Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

Uesugi Hitomi was unsure of Hayato's abilities, but that didn't stop her from making judgments based on her experience.

But since he'd already said that, shouldn't he at least ask where she was? Hadn't he thought of that?

Forget it, that’s fine too.

A little further away, Uesugi, on the rooftop of the apartment building, looked away and continued to focus on the lava rocks falling from the sky, then made rough marks on the map.

Don't get me wrong, this was just a side effect; her real purpose was to make it easier for her to escape at any time.

With her ability to switch cat ears, she can escape in time if she notices stones coming towards her.

It's better than staying in a room and not being able to see anything.

If someone were to be inexplicably killed by a falling object, they would truly die with their eyes wide open in disbelief.

Subway entrance.

Hayato looked slightly dazed for a moment.

Part of the body? Feel it?

He looked down at the roaring, blazing chariot beneath him, his hands gripping the scorching handles tightly, imagining that it wasn't just an object, but an extension of his body and a part of him.

It is the embodiment of his will!

The previous impacts were merely brute force, or rather, an outburst of anger, rather than a true mastery of power.

Hayato took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and poured all his mental energy into the blazing chariot beneath him.

He did sense something different.

The engine beats like a heartbeat, and the tires rub against the ground.

Let's tear it apart together!

hum!

The roar of the blazing chariot suddenly changed.

The flames engulfing the vehicle changed color at a visible speed. The dark red faded, turning into a blazing orange, then a dazzling golden yellow, and finally, a blindingly white flame.

In the subway passage, the two floating heads of the toad, which were swallowing, seemed to sense something. Their smiles froze on their faces, and they suddenly turned around, revealing clear surprise and doubt for the first time.

Hayato suddenly opened his eyes, and it seemed as if the same pure white flames were burning in them.

"Charge!"

The pure white, flaming chariot vanished from its spot.

The next moment.

puff!

Like a hot knife cutting into butter, a sound almost subconsciously ignored, rang out from somewhere on the toad monster's massive body.

The toad's enormous body suddenly stiffened.

Before the dark red shield could even coalesce in front of the pure white flame chariot, a smooth-edged hole radiating terrifying heat appeared on its pus-filled rump.

The flesh around the hole instantly carbonized, with no blood spurting out, only wisps of smoke rising from it.

Wow.

The tank tore through flesh and blood from under the toad's chin and burst out, appearing in the subway tunnel.

The toad's two heads simultaneously emitted a shrill, distorted scream! But it wasn't quite dead yet; black and red blood continued to spurt out.

"Wow! This is what speed should be!"

Hayato was extremely excited, switched the front of the vehicle, and floored the accelerator.

Whoosh! Hayato managed to make the motorcycle perform a dimensional slash, piercing countless holes in the toad monster's body.

The piercing sound, so dense it was like a torrential downpour hitting banana leaves, rang out almost simultaneously from all parts of the toad's enormous body.

Pure white flames and streaks of light flashed wildly through its body at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.

Piercing from the abdomen to the neck, tearing from the legs to the spine. Each flash left a searing trail on the monster's body, vanishing only to reappear and pierce it in another spot!

"quack"

Its massive body convulsed violently, as if pierced repeatedly from the inside by countless red-hot steel needles. Pustules burst, the tongue whip hung limply, its giant legs convulsed and trembled, and its two eye-shaped heads floated and twitched haphazardly in the air like balloons with broken strings, finally falling helplessly to the ground.

Finally, the pure white light flashed and disappeared above the toad's head one last time.

Wow!

It collapsed like a toad rotting in mud at the entrance of the subway passage, its dark green, viscous fluid mixed with charred bits of flesh flowing all over the ground, emitting a nauseating stench.

Then, like the monsters on the front lines, its corpse began to rapidly melt and vaporize, turning into a large, churning, living, dark red, leaping mass of matter that soared into the air and shot rapidly toward Mount Fuji before disappearing into the sky.

Chapter 244: Dawn Shield

The monsters ravaged Tokyo as lava fell.

It can be said that the authorities have prepared many contingency plans, but they don't have any good countermeasures for the current urban warfare between the enemy and our side. They don't have many troops stationed in the rear, and even if they are urgently mobilized, they can only do so much.

