Chapter 86
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Chapter 86: The End Is Near
In the small lounge of the rest chamber, they chatted with Ying Zhao for a long time, until late at night when they finally turned off the video. At that moment, Wen Jing noticed that the status of the office on the Wen Yang ship had changed from "busy" to "available" on the communication panel, so she reached out to press a button.
Soon, her mother’s voice came through the speaker: “I just finished a meeting. Are you two still awake? Are you hungry? Should I bring some snacks over?”
“Uh, no, I just saw some breaking news about the federation going to war.”
“Yeah, we were just talking about that. Let me come over to discuss it with you.”
“Okay.” Just as Wen Jing heard her mother about to hang up, she suddenly said, “Wait… wait a minute!”
“What is it?”
Wen Jing patted her stomach, “If it’s not too much trouble, could you bring some late-night snacks as well…?”
Wen Yang chuckled softly, “Sure, give me a moment.”
Not long after, the sound of a cart rolling came from outside the lounge. Wen Jing quickly stood up from the sofa, ran to the door, and opened it. It was indeed Wen Yang and her secretary just arriving, with the secretary pushing a simple dining cart. On top was a transparent oven with no fumes, and beside it were trays piled high with raw meat and vegetable skewers.
“Thanks for your hard work,” Wen Jing said, walking over to take the cart from the secretary and pushing it into the lounge. Remembering that the secretary usually left quickly, she asked, “Shall I grill some for you to take back for your late-night snack?”
The secretary smiled with her eyes curving, “We already had a round in the conference room, so these are fresh from the cafeteria’s cold storage. Let me know if there’s enough. If not, I can grab more from the cafeteria while it’s still open.”
Wen Jing waved her hand, “No need, it’s more than enough.”
At this point, Wen Yang had already sat down on the sofa, smiling, “I told her it wouldn’t be a hassle to bring this cart alone, but she insisted on coming with me.” Then she turned to the secretary, saying, “You’ve worked hard today too. You can head home early; once we finish eating, let Ji Jing take the cart to the recycling chamber.”
The secretary nodded to them and left.
After the door to the lounge closed, Xue Zheng stepped forward to examine the dining cart. Hearing Wen Yang mention that the oven was movable and could be removed to make it easy to eat while sitting on the sofa, she unclipped the buckles on both sides of the cart and lifted the transparent oven onto the table.
Wen Jing also took the two layers of skewers from the cart and filled three cups with drinks from the beverage dispenser nearby. She and Xue Zheng sat side by side on the sofa, each grabbing a few meat skewers, grilling them while listening to Wen Yang talk about the discussions from their earlier meeting.
Tonight’s emergency meeting at the Territorial Waters Convention Agency was related to the federation’s control over territorial waters, as the federation had recently disintegrated again. There were historical disputes in the middle sea areas between the Southern Federation and the Western Federation, and both sides were quietly gathering fleets. The World Unity Organization had sent a formal letter requesting Wen Yang to intervene promptly to prevent war at sea.
In recent years, the Territorial Waters Convention Agency had taken over some disputed waters under the pretext of protecting the marine environment, capitalizing on localized military conflicts among several small island nations in the Eastern Continent, which had set a precedent for such actions. This time, the World Unity Organization also planned to use a similar approach, aiming both to prevent war and further promote global integration, thereby expanding its influence across the oceans.
The agencies under the World Unity Organization were intended to play a third-party mediating role in the disputes among various countries. During previous years, when global situations were relatively stable, the organization’s presence wasn’t felt strongly. However, as disturbances grew in various regions, the World Unity Organization’s voice became progressively more influential.
In recent years, the dominant thinking within the organization supported maintaining peace through multilateral negotiations while enabling countries to achieve resource exchange across numerous fields and foster mutual prosperity. Wen Yang’s increasingly authoritative approach of tightening actions on the high seas had drawn considerable criticism.
However, considering the importance of the marine environment to human civilization and the improvements in the areas Wen Yang managed, the executive committee of the World Unity Organization gradually accepted her working style. This time, with the federation disintegrating again, they promptly urged her to monitor our territorial seas and, if necessary, to take over forcibly.
Wen Jing learned that after the meeting, they had dispatched a fleet to the middle sea area between the Southern Federation and the Western Federation and that this aircraft carrier had to return promptly to the headquarters of the Territorial Waters Convention Agency in the neutral state to better arrange for the others to go to Apollo Port and Poli Port for follow-up. She asked, “Is the internal conflict after the dissolution of the federation likely to occur soon?”
Xue Zheng took a whiff of the grilled meat skewer, bit into it, chewed, and wiped her mouth, saying, “Right now, it’s still in the talking phase. With so many mediators around, I doubt fighting will break out.”
Wen Yang sipped her drink and shook her head lightly, her tone somewhat indifferent. “The current situation is not optimistic, and a hot war is probably unavoidable. But I only handle maritime matters; how the Special Operations Department prepares for the land situation is up to them.”
Wen Jing and Xue Zheng exchanged glances at this, realizing that this turmoil still stemmed from actions taken by the Euyun family in Poli Port.
In a world where the global environment was continuously deteriorating, a nuclear leak that was spreading globally exacerbated the survival crisis for humanity.
In a world with depleting resources, losing even one person meant saving one portion of food. Wars, either local or global, were increasingly unavoidable.
