Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 326, Section 73: Victoria

"Command center, this is Patrol Team Charlie-7, conducting visual patrols along Patrol Route B around Buckingham Palace."

"Received, Charlie-7, remain vigilant, area drone access has been granted."

"Understood." Inside the patrol armored vehicle, Captain Mike ended the call and turned to the other team members, saying, "Stay alert, don't let your guard down. Anything can happen in London these days. If you're a second slow to react, you could lose your life."

A soldier gripped his rifle tightly, his gaze uneasily sweeping across the heavy shadows outside the car window. He couldn't understand why his homeland, the heart of England, had become like this.

Did they do something wrong, or is this just an inescapable calamity in their destiny?

"Captain, do you think that big head might suddenly... uh... release something?"

London is currently experiencing a power shortage, but the British Museum's iconic sculpture and the recently discovered Lung Tree are both clearly visible under intense, continuous light, which has undoubtedly haunted the nightmares of countless Britons.

"Shut your jinx, Tom," the soldier sitting next to him snorted. "Just check your weapons and stop overthinking. If anything happens, all we can rely on are our guns."

Tom shrank back, didn't refute anything, and kept glancing outside before looking down to check the guns again.

However, the events of the past few days have made them question whether firearms can still be effective.

Fortunately, they had some "holy water" to distribute, which was water collected from the rain that day. For this little bit of water, the officials and the citizens who stayed in London almost became one with each other.

It's unclear whether, after going through this process at the higher levels, what they receive is tap water or Thames water; that remains a question.

According to the veterans, rather than believing that those high-ranking figures would give them precious holy water, they should pray that their urine would scare away the monsters.

The technician stared intently at the tactical tablet on his lap, which displayed real-time thermal imaging and motion sensor data collected by patrol vehicles and drones; all was quiet for the moment.

As an important landmark, Buckingham Palace still retains a certain level of defense even if the King temporarily abandons it, and can rely on the building complex for defense.

The patrol car slowly circled around the Queen Victoria Memorial Square.

The beams of searchlight swept across the dark corners near the monument—hmm?!
"No, this!" Tom stared out the window, his mouth and eyes widening.

"What's wrong?" The captain, sitting in the passenger seat, immediately became alert upon hearing Tom's voice and instructed the driver to slow down.

“Queen Victoria… she… she’s gone,” Tom said blankly.

Upon hearing this, the technician quickly pointed the searchlight at the Queen Victoria Memorial, amplifying the power to reveal the entire statue to everyone.

But beneath the beam of light, there was nothing.

The statue of Queen Victoria, which should have been sitting solemnly on the monument gazing at Buckingham Palace, has now vanished.

No, not only Queen Victoria, but also the gilded Victory Goddess atop the monument, and the various statues and bronzes surrounding it, have vanished without a trace.

Only the bare stone base remained, appearing unusually abrupt and eerie under the lights.

The car stopped, and there was a moment of complete silence inside.

"Command center! Command center! Emergency!" Mike shouted urgently into the communication channel, "The statue on the Queen Victoria Monument has disappeared! Repeat, the statue has disappeared!"

"Charlie-7? Confirmed." The command center seemed not to have heard clearly.

"Confirmed! Visually confirmed! The statue is not in its original position! Data to be transmitted now!" Mike's words were barely finished.

Dede dede dede.
A crisp, rhythmic sound of horses' hooves, accompanied by a heavy, metallic, stone-like clatter, came from the other side of the square.

The hearts of the people in the patrol car tightened suddenly, and they all instinctively raised their weapons, while the searchlight on the roof of the car was also suddenly turned in that direction.

The light pierced the darkness, illuminating the scene before them.

In the blurry area where light and darkness met, a silent army was slowly walking towards them.

The one at the head is the statue of Queen Victoria that should have been on top of the monument.

She sits atop a bronze lion, holding a scepter, her face seemingly imbued with an aura of timelessness, as if she has come to life.

Behind her, several knights rode bronze warhorses, their hooves striking the stone pavement heavily.

In addition, there are dozens or even hundreds of statues of various shapes and sizes.

There are grotesque gargoyles, elegant classical figure sculptures, and even some abstract modern sculptures that look like they came from a museum or private courtyard.
They seemed to be silently gathering together at the call of Queen Victoria, marching with heavy, unified steps toward the patrol team.

Of course, the most eye-catching among them is the group of angel statues, especially the gilded Winged Victory.

