Chapter 162: Resonance (Subscription Requested)

Two days had passed since he used his influence to pave the way for his old friend.

"Judging by the time, Yagami should have already started moving, right?"

Shiroto Kelling stood on the vast plains of Hokkaido, rubbing his chin in thought.

Ever since the disaster in Tokyo a day ago, the underground laboratory's method of scattering the monsters had drawn the contempt of all the enhanced beings.

With the exception of Quan Zhixin, who was on active duty, these stubborn martial artists all refused to return there.

This included Retsu Kaiou and Guo Chuncheng.

After the monsters had so clearly demonstrated the terrifying combat power of enhanced beings, the Union showed a rare moment of rationality.

They made no attempt to force them.

Instead, as a gesture of goodwill, they joined forces with the government of Hinomoto to clear out a no-man's-land in Hokkaido specifically for the martial artists to train in.

As for the distance... well, Hinomoto was only so big, and given the speed of enhanced beings, making a round trip took almost no time at all.

Just as Shiroto Kelling was deep in thought, a fierce, blood-red blade-light instantly materialized beside the young man.

A thrust.

A standard yet vicious thrust.

Launched from two hundred meters away, the sheer speed of the strike and the Nen qi缠绕 (wrapped) around the blade caused the blade-pressure of the katana to carve a vicious, two-hundred-meter-long scar directly across the plain.

Given the height difference between the attacker and Shiroto Kelling, this thrust would likely pierce his side neck and drive straight into his brain.

Yet, this blade-tip—whose specialized life energy was so piercing that an ordinary person would tear up and feel a burning agony in their eyeballs just by looking at it—

came to a sudden, drastic halt just two centimeters away from Shiroto Kelling's skin, as if plunging into some kind of high-density material.

A less skilled swordsman would have immediately faltered due to improper blade alignment, causing the edge to twist and deflect.

However, the attacker possessed exquisite, peerless swordsmanship, pushing through the immense pressure and driving the blade-tip straight against Shiroto Kelling's skin.

With a crisp "ting," it sounded less like a sharp blade meeting flesh and more like a minor collision between two blocks of steel.

Yet, immediately following that faint impact, on the side of Shiroto Kelling opposite to the incoming blade,

the earth of the plain seemed as though it had suddenly been detonated. Dozens of tons of soil, stone, and flying sand surged and exploded outward like a rising giant wave.

When the dust settled, the surrounding ground level had dropped by more than twenty centimeters, and the earth and rocks had been blasted far into the distance.

They piled up into a crescent-shaped mound far off.

Only the tiny plot of ground directly beneath Shiroto Kelling's feet remained completely undamaged, fortified by the blessing of his Nen qi.

"Abandoning *Ten* as a routine defense, and instead relying on your own reaction speed and Nen control to use *Gō* at the exact point of impact within a split second. Compared to the *Gō* I coat my blade with, it's indeed excessively refined, but..."

The purple-haired beauty holding the katana had a plump, alluring figure. Although she wore a smile, her words carried a faintly dangerous undertone.

"Getting distracted during a spar will make someone super angry, you know!"

"Zheng!"

The blade-tip, pressed against the boy's neck and unable to advance an inch, instantly transformed from a thrust into a slash.

Carrying immense force, the edge scraped across the skin of Shiroto Kelling's neck, generating a dazzling shower of sparks.

Even enhanced by Nen, this blade posed no threat to Shiroto Kelling's skin.

The boy reached out and grabbed the blade.

The katana, which had been biting at his neck like a poisonous dragon, instantly went dead and sluggish.

Yet this time, even without any friction, simply resting within the boy's palm, sparks continuously erupted from between his fingers.

*Behemoth Strength 240,000 Horses - Energy Protection!*

His Nen qi stimulated his body, pushing it past the threshold of 200,000 horses to activate an innate ability.

"Snap—"

Shiroto Kelling merely tilted his thumb slightly, and the blade snapped in two.

The moment the broken blade flew out, the boy coated it with a layer of Nen qi, easily piercing Saeko's chest.

It pressed against her spine, driving her backward all the way.

Her body tore through the atmosphere, a fierce gale ripping up large patches of turf along the path, before finally pinning the purple-haired beauty to the ground.

"In the future world, the enhancement of Behemoth Strength and the application and development of Nen abilities will become the pillars of a true powerhouse. Senior sister..."

Shiroto Kelling smiled mischievously, appearing beside Saeko and helping her pull the broken blade from her chest.

"It seems you still need to work much harder."

Saeko said nothing.

This wasn't out of anger or annoyance.

Rather, their spar today gave her the illusion of returning to the days when Shiroto Kelling first arrived in Tokyo.

