"We won!"
Superpower Users by the moat cried with joy. When the traffic police officer returned with a photographer, everyone imdiately surrounded them, lifted the photographer over their heads, and threw him into the air, cheering loudly.
In a command tent at the other end of the city, the Travel Execution Officer, Combat Commander, Deputy Chief of Operations, and Intelligence Officer couldn’t help but rise from their desks, smiling as they hugged and patted each other on the back.
On the central display screen in the command tent, a video feed from the White House operations room in Washington was projected. The Secretary of State, sitting next to the President, clapped and said, "Well done, General."
The General smiled as he accepted the praise. "It’s my honor, sir."
"The United States will rember your contribution, and so will the world."
The President nodded with a smile. "Now, go recover the Elental Material. With confirmation of the test subject’s death, the standoff in the Western Pacific is no longer necessary. Arica will be great again."
"Yes, official!"
The General saluted, then turned to shout to his subordinates in the tent, "You all heard the President! Let’s move! Don’t let even a gram of Elental Material get away!"
The Communication Officer, Air Aid Officer, Fire Support Officer, and others sat back down, putting on headphones to direct various squads in the Tokyo City area with their cleanup efforts.
chanized infantry moved into the city’s ruins. Engineers took the lead, driving bulldozers to clear rubble and broken bricks from the roads, followed closely by armored vehicles and infantry.
Throughout the city ruins, silver-white threads were strewn everywhere. These threads resembled spiderwebs, lichen, and sli molds. They covered everything from the rooftops of tall buildings to roadside greenbelts, even burrowing deep into the ground and spreading far and wide.
A curious soldier touched one of the web-like threads. Imdiately, a cut, deep enough to reveal bone, appeared on his fingertip. Severe pain followed seconds later as blood gushed out.
The company commander hurried over, glanced at the wound, and cursed, "You idiot! dic, bandage this stupid donkey!"
After this lesson, the other soldiers dared not act rashly. Engineers had to use hydraulic cutters to sever any threads they encountered before proceeding.
After several stops, a squad guided by satellite navigation finally reached the epicenter of the missile explosion. A European-style building had once stood there, but it was now mostly collapsed from the blast.
An engineer holding a tal detector detected a strong signal beneath a collapsed wall. At that mont, the allied international Superpower Users also arrived.
Martial Artists and several other Physically Enhanced individuals moved the debris. Then, Superpower Users who controlled soil and rock cleared away the dust.
In the crater left by the explosion, a human corpse stood. Its hair and clothes were gone, its skin charred and carbonized. The left eye socket and the back of its skull were pierced by an arrow. The lower jaw, heart, abdon, ribs, and one arm had all been destroyed by the missile.
Yet, it still stood, nurous threads cascading from its body and spreading deep into the rock layer below.
The onlookers regarded it with mixed expressions: so with hatred for their killed loved ones, so with fear after witnessing Superman-like power, and so with an unconscious admiration for the strong.
"It’s hard to imagine having such power just a few hours after awakening his superpower," a Korean Superpower User marveled. "If he’d had more ti to learn how to maximize control and use his abilities, perhaps even modern armies would have been powerless against him?"
"It’s a pity. You know, he was one of us Koreans." Another Korean Superpower User, rembering the fake news previously reported by a Japanese TV station, couldn’t help but joke.
"Do you find this funny?!" A high school student who understood so Korean glared at them and shouted, "Many people died tonight!"
"Calm down, young man." The traffic police officer patted his shoulder to soothe him, reminding him that they were, after all, here to help.
While the Superpower Users argued, the US Army commander on the scene received orders through his headset. The engineering battalion was to bring in an engineering vehicle to pack up and dig out the corpse and the threads connected to its feet.
According to the think tank, the silver-white threads in the city were made from Elental Material and tal. Although their performance was outstanding, comparable to special alloys, they could be replicated in conventional laboratories.
Only the black threads were the Elental Material itself. Each gram was irreplaceable and extrely precious.
"...Hasn’t this situation been caused by you Japanese yourselves?" The argunt continued. The Korean Superpower User sneered, "Deception and kidnapping were bad enough, but after he was taken to the lab, you actually let him wake up. So many people have died, so many buildings have been destroyed—it’s all your own fault."
"Nonsense..." The high school student wanted to rebut but suddenly recalled sothing from the other’s words. Destroying buildings...Buildings...
He ignored the Korean Superpower User, who was still spouting trash talk, took a half step back, and carefully observed the ruins of the building before him, his face growing increasingly pale.
"Takagi..." He slowly turned his head, his voice trembling. "Mr. Takagi..."
Takagi was on the phone, discussing the subsequent citizen evacuation with higher-ups in the Japanese governnt. Hearing his na, he covered the mouthpiece and turned. "What’s wrong?"
"This is the Japan Bank headquarters, right?"
"2-1-1 Japan Bridge Ben Stone Town, Tokyo Central District. Yes, this is the Japan Bank headquarters..."
Takagi answered instinctively, then imdiately realized sothing. His expression changed drastically, and he whipped his head around to look at the charred corpse. Elental Material can absorb tals like gold and silver to grow stronger...
"Cut those threads now!" Takagi roared, his palms coming together to form a blade as he swung heavily.
Rapidly spinning air coalesced into several azure energy blades, rushing forward along the trajectory of the Hand Blade to strike the threads beneath the corpse’s feet.
FWOOSH— The blade energy easily split the bricks and stones in two but failed to leave even a scratch on the threads.
BUZZ! The ground shook violently. The threads under the corpse’s feet began to emit a dark golden glow, spreading upwards from below.
Wherever the glow reached, the threads rejuvenated like trees, branching out into countless offshoots, reforming bones, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves.
Everyone realized sothing was wrong. All the Superpower Users attacked at once, but in the next instant, Telekinesis, as heavy as a mountain, crashed down.
The engineers, commanders, and Superpower Users closest to the corpse were flattened and buried in the earth without even a groan. Those standing a bit further away suffered snapping bones, collapsing like broken dolls.
The remaining Superpower Users stood rigid and paralyzed, unable to move a muscle.
Before the terrified and despairing eyes of the crowd, the living heart, ford from Elental Material, began to beat again.
THUMP.
Mo Si erosion progress: ninety percent.
The corpse suddenly opened its solitary eye.
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