You said mechs were going to fight monsters, but instead you're destroying stars with your bare

Chapter 135 Meme Virus
Early July, Year 1 of the Crisis Era.

Less than a week has passed since the start of "Operation Sunset".

The operation has been successfully completed.

The entire Fusang Islands were liberated.

Li Zhe reaped the biggest "achievement" of this battle: legendary material—

The Heart of Impure Amaterasu!

Having acquired this spoils, Li Zhe did not linger in Tokyo, which had become a wasteland.

He bypassed the main coalition forces that were conducting post-war cleanup operations around Tokyo, and instead made a detour back to Starfish Island...

…………

The ruins of Tokyo, on the edge of a massive bomb crater where the former imperial palace once stood.

The coalition government's mech forces and engineering units are working intensively on post-war cleanup and search and rescue operations.

The intense radiation and residual abyssal energy have turned this land into a forbidden zone, but the soldiers on the front lines are still holding their ground.

"Report! An undamaged secret bunker has been discovered 800 meters underground! The energy response is weak, suggesting the presence of survivors!"

"Breach immediately! All combat units, maintain Level 1 alert!"

With the roar of heavy mechs, the sturdy bunker door was forcibly torn open.

A stale and oppressive atmosphere emanated from it.

Inside the bunker, the lights were on.

Sousuke Hanekawa and a group of militaristic scum were still sitting neatly dressed in the meeting room, as if waiting for something.

Their faces showed no sign of defeat or dejection, but rather a morbid, composed calmness.

"Oh dear, gentlemen of the coalition government, you're moving a bit faster than I expected," said Hanekawa Sousuke leisurely, as if he were the victor.

The captain of the mech pilots leading the team frowned and shouted sternly, "Sousuke Hanekawa! And all the remnants of the Edo Tensei Fusang Empire! You are surrounded! Lay down your weapons and surrender immediately!"

"Surrender?" Hanekawa Sousuke seemed to have heard the biggest joke in the world, and he and his companions burst into a shrill laugh.

“Young man, it seems you haven’t grasped the situation.” He pointed to the sky above, distorted by the nuclear explosion. “Do you really think… a few nuclear bombs can kill ‘God’?”

"'Impure World Amaterasu' is eternal! It will soon be reborn from destruction, and at that time..."

Before he could finish speaking, a technician standing nearby, looking flustered, approached him with a data board and whispered a few words in his ear.

The smile on Sousuke Hanekawa's face froze instantly.

"なに?! 君は...「心臓」がなくなったって言うのか? ! "(Nani?! You said... the 'heart' is missing?!)

His voice became shrill with shock.

"まさか! ありえない! The heart-breaking truth is true! Who is it except God?" (Impossible! Absolutely impossible! That is at the core of the nuclear explosion! Except for 'God' himself, no existence can...)
His words trailed off, a deep-seated fear flashing in his eyes.

A possibility that they could neither understand nor accept surfaced in everyone's minds.

Their last resort...

That ultimate trump card that should have brought them rebirth from destruction and led them to victory...

actually……

It just vanished into thin air?!
……

At the same time, a more in-depth research report on the "filthy" virus was also sent to the highest levels of the coalition government.

The report's findings sent chills down the spines of everyone who saw it.

This virus is not a biological agent in the traditional sense. It is more like a... memetic virus.

A meme virus that can precisely target the collective subconscious of the Japanese people and stimulate distorted, militaristic ideologies.

It does not spread through genes, but rather through thoughts, subconsciousness, and historical memory.

As long as one harbors any illusions about a certain kind of shared prosperity, and as long as one is still swept up in the fanatical atmosphere of extreme nationalism, one will inevitably be affected by the virus and eventually be transformed into an inhuman "filthy species".

This explains why the disaster swept across Japan so quickly.

This is not a simple biological crisis.

Rather, it is a malignant tumor that is bound to erupt throughout the entire Fusang archipelago.

……

The northern capital of Huazhou.

The highest-level strategic command center of the coalition government.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was so oppressive that it felt like the air itself could freeze.

In the center of the enormous circular conference table, a holographic map of the Fusang Islands floated silently.

The Tokyo area, which had just been purified by nuclear fire, still emitted an unsettling afterglow of dark red energy.

On the main seat, the leader's face was calm and composed, but his deep eyes were turbulent with emotion.

"Everyone, I've read the report."

His voice wasn't loud, but it resonated clearly in everyone's ears, carrying an undeniable weight.

"We have won an overwhelming victory in the physical war. But a war against the very foundations of civilization, against the very idea itself, has only just begun."

Everyone present was a powerful figure who could shake the world with a stomp of his foot, but at this moment, their faces were filled with solemnity.

“Meme virus…” Admiral Volkov, the one-eyed old general who was as rugged as a polar bear, was the first to break the silence.

His hoarse voice, like rusty gears grinding together, said: "Ideas? Then let's reshape them with bullets and labor camps! Gather all the survivors and subject them to the most rigorous ideological censorship and re-education! I don't believe there's any ideology that the Siberian winds can't awaken!"

His words were full of military directness and violence, but they drew a slight shake of the head from the abyss expert.

"Comrade General, if I may be so frank, your method... only treats the symptoms, not the root cause."

The expert pushed up his glasses and said in a heavy tone, "This virus is like a demon lurking in the entire Japanese... and even in the collective subconscious of all humanity."

"We cannot eliminate a 'story,' a 'curse' rooted in human history and culture, by eliminating a virus."

“Forced ideological reform will only provoke a stronger backlash, and may even give rise to more hidden and dangerous variants.”

"Then what do you suggest we do?!" A sharp glint flashed in General Volkov's single eye. "Are we just going to let this cancer lie dormant, waiting for it to erupt again?"

“We can’t destroy a story…” A glint of wisdom flashed in the expert’s eyes. “We can cover it up with a new, more powerful story, and replace it!”

"Fight memes with memes!"

The moment this revolutionary concept was announced, a murmur of discussion filled the entire conference room.

"report!"

Just then, Zhang Xiaotian, who had been silent all along, suddenly stood up.

He first gave a standard military salute to the leaders present, then said in a deep voice:

"I can provide an example to support the expert's theory."

(End of this chapter)