NABC Page 429
Page 429
She felt that if the American soldiers in heaven could hear Zhou Ye's comments, they would probably be so angry that they would die again.
Zhou Ye didn't care what others thought. For him, his greatest expectation for this trip to Nathan Island had been dashed. This tree was worthless to him, not even as valuable as a blade of grass he had casually created.
"Let's go, Sha Yan." He turned away listlessly. "Let them handle things here themselves."
He had seen through the tree's true nature and also analyzed the principles behind its ability to grant superhumans. The so-called Eight Extraordinary Techniques, in his view, were nothing more than a few interesting "apps" derived from this incomplete rune system. Now that he understood everything, he had lost interest.
Wind and Sand Swallow hurriedly followed, and before leaving, she gave a sympathetic look to the Nathan Island executives who had begun to doubt their existence.
However, just as Zhou Ye and his companion were about to leave the jungle and return to the beach, an even more shrill and arrogant broadcast came from the distant sea, resounding throughout the entire Nathan Island.
"Warning! Warning! Attention all personnel on the island!"
A cold, condescending male voice in English, amplified by a high-powered loudspeaker, made people's eardrums ache.
"This is the USS Mount Whitney, the command ship of the U.S. Sixth Fleet. Under the International Security Act, you are suspected of using weapons of mass destruction to destroy a U.S. Navy ship."
The USS Truman carrier strike group, and the illegal detention and massacre of Nathan Island natives. These acts constitute crimes against humanity!
"Now, I command you to immediately lay down all your weapons, put your hands behind your heads, and surrender on the spot! Repeat, immediately lay down all your weapons and surrender on the spot! Any act of resistance will be considered an open declaration of war against the United States of America!"
The sound echoed in the sky, filled with an undeniable domineering power.
On the beach, the Nathan Island warriors and American soldiers, who had just recovered from the spatial freeze and were still confused about the situation, were all stunned.
(Nomad) Li Muxuan and the others rushed out of the jungle and, upon hearing this broadcast, were so angry that they trembled all over.
"Shameless! Despicable! They were the ones who invaded! Now they're turning around and blaming us!" a Nathan guard roared.
Feng Shayan also stopped, her beautiful eyebrows furrowing. She turned to look at the sea and saw a fleet even larger than before sailing towards them from the horizon, its dark cannons exuding an aura of death.
Are these people blind? Or are they just incredibly stupid? Didn't they see how that fleet just disappeared?
She looked at Zhou Ye, wondering how he would deal with this new group of "flies".
Zhou Ye remained where he was, without turning around.
He paused for a moment, seemingly processing the content of the broadcast.
A few seconds later, he let out a soft chuckle.
The laughter was soft, yet it seemed to lower the temperature in the surrounding area by several degrees.
He slowly turned around and looked at the approaching fleet with an aggressive expression, a half-smile on his face.
"interesting."
"They tried to steal my things, so they accused me of being an anti-humanitarian."
"Do you really think I'm made of clay, nephew?"
Chapter 406 The Fingers That Slashed the Continent
The sea breeze howled, blowing Zhou Ye's black hair.
The Sixth Fleet, far away, continued its tireless repetition of the same distorted narrative. In their view, this was a procedural deterrent, an ultimatum from the civilized world to barbaric forces.
Inside the bridge of the USS Mount Whitney, a man in a white naval uniform with an admiral's star on his shoulder was leisurely watching the footage transmitted back to him on a screen, a cup of coffee in hand. He was Ron Keller, chairman of the Behemoth Corporation and the ultimate decision-maker for this operation.
Unlike frontline commander Arnold, Ron was a politician and a businessman. He didn't care how many soldiers died, or how the USS Truman disappeared. What he cared about was the cost and the expected return. Behemoth and the interest groups behind him had already invested too much in the Tree of Souls, too much for him to lose.
The disappearance of the USS Truman shocked him, but it also drove him even more mad. It meant that there was a force on Nathan Island far exceeding expectations, a force that had to be brought under American control. Therefore, he did not hesitate to call in the Sixth Fleet, which was responsible for the entire Mediterranean region, and personally took command.
He firmly believed that no individual could stand against the entire war machine of a global superpower. If once wasn't enough, then twice. If one carrier strike group wasn't enough, then another would do.
“Mr. Ron,” the adjutant beside him said somewhat uneasily, “we really have to…”
“Shut up.” Ron took a sip of his coffee, his eyes icy. “677 I need that tree. Capitol Hill needs it, Wall Street needs it. As for the cost… America has never been afraid to pay the price.”
He stared at the black-haired youth standing on the beach on the screen, a cold smile playing on his lips. In his eyes, he was nothing more than an "individual" possessing immense power but lacking understanding of politics and the current situation. And the individual would ultimately be crushed by the "collective."
“Give them one last ten seconds. If they don’t surrender after ten seconds, use Tomahawk missiles to plow the whole island off the map.”
However, he hadn't had time to give the countdown order.
On the beach, Zhou Ye smiled.
He was so angry at the shamelessness and arrogance of this group that he laughed.
“Shayan,” he said softly.
