Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

She didn't dare to say what to do next, as if she herself felt it was unrealistic.

Chief Takeda's face was grim.

What should we do? Should we open this life-saving door now and rush out?

How many of those patients, especially the dangerous individuals in the compulsory care ward, would obediently comply at such a moment?

Not to mention what they just saw: the lava that landed on the restaurant across the street, and the ape-like monster that crawled out of it. That thing ate people like it ate berries, and it would even peel them (remove their clothes).

Going up now is incredibly risky!

But he couldn't say that directly, because this wasn't the real end of the world, and he had to maintain appearances.

His lips moved slightly, as he was about to concoct a plausible excuse, when his trusted doctor, a middle-aged man who was usually very good at reading people, saw this and immediately reprimanded the caregiver sternly.

"Idiot! Do you know what's going on outside?! Time is of the essence! If you want to do good deeds, go yourself, don't drag everyone down. You deal with those guys every day, don't you know how long it will take to convince them to evacuate? What if the monsters break in if they delay?! Director Takeda had to make this painful decision for the safety of all of us!"

“Yes! It’s true that you want to save people, but have you thought about what will happen to the dozens of lives here?” Someone immediately chimed in, their voice shrill.

"It was so difficult for us to get down here."

The accusations instantly overwhelmed the caregiver. Her face flushed crimson, and shame made it hard to breathe. She could only lower her head and stammer through a sob, "I...I'm sorry, sob...I didn't mean it."

Takeda's tense nerves relaxed slightly, and he gave his confidant an approving look.

He cleared his throat and, in a somber and helpless tone, tried to calm those around him: "Sigh, don't I want to save them? They are all our patients, but their conditions are critical. We must prioritize the greater good and ensure the safety of the majority of them—"

Guts!

Before he could finish speaking, a violent earthquake, far more intense than before, suddenly struck.

The entire underground space shook violently, the ceiling creaked overhead, and dust fell in a flurry.

Then came a sharp crack, and a crack appeared in the ceiling in the middle of the shelter!

"Ahhhhh!!"

"The top collapsed?!"

"A monster! Is it a monster?"

"Let us out! Let us out!"

"Damn Dean Fujiwara, I knew he must have embezzled that money back then!"

Cries and shouts raged inside the shelter.

Takeda waved his hands in vain, trying to maintain order: "Quiet, quiet, don't panic! This is a shelter, the structure is reinforced," but his voice was completely drowned out.

Amidst this hellish chaos, *chi*

A thin line shot out from the crack in the ceiling, and Takeda was looking up, his mouth agape as he roared at the commotion of the crowd.

And that strand of black silk instantly slid into his wide-open mouth.

"Yes, gu!!!"

Takeda's eyes bulged out instantly, and a strange gurgling sound came from his throat as if he were being choked.

He tried to struggle, but his body seemed bound by invisible shackles, frozen in place. The next second, from the crack in the ceiling, even more black threads cascaded down like a black waterfall bursting its banks!

These black threads, like dyed spider silk, instantly wrapped around Chief Takeda's head.

They coiled and tightened, covering his entire body in the blink of an eye, forming a constantly writhing and struggling black humanoid cocoon.

The scene instantly silenced the chaos, leaving everyone present dumbfounded.

"Uh, coo coo." A muffled sound, like an owl's coo, came from inside the black cocoon.

"Chief...Director?!"

Takeda's confidant was closest and witnessed this horrific scene; his mind went blank!

He let out a scream that sounded inhuman, scrambled around, and was the first to lunge at the heavy blast door.

Forget about dignity and colleagues; they all vanished in the face of the overwhelming fear of life and death. All he wanted now was to escape this horrible place!

"Open the door, open the door now!!" He frantically twisted the wheel, tears and snot streaming down his face.

"Help!"

"Don't catch me!"

"Let me out!"

The shelter completely collapsed, and everyone rushed towards the only exit like madmen.

The cracks in the ceiling resembled the wounds of a living creature, from which even more black threads gushed forth.

Like sentient tentacles, they whizzed through the air with a chilling sound, dancing wildly and penetrating into the bodies of individuals.

puff!puff!

The sounds of piercing were incessant.

One by one, people rushing toward the exit were precisely pierced through the thighs, shoulders, and backs by black stockings. They tried to grab onto anything they could, but to no avail, screaming as they were dragged off the ground by the powerful force.

Then, more black silk wrapped around them, turning them into black cocoons that hung in mid-air, accompanied by continuous, muffled gurgling sounds.

"Close it, close it now!"

The group of people who ran out were worried that the black silk would spread out, so they quickly held onto the door tightly and kept turning it, waiting for the pulling and tugging inside until the banging and wailing sounds inside gradually stopped.

Only then did they flee to other places, still shaken.

Suddenly, the faces of some of the strongest men shifted, and then their expressions changed instantly.

"No, it's just a monster, what's so scary about it?"

"That's right! We can handle these mere insects that are only worth a few pennies."

"Weapons! Quick, find weapons! Let's go kill the monsters!"

To the astonishment of the others, these men found a few sticks and steel pipes that could barely be considered weapons, and then rushed towards the stairwell.