"Run!" The captain's face twitched a few times before he quickly gave the order.

Are you kidding me? Are you really going to let them fight these superhuman beings with machine guns?!

The extraordinary should be dealt with by the extraordinary, or at the very least, by heavy firepower. What does it have to do with them, who are just mortals?
The driver, sweating profusely, slammed on the gas pedal and crashed head-on into the base of a statue in front of him.

The captain, who had just bumped his head, was dumbfounded.

Dude! You let me down at a time like this!
"No, this, I!" The driver was on the verge of tears.

Before the captain could even curse, the angels had already taken to the sky, the knights had already charged forward, and the cars had time to reverse, enough for them to smash the cars to pieces.

"Get off! Get off!!"

The captain quickly estimated the distance and speed in his mind and decisively abandoned the car.

The group quickly got out of the car and retreated towards Buckingham Palace while firing their weapons.

The military's support was swift enough that, after confirming the situation on the ground, the drones that were originally conducting reconnaissance quickly switched modes and charged towards the cluster of statues in self-destruct mode.

After several loud explosions, the smoke cleared, and several angels spread their wings and stood in front of the queen, their clothes barely even slightly dirty.

The Queen, her face haughty, no longer paid attention to the few cavalrymen she had sent out. Instead, she turned her gaze to Buckingham Palace, raised her scepter, and pointed it there.

The statue army moved at the sound of the silent command, charging toward Buckingham Palace.

In the command center, looking at this army of statues, even those who had seen many storms in recent days and felt that nothing was unacceptable still found it hard to accept for a while.

This is a symbol of their golden age of Britain!
Now they're attacking them instead?!

"How about we let the king negotiate and try to persuade him?" one of the advisors muttered.

According to seniority, William V could call Victoria his great-great-grandmother.

It's said that grandparents and grandchildren are closer than grandchildren, so wouldn't this be even closer than grandchildren who are five or six generations apart?

However, he also knew that this was unrealistic. The Queen's statue was not the Queen herself, but most likely a manipulated puppet. Using the Queen to attack Buckingham Palace was nothing more than a way to humiliate her.

If they really send the king to negotiate, they'll probably have to start all over again.

"Report! Lord Churchill has also come back to life. He's coming this way with his cane!"

At that moment, they were filled with regret, realizing they shouldn't have erected so many statues in London.

There should be an additional rule in the future: statues in Britain can only be busts.

“Smash them. Letting them live like this is a desecration.”

boom!
The bronze cavalry smashed the armored patrol vehicle and continued their relentless pursuit of the fleeing soldiers.

Bullets struck the cavalry, only scattering sparks and leaving whitish marks, offering no real protection. The captain tossed a few ramming grenades, which exploded with a series of booms, and the cavalry silently tore through the smoke, appearing before them.

It seems there is no escape.

There don't seem to be any traces of anything extraordinary around here! Something's wrong! Why is there a child nearby?!
The captain was horrified to find a boy not far away, holding a camera, standing there dumbfounded as if he had been scared out of his wits.

To avoid unintentional conflict between the official team and the players, each player, even those who came through possession of paper dolls, will have a fixed appearance so that the official team can remember them. However, there is no image of a little boy among them.

At least not yet.

So they didn't associate it with anything extraordinary; they just assumed it was some rebellious teenager trying to create what they thought was a big news story.

"Run! Kid!" the captain yelled at him, his rifle spitting bullets in vain, trying to hold off the charging cavalry for even one more second.

The boy's expression didn't change; he simply picked up his camera and framed the bronze cavalryman in front of him.

A flash of light appeared.

Several soldiers gripped their empty rifles, panting heavily, as they stared at the bronze cavalrymen before them, who seemed to have been recast into statues, their raised hooves almost touching their foreheads.

"Does the idea that health represents life, and that lifeless statues envy the living, mean that..."

"The Ripper's jealousy always had a layer of veneer; was that part of the ritual?"

Ikeda muttered to himself, scratching the photo with his fingernail. When that didn't work, he took out a small knife and stuck it into the photo.

Then in reality, one of the cavalry statues suddenly had a large hole punched in it and was then split in two.

The soldiers finally breathed a sigh of relief. They knew they had encountered an extraordinary being and had survived.

After dealing with the three statues, Ikeda tore up the photo, his face pale, and quickly disappeared into the darkness.

The captain wanted to go up and thank them but didn't have a chance. However, he quickly laughed at himself, thinking that extraordinary beings probably didn't need ordinary people's thanks.

