The situation was decidedly bizarre.
It seemed—the people inside the White House had been abducted first, and only then had the building been blown up.
Had the Americans' top leadership been swept up in one fell swoop? Was that what had happened?
Everyone who saw the scene found that thought rising unbidden in their minds.
Fortunately, the area around the White House had already been sealed off. Ordinary people could not get anywhere near it, and even those who had fallen unconscious were being held temporarily. Otherwise, if word of what had happened here leaked out, it would probably spark even greater panic worldwide.
After this catastrophe, almost all of the country's ten highest-ranking officials had been taken out, leaving only Vice President Kedun, who was visiting another country, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Under the United States' political system, the vice president actually had little real power. The Constitution also stipulated that the vice president could not wield actual executive authority, exercising the relevant powers only as the president's representative.
Still, the office came with one incredibly impressive power: if the incumbent president died in office, resigned, or was impeached, the vice president could naturally succeed him.
The president who was now missing had himself risen directly from vice president after his predecessor was impeached.
The current vice president, meanwhile, had been newly appointed.
Normally, both the United States President and vice president had to be elected, so his appointment as vice president had been something of an unexpected windfall.
Yet he had never imagined that this pleasant surprise would only be the beginning. It now looked as though he would become another successor president, quite possibly the first in United States history who had not reached the office through an election.
Of course, Mr. Kedun