Chapter 151 Can I Come In

Gao Yuan saw Li Wen, but he did not see Xinghe.

Li Wen and several generals were sitting in the combat command room, and Gao Yuan also entered the command room directly. Upon seeing Gao Yuan, Li Wen waved his hand solemnly and said to Gao Yuan, "Xiao Gao, sit here."

Gao Yuan replied in a low voice, "Yes, Commander."

Gao Yuan indeed sat down beside Li Wen.

Li Wen hesitated for a moment, and then he spoke slowly, "Xiao Gao, your relationship with Xinghe is very special. It's no exaggeration to say that you are a bridge between humans and the Celestials, the only bridge. So unless it's extremely important, I would never agree to call you here."

There must be something wrong, there must definitely be something going on.

Gao Yuan immediately asked, "Commander, what is the matter?"

Li Wen said with a stern face, "With our current military technological capabilities, fighting the Serpent People is unrealistic. After gaining Celestial technology, our theoretical foundation has improved tremendously; however, the progress in its specific application is not optimistic."

Gao Yuan thought he knew why Li Wen had summoned him; it must be to ask him to help get some military technology from Xinghe.

Previously, the technology provided by Xinghe was important, but he only provided the theories and systems of basic sciences, without any specific military technology. It was like Xinghe explained to the people of the Han Dynasty what gravity is, but did not give them a knife, let alone a gun that was ahead of their time.

Therefore, Gao Yuan believed Li Wen wanted to get some specific technologies from Xinghe to create some kind of weapon.

But as it turned out, outsiders could only watch the excitement from the outside,

Li Wen continued with utmost seriousness, "Because the development of science and technology is of utmost importance, I am now personally overseeing this area of work. Any difficulties we encounter, we will overcome all obstacles to prioritize the development of science and technology."

Gao Yuan nodded and remained silent, when Li Wen turned to look at him and said in a low voice, "Do you know what the highest priority entails?"

Gao Yuan was taken aback for a moment, then he still shook his head.

Li Wen said gravely, "The whole Shenzhou has a total of three first-level large underground bases, namely the Taihang Mountain Supreme Command where we are, as well as the Western Base established in the Qinling Mountains, and the Southeastern Base located in the Wuyi Mountain Range. These three large bases are connected by fiber-optic cables, enabling timely communication, and we have conveyed all the information we obtained to the other two bases."

Gao Yuan nodded, then Li Wen continued with a stern face, "The so-called highest priority is that we'd rather expose one of the large bases than fail to meet the breakthrough progress of a key technology!"

Gao Yuan's eyes widened.

The term "rather expose" is synonymous with "rather sacrifice."

To rather sacrifice a large base in order to achieve a breakthrough, that's determination, that's courage, that's burning one's boats, that's a fight with one's back to the river, it's staking human lives and the last ace for a glimmer of hope, for a future.

Gao Yuan took a deep breath, and Li Wen let out a long exhale before looking at Gao Yuan and saying, "We have now reached such a critical moment. Our controlled nuclear fusion has made critical progress, but only theoretically. Our scientists are confident that they can realize controlled nuclear fusion in a very short time."

Gao Yuan nodded, replying quietly, "That's great news!"

"But we've run into a problem, which is the lack of nuclear materials and the key materials required to build controlled nuclear fusion."

"Ah?"

Li Wen spoke with a sense of helplessness, "Our man-made sun project has been underway for many years now, with the entire laboratory and all the research personnel having relocated to the base. However, time was still too pressing. What we hadn't anticipated was the need for a new type of nuclear material, and this material can only be found in one place: at the National Laboratory of Nuclear Physics in Ji City."

"Ah, wasn't this moved in as well?"

Li Wen replied with a bitter expression, "It was moved in, but we could only carry what was critical, it's not something you can just move on a whim. By the time we had Taihang Mountain Base ready and the National Laboratory of Nuclear Physics could start moving here, it was already too late. Many pieces of equipment can't just be tossed into a cave; they require a supporting environment."

"I understand, I think I grasp what you mean."

Li Wen sighed and said, "Xiao Gao, how long have you been here?"

"About half a month, I guess. I'm not quite sure; the concept of time gets blurry without a distinction between day and night."

"You've been inside for seventeen days. Eleven days ago, I signed an order to dispatch the first team, trying to enter Ji City to retrieve the key nuclear material from the National Laboratory of Nuclear Physics. But this team quickly lost contact. A week ago, we sent out a second team for reconnaissance only, yet this team also lost contact. Three days ago, we sent out a third team, a total of twelve people, just to get a clear picture of the situation in the city. This time, we bravely employed real-time battle communication technology."

With a determined look, Li Wen said, "The third team didn't make it back either, but at least we found out the situation on the outskirts of Ji City."

Three teams went and never returned, only to learn about the situation on the outskirts of Ji City.

Gao Yuan fell silent.

Li Wen waved his hand, and the large screen in the command center lit up.

"Take a look..."

The big screen showed shaky footage, taken from a camera carried by a soldier. It was footage of the night, so the screen was tinted green, thanks to the faint light of night vision surveillance equipment.

"We are in the distant suburbs of Ji City, but scattered zombies have already appeared. We have observed that during the daytime, zombies are somewhat more active and show clear feeding behaviors. However, at night, their body heat drops with the falling temperature, and their movements become slightly more sluggish."

"We have entered the near suburbs, where zombies appear in large numbers, but we are still able to find gaps to pass through, and no contact has occurred so far."

"Report to the commander, we've been discovered; a large number of zombies have appeared and are quickly swarming towards us!"

Gunshots followed, and Gao Yuan instinctively said, "Don't shoot; more zombies come with gunfire!"

The fate of the person filming seemed sealed, and Gao Yuan knew this, but he couldn't help feeling anxious and uneasy.

"We are surrounded, use melee weapons, don't shoot! Ah! Ah!"

Accompanied by intense but quickly silenced gunfire, the final image shook violently, showing several gruesome zombie faces lunging forward, before plunging into darkness.

The three best teams had only secured this bit of intelligence. Gao Yuan expressed his helplessness, "Haven't I been saying this all along? You can't use guns against zombies! And sending more people in is just sending them to their death."

"I know, but we still need to try to enter Ji City. It seems now that conventional methods are no longer viable."

After speaking, Li Wen said softly, "We are now left with two options: one, use nuclear weapons to clear a path, or two, let someone who can make it go in."

Without hesitation or delay, Gao Yuan replied in a low voice, "Two, I can go in."