Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 258 The Great Screening (5k)

Cheng Xin's speech was very long. She stood on the podium, and the transparent steps beneath her feet reflected her shadow, as well as the faces of people from different eras and camps in front of her. There was Hines's inexplicable scrutiny, the captain's whispers, the government officials' prudence, and the sighs of the fleet's international representatives.

Behind her, humans from 2007 and 2210 seemed to span more than two hundred years, jointly examining her. Whether they were people from the past or new humans, the light and shadow of the past and present gradually overlapped.

Besides Yun Tianming, who was two light-years away, another observer from beyond the heavens also had their divine sense spanning a vast distance, secretly watching this place.

"There's nothing to be nervous about. I've spoken at the UN General Assembly before."

Cheng Xin silently encouraged herself, and then began to report on the various achievements of the Old Star Anchor Society (the People's Guild of the Common Era) since its establishment a year ago, as well as its vision for the future. Of course, there were also many necessary questions and answers, but fortunately, Cheng Xin answered all the social issues raised by the United Government and Fleet International.

“There are too many literary embellishments, and they never seem to get to the point.” Zhang Beihai shook his head. He and Dongfang Yanxu sat in a corner, just as he and Dongfang Mingxi had sat in a shadowy corner two hundred years ago, watching the debate between the propellantless spacecraft faction and the old spacefaring enthusiasts.

Dongfang Yanxu could also vaguely sense that, as a new human from the Fleet International and a soldier, she actually harbored some dissatisfaction with the Earth's main civilization represented by the United Government. This was especially true after witnessing many chaotic situations during the month or so that she had accompanied Zhang Beihai to Earth, which reinforced the stereotypes she had formed from the Fleet International's propaganda.

"President Cheng Xin is trying to change the atmosphere of the Earth International (referring to the United Government) through education and the influence of the people of the Common Era, but I feel that this seems to have limited effect. How many people are there in the Common Era? It's one thing if they are not assimilated by the Earth International, but how can they assimilate so many people?"

"The old Star Anchor Society's plan to commemorate its golden age is quickly becoming a mere formality; this organization of the Common Era is currently in a phase of increasing entropy."

Dongfang Yanxu pointed out the problem incisively.

“No.” Zhang Beihai said softly, “Those are just appearances. Look, this girl has gained the approval of the United Government. Although Fleet International is slightly dissatisfied, her support base is growing. Most citizens of Earth International are on her side… She is like a shrewd devil beneath a muddled exterior.”

Dongfang Yanxu said in disbelief, "Politician? Her? President Cheng Xin is probably not as cunning as me. How could she outmaneuver an old politician? Even someone as capable as Captain Qian Mengjian was humiliated at the Solar System Joint Conference. He made great contributions in the expedition, but he was still so angry that he gave up on cursing at the Joint Conference and relinquished his position as a member of the Joint Conference to continue being the captain of the Paradox Engine. Senior, your evaluation of President Cheng is far too biased."

Zhang Beihai said, "Politics is not a contest of intelligence and strategy; it's about who has more people behind them. Dongfang, you need to learn this well."

Dongfang Yanxu said suspiciously, "Is it still useful for me to learn now? Who on the Natural Selection still recognizes me as the captain? Even the other 11 warships in the advance fleet almost treat you as their leader."

Zhang Beihai awkwardly touched his nose and remained silent.

...

"Currently, the Solar System Fleet is engaged in extensive, low-intensity combat with the Devouring Fleet in the Kuiper Belt region. This war has lasted for three months. The fleet defending the Kuiper Belt has destroyed over five thousand Devouring warships, and has also lost several hundred planetary warships of its own. Are you now sure you want to recall the soldiers fighting on the front lines?"

While that small press conference was taking place on Earth, the Solar System Joint Conference was also continuing in Jupiter's orbit.

