If the gang leader could not sleep, none of the gang members could.
That morning, as soon as he donned his war gear, Rex called for a strategy meeting which all the leaders of the Berserk Gang, both current and old attended no matter how exhausted they were from yesterday.
Once Aragorn, Elanor, Ben, Erling, and Jacob were seated, Rex looked straight at them. "Have you all heard the news?"
"Yes".
"What do you think?"
Aragorn was the one to speak first. "The closest region to the Blood Market region is the South. Though my spies have not found out any clues about them mobilizing, I think we should be wary of the Exquisite Gang".
"You think?" Ben asked loudly as he stood up. "In the Great Myriad Metal Shelter, there's a famous saying, hit him first before he kills you".
"This is my first time being to the Gundam Shelter but I've heard a lot about it, the Gundam Shelter is extremely similar to a famous district in the Great Myriad Metal Shelter and something like this once happened there".
"You know what enabled one of the leading gangs to defeat and annex all the others?" Ben looked at everyone in the room. "While they were speculating and thinking that he won't attack them first, he was scheming in the dark".
"In the end, due to one simple yet complicated and intricate plan, they were able to attack all 8 gangs in one day, annexing them all and becoming the overlord".
"When everyone thinks, no one acts, giving the enemy the advantage".
Ben turned to face Rex. "With all due respect, I may not be a genius at war strategies and the psychological aspect of war but I have a decent knowledge of it".
"If I was the leader of the Exquisite gang, my army would already be on its way marching to the Blood Market zone while I employ expensive and complicated means to trick our spies into thinking that they are not mobilizing".
"There are too many pros and too few cons for them not to attack us".
"Ours is the less-developed cardinal points among the zones, we have the least high-ranked mystic warriors, we just finished a great battle and celebrated throughout the night, getting drunk in the process".
"With all due respect, the Berserk Gang is currently in its weakest state since its inception far long ago before I came here".
"Of course, the gang will recover in no time but that doesn't matter at this moment. What matters is that the gang is temporarily vulnerable and this is a weak point that the Exquisite gang would miss if their gang leader is not an idiot".
Ben brought out a pill. "This is a stimulation pill called the Tutaonin that fights intoxication and sleep, and it is common even in the Gundam Shelter".
"Give it to all the warriors of the gang and prepare them for war".
"Apart from that, the first priority is setting a defense perimeter".
Ben was able to speak for so long without being interrupted once and this spoke volumes about the quality of the content that he just gave.
The strategy room was left dumbfounded. In the end, Erling and Jacob agreed with him first.
"I agree with him". Jacob spoke as he looked at all the warriors present in turns. "Instead of sitting likes fools and hoping for the best, we should take matters into our own hands and form a defensive perimeter".
"If we still have time then, I think we should take the initiative to attack them first. Like Ben said, hit him first before he kills you".
"I support this plan". Erling also gave his consent.
"I hate to admit this". He continued as he turned to look at Rex. "But with all due respect, you are the one who started this trend so be prepared for it".
"When you killed Haman, he said that if he couldn't, someone else would punish you for your crime against the Gundam Shelter. I think we should prove his dead ghost wrong that the Berserk Gang can survive all the storms".
Aragorn turned to look at Ben one more time, then he smiled. "I didn't know that you were such a genius, forgive me". Then he turned to face Rex who was looking at him. "I support the plan".
Like Aragorn, Rex was also left astonished after Ben's words. Ben's words were so detailed and simplified at the same time that they addressed the main subject, and they made complete sense to Rex and the others.
Aragorn said that he didn't know Ben was such a genius, well, even Rex who was Ben's childhood friend didn't know about that also.
After finally overcoming his astonishment, Rex turned to face Elanor who had remained quiet throughout the session. Elanor directed a look at Ben, then she replied with a simple nod which indicated her support of the plan.
She didn't leave at that though, she made her own suggestion. "Rex, I think you should call Melkor to this meeting, this is where the minotaur pool plays a role. Without it, I doubt our warriors stand a chance against the Exquisite army".
Once again, Elanor's suggestion was right. While the new Berserk Army barely clocked 50,000 gang warriors, the Exquisite gang had an outstanding figure of warriors that was far above that and above 100,000.
To even the odds, Rex needed to take advantage of every single opportunity to tip the scales of victory in the favor of the Berserk Gang.
"Well, that's it, it's decided".
Rex stood up. "We're mobilizing our soldiers and our first priority is setting up a defensive perimeter around the Blood Market region to protect our territory".
"Ben, prepare the pill to stimulate the gang warriors. I want the Berserk army fully mobilized and ready for battle in less than 30 minutes".
"Also, call in Melkor".
Once Rex gave the order, the others went to work.
…
About 2 minutes later, Melkor walked into the strategy room. Having heard about the news also, he fought his exhaustion and decided to stay awake.
As soon as he entered the strategy room, Rex turned to face him. "Melkor, the gang needs your help the most at this very moment".
"If you are able to fulfill my proposal, you have a chance of being promoted to become one of the leaders of the Berserk Gang".
Melkor's eyes shone at the mention of that. "Lord Rex, speak, your subordinate is all ears".
"I need more bottles of the water from the Minotaur pool".
"This time, I mean already prepared bottles of water".
"The Berserk Army will be mobilizing to go set a perimeter around our territory in about 20 minutes, that's not enough time to go to your territory and fill bottles with the pool's water for all of them".
"When I attacked you, your personal strength was not what motivated me to spare your life nor was it your plea, it was your intelligence".
"You're too intelligent to have such a naturally occurring mystic treasure at your disposal and not take complete advantage of it".
"To prepare for scenarios like how the Berserk Gang annexed your gang, I believe that you secretly stored and hid a batch of bottles".
Rex stood up from his chair as he went closer to this mystic warrior before patting him on the shoulder. "I don't know how much they are but the Berserk Gang need them now, the Berserk Gang need you now".
"I need you now". Rex looked at him straight in the eye.
Rex's sincerity was unmistakable at this moment as Melkor looked into his eyes. He knew that he was being patronized, he was too intelligent to be fooled by that but for some reason, Rex's sincerity left him weak to play charlatan.
Melkor was weak and he succumbed. "I will help the Berserk Gang".
Rex patted him on the shoulder again. "I will never forget this favor".
With that, Melkor left with Aragorn's Monster Truck leading a group of about 2 dozen military trucks that were ready to ship bottles of the minotaur pool's water.
In 15 minutes, the military trucks were back with about 20,000 of the bottles loaded inside. The warriors dropped the truck load then they returned.
Melkor only had a little over 20,000 bottles prepared, and it was not enough for the whole gang. He took the initiative to stay behind as he used his special method with the assistance of other warriors to start filling more bottles.
Melkor worked hard, Ben worked hard, all the leaders worked hard and even the warriors themselves cooperated, making things much easier.
At the 30th minute after the strategy meeting was held, the Berserk Army consisting of approximately 50,000 mystic warriors was ready to move.
Without hesitation, Rex personally led his army to go set the perimeter. All the way from the Spring valley to the locations of all the old gangs, to the Blood Market and beyond, Rex and his warriors covered them all in less than 2 hours.
Almost instantly after they covered them, the sound of war came.
The Exquisite Gang was here!
Rex remembered Ben's words. "Hit him first before he kills you".
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