The Martial Unity

The leaders of human civilization grew stunned at the commitment of the Emperor of Harmony to getting people to voluntarily sign up for his collectivist reforms. Based on the choice of words that he had used for his proposition, it became clear to all of them that he was proposing something more intense than the protection that the Kandrian Empire had promised to all of human civilization at the moment.

“I am promising absolute protection,” the Emperor of Harmony continued with a powerful tone. “All fifty-one of our Martial Sages are all yours.”

In the past eleven years, the Kandrian Empire had gained a new Martial Sage almost every six months, with the late honored Gatekeeper being the latest in the line. By all means and purposes, the Kandrian Empire had managed to break past the Great Limit, becoming at least a quasi-Transcendent grade nation.

“Since we have already determined that the imperialistic and colonial powers of the true world that may be will likely concentrate their efforts on half a dozen targets, the Kandrian Empire guarantees absolute protection towards each of those targets,” the Emperor of Harmony continued. “We have gained immensely powerful Martial and technological capital, allowing us to offer great protection to the world with our World Bridge technology. And so once I again…”

His powerful golden eyes sharpened with intensity.

“The Kandrian Empire offers absolute protection to all nations that not only agree to the collectivist reforms that I have promised but also those that dedicate as much of their resources and capital towards the collectivist intelligence, transport, and Martial initiatives.”

It was a powerful offer that could not be denied.

The benefits of the reforms themselves had become painfully clear to all of them. With the increased fore-detection of impending attacks, the increase in time due to a reduction in the enemy’s speed, and the fact that the High-Speed Martial Transportation System could further reduce travel distance by transporting Martial Artists from within a ten thousand kilometer radius, to further minimize time taken.

What was once an unthinkable idea of collectivizing Martial Art across the continent was now more feasible.

“That’s not all,” the Emperor of Harmony continued. “For the most important class of Martial Artists, such as the Martial Masters and Martial Sages, we can go with more extraordinary means, such as a World Bridge transportation System with terminals across all Sage-level and Master-level nations. World Bridge technology is extremely expensive, consumes great energy, but it should be possible, if costly, to have a World Bridge System for the instantaneous transportation of Martial Masters and Sages across human civilization.”

It wasn’t possible for each nation to host a world bridge, but it was possible to limit to the most technologically developed nations, which tended to be exclusively comprised of Sage-level and Master-level nations.

With a high-speed transportation system for Martial Artists of the Lower Realms and an instantaneous transportation system for Martial Artists of the Upper Realms, it was now possible to truly collectivize Martial power of the entire civilization.

Then, and only then, could they have the power to fight back against the imperialistic conquistadors of the true world.

However, there was one large problem that made all of this almost impossible to achieve.

“How long will it take for the Panamic Corridor Network to be fully developed?” Prime Minister Edward raised an eyebrow. “I haven’t gone through the plans yet, of course, and I can already infer from the provided information that it will take anywhere between five to ten years for this network to be developed.”

His eyes sharpened.

“Do you think the true world will be kind enough to wait a decade for us to finish all the processes needed to reach the collectivist utopia you speak of?” he asked with a severe tone. “It hasn’t been even half a day since the true world anomaly happened, and they have already mounted an attack, even if clearly a preliminary probe. How the hell will we be able to finish all these plans before they reach us?”

Clearing all the esoterified forests and natural environments that covered most of the continent due to the esoterification of the human domain would take at least a year, even with martial artists.

Then, setting up a preliminary construction area and preventing esoteric flora and fauna from returning to it while commencing the preliminary steps of construction would take another year.

Sequestering of resources and materials needed to construct the corridors would also take its own time. After that, the actual construction process would probably take at least five years at the very soonest.

Testing, debugging, and refining the corridor network would also take a year at a bare minimum.

By the time the network even came to use, any war between the Panama Continent and the true world would have undoubtedly reached some kind of conclusion or compromise on either side. Very few wars went beyond ten years, as the loss of lives, capital, and expenditures over a decade would begin to exceed any benefits gained at that point.

The Britannian Prime Minister struck at the very heart of the problem with the proposals made by the Emperor of Harmony with sharp and keen criticisms, once more bringing doubt back into the minds of the leaders of human civilization.

Most leaders found themselves to be profoundly conflicted about whether or not they wanted to support the collectivist reforms of the Emperor of Harmony. On one hand, the hope and vision for the future that the Kandrian Emperor provided them with was truly tantalizing in the state of mind they were in at the moment. On the other, the Britiannian Prime Minister’s attacks on just that very vision made it very difficult for the leaders of human civilization to trust the grand vision for human civilization that the Emperor of Harmony provided with all of them.

The air tingled with tension as human civilization had already arrived at a profoundly important crossroads.

One that would define the very future of human civilization and the fate of the Panama Continent.

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