58: Mobilization of the whole people

Midnight.

The Dragon Country National Academy of Engineering was brightly lit.

The usually quiet campus was now packed with vehicles bearing special license plates.

An unmarked military transport plane took off urgently from a secret airport on the outskirts of the capital.

It had only one destination.

The National Supercomputing Center.

At the same time.

Countless phones rang simultaneously across the vast land of Dragon Country.

On the other end of the line was a single, brief sentence, yet it carried the weight of Mount Tai.

"The nation needs you. Priority Level One."

...On the eastern coast, in the control room of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

Li Weiguo, who had just finished a technical seminar, was preparing to rest.

He was the chief engineer of this project of the century.

When the phone rang, he glanced at the unfamiliar encrypted number and answered it.

After hearing those words, he didn't hesitate for a second and asked only three words.

"Where is it?"

...In a classroom of a Hope Primary School in the western mountains.

A volunteer teacher in his seventies was grading his students' homework.

He was the country's top materials scientist. Three years ago, he had declined all honors and come here.

When the local People's Armed Forces Department jeep stopped at the school gate, he calmly put down his red pen.

"Let's go."

...In the capital, inside an ordinary courtyard house.

An old man lay on a rocking chair, listening to Peking Opera.

Elder Qian of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one hundred and three years old.

When his secretary rushed in with a data model that had just arrived, encrypted to the highest level.

The old man's cloudy eyes instantly burst with a terrifying brilliance.

He suddenly sat up from the rocking chair and reached out a withered hand.

"Bring me a pen!"

...That night.

Countless names disappeared from their respective posts.

They were engineers, scientists, doctors, psychologists, sociologists, and even game designers.

They had only one identity in common.

Citizens of Dragon Country.

When the nation needed them, they would step forward from among the 1.4 billion people.

To become the strongest backbone of this nation... 1937, Sihang Warehouse.

The retreat was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

Under the cover of night, the Soldiers slid one by one along the cableway connecting life and death toward the concession on the opposite bank.

Chen Xi stood at the highest point of the warehouse, holding his "slingshot," calmly observing the movements of the Japanese Army.

His back was still aching slightly.

But his eyes were incredibly calm.

Occasionally, he would glance at the livestream room that only he could see.

At some point, the bullet chats in the livestream had changed.

They were no longer overwhelmed by "666" and "Streamer is awesome."

Instead, they were replaced by strange suggestions filled with technical jargon.

[Streamer, the sliding speed and stability are optimal when the angle between the cableway and the ground is 37.5 degrees. Please try to maintain this.]

[Based on wind speed changes, it is recommended to fine-tune the tension of the main cable every ten minutes. The parameters have been sent to your system.]

[Crowding detected at the reception point on the opposite bank, risk of exposure! Suggest activating Reception Point No. 2 immediately!]

At first, Chen Xi thought some military fans were joking.

But when he tried adjusting things according to those suggestions with a "give it a shot" attitude.

He was shocked to find that the efficiency of the retreat had increased by at least thirty percent out of thin air.

Those seemingly inconspicuous parameter adjustments always managed to precisely avoid all potential risks.

His heart was filled with immense confusion.

This feeling... didn't seem like ordinary viewers were offering advice.

It felt more like... behind him, there was an incredibly professional and massive team performing around-the-clock, comprehensive deductions and analyses for him... 2026, Great Wall Command Center.

The command center, which was originally just a temporary group, had now expanded into a terrifyingly large "Cloud Combat Command Headquarters."

Thousands of screens lit up the entire space like daylight.

The Academy of Engineering, the Academy of Sciences, the Meteorological Bureau, the General Hospital... the greatest minds from various fields in Dragon Country had gathered here.

Elder Long still presided over the center, but he was no longer issuing orders.

He was like a calm observer, watching this war machine driven by the power of the entire nation operate on its own with terrifying efficiency.

