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……
Sitting in the passenger seat of the military vehicle, Denia, increasingly annoyed by what she heard, slammed her fist down and turned off the radio, startling Taylor, who was behind the wheel, into slamming on the brakes.
"Damn these Japanese bastards..." With that punch, the newly pinned sergeant's insignia on her collar was shaken off. "Riot, kidnapping, march, suicide bombing. Riot, kidnapping, march, suicide bombing, why don't they bring their own bitch mothers along?"
"It's alright, it's alright. We'll find an opportunity to shoot them to death." Taylor shrugged. "It's strange, but when I think about how these bastards behaved compared to the Japanese devils who killed my cousin, I can't help but laugh."
“I want to laugh too, hahaha!” There was a policewoman in the seat behind them who had dealt with the two of them before. “At least Eleven in District 45 is a ghost who doesn’t know if he will die at his hands in the next second. Here, ha, we can’t even rob a place properly.”
"They're all jinxes who sacrificed their own mothers, what's the point of comparing them?!" Genia couldn't help but shout, "You'd feel bad throwing them into a meat grinder, and you'd worry they'd become a cesspool over a thousand meters above sea level if you dumped them into Kilauea. Isn't there any good way in the world to send these bastards to the afterlife?"
"Tsk tsk." The policewoman couldn't help but shake her head. "Genia, your rank isn't rising fast enough, but your mouth is getting filthy worse and worse..."
The three people in the car were still arguing when suddenly a message came through the military radio.
"Tokyo Concession City Hall calling! Level 2 Defense Warning! Level 2 Defense Warning! Detected the deployment of the Knights of the Round Table, Mordred. All units receiving this message, immediately assemble at Ashford College! Repeat, assemble at Ashford College, as the Black Knights are suspected of waging a riot within the school!"
This left all three people in the car completely bewildered.
"Mordred?" Taylor was startled: many of the Soviet soldiers in the prisoner-of-war camps had been captured near Berlin and had witnessed its formidable fighting power.
"Ashford College?" The policewoman's eyes widened: People from District 11 are targeting schools and minors?
"The Black Knights? They're back?!" Genia screamed as if she had PTSD, stopping the car and kicking Taylor, who was slowly pressing the accelerator, out of the car before getting into the driver's seat herself.
……
The group, along with KMF and its vehicles, rushed around Ashford College, making it impossible to move. But as soon as they entered the gate, they were furious.
The college was in complete chaos without any bloodshed—Student Council President Millie Ashford was organizing a graduation season event where every boy and girl wore a blue and a red heart-shaped hat. During the event, anyone who snatched the hat from another person and put it on their own head was forcibly made a couple.
But if that's all there is to it, that would be perfect.
"The club that brings me the hat of Lelouch Lamperouge, the student council vice president and a third-year student in Group B, will receive a nine-fold increase in club funding!" As soon as Mirei said this, the entire school went into chaos.
As the saying goes, a bad leader breeds a bad family, and even the leader, Mirei, started acting recklessly. The riding department let their horses run all over the playground, and the chemistry department even brought out fireworks to try and stop the "strange" vice president—the sound of horseshoes and firecrackers outside the school suddenly sounded exactly like gunfire and cannons.
In that case, it's not surprising that Anya, one of the two Knights of the Round Table who came to the school to "experience life," would even use her own phone to break down windows and walls to catch Lelouch hiding in the school building.
"You guys really lack common sense. This is a school for civilians, it's very common here." As for Gino, he was also talking to the military police outside the school, seemingly unconcerned—he was having a great time as if nothing was wrong, and the girls who had been chasing after him for a long time were also grinning.
Taylor, looking embarrassed, stared at Lancelot rushing overhead and a large group of KMFs who had heard the news. His expression was surprisingly the same as Suzaku Kururugi's in the cockpit, whom he had just scolded.
"Damn it..." The soldier couldn't help but stick out his tongue, "So for the past six months, we've been beaten bloody by a bunch of idiots who were just punished at school?"
……
A few days later, on a rainy evening, Davis and his car received a call from Taylor, who told them about the school event that day.
