Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 253: The Dust Settles Down

The earth is ravaged.

The collapse of Mount Fuji ejected a large amount of debris and soil, burying large areas of lava underground.

Wisps of smoke rose from these still-hot piles of rocks, which had recently been buried under magma, and blended into the lingering dust and smoke around them.

A little distance away from the large pebbles, a small mound suddenly appeared in the soft soil, and a bright green vine struggled to break through the soil.

At the end of the vine, a huge pumpkin, aided by the vine, struggles to break through the soil, adding a touch of color to the desolate world.

*Snap!* The vine lashed out, splitting the pumpkin in two, and a figure struggled to his feet from within.

Hirosue Eri weakly crawled out of the pumpkin, her usually meticulously styled twin tails now looking dull and covered in dust.

"Cough cough."

She clutched her aching chest, supported herself with half a pumpkin, and slowly sat down on the ground, looking around blankly.

As far as the eye could see, there was only swirling dust and smoke; every breath of air was filled with the pungent smell of sulfur and dust.

The earpiece was filled with static; communications to the countermeasures department remained cut off, and contact could not be made.

It seems that all she can be thankful for is that she survived.

Not long ago, Mount Fuji collapsed, and the massive amount of mud and rocks it stirred up buried her alive almost instantly.

Those Rangers summoned by Nobita were quick to run; as soon as something went wrong, they were taken away on a transport plane, their movements fluid and seamless.

Fortunately, she reacted quickly enough, and the plants around her sensed the danger and instinctively gathered around her, protecting her at the last moment.

Once the devastating tremors subsided, she manipulated the remaining plants to painstakingly carve out a passage from beneath the soil and rocks several meters deep, finally allowing her to see the light of day again.

Uh... She looked up at the sky and the sun, which were completely invisible.

It seems that this place doesn't really count as seeing the light of day again.

The biggest problem now is that she can't even tell which way is which.

The sky was completely obscured by thick volcanic ash, as dim as a sunset. Coupled with the acrid smoke and dust that filled the air, visibility was so low that only blurry outlines could be seen a few steps away.

Once proudly standing as Japan's highest peak, it is now nothing but a vast, desolate ruin, with only a few broken piles of rubble remaining near the summit.

But what about those extraordinary individuals? Are they alive or dead?

If they also lose, Eri's heart turns ice-cold.

She could almost foresee that no matter how much Japan opposed it, the emergence of such a terrifying monster would inevitably lead to an increase in the intensity of nuclear strikes, even if the terrible radioactive dust would drift all over the world with volcanic ash and monsoons, becoming the price for all mankind.

She pressed her palm to the ground, and the ivy vine on her arm extended and burrowed into the soil, its roots spreading rapidly to deeper and wider places.

The earth trembled, the rock strata structure, and the information about the earth were gradually fed back into Yingli's mind, slowly forming a three-dimensional underground map.

Soon, she "saw" that where Mount Fuji was originally, there was a complex underground pit structure, like an enlarged ant nest.

As I pondered, a white beam of light pierced through the thick curtain of smoke and dust, reaching straight to the sky.

Immediately afterwards, with a deafening roar, several figures were ejected as if from a volcano, thrown off the pillar of light and sent flying in arcs before crashing heavily onto the gravel ground in the distance.

Eri's heart sank.

Although their faces were obscured, who else could emerge from the core area of ​​the collapsed Mount Fuji in this manner, besides the previous superhumans?

She was right; the ones who were thrown out were the Nobita crew.

When Geralt and his companions faced a life-or-death crisis, the teleportation system automatically activated, sending them back.

Now, only the player and Hirosue Eri remain on this ruin, both of them at their last gasp.

Nobi Tomohiro landed closest to Eri and is now lying on the ground, coughing violently.

He had just been on the verge of death; his life lock had been activated. Right now, he would die from a single slap.

Still shaken, he took out his last treasured bottle of holy spring water without thinking and drank it down without hesitation, finally regaining some of his strength and vitality.

Not far away, Hayato lay limply, unconscious.

His beloved little motorcycle had vanished, leaving only a lonely motorcycle throttle handle as its sole wreckage.

Ethan Reno lay unconscious on the ground in a clever pose, his breathing extremely shallow, with only his slightly trembling eyelids revealing that he was observing his surroundings.

He was waiting for the perfect moment, ready to unleash his speed and escape this dangerous place.

The injuries that appear severe on the surface are quietly healing at an accelerated pace under the subtle stimulation of the blood energy within the body.

Iwasaki was in the best condition; he flew out on his own, but his condition was also very poor. He was even struggling to maintain his formless state. He only recovered slightly after drinking a bottle of holy spring water, which helped him stabilize his almost disintegrating form.

