CHAPTER 588: INDEED IT IS SO

Apart from this, Liu Xing and others also learned another piece of information, which was that Tokyo Comprehensive University still maintained a strict curfew system. From midnight to six in the morning, unless there were special circumstances, the several gates of Tokyo Comprehensive University would be closed. Therefore, during the curfew period, if Tokyo Comprehensive University students wanted to enter the university, they would basically choose to climb over the wall behind the Sea-Buds Cafeteria.

So this time, Liu Xing and others did not need to wear any special disguises, such as night clothes or anything like that, because as long as they wore ordinary clothes and climbed over the wall, even if they were discovered, they would be taken as ordinary students.

As for how to enter the Sea-Buds Cafeteria, that would depend on Miguel’s decision after they arrived on the scene, because at present, Liu Xing and others knew very little about the situation of the Sea-Buds Cafeteria. The only material they had on hand was a floor plan of the Sea-Buds Cafeteria obtained by Honekawa Suneo. However, if the Sea-Buds Cafeteria was indeed an industry of the Deep Diving Society, then this floor plan of the Sea-Buds Cafeteria would basically be a waste of paper, because the Deep Diving Society must have renovated the interior of the Sea-Buds Cafeteria.

So everything had to wait until Miguel conducted an on-site investigation before making a decision.

Although they could have arranged for Miguel to conduct the investigation in the previous two days, Liu Xing found that there were many suspicious people around Tokyo Comprehensive University during those two days, including not only plainclothes police officers from the Tokyo police but also people from the Deep Diving Society and other secret cults. Therefore, Liu Xing abandoned the plan to conduct an investigation in advance.

Fortunately, starting from today, those suspicious people had basically dispersed, as they all knew that continuing to investigate around Tokyo Comprehensive University would not yield any results.

It is worth mentioning that due to Thousand Face’s sudden attack, Alice decided not to report to the high-level leadership of the Deep Diving Society in Tokyo that Thousand Face was located in the official office building in Shinjuku Ward for the time being. After all, the Deep Diving Society’s current manpower in Tokyo was insufficient to deal with Thousand Face, so if they stirred up a hornet’s nest, it would not be good.

More importantly, Alice was also worried that Thousand Face might retaliate against her, as she was ostensibly a member of the Deep Diving Society herself, so she was also very likely to be attacked by Thousand Face. Moreover, since Thousand Face already knew that the Deep Diving Society had established a branch within Tokyo Comprehensive University, Thousand Face most likely also knew that the bar where she was located was an industry of the Deep Diving Society.

However, it was possible that because Thousand Face was currently staying right next door to the bar, and being well aware of the saying "a rabbit doesn’t eat the grass near its nest," Thousand Face chose not to attack the bar but instead targeted the Deep Diving Society’s branch within Tokyo Comprehensive University, which was farther away.

To avoid Thousand Face acting recklessly out of desperation, Alice decided not to report the information about Thousand Face being in the Shinjuku Ward office building for the time being, but to wait until the Deep Diving Society had dealt with the situation at the Fukushima nuclear power plant before mentioning it. This way, the Deep Diving Society would have the ability to kill Thousand Face... Of course, even if the Deep Diving Society did not kill Thousand Face, at least they could make Thousand Face leave Tokyo.

However, to be on the safe side, Alice still decided to temporarily leave the island nation for a while, as Thousand Face’s current way of thinking could no longer be dealt with rationally, and who knew if Thousand Face might suddenly attack the bar.

So Alice found an excuse to visit her family, and yesterday morning she took a flight back to England. However, before leaving, Alice also called Liu Xing and told him that although she had left the island nation, if Liu Xing had any questions about the Deep Diving Society, he could still call her directly, because she had arranged for a trusted underling to be responsible for the normal operation of the bar... as long as Thousand Face did not attack the bar.

However, after killing Oyamaya and others, Thousand Face had been staying in the Shinjuku Ward office building all along, as if nothing had happened.

But Oko Hayato, who already knew that Thousand Face was in the Shinjuku Ward office building, had conveyed this information to his superiors, so now the special task force responsible for dealing with Thousand Face had begun deploying around Shinjuku Ward. However, according to Oko Hayato’s grumbling, it seemed that the task force’s progress was very slow because there was a serious disagreement among the leadership of the task force.

