Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 192, Section 190: United in Heart and Mind

Kyoto's population is not large, only about a million.

In an emergency, if a large-scale evacuation is to be carried out suddenly, transportation will be paralyzed.

Therefore, the official strategy was to let them escape if they could, and if they couldn't escape, they should go to nearby air-raid shelters.

It is not recommended that people gather in open spaces as if they were fleeing an earthquake.

However, due to traffic congestion and ingrained habits, many people still fled to what they considered safe open spaces and buildings.

Perhaps believing that temples possessed some extraordinary power, a large number of citizens, who were stuck in traffic, blindly flocked to several temples, creating a complete blockage.

Since the Demon Sword Incident, Nichiren Sect has been officially recognized as a sect that once possessed extraordinary heritage, and instantly the entire Buddhist community has become incredibly prosperous overnight.

Temples in many places have seen a surge in incense offerings and a constant stream of worshippers. Now, in times of danger, they have become the first choice for many citizens who don't know where to escape to.

Among them, the Todo Honganji Temple is relatively spacious, located in the city center, and adjacent to a main road.

With the highway completely blocked, a large number of citizens, unsure of where to go, flocked in.

Many people believe that since Nichiren Buddhism has a remarkable lineage, Honganji Temple, which is also an ancient temple, should also have one.

Higashi Honganji Temple.

The Dharma Master (Note 1), who had packed a lot of valuables and was preparing to flee, was trapped in the neighborhood, listening to the cries from the outside world, unable to get out.

"What if Father disguised himself like me? Wear a wig?" the son sincerely suggested. He had already changed into ordinary clothes and a wig, while the Dharma Master was still wearing a kasaya.

The Dharma Master sighed, casually tossed aside the things he had just packed, and clasped his hands together: "Amitabha, how could I bear to abandon them? Since they have chosen to believe in us, we cannot betray such trust! Otherwise, how can my Pure Land True Sect claim to be superior to the Nichiren Sect?"

Upon hearing this, the son was overjoyed: "So, Father, you actually practiced some kind of sect's martial arts, right?! It's just that our opportunity hasn't come yet, so you've never told us."

The Dharma Master shook his head.

"So, what kind of secret treasure is enshrined in Hongan-ji Temple?!"

The Dharma Master shook his head again.

The son's smile faded, and he lowered his head as if he had made up his mind. He quickly picked up the bag his father had just dropped, opened the door with lightning speed, squeezed through the crowd, and left without looking back.

Only one sentence was faintly heard: "Father, I will take good care of my stepmother."

The Dharma Master's eyes widened: "Namo, you little beast! That's my life savings and my precious robe, you scoundrel!"

Seeing that his belongings had been taken away, the Dharma Master completely lost his previous compassionate sentiments and angrily tried to chase after him. However, because his robes were too conspicuous, he was stopped by countless citizens who came to pray for divine intervention.

"Stop talking nonsense! If you want Buddha to show his power, then give me incense money! Don't try to steal my Golden Silk Vow Robe!"

In the midst of the chaos, a shadow swiftly descended, enveloping everyone inside the temple.

People stopped what they were doing, whether praying or struggling, and stiffly looked up little by little.

That wasn't a dark cloud, but a terrifying giant whose size towered into the clouds.

It comes like a mountain, already close at hand.

As it approached, the earth trembled, each step leaving deep footprints on the ground and crushing large areas of houses.

The buildings scattered throughout are as fragile as Lego bricks.

"Run! Run away!!"

The giant had already crushed the walls of Honganji Temple with one foot, and people's illusions were shattered along with it. They no longer prayed for any supernatural power from Honganji Temple and fled away.

"It's all over, all over! The legacy of our ancestors!" The Dharma Master sat on the ground, crying out in anguish.

The next second, he regained consciousness and saw that his feet were blocking out the sky. He wanted to escape, but it was too late.

With one step, it completely merges with the ancestral legacy.

A primary school next to Honganji Temple.

Dr. Millai originally intended to conduct her experiments at Honganji Temple, but due to transportation and time constraints, she opted to visit this elementary school instead.

After setting up the equipment, he went to the playground. There was a sacred flower in front of him. He sat behind the flower and nervously watched the unbridled 100-meter giant.

He was already praying for the divine flower to enter its protective mode, but unfortunately, it seemed that because Honganji Temple was not within its protection area, the divine flower did not respond at all.

The school was flooded with citizens who had fled the disaster. They ran past Miley, running frantically to get further away.

The giant had already flattened Higashi Honganji Temple, his face a mixture of pleasure and barely contained rage, and he quickly set his sights on his next target.

“They’re here.” Dr. Millais suppressed his trembling hands and looked up at the giant approaching him, his breath coming in short gasps.

One step, two steps.

The divine flower remained unresponsive.

Is it because this level of threat exceeded the threshold that no reaction was generated?
If that's the case, then picking the divine flower here would be a losing proposition.

Mi Lai hurriedly picked up the phone, just as she was about to abort the third shelter experiment and activate the emergency recovery measures.

