Homo Sapiens

December 23, ’21.

Near a major city in the northwestern region of the subcontinent.

Inside a fortified underground nuclear bunker.

The atmosphere was exceptionally tense and oppressive.

Their expressions grew darker and darker as reports flooded in from all over.

The white-bearded old man in the lead clenched his fists, his voice thick with rage echoing in the stifling bunker. ”Can someone tell me? What in the world happened?”

Every one of the reports piled before him was a grim reality.

The situation everywhere was dire, and this sudden turn of events had caught them all completely off guard.

Another old man, this one with a hooked nose, bellowed furiously, ”Counterattack immediately!”

But the head of the intelligence department, Jia Mu, replied with an awkward expression, ”We haven’t confirmed the enemy’s identity yet.”

”Are you an idiot? Besides XX, who else has this kind of power? Who else could pull this off?” the hook-nosed man roared, pointing at Jia Mu’s face.

”Enough, quiet! I need to make a call,” the white-bearded man said. He hadn’t let anger cloud his judgment. Instead, he immediately sat down, pulled open a drawer, and dialed a number.

...

On the distant plains of Eastern Europe.

Snow was now blanketing the landscape for thousands of miles, and a deep freeze had set in.

Within a palace that symbolized supreme power, amidst the ice and snow.

Caesar, who had been on edge recently, was staring at a map of Europe on the wall. His gaze lingered on the Eastern plains, a flash of hesitation in his eyes.

Suddenly, a phone on his desk rang. He glanced at the number before picking up the receiver.

”Hello, what is it?”

”Caesar, it’s a Level One priority call.”

Caesar’s eyes narrowed slightly. ”Level One? Patch it through.”

Twenty-some seconds later.

”Hello, this is Caesar.”

”Caesar, it’s Dharma...”

The two spoke for over ten minutes. Dharma, on the other end of the line, seemed extremely anxious and didn’t beat around the bush, getting straight to the point.

After listening to Dharma’s explanation, Caesar was incredulous, but he quickly composed himself. ”I can help facilitate a conversation. Keep your hotline open.”

”Understood. I’ll be on standby.”

After hanging up, Caesar had his secretary arrange the hotline call while ordering the head of the Cossacks to investigate the matter immediately.

Soon, the other hotline was connected.

Caesar kept it brief, directly relaying Dharma’s problem and adding some of his own thoughts.

However, the person on the other end of the line was just as baffled.

The two of them spoke on the phone for over ten minutes.

After hanging up, Caesar’s expression was even stranger.

Back inside the underground nuclear bunker.

The white-bearded man, Dharma, spoke with Caesar again. His expression, too, was extremely odd. After hanging up, he fell deep into thought.

”Dharma, what’s the situation exactly?”

The others were now desperate to know what was said on the call.

Dharma’s brow was tightly furrowed. ”It wasn’t XX. They claim to know nothing about it.”

”Not them? Then who was it?”

”Could they be stalling for time on purpose?”

For the moment, Dharma couldn’t be sure. He could only give the order: ”Have all regions maintain high alert. Also, dispatch three army corps from the northern and central regions to the corridor.”

”But the fighter jets...” The head of the air force said, his face a mask of embarrassment.

”...” The mere mention of jets made Dharma’s face turn ashen. This time, their air force had been completely gutted, left with fewer than 120 old, worn-out planes.

Without air cover, it was far too dangerous for three army corps to rush in like that.

Several high-ranking military officials felt the situation was both thorny and difficult.

But now, they had no choice but to send troops to the corridor to investigate.

...

「Meanwhile.」

Twenty-four hours had passed since the official launch of Operation Flash Flood.

The world’s major powers had finally learned of the event through their respective channels.

Their reactions were surprisingly uniform: public silence. Behind the scenes, of course, they were all making their own moves.

In a small coastal city in the western part of the subcontinent.

The bald-headed Wade put down the intelligence report, a look of disbelief on his face.

He never imagined something like this could happen in South Asia, let alone erupt so violently and instantly cripple the regional hegemon.

”Lester.”

”Boss, what’s the order?” A slovenly, middle-aged man with a beer belly put down the piece of fried chicken he was holding.

Wade ordered, ”Find a way to get a team to the Rain City District. I want to talk to their leader.”

”Oh? Okay!” Lester raised an eyebrow and went back to eating. He had no desire to ask about his boss’s motives; he just needed to complete the mission.

A short while later, Lester left the apartment building with a few bottles of craft beer.

Wade, meanwhile, was still deploying his assets.

Although the plan he’d arranged earlier to sow discord had indirectly failed due to the eruption of this Rain City incident, that didn’t stop Wade from continuing to stir things up.

The core mission of the South Asian Black Ship had always been to contain the development of this regional power. How could Black Ship possibly miss such a golden opportunity?

As for Ceylon, Wade could only put it aside for now.

Black Ship Headquarters was also helpless in this matter. Recently, the activities of the Three-leaf Oak in Latin America had become rampant again, carrying out several attacks on the North American mainland.

Now Wade was finally getting a taste of the difficulties faced by the Southeast Asian Black Ship.

This situation, where he was stretched thin on manpower, forced him to make some tough choices.

For example, when it came to dealing with Ceylon versus suppressing Tianzhu, suppressing Tianzhu was clearly the higher priority.

The South Asian Black Ship was on the move.

And the other major powers were not sitting idle either.

...

As Tianzhu’s number one arms supplier, Lucia was now both happy and worried.

They were happy, of course, because Tianzhu had suffered heavy losses to its air force. To restore its aerial combat capability, Dharma had no choice but to grit his teeth and place an emergency order for 200 fighter jets from them.

They weren’t even picky, accepting mothballed MiG-25s and MiG-27s.

The reason for their worry was that Tianzhu’s losses in this incident were too severe. Moreover, 30 Su-30s had been captured by the Rain City District, which meant that, for a short time, air superiority had actually shifted to the Rain City District’s side.

If the Tianzhu Air Force found that the Su-30s and MiG series couldn’t break the stalemate, they would most likely turn around and purchase fighter jets from America.

This was a scenario Lucia obviously did not want to see.

But there was no use in Lucia getting anxious now; after all, they had their own asses to cover.

To ensure their major client’s confidence in Lucia’s military-industrial products, Caesar personally ordered various companies to quickly free up a batch of fighters for them, even pulling active-duty Su-30s if necessary.

Compared to America’s ill intentions and Lucia’s anxiety, another old neighbor of Tianzhu’s was remaining calm and collected.

Their attention wasn’t focused on the Rain City District or Tianzhu.

Instead, it was directed at another, less conspicuous place—Hongsawaddy.

After all, they knew full well that they had no connection whatsoever with the forces in the Rain City District.

And judging from the Rain City District’s engagement with Tianzhu yesterday, this was truly something no ordinary power could have accomplished.

At the very least, the tens of thousands of drones and the terrifying mobilization capability all indicated that a powerful force was backing the Rain City District.

Looking down at the map.

Among the powers surrounding the Rain City District, only Hongsawaddy was highly suspicious.

In particular, the recent minor activities of Hongsawaddy’s Qingye Group in Ceylon made one wonder if the ”three major groups” were the ones supporting the Rain City District from behind the scenes.