Chapter 121 – Opening of the Port

Chapter 121 – Opening of the Port

“Haa…”

Tachibana Yuzuki of the Nagoya Merchant Guild buried her head on the conference room table and let out a long sigh.

It was because she hadn’t been able to sleep properly for several days.

The information brought back by the Reconnaissance Team Leader that ‘Tokyo was swallowed by a giant Water Droplet’ was, naturally, an event with as much impact as the Man.

“What should I do…?”

Deep fatigue emanated from her face as she murmured to herself. She was already losing sleep just from worrying alone, and thanks to the Man, she had been in a marathon of meetings every day…

It was enough to make anyone exhausted.

According to the Reconnaissance Team Leader, the Water Droplet was a Castle of Underwater Monsters. It was speculated that there were no survivors thanks to the Man. This also meant something else.

The fact that most people died quickly also meant that there was almost no consumption of Water.

In other words, 37 million people’s worth of Water is dormant in Tokyo!

Starting from whether they should go to retrieve it or not… who would go, how would they go, isn’t it dangerous…

Even whether they should search for and acquire scuba gear and experts was a main topic of the meeting.

But that tiresome meeting was now drawing to a close.

“We must reach a conclusion today.”

As Yuzuki made that decision, she lifted her head from the table she had been slumped over, sweeping her long hair away from her face.

Clatter!

The conference room door burst open. It was the Reconnaissance Team Leader. Yuzuki, seeing him, greeted him with pleasure.

“Oh, Reconnaissance Team Leader! It’s before the meeting start time, but you’re quite early today, aren’t you?”

“Gasp, gasp!”

Having run for some time, the Reconnaissance Team Leader, who hadn’t yet caught his breath-.

“This is no time to be doing this!”

With her hands still trembling from excitement, she pointed at the curtains.

“Remove those curtains!”

“Huh? Why the curtains…?”

Leaving a confused Yuzuki, the Reconnaissance Team Leader walked purposefully to the window and pulled back the thick curtains.

Swish-!

From outside the window, the strong morning sunlight poured in, illuminating the conference room. But at first glance, nothing unusual seemed to be happening.

“……?”

It was just as Yuzuki raised an eyebrow at the Reconnaissance Team Leader’s actions.

“Reconnaissance Team Leader, what exactly are you…?”

“Look, look over there!”

‘There’s nothing there… ‘

Thinking that, Yuzuki followed the Reconnaissance Team Leader’s fingertip. It was the same outdoor scenery as always.

A desolate city dotted with numerous destroyed buildings. Above it, a clear sky with not a speck of dust, as humanity had ceased its activities.

Even after looking several times, there still seemed to be nothing.

It was then that something clicked in her mind.

‘No, wait, there’s nothing…?’

There shouldn’t have been nothing.

Because the direction the Reconnaissance Team Leader was pointing was towards Tokyo. On a clear day like today, a massive wall of water should have been visible.

“What on earth is going on?”

Yuzuki’s jaw dropped.

***

The gigantic water droplet had disappeared overnight.

With the sudden change in circumstances, the topic of that day’s meeting shifted 180 degrees once again.

Unlike the previous meetings, which had dragged on for days without a decision, this decision was made quite quickly.

It’s true that people only act when Fire Manipulation falls on their feet.

Yuzuki shook her head and clicked her tongue.

As a result of The Man’s meeting, The Men decided to send the reconnaissance team back to Tokyo, and Yuzuki also decided to join The Men.

They thought The Man woman’s ability might be helpful.

Of course, deep down in The Man’s quick decision, now that the Water mass was gone, it was also because the first one to claim the Water user sleeping in Tokyo owned them.

The Men, filled with such excitement, headed to their destination along Japan National Route 1, which flows along the coast towards Tokyo.

Fortunately, the cities they had to pass through had already been cleared of all difficulties such as passage permits and Monsters by the reconnaissance team on their last trip, so it didn’t take as long as before.

However, since the blue wall that used to always be in the direction of Tokyo was no longer visible, the atmosphere among people seemed to become more uneasy as they got closer to Tokyo.

“Is something happening in Tokyo right now?”

Starting with simple questions-.

“Hey, mister. Didn’t you do something when you went to Tokyo last time?”

Even people who misunderstood it as The Men’s doing…….

In all sorts of ways. Yuzuki sometimes laughed it off and sometimes fumbled to answer The Men’s questions.

‘We don’t know either, so we’re going to investigate!’ was The Men’s point.

Of course, this was also true.

Yuzuki wanted to arrive in Tokyo as soon as possible to check the situation. However, due to The Men’s circumstances, mostly having to travel by bicycle and on foot, their movement was frustratingly slow.

After three days of collapsing from exhaustion every night and starting to move early the next morning, The Men were finally able to reach the vicinity of Tokyo.

And on a late afternoon when the sun began to set in the west…….

Yuzuki and her group, with the sun behind them, looked at the darkening Tokyo sky, where The Man’s shadow was cast, and couldn’t help but be startled once again.

Rumble-

“W-what in the world is that?”

In the Tokyo sky, where the giant Water Droplet had vanished without a trace, several huge black ships were floating. They were so enormous that their dark shadows were painting Tokyo in various colors.

