Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 343, Section 90: Uesugi's Decision

"Wasn't Ashiya Dōman completely dealt with by the White Mask?"

"What's going on now?!"

Who else is in Tokyo?

A pure white cat figure was leaping and bounding between the dense rooftops.

The rain had already soaked her hair, which clung to her body, but this did not hinder her movements in the slightest.

Uesugi Neko has a clear goal: she is heading to the last stone Jizo statue on the western edge of Tokyo, in Hachioji City.

As for the location of the Stone Jizo statues, there's no need to ask other players; she personally visited all the Stone Jizo statues in Tokyo after unlocking her cat form ability.

Now, she wants to see for herself what changes will occur in the world beyond the protective light barrier of the Stone Ksitigarbha under this black rain.

While rushing, she also sent messages to Nobita, Taki, and the others.

"It should have nothing to do with Ashiya Doman. According to the clues we have collected, the energy mobilized by Ashiya Doman and the hatred mobilized by the Ripper are both negative emotions, and such things cannot be completely resolved at present."

"The white-clad mask set up a stone Jizo statue in the ruins of Mount Fuji, and the white dragon froze the giant in the London incident. They are essentially the same idea: to set up a powerful seal to block or isolate the core source of negative energy and prevent it from spreading and materializing further."

"The current situation is that someone deliberately destroyed the core stone Jizo seal in the ruins of Mount Fuji, causing the seal to disappear and hatred to surge out. According to the information I received from the official sources, various forms of demons, similar to those we encountered in various parts of Japan in the game, also appeared at the same time."

"These demons are very wary of the protection of the Stone God, and like the Black Rain, they have no way to enter the light barrier."

Takii had official sources, and after some analysis, his thoughts gradually became clear.

"It's not surprising that there are still demons appearing. The Doman family has collected too many demons. Even if most of them were devoured and fused by Ashiya Doman, or used as firewood to prolong their lives, there are still quite a few left, and there may be mechanisms that we don't know about."

"However, demons don't need spiritual energy. They should be like Zhu Hai, forced to be transformed into monsters that can absorb negative emotions, and the price is to become bloodthirsty and brutal, manipulated by human negative emotions."

"Tsk, wouldn't you say this is humanity solving its own problems?"

Uesugi recalled the information and immediately felt a sense of unease.

If this kind of monster, which feeds on negative human emotions, were to spread, it would be on par with the Twin Tails of America—it would be impossible to kill them all.

Want humans to be free of negative emotions? What a joke!
Hatred alone cannot be eradicated, let alone other messy feelings like frustration, sadness, and anger.

These emotions are completely intertwined with the fate of human history; if forcibly separated, a person might cease to be human.

The more she thought about it, the more suffocated she felt, eventually turning into gritted teeth.

Which darling broke the seal?!

This is absolutely outrageous and despicable!
What the hell do I want?! I absolutely mustn't let her catch me!!!

Fortunately, the stone Jizo statues in other locations were not damaged. Moreover, according to Taki, after the incident, the other stone Jizo statues were immediately placed under strict guard, and after the basic setup was completed, even officials found it difficult to get close.

Therefore, the cities surrounding Mount Fuji and the Kanto Plain are largely safe.

But her parents are still in Kyushu!

When she realized something was wrong, she tried to contact her family. The call went through with difficulty, but the signal was terrible and the connection was intermittent.

She only had time to hear her mother's tearful voice, "Tongyue, are you alright? I heard there's been another supernatural incident in Tokyo!" and her father's forced composure, "Tokyo is such an unlucky place. You should come back if you have the chance." Before they could finish speaking, the communication was cut off, and when she tried to call back, all she heard was a busy signal.

Contrary to their parents' expectations, Tokyo is safe, but the spread of this dark cloud seems poised to cover the entire country.

Kumamoto Prefecture does not have the protection of the Stone Jizo.

What if the parents suffer any accident as a result?
She would dig three feet into the ground to find the culprit and have him executed by slow slicing!
Lost in thought, she ran frantically until she finally arrived in Hachioji City, home to the last stone Jizo statue in western Tokyo.

