Chapter 286: poison gas
In the initial segment, no one could really tell much. After all, it had only been playing for a short while, so no one could discern anything significant.
However, there was one thing everyone remembered: this boy named Lelouch harbored the ambition to destroy the superpower of Britannia, even if those were words from his childhood.
They didn't know what the current situation was, but everyone knew that since most of the shots were focused on him, it meant he was the protagonist of this video.
As the protagonist, anything he did could be understood, but people still found it somewhat novel.
Is the purpose not "protection" this time? It just so happens that most of the audience is getting a bit tired of seeing "protection" and similar divine plot twists.
This time, it seems to be centered around destruction and war—a divine twist in the plot—so everyone is looking forward to what happens next.
Trying to destroy such a massive superpower just by talking is obviously impossible. Those who love chaos can't wait to shout out:
"Fight! Fight!!! Let's see how this boy named Lelouch actually destroys this superpower!"
One-Punch Man World.
"Yeah... this looks pretty good."
Saitama looked at the scene in the video and couldn't help but remark, "It seems like a fairly normal world."
"It does look quite normal, appearing just like our world before the Monsters appeared."
Genos nodded slightly. He also thought Lelouch's world was quite normal, similar to their own. Although those mechs seemed a bit outdated, considering it's a different world...
What seemed like outdated mechs to him might be the peak of combat power in that world.
However, due to the different worldviews, Genos didn't say much more, only feeling... that there was finally a world that looked relatively normal.
Other worlds were made up of who-knows-what.
Magical Girls, Ultimate Life Forms, Ninjas, Shinigami, god-slaying weapons, Heroic Spirits, aliens, Ultraman, and so on.
These seemingly normal worlds always featured existences and power systems beyond Genos's expectations.
Now that a relatively normal world had appeared, Genos felt a strange sense of relief, thinking that perhaps no strange powers would appear next.
Instead, it would be a story about changing the world purely through wisdom and tactics.
It wasn't that Genos hated those strange abilities, but rather he felt that after seeing so many videos with bizarre famous scenes...
He was getting a bit tired of them and wanted to watch some famous scenes from a normal technological worldview to cleanse his palate.
It's the same principle as eating lettuce with barbecue to cut through the grease.
"It looks like those weapons aren't particularly strong."
Tatsumaki floated in mid-air, looking quite bored with the weapons appearing in the video. She yawned and said, "However, Japan, which keeps showing up, has actually been renamed Area 11."
"It's actually a bit funny in a weird way. But more than that, I'm curious about that Governor-whatever—I forgot his name—what happened to him to make his face change so completely?"
Saitama recalled Prince Clovis's drastic change in expression just now and said in a helpless tone, "Probably some major 'mistake' occurred."
"After all, at first, he seemed to completely disregard those criminals, but then after getting some news from the soldier, he immediately deployed his personal guard and those mechs."
"It feels like he's already panicking, or rather, he's been affected by some 'unknown event'."
Any normal person could see that Clovis was originally just performing a show of condemning those terrorists.
But after that soldier arrived and said something, his expression changed instantly.
"Insufficient information." Genos shook his head slightly. There was too little information right now; after all, they had only seen the beginning and knew nothing else.
In this situation, even the so-called Holmes wouldn't be able to guess what exactly made Clovis turn pale with fright.
"Just watch slowly; we're in no hurry."
Tatsumaki looked indifferent. She had plenty of time; how much could one video really take?
The video continued to play.
After Clovis gave the order, the personal guard was deployed, meaning the severity of the situation had more than doubled.
On the road elsewhere, Rivalz couldn't help but ask Lelouch, "At the beginning..."
"Hmm?"
Lelouch was confused.
Rivalz continued, "Why did you start by moving the King?"
Lelouch said as if it were obvious, "If the King doesn't move, how can he expect his subordinates to follow?"
"I say," Rivalz looked at the road ahead and asked curiously, "Does Lelouch want to be a CEO or something?"
"How could that be?"
Lelouch shook his head and said very calmly, "I won't indulge in such strange dreams."
"Vroom vroom—!!!"
Just then, the constant honking of a car horn from behind caught Lelouch and Rivalz's attention. By the time they reacted, it was almost too late!
The driver of this large truck was none other than the terrorist reported in the news earlier. Seeing Rivalz and Lelouch ahead...
He didn't ram them immediately. Instead, like an ordinary person, he cursed at them for driving so carelessly, then quickly turned the steering wheel, intending to switch lanes.
"Stop!!! Over there is!!!"
The woman sitting beside him instinctively tried to stop him, but it was already too late.
Accompanied by a screeching sound, the truck crashed directly into a nearby abandoned construction site.
