"Yes," Enikk replied, her voice sounding human but entirely devoid of emotion—despite being an advanced AI, there was no real difference from a machine. "Today's agenda concerns the depletion of resources."
Everyone's heart tightened at once.
Although, as Ark's upper echelon, they had likely caught wind of the issue beforehand, hearing it officially still struck them with a wave of shock.
Syuen from Missilis Industry was particularly stunned. She slammed the table, clearly upset.
"...Hey, are you kidding me? Missilis has helped the Ark secure a ton of resources. That amount could feed a hundred thousand pigs! How could it run out this fast..."
Syuen was furious.
After all, she'd deployed her own units to assist the Ark multiple times. Many were damaged, and the costs far outweighed the gains. It had been a losing deal, and naturally, she wasn't happy about it.
But the moment she noticed Mo Chen looking at her, Syuen was startled, instantly sitting back down and swallowing the rest of her rant.
Ingrid, observing Syuen's sudden change in tone and then glancing at Mo Chen, more or less understood what was going on. So she continued where Syuen had stopped.
"Since the Ark was founded, it's always operated under a state of resource shortage—and that situation hasn't changed much since."
Beside her, Andersen brought his hands up from under the table, interlacing his fingers. "Enikk, can you explain more specifically?"
"Of course," Enikk replied. "Over the past year, the Ark has encountered many unforeseen events, especially the recent riots and Rapture invasions, which have inflicted massive damage."
"To support our defense forces and repair cities damaged in the riots—along with the elevators to the surface—we've already consumed 47% of our stockpiled resources."
"While consumption has surged, resource collection has sharply declined."
"Until now, the resource gap has been bridged by mining teams made up of mass-produced Nikkes. However, this is only a temporary fix. The reason is that mineable regions are now depleted, while areas with abundant resources are several times more dangerous."
"To extract minerals from these riskier zones, mining teams must venture into high-threat areas. This has drastically lowered both the survival and operational integrity of Nikke mining squads. After subtracting the resources needed for repairs and unit replacements, the net gain is minimal."
The atmosphere grew heavier. Everything Enikk said was a hard, undeniable truth staring them all in the face.
The survival of the Ark depended heavily on resources. And with the Ark's population growing daily, the pressure to sustain them only increased.
Mo Chen, however, wasn't surprised.
So long as humanity didn't reclaim the surface and expand outward, the depletion of resources was inevitable.
Enikk's emotionless voice continued describing the full extent of the crisis facing the Ark.
"The final result is that the current stockpile of minerals, food, and energy is far from sufficient to meet the population's needs. And within the foreseeable future, this situation shows no sign of improvement."
Everyone present fell silent.
The atmosphere was incredibly heavy.
Ingrid exhaled deeply, her expression grim, and slowly said, "Even though we had long anticipated this day would eventually come, I didn't think it would arrive so soon."
The others weren't doing much better.
"Yes, that is indeed the case," Enikk added, not forgetting to drive the point home. "If this situation continues, within three years the Ark will face shortages in both food and energy. The supply rate will fall to 60%. Based on projections, prices will skyrocket, leading to economic crisis and civil unrest."
"If it continues for ten years, the supply rate will plummet to 30%. It's estimated that 50% of the population will die from starvation. The remaining 30% will suffer from diseases due to the Ark's deteriorating living conditions."
Because the central city of the Ark had no factories or production facilities of its own and depended entirely on external inputs, its ability to handle crises was extremely poor. If something went wrong, the collapse would be even more devastating than in the Outer Rim.
Enikk turned to look at Mo Chen.
"This calculation includes the Commander's ecological farm. During the crisis, based on projections, the food output from the Commander's farm has the potential to sustain a population of 100,000. It could become humanity's last hope."
Everyone turned to Mo Chen in shock.
Enikk wouldn't lie.
Mo Chen had accomplished all of this without making a sound.
Enikk added, "Beyond that, the remaining population will have to be relocated en masse to the Outer Rim."
"…No," Mustang leaned back, resting his hand on his chin and said dramatically, "the Outer Rim is already overfilled, yo. If more people move in, it'll be absolute AB-level hell."
"Ugh, why overthink it? Just find some new… mining site or whatever…" Syuen muttered in frustration, but quickly seemed to remember Mo Chen, gave him a glance, then looked away and mumbled under her breath like a mosquito.
Ingrid looked at Syuen with surprise.
Syuen had always been arrogant and domineering: "outspoken" would be putting it mildly. She regularly acted high and mighty under the title of Missilis's CEO. But now, in front of Mo Chen, she was like a mouse in front of a cat?
Mo Chen frowned and scolded her, "You're so smart, huh? You think no one else thought of that? Let me ask you: even if you found a mining site, how would you secure it?"
Finding a mine wasn't the hard part. The hard part was that mines were always located in dangerous zones, swarming with Raptures. The noise from mining would quickly attract them.
At that point, waves of Raptures would just keep coming.
Forget mining—just making it back alive would be a problem.
Syuen lowered her head obediently, like a scolded schoolgirl, completely different from her usual cocky self.
The room fell silent again.
Everyone acknowledged that Mo Chen was right. It was the reality Ark was now facing.
Johan spoke in a deep voice. "Is there really no other way?" (TL Note: Why is he here!?!??!)
Without resources, not only would daily life in the Ark become unsustainable, but even Nikke units wouldn't have enough support to function. If the forces defending against Raptures could no longer be maintained, they were in serious danger.
Mo Chen suddenly recalled a plot point from the original story and turned to look at Burningum.
"Don't you know of a location? One that could be mined?"
Everyone in the room instinctively turned their eyes toward Burningum.