I Only Wanted A Class In The Apocalypse

Chapter 1863: One Month Plans

”Hahaha, I would never do something so reckless, Gan,” Hye laughed, pulling out a chair and spinning it around to sit.

”If I had kidnapped royalty, we wouldnʼt be looking at crates of crystals and ship parts. Weʼd be looking at an endless stream of Hescos battle-fleets parked on our doorstep, looking for blood.”

”For real, though, what happened?” Lily leaned over the table, her eyes wide with curiosity. She reached out, playfully mussing his hair as if he were still just the young man sheʼd met at the start of the end.

”We saw the manifest. We knew you were meeting with them to talk, but how on earth did you convince those arrogant bastards to hand over these kinds of priceless goods? What did you give them that was worth more than a kingdomʼs budget?”

”They are priceless to us, that much is true,” Hye said, his smile calm and steady as he looked around the room at the sceptical faces of his companions.

”But to the Hescos? They have resources coming out of their ears. To them, those items must have no worth at all compared to what I offered. I simply gave them a deal they couldnʼt refuse.”

The Lady Nymph let out a light, melodic laugh, the sound shimmering in the tense air of the war room. She leaned back, her eyes twinkling with a mix of amusement and nostalgia.

”A deal they couldnʼt refuse... Iʼve heard that before. I still remember the way you used to strike deals with me back then. You have a way of making people feel like theyʼre winning while youʼre walking away with the kingdom.”

Her expression shifted slightly, becoming more analytical. ”And yet, it feels like they must have ripped the very bones from your body for this. I can only imagine the price you paid to secure such a haul.”

”It was a worthy deal,” Hye replied, unfazed by her comment. He didnʼt blink or falter. Even if he had paid a hefty price—a mountain of resources that would have bankrupted a lesser territory—he knew the value of the assets he had secured.

In the long game of galactic hegemony, overpaying for the right tools was just another form of investment. ”And I donʼt plan on stopping there. I intend to amass even more bones over the next month.”

”Next month?” Major gasped, his voice cracking with disbelief. He stood up so abruptly his chair screeched against the floor.

”Arenʼt you supposed to be preparing for the upcoming expedition?! Hye, listen to me—the outer battlefield isnʼt a place where you can just joke around! The situation there is chaotic, the fights are constant, and the enemies youʼll face are beyond anything weʼve encountered. Even the other races from this universe will be working against you. You need every second to prepare!”

”I know,” Hye said, his voice firm, cutting through Majorʼs frantic warning. ”Iʼve heard the reports. Moth gave me the full rundown of the risks. I know Iʼll need to sit down and speak further with you about the tactical specifics, but weʼre going to have to postpone that for a moment. Right now, Iʼm here to settle the domestic affairs for the coming month. There isnʼt an easy way to say it, so Iʼll just spill it out loud: Iʼm going to be gone for the next thirty days. And I need to do this if we want to win big in the expedition.”

A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the room. His friends looked at one another, the weight of his departure sinking in. Hye didnʼt give them time to argue. He moved to the central hololith and began to lay it all out.

He summarised their current standing, the intricate details of his future plans, the nature of his upcoming adventure into the hatching worlds, and the projected gains.

He spoke of the ”hot zones”—those volatile areas of rapid growth and even more rapid danger—and what they could yield if harvested correctly.

To punctuate his point, he reached into his inventory and pulled out several race tokens. He placed them on the table with a series of dull thuds. The tokens were ornate, pulsing with an ancient, dormant power that made the air in the room vibrate.

Everyone leaned in, sucking in a cold breath of air. They began to examine the tokens, their eyes scanning the dense system descriptions that flickered into existence above the artefacts.

The potential was staggering. They saw the blueprint for a kingdom that wasnʼt just made of humans, but a multi-racial empire of immense diversity and power. But they also saw the obstacle—the sheer volume of resources and space required to manifest these races.

”You said you have thousands of these tokens?” Karoline was the first to break the silence, her voice hushed with awe.

Hye nodded slowly, his eyes locked on hers. ”Thousands.”

”We canʼt let these tokens sit unused until you come back,” Major said, clearing his throat and trying to regain his military composure.

”Being in the outer battlefield is risky. It offers incredible chances, but itʼs unpredictable. One thing is for certain: an expedition of that scale will take a long time to conclude. We canʼt afford to let our growth stagnate while youʼre away. And so…”

”I know,” Hye agreed, nodding. ”Thatʼs exactly why I have to go out there now and explore those hot zones. We need to unlock at least half of the potential weʼre holding. While Iʼm out there securing the power base, it will be up to you to use these races to expand and grow our territory here.”

”But…” Lily paused, her fingers dancing through the air as she manipulated the floating windows and data sets in front of her. Her brow furrowed in concentration.

”Hye, we need planets—hundreds of thousands of them—to settle these populations. We donʼt have nearly enough to open tens of these tokens, let alone thousands of them. Where are we going to put them? How will we solve this?”