.

WHOOSH

Rui teleported into the meeting room, startling everyone. His attire was royal, instead of Martial. He had changed quickly shortly after leaving Runark’s side in the manifold. He directed a sweeping gaze across the meeting. "Sorry for being late, I had some personal business. But now that I’m here...

He took his seat at the head of the table. "...Let’s commence the first strategic meeting of the Central Human Command."

Shortly after the Security Council voted to create a central body that would take command of human civilization’s war efforts, Rui put together a command force that comprised human civilization’s some of human civilization’s best and brightest military, defense, strategy, and intelligence experts.

Although he had a lot of knowledge and experience, not to mention strategic intelligence to take charge of humanity’s command, it was wise to bring in experts who were much closer to the respective fields than he was. Humanity was too vast for it to be commanded from the inputs of one man alone, even if it was a Martial Transcendent.

"Now then, as you all know, the purpose of this meeting is the strategic outlook report that I commissioned upon creation of this body," Rui spoke with an authoritative voice. "The council had been provided with the necessary intel on our enemies to form a preliminary, but comprehensive report on our prospects in this war with a material comparison of each side. Let’s hear it."

Naturally, the first step in any war was assessment of the dynamics. The net war potential of the two sides, mobilization speeds, war assets, informational dynamics, territory, technology, and numerous other factors that would influence the outcome of the war. If one wanted to win, one needed to analyze all the relevant factors and determine the odds of victory and the most likely outcome.

An old man rose, directing a grim expression at Rui. "Your Majesty, our committee has pored over the truly crucial information that you have managed to provide us, and has conducted a comprehensive analysis of a war between human civilization and Arakai Web Civilization, and..."

He hesitated for a moment. "...we have determined that the probability of victory of a direct, symmetric confrontation is very low. Around 0.01%."

He was Deputy Commander Wiles of the Central Human Command, a man who had worked in the Kandrian Empire as a deputy general and later general for nearly sixty years. His words hung over the central command meeting like a mountain, looming over them, making the air darker and heavier. Nearly every single person in the meeting couldn’t help but grow more severe at those words.

"Well, isn’t that gloomy?"

The relaxed voice of former Prime Minister Edward hung in the air, drawing attention from everybody. He stood out like a sore thumb among a dozen or so highly well-attired individuals, wearing a shirt and shorts like he was on vacation.

He had been invited to Central Command as a consultant by none other than Rui to provide his input into how humanity ought to have conducted the war despite the fact that he had been retired for over eighteen years.

As far as Rui was concerned, even eighteen years out of the game, Edward was still one of the most reliable strategists across human civilization.

"It is," Rui smiled at him before turning back to Deputy Commander Wiles with a serious expression. "Elaborate on your conclusion."

"Well, isn’t it obvious, Your Majesty?" The man asked straightforwardly. "The reality is that their heavy space force outnumbers us by two orders of magnitude. Based on the intelligence that you provided us on the arakai, they possess seven hundred times as many dreadnoughts as we do, and five hundred times as many heavy space forces, including battleships and cruisers, as we do. They have an even higher class of ships that we do not know, as motherships to carry and coordinate large numbers of warships in the field.

"Their ships have higher durability indices and offensive potential. They have a higher presence of esoteric matter that allows them to do more with each ship than we can with ours. On top of that, they have interstellar weapons that can launch attacks from many light years away through the use of wormhole technology," he continued with a grim expression. "Then there’s the fact that despite our civilization having so many pathwalkers, they have more highly advanced infantry, known as Blessed Warriors and Ascendent Arakai. Then there’s also the fact that they have more than a hundred times as many Transcendents as we do. The reality is that we are massively outstripped in almost every area, except for infantry quality and quantity, where we share some parity."

Rui remained quiet throughout the brief breakdown of the preliminary strategic outlook report. He knew from the very start that, on paper, in a direct head-on war, human civilization didn’t stand a chance, even with Rui. He couldn’t be there everywhere, and even if he kept fighting, kept transferring consciousness, and kept fighting back, he couldn’t be there everywhere.

"This report merely talks about an on-paper direct, symmetric war, correct?" Edward raised an eyebrow before turning back towards Rui. "Then it means nothing. There is more to war than balance sheets, of course."

Rui nodded. "The biggest advantage that we have is that our enemy is facing off against two very determined opponents. The Dessandrites and the Aquadites have forged an alliance with each other and are fighting a unified war against the arakai. These are civilizations that are as massive as the arakai, which means that they simply don’t have too much leeway to direct our way."

That rationale alone didn’t convince the distinguished experts in the room of the viability of this war.

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