Chapter 204: Chapter 200: Seppuku
The first thing Shen Feng thought of when the Evil Spirit Virus broke out was the Whisperer.
Facing an entity that even the powerful beings behind the True Apocalypse Game feared, Shen Feng decided that when it was time to be cautious, you had to be cautious.
Going to Tokyo was out of the question. He wouldn’t go there in this lifetime.
The only option was to get a decoy to go and die in his place.
And he couldn’t let the mysterious forces lurking in Tokyo see through the ruse.
The greatest strength of the Nanomechanical Cluster was its scale effect.
An ordinary, fist-sized clump of the Nanomechanical Cluster had virtually no power unless it made direct contact, making it no different from a common metal ball.
But once it reached a scale that could be called a Gray Tide, it could unleash terrifying power.
The Gray Tide could become the environment itself, turning the world into its own home battlefield.
However, it also had one major weakness: signal transmission.
If the signal transmission between Shen Feng and the Gray Tide was ever cut off, he would completely lose control over it.
And for the Gray Tide, the best tool for signal transmission was still the Gray Tide itself.
Once the plan was in place, Shen Feng immediately had Jingwei create a remarkably lifelike silicone mannequin for him. With a mask and sunglasses on, it was impossible to tell it wasn’t a real person.
Coincidentally, Jingwei had recently been researching the creation of androids and had made several models for itself, leaving plenty of materials. Thus, it was no trouble at all.
After it was done, Shen Feng immediately controlled the decoy to the provincial capital to go through security and board a plane to East Japan. At the same time, while controlling the android decoy, he also directed the Gray Tide to consume its way toward East Japan, preparing to establish a cross-sea signal transmission route.
After all, the distance from Tai City to East Japan was several thousand kilometers. Although the Gray Tide’s consumption speed was not slow, it would still take a very long time.
It therefore took several days to complete this massive undertaking. The nanomechanical optic cable was only officially connected last night.
It was also at this moment that the entire underground Gray Tide network in Tokyo could finally be controlled as easily as one’s own limbs, no longer susceptible to having its signal transmission easily severed.
During this time, aside from investigating the origin of the Evil Spirit Virus, the android decoy had been perfectly mimicking all of Shen Feng’s personal behaviors, including eating.
Having experienced the Purification Society’s assassination attempt before, Shen Feng understood that he could fall under the enemy’s surveillance at any moment in East Japan.
After all, he was exposed while his enemy remained in the shadows.
Fortunately, all this effort was not in vain. He had perfectly deceived Yamaguchi Sora, making him waste a massive amount of the corpse tide’s energy, only to find a decoy in the end.
Shen Feng closed his eyes again. His Consciousness Antennae traveled along the signal amplifier, down into the subterranean Gray Tide cable, and back into Tokyo’s Gray Tide network. He returned to the decoy and, like a broken doll, spoke:
"Mr. Yamaguchi, one must never lose their composure. Otherwise, you’ll only give your enemies reason to laugh. Tsk, tsk. After all this trouble, your energy must be nearly depleted, right? The corpse tide is a living organism, after all. Your electromagnetic pulse is another twenty-seven percent weaker than a moment ago. Compared to its peak strength, it’s not even at thirty percent anymore..."
Yamaguchi could no longer suppress his fury. His tentacles tightened violently, crushing the decoy into fragments of silicone and metal as he roared:
"Die! DIE!"
Just then, the ground trembled again. The electromagnetic pulse environment created by the corpse tide had been greatly weakened and could no longer suppress the Gray Tide underground!
Within Tokyo, swaths of ground, entire buildings, and whole streets, along with abandoned vehicles and scattered skeletons, were rapidly being consumed by the subterranean Gray Tide, transforming into a part of it.
A light rain was still falling from the sky, and the day was gradually darkening. But reflected in the silvery-gray sheen of the Gray Tide, everything around seemed to brighten again.
Realizing it was impossible for him to find Shen Feng’s real body, Yamaguchi Sora quickly calmed down as well.
The enormous corpse tide let out a hum, summoning the zombies from all over the Japanese Archipelago to gather around him.
He needed more power!
At the same time, he didn’t engage with Shen Feng’s Gray Tide. Instead, he increased the output of his electromagnetic pulses, his entire body flickering with arcs of electricity as he darted southward!
Beyond the quarantine zone to the south was the defense sector of Shizuoka Prefecture, where tens of millions of people still lived. If he could just break through to those humans, Shen Feng would be forced to hold back for fear of collateral damage and wouldn’t dare to fight him. At that point, he could use those people as hostages and continue infecting the rest of humanity!
Wherever the corpse tide passed with its electromagnetic pulses at full power, the Gray Tide on the surface was instantly disintegrated, leaving behind a trail of black scorch marks.
But the massive corpse tide had only run a few kilometers when surges of Gray Tide suddenly erupted from the edges of Tokyo. Like waves flowing in reverse, they reached heights of tens of meters in an instant and continued to rise!
