Eh? You want to try the humanoid girl's iron fist too?

Raphael returned to the street with his instrument and sent a message back to Rin and Asuka.

"The rendezvous point has been dispatched. Estimated meeting time: 10 minutes. Please be careful."

This feedback message is clearly from Asuka; I don't know when it started, but she has gradually become more meticulous.

Regarding personal safety, she can easily resolve issues with small-time thugs and ordinary gangsters in remote corners with her bare hands. If knives and swords are involved, she has other tools.

Within seven paces, the gun is fast; beyond seven paces, the gun is both accurate and fast.

You have to understand that she is a true "American," and Raphael is very familiar with American Iaijutsu.

There was no opportunity to use it in New York, but there might be an opportunity in Japan.

Book 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 133 We Are Not the Gods Who Created All Things

The deliverymen were received by Asuka. They maintained their usual principle of silence, remaining silent even when they found the recipient to be quite different from the burly man they had expected, only casting inquiring glances.

Asuka remained silent, simply holding the list and confirming the supplies catalog.

The handover went very smoothly, with little verbal exchange between the two sides.

The occasional passing neighbors and passersby would only glance at them curiously; the moving company's trucks and loading and unloading workers were nothing to see.

When the guests left, Feiniao stood in front of the courtyard gate and bowed slightly, as if she had lived there for more than ten years since birth, so familiar that the neighbors could not find any fault with her.

Some dark clouds gathered in the sky above Kyoto, and wisps of rain fell, leaving a cool sensation on my cheeks.

After the courtyard gate closed, Feiniao stretched. The ladylike demeanor she had deliberately maintained just minutes before was completely gone. "...Comfortable."

It's certainly pleasant not having to lift a finger to move supplies.

The surroundings were completely silent, with only the rustling of the wind through the green branches and the increasingly loud footsteps approaching from afar.

Just from the frequency of their footsteps and the sound of their heels hitting the ground, Asuka knew that Raphael and Rin had returned together.

Raphael pushed open the courtyard gate and saw birds standing in the drizzling rain enjoying themselves. He immediately cut to the chase and asked:

Have you received everything?

Asuka opened her eyes and saw Raphael's flute case with a keychain hanging from it, which was hard to describe as either cute or not.

The rabbit's face was crooked, and its rather cheap-looking eyes were staring straight at the flying bird.

"The number is exactly right, and the type of bullet has been confirmed."

"Too cheerful, actually."

"Yes, that MK12 SPR seems to have been specially given to you by the director. He left a message hoping you would use it."

Raphael's voice was flat, revealing no emotional fluctuations, and her thoughts were impossible to discern.

Asuka nodded earnestly and said with a smile:

“What he expects is absolutely necessary. Only after ensuring your safety can we proceed without worrying about Raphael’s safety.”

"Well, it's our main unit after all."

Ignoring her soaked clothes, Lingyin jumped up and hugged Raphael, rubbing her cheek against his and saying affectionately:

"Protecting you is our job, so don't feel too burdened."

It is difficult to ascertain the exact size of the computing power and built-in storage space of the mind core, or even to fully imagine it.

As Raphael listened to the bird and the bell's advice, he knew very well that all their concerns were valid.

Born from the extension terminals of the host and from fragments of "personality", they will center all their external affairs on Raphael's activities.

"Okay, I see."

A hint of a smile flashed in Raphael's eyes as he feigned disgust and pushed away the clingy, kitten-like bell.

"Your clothes are soaked. Go and change them."

"Let's go together."

"Sure."

Raphael did not resist and let them push him into the bathroom.

Sitting in the bathtub with her hair up, gazing at the western sky, a bolt of lightning suddenly streaked across the sky, followed by deafening thunder, though it was only a momentary burst of power.

However, Raphael could still feel it in his imagination—feel its temperature, its grandeur, and the speed at which it traversed the sky.

The bolt of lightning shot towards the western sky and eventually disappeared.

Raphael turned and lay down on the bathtub, opened his phone, and started following the Russia-Ukraine war and the conflict in the South Caucasus.

The scale of the war expanded. For the people of that land, daytime meant a new round of fighting.

There was a war going on there, and the air was thick with the smells of gasoline, burnt smoke, burning iron, and gunpowder.

The tank tracks rattled, the machine guns fired in bursts, and people fell to the ground from time to time, only to get up again, supported by the firepower, using their elbows and knees as support.

They shouted hoarsely, swore, and whispered "Mom" as they fell to the ground, then became a tiny, speckled shadow on the grass.

For those people currently engaged in fierce warfare, there is no such thing as peace; they have simply forgotten about peaceful days.

Raphael refreshed the page; it was another scene of singing and dancing. After a long silence, she said:

"Ah, it's still so quiet here..."

"You've grown tired of peaceful days so quickly?" Asuka asked.

"Alright, then go to the front lines and mow it down with a machine gun. At least you can add this entry to your recovery report: 'Active military operations, we are fighting, we have not been silent, we have not lost our fighting spirit'..."

Raphael said sarcastically:

"I'm just annoyed by the attitude of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the way the Department of Defense treats us."