This disagreement, simply put, was about how to take action—through strategy or force.

Currently, based on the traces left by Thousand Face when killing Oyamaya and others, as well as the testimony provided by Liu Xing, the task force had analyzed that with their existing strength, they should be able to kill Thousand Face in direct combat. However, even if preparations were made in advance, if they attacked Thousand Face with full force from the beginning, Thousand Face would still have a 60% chance of escaping the encirclement because the task force lacked speed-type experts.

After all, the task force was composed of humans, and the speed of humans was far inferior to that of mythical creatures like Kamafera, who could control the wind. So if Thousand Face tried to escape with full force, it would be very difficult for the task force to keep Thousand Face trapped, and if Thousand Face really escaped, it would be even harder for the task force to catch up with Thousand Face again.

However, if they used strategy, the probability of Thousand Face escaping would only be 40%. The strategic approach, simply put, was to send a suicide squad to enter the Shinjuku Ward office building first, and then once Thousand Face’s exact location was confirmed, launch a surprise attack or, in other words, make a desperate effort to stall Thousand Face while waiting for the main force to arrive as reinforcements.

Although the task force could cobble together such a suicide squad, it would only reduce Thousand Face’s escape success rate by 20% at most. Moreover, if they failed to suppress Thousand Face from the outset, Thousand Face might inflict casualties on nearby civilians, resulting in a bloody mess.

As for the task force’s proposal to seal off Shinjuku Ward during the operation, it seemed to have already been directly rejected by the Island Nation’s authorities because the cost of sealing off Shinjuku Ward would be too high. After all, Shinjuku Ward could be considered the largest financial district in the Tokyo area, involving various interests. So while the Island Nation’s authorities might be able to block off a street or two, it was highly unlikely that they would seal off the entire Shinjuku Ward. But if they only blocked off a street or two, it would not be effective.

Moreover, the Island Nation’s authorities believed that even if Shinjuku Ward were sealed off now, it would be impossible to evacuate all the ordinary civilians living there because the population residing in Shinjuku Ward was simply too large. Additionally, the commotion caused by sealing off Shinjuku Ward would be substantial, which might alert Thousand Face.

So the reluctant task force leadership had already prepared resignation letters because, in their view, no matter what action they took, many civilians would inevitably die.

Similarly, a stalemate had also arisen at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The situation at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was no different from two days ago. The mythical creatures inside still occupied their respective territories and had no interactions with each other, while the military forces dispatched by the Island Nation remained stationed outside the plant because they had discovered a large number of mythical creatures inside and dared not enter.

Meanwhile, Rundell continued to monitor the situation at the Fukushima nuclear power plant from the air and had indeed discovered the location of that object—less than half a meter away from one of the reactors.

Although that object had not revealed its true form due to some mysterious force, Rundell had begun to consider whether it should flee because the object’s location was too close to the reactor. It should be noted that the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant were still in operation. So when those mythical creatures started fighting over that object, a single mistake could potentially affect the reactor. If the reactor exploded, Rundell felt there was an 80% chance it would perish there.

It’s worth mentioning that although the Deep Diving Society members inside the Fukushima nuclear power plant were aware that Thousand Face had attacked their branch at Tokyo Comprehensive University, the Deep Diving Society had not dispatched anyone back to Tokyo, including Ooyama.

It seemed that Ooyama had indeed been assimilated by the Deep Diving Society.

Liu Xing sighed, hoping that Zhang Wenbing’s side would proceed more smoothly.

Half an hour ago, Zhang Wenbing had already entered Tanaka Fuji’s hospital room and was communicating with the now conscious Tanaka Fuji under the guise of a police officer.

It was now 8 p.m., so Zhang Wenbing should be able to make it back by midnight.

But speak of the devil, just as Liu Xing was wondering whether the process of persuading Tanaka Fuji to defect was going smoothly, Zhang Wenbing knocked on the door.