Seeing this, Rivalz's voice sounded quite awkward. "That... was that our fault?"
"Of course not."
Lelouch immediately denied it. It wasn't that they hadn't noticed the truck at all; it was because the other party was driving too fast. By the time they noticed, it was too late.
In a sense, it was the other party's fault. Rivalz wasn't speeding; he was traveling at a normal speed. If the other party hadn't been driving so fast, they wouldn't have failed to notice.
On the other side, General Bartley looked extremely panicked. He thought firmly to himself: 'No matter what, we must recover that. That is...'
Following General Bartley's inner thoughts, Lelouch frowned slightly. He looked at the truck not far away, where a golden light seemed to have appeared, and wondered, "What is that?"
"Hey! Lelouch!"
Rivalz said, "The power cord seems to be broken."
"Oh, what's that?" Lelouch was completely indifferent to the broken power cord. Instead, he was very concerned about the scene he had just witnessed. Was there something on the truck?
What exactly was that strange light?
"Hey! Over here!!"
"Whoa! That's brutal!"
"What is it? An accident?"
"Could it be drunk driving?"
"What an idiot."
"Hey, someone should go help them."
Seeing the scene of the accident, none of the people went forward to help the truck driver who had encountered the accident; instead, they watched coldly from the side, even taking out their phones to take photos.
It was as if they were treating this place like some tourist attraction, causing Lelouch to frown slightly and say, "Everyone is like this."
The next moment, Lelouch placed his helmet on the bike and ran toward the truck himself; Rivalz tried to stop him.
Because he understood what his good friend wanted to do, he tried to stop him.
"Oh~ The student rescue squad makes its debut!!!"
"I say, someone go call the police."
Seeing Lelouch appear, the pedestrians still maintained an attitude of watching the fun without caring about the consequences.
Lelouch came to the side of the truck and called out loudly, asking if the driver inside was alright; compared to those indifferent crowds, he was willing to take this step to help others.
Rivalz was also complaining on the side; although what Lelouch was doing wasn't wrong, it was still better not to do it. If he acted on meaningless kindness, he would be late for class.
"Hey! Can you hear me?"
Lelouch climbed onto the truck and continued calling out, then a strange sensation followed.
Lelouch heard a female voice, her voice sounding quite excited: "Found you... my..."
"Where?!"
Lelouch subconsciously looked for the source of the voice, but he didn't see any girl nearby at all.
Then the truck began to move, and Lelouch accidentally fell into the interior of the truck, where there was an unknown device nearby.
"Hey! Stop the car!!!" Lelouch had no idea what was going on right now. Had the truck driver not heard his voice?
Seeing this scene, Rivalz couldn't help but comment, "That should count as a hit-and-run, right?"
On the other side, not long after the truck started, the military arrived; they warned the people on the truck to stop immediately.
At this time, they still had the possibility of finding a lawyer, but if they remained obstinate, then only a dead end awaited them.
It was also at this time that Lelouch knew he had been caught up in a major incident.
As the door opened, Lelouch hid to the side and saw a woman take off her coat, revealing a combat suit. As she walked, she said, "Taking the Azabu Route will lead into the Underground Railway."
"Kallen!" A man's voice sounded over the intercom; he was the driver of the truck, and he said very loudly, "Let's use that."
After hearing this, Kallen frowned and said loudly, "Wouldn't that become a massacre?"
Clearly, they had some kind of trump card in their hands, but once this trump card was played, it would become a vicious massacre... event.
In the sky, after the military took over this incident, they immediately sent out helicopters to stop the truck. Unexpectedly, a Knightmare emerged from the truck to stop the approaching military.
"Dammit!!!! Aren't these actual terrorists?"
Seeing this, Lelouch also understood that these people weren't ordinary truck drivers at all, but the terrorists mentioned in the news.
Subsequently, the military also dispatched a Knightmare to stop this truck. Within a minute of the battle starting, the woman named Kallen fell into an absolute disadvantage.
It wasn't that her strength was too weak, but that the mecha she was using was already an Old Timer, completely unable to bring out her true strength.
Inside the truck, Lelouch held his phone and analyzed calmly in his heart: "There's no signal on the phone. Judging by the darkness and the road conditions, it's certain we're on the old Underground Railway."
"The destination is the Ghetto. It'll be dangerous to go out, but..."
"Alright, I understand. The conditions are all clear. Although I don't want to rely on the military's protection..."
"As long as I use the terrorists' communicator as a meeting gift."
"Ah, I forgot about him."
Having understood the current situation and found a solution, Lelouch suddenly realized he seemed to have forgotten someone.
The existence forgotten by Lelouch was, of course, Rivalz, who was currently complaining about Lelouch for leaving him behind!!!
