“I am team East Sea’s leader, and these are my teammates. I want to meet your admiral.”

As team China rushed to the Diaoyu Islands, team East Sea instead made a detour to elsewhere. It was the location of the United States Seventh Fleet, the USA’s fleet stationed at j.a.pan. To be more accurate, it was the location of a patrolling s.h.i.+p.

Such an ordinary fis.h.i.+ng vessel wasn"t rare in the Pacific. But they were rarer during this sort of storm. Normal fis.h.i.+ng vessels would enter the nearest port, and resume their tasks when the storm pa.s.sed. Thus, when this fis.h.i.+ng vessel appeared, those wars.h.i.+ps sent out a message for them to stop and receive a inspection. At the same time, the naval soldiers were in a state of alert.

When team East Sea said this bluntly, the inspecting soldiers immediately aimed their guns at them agitatedly. Pearl Harbour’s situation had long since spread across the world. Practically every country’s troops had already received a detailed report. That mysterious team possessed great combat power, enough to even annihilate a fleet, as well as technology that surpa.s.sed this era. One shot of that Magic Cannon had far surpa.s.sed nuclear weapons. That was why the countries on the way were trying their best to find team China.

And obviously, the people before them were related to that mysterious team...

“We are international police from the future. Our goal is to arrest a smuggling organisation that entered this time period illegally. Our team is called team East Sea, with our specific jurisdiction being the East Sea area. As that smuggling gang brought advanced scientific weapons invented in the future, us who didn’t bring future weapons aren’t their match. So, we need the countries of this era to help.” Team East Sea leader Miyata Kuraki said to the officers before him, with the most important senior members of team East Sea behind him.

This was the first thing Adam had told them to do. They were to unite all the countries’ troops capturing team China in the ident.i.ty of future international police. Team East Sea would use team China’s schemes and plans from the start for their own. Although team China would find their location, team East Sea would obtain an equivalent influence.

Don’t look down on a naval fleet, especially in this Perfect Storm weather and endless sea. Particularly in a situation when G.o.d had restricted flying equipment, modern wars.h.i.+p’s anti-s.h.i.+p missiles were enough to kill several of team China’s members. Although team China had said before it would take an entire fleet to suppress them, that was in terms of a melee combat. If it was long-range battle at several kilometres or more, it would be a difficult battle for team China if they were found by the United States Seventh Fleet.

“There’s no need to doubt this. Chu Xuan loves risk, but there is stability within that risk, and changes within the stability. Until the final moment, we won’t know his true goal. But, when we know his true goal, he won’t be far from losing. So, why not be pushed to a corner, and use his risk to break his stability. Turn this stability into your ‘influence’. That way, you’ll have a chance of survival.” Miyata Kuraki remembered what Adam had said before to him.

If they were to do it their way, they would have initiated a attack at the first moment when the navy did an inspection, then escape as fast as they could, s.n.a.t.c.hing a wars.h.i.+p if possible. That way, they’ll be able to escape even faster, but at that time, they’ll have fallen into Chu Xuan’s scheme. They would have suffered an endless wave of attacks by the navies on the way, completely slowing down their speed until team China caught them. They would have then fallen into a hopeless situation.

But what about if they followed the opposite way that Adam had suggested? Indeed, they had a high chance of occupying the height of ‘influence’. But at the same time… they no longer had a way to retreat, and had to fight to the bitter end with team China...

When he thought of this, Miyata Kuraki looked at the kimono girl besides him. The girl was currently deep in thought, frowning and her head bowed, as if there was some impossibly hard question waiting for her.

Not discussing the expressions of the team East Sea members for now, the officers before them were dumbfounded. After a long time, a navy admiral in his fifties or sixties finally asked, “What evidence do you have?”

Miyata Kuraki didn’t hesitate. He took out a metal box from his chest area. “As transporting technological items will cause a heavy disturbance in s.p.a.cetime, they have always been restricted. This item is something we need to complete our mission. It can display all the living things within ten kilometres through thermal and present them on a 3D image. You all can test it out. It’s no problem if you research its technologies and mechanism before the smuggling group appears. However, please return it to us before the battle.”

