Global Catastrophe: I Became the World Tree-Chapter 156 - 138 Consensus Reached_2

But Du Gulan soon found that the giant panda had reverted to its previous foolish appearance, seated on its bottom in front of the camera, munching on bamboo and completely ignoring everyone.

Though the giant panda was not cooperative, the news that Du Gulan brought back was earth-shaking.

As she announced the news of the successful cooperation, the live broadcast room instantly buzzed with activity.

Gao Yifeng: "This is great, cooperation has finally been achieved, and we can even invite mutated beings to fight as mercenaries. We shouldn’t have to face the crisis we encountered a few days ago, right? I don’t want to be chased around by mutated creatures anymore."

Goodness Like Water: "I think we shouldn’t get too excited too soon. Right now, they have only agreed on the surface. Who knows, when we’re really facing a crisis, whether these mutated beings will come to our aid or kick us while we’re down. We should continue to stay vigilant."

Injury: "Doesn’t anyone care about the name of the mutated animals’ faction? ’Dragon Hall’ sounds a bit too juvenile, doesn’t it?"

Inside the live broadcast room, the screen was a flurry of rapid-fire comments.

Although there were some off-topic remarks, the vast majority were concerned with only two things.

The first was what benefits this cooperation would bring to Yang City.

The second was whether the other side would betray them at a critical moment.

However, the officials were already prepared for these concerns. Soon enough, professionals took the stage to comment and analyzed the pros and cons of the cooperation, as well as the various things that might happen.

Gradually, they steered public opinion in a positive direction.

In addition, it was at this time that the government officially announced plans to construct a defensive city wall.

The response to this announcement was naturally very enthusiastic.

After experiencing the crisis with the mutated beings, all citizens had a strong sense of unease.

Reaching cooperation with the mutated animals had eased some of that unease, but concerns remained.

Plans to build a city wall, however, were completely different, offering something tangible for everyone to feel reassured about.

The only possible downside was the expense, but for the average citizen, this was of little consequence, as it was not their money being spent.

On this day, the public was elated, with many spontaneously organizing celebratory events, and numerous businesses seized the opportunity to launch various promotions to stimulate spending.

But compared to the public, the higher-ups were not so excited. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

Half an hour later, the negotiating team returned.

Zhang Ji went directly to the military’s highest conference room.

When he entered, the assembly of military leaders had already been waiting there.

"Now that everyone is here, let’s begin the meeting," said Commander Bai Yinghui who was sitting at the head.

Chief of Staff Yi Jian, sitting at the other end, nodded and said, "Good, let’s move on to the first agenda item. How credible do we find the intelligence provided by the Mutated Parrot?"

"I believe the credibility of this intelligence is over 90%."

Zhang Ji was the first to speak: "Actually, we’ve had suspicions before about why these mutated beings don’t fight amongst themselves."

"I even wondered if a leader had emerged among these mutated creatures and their restraint had prevented such conflicts."

"But even if a leader emerged to enforce restraint, it couldn’t possibly extend to every mutated being. During the recent extermination operation, I investigated and found absolutely no trace of them attacking each other."

"Now, everything has been explained," Zhang Ji concluded, after which the conference room fell into a moment of silence.

They didn’t discredit Zhang Ji’s analysis, but rather...

"I want to know why is it like this? Based on animal instincts, shouldn’t they choose their targets according to strength? Why are they judging based on evolutionary stages now?" Gao Duguang, who sat on the other side, voiced the question that everyone had in mind.

"I don’t know." Zhang Ji shook his head, "Just like we don’t know why Spiritual Energy causes these animals to mutate, instead of pondering over that, we might as well think about how to deal with this problem."

"That’s right!" Captain Bai Yinghui then spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention, "Since we all agree the intelligence is accurate, some of our earlier deductions will have significant deviations, such as the timing of the Mutated Beings’ attack on us."