"Are they... insane?" The remaining people murmured to each other, speechless for a moment.

Chapter 245: The Intent of Cooperation

Three patients, bursting with courage, rushed to the ground.

The chaotic scene before them made them instinctively pause for a moment, but they quickly ignored the slight fear that had just arisen.

In front of them was the main building of the hospital, with a large section in the middle cut out like a cake, leaving a shockingly huge gap and rubble everywhere, the edges charred black.

The ground was a crater, with black spots radiating outwards and billowing white smoke.

At the center is a cluster of mosaic lines lying flat on the ground, seemingly alive and constantly writhing, forming a barely circular, dizzying sphere.

Centered on it, countless fine black threads extend out, drilling into the gaps and windows of the hospital building and penetrating deep underground.

Throughout the hospital, intermittent, chilling screams could be heard.

This sight is enough to make any normal person's legs go weak and run away.

But in the eyes of the three patients at this moment, this thing was nothing more than a spiky ball, at best a large sea urchin.

"Kill!"

One man shouted a charge and charged forward, brandishing a steel pipe and haphazardly smashing it at the sphere of lines.

The other two followed closely behind, showing no fear whatsoever.

The line monster seemed focused on hunting underground and in buildings, showing no reaction to the approaching group.

It wasn't until the steel pipe slammed into its seemingly soft yet incredibly tough surface with a dull thud that it realized someone was not only not running away, but daring to attack.

Even though this attack didn't even activate the shield, it was still enraged by the harassment.

The mosaic sphere suddenly shrank.

Stab it--!

Countless sharp lines burst open like a hedgehog's quills, making it truly resemble a sea urchin.

Puff puff.

A series of piercing sounds rang out.

The three men who approached and attacked were instantly riddled with holes, their bodies covered in tiny puncture wounds, and countless drops of blood seeped out like sweat. They died without a doubt.

Sixth-floor ward.

Yui sat quietly on the bed, her face as pale as paper, her forehead covered in fine beads of cold sweat.

She let out a long sigh, her chest rising and falling slightly. Clearly, contaminating the minds of three adults at once was a considerable burden for her.

Even if all three of them had some mental health issues.

She picked up the water bottle from the bedside, took a sip, and realized there were only a few drops left. She gently shook the water bottle, then casually tossed it aside.

The ground shook violently outside, and screams echoed downstairs, but she seemed detached from it all, even ignoring the black threads that were spreading upwards along the building's structure, relentlessly searching for any living creature.

"Holy Maiden, divine punishment has descended upon the world. What should we do to atone for our sins?"

At the entrance to the ward, five mental patients, dressed in hospital gowns and with strangely devout expressions, knelt respectfully.

They were Yui's secret subordinates, whom she had subtly transformed through mental pollution during this period, and their level of mental illness was only one level lower than Yui's.

This kind of pollution cannot be controlled; rather, it requires the continuous implantation of related concepts into their minds so that they gradually come to believe it wholeheartedly.

However, this method is much less effective for normal people. Normal people have the ability to heal themselves mentally, and they might encounter some happy events, such as a raise or falling in love, which can easily clear away the pollution in a short period of time.

However, if used on people who are already on the verge of a mental breakdown, the effect can be surprisingly good.

A smile appeared on Yui's pale face: "Go downstairs, away from those black threads."

"Yes!"

Without any hesitation, the five people got up and disappeared into the depths of the corridor.

Yui continued to sit on the bed, hugging her knees with both hands, and gently hummed a nursery rhyme.

The singing drifted through the empty hospital room, while screams grew louder and louder downstairs.

That thing is getting close.

Chi Chi

A faint rustling sound arose. Countless fine black threads silently slipped into the ward through the cracks in the door and windows.

They snaked and stretched out, driven by pure hunger, silently enveloping Yui on the bed.

The silk thread was less than half a meter from Yui's bare ankles.

at this time.

Yui gently lifted her head, which had been hanging down.

Her eyes, which had at some point turned out to be completely black, without a trace of white showing, were now a pure, captivating black.

The smile on his face was eerily hollow; a slight curve appeared at the corner of his mouth as he clearly uttered a few words:

"Human flesh is highly poisonous."

Om-!

An invisible spiritual fluctuation suddenly spread out from Yui as the center.

The approaching black threads suddenly froze in place.

Immediately following, like a chain reaction, the mosaic-patterned sphere that was enjoying its hunt downstairs outside the ward also suddenly jolted.

Its constantly writhing lines instantly knotted, and the stable structure that made up the sphere began to fluctuate violently and become disordered.

A strong sense of pain and confusion emanated clearly from it.

Tear!

Many black cocoons, suspended in mid-air by black silk, emitted tearing sounds from within.

The silk threads kept retracting, as if they were trying to avoid what was inside the cocoon and were terrified of it.

The people inside were thrown to the ground, their bodies covered in a sticky black substance.

Most of the people were already slippery corpses, but some were still alive, vomiting black water and gastric juices violently, and crawling frantically outwards on their hands and feet out of instinct.