"Support? When exactly will it arrive?"
Inside the Dosa Revolutionary Army headquarters, listening to Adan's words, Dorothy had Ney, her advisor, ask in reply. After thinking for a moment, Adan continued.
"According to the general's reply, it will take about three more days. After three days, reinforcements and supplies will arrive in Dosa, and after we reorganize, we will launch another attack on Kanak."
"Three days..." Listening to Adan's reply, Ney pondered for a while, then replied with a face that wasn't much more relaxed.
"So, has the general prepared any methods to deal with those undead?"
"I don't know that yet. The general's reply didn't mention anything like that. So I plan to use these three days to do extensive ideological work with the troops, explain the basic knowledge of the undead to them, and eliminate their panic. If possible, I want to catch a few skeletons and destroy them in front of the soldiers so they can see it. By the time the three days are up, the soldiers will not be so afraid of those undead."
Adan described his method for dealing with the undead. Listening to these methods, Dorothy in the distance also nodded, agreeing with Adan's plan. After all, fear comes from the unknown, and as long as you understand the undead, you won't be too afraid of them.
"This plan can indeed be implemented, but we are not sure if the enemy has other means besides the undead army. Perhaps preparing only to deal with the undead is not enough."
"Moreover, they not only have undead, but also a considerable number of cannons. If we don't find the location of their positions and suppress them with artillery fire, our army will suffer heavy casualties advancing under artillery fire. At that time, the troops will not collapse from the undead, but from artillery fire," Dorothy had Ney add. After all, unlike the undead, artillery fire is something that is difficult to overcome the fear of even if you understand it thoroughly. Even if soldiers can overcome their fear of the dead and fight bravely, they will quickly collapse under concentrated fire that covers a large area.
"There's nothing we can do. Kanak is surrounded by such a large undead alert zone that our scouts cannot approach at all. Where are their artillery positions? How are they deployed? It's impossible to know. Although our artillery is superior in number to theirs, if we don't know their location, we can only fire blindly..."
Waving his hand, Adan said helplessly. The role of the undead troops is not only to make the enemy fearful and fight, but also as excellent scouts. Even if the Revolutionary Army troops are not afraid of the undead and advance bravely, during their battle with the undead, the enemy's artillery fire from a distance will quickly rain down, causing serious casualties to the infantry. And our side, because the scouts cannot enter the alert zone, it is difficult to ascertain the enemy's position information, and our artillery cannot provide covering fire to the infantry.
Therefore, given the current situation, even if the Revolutionary Army soldiers can overcome their fear of the undead and regain their morale, they still need to find a way to infiltrate the undead alert zone of Kanak to gather intelligence. Otherwise, a rash attack would be like being a target for the enemy's artillery.
"It seems... we still need to find a way to break through this alert zone..."
In the operations room, Ney muttered to himself, stroking his chin, while Dorothy in the distance also fell into deep thought, contemplating how to infiltrate the alert zone for intelligence reconnaissance. After thinking for a while, some ideas formed in her mind, and she controlled Ney to speak.
"If I remember correctly, you said that the troops sent to attack the forward positions of Kanak were ambushed by the undead on the way?"
"Yes, according to the people who retreated, they were marching normally, and then skeletons and zombies emerged from the ground, suddenly attacking them and immediately disrupting their formation."
Adan nodded in affirmation. After hearing Adan's response, Dorothy had Ney continue.
"The troops were ambushed on the march, which means that the enemy in Kanak knew about our troops' movements. This indicates that there should be enemy spies in Dosa City. Before the troops set off, he sent the military intelligence he had gathered back to Kanak, and then they arranged for the undead to ambush. These zombies and skeletons do not have the ability to tunnel underground; they were buried on the marching route beforehand."
"Spy... Yes, after hearing about the troops being ambushed, I also thought that there were spies in Dosa. Now I am also arranging more complete security work, hoping that in future operations, these spies will not have any opportunity."
After listening to Dorothy's words, Adan also replied with a serious expression. At this time, Dorothy was thinking internally whether she could use these spies to counter the large alert zone protecting Kanak.
...
Dosa was dark and silent late at night. While the entire city was in silence, Dorothy's room was still brightly lit. Sitting by the window, she was quickly writing on the pages of a book with a pen. This book was her "wen hai hang zhi".
Using the "book-sea navigation record", Dorothy was communicating with contacts in the distance. While communicating, she was taking notes on a blank piece of paper next to the "book-sea navigation record", writing down one sentence after another.
