Tokyo City.

Ashihara.

As early as ten days ago, the slums on the outskirts of Takamagahara had already turned into a huge isolated island.

The major city gates were completely blockaded by layered heavy machinery and energy barriers.

Troops were stationed at every exit, coldly stopping any mortal attempting to escape Tokyo City.

Even the roads leading to the noble district of Takamagahara were strictly sealed off by several-meter-high electrified barbed wire and fully armed Akagi, ruthlessly isolating the world of mortals from the world of "gods".

All ordinary people could only stay at home and go nowhere.

To maintain the so-called "order", the Classer masters of Takamagahara couldn't be bothered to act personally; they specially hired a group of usually idle ruffians and rascals, granting them the power to manage ordinary people.

Once these dregs, who were usually at the bottom of society, grasped the power of life and death, they transformed into the most brutal vicious dogs.

Wearing red armbands symbolizing power and holding iron rods and stun guns, they patrolled the empty streets.

Anyone who dared to come out of their house, even just to find a little food, would face extremely severe punishment.

All communication networks were cut off, the TV only showed static snow, and cell phones turned into pieces of scrap metal that could only tell time.

A full twenty million plus people were thus locked into a huge prison named "Tokyo".

Although the administrators claimed over and over again through the broadcast that Takamagahara might soon face an unprecedented beast tide, and locking down the city was simply for the safety of the masses,

this clumsy lie couldn't even fool a three-year-old child.

Despair was fermenting, and most people already understood that this was the Kujo Family preparing to sacrifice the ordinary people of the entire Tokyo City to resurrect their powerful Old Ancestor.

They were pigs and sheep kept in captivity, just waiting for the moment when the butcher's knife fell.

In an old apartment building in Ashihara District.

The dim room was filled with a musty smell, the curtains were drawn tightly, and only a few wisps of weak light penetrated through the gaps, illuminating the dust floating in the air.

In the corner, a little girl curled up beside the sofa, her hands tightly hugging her knees, her big eyes filled with terror, and her body trembling uncontrollably.

Her gaze cautiously looked toward the center of the room.

There, her mother was kneeling on the ground, her forehead already bruised and bloody, yet as if she couldn't feel the pain, she mechanically repeated the action of kowtowing.

And right in front of the mother was placed the portrait of Amaterasu.

That existence regarded as the supreme deity by Sakura Country, the smile on the portrait appeared exceptionally eerie and cold under the dim light.

"Amaterasu bless us... Amaterasu bless us..."

The mother kept murmuring in her mouth, her voice hoarse and neurotic, "Bless our family to be safe and sound... Bless those adults not to catch us... As long as we can survive, this humble believer is willing to give up ten years of life... No, twenty years..."

Listening to her mother's enchanted-like prayer, the little girl's tears spun in her eyes, but she didn't dare to cry out.

She turned her head and looked at her father lying on the sofa.

The father's complexion was as pale as paper, his eyes tightly closed, his chest rising and falling violently, and every breath was accompanied by painful groans.

His legs were twisted into a bizarre angle, his knees were bloody and flesh-mangled, and white bones were faintly visible.

That was two days ago, when the father tried to take her and her mother to escape Tokyo City, and after being discovered by those "administrators" at the sewer exit, they were beaten to a break alive with iron rods.

If it weren't for the father handing over all the family's remaining savings, their family of three probably would have long ago become floating corpses in the sewer.

Right at this moment.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A burst of violent door-smashing suddenly came from the hallway, accompanied by rude curses and cries, clearly transmitted through the thin walls.

"Open the door! Open the door for me!"

"Why won't you listen when you're told to stay obediently in the house? Why do you have to run out? The entire Tokyo City is blockaded, where else can you run to?!"

Following closely was the muffled sound of fists and flesh colliding.

"Bang!"

"Ah——! Don't hit! I beg you, don't hit!"

That was the voice of Uncle Tanaka next door, that good man who always smiled and gave candies to the little girl on ordinary days, and the miserable screams he let out at this moment were so shrill that they made one's hair stand on end.

