At 4:50 PM, Aozawa returned ho, pushed open the door, and looked at the empty entryway.
Suddenly he rembered Chitose had said she would be away on a business trip. Slapping his forehead, he thought, I give up. My mory is really that bad.
Habit is a frightening thing. It drives people to act instinctively without them even realizing it.
Scratching his head, Aozawa pondered that since he was already ho, he didn’t feel like going out again. He took off his shoes and placed them inside the shoe cabinet.
Invisible telekinetic hands closed the door behind him, and shadows on the floor stretched forward. From within, a slim Shadow Maid erged, squatting conscientiously to lift his legs, one on each side.
They held him aloft, his feet off the ground, as he sat on their arms. anwhile, a dozen more Shadow Soldiers erged from within and began cleaning the entire mansion.
Thinking of the groceries he had bought with Shouko in the morning, he had an idea. The Shadow Soldiers quickly stepped forward, turned on the living room TV, and tuned into a food channel.
"Learn how to cook from this channel," Aozawa commanded three Shadow Soldiers to kneel before the TV and earnestly learn how to make delicious dishes.
He wanted to test whether the Shadow Soldiers could learn to cook.
A thought crossed his mind, and he directly ordered six curvaceous Shadow Maids to lie down on the living room floor, serving as cushions for him to sit on.
Their soft chests, along with their hands supporting him from the sides, felt more comfortable than a beanbag chair.
In such a languid pose, he couldn’t even be bothered to hold his own phone; instead, he had one of the Shadow Maids hold it for him to scroll through TikTok.
"Cut the fruit."
At Aozawa’s command, a few more Shadow Maids erged from the shadows. They ran to the kitchen, took out oranges and grapes from the fridge, peeled them, arranged them on a plate, and then returned to the living room.
Depending on Aozawa’s whim, they fed him grapes or oranges.
He chewed on the sweet oranges, watching a short video on TikTok about the signing of a bilateral agreent in the Middle East.
The new pri minister, Julia, along with Salman of Saudi, Iran...
Leaders of various Arab countries were jointly signing the agreent on site, ensuring regional stability.
They purportedly joined hands to face the threats of the Different World and designated the forest in Jerusalem as land shared by all humanity.
All nations had the right to send people into it to form scientific research teams to explore the ecological environnt and so on.
From this short video, Aozawa understood that Morimoto Chiyoda must have been selected as Japan’s representative to explore that forest.
Should I go have a look later? Aozawa thought.
If Morimoto Chiyoda wasn’t there, then whatever happened in that forest wouldn’t be of much interest. But if she was, then it would be a different story for ; it would be better to go and see for myself. After all, I have nothing better to do at ho.
With these thoughts, Aozawa had the hands supporting his body massage him, continuing to indulge in his emperor-like enjoynt. He decided to have dinner first.
「...」
The Hamuda Nam Military Base, located 12 kiloters west of Tel Aviv, is one of the main training bases for the National Defense Forces.
It is also one of the United States’ important bases in this country, hosting U.S. Army personnel and related military facilities.
Julia, as the pri minister of a country, found herself with nothing to do after signing the bilateral agreent.
Bibiyana had dispatched her to welco the elites closely associated with the United States.
According to Bibiyana, Julia’s greatest usefulness now was not to try to truly take power, but to serve as a public figurehead, a mascot, and to smooth things over.
As long as she could muddle through the various party conflicts and affairs of the current administration, she would be considered an excellent pri minister.
For now, her main job was to be a scapegoat and take criticism; she didn’t need to bother with actual strategies.
Although Bibiyana’s words made Julia feel her future was bleak, she had visited the hospital and seen her grandmother out of life-threatening danger.
Julia felt her role as pri minister wasn’t so bad. How many people longed for the chance to be utilized in such a way yet lacked the value to be used?
As for whether Bibiyana could be trusted, Julia felt she didn’t need to consider such things.
After all, who around is there to trust?
So, she obediently listened to Bibiyana, played her role as a mascot well, and hosted those elites associated with the United States. Who knew, maybe one day she could latch onto soone influential.
Julia flipped through the briefing book prepared by Bibiyana.
It was said that this new Japanese arrival was no simple figure. Her past records were mysterious, and she had beco the Police Director at the age of twenty-six.
Shortly thereafter, during the formation of the Kochō Cabinet, she quickly rose to beco the Minister of State of the Public Security Commission, the true top echelon of Japan’s police force.
For soone of her age and gender, achieving this was indicative of a winner in life.
A woman who is the complete opposite of , Julia thought as she heard the sound of a sonic boom.
She looked up to see an F-22 fighter jet cutting through the sky at breathtaking speed, like a bolt of lightning. Its stealth coating shimred with a mysterious light in the sunlight.
"Incredible," Julia exclaid with admiration.
The loud, ear-shattering sonic boom gradually weakened as the F-22, guided by personnel inside the base, descended onto the tarmac. It moved slowly, like an impregnable Steel Fortress.