The giant suddenly stopped.

The divine flower in front of Milai began to sway gently, its blood-red stamens and petals lifting as if gazing in the direction of the giant.

"enlarge."

In the command center, countless cameras aimed at the giant zoomed in rapidly, and soon they could see that on the giant's right foot, vines like a dense river network were spreading and growing wildly, binding from the sole of the foot to the ankle in the blink of an eye, and continuing to climb up the calf.

The giant, who is over 100 meters tall, is struggling to lift his right foot, but it seems to be quite difficult for him.

Among the vines, clusters of spider lilies bloom in profusion, as if adding some decoration to the giant.

Unfortunately, the giant was unmoved. With a deep roar, the flesh on his right leg suddenly swelled and expanded, quickly snapping off the vines and regaining his freedom.

Even though its left leg also had vines extending, it used the same trick again, making its legs thicker and sacrificing speed to gain control.

The broken vines lay scattered on the ground, withering quickly, yet countless new vines still broke through the streets, houses, and vehicles, stubbornly wrapping around the giant's legs, revealing their brutal side, with countless thorns piercing the flesh, tightly entwining it.

"All things wither!"

The giant raised his hand, intending to sever the vines by absorbing their life force.

The ripples emanating from him seemed to hit an invisible wall, unable to advance an inch, and were even absorbed in return, having no effect on the vines whatsoever.

The giant was instinctively a little confused.

How can the vitality of this thing be negative?!
What kind of hellish thing is this?
If you absorb negative life force from the other party, isn't that the same as giving it away for free?

The ninja heart, corrupted by the intent to kill, may have felt that its own thinking was incapable of solving the problem, so it temporarily handed over control to Takatsukasa Tetsuto, switching systems to let him think.

The murderous intent in his eyes quickly faded, and Takatsukasa Tetsuto, whose face looked a little older than before, immediately stopped his suicide attempt with the Heart of Withering and Glory.

He is now facing a dilemma.

Inside the body, the Heart of Endurance's resistance against those three extraordinary beings was far too simplistic, like a demon king sending his minions to deliver takeout to a hero, only to panic when they were almost at the heart of the enemy's attack.

It destroys everything indiscriminately from the outside; if it had just rolled around a couple of times, the casualties would have been greater than before. It doesn't even know how to avoid threats; it's stubborn and headstrong.

None of the actions are human-like!

It's like suddenly handing him the controller when he's already in the middle of a game and letting him play.

However, it's not like we can't fight.

After enjoying the superior view for a few seconds, Takatsuki slowly shrunk his body to a height of about fifty meters, concentrating his more important energy on the more pressing matter.

Even if he is infamous for eternity, he will make sure that the name of the Takatsukasa Group is remembered by the world.

The giant's strength, now reduced by half, has become even denser, making it impossible for the sharp thorns of the continuous vines to pierce through it for a time.

The giant more nimbly dodged the surrounding vines, not wanting to get entangled with these inexplicably appearing things, and gathered more energy within his body to stop those guys from going any further.

"We can't let it get away, the experiment isn't over yet!" Millai picked up the divine flower and charged towards the giant.

He longed to complete the experiment rather than die.

The divine flower scratched its head in a somewhat anthropomorphic way, as if it had been thinking about something, and then turned its head to exhale a stream of red mist towards Milai.

"Well!"

Mi Lai was caught off guard and choked on a mouthful of the fishy-sweet mist. She stood there coughing violently, and her consciousness suddenly became hazy.

He could see the ground beneath his feet trembling as he coughed. Rumble—

In an instant, countless thick vines rose from the ground, lifting Mila to the sky until she was almost as tall as the giant, at which point the vines began to intertwine and combine.

In just over ten seconds, a slender giant covered in spider lilies was assembled.

Millai was fixed in the location of the vine giant's brain, wrapped in layers, and felt an extremely peculiar tactile sensation.

"Good, in that case, the experiment can proceed."

Milai wasn't too surprised, but rather delighted. She stretched out her hands towards the fleeing Takatsukasa, and the vines stretched out wildly, wrapping around Takatsukasa's arms and forcing him to turn around.

It seems that a tough battle is inevitable.

"I'm leaving the inside to you," Takatsukasa Tetsuto patted his chest and murmured.

After tearing through a thick, ever-growing wall of flesh in the giant's chest cavity, Nobita and his two companions finally reached the entrance to the ventricle and heard the extremely clear heartbeat.

Gurgling.

The gate of flesh and blood was tightly shut, and above, clumps of mushy monsters fell down, launching a final interception.

"Quick victory!"

Takii swung out her grappling hook, only to find that it failed to hook onto the fleshy wall.

“The monsters have become stronger.” Geralt breathed flames from his palm, but the monsters were no longer as easily killed as before.

"We're almost at the boss room; there should be some elite monsters coming."

Nobi wasn't surprised; he took the opportunity to practice his basic swordsmanship.

Besides these mud monsters, a corpse also quietly fell down.

