Chapter 214: Japan’s Sorrow
A blood-red dusk enveloped Tomioka Number One Junior High School. The intermittent rumble of thunder and the crash of colossal bodies echoed through the air, this post-apocalyptic wasteland rapidly transforming into a barren ruin.
“Boom—”
The Living Weapon’s massive fist shot out with speed disproportionate to its size. A mangled figure was sent flying by the force of the blow, only to be caught by a red streak of light in the air.
“Are you okay?” Kisaragi Mika, dressed in her miko attire, caught the airborne Furukawa Hana, her robes instantly stained with blood.
She looked at Furukawa Hana in her arms, then back at the Living Weapon, a flicker of despair crossing her mind for the first time.
The opponent… was too powerful…
In just three minutes of fighting, everyone was severely injured. Even though the Living Weapon hadn’t used its devastating beam again, its raw speed and power were overwhelming.
Gaishu, originally planning to attack its lower body, had to abandon his strategy when the Living Weapon planted its legs firmly on the ground, turning instead to circling and looking for an opportunity.
Planted firmly on the ground, like an impenetrable fortress, the Living Weapon displayed remarkable patience in battle.
It seemed to know that the B-ranks it was fighting had fewer Blood Crystal reserves, and simply focused on defense.
Whenever these annoying “insects” paused to replenish their blood crystals, it would unleash a swift and brutal attack, interrupting their recovery.
Under this constant pressure, Furukawa Hana, her reaction speed slowed, was hit by several heavy blows, suffering injuries all over her body.
Thanks to the timely rescues by the Ino Giant, she had a few chances to recover, but at the cost of the giant’s right arm being torn, with insufficient blood crystals to heal.
Gaishu, in his several attempts to decapitate the creature, had two fingers on his right hand severed by the strange carapace on the Living Weapon and suffered a direct blow to his body when he was caught.
Kisaragi Mika, the only long-range attacker, had almost exhausted her Blood Crystals, even using the two remaining bags of Blood Crystal Serum given to her by the Ino God, which she had been saving as a precious heirloom.
Compared to their battered state, the Living Weapon seemed unscathed, their attacks only slightly damaging its carapace.
Because they had to constantly move to avoid the Living Weapon’s attacks, they couldn’t focus their attacks on a single point.
“Boom—”
A flash of crimson lightning streaked to the ground below them. Gaishu, his face covered in blood, knelt on the ground, gasping for air.
They had done their best… They had used all their skills, fought with everything they had, but they couldn’t even shake this Living Weapon, which stood immobile like a metal fortress.
Was this the end?
Despair filled their hearts as they watched the Ino Giant in the distance, tirelessly charging again and again with its single remaining arm.
The more the Ino Giant fought, the more tragic it seemed.
“I’m going to help Lord Ino…” Kisaragi Mika quickly descended, placing Furukawa Hana beside Gaishu, seemingly about to fly over and assist the Ino Giant.
“Don’t…” Furukawa Hana grabbed Kisaragi Mika’s sleeve, spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with flesh. “You can fly… Just fly away. Leave Japan, go to China… cough, cough…”
Furukawa Hana had completely given up hope. She couldn’t bear to watch this young girl, poisoned by the cult, throw her life away.
“Let me go! Sister Furukawa! Lord Ino needs me!”
Kisaragi Mika yanked her sleeve free, accidentally pulling down the already weakened Furukawa Hana. Panicked, she quickly squatted down and helped her up.
“Damn it…” Gaishu slammed his fist into the ground, furious at his own helplessness.
“Boom—”
Another loud crash. The Ino Giant was sent flying by a punch, its massive body almost embedded in the small mountain behind it.
But this time, as it struggled to its feet, a gaping hole was visible in its chest, revealing its glowing blue, fleshy heart within.
“Lord Ino!!!”
The girl’s heart-wrenching cry echoed, despair completely engulfing everyone.
They had lost, completely and utterly—this was not a monster they could defeat with conventional means.
But just then, almost everyone heard a faint buzzing sound.
