The following day, the awakening tests at Hangzhou No. 1 Middle School continued. Due to the appearance of the monster yesterday and the attack by the mysterious Sphere orbs, the awakening process that should have concluded yesterday had been postponed.
"By the way, do you guys know why no GUTS members entered the city to rescue us yesterday?"
"Now that you mention it, I remember now—the battle was so intense, where on earth did the GUTS members go!"
"Hey, if you know something, hurry up and spill it. The fighting was so fierce yesterday I completely forgot about the existence of GUTS for a moment."
"Heh, I actually have some inside info. Word is that yesterday, the entire Southern GUTS division mobilized and entered a certain place, and they haven't come back yet."
"Bah, don't talk nonsense if you don't understand. Clearly, half of them haven't returned, and the other half were out at sea fending off those mysterious orbs. That's why they didn't enter the city for support."
In the area designated for TPC, the students from Ye Feng's graduating class began discussing yesterday's attack, each offering their own version of events. This conversation was heard loud and clear by Ye Feng, who was standing nearby.
He turned to Qin Yuxin and asked, "I say, Yuxin, has your brother disclosed any news from his side?"
To be honest, her brother's status was somewhat terrifying—one of the only two Class SS transformers in China. With a brother in that position, she might have access to information far more accurate than theirs.
Ye Feng found yesterday's battle very strange. Not only was there no sign of GUTS throughout the entire fight, but even the reinforcements consisted of GUTS reserve pilots and the local Defense Force garrisoned in Hangzhou. This was fundamentally abnormal. Furthermore, yesterday, when he escorted the Tortoise mother and son to the mysterious island, only the GUTS Wing 1 training craft was present along the way, which was particularly odd.
Logically, for a mission involving the escort of monsters, even with him as backup, official GUTS members should have been deployed.
"I'm not entirely sure. Actually, my brother didn't even come home last night, and he hasn't even made a single phone call. I have no idea where he went." Qin Yuxin shook her head. Mentioning her brother brought an ominous premonition to her heart.
"He's probably on some special mission." Seeing that Qin Yuxin had no news, Ye Feng could only drop his curiosity. His gaze drifted to the Cosmos Stone at his neck.
After the events of yesterday, he was now able to transform without the aid of a Monster Ring. When he needed to transform, he could convert the Cosmos Stone at his neck into the Cosmo Pluck; when not in use, it became a pendant he could comfortably wear. Clearly, no one would suspect that the pendant around his neck was the medium for transforming into the blue giant.
Imperial TPC Headquarters.
In a conference room roughly the size of half a basketball court, various personnel dressed in blue uniforms were already seated. Blue uniforms in TPC denoted high-level officials, generally representing provincial-level authorities. There were approximately twenty people gathered here.
Twelve of them represented the twelve southern provinces. Among the remaining eight were high-ranking officials from the Defense Force and top brass from the TPC Imperial Headquarters. Within TPC, the members generally advocated for a policy of integration, representing the "Doves." As for the Defense Force, they were the "Hawks" who favored a policy of force to resolve enemies through hardline measures.
After ten minutes, two more people entered the conference room. They were Shajura, carrying a potted plant, and the Director-General of China TPC, Lin Jing.
Shajura sat to the right of the head seat, while Lin Jing sat in the center. He addressed the group: "Alright, this meeting officially begins."
"Regarding the disappearance of Captain Qin Tianyi and the GUTS teams from six provinces—does anyone have any news?"
On the military side, a middle-aged man with the highest rank stood up. He slammed both hands onto the table, looked at everyone, and said, "This incident is entirely due to Qin Tianyi being overly confident, leading them into an alien tra—"
"Commander Mu, we are currently discussing the disappearance of Captain Qin Tianyi. Please do not introduce irrelevant side-talk." As soon as the military spoke, a middle-aged man with glasses from the TPC high-level faction loudly interrupted him.
"Hmph." The commander named Mu said nothing more. He simply cast a glance at his adjutant, who took the cue and quickly uploaded the data.
In an instant, the curtains around the conference room dropped, and the room fell into darkness. Soon, a virtual projection appeared in the center of the conference table, displaying the spatial portal where Qin Tianyi vanished alongside another similar spatial portal.
The adjutant did not linger and went straight to the point: "This is the energy source detected by our scientific research team during the military reinforcement."
"We discovered that the spatial portal appearing over the East China Sea has an 85% similarity to the spatial tunnels scattered across the globe. From this, we can extrapolate that Captain Qin Tianyi and the GUTS teams from the six provinces likely charged into this highly unstable spatial tunnel and reached the other side. They have arrived at what we once theorized to be the planet where monsters live, or a similar parallel universe."
"If that's the case, doesn't that mean Qin Tianyi and the others won't be coming back?" Lin Jing's expression turned grim.
Qin Tianyi was one of China's two greatest powerhouses, and he had taken half of Southern China's GUTS armed forces with him. If such a powerful team vanished in a spatial tunnel, it would be a massive loss for China and even the entire Earth.
"Er... according to previous records of tunnel appearances, they generally do not reopen once closed. However, considering this spatial tunnel appeared randomly and was open for only about ten minutes, we estimate there is a 5% probability it will reopen."
After the adjutant presented the Defense Force's findings, he returned to the back.
Commander Mu looked up at the TPC officials and Director-General Lin Jing, stating, "In fact, we have calculated that if we rely on the new system researched by Dr. Qin, we have a 50% chance of reopening a spatial tunnel over the East China Sea..."
"Say no more." Lin Jing interrupted him, emphasizing, "The research of Dr. Qin and his colleague has hit a bottleneck. Let alone practical application, it hasn't even passed a single experiment."
"Then share a portion of the data with the Defense Force, and we will participate in the joint development of the new system." The tiger seemed to show its fangs as Commander Mu spoke hurriedly to reveal his goal: "The development of the new system will surely lead humanity into a new era. Not only will we be able to close spatial tunnels, but all our weapons and equipment can undergo a massive upgrade. Then, we can rely purely on weapons to defeat those monsters!"
"I suspect that is your true objective, Mr. Mu Yuan~~"
While Mu Yuan was seeking Lin Jing's opinion, Shajura, who had been sitting silently on the side, finally stopped fiddling with his plant and spoke up to interrupt.
"The arrival of the new system will inevitably propel humanity toward the vast universe! At that time, forget about the monsters on Earth—we could even fly out of the solar system and strike back at the aliens invading our world, or even conquer their planets!"
"Enough, Mu Yuan!" Lin Jing shouted. Looking at Mu Yuan, he said in a heavy tone, "If it truly goes as you say, then what difference would there be between you and the aliens currently invading Earth!?"
The dragon slayer eventually becomes the dragon. Right now, aliens were invading Earth. If the new system appeared at an inappropriate time and defeated the invaders, would humans then fly out and become the ones invading other planets? To be honest, Lin Jing felt the appearance of this system was far too early—it was not something the people of this era should be in contact with.
However, considering the current predicament of humanity, they truly had to rely on the new system. Thus, he had slowly shifted some resources to secretly conduct research on it. But who would have thought this research would leak, reaching the ears of the force-oriented Defense Force, leading to the current situation.
"Chief Shajura, regarding Captain Qin's disappearance, I wonder what your view is?"
Thinking of the purpose of today's meeting, Lin Jing immediately shifted the topic to avoid further argument with Mu Yuan.
Hearing this, Shajura put down his potted plant, looked toward Mu Yuan, and said playfully, "My view? Naturally, I have one. And the situation isn't quite as... dire as Commander Mu described."