Chapter 436: Chapter 434: High-level Meeting
At that moment, the conference room of the military district was filled not only with generals from the Military Department, but also with the senior leadership of the entire base. Every single person wore an incredibly solemn expression.
An elderly man sat at the head of the conference table. He was none other than the commander of East Sea Base: Mu Pengqi.
"Alright, you’ve all seen the report. What are your thoughts on this matter? You can speak freely now," Mu Pengqi said, rapping his knuckles on the table.
The room fell silent. For a moment, no one was the first to speak.
At this moment, the Supreme Commander of the Abyssal Guard, Zheng Xuyang, was the first to stand up.
"First, I must hold myself accountable. We underestimated the Abyssal Plane and never expected them to resort to a feint. This led to disastrous losses among the student candidates, and I am willing to take full responsibility," Zheng Xuyang stated.
Mu Pengqi waved his hand dismissively. "You certainly bear some responsibility, but placing all the blame on you would be going too far. If anyone is to take full responsibility for this, it should be me."
"Furthermore, this situation wasn’t unique to our East Sea Base. Attacks were launched simultaneously at all ten of Hua Country’s Abyssal Passages, all using the same tactic: a surprise attack on the examinees."
"As of now, the number of examinees killed across the country in this surprise attack has exceeded 50,000. We have truly suffered a major setback this time."
Hearing this, the others were all shaken, and expressions of horror appeared on their faces.
They had only known what happened here at East Sea Base and had no idea that other bases had suffered the same fate.
This move by the Abyssal Plane was truly ruthless.
It must be understood that the large bases capable of guarding an Abyssal Passage were all top-tier. They might not be on par with East Sea Base, but they wouldn’t be far behind.
Therefore, the students who went to these large bases for their assessment must have had considerable talent. At the very least, reaching the Blood Qi Realm shouldn’t have been a problem for them.
These people were the future mainstays in the fight against the Abyssal Plane, and now they were gone, just like that. This might directly impact the nation’s strategic planning for the next several years.
At this point, the supreme leader of the military, Wang Jianshu, also spoke up. "The most important thing for us now is how to prevent something like this from happening again."
After those seated below exchanged glances, Zheng Xuyang was the one to speak again. "Sir, this assessment was held in the first year after the Great Disaster ended. That’s why we had an unprecedented number of examinees and adopted a new assessment model."
"While these matters aren’t exactly secrets among human leadership, they are things creatures from the Abyssal Plane should have no way of knowing. Therefore, I suspect we may have... a traitor."
His voice was strained as he uttered the final word, but he still said it, tearing away the last veil of denial.
This time, the reaction from the military officers and the department heads was even greater than before. They erupted into heated debate, because if this were true, then every single person in the room was, in fact, a suspect.
Just then, the military’s supreme leader, Wang Jianshu, rapped his knuckles on the table. After signaling for silence, he said, "When Commander Mu and I discussed this earlier, we had, in fact, already considered this possibility."
"Though it is difficult to believe, it is also the most logical explanation. Therefore, I propose that we conduct a thorough investigation of all personnel in the entire East Sea Base."
At this, the uproar in the room grew even louder.
"Seconded!" Mu Pengqi, sitting at the head of the table, said with a nod.
Everyone instantly fell silent. As long as these two top leaders were in agreement, any opposition from the others would be futile.
"In addition to rooting out the traitor, we also need to know our enemy. It would be best to send people into the Abyssal Plane to gather intelligence. Our understanding of the Abyssal Plane is far too limited," Wang Jianshu continued.
Hearing this, many people in the room turned their eyes to the Dean of East Sea Academy, Hua Zhenghao.
Everyone knew that the Abyssal Plane contained beings that surpassed even Divine Demon Realm experts. If they sent someone over directly, even a Divine Demon Realm expert would almost certainly be on a one-way trip.
Therefore, if they wanted to enter the Abyssal Plane, they had to think of some other method.
"Don’t all look at me like that. The ’Infiltration’ project has been ongoing, but I can’t guarantee when we’ll see results."
"However, Central seems to have made a major breakthrough a while ago. I’ll personally make some time to go take a look. If they really have a viable method, I’ll swallow my pride and get that technology from them," Hua Zhenghao said with a light sigh. ’Looks like I’m going to be busy for a while.’
"Excellent! Then next, let’s discuss how to handle the aftermath of this assessment," said Base Commander Mu Pengqi.
As he said this, everyone’s expression turned grim. The number of examinees who had died was simply too high.
Although all the examinees had signed liability waivers before the assessment, if the death toll had only been one or two hundred, the other Shelters would have had little grounds for complaint. After all, every endeavor has its risks.
But now, the number of deaths here had reached a staggering total of over 8,000. Under these circumstances, the pressure to handle the aftermath properly was immense.
On top of that, they had previously promised that a death benefit of 10,000 Huaxia Coins would be paid out for every examinee who died.
Now they had to produce over 80 million in death benefits all at once. Even for East Sea Base, this was a massive financial strain.
...
The next morning arrived in what felt like the blink of an eye.
At a little after 7 AM, everyone in Lin Xinghai’s team gathered in the hotel lobby.
After a night’s rest, everyone was refreshed and full of vigor.
And in just one short day, Little Fatty had cemented his position in the team as number two—no, number three.
After all, he was no match for Liu Miaomiao in terms of either status or strength.
But as for the others... since they were all more or less on the same level, other aspects naturally became the basis for comparison.
And yesterday, he had paved his way with money. Not only did he cover everyone’s expenses at the hotel, but he even gave each person a spending card loaded with 100,000 Huaxia Coins.
Such an extravagant gesture naturally cemented his position.
"Boss, today’s the official academy registration. I have a feeling it won’t go smoothly. Do we need to make any preparations?" Little Fatty asked after he had arranged for everyone to get in the car.
"Not go smoothly? What do you mean?" Lin Xinghai asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Generally speaking, to take the arrogant new geniuses down a peg, the academy has the second-year upperclassmen greet us. At the same time, they’ll also ’teach us a lesson,’" Little Fatty promptly explained everything he knew.
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