In truth, this was just a small item. It’s radius was far from ten kilometres and it had limited electricity. Although its price for exchange from G.o.d wasn’t expensive, it was a waste for teams with psyche force users. However, they didn’t say this out loud. They also made a show of this being very important, so that they could lower the guard of the officers before them.

As expected, the officers gingerly received that metal box. The admiral in the lead extended his hand and pressed a b.u.t.ton. A blue and red map appeared on top of the box. The blue diagram outlined the shape of the wars.h.i.+p, while the red diagram represented the personnel moving about on-board. The model looked marvellous and this item was at least unconstructible with the current level of technology. Too many types of science were involved within, like the biothermal scanning and scaling down of components that let such a small box accomplish this scan. Any person with slight general knowledge would feel shocked.

The officers had been rather unconcerned at first, and even thought this group were likely lunatics or liars. They may even be children of businessman or high ranking government officials who came here to role play out of boredom. Although playing around like this in such a Perfect Storm was a little too stupid, but anyhow they didn’t care very much. It was only when team East Sea took out this object that they knew that these people didn’t have an ordinary background. Whether or not their background was real, at least… they no longer had the qualifications to confirm them.

“Wait a moment. I think that the Pentagon would be happy to discuss the situation in the future with you.”

***

“The basic situation is like that. We can confirm that team East Sea has made contact with the United States Seventh Fleet, and is under their protection.” Xuan sat in the meeting room, saying as if nothing important had happened.

“Eh? This is Adam’s scheme? It’s not much. Won’t we find their location soon if so? Wasn’t Adam very smart?” The rookie at the side, Lin Juntian, asked curiously.

Heng, who was besides him, said immediately, “Adam should be very smart. In the movie in the past, we were nearly eradicated by team Celestial. We’ve also experienced their schemes and conspiracies. I also know something. A scheme in the dark, no longer how good, can’t be compared to easily understood open and aboveboard schemes. This is because the more obvious they are, the harder it is to set up such schemes. Is that right?”

Before Xuan said anything, Honglu already nodded certainly. “That’s so. It’s like chess. You can see each and every move clearly, but you aren’t able to block a stronger opponent’s attacks. Step by step, until you completely lose. No matter how we react to the move Adam made, he’ll have room to manoeuvre. This is an open and above board scheme. Do you know how to break such things?’

Honglu smiled. Without waiting for a reply, he said, “Breaking open and above board schemes is simple. It’s the same logic as chess. Do you know what the taboo is in chess? It’s to go to the positions your opponent wants you to. Wherever the opponent wants us to go, we’ll just not go there. Next, we’ll go straight to the Diaoyu Islands.”

“Go straight to the Diaoyu Islands?” Everyone recited in tandem. Several involuntarily looked at Xuan.

Xuan didn’t say anything, and his head remained lowered as he looked at his doc.u.ments. It was as if the matter had nothing to do with him. Honglu bluntly said to the rest, “Correct. From now on, we will no longer chase after team East Sea. Let them run if they want to, we’ll ignore them. Our destination! The Diaoyu Islands! We’ll give them a pleasant surprise there!”

“Is… is this the so-called "lose" you two spoke of?” Zheng asked curiously.

Honglu gave Zheng a look. Sighing, he said, “Although I don’t want to admit it, but this is a loss to Xuan. After all, we’re merely pa.s.sively reacting to a scheme after falling into it. We have no choice but to avoid the opponent’s scheme. This fits the meaning of ‘loss’, especially to Xuan. Otherwise, what did you think this was? If we didn’t even have this level of reaction, it would be impossible to trick Adam. He’ll sense it at the first moment and then he’ll obtain important information. We’ll be even more pa.s.sive then in the final battle.”

“To us, team East is simply too too weak, whether in wit or might. But at the same time, reaching this point is team China’s failure. In this battle, the ones with weaker combat power amongst us are in mortal danger. After all, missiles aren’t toys. This is already a loss, or at least the loss we need to show Adam.”