Blackstone Code

“The Gephrans no longer dare to leave their cities freely. We must use our advantages to cut off all connections between the cities, turning each one into an isolated island in this war!”

In a cave, the young man codenamed Swallow was discussing the next battle plans with his team, which included his commanders and several leaders from his rebel group.

They gathered to hear valuable insights from Swallow to spread among the resistance.

Swallow’s group was the first rebel faction to make a name for itself—according to the Gephrans. Locals in Amellia called these bandits the Pioneers of Freedom or Heroes of Resistance to honor their fight against Gephran oppression.

But was there really oppression?

If one thought carefully, before these uprisings, ordinary people in Amellia suffered little harm. Their lives were much like those of their ancestors. In fact, because Gephra tried to win hearts, some ordinary lives improved.

Some social rules changed—Gephra replaced the old currency with Gael and mandated new textbooks supplied by Gephrans in schools.

For ordinary people, these changes were mostly acceptable. Their social status and daily lives remained largely unchanged regardless of which ideology or education they accepted.

The real victims were the former privileged and ruling classes—their power and wealth were stripped away. Unwilling to accept the shift, they were the first to rebel.

Driven by their ambition, the first rebel groups formed, chanting Down with Gephran tyranny! They assassinated Gephrans and attacked patrols, igniting deep conflict between locals and Gephrans. With some malicious propaganda, what was originally a conflict between old and new elites became framed as a struggle between people and rulers.

Policy mistakes further inflamed the hatred.

Yet no one can guarantee every decision was right. The Amellia governor was no saint—some policies were good, others flawed. As tensions escalated, small problems were blown out of proportion.

Among many groups, Swallow’s had the clearest resistance ideology, with firm beliefs and effective tactics. The current tactics they were using were first proposed by Swallow himself.

Their strategy was to dismantle Gephran forces outside the cities, trap them within city limits, and then infiltrate gradually to weaken their resistance.

Initially, people rejected Swallow’s approach. They wanted to drive Gephrans out of the cities immediately, but every attack led to rivers of blood.

Many innocents were slaughtered. Even now, streets bore dark red stains that no rain could wash away.

Swallow proposed moving out of cities to expand maneuvering space, shifting the main frontlines from heavily monitored cities to vast wilderness. This brought unprecedented success to the resistance.

Now, Swallow introduced the island strategy. People began accepting and learning his theory; members from other groups came to study.

“We must sever all links between cities, creating fear within them. They won’t know what’s happening elsewhere and will worry about being attacked.”

“This will drastically shrink Gephrans’ activity zones. They’ll likely confine themselves to small areas, reluctant to appear openly due to threats like assassins.”

“We don’t need to liberate the entire region at once. We’ll take one small city first, use it as a base, then expand our influence until we connect everything.”

“By then, Gephrans will be weak, and we’ll be strong…”

Swallow’s theory was simple and clear, easy to understand and build upon. Some silently thought, this man truly lives up to his codename, Swallow—a sign of excellence.

The atmosphere in the cave was confident. The resistance was winning steadily, and everyone radiated the belief that victory was certain.

This was partly due to the Gephran army’s poor quality—they had no idea how strong the Gephran navy was while their army was so weak, even inferior to lightly trained civilians like themselves.

From initial fear to now calm confidence, tens of thousands of Gephran corpses had cemented the resistance’s belief. If their opponents were only this weak, they were sure to expel all invaders and reclaim their homeland.