Morning light broke through the sky. A pale glow drifted like gauze over the rushing Huanggu River. Its waters surged on, unchanged for ten thousand years, washing away the blood spilled from ancient times to the present.
Across the vast city of Shenghai, millions of residents opened their doors and stepped into the streets after a day of terror.
Only then did they discover, to their astonishment, how much the city had changed. The "beggars" by the roadside were gone. The pickpockets who crouched on street corners had vanished, as had the tattooed gang members. It was as though the whole city had been washed with clear water and left clean.
"Extra! Extra! Every gang in Shenghai wiped out!"
"Get your paper! A proclamation to the people from the Mystic Umbrella Company!"
Newspaper boys ran down the streets waving their papers. Many residents raised a hand and called, "A copy of the Sheng Report, please!"
They bought papers from the boys and opened them at once. Inside were two articles about the Mystic Umbrella Company. One, written by the Sheng Report's editor-in-chief, covered the "Terminator" nuclear bomb that had destroyed the Eastern Isles' Third Fleet. The other was the company's proclamation to the people.
The first article was enough to set spirits soaring. Many residents had seen that unusual film at the cinema the day before, and what they read struck a powerful chord, leaving them thrilled and excited.
The second article drew just as much attention. Since the previous afternoon, Mystic Umbrella Company personnel had been moving through every district of Shenghai. They had arrested too many people to count and killed many more. The residents were anxious, even frightened, and desperately wanted to know what the company intended to do.
At a small tea stall, a customer in