The Flock

"According to preliminary speculation, the appearance of these demons is inseparable from The Faker."

The face The Faker revealed during the Fire Giant incident was no longer a secret among the world's top echelons, allowing the Special Affairs Bureau to quickly lock onto the suspect after post-incident monitoring and screening.

"The demons appeared just half an hour after he entered this nightclub, and there were five of them. Ms. Inagaki, you said you sensed the aura of demons; that was during this same timeframe, correct?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"What is the connection between The Faker and the demons? Are these demons also creatures from a high-energy plane?"

Kuroki frowned deeply; it was hard to imagine that such disgusting monsters, which knew only how to kill, could exist so widely.

"Perhaps we could ask the Holy Infant Society," William suggested.

Kuroki Niizumi noted the suggestion in her memo.

"However, the good news is that these demons don't seem particularly difficult to deal with. As long as there is sufficient firepower, they can still be killed. It's just that the enemy is too elusive, as if they can be birthed from wicked people at any moment. Before our firepower arrives, they are capable of causing massive civilian casualties."

"Our priority is to figure out exactly how these demons are born and if there are any preventive measures. To this end, we have invited Dr. Joseph to assist us; he is a master of demonology."

Joseph, a gray-haired man wearing glasses who had been pondering while holding relevant documents, stood up upon hearing his name. "I wouldn't call myself a master. I merely have some research into demons and the occult."

"Based on the data I have seen so far, no rituals were discovered at the scenes where the demons appeared. Furthermore, the appearance of these demons is less like traditional demons and more like the monsters and xenomorphs imagined in various modern literary works."

"Currently, our term for these monsters comes from Ms. Inagaki's 'demon,' but the Supreme that Ms. Inagaki believes in does not clearly exist in our history. Of course, we could use the term monotheism to refer to the Supreme, but I don't think Ms. Inagaki would agree regardless of whether I identified the Supreme as Yahweh or Allah."

"Therefore, I am more inclined to believe that these so-called demons have little to do with the demons described in our history. After all, our depictions of demons—from serpents and Lucifer to dragons and Satan—do not include anything that matches these creatures."

"To verify this hypothesis, we could try using iron whips, crucifixes, Buddhist scriptures, and sarira to see if they have any effect on the demons."

Recording Joseph's words, Noguchi Yuji planned to have Toyokawa Jousei test these items the next time they encountered a demon.

It was no wonder they were anxious. Compared to transcendent factions that could at least be communicated with, these demons were natural-born destroyers. Their physical structure was no different from the imagined Zerg—all for the sake of battle! Pure bliss!

Moreover, they killed every living thing around them the moment they appeared. Their stomachs seemed bottomless; even if they weren't eating, they would crush everything that moved within their sight.

They were completely incapable of communication, and their behavior made it clear they were a natural enemy of humanity.

Consequently, The Faker was quickly added to the blacklist and marked as untrustworthy.

After all, the consequences of this demon rampage were quite severe, with nearly a hundred casualties, including many tourists. This caused the burgeoning trend of transcendence to quickly recede among ordinary people, and several countries had already listed Japan as an unsafe, non-recommended travel destination overnight.

However, the world was never short of adventurous people. There should still be a considerable number of foreigners choosing to reside in Tokyo, seeking the potential transcendent opportunities that might exist there.

Especially the wealthy; they might not come themselves, but they couldn't afford to miss out, so they would pay to have eyes on the ground in Tokyo.

The moment any opportunity for transcendence was discovered, they would fly over immediately, and they wouldn't even mind changing their nationality.

"We cannot force transcendent power for the time being. We can only hope the Holy Infant Society brings us some surprises in two days, but we cannot place all our hopes on others."

Kuroki Niizumi looked at Noguchi Yuji.

"Yuji, the application you submitted last time to establish emergency response units in every ward of Tokyo and every prefecture in the country has been approved in principle by the Director. He will have the Self-Defense Forces fully cooperate with your operations to ensure the system is established in the shortest possible time."

"Understood, I will handle it immediately."

"William, I know the U.S. military has a weapons laboratory in Yokohama."

"Understood, I will represent the Special Affairs Bureau to communicate and submit a request."

While the Special Affairs Bureau was busy, Shiraishi Wataru gave himself a break, observing the first animal experiment conducted entirely by Ryomiya Hirosue.

Yes, to him, this counted as a vacation and relaxation. Sometimes he even wanted to find a job, go through a few rounds of "slapping faces" to change his mood, and find an opportunity to say, "An eye for an eye, double the return!"

But he decided against it. He could show off whenever he wanted, but what joy could compare to playing with the entire world in the palm of his hand?

Watching those big shots engage in extremely serious discussions and countless hypotheses over the settings he had fabricated, losing who knows how much hair in the process, while he possessed the power to topple their theoretical towers at any moment—it was like a client casually rejecting a thousand proposals the contractor had stayed up all night to create. It was simply inhuman!

"Protector, is this experimental arrangement of mine acceptable?"

"Hmm, it is."

Hilarious. Shiraishi Wataru hadn't been listening at all; his main body was actually at home playing Savage 7. Yes, the 7th installment of the game had been released in this world.

The validated Ryomiya Hirosue beamed and pressed the switch for the experimental cage.

Twenty sheep walked out cautiously and began to graze on the grass.

The smiling Hirosue had prepared three leopards and five wolves for these twenty sheep. The theme of the experiment was whether the flock would awaken under the threat of constant attrition and high-intensity pressure.

Among the flock, ten sheep had been symbiotically enhanced, and one of them had even adapted a Steel Body.

As the experiment progressed, the predators were released.

Famished and in urgent need of food, they spotted the gift of a flock immediately.

The hunt happened in an instant.

The flock huddled together, fleeing in all directions, while some stragglers unfortunately became prey, pinned to the ground and kicking their hind legs helplessly.

The sheep that had adapted the Steel Body was targeted by the leopards. They bit and tore frantically, but couldn't kill it no matter what. The sheep just kept bleating in pain, becoming more energetic the more it cried out. Eventually, the exhausted leopards had to give up on this unchewable contestant and turned to chase the other sheep.

The sheep, though injured, scrambled back into the flock in a sorry state.

In the end, the wolves and leopards had their fill, while the flock shivered, many of them wounded.

Looking at Ryomiya Hirosue, who was busy recording observation data, Shiraishi Wataru felt a surge of interest.

Because he sensed that a new ability was emerging in one of the sheep.

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