Faced with the chairman of the joint conference's questioning, the commander of the Asian fleet did not change his attitude much: "It's just a recall of the space force personnel with the ideological imprint. In addition to swallowing the giant ring, the ten probes from the Trisolaran fleet have also extinguished their brilliance and are flying towards the solar system at an angle that is completely undetectable. I am just avoiding potential risks."

The chairman of the joint conference shook his head: "But you seem unwilling to tell the other two fleets your sources. This kind of opaque, one-way intelligence to the Solar System Joint Conference makes it difficult for the European fleet to recall its fleet in the same way as the Asian fleet."

"After all, we are in a state of war now, and retreating in the face of battle is a major taboo."

The commander of the Asian Fleet told the chairman and other participants in the joint meeting: "I have only received a vague source, and for the sake of caution, I cannot disclose it to you at this time."

Commander Serantin of the American Fleet chuckled, "What's wrong? Our commander of the Asian Fleet from the Common Era, besides being a navigator, also has another identity—yet another hidden Wallfacer?"

The commander of the Asian fleet didn't bother with the blonde girl in her eighties; he turned to the chairman of the joint conference and said...

"Regarding the defense zone of the Kuiper Belt, I can have the Asian Fleet take over. Currently, the goal of both the Solar System Fleet and the Devouring Fleet is to deplete the enemy's manpower as much as possible before the arrival of the Great Ring. In that case, it doesn't matter who does the depletion."

"If you don't want to recall the fleets at the front, then I'll settle for second best and ask the other two fleets to recall all their star-class warships, so that more planetary-class warships can be deployed to temporarily fill the gap, in conjunction with the Kuiper Belt's defensive system."

“That’s impossible,” said Vitalis (Commander of the European Fleet). This man of French descent chose to stand with Serantin (Commander of the American Fleet). “The Pan-Kuiper Belt battlefield has now expanded to 50 astronomical units. It’s no longer the era of intensive warfare during the Expeditionary Fleet period. In such a vast war zone, only Star-class warships have the absolute power to suppress the Devouring Fleet. Rashly withdrawing Star-class warships from the battlefield will only drastically increase the casualties of Planetary warships in a short period of time.”

“Mr. Luo Qing, the Wallfacer, is ready to fight. I have already entrusted this matter to him.”

“That won’t work either. Luo Qing is a crucial force in our all-out attack on the Giant Ring, and the Devouring Fleet is currently extremely dispersed. Even if we send the Wallfacers to the battlefield, they simply won’t be able to destroy many Devouring warships within their vast interstellar space. Only the main force of the Solar System Fleet, which is equipped with star-class warships, can effectively maintain the dynamic defensive balance of the Kuiper Belt.”

“I have a question,” the deputy commander of the European fleet suddenly said.

“Please speak,” said the commander of the Asian fleet.

"I noticed your statement just now. One reason you want to recall the star-class warships seems to be the 10 probes launched by the Trisolaran fleet? Are you worried about these probes?"

The serious and rigid question posed by the deputy commander of the European fleet elicited a great deal of laughter throughout the joint meeting of the solar system fleets.

A week ago, amidst this laughter, Qian Mengjian, the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary fleet who had made great contributions, angrily turned off his holographic projection and chose to leave the room.

But the commander of the Asian fleet was immune to this kind of laughter; he could hear similar laughter in every era whenever he woke up as the navigator.

"It is related to the Trisolaran probes. I have changed my mind. I still believe that the war to defend the solar system is not just a war between the solar system fleet and the Devouring Empire. The 10 probes launched by the Trisolaran fleet should also be regarded as an important factor in this war to defend the solar system, rather than being completely ignored by the human fleet."

The deputy commander of the European fleet sighed: "It's not that the Solar System Fleet wants to ignore these 10 little gadgets, but that once the lights are turned off, we have no idea where they are now, so there's no way we can pay attention to them even if we want to."

"This further illustrates that we have fallen into a vicious cycle of arrogance," the commander of the Asian fleet continued. "And even if we cannot observe the actions of these 10 probes, we should realize that these 10 little things you mentioned will enter the Kuiper Belt in two years or a little over a year at most. Don't underestimate their speed."