At the edge of the light screen, the scene was chaotic.

The military has set up checkpoints at the main passageways, where soldiers in protective suits are sorting and conducting preliminary screenings of all people who have escaped from the Black Rain Zone.

Those who had been caught in the rain were instructed to go to designated shelters, indicating that the authorities were clearly very vigilant about the potential dangers of the black rain.

The time was too short, and no one knew whether being soaked by this strange rain would cause mutations, infections, or other unknown aftereffects.

Uesugi found a high vantage point near the edge of the light screen and summoned the shikigami Moyu.

"Go, take a walk outside and feel this black rain."

With a flicker of his dark figure, he silently passed through the soft light barrier, his already pitch-black body merging directly into the still torrential black rain outside.

Uesugi waited anxiously. About ten minutes later, Mo Yu's figure once again passed through the light barrier and returned to her side.

"Hmm, I see."

Based on simple telepathy, Uesugi roughly understood the meaning of Moyu.

This black rain is formed from negative emotions, but as long as you don't drink large amounts of it recklessly, there won't be any problems.

Even if one accidentally drinks it or is exposed to black rain for an extended period without precautions, at most one's emotions will become extreme and hallucinations will occur for a short time. These effects will gradually weaken over time.

In comparison, black rain causes more damage to mechanical structures and precision instruments than to people.

Moreover, the form of black rain is very unstable. Even if the initial black rain did not undergo any filtration, it is now beginning to turn back into clear water.

In other words, as long as the rain doesn't continue indefinitely, it will become completely harmless after a few hours once it stops.

"Thank goodness."

Uesugi let out a long sigh of relief, his tense nerves finally relaxing a little.

Her biggest fear was that the black rain would trigger an infectious disaster similar to a biohazard. If that happened, Japan and even the world would be doomed, and she would have no choice but to find a way to take her parents and flee overseas.

But the relaxed mood didn't last long.

Even if this rain doesn't last, its damage to Japan will be extremely significant.

Public transportation, such as trains and airplanes, will be difficult to resume in the short term.

Cities possessing stone statues will inevitably experience a massive influx of people.

A complete imbalance between supply and demand is just as terrible a chaotic situation.

She had to risk leaving Tokyo and returning to Kumamoto Prefecture, taking the opportunity to check on the spread of the demons along the way.

If signs of demons have appeared in Kumamoto Prefecture, then she will have no choice but to risk bringing her parents to Tokyo.

She knew the process might be difficult, that she was at great risk of her identity being exposed, and that it didn't align with her consistently low-key, safety-first personality.

But it has to be done.

Uesugi took a deep breath, wasted no time, and directly crossed the light barrier, disappearing into the black rain.

She will travel halfway across Japan to go home.

She has never minded protecting the world, but the prerequisite for protecting the world is to first protect the people around her.

The dark clouds in the sky continued to spread, as if pulling the floodgates across Japan and dragging it into the night.

Aichi Prefecture.

More than two hours have passed since the black plume of smoke erupted from Mount Fuji. Although more than 100 kilometers away, the terrifying black cloud that blotted out the sky, like a curtain of death, has already spread over Nagoya.

The blue sky gradually disappeared below the horizon.

The lights also disappeared; as the black rain fell, the city lights went out one by one in less than half an hour.

Only those buildings equipped with generators remained brightly lit.

The city's response was relatively more orderly than Tokyo's.

Thanks to the distance and the timely warning, most citizens had already returned home or entered designated underground shelters thanks to repeated emergency broadcasts from officials and the guidance of military and police. The streets were deserted, with only military and police vehicles speeding through the rain, their red and blue lights flashing.

As the core of the Nagoya metropolitan area and a vital passage from the Kansai region to the Kanto region, several Self-Defense Forces and special forces trained in combating supernatural disasters have been stationed here for a long time since the occurrence of the supernatural disasters.

After confirming that the black rain clouds were moving toward Nagoya and that monsters were present, the garrison commander made a decisive decision to abandon the conventional defensive line and instead adopt a tiered urban warfare defensive strategy.