The two of them living and fighting in the empty dojo.

And now, with both of them having mastered Behemoth Strength, they could fight even more uninhibitedly, with blades piercing flesh and fists shattering bone.

The physical pain and the scent of blood made her plump, athletic legs feel slightly weak.

Watching the flushed face of his senior sister, Shiroto Kelling couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

Her excitement triggers were somewhat unexpected.

But in the blink of an eye—

Both the spiritual perception derived from Shiroto Kelling's dragon-blood inner force and the Godzilla blood within his body reacted as if stimulated by something.

He couldn't help but stand up from beside his senior sister, turning his head to look into the void to the north.

A bizarre and sickening sensation suddenly welled up inside the boy's heart.

If one had to make an analogy...

It was like a foul-smelling bat suddenly flying out toward you from the endless darkness of midnight.

It might not be as powerful as Godzilla, but it was undoubtedly a member of the Titan Behemoths.

"What is it, Kelling?"

Saeko asked with a strange look, but Shiroto Kelling did not answer.

However, less than two minutes later, Saeko also furrowed her brow and stopped the motion of sheathing her broken blade.

She, too, sensed something and looked toward the north.

In her bio-sensory perception inherited from the Titans, although she lacked the "disgusting and dark" emotional impressions brought by Shiroto Kelling's spiritual perception,

it clearly indicated that a huge and powerful creature was about to manifest in the world.

"What... is this feeling?"

Saeko murmured.

Clearly, the distance was vast, yet she could distinctly perceive the other's presence.

"It should be the resonance between Titan Behemoths. According to Monarch's records, this is how the orthodox Godzilla found its way to Tokyo back then."

By now, Shiroto Kelling, who had received the perception a step earlier due to his strong spiritual awareness, had recovered and explained to his senior sister.

"Enhanced beings are still too insignificant, so Titans won't sense them from afar, but Titans with active life functions can be sensed by enhanced beings."

"You mean a new Titan has awakened?"

"Awakened? Perhaps."

The boy responded offhandedly.

At the same time, however, a bad premonition arose in Shiroto Kelling's heart.