“It’s not surprising that our archenemy is a student, young man.” Davis chuckled softly. “Imagine a national leader who doesn’t smoke or drink, abstains from meat and eats vegetarian food, and has only ever had one lover in his life. You think it’s Lincoln or Roosevelt? No, it’s Hitler, the devil we’ve hated so much for the past few years.”
"Speaking of which, don't you realize there's more to it?" Davis then became more serious. "Three months ago, ZERO... cough, let's call him Lelouch. Weren't he and his Black Knights exiled? Why did he go back to school? And how did he get back? Also, didn't Clark say he was physically useless?"
"Uh..." Taylor was stunned. She had been so busy complaining that day that she hadn't paid attention to this.
Of course, no one knew that Lelouch, who had such incredible physical abilities that day, was actually disguised by Saki Shinozaki—she was the maid who had always served Lelouch and his sister, and no one knew that she was actually a highly skilled Shinozaki-ryu ninja.
“You’re usually close to your girlfriend, so the Britannians will trust your loyalty more. Therefore, the task of finding a way to contact Clark and the undercover agents is assigned to you. They certainly won’t want to miss the opportunity to cooperate with the Black Knights again.”
“What if it were Lelouch himself at the school—I mean, what if,” Taylor said, sounding a little apprehensive, “wouldn’t there be danger? The Tokyo Concession is in such a mess these days?”
“At the special zone ceremony, neither Nanali nor Suzaku Kururugi smeared him. Compared to ordinary soldiers, I don’t think they would allow the military and police to shoot him on the spot.” Davis paused. “Unless it’s those German special forces. Now their backer is someone who dares to massacre a city without saying a word.”
"So that means I also have to tell them to find a way to stab that bitch named Marybell?"
“I can’t make that decision. At least, we have other things to do right now.” Davis hung up the phone and turned up the volume on the car radio amidst the torrential rain.
……
The emergency call came from a civilian with a German accent; the sound of a pistol firing seemed particularly helpless in the rain.
Davis and his group quickly arrived at the scene—it was another act by the people of Area 11, targeting the Germans once again. They were holding homemade crossbows, surrounding the ladder of a water tower, aiming at the terrified old man on top.
Seeing the soldiers rushing towards them with assault rifles, they all immediately scurried under the water tower's support structure.
"Drop your weapons, raise your hands, and stand with your backs to the tower!" the soldier shouted sternly. The people of District 11 were stunned for a moment and remained unmoved for a long time.
"One last time! Hands up!" The tense Davis spotted someone lowering their hand to pull up their pants and immediately pulled the trigger, followed by a burst of gunfire from several soldiers.
Once the magazines were emptied, the group of young Japanese men, who had just been alive, were all turned into bullet-riddled corpses.
Davis and the others remained calmly in place, carefully assessing the life or death of the others. Philip put down his gun and climbed the blood-red steel ladder of the water tower that was slowly lying down with the rain.
At the top of the tower, the German civilian was somewhat delirious. Beside him lay an open leather suitcase, its exterior studded with crossbow bolts. Inside, a paper gift box, soaked by the rain, revealed an elegant dress and a birthday card for his wife.
Besides that, there was also an empty small box containing a pistol. With his last bit of strength, the man held the magazine and scattered bullets in one hand, and with the other hand, he pointed the empty gun at Philippe with the butt end facing him.
"Please...no..." The man's tears mingled with the raindrops pelting his face, his lips, almost devoid of color, ignored his uncontrollable injuries. "I just want to protect myself...please, don't send me to prison. My wife, she can't be left unattended..."
Section 454, Chapter 356: Silicon Wafer Project
Area 11 (Japan) isn't a place where Japanese people congregate; it's mostly a garbage dump. Outside the ruins of the Tokyo International Settlement, heading to the countryside, you could still find a strong sense of rural charm.
Of course, it depends on the situation. As a white person, never go to places where people haven't shaken off their "Area 11" identity, or even where they still have the Japanese flag hanging in their homes. Their old two-story houses already have some peeling paint.
