At this moment, a staff officer with the rank of Major General couldn't help but speak up:

"Patriarch, with all four main ports under attack simultaneously, our conventional forces are simply insufficient."

"Moreover, the enemy has clearly come prepared this time. Especially the Great Xia Nation—their offensive is far too fierce."

"If we don't deploy the Kyoto Garrison forces for reinforcement, I'm afraid..."

"Reinforcements?"

Kujo Koji interrupted him.

"What good would sending those trash to fill the gap do?"

The Major General froze, opening his mouth but not daring to talk back.

Kujo Koji stood up and straightened his sleeves.

"Since the Great Xia Nation took the initiative, and even the Great Bear Country and Kimchi Country want a piece of the pie,"

"then it's time for us to make our move."

He turned to look into the shadows behind him.

"Pass down the order."

"Have Lord Chong Wenguma and Lord Qinze Taichiro set off immediately."

Kujo Koji walked to the French window, looking down at the brightly lit Tokyo City beneath his feet.

"Chong Wenguma goes to Cloud Port."

"Qinze Taichiro goes to Nagato Port."

"As for those polar bears and Kimchi Country rats..."

He paused, a cruel glint flashing in his eyes.

"Have Akagi deal with them."

A low voice acknowledged from the shadows behind him.

"Yes."

Kujo Koji turned back to face the officers who were still in shock, a disdainful smile appearing on his face.

"This is war."

"In the face of absolute power, numbers mean nothing."

"No matter how numerous they are, or how brilliant their tactics,"

"in front of an SS-Rank Expert,"

"they are nothing more than a bunch of ants that can be crushed at will."

Kujo Koji lightly tapped his fingers on the tabletop, making rhythmic knock-knock sounds.

It was clear that his mind was not as calm as he portrayed.

A moment later, as if having made up his mind, Kujo Koji...

...waved his hand. A trusted confidant in black who had been waiting in the shadows quickly stepped forward, bowing and bringing his ear close to Kujo Koji's mouth.

"How are the preparations on Asō's end?"

The confidant hurriedly lowered his voice and reported, "Patriarch, as you ordered, the 'raw bodies' captured from Osaka, Nagoya, and other regions have been sent into the city through underground transport routes one after another."

"However..." The confidant paused, a fine layer of cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. "A portion of the 'raw bodies' are still on the way."

"Recently, the remnants of the Omiya Family caught wind of our purpose."

"They teamed up with a few minor unaligned guilds, recklessly intercepting over a dozen of our box trucks and even causing chain-reaction crashes on the highway."

"Although the Akagi escorting them repelled them, the convoy was forced to reroute. To gather all the remaining personnel and deliver them here will likely... take more time."

"It's going to take more time?"

Kujo Koji's fingers tapping on the tabletop abruptly froze.

"But I can't wait any longer."

Kujo Koji retracted his gaze and let out a cold snort.

"Tell Asō to maintain high alert and not make any mistakes."

"Use however many we have right now and begin the final 'preprocessing' immediately."

Having said that, he ignored the confidant kneeling on the ground.

Instead, he turned to look at a white-haired Old General beside him who had remained silent all along.

Yamamoto Ichiki was a living fossil of the Sakura Country military and the most loyal dog of the Kujo Family.

"Yamamoto-kun."

Kujo Koji stood up and straightened his collar.

"I leave full command of this place to you."

"Next, I have more important matters to attend to."

Hearing this, Yamamoto Ichiki's heart trembled.

Naturally, he understood the meaning behind Kujo Koji's words.

More important matters.

At this critical juncture when the nation was on the verge of ruin, what could be more important than the war?

There was only one answer.

It was the Old Ancestor of the Kujo Family, and also the supreme presence in the mythology of Sakura Country—Amaterasu.

He was going to... revive that existence ahead of schedule.

Yamamoto Ichiki took a deep breath, suppressing the raging waves in his heart.

He slowly took a step back and bowed deeply to Kujo Koji, showing even greater respect than usual, bordering on devoutness.

"Hai!"

"Please rest assured, Patriarch! As long as I have a breath left in me, the Great Xia people won't step a single foot into Tokyo!"

Kujo Koji nodded in satisfaction. Without wasting another word, he led his guards and turned to stride out of the command center.

Watching Kujo Koji's departing back, Yamamoto Ichiki straightened up, looking at the land stained red by war on the screen, a mad and cruel smile curling up the corners of his lips.

"Great Xia people... cause as much havoc as you like."

"When that lord descends, you will learn what true despair is."

...

Meanwhile.

Tokyo City, Ashihara District.

This was once a famous industrial district in Tokyo, but after an incident several years ago, it had been abandoned, deserted and overgrown with weeds on ordinary days.

Yet tonight, it was brightly lit and unusually noisy.

Unmarked black box trucks drove continuously into a vast abandoned factory.

The harsh screeching of brakes, the heavy thudding of iron doors, and... faint crying and screaming intertwined.

"Hurry up! Get down, all of you!"

"Stop dawdling! Do you want to die?!"

A fierce-looking man, wielding an electrified stun baton, violently whipped a middle-aged man who had just fallen out of the truck container.

*Zzzzt—*

The sound of electric current crackled. The middle-aged man let out a tragic scream, collapsing to the ground in convulsions. Not daring to resist in the slightest, he could only curl up, his eyes filled with terror.

Behind him, countless ordinary people with hands bound were roughly driven off the trucks like livestock awaiting slaughter.

Among them were white-haired elderly people, infants still in swaddling clothes, and mostly young and middle-aged men and women.

Despair and terror were written on everyone's faces. Their mouths were securely sealed with tape, allowing only muffled whimpers of plea.

The heavy doors of the inner factory floor were swung open with a bang.

A nauseating stench of sweat mixed with mildew washed over them.

Inside the massive factory floor, a dense crowd of people was packed tightly together.

They were discarded haphazardly on the cold concrete floor, their hands and feet bound by special restraint straps, making even the slightest movement a luxury.

As far as the eye could see, it was a dense, dark sea of bodies, resembling a picture scroll of Hell.

"Tsk tsk tsk, this batch of goods is of pretty good quality."

The person in charge of guarding this area was a man with a mohawk hairstyle and a hideous scar across his face.

His name was Tanaka, a vicious dog raised by the Kujo Family who loved doing such vile and tyrannical deeds.

At this moment, he sat on a stack of wooden crates, playing with a sharp dagger in his hand, his gaze scanning brazenly through the crowd.

Looking at the trembling crowd, Tanaka wore a ferocious grin and stuck out his tongue to lick his dry lips.

"Everyone, don't blame me for being ruthless."

"This is all Lord Koji's intent."

"To become part of that lord's grand plan is a blessing you've earned over several lifetimes."