But there weren’t only big ships.

Around The Men’s ships, numerous Beetles were busily moving about, actively working.

Vroooom-

The Man Beetles were busy at work, landing all over Tokyo, moving like a swarm of bees in a flower garden.

Those Man ships were all made of black silver material with Adamantite Decks. But Yuzuki couldn’t have known that.

For her, only a scene from a history book came to mind.

“Black Ships…?”

Also known as the Black Ships Incident.

It was when the United States led a fleet of black silver steam sailing ships and forcibly opened the ports of Japan, which had been in national isolation.

“What on earth happened in such a short time…?”

The Reconnaissance Team Leader had visited Tokyo a few days before the Fire Manipulation. Since she had even received photos, she couldn’t have been unaware. But now it felt as if it had already become a different world.

‘Lately, the world seems to be changing too fast…’

Feeling dizzy, Yuzuki unconsciously sank to the floor. It seemed to be happening often lately.

***

Meanwhile, a few days earlier, I was busy loading materials with Worker Bugs and Armored Transport Planes, preparing for departure.

And I rechecked the list several times, because there couldn’t be any missing items for the long journey ahead.

‘This time, resupply in the middle will be difficult…’

The Pacific Ocean is vast. So, there weren’t many places to stop for a while in between. Of course, we planned to stop by Japan, but even so, I had to finish what I could prepare now.

It was even to the point where the storage space of the Assault Landing Ship alone was insufficient, but fortunately, I was able to fill some of the Factory Ships, which had enough space inside to be used as warehouses, with materials.

And after all that work, I saw the Factory Ship and Assault Landing Ship floating in the sky, along with two Photon Destroyers. Of course, 12 Aerial Motherships were escorting the fleet nearby.

I smiled, looking at the magnificent sight.

“Good.”

It was time to go retrieve the Earth’s strongest Artifact.

***

Observing Japan’s movements from the Observation Ship, I soon made up my mind.

“Hmm… it would be better to recover the Artifact first.”

If an Artifact appeared in the middle of Seoul, we would think that Koreans should have that Artifact.

This was a ‘natural’ line of thought, and I didn’t think the Japanese would think much differently.

‘It’s funny.’

Actually, if you think about it, no one contributed anything to the Artifact appearing in that location.

The fortunate thing was that, judging by the trends in Japan, hardly anyone seemed to know about this Artifact. Also, not many people were observed active in the vicinity.

‘Well… in a world like today, if there’s a giant mass of water, people probably want to avoid it.’

Especially if that mass of water is full of underwater monsters.

‘That’s something to be grateful for.’

It was an ideal condition to quickly claim it before others noticed.

There was no chance of friction with others, and even if there were, I would still be the actual owner of the Artifact.

‘I’ll just go for it.’

I started moving the Fleet.

Kuguguwung-

The target destination was Tokyo.

* * *

A moment later, in the skies near Tokyo.

“Wow……”

“It looks even bigger in person.”

“It feels like a wall.”

Everyone on the Bridge marveled at the giant water droplet.

This was because seeing it through an observation ship and seeing it in person were clearly different feelings.

Especially this wall of water, easily tens of kilometers in diameter, was visible from quite a distance on a clear day.

However, as someone who had suffered in my Previous Life, it wasn’t a particularly welcome sight for me.

‘Well, this time it’s going to be different.'”

This time, it was not humanity but the monster that was going to suffer. Seongjae looked at the water droplet man and opened his mouth.

“You said ‘the man’, so how do you plan to get that artifact?”

At the man’s words, Sua briefly raised her mana, then shook her head.

“I wondered if I could control it… but it seems I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. It doesn’t matter.”

I shook my head at the woman’s words.

This was a natural phenomenon.

It was because mana with an owner would repel each other. Even though 70% of the human body is water, a fire manipulation user cannot control water because of that.

Similarly, that water was already claimed by the artifact, so Sua would not be able to handle it.

This mass of water…

‘If I can’t solve something with firepower…’

A slightly different approach was needed.

‘That was just a lack of firepower.’

I grinned.

Ziiiiiing-

For water, this was not applicable to me.

Kwaaaaaang-

From the turrets of the two photon destroyers, intense pillars of light began to be fired almost simultaneously.

And that light immediately plunged towards the mass of water.

Chiiiiiing-

Each time a pillar of light struck, the mass of water, receiving a powerful force, vibrated violently as if shaking.

Chwaaaak-

This was a different feeling from when it was fired at the ground. The water, receiving the pillar of light and all its energy, was instantly turning into steam.

The steam that had nowhere to go from the giant mass of water…

Bang! Bang bang bang bang!

With a roar, explosions erupted inside the water mass. The resulting shockwaves were enough to disturb the water mass.

Furthermore, the Photon Destroyer’s turret fires about once every 8.5 seconds. While the steam explosions were in full swing…

Zzzzzzzzz-

The Photon Destroyer was preparing to fire again.

Both of them, at that.

“At this rate, it won’t last much longer.”

I grinned.

Boom!

And then, the next impact.

Increasing firepower was always the right answer.