“Buzz…”
It was the sound of a giant insect’s wings, growing closer and closer.
Gaishu looked back and saw the giant insect, the one that was supposed to take them away, hovering in the distance, seemingly observing. Now, it was returning, flying rapidly towards them.
Was it coming to take them away…?
Find a place to survive with their broken bodies, wait for the recovered A-rank to sweep across Japan, and then die in the final purge… Perhaps this was their fate.
As the giant insect approached, it transformed into a human form in mid-air and landed steadily.
“Mommy said, if you can create an opening and put me inside, and then you run away, I can defeat this monster!”
The little girl spoke excitedly in Japanese, the sheer amount of information in her words stunning everyone present.
Create an opening… put this little girl inside, and that was it?
Gaishu was the first to react. He quickly looked towards the Living Weapon and saw the Ino Giant, dragging its battered body, charging towards the Living Weapon, which was struggling to pull itself from the ground.
“Boom—!”
Taking another direct hit from the Living Weapon, the Ino Giant punched the Living Weapon in the side, sending shards of black carapace flying.
The Ino Giant, from the beginning until now, had been focusing its attacks on that area. The black armor there was visibly more dented than elsewhere.
“An opening… Ino has been creating an opening.” Gaishu didn’t hesitate. Like a drowning man grasping at a straw, his body crackled with lightning.
“Boom—”
With a burst of thunder, Gaishu transformed into a bolt of lightning and slammed into the hole created by the Ino Giant’s desperate attacks.
“Huff… huff…” Furukawa Hana, her body covered in fractures, remained where she was, gasping for breath. She looked at the adorable little girl with the white twintails.
“Little one,” Furukawa Hana looked at the small backpack behind the little girl and asked with a smile, “Can you lend your big sister a Blood Crystal?”
“Lend?” Huayibai blinked, then, without hesitation, took off her small backpack, grabbed a Blood Crystal, and handed it to Furukawa Hana. “Then you have to return it quickly.”
Lending something to a complete stranger… this child… was too trusting.
Without a word, Furukawa Hana pressed the Blood Crystal against her bloody chest, slowly absorbing it into her body.
Enduring the intense pain, she slowly stood up, looked at Kisaragi Mika, who was clutching her sleeve, and said calmly, “Take me there, to save your Lord Ino.”
The girl’s heart was already with the Ino Giant. Hearing Furukawa Hana’s words, she quickly wrapped her arms around Furukawa Hana’s waist, and, transformed into a streak of light, flew towards the Living Weapon.
And Huayibai, still on the ground, was gradually transforming into a streamlined flapping-wing insect, ready to rush to the newly created opening at any moment.
“Boom—Boom—Boom—”
Gaishu, having reached the opening, ignored all defense and evasion, using all his strength to continuously bombard the wound with his lightning-infused fists, widening the crack.
Suddenly, Gaishu sensed something. The blood-red twilight around him brightened, and he looked up to see a dazzling azure light, like a miniature sun, descending from above.
“Buzz—!”
A blue beam of destruction shot down, even penetrating half of the Living Weapon’s black shell, directly striking Gaishu, who was at the opening in its side.
The light, seemingly capable of annihilating everything, engulfed Gaishu, his figure vanishing within the beam, instantly obliterated.
The Living Weapon, having fired the beam downwards at itself, slowly raised its head. The beam, following its line of sight, cut a dividing line of life and death across its own body and swept towards the approaching Purple-Skinned Giant.
The blue beam sliced the charging giant in half from bottom to top. But before being cut, the giant seemed to anticipate the attack and shifted its body slightly.
It protected its heart, then, using its momentum, its remaining left half, still clutching its heart, swung its left fist with all its might, landing a final blow on the wound.
“Boom—”
This punch was much weaker, unable to penetrate the final layer of armor.
After this last punch, the Purple-Skinned Giant, with only half its body remaining, clinging to life with its powerful self-healing ability, slowly collapsed at the Living Weapon’s feet.
