Fate's Choice: Livestream at the Start Summoning Billions of Ravens

Yokosuka, B3 floor corridor.

Major Tom Brennan stood at the ward door with a twelve-man biohazard protection team. They were wearing Class B protective suits, fully enclosed gas masks, and tear gas and electromagnetic restraint net launchers hanging from their waists.

Brennan made a countdown gesture with three fingers.

Three, two, one.

The ward door was pried open with a hydraulic crowbar, and two tear gas canisters rolled in first. They were not standard CS tear gas canisters, but modified anesthetic gas canisters that released a mixture of sevoflurane, which could cause an adult to lose consciousness within three seconds of inhalation.

The white mist filled the entire ward within two seconds.

Brennan led his team in, shouldering the electromagnetic grid transmitter and aiming the laser at the life support pod.

The aiming point missed.

The life support capsule was open, and there was no one inside.

"The target is not inside the cabin..."

A soldier's report was cut off.

Because he saw it.

At the other end of the ward, with her back to the window, Funina stood there barefoot, still wearing the white hospital gown provided by the medical center, the tie at the collar half loose.

She was watching them.

The anesthetic mist was drifting towards her. The white smoke swirled and approached her body, reaching within a meter...

Everyone saw it.

The aerosol spray stopped.

It wasn't blown away by the wind, nor was it blocked by anything; it was the water molecules in the mist that instantly condensed into ice crystals when they came into contact with some unseen boundary.

Fine, needle-sized ice crystals suspended in the air formed the boundary of a spherical region with a radius of about one meter, centered on Funina.

The active ingredients in the anesthetic gas are frozen in the ice crystal structure, turning into harmless microscopic snowflakes that refract fine light under the lamp.

Brennan's pupils contracted slightly.

"Electromagnetic mesh!"

Two soldiers pulled the triggers simultaneously, and the electromagnetic confinement net was ejected from the launcher.

The carbon fiber woven net unfolds in the air, and the electromagnetic coils at the edges emit a piercing buzzing sound when energized, enough to paralyze an adult brown bear after being electrocuted.

The net short-circuited the instant it touched the boundary of that layer of ice crystals.

It wasn't blocked by ice crystals; rather, the conductive coating in the carbon fiber mesh was dried out within fractions of a second, becoming dry, brittle, and causing its resistance to spike.

The electromagnetic coil lost its stable current-carrying circuit, and the overloaded current burned through the insulation layer. Sparks flew from both nets at the same time, and they spontaneously combusted into two orange-red scrap iron clumps in mid-air.

The ward was filled with the pungent smell of burning plastic.

Brennan broke out in a cold sweat on the back of his head.

Funina remained unmoved.

He didn't raise his hand, didn't step back, and didn't even change his standing posture.

She simply stood there, tilting her head, looking at the group of fully armed people in front of her with a slightly confused expression.

That look in his eyes wasn't one of fear or anger.

It's more like the annoyance of someone who has just woken up being disturbed by a group of strangers barging into their bedroom.

"Will this ever end?"

She spoke, her voice a little hoarse, with a husky quality, but the arrogance and impatience in her tone were clear.

Brennan did not answer. He reached for the M17 pistol at his waist, flicked the holster latch open with his thumb, and placed his palm on the grip of the handle.

The four soldiers behind him moved in unison, raising the muzzle of their M4A1 rifles from a low position to a level position, with the red dot in the sights landing on the center line of Funina's torso.

live ammunition.

The sound of the insurance being turned on was particularly jarring in the quiet hospital room.

Funina's gaze fell on the gun barrel.

To be precise, it landed on the inside of the gun barrel.

She saw metal.

The next second, Brennan felt the temperature of the gun handle under his hand change, and he looked down.

The barrel of the M17 pistol is rusting at a visible rate.

The dark red oxide layer spread from the muzzle, extending backward along the spiral direction of the rifling. The rust seemed to come alive, drilling into every machining groove. Fine nodular protrusions bulged on the metal surface. In less than two seconds, the entire barrel turned into a fragile rusty rod.

Brennan let go, and the pistol fell to the ground, breaking into three pieces.

The same thing happened to the other four rifles at the same time: the barrels rusted, the receivers oxidized, and the recoil springs broke. From the outside in, all the metal parts underwent a corrosion process that would normally take twenty years to complete within three seconds.

Someone instinctively pulled the trigger.

The firing pin struck the primer.

There was no gunshot. The mercury fulminate in the primer lost its detonation ability in that microscopic oxidation storm. The sound of the firing pin hitting the ground was dry and hollow, like cracking a rotten egg.

Twelve people stood amidst a pile of scrap metal, their fully armed uniforms now rendered unarmed.

Funina blinked.

She herself was a little surprised.

It wasn't that she was surprised the weapons would break, but rather that the water droplet mark between her brows had already inscribed the entire list of functions of the [Sea God's Flawless Heart] into her mind the moment she woke up, including this passive defense mechanism.

To her surprise, she hadn't done anything.

Without activating any active abilities, without consuming any magic power, and without even "thinking" about it.

The blue heart embedded deep within the spirit core made its own judgment: the metal weapon posed a threat to the wielder, and initiated conceptual oxidation to eliminate the threat.

Fully automatic.

Hurried footsteps came from outside the ward door.

"Miss Furina!"

Zhou Ruo ran over from the other end of the corridor, her nurse shoes clicking loudly on the metal floor. She had been startled by the commotion in the intensive care unit next door and was almost stopped by the two Marines guarding the door when she ran out.

But they couldn't stop it.

The two soldiers both let out a muffled groan the moment they reached out to grab Zhou Ruo's shoulder.

Their hands froze in mid-air, their ten fingers twitching spasmodically, and they stood frozen in place as if they had been electrocuted.

A sharp, migraine-like but a hundred times more intense tearing sensation exploded from deep within their temples, shooting down their spines until their knees buckled.

thump.

thump.

Two bodies in Marine Corps uniforms slammed onto the floor, one after the other, while rifles clattered against the corner of the wall with a dull metallic sound.

They were not unconscious; their eyes were still moving and their mouths could still move, but their limbs were completely unresponsive. The command link between their brain and muscles had been temporarily severed by some force.

Zhou Ruo didn't even bother to look at the person on the ground. She ran into the ward and grabbed Fu Ningna's arm.

"You're awake? How are you feeling? Your wounds...?"

"It doesn't hurt anymore."

Fu Ningna looked down at her right shoulder, then at Zhou Ruo who was supporting her.

She recognized the person.

During her coma, in the period when her consciousness was at its lowest, a tear fell on her forehead. That tear was warm and salty, carrying the pure sorrow of a stranger.

That was the moment when the [Flawless Heart of Poseidon] selected its vessel.

Funina remembers the temperature of that tear.

"Thank you."

Zhou Ruo was stunned for a moment, and before she could answer, more footsteps came from the end of the corridor, heavier, more urgent, and more numerous.

Major Brennan scrambled out of the ward and pressed the emergency communicator on his chest.

"Iron Curtain, Iron Curtain, B3 level fire control failed. The target possesses unknown physical interference capabilities. All metal weapons are ineffective. Repeat. All metal weapons are ineffective. Request..."

The voice coming from the communicator interrupted him.

This is not a reply, but a command from a higher level.

"Everyone retreat to the B2 safety line, seal off the stairwell, and do not... repeat... do not enter the B3 level again."

Brigadier General Coleman's voice came through the communicator, and Brennan heard something suppressed in that voice—not anger, but a more primal emotion.

fear.

The waters surrounding Yokosuka Naval Base.