Fu Luo had never seen Yang Ning with such an expression before - not even when Earth was under attack and they accidentally stumbled into the underground city.

She was startled, thinking he would erupt in curses or fly into a rage, but... he didn't.

Yang Ning's footsteps screeched to a halt outside the conference room. He stood facing the wall for a long time, his eyes seeming to blaze with twin flames about to burst from their sockets. Gradually, his chiseled cheeks turned pale, his expression slowly calming amidst a strained suppression, the fire in his eyes extinguishing bit by bit until finally turning to ash-like tranquility.

And coldness.

He didn't even punch the wall, didn't vent at all.

After a moment, Yang Ning turned around and gave Fu Luo a rather forced smile. "Sorry, I've been restless lately. I was a bit out of line just now, I hope it doesn't affect you. If you have any ideological issues, be sure to voice them later. Everyone should communicate openly in the conference room, don't keep things bottled up inside."

Even Fu Luo could hear the stiffness in his tone, as if he was reciting standard speech terms.

Yang Ning let out a soft breath and pushed open the door, taking the lead in entering. Waiting for them inside was the impassioned group from the entire General Staff Office.

"Colonel Yang, why wasn't there any advance notice for such an important matter as adjusting the space fortress deployments?"

"Saying move then moving, is this a public bus?"

"What if the enemy takes advantage to launch a sneak attack?"

"What exactly are the United Nations thinking? If this continues, will our warships entering allied jurisdiction zones need to submit reports in advance from now on?"

"Why split up in this situation? Are we still fighting or not? We might as well all surrender together!"

The discipline in the Second Department was renowned.

Fu Luo always remembered what Zhang Liping had instructed her on the Trojan Horse No. 1 - carry out the mission without asking why.

And now, with the General Staff Office already like this, the other places must be in an uproar, right?

She herself was still a bit dazed, her mind seemingly still stuck in the simulated confrontation. She vaguely heard the gist, knowing a major incident had occurred, but hadn't yet carefully considered the pros and cons - Fu Luo hadn't adapted to the General Staff Office's perspective.

But Yang Ning didn't speak. He stood solemnly in front of the conference table, silent, waiting for the others' most intense emotions to pass.

The clamor gradually faded until there was complete silence.

"Everyone sit down." His voice was as calm as a bucket of cold water, pouring over them.

Although young, Yang Ning's personal prestige still held sway. The others unanimously followed his order.

"The relocation of our country's space fortress deployments was directly communicated by the central authorities after the United Nations meeting. Superiors required strict secrecy for those below the rank of colonel to avoid causing unease. As for the jurisdictions and responsibilities of each UN fortress zone, they will be transmitted to you before dinner tonight. In the future, warships entering allied jurisdiction zones will theoretically need to submit advance reports, but the procedures are not complicated. The allied forces remain united, we just need to ensure the other side's right to be informed - in emergencies, it's permitted to act first and report later."

Yang Ning finished speaking, his gaze sweeping over everyone's faces. "Any other questions?"

Perhaps influenced by his attitude, the General Staff Office's elite also calmed down. Someone paused for a moment before asking, "Why would the United Nations make such an unwise decision?"

"Because after several rounds of negotiations, a unified cooperation intent could not be reached," Yang Ning replied.

Another person couldn't help saying, "Colonel Yang, can you explain more clearly? What exactly could cooperation not be reached on?"

The second half of his question uncontrollably rose in volume.

Yang Ning glanced at him. The questioner automatically sat up straight, giving a slight nod. "Sorry, Commander."

Only then did Colonel Yang unhurriedly begin, "The Japanese side proposed the concept of 'sharing military expenses and materiel.' They believe this is the foundation for the joint forces' close unity."

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Fu Luo tried hard to think, attempting to use her lackluster theoretical knowledge to keep up with what the others were saying - she had heard that Japan suffered terrible losses. In the beginning they had even demanded war reparations from the UN. Later, either no one paid them any heed or they "saw the bigger picture", but in any case, they were forced to take a step back and dropped the reparations issue.

So their demand to share military costs and supplies was very understandable.

This way, going forward, the war losses and risks of each country would all be borne by humanity as a whole. Isn't that very fair?

Fu Luo knew the Japanese had ulterior motives, but just based on those words alone, she had to admit their proposal made a lot of sense.

If there was no way to share costs and risks evenly, then with the current unprecedented scale and level of warfare, the Earth Allied Forces simply had no way to cooperate long-term.

This time the Japanese felt it was unfair. Next time it might be the Americans, Europeans, or even Chinese.

If they didn't split up this time, one day the complex contradictions would pile up. By then, perhaps it wouldn't be splitting up but internal strife.

"Don't joke around."

At this time, the quartermaster, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly let out a soft scoff.

Dong Jialing reached up to tuck back a lock of hair that wouldn't stay in place, his tone mild as he said, "Back then, for our military to purchase the core technology usage rights for the curvature drive, it took six years of negotiations and countless concessions before the US agreed to a 'conditional lease.' The annual rent was as high as 600 million Earth currency units. Later, the central government issued a do-or-die order to the Space Science Academy personnel. President Qin personally wrote a military pledge. The fiscal funds directly and indirectly invested, I don't even have accurate figures anymore. Only then did we manage to have our own curvature drive technology. Also, the last time General Zhao successfully conducted a jump experiment, Russia offered 3,000 sets of long-range precision-guided missiles for the data. We didn't agree, and the two sides are still in talks. Now the Japanese want to hitch a free ride just by moving their lips. On what basis?"

