Chapter 121 – Opening of the Port

“Sigh….”

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 the Reconnaissance Team Leader had brought back—that ‘Tokyo had been swallowed by a giant water droplet’—naturally carried a wave of impact proportional to its scale.

“What on earth should I do….”

Deep fatigue radiated from her face as she muttered to herself. She had been losing sleep just thinking about it alone, and on top of that, it had led to a daily marathon of meetings….

It was only natural that she was exhausted.

According to the Reconnaissance Team Leader, the interior of the water droplet was crawling with Underwater Monsters. Speculations flew that this was why there were no survivors. However, this also implied something else.

The fact that most people died quickly meant that there had been almost no consumption of supplies.

In other words, supplies for 37 million people lay dormant in Tokyo!

The discussions started with whether they should go to recover them or not… who would go, how they would go, whether it was too dangerous….

The main topics of the meetings even extended to whether they needed to track down and hire scuba equipment and specialists.

But those tedious meetings were finally nearing an end.

“I have to reach a conclusion today.”

Just as Yuzuki made that decision, lifted her head from the table, and brushed the long hair away from her face—

Clang!

The conference room door swung open urgently. It was the Reconnaissance Team Leader. Seeing him, Yuzuki responded with a welcoming look.

“Oh, Reconnaissance Team Leader! It’s not time for the meeting yet, but you’re quite early today?”

“Huff, huff!”

The Reconnaissance Team Leader, who seemed to have been running for a while, was still unable to catch his breath.

“This is no time for that!”

With a hand still trembling from excitement, he pointed toward the curtains.

“Please, open those curtains!”

“Huh? Why the curtains….”

Leaving the confused Yuzuki behind, the Reconnaissance Team Leader strode to the window and yanked the thick curtains aside.

Swoosh—!

The fierce morning sunlight streamed in from outside, illuminating the conference room. However, at first glance, nothing seemed unusual.

“……?”

Yuzuki raised an eyebrow at the Reconnaissance Team Leader’s behavior.

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

“Look! Look over there!”

‘There’s nothing there….’

Thinking this, Yuzuki followed the direction of the Reconnaissance Team Leader’s finger. It was the same outdoor scenery as always.

A bleak city dotted with numerous destroyed buildings. Above it, a clear sky without a speck of fine dust, as humanity had ceased its activities.

No matter how many times she looked, there seemed to be nothing.

It was then that something suddenly struck her mind.

‘Wait, there’s nothing…?’

There shouldn’t be nothing.

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

“What on earth happened?”

Yuzuki’s mouth dropped open.

* * *

The giant water droplet vanished overnight.

Due to the rapidly changing situation, the theme of that day’s meeting shifted 180 degrees.

Unlike the previous meetings where they couldn’t reach a decision for days, this time the decision-making process was remarkably fast.

‘I guess people really only move when the fire is at their feet.’

Yuzuki shook her head and clicked her tongue.

As a result of the meeting, they decided to send the reconnaissance team back to Tokyo, and Yuzuki decided to accompany them.

It was because she thought her ability might be helpful.

Of course, beneath that quick decision was the fact that since the mass of water was gone, the supplies dormant in Tokyo would belong to whoever claimed them first.

With such hopeful hearts… they headed toward their destination along National Route 1, which flowed toward Tokyo along the coast.

Fortunately, the cities they passed through had already been cleared of all obstacles—such as passage permits and Monsters—by the reconnaissance team during their previous trip, so it didn’t take as long as last time.

However, since the blue wall that had always been visible in the direction of Tokyo was gone, the atmosphere among the people seemed to grow more unsettled as they drew closer to the city.

“Is something happening in Tokyo right now?”

It started with light questions—

“Hey, mister. Did you do something when you went to Tokyo last time?”

—and went up to people who misunderstood it as their doing.

It happened in all sorts of ways. Yuzuki sometimes laughed it off, and other times struggled to answer their questions.

Their main point was, ‘We don’t know either, that’s why we’re going to investigate!’

Of course, this was the truth.

Yuzuki wanted to arrive in Tokyo as soon as possible to check the situation. However, given their circumstances, where they had to travel mainly by bicycle and on foot, the movement was agonizingly slow.

After three days of collapsing in exhaustion every night and starting their journey early every morning, they finally arrived near Tokyo.

And in the late afternoon, as the sun began to set in the west….

With the sun at their backs, Yuzuki and her party looked at the darkening Tokyo sky and were once again struck with bewilderment.

Rumble—

“Wha-what on earth is that?”

In the sky of Tokyo, where the giant water droplet had vanished without a trace, several massive black ships were floating. They were so enormous that their dark shadows cast a multicolored gloom over Tokyo.