Even if a large number of troops are withdrawn from the front lines now, without a systematic defense, it would undoubtedly be suicide missions.

The best approach would be to execute beyond-visual-range strikes, avoiding any contact as much as possible.

But those monsters have incredibly sensitive noses and specifically target crowded areas. You can't exactly launch a sweeping attack on those densely populated spots, can you? What kind of Russian-style rescue operation would that be? If you were to make such a decision, you probably wouldn't even need a military court trial.

Compared to this proposal, the Prime Minister suddenly felt that another proposal that had been making him hesitate was not so unacceptable.

Tokyo Bay, the Kaga is being converted into an aircraft carrier.

The prime minister and a group of senior officials were urgently evacuated here when Mount Fuji erupted for the first time, forming a temporary headquarters.

If they had been even a step too late, they would have had no choice but to hide in underground bunkers when the lava rained down on Tokyo.

"According to reports from the front lines, the monsters that have appeared in various locations have all shown the same shield as those in Kofu City, which is difficult to break. Although there are far fewer of them, each one is extremely powerful and enormous, and ordinary firepower is simply ineffective."

"Moreover, these monsters dissolve rapidly after they die, leaving a mass of matter that returns to Mount Fuji. According to experts, this may be a form of resurrection."

The Defense Minister's voice was hoarse, and his entire body was already soaked with sweat.

The Prime Minister stared silently at the images of various monsters causing destruction on the screen, and at the red dots on the map representing the appearance of monsters.

Slowly, his gaze stiffly shifted to the screen in the middle, which showed Mount Fuji, whose lava eruptions had temporarily ceased, but which was still spewing out large amounts of volcanic ash.

At that moment, he knew he could no longer afford to take any chances.

Mount Fuji, the sacred mountain in the hearts of the Japanese people for thousands of years, has been defiled and has become a nightmare and a jinx for all of Japan.

Since there's no way to deal with the monsters, we have to consider targeting Mount Fuji itself.

The principle of "capture the king first" applies worldwide.

As for what might lead to consequences such as an eruption of Mount Fuji or nuclear radiation.

We need to survive first! Besides, isn't there an eruption right now? Is volcanic ash harmless?

"Prime Minister, the cameras are ready."

".good."

He turned around, walked to a makeshift camera, took a deep breath, and dialed a number.

The phone rang for two seconds before being answered.

"Your Excellency the President," the Prime Minister's voice was low and strained, each syllable seemingly strained with all his might, "I am the Prime Minister of Japan, and on behalf of all the people of our country and the cities suffering in distress, I earnestly appeal to our allies."

"We earnestly request your country to carry out a saturation strategic strike plan of the highest intensity towards the target area of ​​Mount Fuji—including, if necessary, the use of all destructive means, including nuclear strikes."

The entire command center was silent. Cabinet members lowered their heads, knowing that they could prepare to step down.

"For the survival of humanity, and to cut off the source of disaster, we have no other choice. Please provide assistance."

The Oval Office.

The communicator clearly transmitted the request signal in Japanese simultaneous interpretation.

The president listened with a somber expression, his hands clasped together.

The Stars and Stripes and the presidential flag in the background appear exceptionally bright and eye-catching.

When the interpreting ended, he faced the camera and gave an expression that was a mixture of compassion and determination, full of dramatic tension.

“Prime Minister,” he began slowly, “please believe that in this darkest hour, the United States stands with Japan. We will never abandon our allies struggling in this catastrophe. These twisted monsters are the common enemy of all mankind! To strike them is to defend the future of humanity!”

He made an extremely resolute accordion gesture: "As Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces, I order the immediate execution of the strike plan targeting Mount Fuji! All available strategic platforms, enter the highest level of alert and standby! Authorize the use of all necessary forces!"

He emphasized the last few words, the meaning of which is self-evident.

He turned to his solemn-looking assistant, who immediately opened the famous nuclear briefcase.

The president inserted the key and performed biometric authentication with the practiced ease of a rehearsal, a series of actions faithfully recorded by the cameras.