At that moment, the group of statues charging toward Buckingham Palace also encountered their opponent.

Iwasaki stood in the center, blocking their way.

The queen stroked her scepter, then pointed a finger at Iwasaki.

"For the Queen, for Britain."

The statues uttered their first words of the day with difficulty, and surged toward Iwasaki.

The four-horse chariot charged ahead, flanked by animal statues, followed closely by various historical figures, while angels either protected the queen or floated in the sky, waiting for their chance to strike.

The guards at Buckingham Palace watched the scene before them with bated breath, their palms sweating over the handles of their rifles.

Can this infamous demonic mist really block out so many extraordinary statues all by itself?
Ultimately, the presence of history and angels gives people an instinctive feeling that these statues might possess some kind of special ability, just like how a Tesla statue would generate electricity if it came to life, or how an Oppenheimer statue would be given a nuclear bomb if it came to life.

Iwasaki watched them approach silently, and when they were less than twenty meters away, he casually reached out and gently pressed down.

instant!
The charge ahead was abruptly halted. Looking down, several large palm prints appeared, the carriage was slammed into the lawn, and many statues were either broken in two or similarly embedded in the mud, with only their heads sticking out and struggling to turn.

Just as he was about to press again, the golden angel of victory in the sky finally launched an attack with his angelic horde.

Iwasaki stopped moving and transformed into a black angel, enveloped in thick black clouds, and went straight towards them without flinching.

These angel statues are clearly stronger than the other statues, and thanks to their numerical advantage, they are not showing signs of weakness anytime soon.

But they couldn't harm the Hollowfied Iwasaki in the slightest, and sooner or later Iwasaki would dismantle them one by one.

At this time, throughout London, those statues that had long been famous and had accompanied Londoners through thick and thin for many years showed no sentimentality and began to wreak havoc and slaughter the city and its people.

An eight-meter-tall "Knife Angel," welded together from 100,000 criminal knives, has become a ruthless killer, its blades used to soak the blood of more victims.

"Ahhh!"

A soldier was pulled into his arms, and countless rusty blades exploded like hedgehog quills, piercing his body and killing him instantly.

Clang!
Sparks flickered.

Takiyi fell to the ground.

The angel with the sword slowly turned his head, and then, half of his wing and shoulder slowly slid off.

The next second, a large number of knives burst out of the windows of nearby residential buildings, regrouping at its wound site, while more floated around its side, their tips pointing towards Taki, and shot out with a whoosh.

Even without recognizing their true nature, these blades posed no threat to her. Using the Fire-Breaking Pill to continuously parry and slash, Takii launched another attack on the angelic giant.

Gunfire roared through the streets of London, and the remaining residents either huddled in their homes trembling with fear or prayed incessantly in key protected locations like churches.

A war over statues raged from night until dawn before finally coming to an end.

Swish!
Takii pierced Nelson's chest with a single slash, cutting diagonally downwards.

Hayato twisted the accelerator to the floor and smashed the goddess of fate, who was being controlled by Ludu, to pieces.

In front of Buckingham Palace, the remains of statues are scattered across the lawn.

The gilded goddess of victory now appears utterly wretched.

The body is broken in many places, and the gilded surface is scratched, revealing the bronze material underneath.

Exhausted and without any help, it still fearlessly charged towards Iwasaki, only to have its head grabbed by an invisible hand and unable to advance an inch.

Its head twisted and deformed, waving its arms in vain. The next second, its lower body was also gripped and pulled forcefully.

With a crisp sound, the angel's arm froze in its final movement, and remained motionless.

Then, like trash, it was carelessly discarded, falling from the air to the ground with a series of dull thuds.

Now, only the Queen's statue remains.

A smile appeared on its face as it met Iwasaki's gaze.

"It seems that the so-called God doesn't take much care of London."

Iwasaki's expression shifted; he knew this was the Ripper's tone.

This time, the other party didn't choose to make their move just before the countdown ended, perhaps because they wanted to see how much God favored London and whether a situation like the second round of the ceremony would occur again.

"With us here, that's enough."

Iwasaki gathered up a large number of statue fragments from the ground, preparing to launch a final attack on the Queen's statue.

"The ceremony is already halfway through. No matter where you learned that information, it will ultimately be no match for the resentment of all living beings."

"And I merely lit the fuse of the powder keg."

Bang!
The queen's statue was smashed to pieces, and all traces of her former dignity were gone.

(End of this chapter)