Doomsday Roulette

Chapter Two-in-One

The news of victory had reached Cloud Summit Villa, dissipating the previously tense atmosphere.

However, a sorrowful ambiance spread throughout the villa.

This time, the crusade against the parasites had resulted in too many deaths.

In Xia Lei's team, everyone except Xia Lei perished. Most of the members were seasoned warriors of the villa, many of whom had family members serving Cloud Summit. With such a devastating loss, not only were there families in mourning, but sadness could be seen everywhere.

Post-war tasks began immediately, addressing the aftermath of the fallen soldiers, treating the injured, distributing compensation, registering and resupplying missing equipment, and even psychological counseling, which was only available at Cloud Summit, all proceeded without delay.

At this moment, the accumulation of resources and experiences at Cloud Summit was beginning to show.

In the apocalypse, death was simply death; sometimes, the deceased could not even be buried properly. In some extreme teams, soldiers who died would be fed to various mutated creatures. They claimed this was a manifestation of natural evolution, allowing the mutated life forms to evolve faster, leading to humans hunting them for higher-level magic crystals and materials.

But at Cloud Summit, fallen soldiers were treated as if in peacetime, with graveyards and tombstones for their families to pay their respects.

The burial grounds were even located near the villa, part of the core area. Unless someone breached the villa's walls, the resting place of fallen soldiers would remain undisturbed.

As for compensation, Cloud Summit’s payouts were not as simple as just handing out money. They would devise detailed plans based on each soldier's family situation. For instance, if only the elderly were left behind, they would be brought to the villa and provided with Evolution Potions to help them do what they could. Special living areas would be set up; every Cloud Summit warrior understood that this space was for the families of the sacrificed soldiers, and they treated them with great respect—even Xia Lei was no exception.

If there were surviving spouses and children, Cloud Summit would take excellent care of them, prioritizing their future job choices, and the children would be the focus of special training.

This was one of the key reasons there had been very few uprisings since Cloud Summit was established.

Every individual was valued, and there was none of the coldness and brutality found in other teams during the apocalypse. This was the fundamental reason every soldier was willing to sacrifice themselves.

Others weren't unwilling to learn; they just couldn't replicate what Cloud Summit had built on such a solid foundation. Achieving such standards wasn't merely talk; it required a vast amount of Evolution Potions.

Next came the replenishment for each team's losses, which was a complex process, especially when selecting external warriors to participate in the battle. Fortunately, Cloud Summit had a set of mature standards, but that would take some time.

At the same time, the commercial and logistics departments of Cloud Summit were fully mobilized. They needed to purchase and allocate various materials and supplies to make up for the losses in the Mei City battle.

Preliminary estimates suggested that handling these matters to basically restore Cloud Summit to its state before the Mei City battle would take at least half a year, not counting the cultivation of battle beasts, even after gaining substantial benefits from occupying most of the national district.

"But we still have to face another battle."

The day after all the Cloud Summit Team members returned to the villa, all core members gathered for a meeting in Ye Zhongming's villa.

Guangyao pointed at the map, his brow furrowed.

"During the days we were in Mei City, those sea beasts expanded their occupied territories. Although we had some teams nearby that did play a role, since the main force wasn't there, we couldn't dare to engage them in large-scale conflict. Therefore, if they attacked, we could only retreat. However, we have gathered much more intelligence on them than before."