"I’m trying to find the summary result and the actual coordinate... But one thing is for certain, we didn’t get nuked on." Ding Wei answered.

"You sure?" Jing Cha questioned.

"If we got nuked on, none of us would be alive right now."

"Shit, you got a point... Ahem, chief, Ding Wei is looking through the data to find out where, but it’s going to take a while."

"That’s fine. Tell me if you guys need backup. You guys don’t have to worry about anything else anymore."

"Yes, sir."

As Jing Cha and Li Zhen ended their conversation, the cameraman had walked all the way next to Ding Wei.

"Hey Ding Wei, why does this computer look so weird?"

"Because it’s a terminal, not a modern computer."

"You know how to use this thing?"

The female officer curiously asked as she watched easily navigate around what seemed to be an extremely outdated interface.

"I used to work with something similar to this before in a training class... Oh, Qi Ya, find me a pen and paper."

"Here."

As Ding Wei started scribbing down the numbers from the screen, the footage suddenly came to an end.

The light in the meeting room turned back on as Ding Wei stepped forward to the middle alongside his fellow officers.

"After a short investigation and sending a separate IT department to analyze the data, we discovered that the coordinates of detection were... the Middle East."

Right before everyone’s eyes in the meeting room, they could see a projected picture of the Middle East with a small red circle drawn right over it.

"This is the estimated area of impact."

"What country is this?" Yuqi immediately questioned, as her mind couldn’t think of the name of the country underneath the red circle.

"It’s Israel. They are the only ones with nuclear weapons in this region." Yiming answered first before the police officer could.

"Yes, that’s what our IT department had concluded."

"You’re telling me, they nuked themselves?" Xiaoyun questioned as he stared towards the red circle on the map.

"Yes... We don’t know why they did it, but they indeed chose to use it on themselves." Ding Wei answered.

"Yiming, what do you think?"

"They probably used it as some sort of last resort. I can’t imagine anyone who wants to use nukes two years after the outbreak had started."

Xiaoyun and Yiming stared at each other for a second, giving each other a look before turning back to the spotlight.

"Is this all the information you guys had gotten?"

"We also managed to adjust the alarm system. We’re currently moving the whole system to the IT department to study it further."

"I see... Ahem, thank you, guys, for your hard work. Li Zhen, your men had done a fantastic job in this crisis."

"Thank you, sir."

---

The meeting soon came to an end as the environmental department and the agricultural department gave their own estimate of the impact of the nuclear fallout.

Although damage was relatively insignificant due to how far nuclear fallout was, they still predicted it would have a significant impact on the Earth’s climate.

With info passed out for the media department to make their own press releases regarding the update, Xiaoyun made everyone leave the room.

Except for Yiming, Houqin, Yuqi, and Yueyue.

"Is there something you want to talk about, Xiaoyun?"

Yiming questioned as he sat uncomfortably next to Xiaoyun with two women who sat almost directly across from him.

"I want the four of you to set your differences aside. I need to make sure the four of you can work together while I’m gone."

"Xiaoyun, are you saying I’m being unreasonable?" Yuqi immediately questioned, her face already showing a hint of irritation.

"I’m not saying that. I know the four of you haven’t had the best work experience with each other, but for my sake, please put those aside."

"I got no problem with that," Yueyue answered first.

"I’m just doing my job based on what I’m given." Houqin quietly murmured, not really showing any emotion towards anyone.

As Xiaoyun looked towards Yuqi and Yiming, he could feel an invisible line of tension between them.

"Yuqi?"

"Fine. I’ll put it aside as long as they’re being reasonable." Yuqi answered as she dropped the grudge look on her face.

"I have no problem with her, as long as she doesn’t try to cut the military budget that impacts soldiers’ lives," Yiming answered next.

"It won’t happen... Ahem, meeting dismissed."

Both Yueyue and Houqin immediately got up and left the room, with Yiming following right after.

