Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 348, Section 95: The Japanese Invasion of Japan ╭(°A° `)╮

"Damn, my grandpa always said that if you live long enough, you can see all sorts of outrageous things."

"It's such a pity he died last year, otherwise I would have recorded it even if I died to show him!"

"Grandpa, have you ever seen a battle between the Japanese army and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces?!"

Kyoto, Funaokayama Front.

The flashes from artillery explosions seemed to last longer and brighter than those from flares.

Looking down from the high ground of the battle line, the entire area was surrounded by surging demons.

This is a pure human wave tactic that even a normal human commander wouldn't employ. Even a Zerg commander who comes over and takes a look would have to raise his tentacles and say, "This is truly impressive; you're the best."

Unfortunately, they were facing demons with almost no morale and no energy. Many soldiers who were optimistic before the battle began to waver just by seeing this scene.

Can we really win?

Fortunately, the occasional flashes of silver light, like sword energy, from the direction of the main gate, and the sight of Taki, who was killing indiscriminately like Lu Bu, brought them some comfort.

In this context, Muramasa Takii has unknowingly become a figurehead.

As long as the flag remains in place, morale can remain generally stable unless there are major changes on the battlefield.

The demons knew this, so they mobilized a lot of forces to specifically besiege Takii, trying to give her any opening.

Monsters are like waves, and Takii is like a reef.

The giant wave shattered into spray, but the reef remained in place.

Well, no, that's not right either. The reef itself moved towards the waves.

The clicking and snapping sounds were incessant.

Takii spun like a top, scattering limbs, broken blades, and shattered military caps in all directions.

There's no such thing as going in and out multiple times; once she's inside, she doesn't plan to come out unless the demons are defeated.

see through!

He casually deflected a small, obnoxious creature, and in the process, chopped down a bunch of nearby demons.

The bone knife was about to give way, but it didn't matter. She had already circled around and basically returned to her starting point. She casually pulled out a spare bone knife that even demons dared not touch and continued the fight.

The demon's gun could fire, but against such a fast-moving single target, a bayonet was clearly more practical.

However, with each step she takes, a small area in front of her is cleared, making it impossible for demons to get close to this perpetually moving princess who is constantly wielding a long sword.

However, even if the demons couldn't find Taki's weakness, they had still achieved their secondary objective.

That is to use numerical superiority to keep Takii tightly entangled, and then pin their hopes on breakthroughs in other areas.

This is not so much wisdom as a collective emergence of thought.

Takii, however, was single-minded, focused solely on killing.

She knew she couldn't hold this line of defense by herself, but there was still Hirosue Eri, wasn't there?

Eri can manipulate plants and is naturally good at defense, so she probably doesn't really need sunlight like Plants vs. Zombies!

Although they haven't collaborated many times, they seem quite reliable in terms of personality.

Otherwise, are we supposed to rely on Hayato?

Just as Takii suspected, Hirosue Eri was indeed watching the battle nearby at that time.

Instead of immediately joining the battle, she studied the thick, cold black rain.

If there were a way to absorb this black rain...
She tried using induced plants to absorb the black rain, and it did work, but most of the plants she had couldn't withstand the large amount of absorption. They would wither after absorbing a few liters, and the absorbed rain would just spray out again, so it was all for nothing.

With a large number of seeds, it's difficult to control the absorption of even a small amount by each seed.

"These things are disgusting."

Eri frowned, opened the seed bank, and fell into deep thought.

"Like... materialized negative emotions?"

She naturally had no idea that after the collapse of the Underworld, the spirits of the dead in Japan had nowhere to go and could only dissipate into the world.

But the joys and sorrows accumulated in the soul will not dissipate together, but will be deposited on the earth like residue.

Unlike living people, the emotions emanating from a group of living people are diffuse, appearing to a sensitive person like wisps of mist.

The crystallization of the souls of the dead tends to be an invisible and intangible solid.

Let's take Zhu Hai as an example:

Eating the negative emotions emanating from living people is like eating fresh shit.

Eating the crystallization of the dead is simply dried excrement.

If nothing unexpected happens, these things will remain buried deep underground forever.

Unfortunately, just like coal and oil, these residues gained their own value once they were discovered.