The whole process was eerily quiet, with only the faint ticking sound of the machine verifying the authenticity.

After completing the perfunctory authorization, the president addressed the camera, adding in a declarative tone:

May God bless our world and our people.

The camera was cut off.

The heavy atmosphere in the office seemed to instantly lighten by half.

The senior advisor beside him reopened the nuclear briefcase and whispered, "Mr. President, the yield of the non-nuclear hydrogen bomb in Plan Three is limited; it may not be able to completely destroy the target as expected."

The president leaned back in his chair, his previous expression of pity instantly replaced by a smile: "What a pity. Then let's use the safest option. Tell the strategic commander, according to the first-level plan, four 4-kiloton bunker-buster hydrogen bombs, plus saturation-type conventional bunker-buster bombs, right?"

"Yes, the plan is codenamed Dawn Shield. However, the pollution will spread with the volcanic eruption over a very large area. Even with the most advanced methods, the cost of cleanup will be considerable, especially in the Tokyo metropolitan area. If evacuation and subsequent cleanup are not carried out in time, the death toll will be horrific."

"The clean technology can be exported to Japan, ha, whatever the price, they'll have to agree. Data collection priority is set to the highest. We need the most comprehensive impact effect data; this is a once-in-a-lifetime testing opportunity."

In reality, hydrogen bombs are not as clean as many people imagine. They still require fission as a trigger, which is the same as atomic bombs. When the quantity is large, pollution will spread.

Now we do have a non-nuclear hydrogen bomb, but its yield is quite limited and the technology is not yet mature. Otherwise, the President would not have given up this legitimate opportunity to conduct the experiment. After all, an experiment is just an experiment, and nowhere can it have the sample size of Tokyo.

After the Prime Minister hung up the phone, he seemed to age ten years in an instant.

He nodded to his subordinates, straightened his collar, and began an urgent national address, announcing a state of emergency and the distribution of nuclear protection supplies to all parts of the country.

Cities near Mount Fuji, including Tokyo, all sounded nuclear alerts. However, most people in this situation wouldn't bother to distinguish between this alert and a regular one.

The rooftop of the shopping center command center in Fujiyoshida City.

The monster's figure moved around the city, and the air was filled with smoke and the smell of gunpowder.

Ping Shenglong stood on the edge of the rooftop, watching as several ferocious, enormous monsters crawled out of the block and charged toward their conspicuous location.

The tremors beneath my feet intensified.

"Evacuation is complete! Get on board!" came the shout through the headset.

Ping Shenglong took one last look at Mount Fuji in the distance, then turned and walked quickly towards the nearest military transport helicopter whose rotors were churning up dust. A team member at the door reached out to meet him.

Just as he was about to board the plane, the building shook violently. A monster had charged in, smashing through a wall of the shopping mall. Smoke and dust filled the air, obscuring the monster's form, with only its roars escaping.

"go!"

The helicopter suddenly ascended, and amidst the violent turbulence, Ping Shenglong gazed down at the city below.

Various unmanned aerial vehicles continue to hold their ground throughout the city.

But how long can they last with limited ammunition replenishment? The answer is obvious.

The city is shrinking rapidly, and their goal is to retreat to a second, more rearward, and theoretically safer, defensive node.

Although Tokyo is in chaos right now, this chaos is barely acceptable compared to the possibility of monster hordes appearing.

They couldn't possibly abandon their well-established defenses and run back to support Tokyo; that would be suicide.

We can only hope that the extraordinary beings in Tokyo can step in and resolve part of the issue.

National Center for Mental Health Hospital.

A temporary shelter on the second basement level.

The heavy blast doors were tightly shut, isolating most of the apocalyptic clamor of the world above, but the muffled explosions and the tremors of the building structure still beat like drums, synchronized with the hearts of everyone huddled there.

The air was thick with the smell of sweat and pungent fear. Under the emergency lights, faces were pale, eyes vacant or filled with terror.

"Master, Director," a young caregiver's voice trembled uncontrollably, breaking the heavy breathing in the shelter, "Up there... there are still some patients up there... in the intensive care unit and the general wards... him... them."