Disaster of the Boundless Sea

Yu Xiao almost jumped out of his skin at the word "self-destruct."

Still, he managed to restrain himself.

The commander of the Crimson Fortress looked furious. It was obvious to everyone that he was extremely displeased with Yuan Zhen's suggestion!

Unfortunately, he couldn't think of a better counter-argument, so he could only sit there, fuming, and glare at Yuan Zhen.

"Don't worry, everyone. Self-destruct is just a simple, crude option, but it doesn't mean we should self-destruct just because we can't win." Yuan Zhen changed tack. "Every mecha is a valuable combat asset. Unless it's certain the monster will capture the mecha, recovery should always be the priority."

Yuan Zhen's words relieved everyone.

"Please continue, Bai Ying."

"After repelling the monster mecha, I ejected in the escape pod and left Xingtian. Then I encountered the Xuanse Cangqiong transport ship..." Bai Ying wasn't sure how much time had passed.

"That coincides with the arrival of the Zhenli at the battlefield," Yuan Zhen continued. "We received your signal when you ejected from the escape pod. It seems the timeline is complete. Thank you for your account, Bai Ying."

Bai Ying nodded, and the communication window closed.

"I am a member of Omega and one of the earliest to arrive at the battlefield, so I will offer some hypotheses." Yuan Zhen knew she had to lead this meeting and decided to voice her conjectures.

"Before this operation, humanity had never fully explored the oceans. So, when the monsters appeared from the sea, we couldn't rule out the possibility that they were native creatures." Yuan Zhen projected a digital model she had created onto the center of the long table. "But after discovering the suspected wormhole, we have reason to suspect that the monsters are actually alien beings, all appearing from wormholes like this one."

"I agree with your assessment," the Deputy Minister of the Joint War Zone Defense Department agreed. "We've compiled the initial discovery locations of all monsters from the past decade and plotted their movement paths on a map. The results show that the current location of Leviathan is the intersection point of all monster paths."

"That is likely the original location of the wormhole," said the commander of Canghai Longyin, who had personally experienced the "Vast Sea Disaster." "At that time, before Leviathan appeared, we encountered an astonishingly large horde of beasts."

"This relates to my other hypothesis," Yuan Zhen said, pleased that everyone was participating in the discussion. "For some reason, the initial size of the wormhole was limited, only able to accommodate Level 4 monsters. But as the wormhole absorbs more energy, its opening grows larger, eventually becoming large enough to allow colossal beasts like Leviathan to pass through."

"If everything is as you say, then why did the monsters open a new wormhole in the Silent Graveyard to transport the giant beast? Couldn't they have used the one beneath Leviathan? That one is already quite large," the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Front thought along Yuan Zhen's lines and found a contradiction.

"..." The room fell silent. Everyone was contemplating the question.

"Dr. Yuan, I didn't personally experience this operation, but I believe the space-based energy weapon was used to destroy the wormhole in the end, right?" General Chen broke the silence again.

"Yes, and this attack confirmed that wormholes reverse their unidirectional nature when they collapse. The size of the wormhole affects its collapse speed," Yuan Zhen explained in detail.

"That makes sense," General Chen nodded slowly. "After Leviathan appeared, the Special Operations Unit at the time speculated that its weakness might be located beneath the sea's surface. They dispatched a fleet of nuclear submarines, believing that by diving deep enough, they could minimize the damage caused by the nuclear warheads."

"Then the impact rose from the seabed, burying nearly 99.9% of the people beneath Leviathan," the head of the Special Operations Unit continued General Chen's account. He was just a rising star back then, only fit to wait for the outcome on land.

But he knew that the people who launched those submarines never expected to return alive.

After that battle, the Special Operations Unit became the most marginalized department in the Watcher Alliance, and his direct superior committed suicide due to immense guilt.

"So, the original wormhole was likely destroyed then. We just didn't expect Leviathan to be able to breed monsters itself. Fate plays cruel tricks," the commander of Canghai Longyin said with some disappointment.

Because everyone present only learned today that humanity hadn't suffered a complete defeat in that battle; they had destroyed the passage through which the monsters invaded the planet.

But they hadn't defeated Leviathan.

"Then... does anyone know why the wormholes reappeared?" The commander of Golden Rainforest, who had been silent, spoke up. He was the shortest among all the legion commanders.

This question stumped everyone in the room again.

"I have a hypothesis," Yuan Zhen said, as expected. "The place where Leviathan appeared is in the center of the Vast Sea, where the deepest trench on this planet is located."

"Ten nautical miles east of the Silent Graveyard dock, there is also a bottomless trench," General Chen was also familiar with the terrain near the Silent Graveyard, as it had once belonged to the Xuanse Cangqiong Legion.

"Although the sample size is insufficient, we can temporarily assume that a sufficiently deep trench is a necessary condition for wormholes to appear... No, this is just the surface, not the fundamental reason." Yuan Zhen interrupted her own train of thought halfway. "Omega will investigate the underlying cause, but we can temporarily consider deep sea trenches as a necessary condition."

"We need to monitor trenches exceeding a certain depth," the Deputy Secretary-General decided immediately. "As long as we establish a comprehensive monitoring network, we can focus our efforts on defending against Leviathan, which will greatly reduce everyone's pressure."

"Does anyone have any other details to add?" Yuan Zhen nodded. "If not, we will proceed as the Secretary-General suggested and shift our future combat focus to monitoring wormholes and defending against Leviathan."

"I object!" the commander of the Crimson Fortress Legion's voice boomed. "How long can we defend? Leviathan can already launch long-range attacks from the air. It's a living wormhole now. If we only passively defend, who knows how long we can last!"

"I object too," the commander of Canghai Longyin raised his hand. "Leviathan's attacks are becoming more frequent and intense. Like this time, even though the Alliance had advance warning of the beast tide, the United Front Legion still collapsed because no one could provide support at the time."

"It's easy for you to object," the Deputy Secretary-General's expression was grim. "Ever since the Vast Sea Disaster, the Alliance hasn't been able to catch its breath! Funds, manpower, public opinion control – we have to spend time rebuilding everything. Defense is already the limit of what we can do!"

Although the Deputy Secretary-General's words were harsh, they were undeniably true.

The entire conference hall fell silent once more.

Until Yuan Zhen broke the silence.

"If our mechas were as powerful as Xingtian, perhaps all your concerns could be resolved."