But it wasn’t just the large ships.

Around those ships, numerous Beetles were busily moving back and forth, carrying out operations.

Vroom—

Those Beetles looked like a swarm of bees in a flower garden, landing in various parts of Tokyo and working busily.

Those ships were, of course, black because they were encased in Adamantite Decks, but there was no way Yuzuki could know that.

To her, it simply reminded her of a scene from a history book.

“Kurofune…?”

The so-called Black Ships (Kurofune) incident.

It was when the United States led a fleet of black steam sailing ships and forced the isolationist Japan to open its borders.

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

The Reconnaissance Team Leader had visited Tokyo only a few days ago. Since she had even received photos, there was no way she didn’t know. But now, it felt as if it had already become a different world.

‘The world seems to be changing too fast these days….’

Feeling dizzy, Yuzuki unconsciously slumped to the ground. For some reason, this had been happening often lately.

* * *

Meanwhile, a few days prior. I spent my time busily transporting supplies using Worker Bugs and Armored Transport Planes to prepare for departure.

I checked the list several times, as there could be no missing items on such a long journey.

‘Intermediate resupply will be difficult this time….’

The Pacific Ocean is vast. Thus, places to stop briefly were not common. Of course, I planned to stop by Japan, but I still had to finalize everything I could prepare now.

Even the storage space of the Assault Landing Ship was nearly insufficient, but fortunately, I was able to fill some of the Factory Ships, which had ample space to be used as warehouses, with supplies.

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

I smiled, looking at the magnificent sight.

“Good.”

It was time to go retrieve the strongest Artifact on Earth.

* * *

While monitoring Japan’s trends with the Observation Ship, I soon made up my mind.

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

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

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

‘How ridiculous.’

In reality, they hadn’t contributed anything to the Artifact appearing in that location.

The only saving grace was that, judging by the trends within Japan, it seemed almost no one knew about this Artifact. Furthermore, not many people were observed operating in the vicinity.

‘Well… in a world like this, if there’s a giant mass of water, people’s instinct would be to avoid it.’

Especially if that mass of water was full of Underwater Monsters.

‘I should be grateful.’

It was the perfect condition to claim it quickly before others noticed.

Then there would be no room for friction with them. And even if it did occur, I would already be the practical owner of the Artifact anyway.

‘I’m just going for it.’

I began to move the fleet.

Rumble—

The destination was Tokyo.

* * *

A short while later, in the airspace near Tokyo.

“Wow….”

“It looks even bigger in person.”

“It feels like a wall.”

Everyone on the Bridge marveled at the giant water droplet.

The feeling of seeing it through the Observation Ship was clearly different from seeing it in person.

In particular, this wall of water, with a diameter easily exceeding several dozen kilometers, was visible from quite a distance on a clear day.

However, as someone who had suffered from it in my previous life, it wasn’t a sight I missed.

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

This time, it wouldn’t be humanity suffering, but the Monsters. Seongjae looked closely at the water droplet and spoke.

“So, how do you plan to get that Artifact?”

At those words, Sua gathered her Mana for a moment and then shook her head.

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

“No, it’s fine. It doesn’t matter.”

I shook my head at her words.

This was a natural phenomenon.

It was because Mana with an owner repels other Mana. This was why a Water Ability User cannot control the water in the human body, even though 70% of it is water.

Similarly, since the Artifact had already claimed that water, Sua would not be able to manipulate it.

In this mass of water….

‘If something cannot be solved with firepower….’

A slightly different approach was needed.

‘That’s simply because the firepower was insufficient.’

I grinned.

Zzzzzing—

Of course, that didn’t apply to me.

K-boom—!

From the turrets of the two Photon Destroyers, intense Pillars of Light began to fire almost simultaneously.

And those lights immediately bored into the mass of water.

Screeech—

Every time a Pillar of Light impacted, the mass of water, receiving powerful force, shook violently as if vibrating.

Swoosh—!

This felt different from firing at the ground. Receiving the Pillars of Light, the water that absorbed all the energy was instantaneously turning into steam.

That steam, with nowhere to go within the giant mass of water….

Bang! Boom boom boom!

With a thunderous roar, it was exploding inside the mass of water. And that shockwave was enough to disrupt the mass of water.

Furthermore, the turrets of the Photon Destroyers fire once every 8.5 seconds. While the steam explosions were in full swing—

Zzzzzing—

The Photon Destroyers were preparing to fire once again.

Both of them, that is.

“It won’t last long at this rate.”

I grinned.

K-boom!

And then, the next impact.

Increasing firepower was always the right answer.