Whoosh!

Just as everyone caught their breath, a sudden gust of wind arose from the center of the white beam of light, howling and violently tearing and swirling the thick dust that filled the surroundings.

In just a short while, the dust settled, and the beam of light illuminated the surroundings as bright as day, as if the lights had been turned on.

"Can you tell what the result will be?"

Iwasaki approached Nobita, knowing that Nobita seemed to have a special ability to see the enemy's condition.

Nobita stared blankly at the white light, his face bitter: "He's dead."

Iwasaki didn't interrupt immediately; his intuition told him that he hadn't finished speaking.

“But it came back to life.” Nobita’s voice was full of absurdity. “Only… the one that came back to life didn’t feel like Ashiya Doman at all.”

Iwasaki followed his gaze and saw a blurry human figure gradually emerge inside the pillar of light.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know," Nobita stood up, leaning on his sword, and shook his head. "I can't see any information about him anymore."

There are only two possibilities: either this person is someone he judges as kind, or they have absolutely no hostility towards him.

Of course, there is actually an even more terrifying possibility.

When faced with someone who doesn't care about you at all, someone who's as casual as accidentally stepping on an ant while walking, what need is there for hostility? That's just a meaningless attack from a lower dimension.

Iwasaki's gaze quickly swept over the others.

Hayato was unconscious, Reno was lying on the ground pretending to be dead, and Eri was extremely weak. He himself had also suffered a serious injury, so the entire group was practically dead and had almost no strength left to fight.

Even if he were willing to risk his life, sacrificing ten years of his lifespan, he probably wouldn't fare well against the being condensed within that pillar of light, unless he sacrificed more than ten years of his lifespan at once, which would be far beyond his limits.

Reno, who was pretending to be unconscious, heard Nobita's words and his body tensed almost imperceptibly. He was just about to find the perfect moment to pounce and make his escape when...
The beam of light suddenly contracted and condensed into a human shape.

A being radiating blinding white light floated in the void. It had no head, a missing arm, and a pair of enormous, yet extremely tattered, wings of light stretched out from its back.

Nobita's eyebrows twitched violently the moment he saw this form.

Isn't this the headless bird-man he saw in Ashiya Doman's memory fragments, the one fused with his master? Is it a reincarnation? Or a cuckoo taking over someone else's nest?
However, it might be a good thing—

The thought had barely formed when it was immediately extinguished by the scene before him.

The headless winged man simply raised his hand casually.

Boom!

The ground rumbled and trembled, and the massive pile of ruins of Mount Fuji behind him suddenly rose upwards.

Deep within the mountain, a large amount of magma was forcibly stirred up, boiling and erupting once more, with scorching black and red lava spraying into the sky with an aura of destruction.

—What a load of rubbish!
Nobita instantly understood: no matter what kind of sacred being it might have been in the past, at this moment, it was a naked and enormous threat to the world!
It seemed that only then did the winged man notice the tiny figures below.

He pointed his raised hand at Iwasaki Kosuke, who had the strongest presence in the crowd.

"Terrible"

An invisible force instantly gripped Iwasaki.

I don't know if this counts as retribution, but Iwasaki has pinched others so many times with his invisible hand that this is the first time he's been pinched by someone else. Clearly, in his current state, he shouldn't be affected by physical means.
However, given the winged people's incandescent light-like luminescence, he didn't believe it was purely physical.

"open!!"

There is no room for hesitation when life and death are at stake!
Overdrafted, add some more!
As ten years of lifespan burned away, an aura far exceeding anything before erupted from Iwasaki's body.

He poured all his newly acquired energy into the invisible and mage's hand, his body instantly becoming almost ethereal, while the invisible giant hand gripped the binding force fiercely in the opposite direction.

Even so, there was still no way to fight against it.

He could feel the power he unleashed hitting a wall of sighs, able to shake it a little, but only a little.

Oh no, I didn't spend enough money!

Overdrafting is not unlimited; one cannot continuously exploit the life force in a short period of time.

Nobita would not allow Yuuto to attack Iwasaki. Regardless of their past conflicts, they now share the same enemy!

With his jaw clenched, just as he was about to make a final desperate attempt using his last skill cooldown card, an equally invisible and terrifying force instantly enveloped him.

As if gripped in a giant hand, the warrior's armor made a cracking sound, and he was being slowly crushed like a tin can.

If it weren't for that bottle of holy spring water replenishing his life in time, he would have already passed away in that short time.

The health bar is flashing wildly under pressure, slowly decreasing.

Renault, who was pretending to be dead, was thinking rapidly. He wanted to flee far away immediately, but under the terrifying pressure, he was worried that any movement would immediately attract attention. He could only continue to maintain his posture and hope that a better opportunity would come later.