His words seemed to flip a switch. Yang Ning no longer offered explanations as the astute General Staff elites spontaneously began discussing amongst themselves.

"There's also American lightweight launch vehicle technology. Each of their giant ships costs more than twice as much as ours, built at the cost of the lives of their technical workers. They just don't express it due to the superficial friendly relations between the US and Japan, and definitely won't agree to share the costs. Russia's space equipment exports support nearly a third of their GDP, half the country. Now you're telling them 'what's yours is mine, and what's mine is still mine'?"

"What about the small countries?"

"The small countries don't have the financial resources or technology to keep up. In space warfare, they have always played a supporting role. Generally their fortress positions are close to Earth, not at the front lines, so occasional losses are within an acceptable range. But if military expenses were shared, these countries might go bankrupt after a single battle."

"Forget the small countries. Even the European Union, after being attacked last time, calculated the direct economic losses and started paying the US high 'equipment maintenance fees', right? Until now, there are still US naval fleets at European Union fortresses. No one can't do the math."

The discussion at the General Staff Office went from costs to the economic composition of various countries, capital flows, the conflicts between interest groups within and between countries, and even some unknown secrets - at the level of the General Staff Office, they had access to a lot of intelligence.

Later on, Fu Luo could barely understand what they were talking about.

She glanced at Yang Ning. After guiding the topic, Colonel Yang didn't say a word, just sitting quietly to the side like a stone statue.

Inexplicably, Fu Luo read a kind of profundity in his calm eyes. And the sorrow that was about to emerge made her heart suddenly sink as well, belatedly feeling the resentment that the others had already vented quite a bit.

Fu Luo's thoughts gradually drifted away, thinking of the text messages Fu Xiaoxin refused to return, thinking of the pained Xin Ran in the cold night, thinking of the devastated underground city.

She didn't know what the others standing here had sacrificed. In any case... it must have been more than herself, right?

But with such difficulty, standing in such a treacherous universe, was there really any meaning?

The first firefight with the enemy from the star system nearly destroyed the Earth people's confidence in fighting and peace. The second firefight directly broke up the Earth Alliance.

Fu Luo finally understood why the commander-in-chief of the star system, knowing that he had already transmitted the information back to headquarters, still resolutely ordered to fire according to the original plan - the mechanism of the gravitational bomb was probably just as some experts speculated, only extremely high-frequency electromagnetic waves, exhibiting some dark matter properties, able to produce negative pressure within a certain range. It was indeed terrifying, but terrifyingly limited, and couldn't wipe out the entire alliance in one go.

Under those circumstances at the time, it was only enough to take out one vanguard - as for which country's vanguard, the people of the star system didn't actually care.

On the allied side, with each country valuing "knowing yourself and the enemy", there was indeed the idea of finding a scapegoat to test the waters at that time...

Fu Luo's mind became more and more chaotic. The more she thought about it, the more shocked and terrified she became. In a state of half-understanding, she suddenly became a little panicked.

Perhaps this time the enemy was invincible, ultimately... because they were once human, right?

A sudden chill came over her, and the discussion in the General Staff Office had stopped at some point without her noticing.

They had realized that the principles they understood were understood by everyone, and the anger they felt was shared by everyone.

However... what was the use?

The fortresses of various countries were already on the way.

"Does anyone have any more questions?" Yang Ning asked after a long time.

This time, no one spoke up.

"Alright, before we adjourn, let me give a brief summary." Yang Ning said, "The new defense layout will soon take shape. The Second Department, as the main force, still has a heavy responsibility. Now I will convey the work that the organization needs you to complete with all your strength in a short period of time - first, familiarize yourselves with the new checkpoints of the layout as soon as possible..."

Fu Luo, following the example of the others, took out her e-reader and opened the conference voice system. Yang Ning's concise task briefing, without a hint of emotion, would be automatically converted into text format and recorded by the conference-specific software of the e-reader. At the same time, everyone could make key notes related to themselves with their own focus.

It was as if the sorrow and anger that had just spread had never happened. After a short ten minutes or so, everyone had gathered their spirits and got involved in an orderly manner in the next stage of the battle.

The heart should be like a stone.

Looking at her colleagues, Fu Luo suddenly had an epiphany, realizing it at this extremely ironic moment.

That day, she left the conference room and ended her daily duty in an oppressive atmosphere. She took out her phone for the second time, wanting to send Fu Xiaoxin a text message.

"The fortress deployment has changed, the United Nations..."

Fu Luo stopped, hesitated for a moment, and deleted this message - it involved military intelligence. Although it was no longer any secret, it would still be intercepted, right?

She re-entered: "It's different here than I imagined, I feel a little disheartened."

However, this message was also not sent out in the end. Fu Luo read it back and forth a few times and deleted it again.

It's not good to say that, right? She thought, regardless of whether it would make her mother worry, but she always felt that... standing in this position, saying such things at this time, made her seem too fickle.

She remembered the faces of the entire General Staff Office staff when she left the conference room, no different from usual, and felt that she was a little weak.

"Mom, I'm doing very well here."

In the end, she sent a message identical to the last one.

And as expected, she did not receive any reply.

At the end of this year, amidst a depressing low for the entire military, after several short probes, provocations, responses and explorations, the flames of war were ignited again.

The star system sent out a vanguard fleet in an attempt to land on Jupiter. The US commander-in-chief, who was the closest at the time, reacted quickly, immediately realizing the danger of the enemy landing on the planet. While sending an emergency alert to the world, he launched an offensive before the other side could land.