The deputy commander of the European fleet quipped, "The commander of the Asian fleet is right. This little thing's speed is something that dinosaurs can only dream of, especially considering the speed of nearly 8% of the speed of light observed in the Linger-Fitzroy III telescope. The Dinosaur Empire should indeed take note."

After saying that, the deputy commander asked everyone in return, "But what is the speed of a human's stellar-class warship? Can anyone tell me?"

Addressing the entire joint meeting, the deputy commander calmly stated:
"Comrades, the war between the Expeditionary Fleet and the Devouring Empire has shown that speed remains the absolute factor influencing victory or defeat on the interstellar battlefield. The Solar System Fleet currently holds an absolute speed advantage, and neither the Trisolaran Fleet nor the Devouring Fleet can catch up with human ships."

The commander of the Asian Fleet slowly shook his head: "I was just doing my duty by making my suggestions at the joint meeting. The three fleets are equal and are all subject to the supervision of the Solar System Joint Meeting. Naturally, I cannot influence your choices, but I will make adjustments to the Asian Fleet according to my own wishes. As for the gap in the Asian Fleet's defense zone, other warships will be rotated to fill that gap, so you don't need to worry about that."

The holographic projection of the joint meeting chairman tapped the table, and a simulated vibration immediately filled the room. "Since the Asian Fleet has its own plans, and based on the principle of non-interference among the three fleets, we don't need to question it further. However, I also hope that the Asian Fleet will not create any gaps in its defenses due to this fleet movement. Protecting the solar system is a shared responsibility of all three fleets; I hope the three commanders will keep this in mind."

“Of course,” Serandin and Vitalis both agreed.

Vitalis said, "Whether it is the European fleet or the American fleet, we will forge eternal glory on the battlefield against the devouring empire. Our two fleets will naturally buy enough time for the Asian fleet to complete its self-examination and self-selection in order to eliminate that hidden threat."

"Then I'll have to trouble you two." The commander of the Asian fleet seemed oblivious to the subtle sarcasm in their words, and he saluted his two colleagues.

...

The lights in the archives verification room.

In the verification room of the Asian Fleet's logistics department, the fluorescent lights emitted a continuous hum, illuminating the four walls in a white light. Zhang Ting had lost count of how many pages of Asian Fleet crew files he was looking through.

It should be noted that the Asian Fleet is the most powerful of the three fleets, with 2015 star-class warships.

Excluding planetary-level warships, the crew of their star-class warships alone numbered a staggering 600 million. And now, this hastily formed file verification team was tasked with digging up and compiling the files of all 600 million people, and separately screening out all crew members with records of receiving the ideological infusion.

This was originally a simple task; they could have quickly obtained the answer they wanted by using a quantum computer.

The problem is that their superiors strictly forbid them from uploading files to the network—this concern is understandable, even though human civilization now has sufficient trust in MOSS. However, the human fleet maintains a minimum level of vigilance against artificial intelligence, and similar military-related intelligence will absolutely not be uploaded to the quantum network that MOSS supposedly exists in. At most, backups are made through the independent central computers of the three fleets.

That would be understandable, but the higher-ups have gone mad. Not only are they not allowed to use networked quantum computers, but they are also not allowed to use ordinary electronic computers. They are required to manually search for all the crew members' information one by one from the paper data warehouse.

—In this era of complete informatization, the fact that the Asian Fleet possesses paper records of all its crew members is enough to shock the other two major fleets.

Now, it's too much of a challenge for them to collect and verify all this information manually.

Holding the 18th list of personnel for another 3217 people on a star-class warship, Zhang Ting was utterly desperate.

The data of these 3217 people weighs around two tons, which is definitely not light even under the simulated centrifugal force of Jupiter's orbit at 0.6g. In other words, we are now in the era of martial arts practitioners, but in the past, a forklift would have been necessary.