The ground beneath the winged figure suddenly rippled violently, and with a whoosh, countless tenacious climbing vines broke through the soil and rocks, roaring as they rushed toward the winged figure radiating white light in mid-air.

Then, the moment these vines came into contact with the winged man's light, they instantly vaporized, disintegrating inch by inch from the point of contact, turning into black ash that drifted down.

Yingli felt as if she had been struck by a heavy hammer. Her throat tightened, and she collapsed to her knees, utterly powerless.

Nobi, with his health bar dwindling, struggled to draw a card. If he could just get a lucky draw, maybe he could turn the tide of the battle!
Swish!
Above the sky, the thick, churning volcanic ash layer suddenly split open on both sides, creating a straight, ruler-like opening, as if a sword had cleaved the heavens in the sky.

At the crack, a thin, rod-shaped object plummeted rapidly, whistling through the air and almost sparking, pointing directly at the winged man below.

The luminous winged figure paused, and even without a head, it was clear that he seemed to be looking up at something.

Nobi and Iwasaki, who were fighting desperately, suddenly felt a lightness in their bodies.

The terrifying pressure that had almost crushed them vanished instantly. The two could no longer hold on and collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, unable to even move a finger.

The black object in the sky was moving extremely fast. The midday sun shone through the cracks, finally making it barely visible. It seemed to be an umbrella.

A black and red umbrella?
The umbrella surface was faintly covered with an unknown, yet intricate and rustic pattern; the material seemed more like... oiled paper?! How could they see it so clearly from such a distance?!

As Iwasaki recovered from his exhaustion, he realized with a start that it wasn't that their eyesight was extraordinary, but rather that the umbrella was expanding wildly.

It is getting bigger and bigger at a speed visible to the naked eye!
Until it blocked out the sky, the creaking sound of the umbrella ribs opening made their ears itch.

The shadow cast by the giant umbrella covered everything in sight, and the sky was completely occupied by the expanding umbrella. The surging volcanic ash was mercilessly swallowed up by the newly formed thick black clouds, and countless thick golden lightning snakes danced and shuttled wildly within them.

What volcanic eruption? It wouldn't even touch the umbrella handle. Compared to that, it looks like an earthworm wriggling.

A terrifying suction force emanated from under the umbrella, but it seemed to deliberately avoid the players, instead frantically drawing energy away from the glowing winged figures.

The earth was filled with flying sand and stones, and the terrible dust stained the shape of a tornado.

Even the lava was swallowed up, pulling out several fire dragons that stretched to the heavens and the earth. The earth seemed to be wailing, emitting a tearing sound.

The headless, white-winged being frantically flapped its tattered wings, unleashing a violent aura in an attempt to resist, but it was like a small boat in a tsunami, utterly ineffective.

He was pulled little by little by the powerful suction, irresistibly drawn towards the huge black vortex at the bottom of the umbrella. His broken wings futilely flapped against the void, and finally even the light was swallowed up, and he completely disappeared from everyone's sight.

Swish!
The giant umbrella suddenly closed, its ribs tightening.

The devastating suction force vanished instantly.

The howling wind suddenly stopped.

The millions of pounds of sand and soil that had been swept into the sky immediately lost their support and crashed down, obscuring everything in a rain of mud.

After an unknown amount of time, when the last grain of sand settled, the world returned to deathly silence.

Nobi Tomohiro stared blankly, tasting countless amounts of sulfurous fumes, completely oblivious to the radioactive mud and sand.

In the sky, the umbrella shrank rapidly until it became a tiny, almost invisible black dot, just like before.

Then, it fell into the hands of someone who appeared out of nowhere.

He floated in mid-air, his pure white mask revealing no expression.

He made no unnecessary movements, but simply glanced coldly at the tiny creatures of the earth through his mask.

Without even waving his sleeve, he vanished into the horizon, as if he had never existed.

Not only were the people present stunned and their minds blank, but they were also speechless.

Far out in the Pacific Ocean, in a carrier battle group, US Commander McCullough, who had just recovered some of his military observation equipment after overcoming numerous difficulties, was in his entire operations command center.

Through relatively clear footage, they witnessed the entire process from the sky splitting open to the umbrella closing.

There was a deathly silence, with only the echoing sounds of many Adam's apples bobbing.

"It's him again."

McCullough leaned back in his chair wearily and let out a heavy sigh.

He could guess that the president probably wouldn't get a good night's sleep tonight.

Compared to monsters born purely for destruction, what they fear more are these mysterious beings whose intentions are completely unfathomable, yet who certainly have some purpose.

(End of this chapter)