Chapter 544 Joint Squad
Yun Zhao received a meeting notification as soon as he got up.
She had no choice but to postpone the training course and rush to the inner city with Xie Tu to attend the meeting.
On their way here, the two had already guessed that it was related to the concentration of darkness, as the pollution concentration had risen to 35% this morning.
At the current growth rate, once it exceeds 60%, a large number of ordinary people across the land will experience abnormalities.
It's normal for the four major bases to take some action.
But Yun Zhao didn't expect that this meeting would be about whether or not to cancel the salvation plan.
Regarding this plan.
Yun Zhao had already learned a very clear understanding during the training course.
Since the return of light, the four bases have made contact and each spent ten years developing their own systems. Six years ago, they officially decided to investigate the truth behind the disaster and jointly launched the "Salvation Plan".
This is the largest joint operation since the establishment of the four bases, aimed at completely eliminating the contaminated area and ending this era of cannibalism.
Initially, all operations units suffered heavy casualties.
It wasn't until the last two years, when the sentries gradually figured out how to explore, that the casualty rate began to decrease.
Yun Zhao still remembers the shocking data that Minister Duan showed at the command center—the survival rate of the first batch of sentries who went deep into the contaminated area was less than 40%.
Those young faces are forever frozen in their most radiant years; they gave their lives for the intelligence network and combat methods we have today.
Now, this plan, paved with countless lives, may be forced to end.
"The base invests a lot of resources in various research institutes every year. Why didn't they do this earlier? Why did they only discover this now!"
The head of the base's security department, his voice laced with barely suppressed rage, said, "Five years! A full five years! How many soldiers have we sacrificed? And now you're telling us this is accelerating our destruction?"
They even sacrificed an S-class Sentinel for this!
It turns out that they were doing something in vain, and that their sacrifice was actually contributing to the return of darkness.
Most people in the meeting room could not accept this result; anger, resentment, absurdity... all sorts of emotions fermented in the closed meeting room.
Screen display switching.
The testing data from various locations were clearly displayed on the large screen.
"I thought everyone already knew why it wasn't detected in the early stages."
Dean Jiang explained calmly, "Initially, too few contaminated areas were eliminated, and the dark matter content remained below 30%, within the safe range. Occasional fluctuations are normal."
Until last year.
Humanity destroyed the first five-star region.
However, it was winter at the time, and dark matter was unusually active. The growth values did not exceed the critical point, so they did not attract the attention of researchers around the world.
Not long ago, with the collapse of Nanjing No. 344 contaminated area and the release of a large amount of dark matter, the research institute noticed the abnormal fluctuations.
"What's the point of arguing about this now?" Commander Xia sat in his conference room, his eyes half-closed, his voice coming through the microphone, "Let's vote first, and then we can discuss it after we see the results."
Whether to cancel or not is not up to one base.
If we've agreed to stand together through thick and thin, then let's decide the outcome in the fairest way possible.
No one objected.
There weren't many people participating in the vote in the four bases; they were mostly high-level leaders of the bases, with each of the five S-class members having one vote.
Yun Zhao stared at the ballot in his hand in silence.
To be honest, she didn't want the "salvation plan" to be canceled.
What does terminating the plan mean?
Is it to acknowledge that the sacrifices of countless people have been in vain, or to declare that humanity will henceforth give up the fight against darkness?
Yun Zhao inexplicably thought of Wang Jiayu's brother.
If Ayu were here, she would definitely vote against it without hesitation.
Ayu absolutely refused to allow her brother's sacrifice to be meaningless.
However, if it is not stopped, the concentration of pollution in the environment will be accelerated, and ordinary people outside will not be able to withstand the erosion.
There will likely be large-scale casualties.
Who will bear the consequences?
Many people share her thoughts, and everyone seems to be caught in a dilemma.
Fuyu cast her vote against it very decisively.
She knew some inside information; her S-class Sentinel intuition told her that humanity was only a thin veil away from the truth.
Fuqi was unwilling to give up at this point.
Jiang Mu lazily voted against it, not for any other reason than his own whims.
Xie Tu remained seated in the conference room, waiting for Yun Zhao's decision while also pondering his inner concerns.
Yun Zhao slightly raised her head to look at him.
The two looked at each other across the conference room, and the instant their eyes met, they seemed to understand each other's thoughts.
Yun Zhao actually has a solution.
—The guide of light knows where the source is.
Xie Tu's eyes were deep, and his fingers, which were hanging on the table, suddenly tightened, clearly not wanting her to step forward at this moment.
She possesses characteristics of a dark guide.
Her mental state remains incomplete.
There has been no news of Yun Jue to this day, and the announcement of the sixth contaminated zone has undoubtedly drawn everyone's attention.
Once discovered, she is now completely unable to explain the Light Guide to anyone.
But Xie Tu was unable to stop it.
As a member of the operations department and the captain of Team Zero, he witnessed Wang Jiayi die in front of him and saw batches of sentry teams remain in the contaminated area forever, never to return.
He couldn't disregard others for his own selfish desires.
The voting process was unusually long.
The meeting room became extremely quiet, and everyone was deep in thought.
Yun Zhao suddenly stood up, the chair beneath him making a jarring noise that stood out starkly in the quiet conference room, drawing the attention of everyone both on and off the screen.
The blue light from the projection screen reflected on her face, outlining her resolute features.
"Do I really have to choose between canceling and not canceling?"
Her voice wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear in the quiet conference room: "Why can't we look for a third way?"
A third way?
Many people didn't realize what was happening.
Those who realized what was happening lowered their heads, weighing the pros and cons.
The base chief subconsciously glanced at the large screen, but Minister Han had not yet entered the online meeting room.
The signal on the road was intermittent.
The three of them had a thorough online discussion last night. It was not appropriate for the base chief to come forward, and since Minister Bai was in charge of the guides, his position was not suitable. Only Lao Han was the most appropriate person to take the lead.
"What is the so-called third path that Cloud Guide refers to?" someone asked.
Yun Zhao's voice was restrained as he said softly, "The salvation plan will continue, but we will not eliminate the contaminated areas for the time being. We will only carry out reconnaissance missions, marking the gatekeepers of each contaminated area in advance, collecting resources, and searching for clues about the disaster."
She ultimately did not directly state the source.
Xie Tu's brows slowly relaxed.
"We discover the gatekeepers but do not eliminate them. All gatekeeper information is stored in the archives. By mastering this information, we can reduce the risk of contaminated areas without affecting the outside world."
Yun Zhao continued, "If any unforeseen circumstances arise, each base can send out teams at any time to deal with these areas."
Upon hearing these words, people both on and off screen began to discuss them.
Minister Duan glanced at the anxious-looking Director Shen, her expression shifting slightly. She tapped her pen lightly on the table and handed the dissenting vote to the statistics clerk.
“That would take too much time,” Minister Duan suddenly said.
Yun Zhao was surprised that the first person to object would be Minister Duan.
Minister Duan gestured for her to calm down, saying, "There are too many uncertainties involved. Instead of doing this, we should directly form a joint team to thoroughly investigate the source."
Yun Zhao was stunned.
Both Chief Shen and Minister Bai's expressions changed simultaneously.
They probably didn't expect that Minister Duan would guess their thoughts so directly.
Minister Duan said, "I propose that we address the problem at its root. The remaining teams in the Operations Department will suspend their missions and form a joint team of five S-class members to enter the Five-Star Contaminated Zone and find the source!"
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