As long as the Living Weapon pulled its leg free from the ground, it could crush the giant like a steamroller, turning it into a paste.
But just as the sky darkened again, a red streak of light flashed across the sky.
“Bastard—!!!”
The girl in the air, using all her strength, unleashed a red beam of energy, and at the tip of this beam was a woman holding a piece of giant carapace as a shield.
The tremendous force of the beam propelled the woman, shield in hand, towards the Living Weapon’s side.
Just before impact, the woman at the forefront of the beam smiled faintly, released the shield, and clenched her fists towards the wound.
The powerful force of the red beam slammed the carapace into her back, the impact nearly shattering her spine.
With this near-frenzied speed and momentum, she gathered all her strength and rapidly punched at the wound before her.
“Boom—”
The red beam pressed against the black carapace, the carapace propelling the woman, the woman throwing her fists until they finally struck the wound. All of this happened in a single second.
“Crash—!”
The woman’s fists slammed into the black armor, creating a deep crack in the final layer… but only a crack, no blood spilled out.
But the beam behind her was still pushing.
“Crack—”
Like a sausage being crushed in a hydraulic press, her body shattered under the force of the carapace, and, along with the carapace and the beam, slammed into the cracked opening.
As her body was crushed into a meat patty…
The armor… shattered.
The crack created by her all-out punch finally took effect, allowing the final beam to blast open the wound.
A torrent of blood, like blood crystal liquid, gushed out, washing down the black carapace along with her shattered remains.
“Buzz——”
Huayibai, transformed into a flapping-wing insect, arrived, diving headfirst into the passage created by the B-rank Awakened’s sacrifice.
She was in.
Under the blood-red twilight, a huge, terrifying monster pulled its body from the earth, scanned its surroundings, and then, its legs churning, slowly crawled towards the dark depths of the ocean.
…
“Mommy! Huayibai’s inside! I’ve laid out the blanket~”
Kun City, villa district, inside a villa with vine curtains.
Huayibai, lying in Lin Jiayao’s arms, suddenly raised her head and looked at Lin Jiayao with a smile.
“Good, well done.” Lin Jiayao nodded, reached out, rubbed Huayibai’s head, and said with a smile.
With the plan working, Lin Jiayao felt a sense of relief. This meant Huayibai would gain at least an A-rank body, enough for a direct evolution.
Having a close-fitting, A-rank, bulletproof little cotton-padded jacket, just the thought was reassuring.
“It worked?” Her sister, upon hearing this news, was also very happy. At least it meant the threat from the sea wasn’t insurmountable.
They didn’t have to run away and could continue to live here.
Just as Lin Jiayao was about to ask for details, she caught a system notification from the corner of her eye, a flicker of confusion crossing her mind.
[Do you wish to claim your system compensation?]
System compensation?
No. 5 was dead?
Wasn’t the battle over?
As Lin Jiayao opened the system compensation interface, she heard Huayibai vividly describing what happened to her interested sister.
“And, and, that sister later asked Huayibai to borrow a Blood Crystal, but she tricked Huayibai. She was crushed into a meat patty, she can’t return it at all…”
As she listened, the smile gradually faded from her sister’s face.
It was normal for Huayibai, who wasn’t human, to not empathize with human life and death, but these things were still a bit too heavy for Lin Xiwan and Lin Jiayao.
Two Awakened who fought for their land and the remaining survivors, carving out a sliver of hope with their lives…
[Please claim your compensation.]
[1. [Safehouse Lv.4 (Red): Upgrades your 4×4 Safehouse to 5×5.]]
[2. Obtain [Research Lab Lv.1]]
[3. Obtain Blood Crystal x25]
[Note 1: Because the system cannot repair the injuries of No. 5 [Unnamed], and it cannot remain at the original extraction point due to force majeure, this compensation is issued. The host needs to log in and repair it themselves.]
[Note 2: Do not maliciously attract the aggro of high-level zombies before extraction!]
Lin Jiayao silently looked at the system prompts before her, then looked up and met her sister’s gaze. They had both looked up at the same time.