To be honest, this restless behavior is nothing more than childishness. You shouldn't risk your own and others' lives to prove your bravery.

Even if there is no war where you are right now, you shouldn't fantasize about such things, as if you haven't experienced enough of the horrors of war.

"Oh, the CIS countries collectively announced their military expansion plans today."

Raphael found that this year seemed to be unlucky, with the far right in Europe gradually returning to politics, and the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia becoming increasingly volatile.

Going back two years, who could have imagined that the United States' control over the world would have declined so drastically?

"is it?"

Ringtone slowly moved closer, pressing against Raphael's side as she browsed the phone screen:

"Besides Russia and Ukraine, the South Caucasus"

In addition, there seem to be several other conflicts that are escalating into war.

"The Boko Haram rebellion, the border war between Serbia and Kosovo, the civil war in Yemen... the death toll in these regions has reached tens of thousands."

Raphael waved his hand dismissively. He said that he visited these places two or three times a year, a frequency so high that it was commonplace, and hardly a sign of a world war.

Furthermore, with thousands of nuclear warheads stored worldwide, a war that would engulf the entire globe is virtually impossible to recur. While the destructive power of nuclear weapons is indeed terrifying, their destructive force against underground bunkers is quite limited.

Each bombing raid on Tokyo required hundreds of B-29s, and it took dozens of raids to achieve the desired result, while Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined only required two B-29s.

Nuclear weapons are valued for their cost-effectiveness, not for any other fancy features.

But the real reason it became a cornerstone of peace is quite simple: the greatest power of nuclear weapons lies in giving the world's top structure endless fear, which could instantly put the top collective in a life-or-death situation.

This invisible deterrent has a far greater sense of fear at the top of the world than the deaths of tens or hundreds of millions of civilians in conventional warfare.

Therefore, in this era, we understand the art of "compromise" more than ever before, which has led to a rare period of peace between major powers.

If it were a hundred years ago, they would arm themselves today, march into the Rhineland tomorrow, and launch a blitzkrieg against Poland the day after. Declaring war would be as frequent as eating and drinking.

"This era is good enough," Raphael thought, then realized that this idea was wrong and only applied to the situation before there was a replacement for nuclear weapons.

Those countries that consistently advance research into ruins and collapse techniques would never think this way.

“Don’t waste your time on meaningless thoughts,” Lingyin suddenly snatched Raphael’s phone. “Unfortunately, we are not the gods who created all things.”

"This is the easiest way for us to get information."

Raphael sighed and submerged his face below the water's surface, leaving only his large eyes visible.

"I need to go check the goods later, and then I'll need to get a vehicle."

“The CIA is so stingy,” Asuka said viciously. “They’d even take back a piece of junk.”

"After all, it's a registered asset. Borrowing it for a short period is acceptable, but if it's given away directly, it will cause an imbalance in the accounts when the Japanese intelligence station is closed in the future. So, taking it back is an inevitable result."

Raphael shook his head to make the frail, white body in front of him disappear from his sight, but the hair that was coiled on his head suddenly fell off and into the pool.

This is going to be tough.

I'll have to wash and condition my hair again, which will waste at least half an hour, and drying it will also take time.

What was delivered was not the XM5 assault rifle and XM250 squad machine gun she had been longing for, but the HK416 combined with the specially allocated AP armor-piercing bullets should not be too bad.

Book 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 134 Murphy's Law

“It’s quite rare for him to call first this time,” Raphael asked.

"Yes," came the affirmative voice from the other end of the phone. "I'm sorry, your academic career is coming to an end. Be prepared."

"Is that right?"

Raphael downed his coffee in one gulp and headed straight for the armory in the garage.

To her surprise, she discovered that the bird had been there all along, hiding inside and recording the interactions between countries around the world, conducting basic geopolitical analysis, and trying to understand the behavioral logic behind those actions.

"What exactly happened, Harry?"

“It’s the Relics Management Bureau’s business,” the director replied, his anger clearly visible on his face. “Those disgusting, arrogant relics scientists actually opened the sealed entrance to the relics without permission…”

"How could that be? No, you knew they would do this all along. Considering my history of unprotected, extended-duration activities in the New York ELID infection zone, I suppose the next task will be internal exploration."

“We have considered this, but I discussed it with the Ministry of National Defense last year. He warned that you are a valuable asset to our military and should not be hastily thrown into dangerous missions because of a temporary incident.”

"so?"

"As a result, the minister suggested that you be sent to a peaceful world far from the battlefield to be exposed to the environment."

Harry held a photo of Raphael practicing the flute by the window, thinking the Defense Secretary's suggestion was indeed good—to cultivate one's character. Compared to the murderers who had just been evacuated from New York, this look was much more pleasing to the eye.

Similarly, to prevent Raphael's skills from becoming rusty, they instructed the CIA to provide her with an operation at regular intervals to ensure that her combat instincts and awareness were in the right state.

These are not cheap war machines that can be consumed at will, but inanimate offspring that need to be carefully nurtured and cared for.