182: Chapter 182 The US is bewildered: Where are you going to fight this war?

Washington, The Pentagon, underground command center.

The shrill red alarm sounded like a rusty saw, frantically sawing away at the nerves of everyone present.

The air was filled with the strong smell of coffee and the sour stench of cold sweat. Dozens of intelligence analysts stared at the rows of frantically jumping data streams, their fingers tapping on keyboards so fast they left afterimages, their faces filled with a hellish terror.

"Has The President arrived yet?!"

The Secretary of Defense rushed into the command room, drenched in sweat, his tie askew, clutching a freshly printed urgent satellite report, the paper soaked with sweat.

"Just arrived! He's connecting now!"

The big screen flickered, revealing The President's face, pale as paper.

He had clearly just been woken from his sleep; his eye bags were swollen, and his eyes revealed a despair that screamed "What kind of trouble is it this time?"

"Speak."

The President waved his hand weakly, holding a piece of half-eaten sleeping pill in his hand. "Where is it this time? Did the luan niao starship fly over The White House? Or did that rat electrocute our aircraft carrier again?"

"It's worse than that!"

The Secretary of Defense took a deep breath, his voice trembling as if he had Parkinson's:

"Just ten minutes ago, our 'Keyhole' reconnaissance satellite detected a massive military mobilization at the West Suburb Base in the Dragon Kingdom!"

"The scale is... abnormal!"

"Mobilization?" The President frowned. "A drill?"

"No! It's a combat assembly!"

The Secretary of Defense held the report up to the camera, speaking rapidly:

"Five full mechanized heavy combined arms brigades! Three long-range rocket artillery regiments! And countless logistical support convoys!"

"The scariest part is that they've pulled out their bottom-of-the-barrel 99A main battle tanks and PHL-191 box rocket launchers! Fully loaded with ammunition! This is a configuration for a war of national annihilation!"

Boom!

The sleeping pill in The President's hand fell to the floor.

He sat up straight abruptly, sleepiness gone, cold sweat instantly soaking his pajamas.

War of national annihilation?

Fighting whom?

Those neighbors nearby have been quite obedient lately, all scared like quails by Jiang Chen's spaceship. Who dares to provoke the Dragon Kingdom?

"Could it be... coming for us?"

The President's imagination instantly broke through the stratosphere, his voice becoming sharp and shrill:

"Are they trying to dig a hole from the West Suburb Base and drive their tanks straight to Washington?!"

"This..."

The Secretary of Defense was left speechless by this unique train of thought, but he couldn't refute it. After all, Jiang Chen was too bizarre; even if someone said Jiang Chen was riding a dragon to work tomorrow, he would believe it.

"Quick! Switch to the satellite feed!"

The President roared, "I want to see with my own eyes what these lunatics are trying to do!"

The big screen shifted.

High-definition real-time satellite imagery was projected.

A torrent of steel stretched for dozens of kilometers outside the West Suburb Base, dust blotting out the sky.

Thousands of tanks and armored vehicles, arranged in neat combat formations, were driving into the base with murderous intent. The sheer metallic texture felt suffocating even through the screen.

"My God..."

An intelligence officer covered his mouth. "With so many heavy weapons, they could flatten the entire Europe!"

"They're going in!"

The Secretary of Defense pointed at the screen and shouted.

The massive armored force, without slowing down at all, rushed straight into the huge open-air apron at the West Suburb Base, which was originally used to park the luan niao starship.

Then.

The bizarre thing happened.

There were no planes or bunkers on that apron.

There was only a huge, faintly blue-glowing aperture that looked like an upright water surface.

The aperture was a hundred meters high, its edges flickering with eerie electric arcs, and its interior was a deep, dizzying vortex.

The first 99A main battle tank, with unstoppable momentum, didn't hesitate at all and crashed straight into the aperture.

"Hum—"

No explosion, no collision.

The fifty-plus-ton steel behemoth just drove into a layer of water screen and instantly... disappeared.