By using dense residential areas and commercial buildings as natural cover, troops are concentrated and dispersed into fortified houses at key locations, organized by neighborhood.

At the same time, engineers quickly blasted or breached the walls of adjacent buildings to form a complex network of indoor passageways, enabling troops to move quickly and support each other.

Since the nature of the black rain is unknown and the outdoors is dangerous, let's move the battlefield indoors to minimize the enemy's environmental advantage.

But as time went on, even military communication equipment was severely interfered with, and everything reverted to the most primitive form of communication, relying entirely on shouting or having signalmen run back and forth to transmit information.

In a house located on the edge of the defensive line, a large hole has been temporarily blown open in the partition wall between the living room and dining room on the first floor, connecting it to the house next door.

A dozen fully armed Self-Defense Force soldiers were on high alert, peering through the windows and breaches, watching the streets outside shrouded in black rain and with extremely low visibility.

The original owners of the house, a middle-aged couple and their thirteen-year-old son, huddled shivering in their bedroom on the second floor.

The man held his sobbing wife tightly in his arms, while his other hand protected his son, who was pale and clutching his clothes.

Every conversation and every footstep coming from downstairs made their hearts pound. "Command center? Commander, we still can't get in touch."

"Keep in touch. If there's no news, we're completely lost."

"Sir, we really can't get in touch! The interference is too strong! We're completely isolated now unless we risk sending personnel to make contact. I remember..."

"Monster! One o'clock! At the corner convenience store! I see it! It's smiling at me!"

With a shout that a monster was coming, the pacing downstairs stopped and quickly turned into running.

"No, it's okay! Everything will be alright!"

The head of the household trembled as he comforted his tearful wife, slowly stood up, and quietly pulled back the curtains a crack, revealing the swaying beam of a flashlight sweeping across the familiar street.

Darkness is the best camouflage for these demons.

In the rush, the troops were unable to deploy many lighting tools and had to rely on flashlights to provide illumination and warning.

"What does the monster look like?!" the captain asked from downstairs.

"Black, black! It looked like a person but wasn't! It was very tall and thin. When it saw my flashlight beam, instead of running away, it grinned and showed a smile! Then it jumped behind the wall next to it!" The soldier's voice trembled uncontrollably.

The voice just fell.

"Aaaaaah—! Don't come any closer!"

"Help! Someone save me! Monster! It's a monster!"

A piercing scream suddenly erupted from the house opposite the direction the soldier was pointing!
It was a man's voice, filled with fear and pain.

The screams continued, sending chills down one's spine.

As the owner of the voice gradually exhausts himself and the voice begins to weaken, it seems that he has been subjected to some strong stimulus again, and the painful screams will rise again, and so on.

The soldiers looked at each other, their gloves soaked with sweat.

The captain's mouth was slightly open.

Damn it, are these monsters just enjoying torturing people, or are they playing psychological warfare?

"Grenade launch!"

"Yes!"

With two loud thuds, two small grenades pierced the glass of the house, followed by two loud booms and a fleeting flash of fire, and the screams came to an abrupt end.

"Ho ho."

The deathly silence lasted for less than ten seconds.

Rustle, rustle.
On the street, the sound of friction began to come from all directions through the rain.

Immediately afterwards, tall, dark figures began to appear and disappear at the edges of the flashlight beam.

They come in all shapes and sizes; some crawl on the ground, while others cling to the walls like spiders, but without exception, they all exude malice.

"Fire! Free fire!" the captain shouted hoarsely.

Bang! Bang! Tap! Tap!
Intense gunfire erupted instantly, bullets whistling as they hurtled towards the dark figures, splashing up black sprays of water, and occasionally sharp, eerie cries could be heard.

The soldiers relied on windows and cover to fight back desperately.

The battle lasted for about five minutes, and the monster's first wave of attacks seemed to have been temporarily repelled, with the shadow retreating into deeper darkness.

The soldiers, panting, took the opportunity to change their magazines, their eyes fixed nervously on the window. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and a faint stench of decay.

They had very little time to catch their breath.

