Chapter 263: Plight of the Human race
So it was very unusual and a bad omen that the freshmen had been there three times and they hadn\'t even finished their first year yet.
When they arrived, there were already millions of students standing, waiting for the Principal to show up on the stage.
Alex felt a sense of Deja vu coming to this place.
It was almost the exact same scenario as 6 months ago when Zorath first declared war on the human race.
Only this situation was much more serious.
The previous meeting was about preparing the human race for war.
But this one was about defending themselves from an impending, existential threat that had already killed billions of their own people.
And most of the students had already realised what this meeting was most likely about.
But there was nothing they could do about it.
They\'d get expelled, or probably even worse, if they tried running away or skirting their duties.
Soon enough, the rest of the students arrived, all with faces of dread and fear.
And as if on purpose, the Principal appeared on stage right after.
Alex gave him a questioning look, to which the Principle only gave him a curt smile back.
\'Yup. Looks like I\'m going to the frontlines…\'
Alex knew what that smile was for.
But after finding out that he could get soul orbs from other sentient races, he actually wasn\'t too upset about that fact.
It wasn\'t like the federation would send the first years to the most intense battlefields anyway.
"I\'m sure you are all aware by now that we are at war."
Principal Farnes started off his speech in the same neutral tone he always wore.
It was like not even this existential threat could bother him.
But Alex knew the Principal was only putting on such an expression to calm the emotions of the students below.
He had seen Principal Farnes get confused, flustered, and other such emotions before in private.
So he knew that even Principal Farnes must be feeling some sort of nervousness about this war.
He might be the de facto strongest human in existence, but he was the same as everyone else in that he was still inexperienced in the awakened world.
He had the same 100 years of growth that everyone did, and he received the same information at the same time as everyone else.
His strength only made him special to the humans, but to the system and other, older races in the universe, he was just a stronger bug compared to the rest of humanity.
For all he knew, the Red Demon race could be hiding an Ancient class, or maybe even Divine class awakened among their ranks…
In fact, Principal Farnes already knew about what kinds of Red Demons would be coming.
If that were the case, then there was nothing the human race could do even if they tried to fight back.
"Forget ALERT levels, all we need to focus on now is that we have an enemy, and they have come to invade us and wipe us out."
"War was declared on us not even 6 months ago, and not even I could have expected them to come so soon after."
A sombre tone was set by Principal Farnes as he spoke to the students below.
"But, we have much more information than we did 6 months ago."
"When the Red Demon Zorath first issued his declaration, before disappearing from our radars completely, we knew nothing about them, while they knew quite a lot about us, courtesy of the Pioneer crew."
Principal Farne\'s words started to fill some of the students with hope, as the way he was speaking seemed like they might actually have a chance at winning this war.
"I can share with you now that Zorath missed something before he left. Something that will be very crucial to how we fight this war."
As he spoke, a holographic screen showed up behind him, large enough for all the millions of students to see.
On the screen, many details about the Red Demon race were carefully documented, also courtesy of the Pioneer crew.
They may have inadvertently led the Red Demon race right to their front door, but they at least managed to salvage their reputation post mortem by hiding away this information.
They had spent 2 months surveying and documenting the Red Demon race before Zorath noticed them and sent them on their merry way to hell.
And some of the details they had noted were going to be key in this war.
One of them being the fact that the commander of this enormous fleet that came to attack them was a King class S+ rank, just like Principal Farnes.
When the students saw this fact on the board, they all felt a sense of relief.
"I know how all of you must be feeling at this moment, probably thanking the gods for the fact that you have me on your side."
But Principal Farnes\'s continued speech was bound to fill them with dread once again.
"Don\'t take this information for granted, as we have also learned an even more disturbing fact about their race."
The screen behind him flashed once again, this time revealing a different set of information, one much more disturbing.
"The King and Queen of the Red Demon race are both Ancient class existences, both at S tier as well."
"As for their children, the three princes and one princess, they are all King class existences, on the precipice of reaching S tier. With their power, only the strongest of our S tiers, at a minimum of Mutant class, could take them on."
"Not to mention the fact that the Red Demon race has over 3 times our number of S tiers."
"..."
"..."
Silence pervaded the millions strong crowd of students.
Even if they somehow managed to defeat the hundred million strong fleet, along with their commander and other strong awakened, the enemy could just send an even stronger force to overwhelm them, or the King and Queen could just come and end this war themselves.