Silence.
Deathly silence.
Inside the command room, the tension had only just eased, but in that instant, the air seemed to have been sucked out, leaving a cold, rigid vacuum.
The expressions on Chuan Langpu's face and those of his three trusted senior officials froze as though someone had paused a dramatic film. Their relief at surviving a catastrophe solidified, then cracked inch by inch, finally giving way to utter disbelief and horror.
Their eyes bulged in shock, their mouths falling open wide enough to fit an egg. Their brains collectively crashed, unable to process the sentence they had just heard.
Use America's "War Cauldron" missiles to bomb Tokyo in Little Japan?
Was this madness?
"M-Mr. Chen... are... are you joking?" Chuan Langpu's voice rasped like sandpaper. He even wondered whether sheer terror had made him hallucinate. "Attack Little Japan? God, they're our most important ally!"
"Sir!" The hawkish general McAuff snapped out of his stupor at that reality-shattering order. Fighting back a fear that seeped into his bones, he stepped forward, trying to explain the gravity of the act with a soldier's most basic logic. "Absolutely not! Once those missiles launch, there will be no turning back! This won't just be a diplomatic disaster. It could trigger a major war! We can't-"
Before he could finish, Chen Lin's gaze suddenly turned cold.
He did not even glance at McAuff.
His gaze merely settled lightly on the Parker Pen on the desk, the one used to sign bills into law.
The next second.
Under everyone's horrified gaze, the heavy pen silently rose into the air, defying every law of physics.
It slowly turned in midair, its dark nib pointing at the spot between McAuff's eyebrows. Beneath the command room's harsh white lights, it gleamed with a cold menace more dangerous