Chapter 147 (1/2)

The Second Cataclysm (3)

After a moment of silence…

“… They must be crazy.”

China was planning an unimaginable atrocity.

For a brief moment, I found myself unable to speak.

Ring!

Another call request was made on a separate line from the line where I spoke to the Senator.

I talked to him before he picked it up.

“There’s a call from the Korean government.”

In the hologram, the Senator replied as if he already knew.

“It seems that both governments, the United States and South Korea, have ended their discussion.”

It became a situation where Taiwan’s president and other key officials of the administration and the military had been quarantined inside the Taipei Dome.

The military command, including the vice president who was staying outside the dome, quickly formed a temporary base.

They sent help requests worldwide, judging that they couldn’t solve the current situation with their capabilities, but most of them had no concrete solution.

According to experiments conducted by the Taiwanese hunters outside the dome, cracks on the wall were created when introduced with shock using Mana.

However, The gap was only wide enough for a single person to barely pass through, and it recovered after a short time.

It seemed impossible to completely overturn the situation only by sending a few hunters inside through such efforts. They had no choice but to judge so.

But they couldn’t just launch missiles either, so while everyone was hesitant, China was trying to put that absurd plan into action.

“What’s the launch time that the Chinese government announced?”

“It’s 24 hours from now.”

If the missiles were fired immediately without notice, a disastrous massacre would take place outside the dome as well.

It seemed that China considered that even they couldn’t handle an incident of that level.

That’s why they must’ve given them a grace period.

Taipei citizens outside the dome had already begun evacuating after being warned of the bombing.

It was noticeable what kind of chaos would be unfolding at the scene.

“That’s just one day. I think that’s enough, but I’ll check it out for the last time.”

I talked to the Korean government on the phone, confirmed the Senator’s conjecture as accurate, and called another person.

The response was quick as if he was on standby.

– Yes, Guild Master?

It was the researcher with droopy dark circles under his eyes. J/V’s CTO, Jonathan Gray.

I skipped the formalities and got to the point.

“Can you get it moving in 24 hours?”

He had a pale face full of fatigue, but his eyes were intense.

The Chief Technology Officer answered with a burning look of enthusiasm.

“Of course, it will be ready by then, and we’ll be able to ship it out! You’ve already read the manual, right? It must be hard to memorize because it’s quite long…”

Of course, there’s nothing to worry about if it came to memorizing.

“Then, I’ll leave you to it.”

Taiwan’s ‘ordinary hunters’ gave up infiltrating the Dome because they thought nothing could be done about the situation with their power. The other countries failed to send reinforcements because they couldn’t find a solid solution to it.

But it was already prepared in Korea.

Hunters with exceptional standards and powerful means to replace ballistic missiles…

And all the related personnel had already agreed.

*

The world immediately protested China’s unilateral announcement and pointed out that it was practically an act of war, but they didn’t even pretend to hear it.

The Taiwanese military was also prepared to respond to the pre-announced artillery attack, but it was impossible to put up their anti-aircraft defense with their troops fully.

“No way. No matter how crazy they may be, would they actually launch the missiles?”

Time went by with many doubting about it.

Twenty-four hours had passed since the Chinese government issued an ‘evacuation order’ to Taipei citizens living in the People’s Republic of China’s territory, not Taiwan’s, according to their claim.

Dozens of medium-range ballistic missiles were fired from missile bases in Shandong, Zhejiang, and Fujian provinces in mainland China over time.

“They launched them! They actually did!”

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Sharp siren noises throughout Taiwan, as well as neighboring countries, ripped people’s ears.

The expected time of impact was only a few minutes. Everyone predicted a disastrous outcome.

It was then that an unexpected event occurred.

Late at night, the central point connecting the Korea-China coastline- on the West Sea.

At that time, when there were rarely ships traveling, a huge island was floating in the air.

Dozens of elongated objects similar to the cannon opening sprang up from its side.

And it quickly concentrated blazing energy as if it didn’t need to warm up.

Zoom!

Artillery shells with intense power cut through the air.

It thundered through at a speed that seemed to ignore the laws of physics and rushed toward the designated coordinates.

And a few seconds later…

The command of the Chinese military’s missile command was sent in chaos.

They confirmed that the IRBM they fired at Taiwan disappeared from the radar without a trace.

*

While China was enveloped with shock…

Dark darkness fell in the campsite of aliens, which was built in front of the Taipei gate.

As they were diurnal, just like humans, most of the Ogatu were asleep, and only the guards were on duty, spread throughout the vast area.

Their bodies were similar in shape to humans, but they had pale, corpse-like skin. Small chats came and went from all over the place, perhaps to soothe their boredom. Their language sounded similar to how human ears perceived seagull noises.

“How many of our troops have crossed so far?”

“There are over a thousand now.”

“We won’t relax until we get 10,000.”

“Yeah, it’s always been that pattern.”

They hadn’t yet started internal control, although they already blocked any movement by building the dome.

Their mission was to preoccupy the area around the Gate. They would then form a base until the rest of the troops arrived. That was because they knew that the natives in the dome couldn’t escape anyway.

They chatted leisurely without knowing that missiles that were supposed to blow up their entire vicinity had been shot down en route.

It happened in a split second. A colossal structure with a diameter of more than 3 kilometers appeared on top of them.

There was no air resistance involved in the enormous object’s movement, and no noise or glare could be heard or seen.

It suddenly appeared on the dome’s boundary but couldn’t be seen from below because it was covered by an optics light source.

The artificial island, Imperial Tactical Fortress, which floated hundreds of kilometers away from the open sea seconds ago, slowly opened its lower compartment.

Whoong!

A faint ray of light shoots down five strands.

Each beam of light was shaped like a tube that had an empty interior.

The moment it touched the surface of the dome…

Weeeeing!

A sound of alarm rang throughout the settlement.

The guards, who were leisurely relaxing, yelled in unison.