But the determination to build Jaegers often came with enormous casualties.
When the Jaeger Program was first introduced, every nation scoffed at it.
They believed those cumbersome Jaegers were nothing more than heaps of scrap metal.
They simply could not stand against colossal kaiju.
Only after Jaegers were equipped with neural control systems and consciousness sensors were uploaded—
could pilots truly operate them by connecting to the consciousness sensors through neural synchronization.
This made the Jaegers agile, turning them into genuine warriors rather than clumsy lumps of steel.
Half a year ago, a kaiju codenamed Shanlan made landfall in Dalian, Nation Z.
Shanlan resembled a wild boar and was covered from head to toe in spikes.
It was slow, but its defenses were astonishing and its attack power was formidable.
Shanlan stood roughly one hundred meters tall and weighed 2,500 tons.
Its size and weight classified it as a Category 2 kaiju.
Shanlan's sudden attack brought an enormous disaster upon Dalian.
Although the military reacted quickly and arrived at the battlefield in time to halt Shanlan's advance,
Dalian was still completely engulfed in war.
Even though the city's residents were promptly evacuated for emergency shelter,
nearly ten thousand people still died.
More than five million were displaced.
The battle lasted three days and three nights, and the military had nearly resorted to nuclear weapons.
Fortunately, Shanlan was killed before that became necessary.
With Manila serving as a warning, Shanlan's corpse was immediately airlifted to the Buri Dun Desert.
It was one of the few desert regions in the northeast.
Because the cleanup was handled swiftly, the kaiju blood spilled across Dalian was relatively limited.
The kaiju blue phenomenon did not spread unchecked.
Thus, Dalian avoided Manila's tragedy.
It was also during this period that the technical bottleneck in the Jaeger Program's consciousness sensor system was overcome.
Nation Z further strengthened its resolve to build Jaeger warriors.
Not only that, countries throughout the Pan-Pacific region began building Jaeger warriors as well.
The curtain officially rose on the war between Jaegers and kaiju.
June 17, 2024.
Dalian City.
Lushunkou District.
On Jianguo Road stood a noodle shop called Grandma He's Noodle House.
The shop was not large. Including the dining area and kitchen, it was only sixty or seventy square meters.
The decor was also quite old-fashioned, full of the feeling of a bygone era.
There were only six small tables in the shop.
Yet business was booming.
Customers came and went in an endless stream.
Some people, seeing that there was no space inside, simply carried their bowls outside, squatted by the entrance, and began slurping down noodles.
As a result, the shop's sole teenage waiter was run off his feet.
He served dishes to one table, then rushed to another to settle the bill and clear the table, before greeting new customers and showing them to their seats.
Though busy, he was not flustered at all. Instead, he handled everything in perfect order.
It was as though he were an old hand who had worked in the industry for years.
The boy's name was Xiao Shou. He had just turned eighteen this year. He could not be called handsome, but his youth gave him a clean and delicate appearance.
His eyes in particular were rare phoenix eyes.
Yet they occasionally revealed a world-weariness that did not belong to someone his age.
Xiao Shou was an orphan who had grown up in the Dalian City Third Social Welfare Institute.
The Orphanage was located in Lushunkou District.
Although he was an orphan, Xiao Shou had enjoyed a happy childhood.
Though his family had abandoned him the moment he was born,
at the Orphanage, he had a kind and gentle director grandfather.
He had caretakers who looked after him with meticulous care.
He had the affection and concern of the orphaned and elderly residents in the Orphanage.
He also had the companionship of other children who, like him, were orphans.
Therefore, Xiao Shou had always maintained a positive outlook on life and held no resentment toward society or his circumstances.
But all that beauty was shattered half a year ago.
Shanlan's invasion dealt tremendous damage to Nation Z and Dalian.
It also brought pain to Xiao Shou.
By unfortunate coincidence, the Orphanage lay directly along Shanlan's route after making landfall.