It finally ca to a stop.
Julia, accompanied by four bodyguards and a translator, stepped forward as a figure leaped down from above.
THUD. The person landed on the ground—a tall figure whose face couldn’t be seen clearly.
She wore a gas mask that covered everything below her eyes and a camouflage helt equipped with an Intelligent AI Explorer Mirror.
Her baggy camouflage uniform made her figure less eye-catching than her gear. Strapped to her front was a SCAR-H heavy assault rifle using 7.62 mm ammunition. She also had a large sniper rifle on her back and a military backpack.
Around her waist, her belt was festooned with flashbangs, smoke grenades, an M500, and two military knives at the sides of her calves.
Her hands wore fingerless gloves, and her fully ard appearance was strikingly valiant.
Julia stepped up and said, "Hello, welco to Tel Aviv. I am Pri Minister Julia Harrington."
The translator echoed her words almost simultaneously.
The woman smiled and extended her right hand, saying, "Hello, my na is Morimoto Chiyoda. I’m also your top supporter, Shining Butterfly~"
Although Julia couldn’t understand Japanese, she still found the woman’s voice very pleasant. Unlike her fully ard, valiant appearance, the soft and sultry tone reminded Julia of a hot sumr breeze on the beach.
The translator conveyed Morimoto Chiyoda’s words to Julia.
"Eh? You’re Early Sumr?" Julia was quite surprised. She had thought Early Sumr was male and hadn’t expected such a lovely voice to belong to a woman.
Morimoto Chiyoda laughed. "Of course. Your livestream from the forest was unique; how could I not watch it? You don’t need to thank , by the way. I used public funds for the tips and got reimbursed afterward."
"No wonder you were so generous." A smile appeared on Julia’s face. If she could be proud of anything, it was probably that broadcast.
In her heart, that broadcast made her prouder than being Pri Minister.
Morimoto Chiyoda shrugged. "I wouldn’t be so willing to tip that much with my own money."
Julia wanted to say more, but soone from the US military base interjected, "Alright, Pri Minister. Minister Morimoto has official duties to attend to and can’t chat for long."
Hearing this, Julia had to suppress her desire to interact with her top supporter and said sowhat regretfully, "Miss Morimoto, I won’t keep you from your work."
"It’s fine. If you don’t mind, we can chat on the helicopter on the way to the forest."
Morimoto Chiyoda was well aware of Julia’s current situation.
A person who knew nothing had been suddenly thrust into position—obviously to be a scapegoat.
She couldn’t do much to help, except perhaps chat and try to lift her spirits.
Even though Morimoto Chiyoda always complained about things being a hassle, when confronted with soone in need, she couldn’t just sit back and ignore it. She would help out whenever she could.
「...」
On the outskirts of Jerusalem Forest, there had been a proposal to build a wire fence. However, considering the engineering and ti constraints, it was decided instead to have various countries use drones to monitor the surroundings. Landmines were buried, and peacekeeping forces were arranged to patrol the area in shifts, 24 hours a day, to prevent unauthorized entry.
Any research team wanting to enter the forest had to give advance notice and was not allowed to bring any fire-starting equipnt to avoid the risk of a forest fire.
Relevant academic groups had already started collection work on the periphery.
Each country was allowed to send one elite, but the entry tis had to be the sa. No one could enter until everyone had gathered, though they could draw for their entrance point in advance.
The elites from each country couldn’t form groups; a lottery decided who entered where. The entrance point drawn was final.
The elites’ explorations within the forest didn’t require reporting back. As long as they survived, anything they brought out belonged to them personally.
It all had the distinct feel of a real-world survival ga: elites thrown into an area for a brutal free-for-all, to see who would ultimately be the last one standing.
Morimoto Chiyoda arrived at the scene by helicopter. Before she ca, she had already received news of the draw: entrance number three.
She would enter from the northwest direction of the forest.
The ti had not been set yet; they had to wait for all the countries’ elites to gather before they could officially begin.
"Sister Chitose, you must do your best!" Julia held Morimoto Chiyoda’s hand.
Through the translator’s simultaneous interpretation, she and Morimoto Chiyoda had established a deep friendship, even adding each other as Twitter friends.
In her current environnt, surrounded by what felt like wolves and tigers, only Morimoto Chiyoda gave her the warm feeling of a big sister.
Why couldn’t the person by my side be Morimoto Chiyoda instead of Bibiyana? If it were her, I wouldn’t have to keep being so anxious. A twinge of regret even surfaced in her heart.
"Don’t worry, I’m quite strong," Morimoto Chiyoda replied with a smile, patting Julia’s head. "You also need to work hard to keep a low profile."
"Okay! Let’s talk more another ti."
Julia nodded vigorously, reluctantly letting go of her hand. She still had to welco the next elite from the United States.
Even though she was ant to be a mascot, her schedule was quite packed.
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