Finally, after a simple reply, Dorothy ended this communication and closed the "book-sea navigation record". After a long sigh, she picked up the blank paper on the table and looked at the five sentences listed on it.
"Praying Statue Stone... Soul Splitting... Soul Summoning... Dream Anchor... Wireless Telegraph..."
The names of the four things listed on the white paper in Dorothy's hand were both hidden and mundane, seemingly unrelated on the surface, but in Dorothy's eyes at this time, they all had a common characteristic: communication methods.
After realizing that there might be Savior Sect or Netherworld Coffin Society spies in Dosa, Dorothy began to find ways to find them. However, it is very difficult to find one or two hidden spies in the vast city of Dosa. They may not only be in the military officers, but also in the army, and even among the general residents of Dosa. The groups that these spies can hide in are very large. The counter-espionage department within the Adus Revolutionary Army is not strong to begin with, and it is difficult for it to function as it should in the current internal chaos. It is very difficult to find these spies in a short time, so Dorothy plans to take action herself.
Finding the spies hidden in Dosa City, in addition to spending a lot of time reorganizing the counter-espionage department, distributing a large number of informants, and finding people through various clues. The quick method Dorothy can think of is to start with the communication methods, confirm how the spies are communicating with Kanak, and then see if the traces produced by these communication methods can confirm the location of the spies. What Dorothy was doing just now was listing the possible methods for the spies in Dosa City to transmit information to the enemy in Kanak, hoping to find some clues from them.
In Dorothy's opinion, the spies hidden in Dosa City could be from the Savior Sect or the Netherworld Coffin Society, so they might use the Extraordinary information transmission methods used by the Savior Sect or the Netherworld Coffin Society, as well as some general Extraordinary communication methods and mundane communication methods. After multiple inquiries, Dorothy listed a total of five possibilities.
In the hidden world, different societies and organizations can often perform different Extraordinary communications. For example, the Eight-Pointed Nest's Spider-Man is a specially raised Extraordinary creature. The Placenta's Five Senses Basin is a special flesh and blood ritual.
Regarding the Savior Sect's method of Extraordinary communication, Dorothy directly asked Shadi, who had long-term contact with the Savior Sect. From him, she learned that the Savior Sect's Extraordinary communication method is the same as the mainstream Extraordinary communication of the Church, called Prayer Icon Stone. This is a special stone that is very close to the power of faith, capable of sensing and displaying the content of prayers. Using this stone to carve an idol of a deity, and having a believer pray towards the idol after remembering its appearance, the content of the prayer will be displayed on the base of the idol. Different Prayer Icon Stones will have two idols carved with different postures and details. Believers need to meticulously remember the details of the idol they are praying to for the prayer content to be displayed on that specific idol.
Using Prayer Icon Stone to transmit information is very fast. However, it also has many drawbacks. Prayer Icon Stones are extremely rare and not widely used; only large Churches have one, and they are quite bulky. Often, only external believers can transmit information to the idol through prayer, and the idol cannot instantly respond with information to the believer. To achieve two-way communication, believers on both sides of the communication must be in a Church with a Prayer Icon Stone.
Prayer Icon Stone is the mainstream communication method for the Savior Sect and the Shining Light Church, which Dorothy learned from Shadi and Vanya. As for the communication method of the Netherworld Coffin Society, Dorothy found out after contacting Sazhuoya. Through communication with Sazhuoya, Dorothy learned that the internal Extraordinary communication methods of the Netherworld Coffin Society are Soul Summoning and Soul Splitting.
Soul Summoning is easy to understand; it involves using a trained soul as a messenger. Two Extraordinary individuals who need to communicate, located far apart, achieve the purpose of transmitting messages by Soul Summoning this soul. When communicating, one summoner speaks the content to be communicated to the messenger soul, and then another summoner Soul Summons the messenger soul elsewhere. Since souls can move at extremely high speeds within the Netherworld, as long as the distance is not ridiculously far, the other summoner can quickly Soul Summon the messenger soul and obtain the information from it.
Furthermore, both parties can set up the Soul Summoning array in a semi-activated autonomous state maintained by using Spirituality storage items. The array can operate 24/7 with low power consumption without needing someone to maintain it. The messenger souls can travel freely through the Netherworld under the guidance of the two arrays to transmit information, making it instant, efficient, and low-energy. This is also the most mainstream communication method within the Netherworld Coffin Society.