"Damn it, I was doing clerical work in the Space Force before hibernation, and I'm still doing clerical work in the Asian Fleet after hibernation. So I hibernated for nothing?"

Zhang Ting angrily slammed his fist on the table, which drew echoes from his other work partners across the table.

It is worth mentioning that the entire data review team was composed of hibernators, and these hibernators hibernated long before the invention of the thought imprint. Moreover, there is no record of them waking up during hibernation. They are genuine, original, ancient people.

At this moment, the paper files in his hand were almost worn out. The name on the file bag was "Liu Wei C". Just by looking at the name, you could tell that he was a new era space force officer with the rank of colonel and was the operations staff officer of the "Great Wall" star-class warship.

"Vitamin C? I'd rather have Vitamin B! What kind of ridiculous name is this?" Zhang Ting blurted out a string of profanities.

Across from him, Li Jing chewed her pen cap loudly. In front of her was a photocopy of Liu Wei C's information. In the densely packed list of information, there were three obvious marks circled in red pen: "This person's public information shows that he visited the Belief Center once, and there is a clear record of ideological steel stamp reinforcement. Among them, there are a total of 8 steel stamps in 4 items, namely 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 37, 68, and 749 ideological steel stamps."

Zhang Ting muttered, "If we separate them, the first five are normal. After all, the first three are the core beliefs of the fleet, the last two are things like being well-fed, well-drinked, and well-rested, and the remaining three are new regulations that the fleet developed a long time ago... They are all positive and there's nothing wrong with them. So why is the headquarters so nervous?"

"Stop asking," Li Jing said, frowning. "If we could figure out the key to this, we wouldn't be sitting here counting data."

“That’s true.” Zhang Ting slumped into his chair, looking dejected.

"Where are Liu Fudong and Zhao Cheng?" Zhang Ting asked again.

Li Jing said without blinking, "They're all in other archives. Our working group has a total of 160 people, and our work is only the initial screening. After our initial screening, there will be secondary and tertiary working groups to further screen the list we've selected. With such a large scale, I have a bad feeling."

Zhang Ting, with his legs crossed, said suspiciously, "Logically speaking, if we want to check how many space force soldiers in the fleet have undergone ideological reinforcement, we can just send a message to each captain and then do the statistics. The command insists on making us secretly screen them one by one... Ugh, I really don't understand."

"Stop babbling and get to work. If you slack off again, I'll beat you up." Li Jing rolled up a piece of paper and pretended to smash it on Zhang Ting's head.

"Hey, you..."

Zhang Ting was very dissatisfied, but seeing his partner's serious work ethic, he felt embarrassed to continue chatting idly and began to look through the more than 3000 files of crew members in his hands.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhang Ting's voice suddenly rang out: "Jingzi, come and take a look, see what I've found."

"If you call me Jingzi again, I'll smash your dog head in," Li Jing twisted her fist, which was as big as a sandbag. "I'm a late-stage Acquired Realm cultivator, and you, a mid-stage Acquired Realm cultivator, shouldn't go too far."

"It's not too late to fight later, you can take a look first."

The two quickly gathered together. This document was found in the files of the 'Wanhu' star-class warship, and it was at the very bottom of the file. The cover was worn so badly that the words were no longer legible.

Zhang Yan spread the person's information out on the table. It was filled with dense personal data and looked like an ordinary personal file. But when he turned to the last few pages, there were a few lines of small pencil writing: "Direction is more important than speed, and preservation is wiser than resistance."

“This is…” Li Jing was bewildered.

Zhang Ting took a deep breath: "These personal information entries were filled out by individuals before being reported to the fleet's unified management. After being filled out, they were sealed. The seal on this document has not been touched, which means that this line of text could only have been written by him... and he is a member of the Space Force who has been imprinted with the power of thought."

Li Jing asked in a low voice, "Then... what exactly does that sentence mean?"

“Escapeism, huh?” Zhang Ting sneered.

Li Jing immediately got goosebumps.

(End of this chapter)