In this world, wars are always a game where the strong seize resources. This is the “survival of the fittest” jungle law that some individuals have lauded throughout history. This principle forms the backbone of their constructed world system.
They incite collective fervor through grand narratives, raising slogans that sound noble, but after reallocating resources through war, only a small minority exploits the majority, all while falsely claiming to “protect” them.
This fundamentally unchanged mindset, despite entering a high-tech society, still carries the undeniable scent of ignorance and barbarity.
The fact that the Southern Federation declared war first was due to their desire to seize a strategically important location from the Western Federation, aiming to take preemptive action. The oligarch families behind both sides’ temporary governments had frequently clashed in the Sacred Light Society in the past.
Once the Euyun family had dominance over them, but now that the Euyun family was gone, these individuals had their own agendas. After the federation’s disintegration, it was predictable that they would use the opportunity to fight among themselves, splitting the remains of the Euyun family’s resources.
Meanwhile, the Northern Continent intervening was rooted in grudges formed when they were oppressed and fragmented by the federation over energy issues in previous years. Seeing the federation again disintegrating, they wanted to take advantage of the chaos, seeking a share of the spoils as revenge.
Due to these complicated historical entanglements, even if the federation did go to war, there would still be a lot of wrangling beforehand. This would create space for maneuvering, allowing some citizens to escape their fates of being sacrificed by the oligarchs before the coming apocalypse.
At this moment, Xue Zheng combined two skewers, tearing off the meat and chewing vigorously. “Those oligarchs and old nobility occupy all the social resources, using enough water and electricity in one day for a whole year for many people. The benefits gained from environmental destruction have done little for us; instead, we all bear the blame together. With the apocalypse looming, they continue to rob food from ordinary people with war. Do their lives matter more than others’? They should be killed! All of them should be killed!”
Wen Jing scoffed, “They want to reduce the population to ensure the limited resources are consumed by only a few. But they fail to realize that with nuclear radiation, who cares if they’re nobles or not? Instead, why not take the good things they’ve hoarded from around the world and distribute them to those who survive? It would be like atoning for their sins.”
In the relatively peaceful past, these oligarch families secretly built doomsday fortresses in various places, hiding various living supplies in concealed locations and movements.
Now that chaos has erupted, their movements between different stash points are bound to increase, making keeping their secrets more difficult and providing the perfect opportunity to strike.
With this thought, she looked at Wen Yang and asked, “Mom, what should we do with that fighter jet we flew here? Can we keep it? I’ll need it in a couple of days.”
Wen Yang watched the two for a moment, then raised a hand to sip her drink. After some thought, she replied, “We’ll speed up from tonight and are expected to arrive at Wind Island Port by tomorrow evening. I’ll find an abandoned drilling platform outside the neutral state’s territorial seas for you to temporarily park it.”
Wen Jing glanced at Xue Zheng, and they both smiled knowingly, “No problem.”
Afterwards, they talked casually for a while longer until they finished all the skewers. Wen Jing and Xue Zheng cleaned up the table and stood up together, pushing the dining cart to follow Wen Yang out of the lounge, into the nearby recycling chamber where they unloaded the cart. Wen Yang pointed not far ahead, “My rest chamber is over there. It’s getting late; you should both get some rest early. Tomorrow, we’ll travel at full speed.”
The two nodded in agreement, watching Wen Yang enter the rest chamber, before turning back to leave.
The next morning, Wen Jing woke up in her bed in the rest chamber, opened her eyes, and flipped up the porthole blackout cover. Bright light flooded the entire rest chamber instantly.
It was a cloudy day, the gray ocean surface was covered with thick clouds, and tiny waves rolled outside the porthole, showing how the aircraft carrier was speeding ahead.
Leaning against her pillow, she watched the splashing waves and the foamy white caps, drifting into thought for a bit before getting up to wash and exit the rest chamber.
Noticing that Xue Zheng’s door was closed, she sat down on the sofa and saw a message from Wen Yang on the communication panel. It said that breakfast service on the aircraft carrier started early, and since they had gone to bed late last night, they could contact the secretary to arrange for someone to deliver breakfast if they missed the breakfast time.
She then noticed that Wen Yang’s office status was “busy,” likely in a meeting. Therefore, she reached out to the secretary mentioned in her mother’s note, asking her to send someone to bring them some food. After completing that breakfast communication, she checked the time, guessing that Xue Zheng would be waking up soon.
Sure enough, as she received the dining cart from the staff, pushing it inside, Xue Zheng opened the door and stepped out, spotting the cart filled with plenty of bread, ham, and cheese, her eyes sparkling, “Looks delicious!”
Wen Jing parked the cart in front of the table and glanced at her, “You’re lucky! Every time you open the door, there’s good food waiting for you, isn’t there?”
Xue Zheng chuckled, and the two ate breakfast together in the lounge. They leisurely spent most of the day on the aircraft carrier, and around three in the afternoon, Kun Whale No. 1 arrived at the abandoned drilling platform that Wen Yang mentioned yesterday.
Wen Jing parked the fighter jet they flew in on the platform, covered it with a large dust-proof cloth, and returned to the aircraft carrier. After another three hours, as the sun set, Kun Whale No. 1 entered the dedicated government port for the International Territorial Waters Convention Agency located at Wind Island in the neutral state.
Wen Jing looked out of the small lounge window, returning to this familiar place once again with her mother.
