America, the White House.
The silence in the Oval Office was suffocating.
Donald Trump stared fixedly at the large screen on the wall, now filled with static. A minute earlier, Commander Michael had transmitted one final, harrowing audio message.
"Underwater... man-eating grass is growing underwater! God, the aircraft carrier is being shredded..."
Then came the teeth-grating shriek of twisting steel, followed by a complete loss of contact.
It was not just America. In London, Paris... the underground command centers of the Seven Nations' leaders had all descended into utter panic.
Over a hundred modern frontline warships, three nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and nearly twenty thousand soldiers.
They had vanished from the face of the earth in less than five minutes.
There had been no blinding nuclear blast, no missile trails. They had simply disappeared without a trace on the high seas. The war machines that modern technology took such pride in had been ground to dust.
Little Japan, Tokyo.
The underground air-raid command center beneath the Prime Minister's Official Residence.
Takaichi Zaomiao was deathly pale, gripping the corner of the table so tightly her nails nearly snapped. "Have you reached Lord Abe? What about those three-the empire's last trump cards?!"
The Defense Minister was drenched in cold sweat, his voice shaking violently. "We've lost contact. With all of them. The last data transmitted by the sonar buoys suggested... an outbreak of plant life on the seabed beyond anything we can explain."
Takaichi Zaomiao collapsed into her chair.
The empire's last hope for its national destiny was gone?
An overwhelming sense of dread surged through her. It felt as though a massive, invisible guillotine hung over her head, ready to fall across her neck at any moment.
Ten thousand meters in the air, above the stratosphere.
The silver flying boat silently pierced