Capital City, within the red walls.
It was already late at night, but the conference room that represented Huaxia's highest decision-making authority was brightly lit.
The atmosphere was suffocatingly silent.
The tea in the cup before the elder at the head of the table had long gone cold, but he never noticed. His eyes remained fixed on the replay footage on the large screen.
It showed real-time data transmitted by the East China Sea Fleet thousands of kilometers away, along with... the final flash of purple captured by satellites.
"You're saying..."
The elder's voice carried a tremor he could barely conceal. "In just thirty seconds, America's Volt nuclear-powered carrier strike group vanished completely from radar?"
General Zhao stood beside him, his back ramrod straight, but his hands trembled uncontrollably around the top-secret report.
"Yes, sir. And it didn't merely vanish. According to reports from our forward monitoring stations, that area experienced terrifying temperatures and an electromagnetic pulse. The entire fleet... not even a single intact steel plate remained. It was as though it had been erased from the world."
General Zhao drew a deep breath, his voice turning fervent. "Other than Advisor Chen, I can't think of anyone in this world capable of such a thing. This was a miracle... a fucking miracle!"
Another white-haired general slammed his hand on the table and shot to his feet, his aged face flushed crimson. "Good riddance! First Little Japan provoked us with two Aegis destroyers, then America's carrier came to back them up. Let's see who dares throw their weight around in the East China Sea now!"
"Don't celebrate just yet."
The elder at the head of the table had weathered countless storms, after all. Forcing himself to calm down, he pointed to the scorched-black patch of sea on the screen. "Can