They could only choose villages with well-maintained roads and bright, shiny buildings, places where Japanese people who had already obtained honorary Britannian citizenship gathered.
Due to their own problems, those who become honorary citizens have two choices: either squeeze into the lowest level of the high-rise buildings in the Tokyo Concession, enduring humiliation and moving forward amidst the deep-rooted contempt of outsiders for people from Area 11; or move outside the city, but in doing so, they will be ostracized and harassed by the stubborn local poor people from Area 11.
The late Clovis, who served as the governor of District 11, understood this and specifically cleared out many Japanese villages to prepare for these Japanese honorary citizens who were caught in the middle. Because of this, these aggrieved individuals, unlike those troublemakers who caused trouble every few days, were actually quite friendly to outsiders.
Located northwest of the former Tokyo metropolitan area, at the foot of Mount Haruna, Haruna East Village is a prime example—the village boasts excellent facilities and attracts many genuine Britannians to visit.
For food, drinks, and entertainment, besides restaurants, there are of course video games that are suitable for all ages and have a distinctly Japanese style. There's one such place in the village where, right as you enter, you're greeted by a steering wheel, a feature unique to racing arcade machines.
……
"Try stopping Homolive! Homolive! I am Homolive!" A drunken Japanese girl with brown hair tied in a side ponytail, wearing an orange off-shoulder crop top, was frantically stomping on the pedals while shouting in a slightly tearful voice, "Manager! Are you watching? Yahoo!"
"Mazda will never stop! Hey! Fubuki! Pung pung! Pung pung! I'm number one!"
In her madness, she had already kicked over the sweet rice wine next to her seat. A small white fox was hiding in a corner, quietly licking up the spilled wine—it looked like a pet kept by the video game store.
Perhaps because there weren't many customers today, the staff didn't intervene. Besides her, there were only two suspicious-looking Caucasians at the other end of the hall.
They were certainly no pushovers, but they weren't there to cause trouble either—White and Sheldon were posing as Britannians playing games, but in reality, as Allied agents, they wanted to dig into the world and its connections to integrated circuits.
The arcade machine in front of the two contained several side-scrolling shooting games from the same series, and the character illustrations, like the arcade machine's packaging, featured strangely styled girls.
To describe it specifically: a round, chubby head with huge eyes and a crookedly smiling mouth, hair topped with a strangely shaped ribbon or hat, and almost everything below the neck covered by flowing ribbons and clothes, with only a hand showing, like a sausage stuck on a balloon. As for the coloring, it has an indescribable strangeness, yet the combination is quite harmonious.
Of course, for the two who had read American comics, these things were nothing; their attention was entirely on the colorful graphics on the arcade screen.
At that time, Americans rarely even had the chance to watch black-and-white television or color films. The screen in front of them was full of vibrant colors, and the rag doll girl they controlled moved smoothly and reacted responsively. The key point was that ordinary people could enjoy this by simply inserting a coin.
The game's story was well-presented, but what impressed the two agents most was accidentally selecting the game's difficulty level—on the screen with the title "Star Lotus Ship" in Chinese characters, they mistakenly clicked "L" to confirm, and then…
The two Americans had never seen anything like this before. Faced with the screen filled with countless orbs and bars of light, their hands on the joysticks felt as if they had been hit by a basket of beans, and they jumped back in anger.
Snickers could be heard coming from the arcade counter. Today, there were only two girls dressed as maids with pigtails. One had a full head of white hair and wore a military cap; the other had purple hair and was lazily sleeping on the counter. From a distance, you might mistake the counter for a pile of onions covered with tissues.
"Hey, Debu!" The white-haired maid, carrying a coin-collecting basket, deliberately passed behind the two of them, making a mocking "T" sound—upon closer inspection, her two eyes were different colors. "We even asked the original author to add an English translation pack, how come we still chose the wrong difficulty level?"
"The author?" The two agents exchanged a glance, seemingly realizing something. "So you know the person who made this game?"
