Face the Nuclear Bomb

Pressing the button, a bomb loaded with a nuclear warhead plummeted toward the small island.

High above, silence filled the B2 bomber, save for the low roar of its engines.

"Warhead deployed. I repeat, warhead deployed."

"Mission accomplished. Returning to base."

The pilot's voice was calm and professional, as if what he had just dropped was not an all-destroying nuclear bomb, but a crate of ordinary cargo.

Just as the nose turned and the aircraft began its full-speed breakaway, the entire plane suddenly dipped.

An irresistible, massive force seized the steel behemoth in a death grip. Instead of accelerating, the plane's speed dropped, and the fuselage let out a teeth-grinding metallic groan.

"What's going on?!" the co-pilot exclaimed.

"Warning! Warning! Hull structural damage!" The piercing electronic voice echoed frantically within the cockpit.

The pilot gripped the control stick tightly, the veins on the back of his hands bulging, but the aircraft remained completely motionless, as if trapped in setting concrete.

"Calling command! We have encountered an unknown force..."

Little did they know, right after dropping the bomb, they had already lost all contact with command.

Before he could even finish his sentence, the instrument panels before them blinked erratically. All the dials spun wildly, and finally, with a loud crackle of static, everything went completely dark.

Dead silence.

Meanwhile, at the peak of the island's mountain.

He merely raised his right hand slowly and pointed a single finger at the rapidly descending black dot.

Seventy-Two Divine Abilities: Point of Transformation.

"Transform."

A single word, and the laws of the universe obeyed.

Ten thousand meters in the sky, that tactical nuclear bomb, the crystallization of humanity's ultimate violence, abruptly froze in midair.

Its smooth metal casing began to twist and collapse inward. All the intricate internal structures, explosives, and nuclear materials were crushed and reshaped by an incomprehensible, mighty force.

In the blink of an eye.

This tactical weapon, capable of wiping the entire island off the map, was transformed into a dull, palm-sized cobblestone.

Finally, stripped of all its kinetic energy, it drifted down lightly and was caught steadily in Lin Mo's hand.

Smooth, ordinary, just like a stone casually picked up by the seaside.

He weighed the nuclear bomb in his hand and casually slipped it into his pocket.

Now, in every sense of the word, he no longer feared weapons like nuclear bombs.

From this day forward, such things were not even considered large firecrackers to him.

Having dealt with the trouble above his head, Lin Mo's gaze shifted toward the horizon, at the B2 bomber that had already become a tiny black dot.

He loosely cupped his fingers and gave a gentle squeeze in that direction.

Crack.

A soft sound, as if merely crushing a walnut.

High up in the sky, that 2.4-billion-dollar Spirit bomber, along with the two self-righteous pilots inside, was instantly crushed and kneaded inside out by an invisible force.

Without even managing to let out a proper cry of despair, it turned into a twisted mass of scrap metal, plummeting into the deep sea in flames.

"Welcome to the Human Emperor Banner family, two new family members."

Lin Mo said softly. On the Human Emperor Banner, two brand-new souls let out silent wails.

At the same time, on the distant sea.

Nguyen Khang Dien was piloting his fishing boat like a madman.

Just a moment ago, the scalp-tingling, almost heart-stopping sense of warning in his mind suddenly... vanished.

It did not just weaken; it completely and utterly disappeared.

The ecstasy of surviving a disaster nearly left him drained. He knew very well that he had distanced himself from the source of that terror.

"I survived..."

Nguyen Khang Dien collapsed into the pilot's seat, panting heavily, his whole body soaked in cold sweat.

He did not dare to look back, nor did he even dare to think about what had happened on the island.

He only knew that he had made the right bet.

Fleeing without hesitation from the very beginning was the most correct decision he had made in his entire life.

Hearing the somewhat relieved Annamese words from afar, Lin Mo shook his head, ultimately too lazy to strike again.

His divine sense had long since covered the entire sea. He had clearly seen the cowardly behavior of this Annam monkey from start to finish.

There was little point in killing a mere fence-sitter who had simply been scared out of his wits.

Let him carry this fear and spend the rest of his life in nightmares.

As for the remaining American soldiers scattered across the island, still trapped in the illusion array...

Lin Mo's eyes turned cold.

None of them would escape.

System: Boring, I want to see rivers of blood!

American Base Command Center.

On the main screen, the green dot representing the Spirit bomber abruptly vanished without any warning.

"Spirit has lost contact!" The communications officer's voice pierced the low hum of the command center.

A colonel holding a cup of coffee strolled slowly toward the screen, his face completely unbothered.

"What's the panic? A nuclear explosion generates a strong electromagnetic pulse. Communication blackout is perfectly normal."

He took a light sip of his coffee, his posture relaxed.

"Once the pulse passes, we'll be able to admire a beautiful mushroom cloud. Now, connect me to the damage assessment team in the target area."

However, just as he finished speaking, an analyst at the satellite monitoring station on the other side suddenly stood up, pale as a sheet.

"Report, Colonel! None of the Global Hawkeye satellites have detected any thermonuclear reaction signals! The target area is completely intact. Our... our nuclear bomb did not detonate!"

"What?"

The coffee cup in the colonel's hand dropped to the floor with a clatter, the scalding liquid splashing onto his polished leather shoes.

What kind of sick joke was this?

Detonation failure? Or was the Spirit putting on an act the entire time and never dropped the bomb at all?

Various speculations and doubts instantly buzzed like an exploded beehive, and the command center immediately fell into chaos.

"Silence!"

Colonel Kent slammed his palm onto the cold metal desk, producing a heavy thud that finally brought the room under control.

His eyes swept across the panicked faces.

"Stop running around like headless flies! Radar department, find me the final location of the Spirit immediately!"

"Found it, Colonel!"

The equipment operator in charge of monitoring spoke with a trembling voice, tracing a trajectory on the screen with his finger.

"The last location where their signal appeared is..."

"Where! Spit it out!" Colonel Kent growled.

The operator seemed terrified out of his wits, trembling as he pointed to a spot on the map.

"According to the crash trajectory and telemetry data analysis... they, they seem to have... crashed."

Could it be that they were shot down the instant before they dropped the nuclear bomb?!

Colonel Kent's pupils shrank slightly. He grabbed the phone next to him, wanting to call the Pentagon directly.

Right at that moment.

Boom!

A massive explosion instantly shattered the walls of the combat command room.

It was not an ordinary explosion; it was a nuclear detonation.

Seeing the flash of fire, Colonel Kent had already figured it out. That tactical nuclear bomb had exploded... right there with them.

The next second, the flames engulfed them.

"Fuck!"