"Report! A PhD student team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology has sent the latest data! They simulated the concrete fatigue of the Sihang Warehouse after continuous explosions and found three new structural support points! The data has been merged into the main model!"

A PhD student in his dormitory, worrying about his graduation thesis, saw this requirement in the livestream and shouted excitedly in his classmate group.

"Brothers! Wake up! My mentor is on there! Quick! Organize our latest experimental data and send it over!"

"Report! We received a suggestion from the civilian 'Lanxiang' Heavy Machinery Enthusiasts Alliance! They proposed using the lever principle and using the abandoned machine tools in the warehouse as counterweights to further stabilize the cableway!"

"Report! Received data from a civilian weather enthusiast with the ID 'Retired Old Wang.' Using his self-made equipment, he monitored that in forty minutes, the humidity over the battlefield will increase sharply, potentially forming short-term dense fog!"

"Report! The country's largest logistics company, 'Shunfeng,' has urgently mobilized its Drone team. They are analyzing the footage captured by the Drones to build a more detailed 3D model of the battlefield for us!"

An ordinary truck driver saw in the livestream that a batch of servers needed to be urgently transported to the Supercomputing Center.

He immediately dialed a number.

"Hello! Captain? It's Xiao Zhang! Wake up! The nation needs us! My fleet is setting off right now! For free!"

...1937, Sihang Warehouse.

An accident happened after all.

A sudden gust of strong wind caused a sliding Soldier to dangerously tilt in mid-air.

The fixed pulley made a tooth-grinding "creak," appearing as if it might fall off at any moment.

On the warehouse side, everyone's hearts were in their throats.

Just as Chen Xi was about to intervene forcefully.

A golden, pinned bullet chat suddenly popped out.

[Streamer! Don't move! Tell him to release his right hand immediately and use his body weight to shift his center of gravity to the left! Repeat! Shift to the left!]

This instruction completely went against a normal person's emergency instincts.

But after hesitating for 0.1 seconds, Chen Xi chose to believe.

He roared into the communicator, "Do it!"

The Soldier in mid-air also heard the command.

He gritted his teeth and followed the instruction.

A miracle happened.

The moment he shifted his center of gravity to the left, an updraft happened to catch him.

His pulley, which was almost derailed, traced a strange arc in the air before returning to the cableway.

A close call!

Chen Xi watched this scene, his palms drenched in cold sweat.

He was finally certain.

Behind him, there really stood a group of—no, countless—"immortals" who could foresee the future... 2026, Great Wall Command Center.

"Report, Elder Long!"

A technician responsible for data integration walked quickly to Elder Long's side, his voice carrying uncontrollable excitement and a hint of trembling.

"Besides the expert group's channels, we have monitored a massive flow of valid data from the public channels!"

"There are hand-drawn Japanese Army patrol route maps from retired scouts!"

"There are battlefield first-aid manuals compiled by medical students!"

"Even... even game players have deduced the Japanese Army's possible offensive formations based on the battlefield terrain!"

"They... they are participating in this war in their own way!"

Elder Long slowly stood up.

He walked to the massive main screen.

On the screen, besides the incredibly precise data models from the expert group, which were full of scientific beauty.

Countless bullet chats with various suggestions, like glowing streams, surged from every corner of the screen toward the center.

There were complex formulas, scrawled sketches, simple cheers, and clumsy analyses.

They converged to form a brilliant ocean composed of the collective wisdom and will of 1.4 billion people.

Elder Long looked at the IDs from all corners of the country scrolling across the screen.

He looked at those words, some professional, some naive, but all filled with enthusiasm.

This old general, who had spent his life in the military and whose heart had long been as hard as iron, found his eyes moistening.

He turned around and spoke to his secretary in a voice that was choked with emotion yet incredibly solemn.

"Record them."

"Record every ID that provided a valid suggestion."

"When he returns..."

"We want him to know that he is not fighting alone."

"Behind him is the entire nation!"

"It is... 1.4 billion people!"