Ten in the morning, Louxu District, Airport K08.
Before boarding, Tianshu Tower finally informed the hunters of the trial details that had already been mostly "leaked"—the specifics were exactly as Yang Qi had described. As for the second-stage objectives, there were two: investigate the anomalous transformation of the uninhabited island, and recover the valuable research materials left behind on the island years ago.
More than one hundred and fifty hunters participated in the second stage of the trial. They departed aboard four separate planes, though the planes did not take them directly to the island. Instead, they were flown to the coastal city of Jinggu.
The "Mermaid-class" guided-missile destroyer Yang Qi had mentioned was already waiting for them at the naval port. The destroyer had undergone extensive modifications, and the deck that had once housed carrier-based aircraft was now piled with enormous metal containers—hangars for autonomous drones. According to the accompanying Tianshu Tower personnel, the destroyer carried a total of six thousand drones. Even assuming a seventy-percent destruction rate, at least eighteen hundred drones should survive.
Of course, reality could not be calculated that way, but this was the only thing they could do—it was like winning a war by throwing lives at it. No matter how severe the drone losses were, as long as one drone returned with valuable information, Tianshu Tower would consider it a huge profit.
In any case, they were not short on money. The Federation allocated Tianshu Tower funding by the hundreds of millions every month—as long as a method could be useful, it was a good method, no matter how poor its cost-effectiveness.
Nameless Island was nearly a hundred nautical miles from the coastline. The destroyer carried the hunters across the sea for two and a half hours before the island's outline barely