"Yo, Brother Zhang, you’re pretty fast, aren’t you? Didn’t you just send us a message half an hour ago saying you were about to enter Tanaka Fuji’s hospital room? How did you get here so quickly? Did Tanaka Fuji refuse to cooperate?" said Ling Ishikawa, somewhat surprised as he opened the door.

Zhang Wenbing smiled and shook his head. "No, no, no, the situation is actually the opposite of what you guys were thinking. Tanaka Fuji can be said to be very cooperative because, as we had guessed earlier, he only joined the Deep Diving Society for the sake of his grandson Oyamaya. Or rather, Tanaka Fuji didn’t really join the Deep Diving Society because he doesn’t even know what the Deep Diving Society is now. His actions over the past two years were just following the arrangements made by his grandson Oyamaya. So, in a nutshell, Tanaka Fuji was just an outside member developed by Oyamaya himself."

"But speaking of Oyamaya, his real name should actually be Ooyamakaze, and this Ooyamakaze was Oyamaya’s twin brother. However, when Oyamaya and Ooyamakaze were ten years old, Ooyama took them to play by the sea, and because of some minor conflict between Oyamaya and Ooyamakaze, Ooyamakaze drowned while swimming. Although Oyamaya heard Ooyamakaze’s cries for help, he ignored them, ultimately leading to Ooyamakaze’s death by drowning. Oyamaya also developed autism due to the excessive guilt he felt."

"Although the Island Nation had been promoting cremation to save land, Ooyama eventually managed to bury Ooyamakaze in the ground through his connections. However, less than a month after Ooyamakaze’s death, a mudslide caused by a typhoon carried away Ooyamakaze’s coffin, and Ooyamakaze’s body has been missing ever since. It seems that the Deep Diving Society obtained Ooyamakaze’s body during that period and subjected it to modifications."

"Later, Ooyama happened to meet a follower of the Deep Diving Society and had a pleasant conversation with them, so Ooyama brought that follower home for drinks. Possibly because that follower had seen Ooyamakaze before, when they saw Oyamaya, they had an idea. Half a month later, Oyamaya suddenly fell gravely ill, and the Deep Diving Society follower then revealed their identity and convinced Ooyama to let them take Oyamaya away for treatment."

"The rest of the story is known to everyone. The Deep Diving Society pulled a bait-and-switch, returning the modified Ooyamakaze to Ooyama as if he were Oyamaya. Although Ooyama and Tanaka Fuji noticed some differences between Ooyamakaze and Oyamaya, at the time they thought it was because Oyamaya had just recovered from a serious illness, and it wasn’t an unacceptable change, so they didn’t pay too much attention to it."

"Years passed like this. Because Tanaka Fuji had to teach at Tokyo Comprehensive University, while Ooyama and Oyamaya were not in Tokyo, Tanaka Fuji only knew that Ooyama and Oyamaya had been recruited into the Deep Diving Society by that follower. It wasn’t until a year ago, when Oyamaya enrolled at Tokyo Comprehensive University, that Tanaka Fuji noticed something was off about the current Oyamaya and Ooyama’s situation."

"Although he had some doubts, Tanaka Fuji still accepted Oyamaya’s request to help him establish a branch of the Deep Diving Society within Tokyo Comprehensive University because Oyamaya was now his only direct relative. And up until now, Tanaka Fuji still doesn’t understand what kind of organization the Deep Diving Society really is. I can sense that Tanaka Fuji just views the Deep Diving Society as an ordinary church."

After listening to Zhang Wenbing’s account, Liu Xing could only say four words: Indeed it is so.

However, Liu Xing was still more concerned about whether Tanaka Fuji knew any more intelligence regarding the Deep Diving Society’s branch at Tokyo Comprehensive University.

Before Liu Xing could speak, Zhang Wenbing continued, "I know what you all want to ask next. The Sea-Buds Cafeteria is indeed an industry of the Deep Diving Society, and Oyamaya and others frequently went in and out of the Sea-Buds Cafeteria. So the Sea-Buds Cafeteria is quite possibly the office location of the Deep Diving Society’s branch at Tokyo Comprehensive University. It seems we’ll need to be a bit careful during our operation tonight."

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