The other method, Soul Splitting, is not as mainstream. The Soul Splitting method involves a powerful "Silent" Extraordinary splitting off a small part of their soul, having it reside in a vessel, and then being taken far away by the communicator. The communicator can communicate with the split soul, allowing the main body of the split soul to know the communication content. Due to the limited number of split souls a "Silent" Extraordinary can split off, and the negative impact on the self if the soul is split for too long, Netherworld Coffin members do not choose this communication method unless there is an emergency.
Aside from the unique Extraordinary communication methods specific to the organizations, Dream Anchor is a communication method used by many Extraordinary. As long as the Dream World avatars can gather together, anything can be discussed face-to-face in the dream. However, the drawback is that Dream Anchor talismans are not cheap. Unless one is truly wealthy, this cannot be used as a long-term method of Extraordinary communication.
Of course, in addition to Extraordinary communication methods, there are naturally mundane ones. Among the mundane communication methods, the most convenient is undoubtedly setting up a radio station and sending telegrams.
Sitting in her seat, Dorothy crossed her legs and looked at the several communication methods on the paper in her hand, performing elimination in her mind.
'Prayer Icon Stone requires a large idol to be built, usually needing a Church to accommodate it. Within Adus, the Savior Sect has only set up Prayer Icon Stones in a few important cities, which does not include Kanak, so it can be ruled out.
'Dream Anchor talismans are too expensive, the long-term intelligence transmission cost is too high, and the timeliness is poor if both parties cannot unify their sleeping times. If there is an urgent matter during the day that needs to be transmitted, it has to wait until the other party sleeps at night to transmit, so it can also be pretty much ruled out.
'As for the Soul Splitting method, long-term Soul Splitting will have negative effects on the person whose soul is split. It's fine for urgent real-time communication in some special tasks, but this kind of long-term undercover mission, whose duration is unknown, is clearly not suitable for using this method.
'As for setting up a radio station and sending telegrams... before other Extraordinary methods fail, these Extraordinary probably wouldn't consider such mundane methods...'
Dorothy thought this in her mind. After some contemplation, she already had a rough idea of what communication methods those spies were using.
'So, these spies should be using the Soul Summoning method. As long as two low-intensity Soul Summoning arrays with long-term power are set up in a hidden location, the messenger souls can use the Netherworld to shuttle back and forth quickly, which is very suitable for long-term secret communication...
'It seems that this counter-espionage operation will still have to start from the perspective of souls and the Netherworld.'
Dorothy thought this, then turned to the "wen hai hang zhi" beside her. After flipping through it for a while, she found the contact page for Kapak, a resident of the New World. After some thought, Dorothy picked up a pen and wrote Spirit Seal Language on the page.
After another round of communication using the book-sea navigation record, Dorothy, having achieved her goal, put down the pen and looked out the dark window.
"Then, next, I'll wait until tomorrow to discuss the specific plan with Neff and Commander Adan."
...
The moon set and the sun rose, and soon, Dosa ushered in a new day.
In the morning, outside the urban area of Dosa, on the open ground at the edge of the military camp, countless soldiers in uniform stood in formation under the sun. The ranks stretched into the distance. Armed with firearms and weapons, they all looked nervous, with a hint of tension as they looked into the distance.
In front of the soldiers' ranks, there was a wooden platform. On top of the platform, Commander Adan stood, giving a loud speech to the soldiers below.
"Just as I said! Those skeletons, those zombies, there's nothing to be afraid of! They aren't as strong as you! They aren't as agile as you! If you attack them, they'll fall! There's nothing to be afraid of, they're just a bunch of dead people! If they can die once, they can die a second time!
"If not, we'll go observe them up close again today! Give it a try! I'll personally demonstrate how to deal with those dead people! Then remember it! Just follow suit afterwards! Remember, you are warriors of the Adus people! Not cowards! Don't retreat in the face of these dead people!"
Standing on the high platform, Adan passionately spoke to the soldiers below. While he was boosting morale, among the ranks of non-commissioned officers at the edge of the soldiers' formation below, a hint of playful amusement appeared in the expression of one low-ranking non-commissioned officer.
'So... this is to take people to build courage...
'I need to notify back immediately and turn this courage-building exercise into a fear-dropping one...'
He pulled down the officer's cap on his head slightly, and the low-ranking non-commissioned officer silently looked at Adan on the platform.
At this moment, in another hidden, spacious room in Dosa, Naifnis was stroking a whole jar of white ashes in front of her, stroking the ritual materials.