Deep within the Pentagon, in the secret command center.
The atmosphere here had become utterly different from the fervor and certainty that had filled the room when they decided to launch the Forge plan.
What replaced it was a deathly chill that seeped into their bones.
Even Gordon, the highest-ranking four-star General, had his pupils dilated to the limit as he stared bloodshot-eyed at the massive screen. His throat seemed clutched by an invisible hand, producing meaningless sounds.
At the center of the holographic screen, the smoke and clouds in the high altitude had already dispersed.
The surveillance satellite promptly transmitted the latest real-time footage of the New Jersey base. Although the image was filled with static and noise, everyone could still make out what it showed.
The area around the New Jersey base was surrounded by a bottomless crater a hundred meters in diameter, its edges fused into a glassy state.
Billowing smoke and lingering plasma glow shrouded the vicinity of this sinkhole, which looked as though it had been formed by a meteor impact.
There was no doubt that this was the massive wound inflicted jointly by the alloy tungsten rod dropped by the Rod of God and the ultra-high-temperature plasma weapon. It was as terrifying as divine punishment from the heavens—the most devastating strike known to human civilization!
It would not have been an exaggeration to say that even the nuclear weapons possessed by various nations were somewhat inferior in terms of destructive power.
Yet within this terrifying strike zone, where any existence should have been vaporized and annihilated along with all life and man-made creations, there stood a patch of buildings whose structure remained intact.
"Zoom in on the image..."
One of the Generals swallowed and forced his eyes wider, trying to see the intact area