Yamaguchi Sora was horrified. He realized his opponent was creating a metal cage to trap him completely!
Once the edges of this Gray Tide prison closed, he would be finished!
The vast corpse tide let out a pained and frenzied howl. It sprouted thick limbs, rapidly transforming into a long-bodied monster with hundreds of legs, its surface covered in keratinized tissue. With its remaining strength, it leaped hundreds of meters into the air, vaulting toward the edge of the Gray Tide.
At that exact moment, hundreds of sharp, spiraling metal spikes shot up from the ground, piercing toward the mid-air corpse tide. They instantly impaled its main body, pinning it in the sky!
The corpse tide continuously released electromagnetic pulses, shattering spike after spike, but new ones constantly emerged to pierce it, pinning it firmly in place.
The electromagnetic pulses released by the corpse tide grew weaker and weaker, until it could no longer destroy the metal spikes that were now tens of meters thick. It could only let the Gray Tide turn it into a pincushion.
Yamaguchi Sora’s heart filled with grief and indignation. As he looked around, he could no longer see any trace of the former buildings or vehicles in the entire Tokyo Region—only the endless, undulating sea of Gray Tide!
This was the power and terror of the Gray Tide’s scale effect!
The Gray Tide barriers at the edge of the Tokyo Region had already risen to a height of several hundred meters and were beginning to extend inward, closing at the top.
Any zombies that had answered the corpse tide’s summons and were heading toward the Tokyo Region were instantly devoured and absorbed the moment they touched the Gray Tide barrier, leaving not even a speck behind.
The Gray Tide surged, and a giant, hundred-meter-tall face appeared on the barrier. It was Shen Feng.
"Mr. Yamaguchi, a cornered beast will still fight, as they say. But you’ve been completely subdued. Your electromagnetic pulse energy is less than one percent of what it was. There is no hope left. Surrender. Hand over the Healing Potion for the Evil Spirit Virus, or even just the treatment protocol. I can spare your life."
’Of course, I might have to chop off his limbs and turn him into a human torso first,’ he thought.
The corpse tide writhed. A slit opened on the back of the giant corpse beast, and a brand-new Yamaguchi Sora emerged from within. He looked at Shen Feng and exclaimed with sincere admiration:
"Mr. Shen, I finally understand why my god holds you in such high regard. The power you command is enough to protect all of human civilization. Your boundless strategic mind leaves me in awe of my own inferiority. It’s a pity I was too arrogant. If, at the beginning, I had set up over a thousand infection points across the globe and activated them all at once, instead of assuming East Japan alone was enough to infect the world, things might have been different now..."
"Ah, humanity. We are all like this. Once we grasp a power we can’t truly bear, we look down on the whole world, falling into the common trap of arrogance and conceit. In Hua Country, there is an idiom, ’de bu pei wei’—’virtue unbefitting the station.’ Perhaps it was coined to describe people like me... All my life, I’ve been full of self-pity, believing that my lack of opportunities was the fault of society and the system. Now I see that perhaps the greater reason lies in my own character flaws..."
Yamaguchi Sora spoke eloquently, making no more threats. He didn’t answer Shen Feng’s demand but instead began to reflect on his mistakes and admit his weaknesses.
Shen Feng frowned, but then a warm smile spread across his face. He said:
"Mr. Yamaguchi, you are an intelligent man who simply had a moment of carelessness. If you had another chance, perhaps the Master of the Void himself could have descended. But you have to be alive to see any of that."
’This guy wants to kill himself.’
Yamaguchi Sora gave a dark chuckle, sat down cross-legged on the back of the corpse tide, and looked at Shen Feng.
"Mr. Shen, I know what you’re thinking. And you’re right. I have made too many mistakes and failed the Master of the Void’s expectations. I cannot forgive myself. According to the traditions of East Japan’s samurai, I must commit seppuku. There’s no need to stop me. If I wished, I could disintegrate myself at any moment... As for the cure for the plague, I’m afraid I cannot provide it. I only received the method for creating the virus from the Master of the Void through a psychic link."
As he spoke, Yamaguchi Sora grabbed his own left arm and twisted it sharply, snapping it instantly. The sharp, fractured bone protruded, resembling a Bone Saber.
His expression unchanged, he swiftly plunged the Bone Saber into his lower abdomen. Then, with a sudden jerk to the right, he sliced his belly open, and his crimson viscera immediately spilled out.
Then he gave a faint smile, raised the Bone Saber again, and with a swift slash, decapitated himself.
Shen Feng, who had been waiting for this moment, acted like a bolt of lightning. The Gray Tide shot out, instantly snatching Yamaguchi Sora’s head, forming a metal cage around it, and rapidly transporting it through the tide.
"Jingwei, create a Virtual Reality Space, now! Before this guy’s brain dies, get his consciousness in there and squeeze his memories dry!"