"Based on the earlier estimates by the staff department, we should still have two weeks to a month of preparation time, but now the time left for us is probably less than 10 days. The construction plan for the defensive wall needs to be moved up ahead schedule."

"With such little time, it’s not even enough to build a simplified version of the wall; we can probably only manage a simplified version of a simplified version. So, the next topic is, to what degree do we need to build this simplified wall to meet the minimum standards?"

At this point, Chief of Staff Yi Jian took out a stack of documents and distributed them, saying, "This is the estimated data made by the intelligence department after surveying the environment around the city."

"Just the Donglin Mountain Range alone, within 30 kilometers close to our Yang City, the quantity of Mutated insects is over a hundred times more than what we previously had inside the city. If we count in the surrounding Mutated insects, you all should be prepared to face an enemy force 200 times larger."

"The good news is that there are no Mutated Mice among these Mutated Beings, but the bad news is that many of the Mutated insects possess attack capabilities far beyond that of Mutated Mosquitoes, Mutated Flies, and Mutated Cockroaches."

Yi Jian said this and looked towards Zhang Ji, "Captain Zhang, you have authority on this matter, how about you give your input?"

"Alright! I’ll skip the excess talk and give everyone a piece of data directly. Previously, my Sixth Battalion went to clear the Donglin Mountain Range highway, and a total of 456 soldiers were injured, among them 75 were critically injured, and 13 died." Zhang Ji stated.

His words immediately made all the commanding officers in the room sober up.

They really did not know that the casualty rate was so high when Zhang Ji led the team to clear the Yunyang Highway.

"But back then, you were on a sweeping operation. If we were fighting a defensive battle, plus with this experience, the casualty rate should be able to significantly decrease, right?" Gao Duguang couldn’t help but interject.

"You’re right, if we fight a defensive battle and if I’m fully equipped, another go, and I’m confident that I can reduce the casualties to under 40."

Having said this, Zhang Ji sighed and continued, "But don’t forget, back then, the Mutated insects I killed were only First Order!"

After hearing this, the atmosphere in the room grew even more serious than before.

Everyone understood just how vast the difference was between First Order and Second Stage.

Take Mutated Mosquitoes for example, even First Order Mutated Mosquitoes were considered terrifying already, getting bitten by one would lead to a large swelling.

But even so, anyone could slap it to death with a palm.

However, when these Mutated Mosquitoes reached Second Stage, it was a different story altogether. The research institute had already provided data, indicating 50 Second Stage Mutated Mosquitoes could potentially sting an adult to death.

Therefore, the combat capability between First Order and Second Stage directly increased by an order of magnitude.

Seeing the silent atmosphere in the room, Zhang Ji continued, "So my suggestion is, no matter how much the defensive wall is simplified, its height must not be less than three meters, and the accompanying defensive weapons must not be less than 30 percent, otherwise our soldiers’ casualty rate will be very heavy."

Hearing this, Bai Yinghui cast his sight towards Yi Jian.

Yet, Yi Jian shook his head, "I’m afraid it’s too late. In 10 days’ time, at most we could only construct about two meters high, considering this is a wall spanning over 150 kilometers."

"If we don’t have enough manpower, we can mobilize volunteers. I believe with a call for action, we would be able to gather tens of thousands of laborers without much issue," Bai Yinghui said with a slight frown.

"Manpower is not the biggest problem, materials are, especially rocks," Yi Jian said, identifying the biggest challenge straight away.

"After all, we are not building a fence, but a wall that has to be at least 5 meters wide. The consumption and the horror are mostly from rocks."

"But the outside is too dangerous now, just the protection forces alone require a large number of people, in this situation, gathering rocks won’t be quick." Yi Jian directly pointed out the difficulty.

However, Bai Yinghui didn’t show a hint of disappointment upon hearing this but instead turned to Zhang Ji and asked, "Do you think it’s feasible to entrust the defense to Dragon Hall?"