Chapter 53: Operation Furious Dragon (Part 18)

For the residents of the Jifeng Empire’s capital metropolitan circle, this day was nothing short of a nightmare.

Daytime riots, arson, gunfire, looting, and rape—the entire city seemed to plunge into a hellish abyss of chaos and terror in the span of a single instant.

As these ordinary citizens, who merely harbored tiny dreams of a peaceful and comfortable life, either prayed to the gods for safety, trembled on the verge of slumber, or anxiously comforted their terrified wives and children, even more violent gunfire and more terrifying explosions plunged them into an even deeper, more frightened darkness.

Some pressed themselves flat against the floor; some crawled into bathrooms; others huddled straight beneath tables, incessantly praying for the protection of the Imperial Radiance Great Deity.

A few bolder souls cautiously lifted the edges of their curtains to peer outside.

Outside the window, the torrential rain fell like cascading waterfalls. In the distance, the sky merged with the water, and the water merged with the sky. A wall of water, like a neatly aligned rank of soldiers or a towering fluid barrier, whipped by the driving tempest, emitted a thunderous roar that shook the heavens. It sounded like the charge of ten thousand horses or the simultaneous beating of ten thousand battle drums, surging forward majestically and unstoppably. Between heaven and earth, nothing remained except this clamorous sound of water, imbued with a boundless, killing aura.

This was a scene reminiscent of apocalyptic floods, something that had hitherto only existed in ancient myths and legends!

"O Imperial Radiance Great Deity, is this the punishment of the heavens?"

Cries of despair rang out continuously in various places.

These sounds pierced through the roaring billows and were clearly captured by Lei Dong's spiritual perception. A ferocious, cold sneer curled the corners of his mouth: "The punishment of the heavens? No, this is a warning from an enraged dragon!"

By this time, the Wrath Dragon Team had braved the rain and infiltrated the vicinity of Chishima District, Nanfeng Town, 5-chome.

Bei Shiliang was typing rapidly on a military computer. From time to time, Lei Dong lowered his head to check his watch, though his attention never wavered from the massive building not far away, topped with a giant flying-saucer-shaped water tower. That was the "Capital Sewerage Bureau," which managed the construction, maintenance, and repair of the entire underground drainage system of the metropolitan circle.

"We're in!" A few minutes later, Bei Shiliang looked up and called out excitedly.

Lei Dong lowered his head to check his watch again and said in a deep voice, "Five more minutes until their shift change. Pay attention—the target's name is Okada Atu. Three, two, one, start!"

***

The floodwaters from the Moshuan Reservoir, accompanied by the unceasing torrential rain, finally breached the urban area of the capital. The city center had already become a vast expanse of water, with the carcasses of various animals and all sorts of debris floating on the surface. Not a single person could be seen on the streets anymore. Even the Yakuza gangsters wielding firearms and machetes could only obediently cower inside their homes in the face of this monstrous flood; otherwise, a catastrophic annihilation awaited them.

Normally, with the capital's massive underground drainage system and dozens of sewage treatment and water plants, the floods could have been effectively mitigated, but meticulously planned explosions had ruined everything. As several of the most crucial nodes were completely destroyed, the urban underground drainage system could no longer withstand billions of tons of monstrous floodwaters, failing one after another.

At this moment, the duty phones at the Capital Sewerage Bureau were practically jammed. Reports of flooding were everywhere, and alarms of broken pipes sounded from all directions. The duty section chief was running around in a frantic sweat, his face flushed red and spinning in circles on the spot.

"Beep, beep, beep—" The piercing communicator shrieked once more. The duty section chief's expression tightened. That was a very special line, connected to certain powerful military departments.

"Bastard! What the hell are you people doing?" The moment the duty section chief pressed the answer button, a stern reprimand came from the other end.

"Hai! May I ask who you are..." The duty section chief did not dare to be negligent, nodding and bowing respectfully as he asked, as if the person on the other end could see him through the phone.

"Bastard! I am Okada Atu. You don't need to know what department I'm with. The repair order has already been transmitted to you. Reach the designated location within half an hour, or I'll have your head!"

"Yes, yes, we will definitely—"

Before the section chief could finish, the other party snorted coldly and hung up the phone.

"Bastard, still acting all mysterious at a time like this. Who doesn't know you lot..." The duty section chief brought up the repair order that had just arrived in the computer system, glanced at it, and muttered discontentedly. Then he cautiously looked left and right, feeling relieved only when he saw that no one around had noticed his words. Shifting back to a dignified and arrogant expression, he said, "Yasen, Yushang, go to the designated location for repairs. If you don't arrive within half an hour, you can wait to be fired!"

Yaseng and Yushang took the dispatch order with gloomy faces, signed their names on the electronic system, and muttered complaints as they stepped out into the torrential rain.

A few minutes later, a yellow-painted engineering maintenance vehicle rumbled out of the gates of the Sewerage Bureau, plowed through over a meter of accumulated water, and drove slowly along the eastern street.

"Why is this flood causing such a massive ruckus? Exactly where did something go wrong?"

This model of specialized maintenance vehicle possessed strong wading capabilities and a very wide field of vision, preventing any sense of vertigo while driving through standing water, allowing the two men inside to converse relatively easily. Yasen, seated in the driver's seat, sighed.

***

Originally, he was just expressing his own sentiment and didn't expect his companion to answer. Unexpectedly, Yushang immediately picked up the thread of the conversation.

"Didn't you know? I took a glance at the underground pipe network maintenance web; our underground water tanks have been completely destroyed, the pipeline regulation stations at key positions are entirely non-functional, and quite a few rainwater collection stations have been wrecked as well..."

Yushang seemed to know some inside information. What he said left Yasen dumbfounded, stuttering as he spoke: "How... how... is that possible?"

"What's impossible about it? I also heard," Yushang whispered mysteriously, leaning his mouth close to Yasen's ear and lowering his voice, "even the Moshuan Water—"

Before he could finish, Yushang's voice abruptly choked off like a chicken's neck being squeezed. His eyes widened into perfect circles, staring fixedly out the car window, his face filled with terror.

"You mean the Moshuan Reservoir? What's wrong with you?"

Yasen was startled by Yushang's expression. Before he could react, the car door beside him was yanked open. A dark figure rushed into the cab amid a fierce gust of wind. Yasen felt a tremendous force strike him, a sharp pain flared at the back of his head, and he instantly lost consciousness.

It was only then that Yushang seemed to snap out of his trance. He opened his mouth to shout, but the dark figure waved a hand. Yasen's body was sent flying into the air, crashing into the ceiling with a loud bang before smashing heavily down onto Yushang's head.

Stunned by the impact, Yushang shook his dizzy head, only to have a heavy karate chop delivered straight to his neck.

The dark figure incapacitated the two men with lightning speed, smoothly slid into the driver's seat, and firmly gripped the steering wheel. Five dark figures successively leaped onto the moving truck bed like lightning bolts. The engineering maintenance vehicle did not pause for a second, pressing straight ahead and quickly vanishing around the street corner as if nothing had ever happened.