"Let you run! I'll let you run!"

The sound of beating became fiercer and fiercer, accompanied by the crisp cracking sound of bones, "Let's see if you dare to run anymore?! Huh?!"

"Spare my life... Spare my life..."

The wails gradually weakened, turning into intermittent groans.

In the room, the mother's kowtowing movement suddenly paused, her body shook like a sifting sieve, she buried her head even lower, and the prayer in her mouth became more hurried and incoherent.

After a moment, the wails outside abruptly stopped.

Death-like silence.

Afterwards, an unlucky voice of a young man came over, carrying a bit of impatience, "Damn it, beaten to death just like that? Really unable to withstand a beating, too fragile."

Another voice sounded, "Alright, stop talking nonsense. Quickly dispose of the corpse, throw it directly onto the incineration vehicle. If the people above find out we beat someone to death again, it will be troublesome."

Then came the sound of heavy objects being dragged, gradually fading away.

Until there was completely no movement outside.

Only then did the little girl dare to move; she threw herself into her father's arms with a terrified face, her small hands tightly grasping the blood-stained hem of her father's clothes.

Tears finally breached their banks and poured out. She raised her head and cautiously asked,

"Dad... We are going to die soon, aren't we?"

On the sofa, the father laboriously opened his turbid eyes.

Looking at his daughter's tender and frightened little face, his heart felt as if it was tightly grasped by an invisible big hand, hurting so much that he couldn't breathe.

He wanted to sit up and hug his daughter, but the excruciating pain of his broken legs made moving a single finger an extravagant hope.

The father's complexion was extremely pale, and he coughed heavily a few times, blood foam overflowing from the corners of his mouth.

He tremblingly raised his hand, carefully stroking the little girl's head, and tears also flowed out, sliding from the corners of his eyes into his temples.

"Yumi, I'm sorry..."

The father's voice was hoarse and broken, filled with endless remorse and self-blame,

"It's Dad's fault... useless... letting you be born in Tokyo City, letting you be born in such a cruel world..."

"Dad can't protect you..."

He looked at the ceiling, his eyes gradually unfocused, as if piercing through layers of cement, seeing that gray sky not protected by any gods.

"In the next life... Dad hopes you can live in a happy world."

"There are no high walls, no blockades, and no man-eating... gods."

This family was merely a microcosm.

Despair, like a black tide, spread in every such family, drowning reason and hope.

In some families, the whole family had long been dressed neatly, sitting around the dining table, and after enjoying their last dinner, they silently drank red wine laced with deadly poison, dying hand in hand at home to retain their final dignity.

Some families fell into a final madness.

The man took out his treasured strong liquor, the woman put on her most gorgeous clothes, and they sang and danced in the living room, indulging their most primitive desires, enjoying this last carnival before the doomsday, even though outside the window were the footsteps of the patrol team.

However, just as everyone was waiting for the arrival of death, and just as the entire Tokyo City was about to sink into the abyss of darkness,

suddenly.

Boom!

An extremely violent explosion suddenly burst out!

This sound was unimaginably loud, like the earth's roar, or the roar of the sky collapsing.

The entire apartment building was shaking violently, wall skin falling rustlingly, and the cups on the table were shaken to the ground, shattering into pieces.

The mother who was kowtowing was shaken to the side, raising her head in panic.

The little girl tightly covered her ears and screamed out.

Someone couldn't help leaning out of the window to check what was going on.

Only to see in the direction of the outskirts of Tokyo City, that alloy city wall, which was regarded as insurmountable on ordinary days and as high as fifty meters, was actually blown open with a huge gap!

Rolling thick smoke soared into the sky like a black Dragon, and the firelight reflected half of the sky.

And at that gap, the originally indestructible energy barrier was frantically flashing at this moment, and finally, accompanied by a harsh sound of electric current, it completely extinguished!

The wind poured in.

That was the wind of freedom from outside the city.

"The wall... The wall has collapsed?!"

It was unknown who let out an unbelievable exclamation.

Following closely, this voice, like a prairie wildfire, quickly spread through the entire district.