"Phew."
When Xiao Shou woke up early the next morning, his head felt a little foggy.
It was not an aftereffect of the neural drift connection.
He simply had not been able to fend off all the people coming over to toast him, and had drunk a little too much yesterday.
These people had been working day and night at the base for over half a year.
Now that they finally had a chance to catch their breath, they used the alcohol to let off some steam.
"Private Xiao Shou, report to the command center immediately."
The pager by his bedside went off.
Xiao Shou did not dare delay. He hurriedly splashed some water on his face to wake himself up, then rushed to the command center.
The moment he arrived, he found that nearly everyone except his own people was already there.
The two commanders, Mao Shucheng and Zhu Qian, were present.
Jin Rong, head of the information analysis and intelligence team, was there with all three of her team members.
Xie Yushan was there as well.
When Mao Shucheng saw Xiao Shou arrive, he got straight to the point.
"PPDC headquarters sent word that they want to give you Jaeger pilots some special training."
"Of course, it isn't mandatory, but there's no harm in going to broaden your horizons."
"After all, The U.S. was the first to build Jaegers. It's only natural that they have some experience and techniques when it comes to Jaegers and piloting."
"It would be even better if you could learn something there."
Xiao Shou nodded. He had no particular opinion about whether to go or not; the higher-ups could decide.
Although the Jaeger Combat Department was independent from the military, it was essentially just another branch of the military.
Everything was run under military discipline.
For soldiers, obeying orders was their sacred duty.
So Mao Shucheng could ask for Xiao Shou's opinion, but Xiao Shou could not be the one to bring it up.
That was simply how soldiers were.
Still, it was not as if Xiao Shou could not accept it, and Mao Shucheng, Zhu Qian, and Jin Rong would not let him suffer for it.
"What if another kaiju attacks while we're away at PPDC headquarters?"
That was Xiao Shou's only concern.
"Don't worry. There's always a safe period after each kaiju attack."
"They're separated by at least a month, so it's safe for now."
Only after hearing Mao Shucheng say that did Xiao Shou relax.
In that case, taking a trip would not be bad. He could see what useful knowledge the first two Jaeger pilots had to offer.
I wonder if I'll get to meet that person who demanded a sky-high price of one billion dollars...
It was not just active Jaeger pilots who would be going, but also reserve pilots from various countries.
For example, those who had already passed a Jaeger's neural drift connection test but whose Jaegers had not yet been fully assembled.
He had heard that Sakura Nation and other countries along the Pacific Rim had already built Jaegers.
And they might have built more than one.
Take Nation Z, for example. The battle against Bladehead had shown the nation's top leaders that Jaegers were viable.
They were preparing to provide major support, shifting most of the original military budget toward the Jaeger Program.
Xiao Shou did not know about anything else, but the government was indeed planning to build another Shatterdome base in Hong Kong.
Once the base was built, Jaegers would naturally be indispensable.
And a Shatterdome could not possibly have just one Jaeger.
Faced with the kaiju threat, Jaegers were clearly humanity's most effective weapons against them.
At present, aside from nuclear weapons, what else did humanity have worth mentioning? And none of those weapons worked against kaiju.
For the consequences of directly using nuclear weapons, one only needed to look at Manila. The kaiju had been destroyed, but so had the city, and the area would be barren for centuries to come.
Not to mention the kaiju blue phenomenon; even the surrounding waters had become a dead zone.
Using nuclear weapons against kaiju meant dealing a thousand points of damage to the enemy while taking twelve hundred yourself.
This was not merely about the gains and losses of a single city for a short time. It concerned the living environment of countless future generations over several centuries.
Leaving aside the damage to Earth itself, if they kept bombing like this, would there be anywhere left for humanity to live?
He did not know about other countries.
But Nation Z had fought for every inch of land since ancient times. Not a single inch could be surrendered.
A bald man had once said something.
"Every inch of our mountains and rivers was bought with blood; a hundred thousand youths, a hundred thousand soldiers!"
Putting aside that bald man's character and conduct, those words still carried weight.
Even if it was a border region with no inhabitants at all, it could not be surrendered.
If they kept relying on nuclear weapons, what would be the point of fighting for every inch of land?
Could land where people could not survive still be called land?
That was why the Jaeger Program was imperative in Nation Z.
Not even Jesus could stop it.
There had once been a genius who proposed building a hundred-meter-high iron wall along the Pacific Rim coast to block the kaiju.
It truly was a "genius" idea.
Did he know how massive such a project would be?
How much manpower and material resources would it require?
And with the world's current iron ore reserves—forget iron, would all the metals on Earth combined be enough to encircle the entire Pan-Pacific Defense Line?
This was not something as simple as using a few milk tea cups to circle the Earth several times.
And what about the height of the iron wall? Even Category 2 kaiju were nearly a hundred meters tall now, while Category 3 kaiju exceeded one hundred meters.
If you were building an iron wall, it had to be taller than the kaiju.
Otherwise, what would it look like? Reaching only their waists?
Wouldn't that just become a backyard?
No, it should be called a livestock pen.
Even taking a step back, what would be the point if the iron wall were built?
Even if it could block the current categories of kaiju, what about later? What if even higher-category kaiju appeared?
Just like in Attack on Titan, the walls had still been breached by stronger Titans.
And those were only ordinary kaiju. What if there were ones that could fly or burrow underground? What then?
Once they broke through, the safe zone enclosed by the walls being built now would become a slaughterhouse.
Fundamentally, humanity would still have no ability to fight back.
Safety had always been built upon strength.
For example, Nation Z had often been suppressed in the past, and most of its wars had been fought by piling up lives.
The Eight-year War of Resistance, for instance, and the three-year war where White Eagle was beaten bloody.
How many people had we lost!
Those victories had all been bought with human lives.
But ever since we developed nuclear weapons, all sides instantly stopped daring to make a move—at least not openly.
There were some weapons we might never use, but we absolutely had to possess them.
That saying applied to every situation.
Even when the opponent this time was kaiju.
And the cost of this so-called Great Wall of Steel would be even higher than that of the Jaeger Program.
What else could one call it but a "genius" proposal?
When Mao Shucheng first heard that proposal, he immediately burst out laughing and turned to leave, completely ignoring the expert's livid expression.
The fact that he had not called the expert an idiot to his face was already more respect than the man deserved...
"When do we leave?"
"Now!"
"... Okay. Just as expected of the military—swift and decisive."
Before you continue