A mottled wall overgrown with vines, battered cars packed along empty roads, and not a soul in sight—the small town was eerily silent.
If he hadn't been sure he'd arrived in the MonsterVerse, Hao Shuai might have thought he'd returned to Resident Evil World, with its streets full of zombies.
It was a typical Japanese town. Something had clearly happened very suddenly, forcing the people here to leave in a great hurry.
Of course, they hadn't fled because of a zombie outbreak. The town had suffered a nuclear leak.
This was Jijira Town in Suzuro City, Japan. A nuclear power plant had been built near the town sometime in the nineties.
Fifteen years ago, in 1999, a male MUTO larva awoke in a Philippine mine. Hungry, it crawled thousands of miles to this town and burrowed underground, causing the nuclear plant to collapse from below and leak radiation. The radiation spread throughout the town, forcing its residents to relocate and leaving the place completely abandoned.
Hao Shuai had traveled all this way from Rice Country for a reason, not to experience the Japanese people's distinctive customs and culture.
Back in Rice Country, Hao Shuai had asked Red Queen to search the internet. When she found no news about any Titans, he knew that Godzilla's battle with the MUTOs hadn't begun yet. So he decided to come see what a MUTO larva looked like—and, while he was at it, infiltrate Monarch.
Monarch was one of the most mysterious organizations in the MonsterVerse. President Truman had established it in 1946 to cover up the sinking of the USS Laughton, which had been attacked by a giant creature. Its mission was to investigate unidentified life forms on Earth and protect humanity, preserving peace throughout the world.
Monarch had witnessed the truth of the