"Damn, only our machines in all of Japan have English language packs and upgraded circuit boards!" The smug maid said, pulling up the arcade rankings and pointing to the number one machine called "ZUN". "Why? The author lives in this village and gave this machine the highest score. That's how capricious he is."
"Where to stay?!" White and Sheldon's eyes lit up.
"Since you're so eager to know such gossipy things, it can't be cheap." The maid raised her chin and stretched out a hand in front of the two of them. "Please, please money!"
"Jesus, so coming to this world means you have to tip even at the arcade?" Sheldon had no choice but to pull out the largest denomination bill from his wallet.
"Go out from here, turn right and keep walking until you reach a trash can full of aluminum cans. That's where he lives." Seeing the two of them rush out, the maid started grinning and taking money from her purse, and even started singing.
"Money money money, money money! Money money money, money money!!!"
……
There were few people on the road, so Sheldon and White whispered to each other in relief.
"I've really seen something today. It's amazing that something like this can be programmed using integrated circuits." White curled the corners of his mouth. "At least after I take it back, my parents' toy factory can produce a blockbuster product."
"A blockbuster?" Sheldon asked curiously.
“Look, they make a cardboard box covered with glass,” White said, gesturing as he spoke. “They draw a map of Japan inside the box, and then cut holes in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. They put two steel balls inside the box to represent an atomic bomb. Once they put those two balls in, it’s considered a success.”
"So I bet when you get back you're going to add an electric sound device to this toy box, so that when the two steel balls fall in, it'll simulate a nuclear explosion and then play the American national anthem, right?" Sheldon raised an eyebrow and burst into laughter with White.
Before they knew it, the two of them had arrived at a trash can that was completely full. Upon closer inspection, they found it filled with neatly arranged beer cans, with a few newly placed glass bottles on top, labeled "Zhuyeqing" in Chinese characters.
I knocked on the door cautiously. A thin Japanese young man opened the door. He was wearing glasses, a low-topped round hat, and a plaid shirt with a wide collar. He also had a mouthful of alcohol from a glass in his hand.
"Um, excuse me, are you...?" The two men, unsure how to address these Japanese people who lived by nicknames, quickly stepped outside to check their watches. "Are you Mr. Ota Zun?"
“Ota Muneya desu.” The man nodded, speaking in heavily accented English, “You… came to see me?”
“We…heard about you at that arcade and wanted to come and see you…” The two agents blushed with suppressed emotion.
"Oh, so you and that maid went to great lengths to find me, huh?" Ota suddenly perked up—his English grammar must have passed the oral exam for honorary Britannians. "Come in, no need to change your shoes. It's rare for a non-Japanese person to be so eager to visit me."
Upon entering Daejeon's house, one could see an electronic keyboard and a trumpet. Around the corner, there was a tall pile of discarded circuit boards and unopened new circuit board components gleaming with the green light of silicon wafers. Sheldon and White stared wide-eyed like gold prospectors seeing gold dust.
Ota sat at a low table with a computer on it. The screen displayed a large amount of programming code that neither of them could understand. Next to him was his drawing tablet, and the surrounding walls were covered with beautifully illustrated illustrations. They could vaguely recognize the characters as those from the arcade game they had seen before, but the artwork was far superior; it must have been drawn by someone else and given to him.
“Uh, it’s like this, Mr. Ota.” The two agents, unfamiliar with Japanese etiquette, casually sat down on the ground and began to make up a story. “We came from across the Pacific Ocean, hoping to find something about games in Japan. We happened to hear about you at the arcade in the village… If I’m not mistaken, the games played by the Japanese and Britannians are definitely different.”
"Is this a learning experience or an interview? Well, let me just talk about the days a few years ago when Japan still existed." Ota adjusted his glasses and took another sip of his drink. "I've loved music and games since I was a child, but even after graduating from university and working for an IT company, I still couldn't find a game I liked, so I decided to make one myself."
“I know all the programming myself, and I also learned to play the electronic keyboard and trumpet in junior high school. As for graphics, I can just find a few nice-looking dolls, draw them with a paintbrush, and that’s it.” Da Tian shrugged. “But for some reason, the things I made were not to the company’s liking, so I resigned.”