On the other side, a scientist was currently talking with General Bartley.
"How do you know that?!"
General Bartley looked at the man in front of him, appearing exceptionally shocked.
This man's name was Lloyd Asplund, a scientist, or rather, the leader of the Imperial Special Dispatch Guidance Technology Division (Special Dispatch for short).
"Ah?"
Looking at General Bartley, Lloyd couldn't help but smile and say, "Did I guess correctly?"
"You bastard!!" General Bartley was somewhat ashamed and angry now; was that guy just guessing?!
"You've gone too far." Lloyd looked at General Bartley and smiled. "General, something that you and Prince Clovis hid away privately was stolen by terrorists."
"While it would be simple to take it back, you also want to root out their comrades. By tracking the terrorists, you'll know where their base is."
"Congratulations!"
At this point, Lloyd turned his head to look at his assistant and laughed. "Your reasoning was completely correct."
"No, well..." The assistant was somewhat shy and said, "I just thought this matter was a bit strange."
"Enough!" General Bartley looked at Lloyd and questioned, "What exactly does your Special Dispatch want to do?"
Lloyd fixed his gaze back on General Bartley and said, "I said, I'm just helping with the cleanup!"
"Helping?" General Bartley was puzzled.
Lloyd continued, "Yes, I want data!"
"Also..." The assistant couldn't help but ask at this time, "What exactly was that thing that was stolen?"
"..."
General Bartley's brow furrowed tightly; he finally seemed to give up and sighed, "Chemical weapons, which is to say... poison gas."
The camera panned to the mechanical device next to Lelouch on the screen; this thing was the so-called chemical weapon.
Kallen
The terrorists also understood that this was a weapon of mass destruction; once used, it would lead to countless deaths, so they had not activated this chemical weapon while in the city area earlier.
Outside the video.
Magical Girl Illya World.
"Does this count as terrible luck?"
Looking at Lelouch in the video, magical ruby floated in mid-air and said somewhat speechlessly, "He clearly went over to help, but ended up being 'hijacked in a roundabout way' by terrorists. What kind of situation is this?"
"Although I think this is tragic, for some reason I really want to laugh, hahahahaha~~~"
Yes, Lelouch seemed quite pitiful now; he clearly went to help out of kindness, only to get mysteriously caught up in the incident. In a sense, it was a truly undeserved disaster.
"No, he hasn't been hijacked."
Miyu shook her head and looked at magical ruby, saying very calmly, "He has already found a way to escape the truck. As long as his phone regains communication, he can use the military's power to leave."
"Only..."
At this point, Miyu hesitated for a moment and said in a subtle tone, "I'm curious what that 'thing' Lelouch saw actually is."
When Lelouch boarded the vehicle, he had heard some kind of voice; it was a girl's voice.
At first, Miyu thought it was that Kallen's voice, but after hearing Kallen's voice, she found that her voice was completely different from that mysterious female voice.
"Could it be a ghost?"
At this time, Illya's body trembled slightly, even though she had seen ghosts in the truest sense (referring to Heroic Spirits).
But as a Little Girl, she was still quite afraid of the ghosts and monsters in horror movies.
"It won't be."
magical sapphire looked at Illya and said calmly, "Because from the situation at the scene, the only suspicious thing is probably that device containing the chemical weapon."
"Although that soldier said it's poison gas, I think things might not be that simple."
Having seen so many famous scenes with divine plot twists, everyone could vaguely feel that the so-called chemical weapon was clearly suspicious.
Although a poison gas leak would be a very terrifying thing, for some reason, including Illya...
They felt that inside there shouldn't be poison gas, but rather that mysterious woman who tried to talk to Lelouch.
Although it was strange, that was just how they felt.
"Could it be that there's another time machine inside?"
For some reason, magical ruby's imagination was particularly wild. She smiled mischievously and said, "Another ultra-ancient human like Yurei appears inside, telling them that this world is about to be destroyed and someone must take on the responsibility of being the Deliverer."
"Then they give Lelouch power, letting him have the strength to save the world, and finally, in order to save the world, Lelouch incidentally destroys that whatever-it-is superpower."
Hearing magical ruby's words, even Illya couldn't help but comment, "What kind of messy, stitched-together plot is this?"
"Eh? Is it not good? I think it's quite nice."
magical ruby floated beside Illya and teased, "Other than this method, I really can't think of how a student currently in school could overthrow a superpower; after all, that's an entire country."
"And it's a superpower that beat Japan so badly it couldn't fight back, a country with ultra-high technology."
After hearing magical ruby's words, Illya also fell into a brief contemplation. It seemed magical ruby had a point!
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