Chapter 3639: Life and Death

There is no doubt that the heads of Japan's defense department and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology were both furious at this moment.

But for them, anger solves nothing, because this is anger toward the United States.

Faced with the unreasonable demands of the U. S. military officials, they didn't even have the courage to rebut.

After all, this matter is indeed not entirely the fault of the United States; they also genuinely dispatched troops under the pretense of helping Japan, and now that something has happened, Japan certainly cannot turn a blind eye.

However, how much responsibility Japan should bear has become a point of disagreement between the two sides.

Japan feels that this is like two drivers who don't follow traffic rules getting into an accident with each other—everyone bears some responsibility, and it's impossible to let any one party bear full blame. The U. S. special forces' abuse of their own scientific expedition team—if this hadn't been exposed, they could just endure it, and they certainly would endure it. But now that it's exposed, asking them to endure it—how would they explain themselves to the public?

Thus, the head of Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology gathered courage and said: "Sir, you cannot push all the responsibility onto us, especially the abuse of the scientific expedition team. If we are to take the blame for this, how would we explain it to other expedition team members and scientists? We are merely working in various units under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, not soldiers. Even if we messed up in our usual work, it should be resolved through normal civil and commercial procedures. If they knew we would resort to force, or even request foreign military intervention, how would our reputation fare in the future?"

The head of the defense department also quickly said: "Yes, sir, we can publicly admit that we requested the U. S. to send troops, but the U. S. needs to give us an explanation for the abuse of our scientific expedition team—this would also be fair and reasonable."

The U. S. military official shouted angrily: "Fair? Where does this fairness come from?! When you were all starving and needed MacArthur to run to the U. S. Congress to beg for food, why didn't you talk about fairness?! When you took advantage of your geographical position to become a Cold War foothold and received countless supplies and aid from us, why didn't you talk about fairness?! Damn it, now that you need to take the blame, you're talking about fairness?!"

The two Japanese officials were instantly embarrassed.

Although they weren't together, and although they were only in a video call, both still couldn't help but look at each other on the screen, hoping the other could think of a way to counter this U. S. military official.

But neither of them found a suitable breakthrough point.

The U. S. military official gradually lost patience, speaking coldly: "The White House will soon hold a press conference. I hope you two don't keep wasting time here. If this matter brings significant negative impact to the United States, rest assured, with our style of handling things, the consequences will definitely make you compensate tenfold or a hundredfold. Perhaps because of your persistence today, some Japanese citizens will lose their jobs in the future, some Japanese companies will go bankrupt—these you need to consider carefully. If you can't decide, then report this to your superiors and let them decide. I'll wait twenty minutes."

After saying that, the U. S. military official directly exited the video conference.

The two Japanese officials were extremely embarrassed. In this situation, they naturally dared not make a random decision, so after discussing, they immediately reported the matter to the cabinet, to be decided by the cabinet.

Some matters can not only be passed downward but also upward—just have the courage to give up, tell your superior: "Anyway, I'm stuck with this mess—you figure it out." The superior can't do anything either; at most, they'd just fire you.

Looking at this now, being fired is no longer a big deal—as long as you don't have to bear national responsibility. If, because they didn't serve the United States well, the United States retaliates against Japan, then they would become sinners of Japan. By then, it wouldn't just be about losing a job—maybe one day someone would even pop out with a gun and shoot you dead.

Upon receiving this report, the cabinet dared not delay in the slightest and immediately gathered all members to hold a meeting and discuss.

While the cabinet was still discussing what to do, Wu Feiyan, far away near Antarctica, also received the news.

She never dreamed that after staying in Antarctica for so many years, it could actually become a global focal point.

And she immediately realized this must be related to Wu Bolin!

When Wu Bolin left, he went to Ushuaia, and with the help of Wu Siyuan, the governor of the Left Army Governor's Office, he went to the Antarctic continent.

When Wu Feiyan received the news, she wasn't particularly surprised, because she had sent the three of them out to seek opportunities—no one knew whether Antarctica had any opportunities, and she also felt that this kind of unexpected effect was exactly what was wanted; otherwise, if everyone followed her way of thinking, some corners might never be noticed.

But she never dreamed that Wu Bolin's single trip to Antarctica would cause such a huge incident!

She currently doesn't know the specific situation in Antarctica, only learning through news that the U. S. military landed overnight with weapons and equipment, and even attacked the Japanese scientific expedition team, but she doesn't know whether it's related to Wu Bolin, and she also can't contact Wu Bolin now.

However, regardless of whether this matter is related to Wu Bolin, her entire emotional state has already become extremely tense.

Although the headquarters of the Break Qing Society is extremely hidden and almost entirely built underground on a nameless small island, her hiding method can only deal with ordinary satellites and aircraft. Once a country's military brings professional detection equipment and scans this area unintentionally, they will discover the island that only exposes a small part of its brain—its interior has already been hollowed out.

Before, Wu Feiyan never worried about exposure, because this island is hundreds of kilometers from the Antarctic continent and from South America. South America itself hardly attracts attention, and Antarctica even less so. There are no tourism resources near her island, nor does it involve any commercial shipping lanes—civilian passenger planes, ships, even scientific expedition vessels, do not pass over or beside her island.

Moreover, twenty or thirty years ago, she had people specifically survey this area—there are hardly any oil or mineral resources, fishery resources are not particularly rich, and since the island's sovereignty has already been purchased through the South American government, no private intrusion is allowed, so she never worried about any safety hazards.

But now it's different.

The U. S. military deployed over a hundred soldiers, several armored vehicles, and even self-propelled rocket artillery onto the Antarctic continent overnight—this modern firepower's deterrence made Wu Feiyan instantly feel anxious.

Because she clearly knows that once everything here is exposed before such a major power's military, the outcome can only be one: conquest.

To destroy this place, the U. S. military doesn't even need to send troops—they just need to dispatch a few more bombers, and they could bomb this island flat.

As for the underground fortifications here, even if they could withstand the first wave of bombing, the people and facilities inside could not possibly survive.

Because all the air in the underground facilities comes from the island's surface via large ventilation equipment—once the surface is bombed, those inside with insufficient cultivation have only a dead end.

Moreover, although this place is only a few hundred kilometers from the Antarctic continent, for the U. S. military, a few hundred kilometers is nothing. If the Antarctic situation continues to develop, and one day a U. S. military aircraft flies overhead from above, detects an anomaly, then it's all over. Antarctica is bound by the Antarctic Treaty, but they could still ruthlessly kill their way in—let alone this place.

Wu Feiyan's heart was in turmoil, feeling a life-or-death crisis, so she immediately summoned Wu Tianlin and anxiously ordered: "Tianlin, notify all the scholars in the United States and Japan and their families—have them find out why the United States sent troops to Antarctica. I always feel this matter is suspicious."

Wu Tianlin also knew this was of great importance—poorly handled, it could involve the life-or-death of the Break Qing Society—and so he immediately said solemnly: "Master, rest assured, I'll go notify them right away!"

After speaking, he suddenly thought of a detail and said: "By the way, Master, according to the routine reports from the Left Army Governor's Office earlier, it was mentioned that the Grand Elder Wu Bolin went to the Antarctic continent by boarding a Japanese scientific expedition ship. This time, the U. S. military's action against the Japanese scientific expedition team—could it be related to the Grand Elder?!"

……

PS: The New Year is coming soon—there have been many things lately, so I wish everyone a happy New Year in advance. I'll try to update daily these few days.