Suddenly, from the darkness on the left side of the street, several pale, long, slimy, frog-like tongues shot out at astonishing speed.

"careful!"

Before the exclamations could even finish, three soldiers near the left window had no time to react before a long tongue pierced their chests and abdomens and wrapped around their bodies!
An irresistible force came, and the three screamed as they were instantly dragged out of the window and disappeared into the thick darkness and the sound of rain.

Only their terrified screams echoed.
This scene shattered the psychological defenses of some soldiers, and despair spread throughout the room.

"Don't go near the windows! Remotely operate the machine gun turret!"

Just as everyone was still in shock, faint voices could be heard coming from the darkness outside the window that had swallowed their companions.

"Help! Help! The monsters seem to be gone!"

"It hurts so much! My leg is broken! Someone help me!"

"Yamada, Kobayashi? I'm still alive! Help me!"

The voices were intermittent, filled with pain and weakness; they were clearly the voices of the soldiers who had just been dragged away.

"Yes, it's Sato's voice!" A young soldier excitedly tried to peek out.

"Don't move!" the captain shouted, "It's fake! Don't believe it!"

But it's too late.

Another team member, who was close friends with one of the soldiers being dragged away, couldn't bear to see his friend's desperate plea for help. He pushed aside the obstacles and rushed out of the house, running towards the direction of the sound: "Sato, hold on! I'm coming!"

"Baka! Come back!" The captain's furious roar was quickly drowned out by the sound of rain.

The soldier's figure disappeared into the darkness.

A few seconds later, his voice joined the cry for help.

"Great, they're all still alive! Hehe. I can't move them by myself, I need help, come quick! They're bleeding!"

The remaining soldiers looked at each other, their faces filled with fear and struggle.

Even though they knew it was probably fake, the familiar voice felt so real, creating a kind of uncanny valley effect for them.

The captain's face was ashen. He rushed to a general-purpose machine gun that had been set up and roared through gritted teeth, "Bastards! I'll teach you to lie! I'll teach you to lie! All you monsters, die!"

Da da da--!
Machine gun fire erupted, a torrential downpour of bullets raining down in the direction of the sound, spent casings clattering and scattering on the ground.

In the darkness, first came a few startled cries of pain, then turned into the soldiers' dying questions, filled with bewilderment and grief:
"Why, Captain, why did you kill us?"

Then, the sound completely disappeared.

The machine gun fire stopped.

The captain was panting heavily, his hands trembling slightly with anger and lingering fear.

The room was deathly silent. The surviving soldiers hung their heads, their morale at rock bottom. This kind of mental torture was more cruel than swords.

At this moment of morale collapse.

Bang!
The blocked front door of the house, along with its frame, was smashed apart by a powerful force.

A tall figure, covered in bulging tumors, burst into the room!
It opened its mouth wide, revealing a huge eyeball in its throat. After scanning the horrified soldiers, it grinned, and at the same time, its abdomen swelled up, emitting a dark red glow.

"Not good! Scatter immediately—" The captain's warning hadn't even finished uttering when he shouted.

Boom!

A deafening explosion!

A violent shockwave instantly swept across the entire first floor!
Flames, smoke, shattered furniture, and human remains flew everywhere, leaving no time for screams to escape.

In the bedroom on the second floor, the family of three was thrown to the ground by the violent tremors.

The man struggled to his feet. Through the cracks in the floor, he saw the scene below: a raging inferno and utter silence. In such an explosion, there were probably no survivors.

And beneath this deathly silence

thump, thump, thump
Heavy, slow footsteps could be clearly heard coming from the wooden staircase leading to the second floor.

Each step was accompanied by the creaking of the stairs.

The couple exchanged a desperate glance, both seeing the same resolute determination in each other's eyes.

The man rushed to the window and struggled to open it, which was warped from the impact.

The woman used all her strength to push and carry their son, who was terrified and pale as a sheet, to the window.

"Run! Don't look back! Find a place to hide!"

Without giving their son any time to react, the two of them slammed the window shut, locked it from the inside, and then drew the curtains.

(End of this chapter)