Immediately after, the second, the third...

An entire armored brigade, as if swallowed by a black hole, lined up and drilled into that aperture, disappearing one by one, not even splashing a ripple.

"This... what kind of technology is this?"

The President widened his eyes, sticking his face to the screen, his nose tip deforming the screen.

"Stealth technology? Optical camouflage?"

"No! This is impossible!"

A physics consultant nearby held his head and let out a collapsing scream:

"That is space folding! It's a wormhole! It's a damn interstellar gate!"

"Look at the energy readings! The space curvature around that aperture is twisted into a pretzel! They... they are performing cross-space teleportation!"

"Teleportation?"

The President felt his brain boiling.

He watched the tanks disappearing into thin air, and images from Hollywood movies couldn't help but surface in his mind—Stargate, the Dark Portal in World of Warcraft...

"You mean..."

The President pointed at the screen, trembling, his voice as weak as a mosquito's buzz:

"They opened a portal on Earth?"

"And sent tens of thousands of troops... to another world to fight?"

"Very likely!"

The Secretary of Defense swallowed his saliva, his face looking hopeless:

"Maybe Mars? Maybe Centaurus? Or... to fight aliens?"

A deathly silence enveloped the entire The White House and The Pentagon.

Everyone felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

It felt like you had worked hard to reach max level, holding the best gear to go bully newbies at the village entrance, only to find out—

The village chief of the newbie village had already taken people to attack the hell dungeon!

What is the point of playing anymore!

Everyone isn't even on the same server!

"It's over... it's all over..."

The President collapsed into his chair, looking at the ceiling with lifeless eyes, a miserable smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

He remembered he still had to haggle with those old men in Congress for a few hundred million in military spending.

He remembered he was still complacent about the engine materials for the sixth-generation fighter.

He remembered he was still naive enough to think that by sanctioning chips, he could curb the rise of the Dragon Kingdom.

Now it seems.

This is a joke.

A huge joke!

Jiang Chen has even built an "interstellar gate"!

"We are still playing with mud on Earth, engaging in geopolitics..."

The President muttered to himself, two lines of murky tears sliding down the corners of his eyes:

"They... they have already gone to farm the dungeon!"

"This is a dimensionality reduction strike! It's a crushing of civilization levels!"

"Mr. President, should we... continue monitoring?" The Secretary of Defense asked cautiously.

"Monitor? Monitor my ass!"

The President grabbed the bottle of sleeping pills on the table and smashed it fiercely on the ground, roaring hysterically:

"Withdraw the satellites for me!"

"Stop looking! If I keep looking, I'll have a heart attack!"

"Go! Send a congratulatory message to Jiang Chen! Ask him if the dungeon is hard to beat! Do we need to send some people over... ahem, over to act as cheerleaders!"

"Remember! The attitude must be good! Be humble!"

"What if he comes back after clearing the dungeon and wipes us out by the way?!"

West Suburb Base, in front of the huge portal.

Jiang Chen sat on the bridge of the luan niao starship, watching the torrent of steel pouring into the light gate beneath his feet, ignoring the collapse on the other side of the ocean.

His gaze pierced through the blue light screen, as if seeing the flames of war burning in another world.

"Boss, all ground troops have entered."

Zhao Gang's voice sounded in the communication channel, carrying a boiling murderous intent:

"When... when do we leave?"

Jiang Chen straightened his collar and stood up from the captain's chair.

He glanced at Jiang Wanqiu beside him.

The Empress had already changed into a brand-new "anti-gravity tactical armor" that Academician Chen Shuyin had worked overnight to produce, and the great sword in her hand flashed with cold light. In her eyes, there was both worry for her homeland and a desire for the coming revenge.

"Now."

Jiang Chen held her hand, his voice low and powerful:

"Let's go."

"I'll take you to kill."

The luan niao starship's engines roared, slowly lowering its bow, and whistled toward the gate leading to the Wasteland.