Similarly, once someone ignites this fire, it is very difficult to control it.

Ashiya Dōman and the Ripper were such igniters.

Higashiyama Shinji did his utmost to stop the "burning" incident, but since they were the ones who caused the damage, let them deal with it themselves.

Unbeknownst to him, he had gradually placed himself in a realm beyond humanity.

These things aren't without their nemesis; Higashiyama Shin's new Yellow Springs could absorb them, but he doesn't want to, finding them dirty, and purifying them into Yin energy is quite troublesome.

The hatred and resentment from the London giants that the little snake from the other side had eaten will probably take them a while to process.

What if we put in compost that's been piled up for a thousand years?
Don't kill all the fish in the Sanzu River with the smoke.

Strictly speaking, the imperial army in Kyoto that was composed of demons was not actually made up of the spirits of the dead at that time.

However, the fact that demons would launch an attack in this form indicates that the content of this ideology is quite high, both in the past and present.

The battle continues.

The demons gradually stopped charging around mindlessly and began to develop simple tactical coordination without any formal instruction.

They spread out, using craters and ruins as cover, and advanced in shifts.

Although the mysterious firearms in their hands had a slow rate of fire and poor accuracy, the resulting crossfire still caused considerable trouble and casualties to the defending American and Japanese soldiers.

Of course, the main force of the demons was still charging forward, keeping them busy.

"Stay calm, aim carefully before you fire! Conserve ammunition!"

"Medic! Someone's been shot over here!"

On the battlefield, various roars mingled together, creating a chaotic and tragic scene. The dark clouds and rain were the demons' domain. The army was almost completely cut off from all beyond-visual-range support and external communications, becoming an isolated island. They could only rely on the pre-battle arrangements, essentially regressing to World War II.

Coincidentally, the enemy's apparent appearance was indeed that of a World War II army.

World War II was fought by World War II, with armies against armies.
Just as the ground battle reached a stalemate and the outer perimeter of the defensive line began to falter.

Buzz buzz.
A roar of engines, seemingly from another era, pierced through the rain and the clamor of the battlefield, approaching from the dark horizon.

"What is that sound?!" A member of the Self-Defense Forces with sharp ears looked up in confusion, but his vision was too poor and there were too many distractions, so he couldn't tell the direction.

"An airplane! It's the sound of an airplane!" A seasoned American veteran was initially overjoyed, but his expression quickly changed. "But the sound is wrong. It sounds like a propeller... No, it's definitely not our plane!"

Many people looked up at the sky shrouded in dark clouds.

Several old-fashioned propeller fighter planes with slender silhouettes, elliptical wings, and mottled skin covered with layers of flesh and blood, like historical ghosts that had escaped from a museum, were seen breaking through the sinking clouds with a sense of temporal and spatial disorientation as they appeared in the sky above the battlefield.

"Zero?! Holy crap, it's a Zero fighter! How is that possible?!"

A Self-Defense Force officer fired a sharp, explosive sound.

He was deeply impressed by this aircraft, which he had only seen in old photographs and a few museums, and which symbolized the glory and destruction of the empire.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, it has reappeared in the world in this way.

"Air defense! All units, take air defense! Be alert for possible bombing or attacks!"

The U.S. military commander reacted extremely quickly, using a loudspeaker placed inside the awning and connected by wires beforehand to start shouting.

Fortunately, in accordance with the principle of being prepared, a number of automated air defense stations were deployed on the front lines in advance.

These smart anti-aircraft guns, which are tightly protected by waterproof canopies and connected by pre-set wiring, automatically activate the moment they detect an aerial threat.

The turret spun rapidly, locking onto the target.

Chu Chu Chu!
Intense anti-aircraft fire briefly tore through the rain, drawing countless bright lines of fire across the sky as it enveloped the ghostly fighter jets.

dong dong!

Several of the leading, clumsy fighter jets were quickly torn to pieces, turning into large amounts of black blood that splattered down.

These things are indeed demons in nature.

What's terrifying about these demons is that they seem to be able to learn, optimize, and iterate quickly, just like artificial intelligence.

In the sky, Zero fighters exploded and rained down, but some fighters were able to occasionally weave through the barrage of bullets and were becoming increasingly agile.

