They all went into silence. I watched them exchanging silent gazes between each other without saying anything. I could feel their loss, trouble in understanding what I said, and also fear.
"If there is another way other than this, then I'd have preferred to take it. But this is our only path to survive, and hopefully we can pull it through."
"Then let me lead an expedition to the outer world," Legend was the first to make his stance clear and firm. This kid might be young, but he was brave and smart.
He got what I meant by saying we would go all out. He understood that we were going to invade the other worlds at this moment.
And he volunteered to take part in this.
"Well, I can't promise an easy journey out there. But I hope you know what it means by leading an expedition."
"I got what it takes," his eyes didn't even shift away from me, or even blink, "I want to lead one of the expeditions."
"Me too," the jumper shrugged. But when I glared at him, he said in a weird tone, "what? Don't you believe I have what it takes to lead an expedition?"
"Dude, I'm sick of cleaning up your mess," I rolled my eyes, "you won't lead an expedition, that's final."
"You promised me that!" The jumper seemed to be like a hurt beast, roaring while gnawing his teeth, making his words look quite scary.
But that wouldn't baffle me.
"This is final," I gave an evil smile, "you won't lead any expedition, but that doesn't mean you are dismissed from danger either."
"What does it even mean?" he seemed to frown, and I laughed enjoyably, enjoying such a reaction from him.
"You'll lead an army in one world," I crossed my arms before adding, "and if, and I mean if, you managed to do something worthy, you'll have a chance to level up to lead an expedition."
Of course I wasn't acting partial or being lenient to him. I knew the upcoming war was going to be bloody. Losing army generals was going to be a common thing. And even losing expedition grand generals might happen.
So at some point, I'd need capable people to lead the expeditions losing their grand leaders. He was indeed capable, and to prevent any future mockery from him, I decided to give him such a road map of his future.
But that depended entirely over his overall performance. If he kept doing his sh*t again, ending up killing most of his armies to secure victory, then he wasn't suited to be a grand general at all.
Even if I had large armies, it was stupid to throw their lives in such futile way. As a general, he had to think two steps ahead and secure victory without much losses. And being a grand general meant much more than that.
If he didn't grow and learn from his past mistakes, he was destined to be left behind no matter how talented he was.
"Are we all going to take part there?" the spearhead seemed nervous, and he should be. Looking at this friend made his body quiver.
I wasn't looking at him as a normal general, he was special. I didn't plan to send him to one world, no that would be a waste of his talents.
This dude was destined to suffer the most among everyone, as he was going to be sent to all the worlds to help everyone.
It seemed my face exposed my evil intentions for him, as his body kept shivering and he even took a couple of steps back.
"Why are you looking at me like this?" it seemed he couldn't tolerate my evil and greedy eyes anymore, blurting this out in a shaky tone.
"Like what? I'm just looking at you," I evilly grinned, and the look on my face seemed to drive more fear into him.
"Don't worry," I laughed, "you are going to be totally fine. I will make sure all the expedition leaders pay special attention to you."
"All… Expedition… Wait… What does that even mean?!!" he shouted after stuttering for a moment there in immense shock and deep fear.
But I ignored him.
"I will commence a grand meeting in three days," I turned around and looked at the generals around me. Aside from the jumper, Legend, and spearhead, I didn't know the rest.
"You three are selected to participate in the upcoming expeditions, so select any suitable generals and leaders from the armies here," I stopped my eyes over Legend before adding, "and if there are more suitable candidates to take part in the expeditions as army leaders, generals, or even expedition generals, feel free to bring them with you."
"Oh, you didn't give me the post of the great general of an expedition and yet left me the choice to select a few to take it? Interesting!"
I looked up and down at the shameless jumper and then opened a portal using my staff without responding to his useless comment. My earlier words were clear, and I spoke them to Legend and him alone.
"The rest will be stationed in the region, fortify the defences and never let any zombie slip by. If something bad erupted, just notify Lily and Isac," I said before passing through the portal and appearing back at the capital.
I secured the most threatening zones. Even if I failed to deal with three troublesome locations, the rest was already risk free at the moment.
And now it was time to see if the theory about the zombie dens was right or wrong.
I first talked with Lily and Isac, informing them about my intentions and next plans. I asked them to prepare a group of capable generals to form two teams.
One would lead the first waves and enter the twenty-two worlds, and the other would stay back in wait. They'd act as replacements for the deceased great generals or move out as reinforcements if they were needed to.