Chapter Eighty-Five: A New Kind of Weapon!

As the leader of his nation, Mukos naturally possessed both resolve and authority of his own.

“If you understand, then get to work at once!” he thundered, and the room’s scattered attention snapped back in an instant.

“Yes, sir!”

The assignment of tasks would be handled by others; all Mukos needed to do was issue orders and point the way.

North Sand and Ocean Strong had been hesitating, still watching from the sidelines. But when they saw how decisively the Great Empire had acted, they hurried to adopt the guidance of the Central Kingdom as well.

Not only that, but the four superpowers immediately established dedicated departments, all for the sake of ensuring that if an accident ever occurred, the crisis could be resolved as swiftly as possible.

No one knew what the Plague Sovereign would do next.

But they had to gamble now, to guess what it was thinking and what measures it might take.

By Chu Xiao’s reckoning, the Plague Sovereign’s next move would be to divide the four nations against one another, then concentrate its assault on a single country.

There was, in truth, little in the way of defense. Even if the countries bordered one another, they could not truly build an unbreakable fortress between them. Even stationing soldiers there could not guarantee their safety; it would likely amount to nothing more than sending them to die.

Chu Xiao felt a certain helplessness. He had already guessed the Plague Sovereign’s next move, yet there was nothing he could do.

At present, the only solution was to strengthen every nation’s power. There was no other way.

But how could that be easy?

The best way to build strength was through weapons.

Advanced weapons were the best answer. All else was illusion.

With that thought, Chu Xiao already had a rough plan in mind.

He went to the weapons depot and found Ren Boyuan.

“Professor Ren!”

Ren Boyuan looked up at him. “General Chu? What brings you here?”

“I plan to hold a meeting here,” Chu Xiao said. “I’ve already contacted the other three great powers. In a moment, the presidents, along with their science personnel, will hold a joint conference.”

The communication lines between the Central Kingdom and the other three nations had already been established, though most of the work was personally supervised by the Central Kingdom’s elite hackers. Otherwise, Chu Xiao would not have felt at ease.

“All right,” Ren Boyuan said, quickly wiping his glasses and straightening his hair.

Now he was not representing himself, but the Central Kingdom. Naturally, he had to pay more attention to his appearance.

An hour later, the meeting formally began.

Besides the leaders of the four nations, there were also many other scientific researchers present.

Chu Xiao glanced at Number One on the screen. “The reason I called this meeting today is to tell everyone how severe the situation has become.”

“In the last battle with Ocean Strong, the Plague Sovereign must already have discovered that the other nations were supporting Ocean Strong. Its plan to break us one by one can no longer be carried out. Not only have we realized this, the Plague Sovereign surely has as well. I suspect its next move will be to change tactics, manufacture more machines to harass our four great nations separately, and then choose one country at random for a full-scale assault.”

“In that case, we will certainly be unable to support one another. And that will achieve the Plague Sovereign’s purpose.”

“We can already predict its next move, but we still have no good solution. The only answer, besides strengthening each nation’s own power, is no answer at all.”

“The most effective way to strengthen ourselves is through weapons. I intend to gather the talents of all four nations and invent far more powerful weapons. Only then can we resist the Plague Sovereign’s attacks and win ourselves a sliver of hope.”

Chu Xiao fell silent.

He had said everything that needed saying; now it was up to the others to give their views.

The First Leader was the first to make his position clear. “I believe in Chu Xiao. I agree with his proposal.”

Orris still remembered the aid the Central Kingdom had given him before. “I agree. I’ll join.”

Church and Mukos hesitated for a moment, but soon expressed their views as well.

Mukos said, “I agree. I am willing to join.”

“I agree too. I’m willing to join,” Church said.

“Good. Since everyone agrees, then I declare this initiative to be named the Great Weapons Development Campaign. From this day forward, the four of us will work together in full cooperation to research new weapons and fight the Plague Sovereign side by side!”

“Good!” everyone answered in unison.

Ren Boyuan had in fact been researching weapons lately as well. Hearing this, his heart surged with excitement and renewed vigor.

All the top scientific talent of the four nations gathered here to take part in a campaign called the Great Weapons Development.

The development of new weapons began at last.

The once-empty weapons depot was now packed densely with people of different hair colors and different nationalities, all assembled for one purpose only: to create new weapons.

These would not be mere laser cannons or Sunlight weapons. These new arms would surpass both in every regard.

Before research could begin, however, a broad direction had to be laid out first. Otherwise, they would be no better than headless flies, crashing about blindly.

The researchers of the four nations officially convened. The meeting hosts were naturally Chu Xiao and Ren Boyuan.

“What ideas do you have? Speak freely!” Chu Xiao stood before the blackboard and swept his gaze across the room.

The others looked at one another, each seeming to wonder who would be the first to stand and speak.

Seeing that no one had yet opened his mouth, Walker of the Great Empire rose at once. His golden eyes swept the crowd with a faint, dismissive glance.

“I’ll speak. Since we’re talking about a new weapon, explosive power and killing power are the first things to consider. If possible, we should incorporate nuclear power into it. That would surely blast those machines to pieces!”

“That’s all I have to say.”

No sooner had Walker sat down than voices rose all around him.

“I don’t agree! Nuclear weapons will eventually end up harming human health itself!”

“Nuclear radiation may be nothing to machines, but for us humans it’s a catastrophe!”

“I disagree too!”

...

Clearly, this suggestion was met with fierce criticism from everyone.

Walker was a little angry, but he did not lash out. Instead, he merely wore a cold expression.

Hawthorne of North Sand stood up. “All right, listen to me for a moment! Be quiet first.”

Walker shot him a glance, thinking, You? You think you can come up with anything good?

The room quieted down, and all eyes turned to Hawthorne.

“I have a suggestion. Could we perhaps produce some sort of weapon that interferes with the Plague Sovereign’s signal waves? If we could do that, we might disrupt its control over the machines. Wouldn’t that be a good solution?”

This time the objections were not as loud as before, but there were still plenty of dissenting voices.

“I think we should forget it. The Plague Sovereign’s waves are surely ever-changing. Even if we could really make a weapon to interfere with them, the calculations alone would be a problem. You have to remember the computational demands would be enormous. By the time you finished calculating everything, the Plague Sovereign would already have broken through the fortress.”