Shells occasionally struck the wings or fuselage, tearing off one side, but they seemed unconcerned, continuing their relentless dive toward the core of the position—ammunition depots and weak points in the defense.

"They're not here for aerial combat! They're kamikaze pilots! They're suicide bombers!" someone shouted, having discovered their purpose.

But what can we do?

A Zero fighter, trailing a spray of black dust from being hit, hurtled towards a heavy machine gun bunker on the flank of the position at an almost vertical angle, emitting a piercing shriek, like a moth drawn to a flame.

Clap!

That wasn't the noise you'd expect from an explosion; it was more like a puddle of water gathering and falling from the sky.

But it just so happens to produce the desired effect.

A burst of fire shot into the sky, instantly igniting large areas of the nearby black rain. Broken machine gun parts and soldiers' remains, mixed with mud and rainwater, were thrown into the air.

The entire fortress was razed to the ground by a pool of "water".

The soldiers near the landing point fared even worse. Once they were stained by the burning black rain, they had no way to extinguish it. They could only scream and roll around, either being killed by their teammates or gradually becoming motionless and burned into charred remains.

"This black rain can indeed burn. But ordinary flames won't work, and demons can't control it at will; there seem to be some restrictions."

"Otherwise, we could just set it on fire and burn down the entire camp."

The commanders and staff officers were sweating profusely as they analyzed the situation.

The official team is aware that black rain can fuel combustion under certain circumstances, but in most scenarios, demons have not been seen actively using this ability, so it is speculated that its use is restricted.

Otherwise, on the day it rains all over Japan, a fire could start somewhere and turn Japan into scorched earth.

"The lowland defense line can't be held. Retreat through three trenches to the central defense line!" The commander slammed his fist on the table.

This resolute, suicidal attack seemed to sound the clarion call for a general offensive.

As if provoked by something, the demons on the ground let out even more frenzied howls, and taking advantage of the moment when the anti-aircraft fire was drawn to the fighter jets and a gap appeared in the position, they surged into the broken defense line like a tide!

"Don't retreat! Retreat according to plan!"

"Second line of defense! Retreat to the second line of defense!"

"Ancestors! I am your descendant—uh!"

The soldiers were already showing signs of defeat. As the retreat was arranged, the outer trenches fell one after another, and some soldiers who did not have time to escape suffered heavy casualties in close-quarters combat.

Some even tried to appeal to family ties, which moved the demons, who then took their heads back to see if they had mistakenly claimed kinship.

"Don't push, let me go first, you idiot!"

"Get out of here, you piece of shit!"

The hasty retreat of some people disrupted the defensive organization of the central line.

The commander's head was spinning when he saw this.

It's over. The organized retreat seems to be turning into a large-scale rout.

What a terrible war this is!

"At least, I've fought against half an alien, so I guess I'm a hero of humanity?" The commander laughed self-deprecatingly.

The entire Chuangshan defense line became precarious in the blink of an eye due to this cascading effect.

At this point, Hirosue Eri, who had been watching the game, had no choice but to step in.

A clear, calm female voice, seemingly undisturbed, reached the ears of everyone in the heart of the battlefield. The voice wasn't loud, but it possessed a calming power.

"rise."

With this command given
Rumble!
On the outer defensive line, in the trenches, shell craters, and ruins that had just been occupied by demons, strange changes suddenly occurred.

Countless thick, dark green vines covered with sharp thorns suddenly awoke, as if alive, bursting out of the soil at an astonishing speed, growing and twisting wildly.

They instantly wrapped around the demons that rushed into the trench, and a terrifying constricting force erupted in an instant, with a series of cracking sounds, easily severing the demons.

Or like a giant whip, sweeping horizontally with a whistling sound, lashing out groups of demons in half, striking them away out of thin air.

Some of the vines have exceptionally sharp tips, like spears, piercing out like lightning, stringing the demons together like candied hawthorns, and stringing your heart and my heart together.
The vines intertwined, and in a short time, the outer perimeter of the defensive line was almost transformed into a terrifying and gloomy primeval jungle full of deadly traps.

The demonic tide that had just surged into the breach with overwhelming force was met with a head-on attack by this sudden surge of plants, causing its offensive to falter and revealing some unusually bewildered and confused behavior.

(End of this chapter)