Chapter 717 - 693 Strategy (Part 1)

Lin Ju’s idea was sound; if he could persuade America, unifying both sides’ forces would indeed greatly contain the spread of the news. Yet, upon closer consideration, one would find too many obstacles in the way.

Once America was informed of the alien civilization, it was more likely they would react with heightened vigilance and wariness rather than collaborate to confront the unknown danger.

Alien civilizations could be considered the greatest variable for human civilization, filled with immense risks but also with substantial allure. America would never believe that the domestic parties would lay out all their cards on the table.

Even if an agreement was reluctantly reached at the beginning, doubt would gradually intensify, and predicting their actions would be nearly impossible.

After all, the think tanks were made up of human elites, who would also feel powerless when it came to matters beyond the Solar System.

Even the reaction of one individual cannot be predicted with absolute certainty, let alone guiding a super complex entity to precisely follow one’s own designs.

At least according to human history, many clever strategies were proposed by following the greater trends, not by forceful alteration of said trends.

History has repeatedly proven that however impeccable a plan may seem, flaws will invariably arise. This unpredictability is inevitable.

Therefore, Zhong Chengcai put forward a resolute objection. Even the higher-ups thought Lin Ju’s idea was too naive, tacitly agreeing with Zhong Cheng’s position.

Unexpectedly, Lin Ju was not discouraged by their negation; instead, he spoke confidently:

"It’s not about leading them by the nose, but letting things develop in the direction they want."

The others detected an implication of hidden meaning in his words and then listened as Lin Ju recounted a modified version of the "M incident."

In the revised narrative, Lin Ju only mentioned that ’Departing Fire’ detected its signal being intercepted by America through its stealth capabilities and indirectly learned that America regarded it as an extraterrestrial event.

He deliberately omitted any mention of Office Thirteen and other deeper content, but this was already enough.

After hearing this outrageous misunderstanding, aside from the two from New Yuan, the expressions on everyone else’s faces were extremely animated, momentarily at a loss for words.

It turned out that as early as six months ago, America had also discovered an "extraterrestrial signal" and believed it beyond doubt.

Zhong Cheng stood up abruptly, smacking his forehead and pointing at Lin Ju (imitating Li Yunlong’s cocked head) as he demanded:

"So, their ten-year deep-space exploration, the new ’Constellation’ project, that’s where it all came from, right? No wonder, no wonder they’re planning such grand but unscientific schemes. Now it all makes sense,

and this year they’re going mad with moon landings like they’re high on aphrodisiacs, and NACA’s budget keeps soaring. It all adds up; now it completely adds up!"

All the previously obscured doubts under the fierce space race were finally resolved. Zhong Cheng, realizing the truth, couldn’t help but feel a mix of amusement and bewilderment. Were they not the first to prepare for an alien crisis?

"We didn’t consider it thoroughly before, intending to let America play by themselves, giving us a strong competitor to aspire after, so..."

Lin Ju was somewhat embarrassed, since revealing the "M incident" wasn’t part of the original plan, especially since, in New Yuan’s view, the matter had almost no negative impact.

The leadership took a while to recover from the shocking news. Just as he was about to comment, he noticed Lin Ju’s hesitant expression, pausing before smiling and saying:

"Come on, spill everything. There’s nothing we’re afraid of anymore."

"There’s more?"

Zhong Cheng, with keen awareness, sensed something and his gaze swept back and forth across the individuals from New Yuan.

Lin Ju: "Well, when we realized that there was something going on with Mars and Saturn, we were also thinking about how to deal with any potential dangers, so we made some early preparations."

"What kind of preparations *N?"

"There’s also a 20-ton laser satellite in the sky, a space-based laser, which was the first generation of space weapon we developed, but it’s not as technically advanced as the ’Blazing Sun.’ Now, it’s mostly idle."

"..."

Zhang Shoucheng stroked his chin, feeling it was truly a pity he had returned to the country late. Inside, it was far more exciting than abroad.

His superior remained silent until Zhong Cheng, sensitive to the technical implications, asked a question:

"To what extent? Can it attack from hundreds of kilometers away?"

"In fact, we’ve tried to strike a target on the Moon from low Earth orbit. Although the power was greatly reduced, it was successful."

"..."

By now, Zhong Cheng was starting to doubt whether these New Yuan folks were still Earthlings. Locking on a target hundreds of thousands of kilometers away and in motion, what kind of extreme top-notch technology was this?

The precision guidance system that was probably only inferior to the ’Blazing Sun’ in terms of its light source had already far exceeded what was needed for missile defense.

Even if ’Karst’ provided alien technology, the difficulty of bringing it into reality in just a few short years was no small feat.

However, this indeed proved that the main target of Death Ray One was aliens, hence the sparing no expense to stack advanced technologies.

"Is there... anything else?"

"No, that’s it, there’s nothing else. The rest are all gone."

Lin Ju thought carefully and realized the only secret left was ’Mountain and Sea,’ which was the base’s last resort.

Death Ray One was also powerful, but in reality, it had little significance. It was mainly because of the situational upheaval brought on by GW180509 that it lost its original purpose.

Conversely, ’Mountain and Sea’ represented all possibilities, and preserving it was enough.

The superior witnessing all this churned his thoughts rapidly, understanding two things.

"Then I get it, Project 210 hasn’t been leaked. The leak was your laser satellite, Death Ray One."

"That’s impossible."

The nearly simultaneous voices of Lin Ju and Ye Changsi rang out. ’Departing Fire’ was down to bad luck and the vast distance to Mars. How could Death Ray One, with all its abundant stealth measures, not be detected by New Yuan’s extensive network of near-Earth spacecraft?

But before they could question with technical reasoning, the superior continued:

"Nothing is impossible; often, the most improbable is the truth. Think about it, if it were Project 210 that was leaked, it hadn’t even been formally advanced since its establishment; the security department should all be fired.

Another point, if it was Project 210, America wouldn’t be in such a hurry unless they knew much more, but that’s also not possible.

Luckily, you also had your oversights; otherwise, I would have started to suspect that the aliens controlled even your brains."

This logic finally cleared the nonexistent "ultimate parasite." Lately, the security department has been acting crazy, even starting to doubt their own superiors. Now they can finally calm down a bit.

New Yuan, after all, was a company with limited capacity, not a precisely intricate national machine. It made the most sense for a problem to arise from their end.

Now it was Lin Ju and Ye Changsi’s turn to doubt their lives; they had indeed taken very thorough preventive measures. But that didn’t mean they were perfect; it was just that they had been too confident all along, and without ’Mountain and Sea’ raising an alarm, they didn’t notice any issues.

But they must consider that ’Mountain and Sea’ wasn’t omnipotent, especially in matters concerning national defense. Various physical barriers were tough to get past, and ’Mountain and Sea’ couldn’t act recklessly within the servers of the Pentagon.