"The north... Yagami, you didn't really stumble upon something terrifying, did you?"

~~~~~~

Deep within the base on the Siberian plateau, the assault inspection team led by Yagami

was staring through the large floor-to-ceiling windows at the massive tunnel outside.

Their eyes filled with shock, they pressed themselves against the glass.

"Those are...?"

Yagami asked the nearby doctor, vaguely feeling his throat grow dry.

The high-powered lights outside clicked on.

Beneath the illumination were grotesque, colossal creatures.

Most of them possessed twin wings, fluttering restlessly inside neatly loaded transparent transport containers.

Scaled flying dragons spitting sparks from the corners of their mouths; furry yet fiercely tempered giant rats with wings; deep-sea fish-like scales and patterns, whipping their tails and flapping their wings to discharge freezing mist...

They were not Titans, for although their bodies were far larger than the creatures of the surface world,

the largest among them was only around twenty meters in length, falling far short of a Titan's scale.

Yet, this wild exterior that conformed to biological evolution possessed an aesthetic of order that could never be pieced together by any biological experiment.

—They were natural organisms!

Natural organisms that had never once appeared on the surface of the Earth!

"Dr. Hao of the Tokyo Laboratory once said: 'As material for enhancement, the size and species of Titan flesh and blood are completely inconsequential. They are merely keys to unlock human genetic evolution.' I deeply agree with this sentiment."

The doctor smiled complacently, introducing the situation to Yagami in a condescending tone.

The arrogance in his eyes made Yagami feel that, in the doctor's mind, he was probably on the same level as an ape.

"Titans are indeed magnificent creatures. Their lifespans are nearly eternal, and they command various energies with their physical bodies... but for humans, their flesh and blood are far too wild."

"And these..."

The doctor pointed to the large creatures being loaded into transport vehicles in the tunnel.

"They also originate from the 'Hollow Earth,' and their genes are branches on the evolutionary tree constructed by this planet over hundreds of millions of years. Most importantly..."

"Their flesh and blood are much more 'docile'."

The doctor gave Yagami's shoulder a familiarly feigned pat.

The casual gesture sent the sound of flesh colliding echoing through the entire corridor.

That force made Yagami raise his eyebrows in surprise.

Yagami was half a martial artist himself; he could tell whether a person's movements were truly effortless or merely put-on calmness.

The force behind the doctor's hand was around two tons.

This was indeed far beyond an ordinary mortal.

However, the strength itself was not what astonished him.

What surprised him was: How could someone with this fellow's intellect survive the surgery? And... why was he so weak?

Generally speaking, anyone who underwent surgical enhancement—or absorbed Nen qi after the emergence of Nen abilities—would exhibit a force of at least fifteen tons upwards with a flick of their hands.

"You used their genes?!"

Yagami said in disbelief.

He had every reason to be shocked.

Although the process and appearance of the Titan genetic enhancement surgery sounded and looked simple,

it was undeniably the pinnacle of modern human biotechnology.

The degree of attenuation for every single fragment of flesh and blood had to be thoroughly calculated and tested.

Not only did procedures differ for tissues originating from different Titans,

but even for different parts of the same Titan, the flesh inactivation protocols varied.

Tens of thousands of researchers buried themselves in calculations and experiments, ultimately producing a single piece of material ready for the operating table.

And now, merely by pooling the strength of three nations, he had succeeded?

The gap in research capabilities between those three nations combined was still a notch below the Union and the Republic!

Was the gap in the source of flesh and blood really that vast?

"Mass production, my friend." The doctor held up a finger. "The most important thing in a technological revolution is 'mass production'!"

"You see, the surgical standards have been lowered to the point where even a pampered person like me can easily pass through."

"I admit I am very weak compared to you. But the good news is, the monsters spawned by this surgery are equally weak. Rifles can solve them; they won't cause any real trouble."

The doctor smiled smugly, handing a tablet over to Yagami.

It played footage from the laboratory of experimental failures being executed.

True to his word, the firepower of two AKs was enough to neutralize the threat.

Considering the movement speed and damage tolerance of these monsters, the military wouldn't even need armored units to clear them out in open terrain.

"As for the monsters going out of control, you need not worry even more."

The doctor pointed at the transparent transport containers outside the window.

"That is high-strength material parsed from the silk of the Republic Titan—Mothra. Although expensive to manufacture, not a single test subject has ever broken free from it."

The doctor looked at Yagami, spreading his hands with a triumphant gaze.

"Regardless of the success rate of the experiments or the probability of a containment breach, I guarantee you, there is no place safer than here in this world."

This was because the doctor had checked Yagami's background in advance.

He knew that the man before him was a genuinely good person.

A good person unaffected by political stances.

A mocking smile tugged at the corner of the doctor's lips.

How rare! Serving as the leader of an international organization, yet being a good person.

The sole reason Yagami formed the inspection team was simply to prevent a tragedy like the one in Tokyo from happening again anywhere in the world.

That was why the doctor let them in to witness the experimental results.

Because Yagami would be convinced by the results and acknowledge the safety of this outpost.

Otherwise, the moment he crossed the border of Kislev, his plane would have "crashed."

While he himself likely wouldn't have perished, not a single truly professional member of his team would have survived.

Just as he predicted, Takayuki Yagami, who had initially arrived aggressively to demand accountability,

now genuinely breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the results.

He wasn't worried about returning empty-handed without achievements; he was simply thankful that the world would not face another disaster caused by an experimental out-of-control anomaly.

Yet, even after letting out a sigh of relief and relaxing his expression, Yagami did not simply take someone's word for it.

He turned and pulled old Brody over, asking,

"What do you think?"

The elderly white man held an instrument in his hand—the fruit of the refined "Echolocation Method" he had perfected alongside Professor Serizawa.

It was currently one of the world's rare technologies capable of tracking the movements of Titans with a high probability of success.

"Compared to Titans, their waveforms are indeed quite 'weak.' Calling them 'Hollow Earth creatures' seems fitting. But..."

The old white man raised his eyes to look at Yagami.

"Don't you think finding out where they came from is important?"

"......I was just about to ask!"

Yagami, whose heart had just settled, bantered back and forth with old Brody.

"Right on time, I can give the inspection team a complete demonstration of the capture process for Hollow Earth creatures. Rest assured, this process is likewise exceptionally safe."

Hearing their conversation, the doctor spoke with utter confidence.

He pressed his auricle, inside of which sat a bone-conduction earpiece.

"Come on, folks! Let's cast the 'net' once more today!"

At his command, the base's lights grew even brighter, and numerous mechanical devices roared into operation.

Inside the massive tunnel, even the colossal machinery appeared as tiny as ants.

Yet the Kislev officer behind the doctor stepped forward, his expression solemn.

"Doctor, we've already cast the 'net' once today. According to the data you personally calculated, we shouldn't..."

"Hehehe! Don't meddle in scientific matters, shall you? You Kislev barbarian?"

Not only was the doctor mocking him verbally, but he even threw up his hands in a defensive gesture to block the officer from coming closer.

It was undisguised contempt.