He lay limply on the ground, his back connected by tendrils of blood vessels that led to the surrounding flesh, seemingly supplying him with nutrients.

While the monsters stalled for time, he slowly and unsteadily stood up, reached into the fleshy wall without any resistance, and pulled out a strange rifle made of bones and a long knife.

By this time, the three of them had basically dealt with the mud monsters and stood in front of the corpse that had come back to life.

"It's still essentially a corpse, just manipulated," Geralt commented.

Takatsukasa Tadaya's corpse raised its head, its gaze sweeping over them: "No passage here."

No one responded to him.

Geralt downed a bottle of potion in one gulp, glowing brightly as he charged forward.

chug.

The bone rifle in the corpse's hand fired tooth bullets.

Clang!

The sword cuts through the bullets, closing the distance.

"Sever his blood vessels!"

Nobi moved with lightning speed, trying to sever the obvious weakness. In his eyes, the corpse had no health bar at all; instead, the connecting blood vessels revealed rows of health bars.

But even after several slashes, the damage was slow, and it wasn't until he used a skill that he managed to cut off one of the blood vessels.

This thing is vulnerable to instantaneous attacks.

Nobita, hurry up and draw a few more cards to replenish your resources.

Just as he had used up a few cards and cut down a few blood vessels, with a few "poof" sounds, four or five new blood vessels sprouted from the flesh wall and connected to the corpse's back.

"This thing shares the life force of the giant, so it's not easy to deal with."

Slightly exhausted, Nobi widened the distance again and caught his breath.

“There are no monsters that can’t be dealt with, only unprepared hunters.” Geralt took out a bottle of powder. “I hope your reward is acceptable.”

After saying that, he threw the water away, and the surroundings immediately sparkled.

"Now!"

Geralt intensifies his attack.

Under this dusty light, the regeneration speed of everything around seemed to be suppressed. Even with the blood vessels that were severed, Tadaya Takatsukasa's corpse could not be replenished immediately.

So summoning requires a reward? Nobita is completely baffled.

He never paid anyone for summoning his companions! He got them all for free!
Does this mean that the same companions will no longer respond to his calls in the future?

Without time to think about all this nonsense, Nobita gritted his teeth and used two more skill cards.

The blood vessels connecting the corpse were completely severed, his arm was cut off by Taki, his chest was pierced by Nobi, and finally Geralt swung his silver sword and cut off his head.

Boom boom!

Almost instantly, the flesh chamber shook violently, and the three of them tumbled inside.

Nobi quickly took a moment to send a private message to inquire.

[Zhi: What happened?!]

[Mori: The vine giant I just told you about suddenly gained the upper hand, suppressing the monster giant and binding it to the ground.]

[Mori: The vines are now trying to tear the giant monster's chest apart!]

tear up.

The sound of flesh tearing gradually became clearer.

The door to the heart that had been blocking the three of them was no longer tightly closed, and a weak crack appeared.

They seized the opportunity to slip inside, and the first thing they saw was the enormous, violently beating heart, with countless eyes covering it, their pupils looking at the intruders with a hint of barely perceptible panic.

At this point, it was completely unprotected.

Even above, it was trembling constantly, as if struggling against something.

Although they didn't know where the vine giant that Sen mentioned came from, at least for now their goals were aligned.

Geralt narrowed his eyes, and his silver sword pierced the air.

Taki swung his grappling hook, hooked onto one of the blood vessels, and came up above the heart.

Nobi threw out his last skill card and thrust it towards the eyeball in his heart.

Three swords strike simultaneously!

Their hearts seemed to stop for a moment, then began to beat wildly again. Their eyes were filled with frantic bloodshot veins, and even seemed to be beating in sync with their own hearts.

"Guard your mind and don't let demonic thoughts affect you," Geralt reminded him, as he plunged the silver sword a few more inches deeper.

Taki took a deep breath and quickly brought his heart rate back to normal.

Nobita is feeling a little uncomfortable, but not to the point of being corrupted.

His heart rate spiked, his eyes turned bloodshot, and then they burst one by one with a series of popping sounds.

tear it up-

Sunlight streamed down from above, falling upon the heart. The light spots slowly expanded, and countless green vines spread in, penetrating deep into the wounds inflicted on the three men.

The speed of Ninja Heart, which had reached its peak, finally began to slow down.

Renault, who had been looking for an opportunity nearby, arrived just in time and quickly finished off the attacker, frantically absorbing the life essence within.

Geralt remained calm and quietly produced several potion bottles to collect the blood.

The fallen giant is like a whale fall, about to be sliced ​​apart by knives and forks.

　Note 1: Honganji Temple belongs to the Jodo Shinshu sect, with its highest leader called the Dharma Master or Gate Master. It operates under a family succession system and is highly secularized. It split into East and West temples at the end of the Sengoku period. It actively participated in wars of aggression.

　　The recently released RTS game, Rise of the Storm, is pretty good. It feels like going back to the Red Alert 2 era (I got so engrossed in it I almost couldn't stop playing).

　　
　
(End of this chapter)