Although the authorities had sounded the alarm and warned everyone to evacuate in time,
most of those in the Orphanage were elderly people and children with limited mobility.
Xiao Shou could only work with several older children from the Orphanage, repeatedly moving the elderly and younger children to safety.
There were more than two hundred elderly people and children combined. Even after excluding the hundred or so who could move freely, there were still over a hundred people with mobility issues who had to be transferred back and forth.
Shanlan had launched a surprise attack on Dalian after hiding beneath the sea.
Its sudden landing and assault left the authorities without enough time to evacuate the public.
At the time, there was no underwater wormhole detection system, so kaiju lurking underwater and launching surprise attacks could not be detected in advance.
After Shanlan came ashore, it advanced rapidly.
Though it was intercepted in Dalian,
the Orphanage was located in Lushunkou District, along the Pacific Ocean coast.
It could be said that Shanlan had made landfall in Lushunkou District itself.
Even after Xiao Shou exhausted himself, he had not managed to evacuate all of the hundred-plus elderly people and children.
And by then, Shanlan was already close at hand.
The surrounding skyscrapers were as fragile as building blocks before it.
With a casual swipe, they became nothing but broken tiles and ruins.
The walls of the Orphanage, which had once seemed impossibly tall to Xiao Shou, along with its three-story building, were instantly reduced to dust beneath Shanlan's feet.
Shanlan's front hoof was about to come down directly on top of Xiao Shou.
At that moment, Xiao Shou did not know whether he was frozen by fear or truly too exhausted to move. He simply sat there limply, staring blankly.
Just as Xiao Shou's mind went blank and he did not know what to do, a pair of strong hands yanked him up.
It was Old Director Xiao Kaiyuan, but it was already too late.
The Old Director used all his strength to lift Xiao Shou up and hurl him aside.
But he himself could not escape. Shanlan's hoof had already come down.
Xiao Shou swore that his feet had been less than ten centimeters from Shanlan's hoof!
The shockwave from the massive hoof sent Xiao Shou flying more than twenty meters.
After struggling for a long while, Xiao Shou finally got to his feet and limped toward where the Old Director had fallen.
Only a few bloodstains remained in the enormous hoofprint.
It left Xiao Shou deeply traumatized, and for a time, he believed that he had caused the director's death.
Even now, Xiao Shou often dreamed of that scene at night and woke with a start countless times in the darkness.
The casualties among the elderly and children at the Orphanage were also severe. More than seventy people had failed to evacuate in time.
Including those who died in the aftermath of the battle, only thirty-some elderly people and twenty-some children remained at the Orphanage.
Even the director had died, and its funding source was suddenly cut off.
Although the government allocated special funds every year, it was merely a drop in the bucket for the Orphanage.
Most of the elderly people and children housed in the Orphanage were in poor health, and some even suffered from illnesses.
Their medical expenses were enormous.
Previously, the director had traveled everywhere and given speeches to secure donations.
Together with the support sent back by adults who had grown up in the Orphanage and worked outside,
the Orphanage had barely managed to keep going.
But now, that burden suddenly fell upon Xiao Shou.
When a person matured overnight, it was often because they had suffered a devastating blow or experienced something profoundly life-changing.
Xiao Shou was no exception. Before, he had only been a playful, mischievous kid.
Now, he worried over the Orphanage's future.
He found work to earn money and took the initiative to shoulder the Orphanage's expenses.
Though it was only a drop in the bucket for the Orphanage,
it was still good to contribute what little he could.
Grandma He, the owner of Grandma He's Noodle House, was the Old Director's friend and the Orphanage's neighbor of many years.
She had watched Xiao Shou grow up.
Seeing her old friend and the Orphanage suffer such a disaster, she naturally could not stand idly by.
She kept Xiao Shou on at high pay, having him help manage the noodle shop.
From time to time, she also made extra noodles for Xiao Shou to deliver to the elderly people and children at the Orphanage to help support them.
And so, Xiao Shou had worked at Grandma He's Noodle House ever since.
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