Only Yuqi and Xiaoyun remained, sitting across from each other as they looked toward each other in silence.

"Xiaoyun, do you really think I’m childish enough to put my personal grudges over public good?"

"Well, I want to get everyone on the same page, rather than having you guys tripping each other into a trap for petty things."

Xiaoyun paused for a second, then continued.

"I’m not saying you’ll do that, okay? Don’t get mad at me now—"

"You dummy. Hmph!"

With Yuqi walking straight out of the room, Xiaoyun let out a small chuckle as he looked towards the ceiling.

"One less thing to worry about..."

---

"Welcome back, you’re home before Yuqi today."

As Leyan opens the door and takes the briefcase aside, Xiaoyun walks straight past her before collapsing onto the sofa.

"What’s up with you?" Nami curiously asked, putting her phone down as she scooched closer to check on him.

"I’m just tired."

"Tired from what? And why is your hair all messed up again?"

Leyan asked as she closed the door, turning back around to take a seat right next to her husband’s collapsed body.

"Just some work-related stuff. Nami, why are you back so early today? Don’t you have work today and classes later?"

"The bank was closed for renovation today, and my professor canceled the class after having a medical emergency."

Nami paused for a second, then continued as she reached for a bag of chips on the table.

"Oh, and I almost forgot. You need to go pick up Lily later. Shuli said she’s coming home late today and can’t drive her—"

"No eating chips near dinner. Honey, I’ll go pick Lily up. You can take a nap instead." Leyan murmured as she snatched the bag out of Nami’s hand.

"I’m fine, I got it."

Xiaoyun answered back as he slowly sat back up from the sofa, his hands rubbing his eyes before letting out a small yawn.

"You sure?"

"Mhm. If I take a nap now, I won’t be able to sleep tonight anyway. I’ll go pick up Lily now."

The two of them watched as he slowly walked over out of the house, closing the door as Nami turned over to her mother.

"Mom, why didn’t you stop him? And give me my chips back!"

"Because I still haven’t cooked dinner yet. No more chips, you have been eating junk food all day."

"Boo..."

Nami protested as Leyan walked away into the kitchen with the chip bag, leaving her with nothing in the living room.

---

Driving down the city streets, Xiaoyun could feel people walking by much differently than earlier in the day.

People weren’t speedwalking to their destination. Everyone seems to have moved on and learned from each other about the news.

"From the newly gathered data, it has been determined that the nuclear weapons had been used in the Middle East.

Officials had stated the fallout would mostly remain harmless, with only a half-degree drop in temperature for a colder winter."

As Xiaoyun turned off the car radio and sat in the car, he could see that university students were all walking off the campus in droves.

"You heard of that air raid alarm that happened on Saturday?"

"Of course I did. That shit was loud as hell. My family didn’t even leave the house for grocery shopping on Sunday."

"Yo, someone is in that car. You guys shouldn’t lean on that car."

"Shit. Sorry!"

Both of the students quickly apologized before walking off with their friend, leaving Xiaoyun once again alone in his car.

A few moments later...

"What’s taking Lily so long?"

As Xiaoyun waited for Lily to come out of the school, he was starting to get bored with only listening to half-baked conversations from university students.

The majority of them were just describing how they reacted, with some occasionally talking about the update that had just been released.

"I need to give her a phone call..."

Taking out the phone, Xiaoyun quickly dialed Lily’s number. But to his surprise, she doesn’t pick up from the other side.

After dialing the number again, it picks up with a bunch of background noises coming out right off the bat.

"Hello?"

"Where are you at? I’m waiting outside the school right now. What’s all that noise?" Xiaoyn questioned.

"I’m at a bar! I’m drinking, and no one can stop me!"

"Hello? What the hell do you mean you’re at a bar—"

As the phone call was suddenly ended by the other side, the rear mirror showed a confused Xiaoyun with his phone in hand.

"A bar?"