Chapter 292: Lab Rats

Translator’s note:

This is the next chapter from where the previous translation left off. If you unlocked chapters with coins in the old version, please comment here or contact us through Discord so we can refund those coins, since the translation was stopped twice before.

Because this is a very long novel, we spent the past year accumulating chapters and revising older ones so the terminology, names, and story details would properly match the novel’s setting and later developments.

This time, we’ve reorganized and combined all the work we’ve done over the past year, and we plan to continue the translation properly until the end.

Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you all for your support and patience.

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After establishing contact with Dr. Hououin, Feng Na swiftly prepared to depart. She walked briskly toward a resort villa in Karuizawa. The villas here were traditional Japanese wooden houses, evoking the residences of the samurai class from the Edo period.

Although the Yakuza are involved in countless gray industries and engage in many despicable acts, they often like to see themselves as samurai. This property here was purchased by Ishida Ryuichi of the Taoka Group. The interior of the villa exuded a strict, hierarchical atmosphere of deadly seriousness, with Ukiyo-e paintings hanging on the walls. It also boasted a hot spring and a golf course, making it a place specifically used to reward high-ranking executives.

Now, all the lights in the wooden houses within the villa were off; after all, it was already two in the morning.

Before receiving further instructions, Feng Na hadn’t given them much discipline, nor had she tried to make them undergo militarized training to improve their combat effectiveness. To be blunt, in Feng Na’s eyes, the Yakuza were nothing but meat shields with thick skin and flesh. In this war, Feng Na wouldn’t even spare her own body, let alone the human scum of the Yakuza.

Bang!

Feng Na drew her pistol and fired into the sky.

The abrupt, piercing gunshot instantly shattered the silence of the night. In a flash, lights flickered on inside the wooden houses. Several high-ranking executives hurriedly threw on their clothes, stumbling and staggering out.

Lately, the bosses of the Kira Group and the Shokaku Society had been arrested one after another, leaving the high-ranking executives in the Yakuza trade incredibly on edge. Because of this, Ishida Ryuichi had suggested they all relax here before the war began.

The Japanese-style wooden house in the center, positioned like the moon surrounded by stars, was Ishida Ryuichi’s residence. Perhaps due to his early days fighting in underground rings, Ishida Ryuichi was the first to slide open his wooden door and walk up to Feng Na. Forcibly awakened by the gunshot, he looked terrible and stared with displeasure at the curvaceous, blonde beauty in a qipao.

“Feng Na, do you have any idea what time it is?”

If his brain weren’t under Feng Na’s control, he would have loved nothing more than to sell this woman straight to a nightclub. It was a pity his strength was lacking, leaving him at her mercy.

“Good morning, Boss Ishida.”

“It’s the dead of night! Has sleep muddled your brain?”

The high-ranking executives from the other wooden houses also came out after changing, grumbling under their breath. But the moment they saw Feng Na holding a pistol, they immediately shut their mouths, casting angry yet silent glances her way.

“Boss Ishida, for us, it’s already morning. Next, I want you to quickly assemble all fighting forces and enter Mount Asama in batches. I’ll give you the coordinates shortly.”

“Why enter in batches?”

“That place is highly likely to become a battlefield.” A sinister smile played on Feng Na’s lips. Dressed in a desire-red qipao and black high heels, she was stunningly beautiful, but this beauty was accompanied by extreme danger.

“In other words, if danger arises, they’re just lab rats for you to sell out?” Ishida Ryuichi’s tone was somewhat dark.

“Yes. Not all human lives are of equal value. In wartime, isn’t the general supposed to hide in the rear, and the soldiers charge at the front? Does the boss of the Taoka Group want to lecture me on humanitarian principles?”

“They’re my men…”

Ishida Ryuichi gritted his teeth. The woman before him filled him with both fear and dread, treating human lives like grass yet speaking with such self-righteous conviction.

“Boss Ishida, you want to be a winner, right? I’ll lay my cards on the table for you. Even if we do go to Mount Asama, there might not necessarily be any danger. It’s entirely possible you won’t even need to lift a finger before the Tsukiyuki Family naturally collapses. Do you understand? I brought you in merely as insurance.”

At seven o’clock tomorrow, the Law Enforcement Department of the Time Management Bureau could officially intervene. Tsukiyuki Rio, the criminal who had crossed back from the future, would then receive her due punishment.

Feng Na’s purpose in summoning the Yakuza was to have them act as reserve combat power, ready to fill in if the Law Enforcement Department’s forces were insufficient, while simultaneously greatly reducing the possibility of any mishap befalling herself.

“In summary, seven o’clock tomorrow is a crucial turning point for both you and me. The Taoka Group is already the undisputed top Yakuza group in Tokyo. Are you truly content to stop here? Ishida Ryuichi, don’t you want to go a step further and replace the Tsukiyuki Zaibatsu, the leader of the Four Great Zaibatsu? As long as you obey me, your dream can be realized.” Feng Na’s smile was sweet, yet laced with a hint of madness.

“Fine. I understand.”

Ishida Ryuichi made the call. The subordinate Yakuza groups would form units of over a thousand people each, entering Mount Asama in batches. It was like those real-time strategy games where players always buy the lowest-tier units to scout into the fog of war.

“As for us, if we still haven’t detected any abnormalities on Mount Asama by six o’clock tomorrow, we’ll set out.”

“Don’t try any tricks.”

Every time he thought back to how his once-respected rivals—one had become a vegetative patient, the other had died in prison—Ishida Ryuichi, now the sole survivor, had an ominous premonition. In fact, before this trip, he had even written a will for his wife and children. As coincidence would have it, just like the Shokaku Society boss, he had urged his son never to join the Yakuza under any circumstances.

All that was left now was to wait.

On Mount Asama, the first group to enter were mostly reckless young bikers, newborn calves unafraid of tigers. Some of them were only seventeen or eighteen years old. They were a rowdy bunch, swaggering and showing off. A few carried beer in their hands, singing obscene songs at the top of their lungs.

“We’re the vanguard warriors of the Taoka Group! Looks like the boss really values us!”

“The future belongs to us! Ahahaha!”

However, the truth was far from it.

In Ishida Ryuichi’s view, the first batch entering Mount Asama was precisely the most dangerous group—a cannon fodder force whose sacrifice he would never shed a tear over.

Half an hour later, the first group send a message, stating that everything was normal on Mount Asama. The second group immediately began their ascent. A large portion of them even thought this was a team-building activity organized by the Taoka Group, completely unaware of the possibility that a war might erupt.

“What exactly are you going to use to deal with the Tsukiyuki Family?”

“You don’t need to concern yourself with that. Just follow orders.”

In a blind spot Feng Na hadn’t noticed, the Tsukiyuki Family had already placed her under full surveillance.

Time passed little by little.

On Mount Asama, the direct forces loyal to the Tsukiyuki Family waited in full formation inside a basement. When the first group entered Mount Asama, they detected them immediately and fed the intelligence back to Tsukiyuki Rio. Rio’s order was to stand by.

Only by continuing to stand by would Feng Na bite the hook.

Just wait a little longer.

Surrounded by her maids, Tsukiyuki Rio stood on the castle heights, coldly watching the rats trespassing into her territory.