Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Under the energy-saving mode, the UAV formations cruising speed was 380 kilometers per hour. They flew in a straight line, and in about 10 hours, they completed the journey of more than 5,000 kilometers.
Chen Jin put Alice in charge of controlling the UAVs and returned to his bedroom to rest.
…
The next night, he returned to the Base of Operations. Looking at the virtual projections, Chen Jin was struck dumb with astonishment as his mouth opened wide in shock. The Intercontinental Exploration Squad had relayed a portion of images after completing part of the exploration on Europa continent.
What kind of rewards did they reap? An undamaged large-scale city? An excellent industrial system? Or a castle, museum, winery, or other such cultural legacies?
No. There was none of the above. There were only terrifying large craters with diameters up to 100 kilometers. They were dense and spread everywhere. There were so many of them, they could number in the thousands.
Take, for example, Pirate Island. It had an area that measured about 250,000 square kilometers. From an aerial view of the island, there were 32 terrifyingly large craters that were lined up like bowling balls. Each of the craters was separated by an average distance of 100 kilometers. There were three to four such lines of craters. All cities, farming villages, forests, even the wilderness, not one inch of land was spared. The entire Pirate Island had been blown to bits.
After the UAV formations entered the mainland of Europa, they discovered that the terrifyingly huge craters were also present there. The craters were distributed like the lines of longitude and latitude on a map, forming a grid-like pattern. The whole of Europa had been blown to bits.
Alice proceeded with a simulated deduction. “Firstly, a strong EMP bomb exploded, destroying the electronics system in the entire mainland. Then, a powerful earth-penetrating nuclear bomb with an equivalent strength of 50 million tons was launched on Europa. Thus, a mesh-like attack that enveloped the entire continent was carried out. This was the nuclear attack strategy of the Red Empire. This was also the Slavs’ style of action. They had no care for the consequences. After the explosion of the nuclear bombs, the nuclear dust floated up and covered half of the atmosphere. This caused a nuclear winter that lasted for 20 years. The average nuclear radiation level in the range of Europa’s mainland was far beyond normal levels. It was impossible to survive anywhere on the mainland. Even they themselves died in the nuclear winter. Crazy. The Slavs were too crazy. They chose mutual destruction.” She basically deduced the causes for the destruction of Europa. It was the Red Empire that should never have been provoked.
Chen Jin was struck dumb. Ruthless. This was really too ruthless! Just how much had they been bullied for the Red Empire to respond in such an extreme way? They did not even want their lives, instead, they wanted everyone else to go to the end with them.
Why did Chen Jin say that the Red Empire was bullied? When two parties fight, it was definitely not the fault of only one party. Both had problems. It took two hands to clap. Although the Red Empire of this world was not anything good either, they certainly had been bullied to their limits. Especially when dealing with the West, they would have made countless compromises and concessions, including disarmament, denuclearization, and allowing some members in a union state to become independent… All in the hopes of improving relations with the West. Hoping that everyone would get along well in the future and create a harmonious world.
In the end, what they got in exchange for these expressions of goodwill was more ridiculous demands. The Slavs gave the West an inch and they wanted a mile. They received even stricter sanctions and discrimination. What the West wanted was not the expression of goodwill, but the total collapse of the Red Empire! This was a conflict that could not be reconciled. They could only walk towards the final showdown.
Then… Could Chen Jin still find the “hardware capital” that he wanted? He found nothing! The whole of Europa had been blown to bits. Even a simple wood processing plant could not be found, much less a hardware industry. It could be said that Europa was nearly blown back into the Stone Age. In addition, nuclear dust had resulted in an environment that was contaminated with nuclear radiation. Chen Jin no longer had to guess if there were any survivor forces in the mainland of Europa.
“If there was someone who survived this kind of impact and endured hunger, disease, and mutual destruction, he would be living like the ancients. There would be no electronic equipment available for use. He would have to live through 20 years of nuclear winter filled with darkness and extreme cold. He would never experience the light of day. If such a survivor exists, I’ll never hurt him. I’ll feed him with good food and drink. Then I’ll give him a pen and a notebook so he can write his story down. I want to distribute this story on a web novel platform and become famous!”
Hence, there was absolutely no need to worry that there were any survivors in the Europa continent. However, Chen Jin also could not get his hands on his “darlings.” There was virtually no value in exploring the Europa continent. The UAV formations continued to penetrate eastwards. However, there was a place that Alice suggested the robots search. There could be some rewards to be gained there.
Chen Jin asked, “What place are you thinking of?”
“Provence military base… The place where the Norman Republic stockpiled its land-based nuclear weapons.” Alice explained that after the destructive war had erupted, the Red Empire made a preemptive strike by launching a neutron bomb with a powerful radiation pulse. It had destroyed all the electronic equipment on the Europa mainland, including the intercontinental missiles stored in the missile silos. Besides the Red Empire, there were two other nuclear powers in the Europa mainland. They were the Pirate country and the Norman Republic. The glory days of the Pirate country were long over and there was no chance of ever going back. They merely had a few strategic nuclear-powered missile submarines and some hundreds of nuclear warheads left. They just barely held onto the image of an Empire.
The Norman Republic fared better. They had retained about a hundred land-based nuclear weapons… which were all stored in the Provence military base. Alice thought that this place should have certain “rewards.”
“More than a hundred nuclear weapons?” Chen Jin’s eyes brightened. “Send Flight No.9 out immediately with 200 robots onboard. Find the land-based nuclear weapons in Norman State.”
The UAV formations split into two groups in the air. One group continued eastwards to the territory of the Red Empire. The other changed its direction southwards to the Black Mamba continent.
“Yes, Master!”
Flight No.9 quickly took off. After some hours, it reached the Provence military base in the southeast of the Norman Republic. The base was located at the foot of the Aers Mountain and was blocked by the high mountain range. When it suffered an attack by a powerful earth-penetrating nuclear bomb, the earth immediately trembled and the mountains swayed. It triggered an 8.0 magnitude earthquake which destroyed huge portions of ground buildings.
Inside the base were missile silos. But what was shocking was the state of the missile silos. They were constructed with a very strong metal alloy, were very well-preserved, and remained undamaged from the strong earthquake.
The robots used the laser machine to cut open the silo lids. There was a storage chamber in each of the 10 missile silos. 10 nuclear warheads rested inside each storage chamber.
He found 100 nuclear missiles!
Of course, not only were these nuclear missiles past their serviceable lifespan, the majority of their electronic parts had broken down or were destroyed under the impact from the strong wave of the nuclear pulse. The chamber of missiles could not even be launched. It could only rest quietly in the silo. Its threat was no greater than a burning stick.
However, in Chen Jin’s eyes, they held an entirely different meaning. It was entirely possible to repair these 100 nuclear missiles! Although it was somewhat troublesome, it was not impossible to achieve. The industrial standard of the Base was nearing a level where it could create simple nuclear bombs. It only lacked a few key processing units before it could repair these nuclear missiles or create a “nuclear trigger,” which required a higher level of precision.
“That means that I possess a real nuclear deterrent force?”
Those ill-intentioned forces better not provoke me again. Don’t look down on me, I’m not an ordinary person. I’m someone with a nuclear deterrent force!
Chen Jin took a deep breath. His head was swelling. This time, he felt that his head and ego would swell to their limits.