"Making outstanding games, that's what I've always been doing. Even if no one supports me, I'll still be happy because these are the games I want to make. Ah, sometimes I write music, sometimes I daydream, I daydream while drinking and writing music, and then I make it and everyone seriously studies what I made when I was drunk. It's so wonderful."
White and Sheldon listened with great interest. "So you mean the music coming from those arcade machines was all played by you, playing the keyboard into the microphone and the trumpet into the microphone?"
"Don't you guys know about electronic synthesized music?" Da Tian turned around and opened the virtual instrument software on his computer. Fueled by alcohol, he randomly dragged a few notes and pressed play. Immediately, the computer speakers blared the catchy horn sound they had heard in the arcade earlier—it sounded like a mix of trumpet and suona.
“We can’t afford a professional orchestra.” He shook his head. “I’ve saved all my money to buy beer, and I’m also preparing brewing equipment and funds for opening a beer hall. My brewing barrels have been sitting in the basement for ages. During the last big earthquake, I rushed downstairs to protect the beer, and the hard drive I had on the table fell to the ground and broke…”
"It sounds... cough." The two agents tried to steer the conversation back to integrated circuits. "You modified all these substrates by yourself? Where did you get all these materials?"
“Hey, Japan is gone, but its workers and engineers are still alive.” Ota waved his hand. “If they can’t make electronic equipment for weapons and equipment anymore, they can still make a living by making civilian televisions and computers.”
"Oh, oh..." White suppressed his inner impulse, not wanting Ota to notice, "But Honshu Island is so small, where do you get the raw materials for circuit boards?"
"I don't know about that. You'll have to ask the people who make the circuit boards and components." Ota seemed to realize something at this point. "Are you guys making a really big game? It seems to have very high hardware requirements?"
“The guy we were working with before has run away. Now, if necessary, we really have to spend a lot of money on some good hardware. That’s it…” After the two of them finished their explanation, the hospitable Da Tian actually took out a business card from a drawer.
"This gentleman is also Japanese. He used to tinker with electronic hardware for weapons and equipment. His facilities should be able to meet your needs. It's just... you get what you pay for, you know?"
……
White and Sheldon accepted it as if it were a treasure, and then chatted with Ota Muneya casually to get on his good side before leaving.
Stepping out of the room, the name on the business card, written in hiragana, kanji, and English, shone in the sunlight and entered the eyes and minds of the two agents—Hideojiro Kojima.
Chapter 357 The Reign of Chaos (Section 455)
As a high-ranking official whose status was almost equal to that of Governor Nunnally, Suzaku Kururugi also had his own office in the city hall of the Tokyo Concession.
The documents on the table were in disarray, with only a small space cleared in the middle containing the medal Euphemia had awarded him when she knighted him, and a report from American soldiers.
The report was, of course, about the recent execution of a criminal from District 11, but it "distorted" some of the details—thanks in part to the existence of body cameras.
"Joint report by Davis, Garcia, and Philip of Armed Patrol Team A, No. 45, under the Tokyo Concession Armed Security Corps:"
"In this robbery, the five Japanese men used handguns, crossbows, and other lethal weapons and refused to cooperate with law enforcement, seriously threatening the personal safety of the German civilians and law enforcement personnel. Therefore, three of our military and police personnel chose to open fire and kill them after the other side had a numerical advantage and took dangerous actions. All five robbers died before medical personnel arrived."
"The civilians involved in the incident had already been attacked by the assailants before we arrived. One of them had a crossbow bolt piercing his thigh, and several pieces of property were damaged. According to the hospital, the victim is still in the intensive care unit due to excessive blood loss and a critically low blood supply."
"Regarding some details of the incident: Because the victim had experience using firearms during his previous life in District 45, he was able to seize a handgun from the assailant during the conflict for self-defense and to protect his own belongings. Otherwise, he would very likely have suffered greater losses or even been killed before law enforcement officers arrived at the scene."