Chapter 420 High-Level Meeting

Monica’s words were not hard to understand at all.

It’s just that the content within them really… required some time for them to digest.

If what Monica said is true, then the Dark Zone world is the real world, and those living dead who were initially just cannon fodder, randomly killed by players… are actually the truly dead versions of themselves.

It’s even possible that the real Ling Mo turned into a living dead after destruction, having been killed by Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan—after all, during the initial period after they established their stronghold, they were conducting extensive sweep operations on the surrounding cities to ensure safety.

Such philosophical questions of who I killed and who killed me are indeed hard to resolve in a short time.

But if we set this question aside for now, the more pressing issue at hand is—if the Dark Zone world is the real world, then the expedition has become a fully necessary undertaking, with absolutely no room for retreat.

Because the nature has changed.

Before, the human organization’s sole purpose for the expedition was to eliminate all demons in the Dark Zone world to reduce the likelihood of invasions in the real world. So if they encountered massive obstacles that prevented the expedition’s success, humans could choose to settle for eliminating most of the demon forces to make the real world relatively safe.

But now it’s different—they must reclaim their world.

“Because the remnants of the world rarely appear naturally, and even when they do, there must be some existence to provide sustained support for their existence—not the remnant’s body itself, but an additional existence.” Monica continued to explain, “In your case, that supporting existence is the world protection mechanism, but maintaining the existence of the remnant is incredibly energy-consuming. By the day the world protection mechanism runs out of energy, the remnant will completely cease to exist.”

After a pause, Monica said earnestly, “So you don’t have much time left. If you can’t reclaim the true world before the world protection mechanism shuts down, what awaits you is the real end of the world.”

This also explains a lot of things—why the world protection mechanism was so eager to cultivate humans into beings capable of fighting demons, even fundamentally changing the essence of the entire world, because its mission is to protect and restore the world—years ago, when it created the remnant to help humanity withstand that disaster, it was about protection; now, by turning humans into warriors and guiding them to reclaim the Dark Zone world, it’s about restoration.

Though until now, only Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan knew the truth—thanks to Monica noticing and informing them, but it didn’t seem to affect them much. Even without knowing the truth, humans still made the right choice, even initiating the expedition plans earlier than in their previous lives.

This was good news for Xia Xinyan; at least they didn’t need to move everyone by revealing the truth. After all, there were still many ordinary people in the real world, and spreading this matter could cause more panic than positive effects, rendering it somewhat pointless.

Monica likely told them this just to help them understand life a bit better.

Or maybe… it’s the reward for providing her with so much firsthand material?

Regardless, they needed to speed up their actions.

So after Monica left, Xia Xinyan notified Summer Jincang, asking him to come over when he had time.

Ling Mo wasn’t idle either and sent out invitations to all major forces in the name of the Eagles Alliance. This was his first time using this identity to handle a situation.

It was also time to validate the strength of their efforts—how powerful the influence of the Eagles Alliance they had built really was.

The results came swiftly.

The meeting place was at the Chicks Building in the real world, relying entirely on the influence of the Eagles Alliance to accomplish this, with no support from Summer Jincang or the Summer Family or even a shred of resources from New Dawn.

But everyone showed up.

All the invitees arrived promptly at the Chicks Building, gathering the heads of all major forces in the country. You could say that if anyone could blow up the Chicks Building today, that would be a truly significant decapitation operation.

However, likely, at least in the real world, there should be no threat to the lives of everyone present.

The conference room was large, but once everyone was there, it felt a bit crowded. Besides the largest several forces, many mid-sized factions also participated, making them a group not to be underestimated in future expedition operations.

Summer Jincang sat next to Xia Xinyan thanks to the family connection, glanced at Ling Mo seated on her other side, then surveyed the other attendees in the meeting room and whispered, “What exactly are you all going to discuss?”

Honestly, even he hadn’t expected such a large gathering.

He initially thought his sister was just calling him to talk about something important, but he didn’t expect the matter to be this significant—every major force in the country had gathered.

Of course, what made him feel uncomfortable was that such a big thing happened without his sister informing him in advance, nor did she choose to let him help, which left him feeling somewhat neglected.

But looking on the bright side—at least the invitation from Xia Xinyan was personally provided to him, so he had at least a bit of special treatment.

Moreover, this was also his first time truly confronting the influence that Ling Mo had created with the Eagles Alliance.

Just a single invitation could prompt all high-level figures to respond, even if that invitation mentioned “important information regarding the expedition,” which was more than enough to illustrate the point.

—It’s like if a child approached you wanting to discuss saving the world, would you dismiss them?

It’s the same idea.

Xia Xinyan did not answer Summer Jincang’s question.

Because the meeting had already begun.

“I believe Mr. Ling also knows that everyone present does not have much spare time,” a burly man was the first to speak, “So Mr. Ling has gathered us here, hoping to provide us with a satisfactory explanation.”

“Of course,” Ling Mo smiled slightly, then raised his hand and snapped his fingers, “But first, please be patient and watch a short video.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a projection suddenly appeared in the conference room, instantly drawing everyone’s attention. Then, the screen lit up, and the first scene showed a towering castle breaking through a scene of dark clouds—an awe-inspiring sight.

The filming angle was shaky, seemingly recorded in a hurry, but it was enough to convey the enormous oppressive aura of that castle.

Next, the video paused on a clearer image.

Ling Mo pointed to that castle: “Allow me to introduce, this is the true target that the expedition may face, the Demon Stronghold.”