Chapter 2127 - 2125: Nuclear Blast Wasteland (Weather Changes: Hot at Noon, Cold in Morning and Night, Three Shifts a Day)

For the people of this world, this was an extremely difficult day.

After the global nuclear bombardment, the nuclear winter naturally followed without hesitation. So, the people of Tahe City, still grieving from the loss of their loved ones, were forced to face the harsh cold and blizzards.

To be honest, Makoto Naegi and his friends were somewhat bewildered. Although they were "Ultimate", they were just a group of high school students. They might be able to talk back to Enoshima Junko, but when facing the harsh reality of nature, even they could only call out in vain.

Moreover, in this harsh environment, the original human order had collapsed, and many took the opportunity to commit crimes. Some even attempted to organize small groups to take control of the city.

To this, Fang Zheng expressed: ... Have you forgotten my existence?

If Fang Zheng wasn’t here, Tahe City might end up like places such as New Vegas, with factions fighting for control. But with Fang Zheng present, do you still want to play this game? No way, dream on.

Have I been an emperor for hundreds of years for nothing?

Thus, Fang Zheng decisively took action, directly suppressing with ironblood. Laughably, those people, probably brainwashed by freedom and democracy, organized protests... Then after Fang Zheng directly seized and hanged several leaders on the streetlights, they immediately shut their mouths.

Afterwards, Fang Zheng took control of Tahe City’s center and reallocated territories, providing enough living space for others. Of course, most of Tahe City’s citizens were still willing to follow Fang Zheng’s leadership and command. They, after all, were not like the Ice Age’s troublemakers and understood that being a bunch of scattered sand would lead to their own doom in such situations.

As for whether anyone will want to resist?

Let’s wait and see those Jumping Bugs, Aliens, and Flying Dragons.

Currently, most of those who follow Fang Zheng are people he saved in Tahe City, and a significant portion are parents of those brainwashed children. Tahe’s initial plan was to kill all parents of children and leave the childless adults, as those who hadn’t had children might be less sympathetic to them. The hope was that both sides would slaughter each other in desperation and ruthlessness.

However, thanks to Fang Zheng’s timely intervention, many of those parents survived. But their mental state was far from well. Some even suffered from post-traumatic stress after seeing their children, afraid to approach or get close.

Luckily, Fang Zheng still had a trump card.

It’s time to invite the fifth Level 5 superpower user from Academy City, "Psychological Grasp" Shihou Souki to take action!

"... Why do I feel like I’ve turned into some sort of cult leader..."

Looking at the blizzard howling outside, Shihou Souki held her coffee cup, feeling utterly drained.

"Thank you for your hard work, but you’re doing a great job, aren’t you?"

"But I’m just so frustrated..."

Shihou Souki lay on the table, watching as Fang Zheng refilled her cup with coffee, and couldn’t help but vent.

Originally, when Shihou Souki arrived, she was full of confidence. In her view, as a leading psychic user from Academy City, undoing mind control should’ve been a piece of cake.

But after confidently peering into the memories of brainwashed children and persecuted parents, Shihou Souki nearly broke down herself.

The extreme malevolence was so overwhelming that Shihou Souki could barely bear it, feeling as if she had been tainted...

Not to mention, there were tens of thousands of these children and their parents combined. If Shihou Souki had really done psychological counseling one by one, she feared that she might’ve collapsed before finishing.

Helpless, Shihou Souki sought help from Fang Zheng, who offered a suggestion—since it’s unmanageable, why not use religious brainwashing?

Strictly speaking, Shihou Souki disliked this plan. As a psychic user, she knew the power of religious brainwashing too well. Fang Zheng himself didn’t like it either. In a normal world, he would never suggest this. However, the world wasn’t normal anymore; these people had been victimized by Enoshima Junko, forced to watch their parents being killed or to kill their parents themselves.

Typically, healing such psychological trauma through counseling and treatment would take at least a generation. And then the world-ending nuclear winter hit immediately. Expecting people to stay sane amidst all this ... well, that’s what’s truly abnormal.

Earlier, some adults even formed groups during the nuclear winter to hunt those children. In their eyes, these children had blood on their hands and killing them would save resources. They believed the children deserved it, feeling no moral burden in killing them...

So, in this scenario, Fang Zheng gave Shihou Souki two suggestions.

Either conduct a large-scale brainwashing to erase their memories, replacing them with false ones, making everyone pretend that nothing ever happened. Given Shihou Souki’s abilities, along with Fang Zheng’s divine power, they could indeed completely erase these traumatic memories from people’s minds. By editing and cutting, they would forget about the massacre that occurred in Tahe City, focusing on simply facing the post-apocalyptic nuclear winter.

Or, perform a secondary brainwashing using religious spirit, helping them transcend the pain and start fresh. Obviously, the latter was far more troublesome than the former. With Fang Zheng’s strength and Shihou Souki’s "Psychological Grasp," they could complete the former in one morning; after a nap, everyone could continue life with false memories.

The latter, however, was a time-consuming effort, requiring slow progress. Even with Shihou Souki’s superpowers assisting, it wasn’t omnipotent...

