277: The answer lies in those four words: Chapter 277.

After the communication was hung up, Su Mingyuan placed the communicator on the table and turned to look at Zhang Wei and Zhang Dabiao.

"The pangu nuclear bomb will arrive within eighteen hours. Before that, we must set up our defenses first."

Zhang Wei asked casually, "Defend against whom?"

This question needed no answer.

Everyone present knew that the giants were not a problem; nuclear bombs could solve them.

The problem was that old man.

Zhang Dabiao walked over from the corner and placed his thermos on the edge of the map table.

"Three hundred mechs placed in front of him are useless. He casually slapped S-01 away with a wave of his hand, and I didn't even touch a corner of his clothes—"

The complexions of several officers in the Command Center did not look too good.

Zhang Wei did not refute, because he also knew this was a fact.

"Therefore, the focus of defense is not to block him." Su Mingyuan stood in front of the map and uncapped his marker, "It is to stall for time."

He drew three lines on the map.

"The first layer." The pen tip landed fifty kilometers due north of the Forward Base, drawing an arc, "The mech outpost line. All three hundred mechs will be pulled out, divided into six clusters, deployed in a fan shape, and frontally cover the sector from sixty to one hundred and twenty degrees to the north."

Zhang Dabiao looked at the arc and asked, "If we shove three hundred mechs up there, how long can they stall?"

"I don't know." Su Mingyuan was very direct, "Maybe ten seconds, maybe thirty seconds. But if he wants to come over, he has to spend time dealing with these iron shells. It takes him a fraction of a second to overturn one, and three hundred of them will mean tens of seconds to a minute or two. This minute or two is our window."

Zhang Dabiao didn't ask anymore. He understood—the three hundred mechs were not going to fight; they were going to act as deceleration strips.

Su Mingyuan's pen moved ten kilometers south and drew the second line.

"The second layer. Ten kilometers outside the periphery of the base, all conventional firepower is centrally deployed. The launch vehicles for one hundred and twenty conventional nuclear bombs are all placed on this line, with their barrels facing north, ready to fire at any time."

Zhang Wei interjected, "One hundred and twenty conventional ones cannot pierce his protective shield; what is the meaning of placing them here?"

"It's not to hit the shield," Su Mingyuan said. "If he rushes over, it means the shield is already gone, or he voluntarily withdrew it. By that time, all one hundred and twenty will greet him and smash into his body. Even if they can't kill him, they can drain his energy."

Zhang Wei thought for a moment and nodded.

Su Mingyuan's pen continued south, drawing the third line, stretching all the way from the core area of the base to the location of the portal.

"The third layer. Evacuation route. From the core area to the portal, three kilometers. Clear all obstacles on this road—roadblocks, debris, parked cars, stacked boxes, move them all away. Park a row of armored vehicles on each side with engines idling, ready to board and run at any time."

Zhang Dabiao added, "What about the portal?"

As soon as this question came out, the gazes of several people in the Command Center simultaneously turned to that location at the southernmost end of the map.

The portal.

The golden column of light, twenty-five meters in diameter, rose straight from the ground into the air fifty meters high, with fine energy lines flowing across its surface.

The only passage between the Giant World and the Main World.

Every day, tens of thousands of large transport trucks entered and exited this light column, transporting supplies, people, and equipment. It was the lifeline of the entire Forward Base.

It was also what Taoist Yuling specifically requested.

His first condition was "hand over the cross-border teleportation formation."

Su Mingyuan looked at that dot on the map and did not answer immediately.

He was thinking about something.

If the pangu nuclear bomb finished striking, the shield shattered, but Taoist Yuling did not die.

If all one hundred and twenty conventional nuclear bombs were also fired, and he still did not die.

If this so-called Cultivator survived all the attacks and rushed in front of the portal covered in injuries or completely unharmed.

Then what?

He would pass through the portal, enter Tianmen Base, and enter the Main World.

What was on the side of the Main World?

It was Southern Jiangsu City, Tianmen Base, the hinterland of Daxia.

Within fifty kilometers around Tianmen Base, there were three cities, with a total permanent resident population exceeding twenty million.

Radiating further out, in the Yangtze River Delta region, over one hundred million people lived within a three-hour drive.

A Nascent Soul Cultivator who could casually overturn eighty-ton mechs, if he appeared on Daxia's territory—

Su Mingyuan did not dare to think further down.

"Deploy a nuclear bomb beside the portal," Su Mingyuan said.

His voice was very flat, with the exact same tone as when he arranged the mech outpost line and firepower positions just now.

But after these words were spoken, the Command Center fell silent.

"Deploy it beside the portal?" Zhang Wei repeated, as if confirming he hadn't heard wrong.

"Right."

"Why?"

"Blow up the portal," Su Mingyuan finished the sentence for him.

Zhang Wei's mouth opened, then closed again.

Su Mingyuan continued speaking, his pace not fast, every single word very clear.

"If the pangu nuclear bomb finishes all strikes, and all one hundred and twenty conventional nuclear bombs are also fired, and Taoist Yuling is still not dead—by that step, it means all the means in our hands are ineffective against him."

"If it comes to that step, the only thing we can do is blow up the portal before he passes through. Without the portal, he will have no way to enter the Main World. He will be locked inside the Giant World."

Zhang Wei stood there without moving.

Of course he understood the meaning behind these words—blowing up the portal meant Taoist Yuling couldn't get across, but everyone in the Giant World couldn't go back either.

Including Su Mingyuan himself, including Zhang Dabiao, and tens of thousands of soldiers and technicians in the base.

All trapped to death in this gray world.

"There are 1.4 billion people on the Main World side. As for which is heavier and which is lighter, everyone surely has their own judgment," Su Mingyuan said.

He did not explain further.

This sentence was the entire reason.

Placed on both sides of the balance, the safety of 1.4 billion people versus the lives of tens of thousands in the Giant World—the answer required no hesitation.

No one objected; instead, they let out a long sigh of relief.

"What yield?"

"A conventional one will do," Su Mingyuan said. "It doesn't need to be too large, just enough to completely wipe out the portal itself and the surrounding five hundred meters. After the portal's energy nodes are physically destroyed, they cannot be rebuilt, and there is no possibility of repair."

He drew a red cross on the location of the portal on the map.

When the pen tip pressed against the paper surface, the force was a bit heavy, and both lines of the cross sank into the paper.

"A single launch vehicle. Deployed three hundred meters south of the portal. A separate launch password, not following the conventional command chain."

He raised his head to look at Zhang Wei.

"Only the two of us know the password. No one else is allowed to touch this launch vehicle."

Zhang Wei ran these words through his mind, confirming nothing was missed.

"Understood."

He picked up the pen and added a line at the end of the deployment list.

After writing, he looked up at Su Mingyuan, who had already turned around to look at the map.

Zhang Wei held the pen without putting it down.

The backup command post was three hundred meters away from the portal, with a five-hundred-meter erasure radius, and Su Mingyuan was inside it.

When Su Mingyuan gave this order, it was equivalent to signing a potentially applicable death notice for himself.

If it truly reached the step of blowing up the portal, he himself would be within the explosion range.

Even if he wasn't, once the portal was gone, he wouldn't be able to go back either.

But he still made this decision.

Without hesitating too long, without discussing it with anyone, and without even reporting it upward.

Because this matter required no discussion.

1.4 billion people.

Those four words are the answer.