The absurdity continued.
If the thousand-odd surface and submerged vessels, along with tens of thousands of various aircraft and fighter jets, were chaotic enough to resemble a swarm of locusts descending, then the subsequent combat losses were even more bewildering.
After all, this was a multinational joint exercise.
It had taken days just to coordinate the thousands of ships on the surface and underwater.
However, the previous coordination efforts had, at best, managed to train the thousand-odd vessels from dozens of countries to move and respond in unison, following orders.
In other words, they could put on a visually impressive performance.
But when it came to actual combat...
Oh, my.
This was what chaos looked like.
A warship from the Fusang nation, whose vessels hadn't left their home waters in who knows how many years, had, through poor maneuvering, collided with a destroyer from the Simida nation nearby.
Simultaneously, it had also sunk a combat boat from a smaller nation.
And thus, the first combat loss of this joint military exercise occurred.
Witnessing this chaotic scene, netizens worldwide grew restless.
Was this the supposed mightiest joint military exercise led by the United States and its Western allies?
They hadn't even encountered the Great Xia nation's dual-carrier fleet yet, and they were already crashing into each other?
If they were to "accidentally" engage the Great Xia's dual-carrier fleet, wouldn't the entire fleet be rendered ineffective?
And furthermore, this chaotic situation... what was going on?
It was supposed to be a joint exercise, so why were they scattered and acting independently?
While ordinary netizens were confused, the commanders of these fleets were in despair.
Just moments ago, they were approaching the designated area for the Great Xia nation's dual-carrier fleet.
Suddenly, the command headquarters in the United States had issued a new order, requiring individual vessels to scan the entire sea area in search of a suspected submarine.
What kind of order was this?
It was a joint military exercise, yet it had suddenly become a search for a so-called suspected submarine by individual ships.
And what exactly was a "suspected submarine"?
Even if searching for underwater vessels could be considered part of the military exercise, what was an "unspecified suspected submarine"?
It felt like being asked to find someone.
But the person to be found...
Name unknown.
No distinguishing features.
Height, weight, build – completely unknown.
How could they possibly find them?
However, they had accepted payment from the United States for participating in this joint military exercise.
Having received the money, they had to do the work.
Moreover, as it was a joint exercise, they were expected to follow orders.
And so, the bizarre situation at the beginning unfolded.
Like elementary school students during assembly, the entire vast sea was a chaotic mess!
...
On the sea surface, a complete mess.
Meanwhile, Meng Hao was having a rather pleasant time.
Shortly after leaving the Australian research center's military base, his fresh fruits and vegetables were still good.
He sat in the command bridge, took out a few heating pots, and began cooking.
One pot was boiling rice.
The others contained various stews of pork, beef, and other meats.
After all, at hundreds of meters below the sea, it was nearly impossible to prepare decent dishes.
However, having stew was already quite good.
In fact, to improve the taste, Meng Hao had specifically asked Wen Qu to use the "Dangui" to catch a salmon from the seabed.
For deep-sea fish like salmon, it could be eaten raw after being cut open.
There was no need to worry about bacteria or viruses.
Soon, the salmon sashimi was prepared by Meng Hao.
The fragrant rice and stews were also ready.
Lifting the pot lids, he opened the central control panel screen... the screen was quite large, as it was needed to control the entire aircraft carrier, and the various parameters couldn't be too cramped. He then navigated the screen to the homepage of a popular video-sharing platform.
Meng Hao was currently in silent mode, unable to transmit any messages.
However, he could still receive network signals.
As the saying goes, a tablet is for productivity before buying, and for covering ramen bowls after.
Adhering to the principle of not wasting anything, Meng Hao had repurposed the central control panel as a small TV for watching shows.
Of course, after watching some short videos, Meng Hao would occasionally check the progress of the ongoing military exercise.
As he had predicted, the joint military exercise of the United States and its allies had descended into utter chaos.
Netizens worldwide, including those from Great Xia, were curious about what the United States was searching for.
Meng Hao picked up a piece of salmon, popped it into his mouth, followed by a piece of spicy beef and cabbage, and shrugged dismissively.
"Searching for what?"
"They're looking for me?"
"If they knew that I am currently beneath them in the deep sea, eating rice, enjoying stew, and watching their chaotic mess, what would they think!"
Meng Hao chuckled as he watched various speculations from several content creators. With the attitude of being the only one who understood while the world was confused, he switched to something else.
Watching the United States in such disarray was amusing, but after a while, it became boring.
...
Facing global scrutiny, Vice Admiral Tommy was starting to get nervous.
What happened to the joint military exercise?
All they saw were ships and aircraft crashing into each other everywhere.
With no other choice, he ordered the fleets to perform some actions amidst their busyness.
For example, naval artillery duels between ships.
Or launching a few missiles.
And some fighter jets performing aerial acrobatics, flying erratically.
Finally, these somewhat satisfactory performances managed to silence the mouths of netizens worldwide.
At the same time, it bought Vice Admiral Tommy some time to search for Meng Hao's whereabouts.
However, things were not optimistic.
For several consecutive days, there was still no news of Meng Hao.
According to the Navy's estimation from Wilson's side, if Meng Hao hadn't adopted a policy of staying put and guarding near the research center's naval base under their noses... in fact, the waters around the military base had been thoroughly searched, and Meng Hao's whereabouts were nowhere to be found... then Meng Hao should now be two to three hundred kilometers offshore.
Moreover, the window of time left for them was dwindling.
Even calculating at a speed of 50 kilometers per day, in about half a month, Meng Hao would completely escape the United States' surveillance range.
Of course, this was assuming the Great Xia dual-carrier fleet hadn't discovered anything, and Meng Hao hadn't used any special communication methods to contact the Great Xia side.
"Vice Admiral Tommy."
"Forget half a month. If we still can't find Meng Hao in about 10 more days,"
"Your best course of action would be to learn from the spirit of the Fusang samurai and commit seppuku to apologize to us Americans!"
At a recent meeting, Wilson said with a dark expression.