“Yes, sir,” Feng Shayan replied immediately.
"What do you think we should do if someone always throws their trash into other people's homes and then has the audacity to accuse others of polluting the environment?"
Feng Shayan paused for a moment, then understood what Zhou Ye meant. She gave a mischievous smile and said, "Then throw the garbage, along with that person's house, into the sun."
"That's a good idea."
Zhou Ye nodded approvingly, "But it's too wasteful to throw the sun away. It's better to make use of it."
The moment he finished speaking, he raised his right hand.
There were no earth-shattering phenomena, no world-destroying aura. He simply and casually made a grasping motion in mid-air towards the massive Sixth Fleet.
It was as if I were holding an invisible orange.
Then, gently pinch it.
"Squeak."
A faint, almost inaudible sound, like bones being crushed, resounded deep within everyone's soul.
On the distant sea, the steel fleet consisting of dozens of warships, stretching for several kilometers, along with the entire sea area where they were located, instantly froze.
Immediately afterward, to Ron Keller's horrified gaze, the USS Mount Whitney, the command ship he was on, along with the surrounding cruisers, destroyers, supply ships, all the steel structures, all the seawater, and all the personnel, began to collapse inward.
Space itself was forcibly folded in half, then folded in half again, and then folded in half again by an incomprehensible force...
That command ship, weighing tens of thousands of tons, was crushed into a lump of scrap metal. The terrified soldiers were compressed into the most basic particles. The seawater was evaporated and then compressed again.
The whole process takes less than a second.
A second later, only a fist-sized energy sphere, shimmering with metallic and dark red light, with an incredibly high density, remained on the sea surface.
Zhou Ye released his grip, and the energy ball, now free, fell silently into the sea.
"Pfft."
A splash appeared, much smaller than the iron ball that the mushroom egg had turned into.
Then everything calmed down.
The sea is still the same sea, the sky is still the same sky. Only, on the horizon, that massive fleet representing world hegemony has once again vanished without a trace.
On the bridge of the USS Mount Whitney, Ron Keller's cold smile remained frozen, but his body, along with the cup of coffee, had been compressed into that small energy sphere, becoming part of the cosmic dust.
The entire island of Nathan fell silent once again.
Li Muxuan's mouth was agape, a hissing sound coming from his throat. He felt his heart was about to burst from the series of horrific sights. If the first time was shock, this time it was pure, bone-deep fear.
This is beyond the realm of "power." This is "authority," the power to alter reality that only gods possess.
Feng Shayan looked at Zhou Ye's retreating figure with admiration. Her husband was becoming more and more environmentally conscious; he even knew about recycling and reusing waste.
After Zhou Ye finished doing all this, he did not stop.
His face still held that ambiguous, half-smiling expression.
"Simply cleaning up the trash isn't enough."
"They need to learn a lesson so that they know there are places they shouldn't touch, or even pry into."
He raised his right hand and slowly extended his index finger.
There was no energy gathered at the fingertip; it looked like an ordinary finger.
Then, facing west, towards the United States of America across the ocean, he gently rowed down.
【Prisoner's Desolate Heaven Finger】
This gesture has no target.
Or rather, its goal is the "concept" itself.
It is "the earth", it is "plate tectonics", it is "distance".
……
Meanwhile, in the United States of America, on the East Coast, Washington, D.C.
On the White House lawn, the president is holding a press conference, proclaiming the greatness of freedom and democracy.
Suddenly, a violent, unprecedented tremor came from the depths of the earth. The entire city of Washington seemed to be shaken violently by an invisible hand.
Immediately afterward, amidst the horrified screams of countless people, a bottomless crack appeared out of nowhere from the center of the city and spread wildly westward at a visible speed!
Wherever the crack passed, the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the Pentagon... all the proud landmarks collapsed like building blocks, falling into an endless abyss.
This crack runs precisely along a straight line, spanning the entire North American continent.
It crosses the Appalachian Mountains, which bisect the mountain range.
It cuts across the Mississippi River, causing the river to back up into the abyss with a deafening roar.
It swept across the vast plains of the Midwest, leaving a huge, unhealable scar.
It cuts through the Rocky Mountains, making towering peaks appear as fragile as sandcastles in its presence.
Ultimately, this fissure stretched from Washington on the East Coast, through the Nevada desert, and finally reached Los Angeles on the West Coast.
The Hollywood sign on the mountaintop snapped and tumbled down the cliff during the violent earthquake. The beaches of Santa Monica were torn apart, and the icy waters of the Pacific Ocean began to rush wildly into the newly formed "continental canyon."
A massive, bottomless scar, stretching 4,297 kilometers, was abruptly branded onto the heart of the North American continent.
The entire United States was effectively divided in two by this single gesture.
At this moment, all earthquake monitoring stations around the world exceeded their maximum capacity.
All the military satellites pointed their lenses at this land that had undergone a miraculous catastrophe, and the images they transmitted left everyone who saw them speechless.
Communication and power were cut off in countless cities. Tens of millions of people fled in terror.
This is not a natural disaster.
This is divine punishment.