Fang Zheng didn’t mind either way, but Shihou Souki felt that using brute force like memory deletion diminished her as a psychic user, so she chose the second option, despite knowing its challenges.

The result... now she’s lying on the table like a salted fish, unable to get up.

"Alright, come on, take a break. After finishing this cup of coffee, there are more appointments this afternoon."

"To hell with receiving guests!!"

Shihou Souki angrily slammed the table.

"Isn’t it your fault for insisting that we do a service in the morning and another at night? You have no idea how uncomfortable it is to stand there! It was exhausting, okay!"

"Isn’t it great? Helps with weight loss, too."

Fang Zheng chuckled, picked up the coffee pot, placed it beside him, and sat back in his chair.

"But it works really well. Everyone’s spirits are much higher now."

Looking at the hopelessly angry Shihou Souki, Sayaka Maizono hurriedly came over to placate her. As the "Ultimate Idol," Sayaka Maizono was skilled in singing and dancing, but given the current atmosphere, of course, she couldn’t hold a personal concert. So under Fang Zheng’s arrangement, Sayaka was in charge of leading the Choir to chant hymns...

Of course, Fang Zheng was the one who selected the music, primarily to make people feel more at peace and relaxed, not overly tense.

But this "Choir Band" was quite something, with the accompaniment played by the "Ultimate Pianist" Kaede Akamatsu, and the lead singer, the "Ultimate Idol" Sayaka Maizono. The effect was naturally outstanding.

By the way, originally, the "Ultimate Light Music Club" member Ibuki Mioda also wanted to join, but Fang Zheng decisively held her back. Sis, your teeth-playing-the-electric-guitar skills should stay out of occasions like this; better go liven up the atmosphere in the tavern...

Of course, maybe it’s because Sayaka’s been singing these hymns so much that she’s now exuding an aura of being at peace with the world...

This brainwashing has gone so far that it would be a problem if she brainwashed herself...

"Knock, knock, knock."

At this moment, a knocking sound came, and then the door to the study opened. Kirigiri Kyoko entered, looked at Fang Zheng sitting behind the desk, and solemnly handed a sheet of paper over.

"Mr. Fang Zheng, this is the investigation report."

"Mm, thank you."

Fang Zheng took the investigation report and began to carefully read through it. It’s been about half a year now since that "nuclear explosion event." Under the arrangement of Fang Zheng and Shihou Souki, the order in Tahe City has been almost restored to its original state. Of course, Tahe City is no longer called Tahe City; Fang Zheng renamed it to be called--------Diamond City.

Besides, with all this radiation, isn’t it fitting?

It’s good enough it wasn’t named Megaton Town.

One day, if they manage to get an aircraft carrier, they could even call it Rivet City.

During this time, Fang Zheng has been both consolidating internal personnel and sending people out to investigate surrounding situations and search for survivors. Of course, they did harvest quite a bit, but there were some survivors’ descriptions that were rather strange.

It was unclear whether Enoshima Junko did something behind the scenes, but according to these survivors, after the nuclear explosion, many inexplicable things appeared in several places. Some said they encountered a creature known as a Corpse Demon in an isolated village, while others mentioned vampires suddenly emerging from underground, wreaking havoc after the nuclear explosion, capturing survivors to use as food.

There were even claims that in some other places, a terrifying epidemic known as the "Apocalypse Virus" appeared, where the infected were covered in large amounts of purple crystals, looking extremely tragic.

Fang Zheng also inquired about this with several people, and they all stated that they had never heard of such things before, unsure why, after the nuclear explosion, it seemed as if some seal was broken, and all sorts of supernatural creatures emerged.

Of course, you could say the infectious disease might be due to cellular mutations caused by the nuclear explosion, but what are vampires and Corpse Demons? Could there be synths and mutants as well?

Fang Zheng then sent people to investigate these rumors, and now the investigation has provided results.

According to Togami Byakuya’s report, these rumors are mostly true. Except for the so-called "isolated village" they couldn’t find, unable to confirm the existence of Corpse Demons, Togami Byakuya and Makoto Naegi indeed discovered bodies wrapped in purple crystals in the Northeastern Region, and even witnessed vampires capturing humans.

"So this is the current situation... is that right?"

Looking at the report in front of him, Fang Zheng squinted his eyes. He began to suspect that the reason Enoshima Junko orchestrated the global nuclear explosion clearance might have another purpose. Perhaps the collapse of human order in this world is part of it. Maybe, as they said, this was some kind of seal, and the nuclear cleansing destroyed the continuity of the human world, eliminating the seal, allowing various supernatural beings to reveal themselves.

"Have Togami and the others return; it’s time for us to move out next."

As he spoke, Fang Zheng returned the report to Kirigiri Kyoko.

"Notify Seven Seas to get ready."

"Okay, Mr. Fang Zheng, what is our target...?"

"According to the report, there are already containment zones within the virus’s spread range, and the virus itself requires time for research... Let’s deal with those vampires first and see what the situation is."

Looking at the map in front of him, Fang Zheng made his decision.